06/05/2019

Here Is Your Long Overdue Nintendo World Championships 1990 Recap (From The Attract Mode Archive: #041)

by Matthew Edward Hawkins

The following post originally appeared on attractmo.de, on February 14, 2013.
________________________________________________________________________________

The other day, someone got their hands on a number of old Nintendo marketing tapes from the early 90s and shared them on YouTube. You may have seen the one that Kotaku posted, a behind the scenes look at how they “do it.” With a little help from some crazy ass zooms and tilts, random switching back and forth between color and B&W, plus awesome early 90s hair.

My favorite part is the Game Boy that survived Desert Storm actually being handled; most of us have only seen it at the Nintendo World Store, behind glass. Or the head of marketing; the idea of working at a cubicle where just a few feet away is someone playing Starfox with such “I’m old, I’m rich, I’m white, and I LOVE MY LIFE!” bravado sounds both hilarious and nightmarish.

Though even better is the clip above, which recaps the 1990 Nintendo World Championship. Mostly because it feels a lot like the kind of stuff you’d see on the Bible Channel, back in the day. That and how it features a guy in the jankiest Mario outfit imaginable, thrusting his groin into the air. Presumably in front of a large assemblage of kids (at the 1:13 mark).

But what’s most interesting is how the entire thing largely resembles the eSports events we have today. While the NWCs were clearly marketing vehicles (and totally shameless ones at that), Nintendo was in some way ahead of their time as well. Though I also find them slightly superior to what we have today, since I can follow someone else playing Tetris. Not so much League of Legends, sorry. BTW, the other videos can be seen here.

Previous post:

Next post: