Nostalgic Entertainment System: Why NES is the Best

We have seen gaming devices waggle their joysticks up to the main land and evolve in front of our eyes. They communicated via wires, and then wirelessly, until they began to function without the need for a remote control at all! It is true the gaming systems on the market today are astounding. However, the best gaming console of all time has to be the Nintendo Entertainment System also known as NES. As an 80’s child the original NES will always be the mecca of gaming for me. I own all of the major home gaming consoles but the NES from my childhood sits proudly among its progeny.

Yes, I still have my NES and I play it on a regular basis. All of the game cartridges I have played since childhood are in a pull out drawer buy the TV. Actually, my NES cartridge collection has grown in recent months. I found a store in an area I frequent that carries many popular NES games and offers to find those they don’t have in store. How does this business stay afloat? Well the NES games are only part of what they sell; but I digress here. If the NES system was not the best console around why would anyone still sell its games after 20 years? Nintendo released all of the old Mario NES games for the Wii. They offer online download of many of the NES classics and continue to add more. A company like Nintendo would not waste time and money to make a product available that would not sell well. To take this a step farther, stroll through your local mall. You will see NES controller belt buckles and Paperboy t-shirts still being sold. The system was an instant, timeless, classic; it created a subculture.

The controller was simple and fit perfectly in hand. Directional pad, select, start, B, and A were all you needed. Let’s not forget the gun as well! The NES gun controller was essential when hunting ducks- and trying to shoot that giggling K9 when you had enough of his input. From start to finish the NES player had to have skill and persistence. There are no save points in these classic games. There are still games for the NES that I have yet to beat. The Adventures of Dino Riki torments me to this day. These games were, and are, for hardcore gamers. There was a proper TECHNIQUE even just for getting the game up and running! Sometimes you would have to take the game out, blow on the cartridge, put it back and wiggle it a little.

NES is the best video game console of all time because it created ‘the gamer,’ the devoted player who would spend hours absorbed in another world hoping to see the end credits eventually. NES created a secondary culture. What other system can say it did that?


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