PPR at the Movies: Nintendo Quest Review

henever you talk to anyone about video games, and I mean anyone, no matter their walk of life, or intimacy with the pastime, there’s one name that’s bound to come up, and is easily one of the most notable consoles in gaming, even to this day—the Nintendo Entertainment System.

The reverence for Nintendo’s 8-bit game box is a palpable force among both older, and youthful generations of game enthusiasts; which is why titles from its game library are still the among most sought after games to collect out of any other console out there.

Which brings us to one man, Jay Bartlett—a young adult dude who’s attributed a great deal of his being to then influence and wonder that the NES has given him, straight out of London, Ontario.

So much so that he’s teamed up with friend and independent film maker, Rob McCallum, to set out on what they call the social experiment of a lifetime. The pair sets their sights on collecting every NES game they can within 30 days, without the use of the internet, sticking exclusively with in-person transactions on a cross-country trip through the USA, and doing so all in a documentary they call, “Nintendo Quest.”

As far as a video game documentaries go, this premise is loaded with potential, tapping into a campaign that nearly anyone who’s ever played a video game can identify with, to some extent.

Unfortunately, this is where the film fails to follow through.

We’re set up for a journey with what we originally were lead to believe to be one with an underdog that’s attempting the impossible, and what we’re taken on instead is an underwhelming pursuit that barely sticks to its own outline of rules, and a protagonist that’s really challenging to relate to.

Click to read more ...

PPR 7

We took this opportunity to go over a big aspect of the video game lifestyle, which is collecting games. We take a look at just why exactly gamers who collect take the concept of collecting to a whole other level (no pun intended at all.) We discuss personal memories and thoughts on what exactly possesses individuals to hold on to video games in numerous numbers, or search out niche games or platforms. Also being side-tracked with the release of Guitar Hero 5, where we voice out our opinions on whether or not to boycott it. Video game collectors hold themselves in a very strong community where they work hard to support one another and their hobbies as well, while also wrestling with the strong temptation of a rare find at the cost of spending those precious extra bucks to obtain that holy grail of a title.

Sometimes, there's the dilemma of deciding upon trading in your games for credit to obtain that game you've been looking forward to, and whether or not you'll grow to regret it later. As Toast mentioned, he's been catching up, collecting retro classics himself, through the advantages of the current generation, where there's heavy digital distribution abound with PSN games, XBLA games, and WiiWare/Virtual Console games. The instant-availability and low-cost entry of these digitized offerings of retro software to anyone interested in buying them brings up a whole new argument in and of itself on the question of whether or not re-investing into digital release of retro games will affect the value or preservation of their original releases for the coming years.

So please tune in to the episode, and while you're at it, we want you guys to send us a picture of your collection! photos or even to stories that we can share on the next episode, also we figured we'd throw in a name drop on the hilarious homebrew show series known as "Chuck Norris in Oblivion" and decided to drop the link here for everyone to check out, or just search it on Youtube!

Until then, we'll be comparing collector's editions to first limited prints, and all of that other nonsense here on Press Pause Radio episode 7!

Click to read more ...