Jeremy Parish
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NES Works Gaiden #044: Route 16 Turbo & Challenger
🕑 Added 2022-08-31 11:47:04 +0000 UTCWith this episode, NES Works Gaiden has finally arrived at NES Works: Three days after Challenger's debut, the Nintendo Entertainment System would arrive in a handful of stores in New York City to see if Americans had gotten over the whole "Atari crash" thing. (Spoilers: We had.) While U.S. families were getting their first taste of early Famicom releases and Super Mario Bros., Japanese families could experience these: The beginning of the post-Super Mario wave of games that pushed beyond the boundaries of Atari-generation game design and into the more elaborate works we'd see in the late 1980s. Well, actually, I suppose Challenger owes a debt to 2600 games like E.T. and Raiders of the Lost Ark, but for all its jank, it manages to be a whole lot more comprehensible than either of those works thanks to the Famicom's superior graphical and storage capabilities; they remove the abstraction that Howard Scott Warshaw's work had to work within and give Challenger a more relatable feel. Which is not to say it's any fun, but hey.
Also, bonus talk about Rally-X, because I'll seize on any excuse to talk Namco classics.
Comments
Jeremy Parish
If it makes you feel better, the article dek for Challenger in the NES Works Gaiden book I'm working on is "The World According to Garf"
Vinushika
Hudson absolutely does not get enough credit in the West for how momentous they are in terms of their contributions to game history. Whether it's Nuts & Milk, Lode Runner, Star Soldier or even Challenger, they were always at the bleeding edge of game design and technology. And I do mean bleeding edge, with how horrendous Challenger seems to be, but they were on the edge nonetheless. Also, props for managing to sneak in every possible mashup variation of Darth Vader + Char Aznable into the script. The only part that I think could have done better is some reference to why that bootleg being goes "GARF!" on the cover; I can't think of any reason anyone would go "GARF!".
Jeremy Parish
You clearly know the difference between a manji and a swastika, so you are also aware that it’s a positive symbol with centuries of history behind it, regardless of how some people have attempted to corrupt it.
Nicholas Ehlers
Hey, are you sure you want to keep that shot with the manji symbol during the Route 16 segment (from 4:52) in the final publication?
