Video Game / The Angry Video Game Nerd II: ASSimilation

THE NERD IS BACK!

The sequel to The Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures, released in 2016.

An unknown force turns the entire world into a shitty game. After finding this out, The Angry Video Game Nerd also learns that all of his stuff has been stolen, and he sets out on a quest to make things right.

Was given an Updated Re Release alongside The Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures for Steam and Switch on October 30th, 2020, and on PS4 and Xbox One on March 19, 2021.

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This game has examples of:

• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: "Browntown" is a large sewer that, apparently is full of shit. See "Down the Drain" below.
• Advancing Wall of Doom:
  • "Croc Conundrum" features a gigantic Advancing Crocodile of Doom. Unusual in that the croc is not a one-hit kill, and only damages you.
  • "Slide Down the Shaft" has a variation with lasers in the floor and ceiling, forcing you to slide down the walls in steady pace.
• All the Worlds Are a Stage: "Virtual Insanity", the final level, is a combination of the toughest parts from every previous world.
• Anti-Hero: Both Nerd and Nostalgia Critic aim to save the world, but for selfish reasons; Nerd to get his stuff back, Critic to one-up Nerd and attain all the glory for himself.
• Antiquated Linguistics: Sir Werepire speaks in an archaic manner.
• An Arm and a Leg: Dark Onward loses both his arms during the boss battle against him.
• Assimilation Plot: The entire world is assimilated into a shitty game by an unknown force.
• Attack Its Weak Point:
  • Dark Onward's second form is only vulnerable to shots/missiles to the head.
  • Death Mwauthzyx's hands are the only part of him you can damage.
• Auto-Scrolling Level: "Raw Fish Rampage", which also has you running through conveyor belts.
• Background Boss: Death Mwauthzyx stays in the background, trying to crush the Nerd with his hands.
• Big Bad: Death Mwauthzyx, who originates from Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie, is the one responsible for turning the world into a video game.
  • In the Updated Re-release, Fred Fucks, since he was the one who created the Fuckotron 9000, which replaces Death Mwauthzyx.
• Big Boo's Haunt: The "Monster Madness" world, which is set in a graveyard of a 1920's monster film.
• Blackout Basement: "Deadly Danger Dungeon" is not only filled with various traps, it also has a feature of you being only able to see few steps ahead.
• Bond One-Liner: Nerd gives one at the end of most levels, though he can't bring himself to finish the one for "Croc Conundrum".
• Boss-Arena Idiocy:
  • The fight against Dark Onward in Area 52 is loaded with this. First of all, he has McButter constantly fire missiles into the arena, which have a chance of dropping beer when destroyed by your shots and can also be made to crash into him for high amounts of damage. Second, there are portals that warp you to the other side of the arena, which is the only way to avoid Onward's giant second form when it walks towards you.
  • Similarly, Sir Werepire's third form would be impossible to jump over without the disappearing ghost blocks that are conveniently placed in the arena.
• Boss Remix: Both the boss theme and the final boss theme incorporate bits of the title screen music.
• Charged Attack: The Turbo Controller powerup grants the Nerd the ability to charge his Zapper for a more powerful shot by holding down the fire button.
• Checkpoint: The Nintoaster, as always.
• Chiptune: All of the music, unsurprisingly.
• Cluster F-Bomb: A literal F-bomb is a power-up.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The "Area 52" world is (loosely) based on the AVGN Movie, and Dark Onward is the world's boss. When he gets low on health, he turns into A FUCKING SCORPION like Darth Vader from the Famicom Star Wars game.
    • Additionally, Death Mwauthzyx shows up as the Final Boss of the game.
  • The Nerdy Turd from the Magnavox Odyssey episode shows up as the sub-boss of "Browntown".
  • The final boss of "Browntown", "Battle Frogs" are a cross between the Battletoads and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and have the same names mentioned by the Nerd in his Battletoads review: Herpez, Genital Wartz, and Gonorrhea.
  • In the Updated Re Release of the game, The Nostalgia Critic is replaced by the Nerd's arch-nemisis Fred Fucks, whose sprite is designed to look like Gilbert Gottfried, who acted as Fred Fucks in the "Life of Black Tiger" episode.
• Crossover: The game features The Nostalgia Critic as a main villain and features an entire world devoted to Board James references (including the titular character as a Mini-Boss). In the Deluxe Updated Re Release, he is replaced by Fred Fucks (who looks like Gilbert Gottfried).
• Cross-Popping Veins: Shows up on the title screen on letter D.
• Cyber Punk Is Techno: The music tracks for the "Area 52" levels sound like a fusion of EBM and spacesynth.
• Degraded Boss: Jimmy from the first game's "Boo! Haunted House" boss fight returns as a Giant Mook in the "Monster Madness" stages.
• Deliberately Monochrome:
  • The first two "Monster Madness" stages are in black and white, being an homage to vintage horror films, although the second has switches to temporarily activate the color.
  • "Virtual Insanity" is black and red in the style of the Virtual Boy.
• Down the Drain: "Browntown", a huge sewer which is apparently full of shit (the Nerd even has to swim through it in one stage). It’s also a massive reference to the original Ninja Turtles game on NES.
• End-Game Results Screen: The game ends with your total time and deaths.
• Excuse Plot: The world got turned into a shitty video game and The Nostalgia Critic stole your stuff. Go make things right. Deluxe deepens the plot slightly by having Fred Fucks and his supercomputer be responsible for everything.
• Flunky Boss: CAT-209's boss fight takes place around a sushi conveyor, and Death Mwauthzyx/Fuckotron 9000 start spawning enemies when knocked down to 2/3rds health.
• George Lucas Altered Version: Spoofed with Dark Invader, the remake's replacement of Dark Onward.
  Dark Invader: NERD, I AM... *WHEEZE*
  Nerd: ...my father??
  Dark Invader: No... I AM... ...A FUCKING SCORPION!!! SPECIAL EDITION, MOTHERFUCKER! *WHEEZE*
  Nerd: Why do creators have to keep fucking changing stuff?!
• The Ghost: McButter apparently assists Dark Onward during his boss fight by firing missiles into the arena, but she doesn't appear in person or even say anything. The remake removes the movie references, so McButter was completely and easily unpersoned.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The final boss (Death Mwauthzyx, or the Fuckotron 9000) also has absolutely no buildup.
• Glory Seeker: The Nostalgia Critic wants to save the world before the Nerd does, so he can hog all the glory for himself.
• Goofy Print Underwear: When he's attacking in his initial vampire form, Sir Werepire can be seen not wearing pants underneath his cape — revealing that he's wearing boxer shorts with bats on them.
• Gratuitous Japanese: Parodied when the Nerd beats one of the Japan-inspired levels.
  Nerd: This game can sukku my assu!
• Gravity Screw: The level "WhyWhyWhyWhyWhy" is based around this concept as an homage to VVVVVV. Jumping causes the level's gravity to flip, causing the Nerd to fall all the way up to the ceiling, where he can subsequently walk around.
• Groin Attack: Inverted. You can kill enemies in "Sush 'Em Up" by smashing a tanuki's scrotum into them.
• He Knows About Timed Hits: Mike explicitly explains game controls to the nerd. Nerd scoffs at him.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Nostalgia Critic attempts to kill Death Mwauthzyx with a bomb strapped on his back. Unfortunately for him, the bomb blows up before he can finish declaring his plans.
• Hockey Mask and Chainsaw: The Elite Mooks in the "Monster Madness" world have this getup.
• Humongous Mecha: CAT-209, the boss of Nerd Gaiden, is an anime cat-themed mecha that stomps around, fires missiles at different heights, and forces you to fight on a conveyor belt where sushi drops down.
• Hyperactive Metabolism: Like in the last game, beer restores your health, which is itself measured in beer bottles.
• Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels:
  • Easy, Normal, and Old-School are the default ones.
  • Harder Than Hard difficulties begin with Hard as Balls.
  • Fucking Impossible.
  • The Deluxe version adds the One Credit Champ difficulty.
• In Name Only: Area 52 is based on the AVGN movie. Like most of the movie-based games Nerd plays, it has absolutely nothing to do with the movie.
  Nerd: This was the best part of the movie! When I was fucking around jumping through portals and shit.
• Kabuki Sounds: Both of the "Nerd Gaiden" stage themes use an "oowoooh" sample.
• Kaizo Trap: "Deadly Danger Dungeon" has Thwomp-like enemies and death blocks are invisible when 4 or more tiles away from the player. This setup causes many thwomps to be completely invisible. While most of the thwomps are hinted at with a suspiciously easy-looking collectible or are positioned above series of pits, death blocks are often positioned shortly after the thwomps, to catch you off guard while you're running.
• Lampshade Hanging: Several of the Nerd's lines in Deluxe have him allude to the replacement of certain characters.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: There's a boss named "Mr. Fuckit", who looks almost exactly like Mr. Bucket (previously featured on Board James).
• Light Gun Game: Nerd's weapons of choice is a light gun, like in the last game. However, the upgrade to Super Scope is permanent this time.
• Long Song, Short Scene: "Croc Conundrum", which only plays in one level; while this is an issue with most of the other songs in the game, the stage that the song plays on is underwater, where all the sounds are affected by a filter. As such, since the song is similar to the ones in its previous levels, some players may play this stage without realizing that there is a new song for this stage, and assume that the song is just the same as the previous ones. This was fixed in the Updated Re-release, where the track plays sans filter.
• Ludicrous Gibs: Done every time something dies. Now the gibs also have their own physics engine.
• Marathon Boss: Parodied with Sir Werepire. First he's a vampire, then a vampire werewolf, then a vampire werewolf knight, then his health bar refills and he comes back as a vampire werewolf knight ghost, and then he comes back as a vampire werewolf knight zombie.
• Mechanical Abomination: The Fuckotron 9000, a haywire AI created by Fred Fucks, turned the entire world into a shitty game. It's held together with "jungle foliage and hyena feces", and has an Omega Flowey-like monitor for a head that shifts through several disturbing, glitchy faces.
• Multiple Life Bars: Sir Werepire's first three forms all share a life bar, but after you empty it and he dies, he comes back as a ghost, complete with a second life bar.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Parodied. Sir Werepire, the boss of "Monster Madness" world, is a vampire-werewolf-knight-ghost-zombie monster, and you fight each form back-to-back. Once the zombie form is revealed, the Nerd understandably loses his patience and ends the boss fight before the zombie phase can begin.
  Nerd: NO! THAT'S ENOUGH! FUCK YOU! THIS IS RIDICULOUS! STOP! Fuckin' Zombie Ghost Vampire Knight Werewolf... WE'RE DONE. FUCK OFF.
  (The zombie sinks back into the ground.)
  Nerd: ...Asshole.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: In the Deluxe version, Fred Fucks replaces the Nostalgia Critic and uses a design close to Gilbert Gottfried's appearance.
• Not Quite Flight: The Nerd gains the ability to prolong his jumps and glide through the air for a limited time with the Cape.
• Numbered Sequels
• One-Hit Kill: Bottomless pits, mines, laser traps, death blocks, and giant enemies with chainsaws powered with death blocks will kill you instatly regardless of health.
• One-Winged Angel:
  • Dark Onward's wheelchair transforms into a giant orange robot scorpion after sustaining enough damage, as a reference to Sasori Vader doing the same thing in the Famicom version of Star Wars.
  Dark Onward: I AM THIS COUNTRY'S PROTECTION FROM TERRORIST NERDS LIKE YOU! I AM ALSO... ...A FUCKING SCORPION!!!
  Nerd: No! ...They fucking didn't! ...Remember THAT from the movie?!
  • Doubling the reference, Dark Onward gets replaced by a Darth Vader clone called Dark Invader in the remake.
  • Exaggerated with Sir Werepire, who transforms from a vampire into a vampire werewolf, then a vampire werewolf knight, a vampire werewolf knight ghost... and finally, a zombie ghost vampire knight werewolf. Yeah...
  Nerd: A Vampire Werewolf KNIGHT?! HOW MANY FORMS DOES THIS ASSHOLE HAVE?!
• Palette Swap: Death blocks are themed to the world this time around. For instance, in Board James, they look like brightly coloured board game pieces, and in Browntown, they're covered in shit stains.
• Plot Coupons: The Nerd must collect the six pieces of the Sexforce (which is replaced with Fucks' Capacitor in ReASSimilated) in order to gain access to the final level. The first one is earned in the opening stage, while the remaining five require him to defeat the boss at the end of each of the five main worlds.
• Recurring Boss: The Nostalgia Critic fights you once per world, the two exceptions being "Browntown", where you fight the Nerdy Turd instead; and "Board James", where you fight Board James himself.
  • In the compilation re-release, the Nostalgia Critic is replaced with Fred Fucks (as portrayed by Gilbert Gottfried)
• Recycled Soundtrack: Quite prominent, though its songs are still awesome none-the-less.
  • The BGM for "Virtual Insanity" is a re-arranged version of "Laughin' Jokin' Numbnuts" from the first game.
  • The boss theme is a remix of the original's boss theme.
    • And the final boss theme (Final Battle) is a slower version of the second game's boss theme.
  • "Those who Fart Further" is a fart-based remix of "A Critical Battle".
    • "The Final Showdown" (Not to be confused for "Final Battle") is a reprise of "A Critical Battle".
  • "WhyWhyWhyWhyWhy" and "Two-Sided Die" are more distorted versions of the first level themes of their respective worlds. The latter of which is actually a Mini-boss theme.
• Reference Overdosed: To both other video games and to AVGN episodes.
• Rise to the Challenge: "Slide Down The Shaft" inverts this trope, being a downward Auto-Scrolling Level where both the top and bottom of the screen are bordered by instant-death lasers.
• The Rival: The Nostalgia Critic wants to save the world before you do, so he can get all the glory instead.
• Sampling: The music for the "Hang Dong '97" stage uses a sped-up sample of "I Love Beijing Tiananmen", which was the only part of the soundtrack to Hong Kong '97. It also uses "Yooooo" scream.
• Say My Name: Each fight against the Nostalgia Critic starts with him calling for "NEEEEERD!", and the Nerd responding with "Critic!". Averted by Fred Fucks in Deluxe.
• Sequel Escalation: As the trailer puts it:
  "This time, the Nerd isn't saving his friends...
  He's saving the world!"
• Sequel Hook: Death Mwauthzyx appears after the credits, wearing a Groucho disguise.
• Sequential Boss: Sir Werepire has four forms. He's about to unleash a fifth one when the Nerd gives up on him.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: The music tracks for the Board James stages are incredibly upbeat and cheerful for a game about a pissed-off Nerd with a Hair-Trigger Temper. Well, until you get to Board James himself...
• Speaks in Binary: As CAT-209 dies, it flips off the Nerd with a dying speech in binary.
  CAT-209: 01000110 01010101 01000011 01001011 01011001 01001111 01010101 01001110 01000101 01010010 01000100 (FUCK YOU NERD)
• Spelling Bonus: Each level after the first contains Nintendo Entertainment System cartridges labeled N-E-R-D. Collecting all of them in a world or in the game gives you achievements.
• Take That!:
  • The trailer makes fun of Mighty No. 9's controversial trailer by stating this: "Do you love an awesome thing that doesn't insult you?" Screw Attack also ups this by stating this in the video description: "For the record, we love anime fans..."
    • They also insulted the infamous "pizza explosion" from the trailer, and also name dropped it at one point.
  • The Swear N' Scout 9001 is said to be made by "Fukonami", a portmanteau of the phrase "Fuck Konami" that began to circulate after their shelving of Silent Hills.
• Tanuki: The Nerd rides one in "Nerd Gaiden". Its... prominent... features... were advertised actively in trailers.
  Boomstick: FUCKING FLAMING TANUKI BALLS!
• Tempting Fate: Most of the 1-ups can be found near death blocks or other hazards. Feeling lucky?
• This Is a Drill: The giant diver enemies in "Browntown" charge at the Nerd with a suggestively placed drill.
• Toilet Humor: Unsurprisingly, this game has it by the truckload. A septic truck loaded up with buffalo diarrhea, that is. The Browntown world in particular is a sewer full of shit.
• Toy Time: The Board James stages are appropriately themed around board games, much of the environment is made up of checkerboard squares, the background is full of buildings shaped like giant dominoes, enemies include floating player pieces, colorful mice, metal balls, and Hungry Hungry Hippos, and there are segments where the Nerd rides on a toy helicopter, an RC car, and a spinning target pulled from Crossfire.
• Unexpected Shmup Level:
  • The last part of "Hippo Hell" turns into a shmup when the Nerd grabs onto a helicopter.
  • "You'll get caught up" is an entire shmup level based on the commercial for the 1990's board game "Crossfire".
  • "Sush 'Em Up" is a shmup where you ride atop a giant tanuki with flaming testicles named J. Li Tanuki to help him defeat his mortal enemy Scrotaro, who is a purple Totoro whose chest fur resembles a giant ballsack. Not even Nerd can wrap his mind around it after the level.
  Nerd: ... What the hell was all that about?
• Updated Re-release: The Angry Video Game Nerd II: ReASSimilated, part of The Angry Video Game Nerd I & II Deluxe.
• Vader Breath: Spoofed with Dark Invader's wheezing in the remake.
• Variable Mix: Whenever the Nerd is underwater in "Browntown" stages, the music is filtered accordingly.
• Wall Jump: The Nerd's loafers, which are obtained in the tutorial level, grant him the ability to stick to walls and jump off them to gain height, a la Mega Man X.
• Wolfpack Boss: The Battle Frogs in “Browntown” enter into their battle one by one, until you are fighting all three of them at the same time.
• Wutai: The "Nerd Gaiden" world, which features buildings covered with neon lights in the background, sushi and ninja as enemies and a giant cutesy robot as a boss.
• Zero-Effort Boss:
  • After beating the Battle Frogs, their Master Sphincter comes out… and goes down in a single shot. Downplayed in that his kick is an instant kill, but it's ludicrously easy to dodge.
  • CAT-209 can easily be defeated without taking a single hit just by holding duck in the bottom left corner and mashing the fire button to destroy any missiles and sushi coming at you while dealing a small amount of damage to the boss every time its hitbox moves into your line of fire. Granted, this isn't a very fast way of killing it.

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