"When you think of video games, the very first thing that comes to your mind is Nintendo." Minutes in, Tommy Tallarico sums it up perfectly. Anyone who’s ever heard relatives calling a random console "The Nintendo" can attest to this statement. Nintendo’s history is well recorded but, for all the impact it has made, it’s strange that we haven’t seen more documentaries focus on its history. Having previously directed Video Games: The Movie, director Jeremy Snead has taken aim with his latest project, Playing with Power: The Nintendo Story. Borrowing its name from Nintendo’s famous marketing line, Playing with Power has just launched through Crackle as a free five-part documentary series. By taking a US-centric approach, die-hard Nintendo fans will find it surprisingly lacking in places – but there’s an entertaining watch, nonetheless.
Outside of interviews, events are illustrated with archived news footage. Where that’s unavailable or simply didn’t exist, Snead uses diorama sets instead, making for a colourful presentation. We’ve got a strong line-up of industry veterans weighing in here, and representing Nintendo is (mostly) former Nintendo of America staff, including Reggie Fils-Aimé, Howard Phillips, Ron Judy, Don James, and Perrin Kaplan. It’s certainly not a puff piece and, keeping it balanced, we’ve also got Head of Xbox Phil Spencer, Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski, former Sega of America President Tom Kalinske, Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, EA founder Trip Hawkins and Digital Eclipse editorial director (and former games journalist) Chris Kohler, to name just a few.
Nintendo’s influence in gaming cannot be understated and over the decades; its actions have helped shape the destinies of industry competitors, meaning these people offer some valuable insights on both sides. Playing with Power is not a completely exhaustive history – it's missing a few aspects which feel strangely overlooked – but it offers a good introduction. Unfortunately, the mini-series peaks early within the first two episodes, which both come in at around 70 minutes. Episode 1 takes us back to the very start in Kyoto, 1889. With Western playing cards outlawed at the time, it showcases Fusajirō Yamauchi’s early leadership, before passing the company down to his son-in-law, Sekiryo Kaneda. It mostly skips Kaneda’s contributions, quickly moves onto his grandson instead, the now-legendary Hiroshi Yamauchi.
Episode 1 offers an informative look at Yamauchi’s attempted expansion of Nintendo outside of playing cards, including early Disney deals, taxis, and those infamous “love hotels”. Having found success within the toy market, it sets the scene well, leading into their earliest home gaming efforts, when they began distributing the Magnavox Odyssey in Japan. Soon enough, we’re onto the arcade scene, talking about Radarscope’s failure paved the way to Donkey Kong’s success. With some delightful insights from Howard Phillips and Ron Judy, it paints an engaging look at Nintendo of America’s creation too, going into detail about Minoru Arakawa, and Universal Studios’ failed lawsuit against Nintendo. The latter segment doesn’t get a lot of coverage, which is disappointing as it neglects to mention John Kirby’s efforts in winning the case.
It ends by leading towards the video game crash of 1983, with Nolan Bushnell being quite candid about Atari’s misfortunes. Calling it "Suicide, not homicide", he specifically singles out Pac-Man and E.T. like many before him, though this segment curiously omits the New Mexico landfill. That segues nicely into Episode 2 and 3, which initially details Nintendo’s earlier efforts like Game & Watch and Gunpei Yokoi’s contributions, the NES’ struggle to find distributors in the wake of that crash, before dominating the early era. Touching upon the Nintendo Fun Club News and their gameplay counsellors, Atari’s legacy is thrust into the spotlight again, showing Nintendo’s battle with quality control and the firm's reputation as being difficult to work with – a sentiment backed strongly by Ron Judy – before leading into the console wars.
By bringing in Tom Kalinske, Playing with Power offers some genuinely interesting insights about Sega openly challenging Nintendo’s supremacy. By creating a rivalry through adverts, Kalinske reveals that Arakawa would actively avoid him at conventions, and there’s a fine effort in painting this rivalry between the two companies. Unfortunately, for such a critical period in Nintendo’s history, Snead doesn’t focus that heavily on the 16-bit era itself. Bafflingly, it ignores criticism around Nintendo’s censorship policies, which contributed to the Entertainment Software Rating Board’s creation. We get a look at landmark games like Sonic the Hedgehog and Donkey Kong Country, and then quickly move onto the emergent challenge from Sony’s PlayStation, touching upon the Super Nintendo CD-ROM project with Phillips and Sony.
Outside a brief mention, Snead almost entirely skips over the Virtual Boy’s failure too, and goes right towards the N64. It’s at this point where it offers a more solid focus on Shigeru Miyamoto’s contributions, who you’d think would receive a lot more focus than he gets. In this moment, we can clearly see the passionate man who brought us Super Mario 64, having briefly detailed his history in Episode 1, but it doesn’t showcase his wider legacy, and most games are only given a brief focus. It’s here where we found Snead’s event timeline to get a bit strange, as Episode 3 ends with a 6th generation introduction, before immediately looping back to N64 at the start of Episode 4.
Going into Pokémon’s enormous impact and Nintendo’s choice to continue using cartridges over discs, there’s a critical outlook here at how the PlayStation succeeded by comparison. By the time we get back to the 6th gen, we’re a third of the way into this episode and suddenly, we’re also getting looks at the 3DO and 32X. Considering Trip Hawkins also helped create it with Panasonic, it's as out of place as it might sound, but the framing was certainly questionable. Even more so when you realise the Game Boy Advance gets little screen time, either. Most questionably is how Playing with Power barely acknowledges Satoru Iwata, a man so pivotal to Nintendo’s modern history that excluding him is borderline outrageous.
Instead of detailing Yamauchi’s retirement in 2002 (Arakawa’s too), Playing with Power carries on into the Nintendo DS and Wii era and how they successfully tapped into the casual market. By Episode 5, we’ve suddenly got a clip of Yamauchi’s funeral in 2013. By framing it this way, Snead seems to believe that Playing With Power’s audience is already aware of more modern events, not needing to explore them as a result. In some ways, that’s probably true, but assumptions make for poor storytelling, especially within a documentary. To that extent, you can’t help but question how little focus there is on Nintendo Japan.
As the shortest episode in this series, Episode 5 certainly felt more rushed. Framing the Wii U’s failure due to the emerging smartphone market, it discusses Apple’s work with iPhones and iPads in capturing casual gamers. In terms of the 3DS, our beloved handheld doesn’t get much focus at all, outside of how this new market challenged dedicated portable devices. Highlighting Nintendo’s first foray into smartphone gaming with Super Mario Run, it ends on a positive note, looking at Pokémon Go and the Switch’s runaway success, but also offers caution, highlighting the recent flood of eShop games against 1983’s crash.
For a mini-series that started off strongly, it was disappointing to see Playing with Power trail off towards the end. Jeremy Snead does an excellent job of highlighting Nintendo’s early history but, once we leave the 8-bit era, it seems to be rushing to a conclusion. By providing a balanced perspective on Nintendo’s history, there are some entertaining moments that’ll keep you engaged, but die-hard fans will find little here they didn’t already know. By skimming over key events in Nintendo’s history, Playing with Power is a missed opportunity – but one you’ll likely enjoy regardless.
Have you watched Playing With Power yet? Let us know in the comments.
Comments 38
i forgot about this documentary! i'll definitely give it a watch when i can.
It sounds cool but I don't have the streaming service.
Is Crackle available in the UK?
@fox_mattcloud Unfortunately it’s only part of a deal through Rice Krispies in the UK, where you’ll end up with subscriptions to Snap and Pop too.
Isn't this thing narrated by Sean Astin? I'm surprised that wasn't mentioned at least in passing on here.
Also, this might seem a bit trivial to some, but how's the language in the documentary? I'd thought about watching it with the kids but I'm unsure as to if some of the people they're interviewing would use some more colorful language...
So... I didn't know Sony sold their stake in Crackle to a different company: Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. Apparently, they sold their majority last year, then sold the rest of it this year.
Yes, it's the same company that produced all those "Chicken Soup..." books, looks like they're quite the juggernaut in entertainment.
We've had so much focus in the past on Nintendo's success in the golden age of arcades, the 8-bit NES reviving the US video game market and the 16-bit console war between Nintendo and Sega. I would have liked more focus on why Nintendo fell behind Sony with the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube, how they became the dominate force in handheld gaming with Game Boy and the DS/2DS/3DS series, how they won the casual market with the Wii and while winning a generation, tainted their brand with dedicated gamers that, with bad marketing, sunk the Wii U. I'm glad to hear the talk about the Switch and the massive success it has been, plus hearing about the issues with the eShop is a good thing as well. I've just heard to death the story of early Nintendo that I would have liked to hear more about the later days.
They should've got the Gaming Historian from YouTube.
@Why_Do_I_Exist It's free and you can watch it with any web browser w/o even a login!
just go to crackle.com
Where is the link so we can watch it!
I started to watch but need to get back to it. It sounds like it will be a bit boring if none of the non confirmed stories are left out.
Doubt anyone will ever see it anyway anyway due to the bafflingly laughable choice of streaming service to host it on
Love hotels are awesome, though I've never tried a Nintendo-themed one. One more for the post-covid checklist then...
Might have to try and stream this online somehow.
No other choice, other than faff about with a VPN, because Crackle clearly don’t want us British Nintendo Fans to watch it.
I think that Nintendo's influence in gaming could definitely be understated but I don't think that it could be overstated.
Watched 2 full episodes. Great stuff so far.
blah, if I have to watch Trip Hawkins I'll puke...
@mlj11 I read somewhere that the Love Hotels aren’t quite as scandalous as they sound. With Japanese housing being cramped and without a lot of privacy, the love hotels were/are a popular solution for married couples, too.
Sounds similar to the High Score docu-series on Netflix. Will be interesting to compare.
@redpanda0310 Thanks, I'll be sure to check it out when I can!
So weird that this exists. I love Nintendo and I was pretty bored by the 3rd episode. I'm sure they could have streamlined this down to a couple of hours instead of 5.
The Wii U's failure due to smartphones? It's fellow generation failure, the Vita, could chalk up smartphones as part of the reason for it's failure. The Wii U should just shoot it's marketing guys and bury them in a shallow grave.
@NIN10DOXD Very much agreed. I prefer to watch his content for this kind of stuff.
@Tandy255 Yes indeed, they're a great option for, say, couples who just want a short getaway during the weekend. Funny thing about them is the rooms are bigger yet can still be cheaper than those in a standard hotel.
@mlj11
"One more for the post-covid checklist then..."
(wishes to understand the "post-covid" in this part of the message I had quoted)
@Why_Do_I_Exist np
@Scrubicius They link in the article, but here's the direct URL as well. https://www.crackle.com/watch/7539
@Nico07
Yeah link don’t work. 😂
„THANKS FOR VISITING
UNFORTUNATELY WE'RE NOT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE IN THIS REGION.“
So where is the link? 🙈
@FiveDigitLP
"Also, this might seem a bit trivial to some, but how's the language in the documentary? I'd thought about watching it with the kids but I'm unsure as to if some of the people they're interviewing would use some more colorful language..."
(remembers having heard a certain word that could be spelled "crappy" being said in what I had found to had been vulgar ways (similar to certain ways of describing certain qualities of certain subjects) in a certain part of this "Playing With Power: The Nintendo Story"; remembers having heard a certain word often spelled "hell" being said in what I had found to had been a vulgar way (or a way that could be interpreted as having been a reference to a certain subject having been susceptible to a certain kind of physical force) in a certain part of this "Playing With Power: The Nintendo Story")
(note: I had still liked and enjoyed this "Playing Without Power: The Nintendo Story" in spite of what I had described in the paragraph directly above this one)
I finished watching it last night and it is better than the last documentary but they made some odd editing choices. As noted in the review they jumped over events and then went back later in the episodes which will confuse those that are not familiar with the history. They left a lot out of course and no real true background detail was confirmed or revealed but it was more of a tribute to Nintendo. Some of the people I have met and know but Tommy Tallarico I do not. In the show, Mr Tallarico seems to be kind of a jerk even more so than Nolan which I expected.
@Lone_Beagle
He seemed bitter, especially about the 3DO.
While I'm happy they include industry experts instead of celebrities, it doesn't sound like enough of a Nintendo story. Maybe they couldn't get Japan involved. I'm probably going to pass.
I'll probably go watch it
I really enjoyed it. They do seem to speed up slightly once it gets past the 16-bit era, but there are a lot of outstanding interviews throughout, and great footage from the eras. Nostalgia kicked in seeing the ads, pictures from the hardware cases at Toys 'R Us, so I probably liked it for that reason, too.
I think the nitpicks here are valid, but as die hard Nintendo fans, we are going to be very critical about documentaries like this. I enjoyed it for what it was, and have recommended it to friends.
I very much doubt Crackle will be coming to Australia any time soon. Maybe it’ll show up on Netflix or that premium quality service Stan.
@NIN10DOXD They had me on. I’m the “Father of Videogame History” and I wrote the first comprehensive videogame history back in 1994. An 800+ page 4th edition of my book is currently available.
Leonard Herman
http://www.thegamescholar.com
@Zidentia That was EA's first big attempt to churn out trash games and take a percentage of all the profits. Thankfully, it didn't really go far.
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