The Happy Video Game Nerd: Difference between revisions

* [[April Fools' Day]]: He's done something on April Fools' Day every year since starting as the HVGN, one of only two occasions (the other, of course, being Halloween) for which this is the case:

** 2008: He posted [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBlotxX0qOQ&feature=channel_video_title an audio-only vlog] ripping into the AVGN (originally titled "Sick to death of hearing about the Angry Nintendo Nerd") that was actually a parody of the infamous Armake21 vlog ripping into the [[Irate Gamer]].

** 2010: He switched shows with the Gaming Historian, another Retroware personality. Derek talked about ''[[Shenmue]]'', while Norman reviewed ''[[Ristar]]''. This is also the only April Fools prank to date in which Derek does ''not'' break character, [[Leaning On the Fourth Wall|at least not explicitly]].

** 2011: His friend and bandmate Calvin hijacked his show, and did an improvised quasi-review/playthrough of ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]''.

* [[Dark Is Not Evil]]: The Happy Nerd wears a black shirt, as opposed to the Angry Nerd's white shirt.

* [[Divergent Character Evolution]]: The Happy Nerd started out with the gimmick that he was the opposite of the Angry Nerd, and many of his early videos are shot-for-shot remakes of the Angry Nerd's videos, only with him extolling a good game instead of swearing at a bad one. Now, he does his own thing, although he still dresses like the Angry Nerd and drinks at the end of every review (which is actually something the ''Angry'' Nerd has generally stopped doing).

* [[Dramatic Pause]]: Every once in a while; often, he smiles creepily right after one.

* [[Ensemble Darkhorse]]: [[In-Universe|His basic shtick]] is showcasing retro gaming's [[Ensemble Darkhorse|ensemble darkhorses]].

* [[Nostalgia Filter]]: Averted and/or subverted; HVGN proves that there really is some stuff in the past that is really good, some of it just got passed over.

** Played straight in his reviews of ''[[Mega Man (Video Game)|Mega Man]] 9'' and ''10''. He acknowledges that he rated ''9'' -- which helped kick off the recent [[Retraux]] trend -- as highly as he did partly for this specific reason. Now that "all that's old is new again" is getting...well, old again, he was able to take off his nostalgia-tinted lenses for ''10''. He does stand by his original review for ''9'', though, and cites other reasons why ''10'' is a weaker game.

* [[Precision F-Strike]]: Nekbone, who normally only speaks by shouting his own name, shouts out "OH SHIT!" when confronted by Nightshade.

* [[Self-Deprecation]]: Derek blatantly admits that he is inferior to both James Rolfe and Kyle Justin.

** "Keytars Are For Retards (So We'll Take Two)".

* [[Sequelitis]]: Invoked: Two of three of his negative reviews were sequels to games that he loves. He's also spoken poorly of several other sequels.

** He also notes the trope [[You Gotta Have Blue Hair]] in his review of ''[[Mega Man (Video Game)|Mega Man]] 10'' with a specific reference to [[Homestar Runner|the Brothers Chaps]].

** In his ''Clash at Demonhead'' review, inspired by ''[[Scott Pilgrim]]'', he takes time out of his review to praise [[Edgar Wright]] for his direction of [[Scott Pilgrim vs. the World|the film version]], saying "You're [[Shaun of the Dead|three]] for [[Hot Fuzz|three]]."

[[Category:Video Review Show]]

[[Category:The Happy Video Game Nerd]]