Nintendo Quest

It was Saturday morning, and I had just finished watching something particularly violent and bloody on television, but when I checked the clock I saw that the wife and kids would probably be coming downstairs anytime now so I had to switch over to decaf. As I was scrolling through Tubi to find something to watch , Something that would make the wife walk out and disgusted and wouldn’t scar the kids for life. I found myself in the documentary section, and one of the first things that came up was Nintendo quest. Interesting enough, I’m not really a gamer, but if you had to categorize me, I am if anything, a retro gamer… 

This is the story of Jay Bartlett. He’s a long time Nintendo fan, and gamer in general. He’s super passionate about three things… Star Wars, music, and video games. Gaming is one of his biggest passions, to the point where he owns a video game store and that’s a lot of what his life is centered around. In a conversation with his best friend Rob, Jay is challenged to collect all 678 of the official retail license Nintendo games… But there’s a catch. It’s to do it in 30 days. The movie is the story of that quest, an epic road trip from Canada through a whole lot of the United States, visiting game stores, flea markets, and neon lit basements full of every game you can imagine.

It’s a brilliant quest, and really humanizes the whole video game genre. I’ve always said I’d rather watch an episode of pawn stars than antiques roadshow… Because pawn stars makes you feel like you’re getting the same history from one of those guys that you’d meet at the swap meet, the sort of dude you’d have over to crack a beer and talk pop culture. Antiques roadshow on the other hand feels like a lecture coming from in a feet NPR tape wearing an impeccable tweet soup… It’s removed and distant… The same thing is true here. I’d rather hear the story told through the eyes of the guy going through the journey… The sort of long-haired rocker type that I have hung out with 1000 times at conventions and back room underground junk shops. It’s a marvelous film, and I walked away learning a surprising amount about Nintendo in general. It’s exactly what this sort of movie attempts to accomplish, and I can’t recommend it enough. I found it on Tubi, which means it’s probably available for free somewhere on a streaming

September 18, 2022 | Categories: movies, video games | Tags: Nintendo, Nintendo Quest, retro gameing, retro gamer | 1 Comment