>>12122484
>Angry "Nintendo" Nerd era (2004-2006)
Very comfy, simple and straightforward videos evocative of a bygone era of the online cultural zeitgeist, wherein YouTube was a largely free platform fueled by the creativity of uploaders before it was polluted with grifters eceleb garbage, and overlong rambling video essay slop. If there's one critique I'll give this era it's that he was kind of harsh on certain games like TMNT, Mc Kids, and Castlevania II and it took years for those games to rehabilitate their image when they were never really that bad.
>Screwattack Era (2007-2013)
This is where AVGN peaked. Stuttering Craig got James connected to a bigger budget but by and large allowed him to retain his creative freedom aside from the occasional episode cameo which was welcome, and most of the best episodes were produced during this time. At the culmination of this stage he produced the AVGN movie which unfortunately had a lot of problems but James had finally produced a feature length movie like he always wanted, had a wife and kids, and was starting a let's play series with his friends Mike, Bootsy, and Kyle and it felt like he could do no wrong.
>Post-Screwattack Era (2014-2016)
After Gametrailers crashed out and the Screwattack partnership ended and the movie came and went like a fart in the wind, James was back on YouTube by himself, the episode release schedule was slower than normal but he still managed to put out a number of well-received videos until friction started to build between him, Mike, Bootsy, and Kyle.