NES Related Pet Peeves

By RandX

I must admit, I have a few odd hangups over NES related issues. My biggest hangup is instruction manuals. I do not understand why people don't save manuals with their games. If you have room to store 60+ games, can't you find room to store a few paper thin manuals? Although most NES games have a short learning curve where you can figure out how to play the game in about five minutes without the manual, there are some games where a manual contains necessary information for completing a game. Take for instance Final Fantasy, how do you know which characters can use which weapons, armor, and spells without access to a manual? What about Startropics? A certain point late in the game requires you to soak a letter that comes with the game in order to learn a passcode. Wouldn't it be frustrating to make it that far into the game only to learn you can't proceed simply because some idiot was too irresponsible to save the manual when he/she sold the game to the used game shop you bought the game from? Come to think of it, I'm not the only person with this complaint. I have read several complaints about Funcoland and other used video game stores not having manuals to go with their games. It's real simple people, save your manuals. That way, when you sell it back, we will have more manuals in circulation thus giving NES fans a greater chance of getting a manual with their games. I know people don't save their manuals, my best friend very seldom had a manual with the game he would trade or sell to me. Just think, if we were more responsible back in the day when the NES was on top, we wouldn't have this problem today. As it is, getting a manual with a game from a used game shop is like finding gold. Fortunately though, many sites have reprints of various manuals, which will lead me to my next rant.

I don't understand why people have such a hangup when it comes to originality on a website. Several sites are bashed simply because they have manuals, and they say that is bad since manuals can be found everywhere. What's wrong with that? Do you only want manuals on one site? If that were the case, then I can think of two problems. One problem would be having to memorize the name and URL of the site that has the manuals. What if you forgot the URL or lost your saved bookmarks somehow? You will either have to search for the site again or just somehow manage without your manual. Second problem, what if the site goes down or the webmaster decided to close the site and take everything down? Then what are you going to do? Although several sites have information such as manuals, faqs, codes, etc., they really shouldn't be counted as unoriginal because this is important information. Also, since many sites contain the said information, it makes it easier for us, the web-surfers, to find the information we are looking for. Many of the NES sites some people bash are merely trying to help us NES players, so please stop accusing them of being unoriginal.

My best memories of playing the NES are playing cooperative 2-player silmultaneous games with my older brother or with one of my friends. There are a few games that should have been 2-player silmultaneous but were only one player. Double Dragon and P.O.W. come to mind. Sure, Double Dragon has a 2-player silmultaneous mode, but you have to pick a chracter and fight against your friend. Why couldn't they make it just like the arcade where you work together? This may be nitpicky, but they should have made either TMNT 2 or TMNT 3(or both) four player. Wouldn't it be great to get you and three of your buddies together to play Ninja Turtles just like in the arcade? Except on the NES, you don't have to worry about pumping in quarters every five minutes because it's next to impossible to stay alive very long. Also, you wouldn't have to bother with the other kids at the arcade constantly pestering you to give them money for a game and others just hanging around waiting to cause trouble at the opportune moment. I feel the main idea behind playing the NES is to enjoy videogames at home instead of putting up with all the hassles at the arcade.

By now, you probably think I'm a guy who just likes to sit around and gripe about things. Well, you may be partly right. However, I hope after reading this editorial you realize what's actually important to us NES players. Is it really important which website is the most original? Shouldn't websites be enjoyed and be used as a source for information since manuals and old issues of Nintendo Power are hard to come by? Shouldn't we just learn to appreciate the NES since we can get good quality gaming at home without going out to the arcades, even though the NES doesn't match up to their arcade counterparts in terms of graphics? Seriously though, I find the NES versions to be more fun, simply because I don't like dying every five minutes and I don't like pumping in more and more quarters just to beat the game. Well, NES, here's to you. Thank you for brining us all so many good times and memories. Long live the NES.

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