Shout Out / The Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures

The Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures is the first official game based on The Angry Video Game Nerd, so it's only natural that the game based on him contains lots of shout-outs to various retro games, which often double as references to Rolfe's show itself.

Spoilers abound!

Intro and various references

• The game begins with the Nerd and his friends being sucked into a shitty video game. While this intro is intentionally trite and cheesy, the graphics and descriptions remind of the intro for Cheetahmen, especially the "being grabbed by the balls" part.
• Upon completing a stage, the screen says "Conglaturation!", like the infamous typo from the Ghostbusters NES game.
• One of the sentences that appear after losing a life is "Welcome To Die!", quoting Magneto's catchphrase from the X-Men (1992) arcade game.
• After grabbing the Super Scope powerup, the Nerd says sentences from his own show, but sometimes also "Groovy!", "Good, bad, I'm the one with the gun" , "Come get some!", and "Say hello to my little friend!".
• The Game Over screen is a parody of the depressing one from the NES Friday the 13th game, as the AVGN modified it:
  You're dead. Your friends are dead. You're family's dead. Your fucking pets are being skinned alive. You're mom's a fucking whore. You suck at life. The whole world hates you. You're going to hell. Live with it. GAME OVER
• The beginning of the boss music quotes "Porky Means Business!", the theme for the final fight against Porky Minch in EarthBound (1994).
• Some flying enemies defecate coily poop. This is probably a reference to the birds in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (NES), where the birds did just that on the player.
  • Mr. Hyde himself shoots his "Psycho-Wave", and it follows the same pattern it does in his NES game.
• At the very beginning of "Dungeons and Dickholes", you can climb down a ladder only to encounter a deathtrap where there's a pool of lava, complete with sharks that are on fire, fire pillars everywhere, two volcanoes on the ceiling spewing lava and two mashy spike plates slowly closing in on you. This is the exact same deathtrap the Nerd proposed in his Super Pitfall review. (minus the laser cannons)
  • In the Nerd's review of this game, he discovers the trap and suffers a "My God, What Have I Done?" moment, because he invented the trap, so he has nobody to blame but himself.
• Mike has the highest jump, and pedals his legs while jumping in a manner similar to Luigi, who is also known for having the highest jump in games where he's playable. He also wields a lightsaber.
• The infamous "death blocks" originate from the light gun-based Endless Running Game Gumshoe.
• Completing the game on Normal mode or higher during Halloween weekend gives the player "Trick or Treat, Mothaf***a" achievement, which is reference to a line in Halloween: Resurrection.

The Stages

• The stage select screen is based on the Videoland map in the intro of Captain N: The Game Master.
• In the tutorial stage the Nerd is followed everywhere by Naggi, the Patronising Firefly. There's an achievement for killing her!
  • The beginning of the stage has the text "Game Land, 3 AM...", which is a reference to the first level of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time.
• "Assholevania" is a reference to Castlevania, because Castlevania II: Simon's Quest was the very first game reviewed by the Nerd. When the level begins, the Nerd remarks: "What a horrible night to have a curse... the curse of being trapped in a fucking shitty game!".
  • The Moon from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask can be seen in the background throughout the first part of the level
  • The boss of the level is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, another reference to a horrible game reviewed by the Nerd.
  • Brentalfloss's cameo has him saying "It's dangerous to go alone! Take this!"
• "Happy Fun Candy Time" is a send-up of both Mario and Kirby games. The exaggerated cheerfulness of the level, with smiling blocks and all, also reminds of Monster Party's first level (before it goes all to hell, anyway).
  • Near the end of the level there are head-shaped giant floating platforms. These are visually similar to the "demon-head" platforms in Air Man's stage. All this part in AVGN's game is inspired by that stage, right down to the clouds obscuring part of the foreground.
  • You can find Wiz and Boomstick as a cameo.
  • The Nerd makes a reference to Barney the Dinosaur upon encountering the bouncing purple ball enemy:
  The Nerd: It's that purple dinosaur's missing testicle!
  • The boss is a flying unicorn that looks like a My Little Phony version of Princess Celestia from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, that quotes Giygas when you fight it.
    • In the "RemAssTurd" version of the game, this battle was changed to one against the Bloodstain Bears, the evil parodies of The Berenstain Bears from the Nerd's review of the Bears' tie-in games. The unicorn still appears, but as a decapitated head on a pike.
• "Future Fuckballs 2010" is meant to be Street Fighter 2010, but In Name Only, since it looks directly inspired by the Mega Man (Classic) games. Among the obstacles there are lasers reminiscent of the ones in Quick Man's stage and the infamous disappearing blocks, complete with "whooshing" sound.
  • R.O.B.s are among the enemies.
  • In the last segment of the stage, the Nerd finds a silver surfboard and, before hopping on it, says: "I have a bad fucking feeling about this..."
  • The boss is Skylar, that annoying floating head from Cybermorph. "Where did you learn to fly?"
• The decorations on the trees in "Blizzard of Balls" are the Starman power-up from the Mario series.
  • Egoraptor's cameo prompts this exchange:
  Egoraptor: Don't be a grump, take these!
  The Nerd: Thanks, Egoraptor. Now I'm not so grump!
  • One section involving jumping off rising platforms before you get shoved by them into the deadly ceiling bears a close resemblance to part of Spark Man's stage in Mega Man 3.
  • The boss are the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future; besides being an example of Yet Another Christmas Carol, they're also a reference to AVGN's own Christmas Special.
  • The name itself is how the Nerd described Winter Games for the NES
• "Beat It and Eat It" is a level-long reference to all the games the Nerd covered in his Atari Porn episode, and gets its title from one such game: Beat 'Em & Eat 'Em.
  • The BGM of the stage seems inspired by various dance tracks of The '90s, most notably "Mr. Vain" and "In the Middle of the Night".
  • The boss comes (heh, "comes") from another Atari porn game, Custer's Revenge.
• The enemies in the dungeon parts of "Dungeons and Dickholes" are bats and octopi, a reference to the Aches and Octoroks of The Legend of Zelda. Killer bubbles also float up from the ground in certain areas, much like Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.
  • If you repeat this level after having found Mike, he will say in the beginning something like: "This level is what all true warriors strive for!".
  • The bottle power-up near the closing-in walls that is impossible to reach is probably a reference to the review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1989), where the AVGN complained about a similarly-placed pizza that was impossible to take.
  • The boss is The Giant Claw, which also appeared as a boss in Freakzone's previous game- which, oddly enough, was based on Manos: The Hands of Fate. Also, even though the Nerd has never mentioned the Giant Claw, James Rolfe has been known to poke fun at how ridiculous it looks in some of his out-of-character movie reviews and top ten lists.
    • During said battle, the Nerd rides a baby dragon, reminiscent of the boss sequences in Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair, and the Giant Claw's attacks are similar to the Final Boss's first form in that game. The "Where did you learn to fly" head boss in "Future Fuckballs 2010" also has elements of WB3ML's giant skull boss.
• The stage name "Thy Farts Consumed" is a reference to DOOM, specifically the "Thy Flesh Consumed" episode. Among the enemies there is a Cacodemon... sorry, Cacademon.
  • During the "fire shark" event, the Nerd will sometimes say "Smile, you son of a bitch!".
  • The boss is the demon who the AVGN fought in his review of Super Mario Bros. 3. There's also this exchange inspired by Evil Dead 2:
  Demon: I'll swallow your soul!
  The Nerd (after defeating the demon): Swallow this, asshole!
• The name of the level "Boo! Haunted House" references the Nightmare on Elm Street episode, where the Nerd complained the game was so full of stock Halloween monsters that it should've just been called Boo! Haunted House instead, which later got a callback when he played the Atari game actually called Haunted House.
  • The music of the stage references at one point the Halloween theme.
  • The part with the floor tiles suddenly appearing from nowhere and moving in a snake-like fashion might be a reference to the Egyptian level of The Simpsons: Bart vs. the World, another game reviewed by the Nerd.
  • One of the enemies for the level is a ghost that looks similar to the ones from the NES Ghostbusters game.
  • The place is owned by Bimmy and Jimmy, who sometimes taunt the Nerd. They are revealed as being Freddy Krueger and a composite of Jason Voorhees (hockey mask), Michael Myers (overalls), and Leatherface (chainsaw), who starred in NES or Atari 2600 games despised by the AVGN. And when they both die...
  The Nerd: Up yours with a twirling lawnmower!
  • Before the Nerd reaches the boss fight, the words "Bimmy's™© Coming!" appear on screen, referencing the "Freddy's™ Coming!" screen from the A Nightmare On Elm Street NES game, complete with Tradesnark™.
  • If Mike is present, he responds to one of the Nerd's lines with "It's a Halloween level. Everybody is entitled to one good scare." This is a slightly altered quote from the original Halloween movie.
• "Laughin' Jokin' Numbnuts" is named after the Nerd's nickname for LJN Toys, who published several of the games he hates. The rainbow patterns are also inspired by the company's rainbow logo.
  • The name of the final boss^Spoilers! Fred Fucks, a Lawyer-Friendly Cameo real life film producer Fred Fuchs first appeared in the credits of Bram Stoker's Dracula on the SNES, another game reviewed by the Nerd. He has also made jokes about him (or rather, his name) in other episodes including Winter Games and Star Wars, and even made a physical appearance portrayed by Gilbert Gottfried in Life of Black Tiger.
• "Crappy Castle", the stage of the Tower of Torment mode in the Deluxe version, is one to The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle, and even features a non-copyright-infringing version of The Fucking Rabbit himself as the Final Boss.
  • The Fucking Rabbit's second phase theme includes penis music as one of the lines.
  • One of the obstacles in the second stage is a Big Motherfucking Rig that drives backwards at extreme speeds periodically throughout the level.

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