Nintendo Quest

[DarkKobold]

I watched the first part of this at Classic Gaming Expo. I found it too awful to sit through, and left after 10 minutes. They screened it again at Game On Expo, and a couple of the guys I was with watched through it. Apparently, it gets better, but its still kind of a lame movie. He does something in the movie that would make people in this forum cringe. Hard. I don't know how to make spoiler tags, so... yeah.

[EvilEvoIX]

Looks like a fun video to watch.  Getting all those games at a decent price is beyond me at this point.

[Black Tiger]

Looks like a fun video to watch.  Getting all those games at a decent price is beyond me at this point.

It's not beyond your price when you get a bunch of other people to pay for them.

[glazball]

I am a member of NintendoAge but don't usually visit there.  However, I had to make a post about this movie and was happily surprised other agreed with me.  Here's what I posted:
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I bought this DVD from their stand at Classic Game Fest in Austin a month ago, but just sat and watched it last night. Since I've been collecting NES games since the mid 90s, this kind of movie seemed right up my alley. Overall, I'll say I thought it ok but imo it has some major problems. SPOILERS AHEAD!!

My biggest gripe is about Jay, the collector the movie is centered around. At no point in watching the film did I get any indication that he actually ENJOYS AND PLAYS any of these games that he is buying. In fact, throughout most of the movie, he seems testy and irritable almost as if he expects everyone to just hand over rare titles for a discount to help his "quest." If I make a movie, will others bring me copies of Panic Restaurant or Contra Force?

At another point, the movie digresses into his tearful story about his domineering father. That should have never been included! It has absolutely nothing to do with anything. They should have spent that time discussing and/or playing the GAMES that he is seeking out.

Sadly, I see this collectard attitude - "gotta get my complete collection instantly" - as ruining our hobby, and he just throws money at games with abandon.

It's true that Flintstones Dino Peak is not included, or even mentioned. Unlicensed titles are not even mentioned either.

The highlight of the movie for me was seeing the guy's (who sells him Samson and Bonk) collection, which was truly incredible. I think his story and collection would make for a much more interesting movie!

All in all, as a lover of NES, I couldn't help but watch it but honestly, it feels scattered and ultimately leaves that bad reality show aftertaste in your mouth. Part of me even regrets buying the DVD because at the end, they seem to hint that next summer, there could be another quest for an unnamed console and now I've helped fund it.

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Quick capsule review: don't waste your time.  It still kind of angers me that I supported them, because I've been on my own "Nintendo quest" for almost 20 years.  NES was the first console I started collecting games for, back when you couldn't force people to take NES carts.  I thought this movie would be fun, since he was trying to find games outside of internet and eBay and figured he'd barely make a dent.  Nope, he just throws money at it and ended up showing us exactly what a collectard looks like.

[johnnykonami]

I didn't see this, but I would hope to see him at least play some of the higher profile acquisitions with giddy joy rather than just check it off a list.  I think I can understand why someone might wanna complete an entire library, but for me it's just a crazy waste of space, energy, and money.  Soooo many not worth owning games in the US NES library.  I want to get a few more of course, but my personal stash of NES games is under 20 carts.  It's just stuff I love.  The Guardian Legend, Goonies 2, Super Spy Hunter.  I just pick them up when I can get them and only if it's a great game or has some personal nostalgia attached to it.

Besides, aren't there multiple known complete NES collections out there already?  I think AVGN is one of them.  Not that you can't make a documentary and do the same thing, it's just.. big whoop I guess.

[BigusSchmuck]

I hate to say it, but Pixels was more interesting than this.

[Mzo]

glazball's review makes me sad.

Just another insta-collector who doesn't even enjoy the actual hobby itself.

[glazball]

@johnnykonami - nope, although you do see some gameplay footage - like when the narrator is describing Little Samson and it's rarity - you never see Jay play anything.  You do get to see him looking pissy all the time, unless he's trying to haggle for a rare game, then he's all smiles and claims it's "for the cause, man."

I mentioned this spoiler above, but it's worth repeating.  At the end of the movie, narrator asks him "so what do you want to do next summer?" then Jay looks at the camera as if given an idea.  Makes me a little ill to think that vulture is probably out there on a SNES or Genesis quest, buying up games he couldn't care less about.

[DragonmasterDan]

This defeats a lot of the purpose and fun of game collecting.

Five to seven years ago I'd buy NES games for 4.00 or so a piece pretty frequently.
I'd take them home, try them out, some were good, Some were bad, but I'd have friends over we'd see how far we'd get in games, Get aggravated if the game was bad and put them on the shelf. But there was an activity involved not only in the fun of playing the games but of making it a bit of a hobby to find them.

 On weekends I'd drive around to used media stores (places that specialize in used DVDs, CDs, Blu-Rays and video games) and see what I could find inexpensively. After quite a few years, I looked up how many NES games there were, had knocked out some of the hardest to find ones already and spent about another year picking up the remaining missing games from specialty stores, from the usual places, and from online and eventually finished my NES collection.

The idea of doing this in 30 days is just a waste to me. I get it if someone just inherited millions or won the lottery and wants to waste money like that, but the market for these games is totally different now than it was when I was buying them and this just seems wholy excessive and glamorizing overpaying for 20-30 year old games because you just decided you want to own them all and are in a rush to do so.

[johnnykonami]

@johnnykonami - nope, although you do see some gameplay footage - like when the narrator is describing Little Samson and it's rarity - you never see Jay play anything.  You do get to see him looking pissy all the time, unless he's trying to haggle for a rare game, then he's all smiles and claims it's "for the cause, man."

I mentioned this spoiler above, but it's worth repeating.  At the end of the movie, narrator asks him "so what do you want to do next summer?" then Jay looks at the camera as if given an idea.  Makes me a little ill to think that vulture is probably out there on a SNES or Genesis quest, buying up games he couldn't care less about.

That's a shame.  I think a GCCX style bit where you could see him personally play certain games would have been entertaining.  Nothing long, more like those mini segments where they try out GB games and so on.  At least it would be personalized and connect you to what he is doing.  I would have thrown him out at the first mention of "the cause," though.  Hope he stays away from the TG-16, he sure won't get any help here!