Nintendo Challenge

I love Nintendo.  I have since I was a kid, I love it so much, that as soon as I got my first job, I started randomly collecting Nintendo games.  I know some people have bigger collections than me, but I’m super picky with the games I buy.  They had to be iconic or I had to grow up having played them a lot.  I have approximately 60+ games.

Sadly, as I’ve grown older, the time I have to play these 60+ games has dwindled significantly.  Luckily for me, an idea came to me one day.  A brilliant, amazing idea!  What if I did a blog about each game in my collection?!

Brilliant!  My wife even approved!  So that is exactly what I’m going to do.  Obviously I can’t cover them all at once, that blog would be longer than War & Peace.  Also, I can’t devote an entire blog to just one game because it would be a really quick blog.

So what am I going to do you may (or may not) have asked!?  I will review 3-4 games at a time, sporadically throughout 2016.  Because I’m weird (my wife’s words, not mine) they will be in alphabetical order in my collection, so the Super Mario series will not be coming any time soon (sorry!).

First up are the following 3 games:

So enjoy the read, I’ll be providing my personal experiences with each game, some I clearly like more than others.  And by all means, if you want to stop by and play some Nintendo, my wife and I are all for it!  Just bring food.

If you grew up in the early 90’s and followed pop culture, then American Gladiators played some sort of role in your life.  This picture just screams 90’s.

Everything from the classic TV show to the awesome toys were inescapable.  Zap was like the Kim Kardashian of her time!

So clearly a video game was a logical thing to make.  And I will say this, American Gladiators is one of the best TV show adaptations of a video game ever.  Below you will see the 5 different areas that you need to defeat.

My two favorites are Powerball and Assault, because they are fun, but relatively easy.  But the bane of my existence in this game…is The Wall.

This photo was taken briefly before I threw my controller in anger.  The Wall is easily the hardest part of this game.

Now I have beaten all five levels, and you may think you get 5 additional challenges if you get past them.  Well….you don’t.  You get to play the same 5 again, but it’s harder.  I have only witnessed one man come close to beating the second level.  This man…

His name is Dino, and he is better than you at American Gladiators.  He is better than all of us at American Gladiators.  Even you Zap.

In closing on American Gladiators, it’s a real great game to play for roughly a half hour.  If you are one of the lucky few to destroy that first part, you have joined rarefied air my friend.  But I am a stickler on my grading system.  Final score: B-

On to the next game.

Anticipation is one of the most underrated games in NES history.  The premise is you are playing a board game, with a mix of Pictionary.  The only difference is, you don’t draw the clue, the computer does, and it’s up to you or your opponent to figure out what it is.  An example?

Can you guess what this is?  As you can see, I did.  But only because I’ve played it thousands of times.  You ready for the answer?

It’s candy.  It’s freaking candy.   See!?

Nobody said the drawings were great, but that’s part of the fun of the game.  I grew up playing this game against my cousin Brad when I would come over to his place and play Nintendo as a kid.

Eventually my friends and I started playing Anticipation quite a bit in college during our house parties.  We’d get on opposing teams and play against each other.  Usually one team would be headed by me.  The other by my arch rival in this game and in the Civil War (long story), Schempp.

You see that face!?  That is the face of pure evil my friend.  Many a great games were played in my formative college years, the game made even better by adding drinking.  Who would’ve thought?!

I will leave you with the amazing commercial for Anticipation, which will give you some nostalgia, and also make you REALLY hate the song “Bird is the Word”.

“Somewhere in Phoenix, my friend Danny hears “Bird is the Word” and immediately starts singing”

Final score, of this highly, highly underrated game: A-

And we finish up today with Bad Dudes.  Bad Dudes is essentially a rip off of the game Double Dragon.  The only difference is it’s not as fun for me.  The only thing that saves Bad Dudes is the iconic opening, which gives you the following agenda.

Unfortunately it’s all downhill from there.  It’s not that it’s a crappy game.  But it’s really, really, really frustrating to me.  It’s hard to dodge the villains.  The levels kinda suck.  The only cool things is the spin kick and when you randomly find some nunchucks (nunchaku/danger sticks), and that’s a stretch.

You want to see how frustrated this game makes me?  This is my happy face during the playing of this game.

The following picture is me after I did nothing but spin kick, ultimately meeting my demise on level 2.  A level I cannot get past, even as a 33 year old.

Thankfully, the internet is a wonderful (sometimes) place that helps me find the answers to a lot of questions I’ve always had.  One of them being, what happens when they rescue the president?  Well….

The president was so happy he got rescued that he offered to get them a burger.  What a guy!?  I hope it was something good like In-N-Out or Five Guys and not a McPick 2.

No offense McPick 2.  Final score of Bad Dudes: C+

So there you have it.  Part 1 in a, let’s say a 20 part series.  Hope you enjoyed it.  Added bonus, if you can predict 1 of the following 3 games reviewed, I will mention you in this column next week AND publicly invite you over to come play it.  But only if I know you.

Also bringing over The Glove would be nice.

Thanks for reading.

Jeff Kleeman