The day of June 15, 1985. I remember it like it was yesterday. I had so much fun with it, so many hours spent with that console, it was so great. The NES is said to be one of the best consoles of all time. Why? This review is here to answer your question.
HARDWARE & HISTORY
Judging the hardware today is, surely, a bit odd. With futuristic consoles like the Sony PS4 and the Xbox One, the NES seems very outdated. For many children these days, the console looks like an outdated grey box. Little do they know about the reaction those children had from 1985.
In the 70's, Magnavox continued with the Odyssey series, then it was bought by Philips; Atari continued with their series, but there was something missing. The excitement of owning a video console was getting lower and lower. However, Nintendo came out of the dark and released the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was one of the most adored consoles. Because of that, 61 million units were sold worldwide. That was a score the other companies couldn't even touch. Why was the NES so appreciated?
Well, there are a few reasons. First of all, the NES was a big performer back then, with an 8-bit system and large library of games, most of them being exciting. Second of all, it came with a futuristic box design that was considered to be from the future. Their famous motto "Now you're playing with power" was very catchy and a lot of people still remember it. This console was a waterfall of technology and fun then, and because of that, it became the most respected console of all time.
SOFTWARE & USE
Setting up the NES is pretty easy. Just set up the AC adapter, the sound and video channels, and you're good to go. Turning on the console without a game was pretty pointless back then, because you couldn't do anything without a game inserted. Put in the game, and you might have the unpleasant surprise for it to not work properly. This thing gave birth to the now famous "blow on the cartridge technique". Actually, this method was actually pointless, because the problem was not about the dust on the game, but about the lost connection between the game and the console. What you were supposed to do was to push the game in as much as you could. This would reestablish the connection and solve everything. If you knew this 30 years ago...
CONCLUSION
The NES turned 30 in this June, and I must say, this console aged very well. Even if the graphics and speed don't even compare to the latest systems, such as PS4 or Xbox, we should be grateful, because thanks to this console we have the opportunity to go home and play on our gaming systems. That piece of technology was and still is one of the best consoles ever, and as a result the Nintendo NES is the father of Video Entertainment.
