Teenagers Just Can't Figure Out the Original NES
By Erin McCarthy
Video game technology has come a long way since the Nintendo Entertainment System debuted in the 1980s, so it's no surprise that the teenagers examining the device in the Fine Brothers' latest React video are kind of bemused by the device. "Is this a projector?" one asks. Game of Thrones' Maise Williams thinks it might be a video player; another guesses that it's a Gameboy 1. "I've played with a PlayStation 2," one girl notes, "but this is as old as it gets for me!"
"It looks like a brick," one boy notes; his friend adds that it looks like it's "from, like, 1920." Another teen says that his dad probably played with it. One boy says its color is "bland," then imagines the meetings inside Nintendo about the NES: "'We're going to make a system that's like, gonna be, like, all futuristic and stuff, but it's going to be beige.'" When asked if they'd ever played a game on the NES, some respond that they have. One girl, though, seems to find the question ridiculous: "I wasn't even born yet!" (Meanwhile, those of us who owned the NES shortly after it debuted in North America are feeling older by the minute.)
Then, of course, they get the opportunity to play Super Mario Bros. Watch as they try to figure out how to open the NES and properly insert the game. When they can't get the TV to stop flashing, they even blow on the cartridge (which we now know didn't actually do anything). When they finally get the game to work, they complain about the controllers and the fact that they can't go back. Ultimately, they rate the NES worse than consoles of today, but acknowledge its role in making video games as huge as they are today.
For added fun, check out this video of the teenagers playing Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!