Nostalgia Critic
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Played by
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Doug Walker
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Occupation
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Film critic (2007–present)
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The Nostalgia Critic is a character portrayed by Douglas Darien Walker. He reviews nostalgic movies, pointing out their flaws and inconsistencies, and often gets angry in the middle of watching them. The movies he reviews have driven him to shout, babble, take cold showers, destroy DVDs and fire his (fake) gun randomly.
He has declared himself to be the Angry Video Game Nerd's mortal enemy and rival. Despite the rivalry depicted in their videos, Doug Walker and James Rolfe are good friends in real life since the "feud". He loves Russ' in Michigan!
Style[]
The Nostalgia Critic typically opens and closes all his videos with "Hello I'm the Nostalgia Critic, I remember it, so you don't have to.", although "Hello" is omitted during the closing. At the beginning, his reviews were of movies or TV shows from the 1980's or 1990's. However, he has covered more recent movies since his comeback. Like the Nerd, the Nostalgia Critic tends to do his reviews in an irate, yet comical fashion.
The Feud[]
The feud began when the Nostalgia Critic posted an online video where he satirically expressed his disgruntlement towards the Angry Video Game Nerd for failing to keep his fans "under control". He objected to comments, written by the Nerd's fans, that made "unfair comparisons between the two of them." This began a series of tongue-in-cheek video responses between The Nostalgia Critic and Angry Video Game Nerd.
The Nerd posted on his own forums that he was a fan of the Nostalgia Critic. In response, the Critic created another video, trying to decipher the hidden message behind the Nerd's complimentary message (in the style of The Da Vinci Code film). Ultimately, Critic discovered that the message was backwards, and said: "LICK MY SHIT NOSTALGIA CRITIC", when looked at in a mirror.
Critic also blasted the Nerd for deciding to review The Wizard before him, calling him a "dirty, stuck-up, sadistic, shit-eating, cock-sucking, butt-fucking, penis-smelling, crotch-grabbing, ball-licking, semen-drinking, dog-raping, Nazi-loving, child-touching, cow-humping, perverted, spineless, heartless, mindless, dickless, testicle-choking, urine-gargling, jerk-offing, horse-faced, sheep-fondling, toilet-kissing, self-centered, feces-puking, dildo-shoving, snot-spitting, crap-gathering, big-nosed, monkey-slapping, bastard-screwing, bean-shitting, fart-knocking, sack-busting, splooge-tasting, bear-blowing, head-swallowing, bitch-snatching, handjobbing, donkey-caressing, mucus-spewing, anal-plugging, ho-grabbing, uncircumcised, sewer-sipping, whore-mongering, piss-swimming, midget-munching, douchebag, ho-biting, carnivorous, mail-order prostituting asshole".
When the Critic did review The Wizard, he discovered that one of the main characters in the movie, Jimmy, was actually the Nerd when he was a kid. It angered the Critic even more, because he was trying to prove that no one from the film had a successful career after doing the movie. However, it is unknown if this is actually part of the Nerd's canon or just a joke, seeing as the Nerd does not acknowledge this during his review of The Wizard.
Finally, in early June, the Nerd responded in a satirical video, with disclaimers to show that there was no real animosity between them. The Nerd stated his "distaste" for the Critic, but left an advertisement to ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com at the end of the video.
After watching this video, AVGN fans went to Walker's website, which immediately flooded Walker's server with over two thousand new unique visitors within the first two hours - with over 18,000 videos viewed. After reporting this in a new video, Critic acknowledged the Nerd as a worthy adversary, accusing him of trying to close down the site by overwhelming his video bandwidth. He challenged the Nerd to review an awful nostalgic film.
Later that month, the Nostalgia Critic came to the Nerd in person at Digital Press, a video game store in Clifton, New Jersey. The Nerd had agreed to review a bad film, so long as the Critic "suffered" through a bad video game. Critic objected, because he thought reviewing a video game was beneath him. The two exchanged satirical fighting words and they had a fake, slow-motion brawl in a nearby parking lot, along with another Internet personality, Captain S. At the end, Critic says he will review a bad video game, after all.
Eventually, the Nerd reviewed the low-budget spoof film Ricky 1, and the Nostalgia Critic reviewed the video game version of the animated film Bébé's Kids.
The culmination of the rivalry, called The Final Battle, features a lengthy fight scene, parodying popular films and cliches; in particular, The Matrix Reloaded and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The video also borrows elements from the Nerd's review of Super Mario Bros. 3, including his "battle armor" and Super Mecha Death Christ 2000 B.C. Version 4.0 Beta. The entire "fight" takes place in the Nerd Room.
The fight was won by the Nerd when Super Mecha Death Christ attacked and apparently killed the Critic. However, Critic's bloody hand is seen reaching up, so the feud was not over.
TGWTG Anniversary Brawl[]
In ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com's first anniversary special, the Critic and the Nerd begin to settle their score once and for all, eventually joined by other contributors to the ThatGuyWithTheGlasses website (gamers siding with the Nerd, reviewers siding with Critic). Following a battle between Super Mecha Death Christ and Giant Robotic Donkey Kong Jesus Riding a Puff of Smoke, AskThatGuy (another one of Walker's characters), was able to stop the fighting by telling them that there was no reason for them to do so. The two sides called a truce, and the Nerd and Critic finally put their differences aside.
After the Critic and the Nerd settled their differences, they reviewed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Making of "Coming Out of Our Shells" Tour. After reviewing the film, they get bored during the credits and start fighting again when the Nerd throws one of his pens at Critic.
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Being friends with Doug Walker, James Rolfe joins in on the TGWTG website's Anniversary Specials, a series of mini-series that crosses a majority of the contributors and feature them in narrative-based stories.
In the Second Anniversary Special Kickassia, James appeared in a brief cameo as Board James, explaining to Linkara and his rebellion the rules of Risk when they are distracted by the Risk game board that they use as their battle plan map.
James appeared as the Voice of the Ancient World in the Third Anniversary Special Suburban Knights. The Voice has been "along longer than time itself and has all the answers" they need. He is contained in a small box in the basement of a house owned by a woman (played by Elisa Hansen) or as proclaimed by AskThatGuy (Doug Walker). The Voice of the Ancient World appears to have the persona of the Angry Video Game Nerd as it is portrayed as rude and foul-mouthed just like the Nerd. He explains to the Team 2 (consisting of Angry Joe, the Cinema Snob, Film Brain, JewWario, Luke Mochire, MarzGurl, Paw Dugan, Spoony, and Todd in the Shadows) the origins of Malachite (Orlando Belisle Jr.); however, he refuses to reveal the location of Malachite's Hand before fleeing.
Finally, in the Fourth Anniversary Special To Boldly Flee, James plays a character who resembles Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still. He assists the Nostalgia Critic by helping him fight an army of mooks, saving him from Terl (Noah Antwiler) from Battlefield Earth so he can enter the Plot Hole, and suggest the solution to the unstable Plot Hole by expanding it before revealing himself as James. The two shake hands before they depart, claiming they will "see each other on the other side."
At the "Roast of the Angry Video Game Nerd", Doug as the Nostalgia Critic submitted a video and seemed to continue the fictional feud, before speaking honestly about James Rolfe as himself.
The Nerd appeared in a Crossover review with the Critic of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014). While James was in Chicago to film the episode with Doug, the two did two special editions of James & Mike Mondays with Doug. James and Doug played the two player version of Probotector (Contra's name in PAL regions) and TMNT III: The Manhattan Project, while Mike played the 1 player version of those games in Philadelphia.
The Nerd once again joined the Critc for a review of the 2016 movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows also joined by Andre "Black Nerd."
The Nerd and Critic held a crossover crossover of the Critic's Nostalgia-Ween series with Monster Madness, tackling the 2017 reboot of the Mummy film. Both were scathing of the film's poor direction, lack of focus and jabbed at Universal's arrogance to assume it would spawn a successful cinematic universe.
The Nostalagia Critic also appears as a minor antagonist, rival, & sub boss in The Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures 2: ASSimilation through out the game. He is also responsble for stealing the Nerd's stuff and scattering it to the different levels in the game. In The Angry Video Game Nerd I & II Deluxe, he is replaced by Fred Fucks due to licensing issues.[1]
Trivia[]
- The Nostalgia Critic is one of three villains to be knocked into a pile of boxes (the other ones being The Joker and Bugs Bunny.)
- The Nostalgia Critic is one of five villains to be defeated with NES accessories (the others being The Devil, ROB, Jason and Freddy.)
- The Nostalgia Critic's review of "Bebe's Kids" wasn't his only video game review. He also reviewed the Blues Brothers game for the SNES as himself as a DVD extra, "Dragon's Lair", and reviewed "Bart's Nightmare" in the format of a Let's Play, the latter of which was met with displeasure from his fans.
- Two background characters greatly resembling the Nostalgia Critic and the Nerd appear in an episode of the anime, The Unlimited: Hyobu Kyosuke. After the clip had gained mass attention, James and Doug recreated the image in live action.