Nintendo Quest

Nintendo Quest (2015)

*** (out of 4)

This documentary is a thirty day challenge where a man tries to collect all 678 official Nintendo releases.

That's pretty much all their is to this film. If you're looking for a hard-hitting documentary then you certainly won't find it here. I'd argue that there are some questionable filmmaking moments as well but I honestly didn't judge this thing too hard. I think the film was mildly entertaining just because it can strike up memories that you had in regards to these games and especially if you're old enough to where you could have collected them as a kid.

I had a good time with the journey of the main character as he traveled around trying to locate copies of each game. What I enjoyed most was just watching them travel around and in my own mind I was amazed at how many of these games I remembered. I had honestly forgotten about most of them but then there they were on the screen.

This was originally a Kickstarter project I believe and some are really crushing the film. I'm really not sure why. For what the movie was I thought it was entertaining.

The documentary follows Jay Bartlett on his quest to purchase all 678 officially licensed NES games in 30 days with no help from the internet. Along the way, director Rob McCallum narrates on the history of Nintendo, interviews gaming legends, and explains the enjoyment of retro gaming today. Scenes transition seamlessly between Jay's story and Rob's narration. Much can be said about the quality of Nintendo Quest's editing.

It can easily hold its own against higher profile gaming documentaries such as King of Kong and Video Games The Movie

A level of connection is made with Jay as we go along on his journey through the ups, downs, and in-betweens. The challenges and triumphs faced throughout create an emotional experience for gamers and non- gamers alike

They leave a lot of information out that you're going to want to see.

I've been in the scene collecting for years. Since 1987 to be exact.

Thing is, I never went out of my way to brag about it. I found most of the collectors to be full of themselves. Showing off walls of games for attention. That's it. Attention. It's all about attention, and ego.

This movie is all about that as well. It's just another a-typical game collector from the scene using this as a way to show off.

I left the scene after enough of the gratification seeking people became the focus. Most discussions weren't about gaming. It was all latest finds, garage sale scores, cheap deals, and bragging rights. There was no substance to the scene at all.

This film is no different than the bloated egos over at those forums.

I rated Nintendo Quest (2015) 5/10. A whiny man child (and someone who I'm sure I would find interminably annoying to be with any amount of time, let alone a massive road trip) buys video games for nostalgic reasons. This really didn't need to be a feature doc and I'm sure would have been fine as a YouTube show. Feels too much like a student film to be good.