I think more than anything, though it's obviously something you personally can't speak from experience about, the NES felt like the most perfect console for its time, with the only possible rival being the PS2. It arrived with the right combination of technological progress and cultural realignment to be something that every single kid alive in the country for a decade would touch. The variety of games, even including a lot of duds, was something that kept rental shelves circulating, making the console feel for games the way libraries felt for books - a nearly bottomless well of potential, refreshed faster than you could possibly work through it. And most remarkable of all, a few of the games were so enduringly good they WEREN'T immediately and totally supplanted by the succeeding generation. Though very few of my favorite games are NES titles, it and the Game Boy were pivotal to my life, and probably did more to drive the adoption and development of videogames than any technology besides Internet access.
It's obviously difficult for me to imagine but that comparison to the PS2 sort of hits it home for me; it was so dominant I don't see how modern teenagers could fully understand it, I knew nobody else with a Gamecube and only one other kid with an Xbox.I imagine that's how the NES felt too.
Slightly spoiling my future opinions but that last part is how I feel about the Gamecube: it was my most-played childhood console along with the PS2 and I have a lot of memories with the games on it but most of my favourites are from elsewhere.
The sentiment part is only going to get longer; I don't really have strong opinions on the NES but the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube especially are very conflicting consoles for me.
I'm glad you enjoyed it and don't feel it disrespected the console or your memories with it, I truly do think it's one of the greats but for me? It just doesn't match the SNES.
I don't know if it's input lag or just the hard plastic nature of that controller but I love using it, playing NES games any other way feels dirty
I enjoyed this review, but I'll also point out that back in the day, there was a lot of experimentation with controller peripherals, on the NES more so than any console since. Both conventional options, and a wide variety of ideas that didn't work out. The Power Glove being the most famous, but far from the only.
I had a friend who swore by the NES Advantage. I myself was an NES Max guy and then moved over to the TurboTouch 360 for a time (which I got for free). I mastered the TurboTouch but then when I tried to return to it during the SNES era, I could never get the hang of it, it IS pretty weird.
I think part of this was a recognition of the NES D-pad's thumb-killing brutality, but in my case it was primarily that I demanded turbo. So many games on NES (and SNES) begged for it.
The SNES had the Ascii Pad, which as far as I'm concerned was never exceeded by any aftermarket control pad. It was the solution to the puzzle that the wide array of NES controllers were trying to solve. Every one of my SNES-owning friends had an Ascii Pad. To this day, playing SNES games feels kind of wrong to me without it. I don't own a physical SNES anymore, but if I did, it would be for the ability to use the Ascii Pad.
I don't own an NES advantage myself but I frequently play Ikaruga and the Castlevania Collection with the fight stick I bought for Tekken and it feels great, I can absolutely see why many chose it.
These were really interesting times for hardware for sure and nothing like it happened after, the only comparison I can make is that as a kid, everyone I knew who had an original Xbox swapped out that appalling duke controller for something else
This is an opinion that might get me flogged and I grew up with the console but I feel this way about the PS2 as well. It had the worst versions of all the 3rd party games too.
I think more than anything, though it's obviously something you personally can't speak from experience about, the NES felt like the most perfect console for its time, with the only possible rival being the PS2. It arrived with the right combination of technological progress and cultural realignment to be something that every single kid alive in the country for a decade would touch. The variety of games, even including a lot of duds, was something that kept rental shelves circulating, making the console feel for games the way libraries felt for books - a nearly bottomless well of potential, refreshed faster than you could possibly work through it. And most remarkable of all, a few of the games were so enduringly good they WEREN'T immediately and totally supplanted by the succeeding generation. Though very few of my favorite games are NES titles, it and the Game Boy were pivotal to my life, and probably did more to drive the adoption and development of videogames than any technology besides Internet access.
It's obviously difficult for me to imagine but that comparison to the PS2 sort of hits it home for me; it was so dominant I don't see how modern teenagers could fully understand it, I knew nobody else with a Gamecube and only one other kid with an Xbox.I imagine that's how the NES felt too.
Slightly spoiling my future opinions but that last part is how I feel about the Gamecube: it was my most-played childhood console along with the PS2 and I have a lot of memories with the games on it but most of my favourites are from elsewhere.
Good series idea! The Sentiment category really makes it.
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
The sentiment part is only going to get longer; I don't really have strong opinions on the NES but the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube especially are very conflicting consoles for me.
Conflicting is good. Things will get interesting!
Great article, I really connect with a lot of your points here.
It's taken a long time but I'm glad NES nostalgia is basically over. I lived through the NES' heyday and the nostalgia period and it's all a bit much.
But I get it. The NES paved the way for where the industry would eventually go.
Also I hear ya on the controller. It's painful, but it just works so well for the games.
I'm glad you enjoyed it and don't feel it disrespected the console or your memories with it, I truly do think it's one of the greats but for me? It just doesn't match the SNES.
I don't know if it's input lag or just the hard plastic nature of that controller but I love using it, playing NES games any other way feels dirty
I enjoyed this review, but I'll also point out that back in the day, there was a lot of experimentation with controller peripherals, on the NES more so than any console since. Both conventional options, and a wide variety of ideas that didn't work out. The Power Glove being the most famous, but far from the only.
I had a friend who swore by the NES Advantage. I myself was an NES Max guy and then moved over to the TurboTouch 360 for a time (which I got for free). I mastered the TurboTouch but then when I tried to return to it during the SNES era, I could never get the hang of it, it IS pretty weird.
I think part of this was a recognition of the NES D-pad's thumb-killing brutality, but in my case it was primarily that I demanded turbo. So many games on NES (and SNES) begged for it.
The SNES had the Ascii Pad, which as far as I'm concerned was never exceeded by any aftermarket control pad. It was the solution to the puzzle that the wide array of NES controllers were trying to solve. Every one of my SNES-owning friends had an Ascii Pad. To this day, playing SNES games feels kind of wrong to me without it. I don't own a physical SNES anymore, but if I did, it would be for the ability to use the Ascii Pad.
I don't own an NES advantage myself but I frequently play Ikaruga and the Castlevania Collection with the fight stick I bought for Tekken and it feels great, I can absolutely see why many chose it.
These were really interesting times for hardware for sure and nothing like it happened after, the only comparison I can make is that as a kid, everyone I knew who had an original Xbox swapped out that appalling duke controller for something else
The SNES is tops, agreed.
About 2/3 of the NES library is hot garbage of varying degrees. But that good-to-stellar 1/3 really made the system.
This is an opinion that might get me flogged and I grew up with the console but I feel this way about the PS2 as well. It had the worst versions of all the 3rd party games too.
The PS2 definitely has a lot of terrible stuff. It was so successful, I guess it was bound to happen.