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Clu Clu Land (クルクルランド, Kuru Kuru Rando^?) is an arcade and Nintendo Entertainment System game released in 1984 and was later released in North America on the Wii Virtual Console on September 1, 2008^[2] and in Europe on March 6, 2009. The game was called Vs. Clu Clu Land in video arcades. The game has been re-released for the Nintendo GameCube in the game Animal Crossing.

Overview[link]

In Clu Clu Land, the player is a bubble fish named Bubbles—Groopy (or Gloopy) (グルッピー, Guruppī^?) in the original Japanese version—who swims around in a maze trying to uncover all the golden ingots.

Description[link]

Clu Clu Land's story starts with a type of Sea Urchin, the Unira, stealing all of the treasures in the underwater kingdom of Clu Clu Land. Bubbles, the hero, sets out to retrieve the treasure. The object of the game is to uncover all the gold bars in each stage while avoiding the Unira and Black Holes. The gold bars usually form an outline of something, such as a heart or a mushroom. There are Turning Posts throughout the stage, and that's the only way Bubbles can turn around to go to another side. Bubbles can stun the Unira by using a Sound Wave. When they're stunned, Bubbles can push them into the wall to get rid of them and receive points. If Bubbles is hurt by the Unira, she will lose a life. A life is also lost when Bubbles falls into a Black Hole, or when time runs out. This only happens if Bubbles hasn't moved. If Bubbles moves and time runs out, the game is over. The game also ends if Bubbles has lost all her lives.

In later levels, the player has to pass over the gold bars twice to uncover them, and passing over them in later levels will re-bury them.

Legacy[link]

A successor to Clu Clu Land was released for the Famicom Disk System, making it the last game to be released for the system. This revised edition is called Clu Clu Land Disk Version (クルクルランド・ディスク版, Kuru Kuru Rando Disuku-Ban^?) in Japan and became known in North America as Clu Clu Land D due to its presence as one of the unlockable games in the GameCube title Animal Crossing; however, its title screen actually refers to it as Clu Clu Land: Welcome to New Cluclu Land. It has all of the puzzles of the original game plus more, a new enemy (Boss Unira), and easy and hard mode option. It is a port of VS Clu Clu Land.

In 2001 the game was ported to the Sharp Zaurus series of PDA's.

Bubbles also appears as a trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Clu Clu Land music as well as the Unira enemy as an item is in its sequel, Super Smash Bros. Brawl. She also reappears again as the last secret character in the Game Boy Advance game DK King of Swing (which was inspired by, if not somewhat of a remake of, Clu Clu Land).

There is also a Clu Clu Land "Remake" microgame in WarioWare: Smooth Moves for Wii, as well as a Clu Clu Land "Spintendo" microgame in WarioWare: Twisted!

Title[link]

Although "Clu Clu Land" is the official English title for the game, "Clu Clu" is actually a romanization of "Kuru Kuru", a Japanese onomatopeia word that refers to something going "around and around". In order for Bubbles to move around the mazes, she must grab onto poles with her hands. When she holds on to a pole without letting go, she spins "around and around". Hence, this game could also be called "Kuru Kuru Land". (The same phrase is also the basis for the title of the Game Boy Advance game Kuru Kuru Kururin.)

See also[link]

• List of NES games

References[link]

External links[link]

• Clu Clu Land guide at StrategyWiki
• Clu Clu Land at MobyGames
• Clu Clu Land^{[dead link]} at the Classic Nintendo Wiki.
• Clu Clu Land at NinDB

It has been suggested that this article be split into articles titled Cinemassacre Productions and The Angry Video Game Nerd, accessible from a disambiguation page. (March 2012)

This article may rely too heavily on sources with too close a tie to the subject to be verifiable and neutral. Please help improve it by replacing them with more appropriate citations to reliable, independent, third-party sources. (February 2011)

The Angry Video Game Nerd (abbreviated AVGN or The Nerd, formerly known as The Angry Nintendo Nerd) is the main character and title of a web television series of farcical retrogaming video reviews created by and starring James Rolfe.^[2][3] The show generally revolves around retro game reviews that involve bitter rants against games he deems to be of particularly low-quality or poor design.^[4] Such games are often associated with movie tie-ins.

The series began as a feature on YouTube, and later joined ScrewAttack Entertainment, which would later have three of its features, including the AVGN, transferred to GameTrailers exclusively. The show, formerly known as The Angry Nintendo Nerd, was renamed because the show started reviewing games on other consoles, and also to prevent any trademark issues with Nintendo.^[5]

The Nerd is a short-tempered and foul-mouthed video game fanatic. He derives comic appeal from excessive and inventive use of profanity, frequent displays of explicit gestures, and a habitual consumption of beer (mostly Rolling Rock, but sometimes Yuengling). A particular characteristic, which has become something of a trademark of his character, is for him to describe, in great detail, extremely repulsive and painful, usually firmly scatological acts, and to claim that he would rather endure them than to play the game that he is reviewing. Varying amounts of physical comedy are mixed into the verbal abuses.

History[link]

Viral videos[link]

Rolfe first started to do films as a child in the late 1980s to the early 1990s, but his career did not take off until he made a short review of the NES game Castlevania II: Simon's Quest in 2004 under the title "Bad NES Games". Rolfe decided to make another video which was supposed to be the last, because Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was his most hated game. His beer drinking in most of his videos was done on purpose, as to say "these games are so bad I'm forced to drink" in a joking manner.^[1] The choice of Rolling Rock was coincidental as it happened to be the one beer in Rolfe's refrigerator at the time the video was made, and it eventually became an identifying trait of the character – although in more recent videos Rolfe has varied his alcohol consumption with Yuengling beer, hard liquor, and non-alcoholic hot sauce.

The videos were produced and published on Cinemassacre.com^[5] and the only release outside of the website came as part of a four VHS tape set called the "Cinemassacre Gold Collection" that Rolfe put together himself.^[1] On April 6, 2006, he joined YouTube and the videos were put on YouTube under the name of "JamesNintendoNerd", before his character was developed.

On September 12, 2006 Rolfe's character first gained mainstream attention when his review of the Nintendo game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles went viral on the YouTube website. This was reported in an MTV news segment called "Viral Videos Infect the Mainstream".^[6]

Later, on November 2, 2008 his videos were featured on the nationally syndicated radio show Opie and Anthony.

Opie & Anthony found his obscenity-laced tirades against poorly made video games quite humorous, and took notice of one of their own Whip 'em Out Wednesdays (WOW) promotional stickers being featured quite prominently in several of Rolfe's videos. Since then, additional videos have been played occasionally on the show. Rolfe was later interviewed by Opie and Anthony on January 9, 2008.^[7] Rolfe would go on to host a show on Opie and Anthony's XM Satellite Radio (now Sirius/XM) channel for their "Saturday Night Virus" block of shows, but has done only one show so far and has not returned since.

Rolfe continues to make non-AVGN related videos on his website Cinemassacre.

Angry Video Game Nerd[link]

James D. Rolfe in his signature "Nerd Outfit".

He later changed the name from "The Angry Nintendo Nerd" to "The Angry Video Game Nerd" to prevent trademark issues.^[5] Along with the name change, the Nerd soon diversified, reviewing games on other platforms such as the Atari 2600, Super Nintendo, Sega Master System, and Sega Genesis. Along with reviewing games, some episodes have featured other video game-related subjects, such as the Power Glove, the U-Force, The Wizard, and a tribute to Nintendo Power.

Rolfe has stated on his website that the first videos he made were "just a joke" and he had no intention of making them public,^[5] instead showing them only to friends. After two years passed, Mike Matei suggested he put the reviews online. They soon did, and since then, his reviews have become increasingly popular and have developed a large fanbase.^[8][9] Rolfe's videos grew longer, soon turning into an actual series complete with title cards, an intro song and official merchandise and the AVGN Volume 1 DVD (2004 and 2006 episodes), followed by the Volume 2 DVD (2007 episodes), the Volume 3 DVD (2008 episodes), and the Volume 4 DVD (2009 episodes). After his fourth online review on YouTube, ScrewAttack invited him to have his own section on their website and has since been employed by MTV Networks' GameTrailers.com.^[10] Since then, new videos are GameTrailers exclusives released once a month with Rolfe posting episodes on his YouTube account over a year after its original GameTrailers release.

On March 17, 2010, Rolfe said he was suffering from burnout as a result of consistently writing, directing, and starring in the videos, and that the show would be entering a brief hiatus. It was scheduled to return in May 2010; however, an episode was released on April 30. Episodes are now scheduled to be released the first or second Wednesday of each month,^[11] as opposed to two episodes per month due to other work.

As of December 22, 2011 (2011 -12-22)^[update], Rolfe is currently focusing all his efforts on producing the Angry Video Game Nerd Movie. Due to this he will not be releasing new Nerd episodes for an unknown number of months until he has completed work on the film, although the Cinemassacre website will continue to post bonus features from past volumes of the AVGN DVDs. Meanwhile, Mike Matei is continuing to produce new videos for the site, and is also writing upcoming AVGN episodes for when Rolfe returns. Matei is the co-writer of the AVGN series, and has been helping Rolfe write episodes since 2006.^[12]

Show[link]

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Episodes[link]

Special guests[link]

Occasionally, "special guests" based on famous film and television characters make appearances. These guests often provide additional commentary on the games and mock the Nerd's anguish. Most of the characters are played by Mike Matei, who also illustrates the show's title cards. His roles have included characters such as Freddy Krueger and Bugs Bunny, among many others. Freddy Krueger was also played by James Rolfe, with Matei taking on the role when both the Nerd and Freddy were in view.^[13] The show's musician, Kyle Justin, played both Spider-Man and Cousin Itt in separate episodes, which were accompanied by him performing the theme songs from Spider-Man and The Addams Family, with reworked lyrics. Justin was also featured in the Battletoads and second Bugs Bunny (Crazy Castle) episodes as himself. Kevin Finn played Ryu Hayabusa in his Ninja Gaiden review as well as the "Game Graphic Glitch Gremlin" in the Game Glitches episode and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link episode.

Some episodes have a basic storyline inspired by the plot of the game or the movie the game is based on being reviewed (e.g. in the Halloween review, the Nerd is stalked by Michael Myers while he goes babysitting). In these cases, guests are used to play the episode-specific characters. The Nostalgia Critic appeared in the Nerd's house and together they had a violent duel, in which the critic is nearly killed by the "Super Mecha Death Christ" character. More specifically "Super Mecha Death Christ 2000 B.C Version 4.0 Beta!... bitch".

In The Nerd's take on A Christmas Carol, Stuttering Craig and Handsome Tom, co-founders of ScrewAttack, appear as the Ghost of Christmas Past and the Ghost of Christmas Present, respectively. A Dracula sprite from Castlevania II: Simon's Quest represents the Ghost of Christmas Future.^[14][15]

Music[link]

The Angry Video Game Nerd theme song was composed by independent New Jersey musician Kyle Justin, who has ceased music-related activity since 2009 to start a family. The lyrics were the work of both Justin and Rolfe.^[16] Some of the lyrics come from comments made by Rolfe in his review of Back to the Future. Justin appeared with Rolfe at a MAGFest 2010 panel and performing the theme song live.

For numerous episodes, musical scores and covers were performed by Chris Holland that were subsequently used in episodes which includes the Batman, the Nerdy Christmas, and many others. The episodes of Board James Tornado Rex and Donut Disaster have music by Bootsy Spankins, P.I., also known as Brendan Castner.

Animated characters[link]

The show also makes use of original animated characters to add commentary or advance an episode-specific plot. The review of Master Chu and the Drunkard Hu uses a character called "Shit Pickle" to comment on the game play (which simply consisted of him repeating the words "shit" and "pickle" sometimes, but not always together). Shit Pickle did not appear again until Rolfe placed him in his own animated shorts and part of a comparison joke to certain enemy sprites in his Action 52 review. In the Wizard/Super Mario Bros. 3 review, the Nerd calls upon the "Super Mecha Death Christ 2000 B.C Version 4.0 Beta... bitch" to assist in the destruction of a demonically possessed Super Mario Bros. 3 cartridge. This character is a combination of Jesus, robotic components, assorted weapons, and a tank. Both Shit Pickle and Super Mecha Death Christ originated from Rolfe's early animated film "The Wizard of Oz 3: Dorothy Goes to Hell"^[17] and are voiced by James Rolfe and created by Mike Matei. Rolfe explained on his website that Super Mecha Death Christ was created as a spoof on the numerous Mecha-characters found in the Godzilla movies, such as Mechagodzilla.^[18] During his review of the Magnavox Odyssey a character called "The Nerdy Turd", a piece of fecal matter with Rolfe's head and face on it, was introduced out of necessity as the Odyssey does not support single player games (although Mike Matei helped Rolfe play with the system during shooting). In the Star Wars games review, the Nerd introduces the "Beer Droid", a beer supplying Droid, which is a vacuum animated through stop motion effects.

DVDs[link]

On November 18, 2007, the first AVGN DVD set was released. It includes all of the episodes up to the first Bible Games episode. Some material, such as movie clips from Back to the Future and Rocky, were removed to avoid copyright infringement and replaced with new material. The DVD includes extended versions of the "Wally Bear and the NO Gang!" and "Rocky" reviews as well as an original documentary, deleted scenes, and most of the videos posted exclusively on ScrewAttack.com. In all, the DVD set contains approximately three hours and 15 minutes of content. According to Rolfe, the initial pressing of the DVD sold out in less than a week.^[19] In addition, there were 100 DVDs sold with James Rolfe's autograph on the front cover.^[20]

Around November 15, 2008, the second AVGN DVD set, which spans three discs,^[21] was released. It includes the GameTrailers.com episodes^[22] from the Atari 5200 review to An Angry Nerd Christmas Carol as well as a scene from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III review, the trailers posted on YouTube, commentaries,^[23] outtakes (from the 2007 videos as well as some from 2008), and other material.^[24]

On December 12, 2009, the third AVGN DVD set, which spans three discs, was released. It includes the GameTrailers.com episodes from Chronologically Confused about the Zelda Timeline to Bible Games 2; however, the review for The Wizard and Super Mario Bros. 3 has been reduced to cover only SMB3 to avoid copyright infringement. Three of the episodes have been extended. The DVD set also includes outtakes, a tour of the Nerd's room, and other material.^[25]

On December 15, 2010, the fourth AVGN DVD set, spanning three discs, was released.^[26] It includes the GameTrailers.com episodes from Michael Jackson's Moonwalker to Winter Games as well as bonus features such as a look at Sega 3-D Glasses, outtakes, behind-the-scenes footage, and other material.^[27]

On December 8, 2011, the fifth AVGN DVD set, complete with three discs and special features, was released.

Film adaptation[link]

On September 23, 2010, Rolfe released a video on his website detailing his plans for The Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie to be released in the near future. Rolfe's long-time friend and collaborator Kevin Finn co-wrote and co-directed the film. It is said to be in the vein of Wayne's World in the sense that it will be a movie about a person that reviews games, rather than a feature length review or multiple reviews adding up to a feature length.^[28] In his review of Steven Spielberg movie games, Rolfe hinted that he would be reviewing the infamous Atari E.T. video game in the movie.^[29] On June 20, 2011 a video was posted on Cinemassacre in which Rolfe confirmed that E.T. would be reviewed in the film.^[30] It was confirmed a second time in a video on January 11, 2012.^[31] E.T. game designer Howard Scott Warshaw confirmed in an article on Cinemassacre that he would be playing himself in the movie.^[32]

Being an independent filmmaker, Rolfe initially intended to budget the film with both fan donations via Paypal and private investors. On October 16, 2011, Rolfe launched another campaign on the fundraising website IndieGoGo (with an initial goal of $75,000).^[33][34] As of February 3, 2012, Rolfe has raised $325,927 for the film's budget on the site,^[35] becoming the 2nd highest online, fan funded film of all time. Rolfe now hopes the project will be entirely fan-supported without traditional investors, providing him complete creative control.^[36] Rolfe expressed appreciation for the large donations he received, as he was surprised by the unexpected cost of locations, effects, permits and taxes; "You hear about mainstream movies these days, they cost like 200 million dollars [...] now I'm starting to learn why!"^[37] Rolfe had initially planned to put the production of the AVGN web series on hiatus to allow him time for the production of the film,^[38] but eventually settled for making shorter, less time consuming episodes instead.^[33] Many episodes of the web series were filmed months in advance, so that they could be released during the creation of the film.^[39] On June 1, Rolfe released another video on his website, detailing more about his plans, also calling for casting, giving the contact information related to the movie. Open casting calls were held in Philadelphia^[40] and Dallas, Texas,^[41] with another casting call hosted by Channel Awesome held in Chicago, with live auditions held by Douglas Walker, the actor of The Nostalgia Critic.^[42] Rolfe also held calls for special effects artists who specialised in the fields of miniature effects, animatronics and puppetry,^[43] as well as miscellaneous other roles as crew-members, agents, and promoters.^[43][44][45]

The films special effects will be created by Josh Russell and Davis Woodruff, in the homemade studios of RBW effects, which used to be a chicken coop.^[46] Industrial Light & Magic veteran Grover L Richardson III will work as visual effects supervisor.^[47] Filming is scheduled to begin between January and May 2012.^[36] The majority of filming will take place in California due to its weather, landscapes, and the fact that it is the home of many of the creators of the project.^[39] Rolfe and his wife temporarily moved to an apartment in Los Angeles for the duration of filming.^[48] Rolfe anticipates the film's release will be through touring film festivals, before being released on DVD.^[39]

Rolfe and co-writer/director Finn, along with others involved with the film have been releasing 'Nerd Log' videos on Cinemassacre about the production of the film such as final casting decisions. They have confirmed the film will have a best friend for the Nerd, a leading female character, and a leading villain. A vlog about production design stated that there would be a scene in the film inspired by the Godzilla film series.

Filming in California started April 1, 2012 and wrapped on May 11, 2012. Additional scenes will be filmed on the East Coast at a later date. Rolfe stated on an update posted May 25, 2012 that the film would be released "when it's done". He optimistically hoped he could finish by Christmas 2012 but thought that summer 2013 would probably be a more realistic estimate for the release date.^[49] Rolfe posted a photo of him wearing an updated Nerd costume. Actress Sarah Glendening also posted a set photo on Twitter, confirming her as the female lead, "Mandi". Composer Bear McCreary shot a walk-on cameo as a zombie. Actors Jeremy Suarez and Time Winters will also appear in the film according to Sarah Glendening's Twitter Page. Suarez will play the best friend/sidekick of The Nerd, "Cooper" (a pun on co-op) and has also posted an image of himself as a zombie. Milynn Sarley has also been confirmed to have an unspecified role in the movie.^[47] Nathan Barnatt has shot a brief cameo as his character Keith Apicary, after posting a set photo on his Instagram page on May 5, 2012, the same day Howard Scott Warshaw was on set. Actor Stephen Mendel confirmed on his twitter account that he would be playing General Dark Onward in the movie. ^[50] Doug Walker posted on his Facebook page that "some nerd" visited him with a request to do a quick cameo. ^[51]

On May 25th, Rolfe posted a video containing tips of making movies, and confirming the completion of filming in California, with additional filming scheduled for this summer on the East Coast. According to him, the film would be released on DVD as the worst-case scenario. Rolfe stated that the film should be close to 2 hours long judging from the script, and if it was is MPAA-rated, likely to get a R-rating due to language.^[52]

Awards[link]

The Angry Video Game Nerd was voted Best Online Web Series in Mashable's 3rd Annual Open Web Awards on December 16, 2009.^[53]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Angry Video Game Nerd

• Official website
• The Angry Video Game Nerd's channel on YouTube
• The Angry Video Game Nerd at the Internet Movie Database
• Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie at the Internet Movie Database

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