Bear McCreary Vs. The Angry Video Game Nerd: A Christmas Special

What better way to celebrate the holidays than with The Angry Videogame Nerd’s annual holiday episode? Well, this year is a real special one for fans of game music, as composer Bear McCreary has lent his talents to score the episode as well as provide a parody of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” cleverly titled “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Nerd.” The episode itself is featured above, which I highly recommend checking out for a good laugh.

McCreary has gone even further on his personal blog, however, detailing his collaboration with the Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN) and offering insights and samples from his score. There’s an additional “Behind the scenes” interview with McCreary and the AVGN as well as complete downloads of both the score and the “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Nerd” track. I’m quite impressed with how he was able to fuse classic chip sounds with the small jazz ensemble that he used to create the underscore, and if you listen closely, you’ll catch references to a number of classics including Dragon Warrior, Super Mario Bros., and Sonic the Hedgehog among others.

Let us know what you think of the video and of Bear McCreary’s music.  Did you pick up on any other musical references?

[Thanks Bear!]