The Story of Nintendo
2023
Search results
Episode Guide
- 5. Reset Button Mar 1, 2021
- Apple leads a seismic industry shift, and Nintendo faces its most difficult decade since 1889.
- 4. Forward Motion Mar 1, 2021
- As PlayStation and Xbox wage war on the industry, Nintendo faces an identity crisis.
- 3. A Sleeping Giant Mar 1, 2021
- Somewhat shaken after a tussle with Sega, Nintendo confidently presses forward into the 1990s.
Playing with Power: The Nintendo Story: With Sean Astin, Wil Wheaton, Alison Haislip, Cliff Bleszinski. Playing With Power: The Nintendo Story peels back the curtain on the famously secretive Japanese company that would eventually take the global video game industry by storm.
- (145)
- 2021-03-01
- Documentary
- 295
Feb 17, 2021 · Narrated by Sean Astin, the electrifying story is presented by an ensemble of Nintendo personnel, celebrity icons, and industry veterans including Wil Wheaton, Alison Haislip, former Nintendo...
- 2 min
- 125.4K
- IGN
Currently you are able to watch "Playing with Power: The Nintendo Story" streaming on fuboTV, Crackle or for free with ads on Tubi TV, Freevee. It is also possible to buy "Playing with Power: The Nintendo Story" as download on Apple TV, Vudu.
- Jeremy Snead
- 1
- Sean Astin
- 16
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- From underdog to Donkey Kong and beyond, the Nintendo legend is explored.
- Every IGN Super Mario Review Ever
- Verdict
By Kristy Puchko
Updated: Nov 3, 2022 8:38 pm
Posted: Feb 25, 2021 6:00 pm
Playing With Power: The Nintendo Story premieres March 1st on Crackle.
Ready to level up in your knowledge of all things Nintendo? The five-part docu-series Playing With Power: The Nintendo Story is here to unlock over 130 years of behind-the-scenes secrets to reveal how a humble family business became the defining voice of the video game industry. But, hey, listen: it's not all fun and games.
Written and directed by Jeremy Snead, Playing With Power: The Nintendo Story ushers audiences back to 1890 Japan, where an innovative playing card company would lay the groundwork for the Nintendo dynasty. Beloved for Lord of the Rings, Stranger Things, and Goonies, Sean Astin narrates, his friendly and familiar voice guiding audiences through the century of Nintendo history ahead of the Console Wars of the 1990s, and beyond. Interviews with an array of experts are presented. Historians recount Nintendo's earliest days and latest innovations. Big wigs in gaming--like Atari Co-founder Nolan Bushnell, co-founder of Nintendo of America Ron Judy, and former CEO Sega Of America Tom Kalinske recount the heady days when gaming moved from the arcade to living rooms. Famous gamers like Wil Wheaton, Alison Haislip, and Nati "Zombi Unicorn" Casanova provide personal anecdotes and color commentary. Each of these interviewees exhibits a clear passion for Nintendo or gaming. Sadly, this excitement isn't catching because Snead's approach refuses to probe.
Instead of a deep dive into the darker realms of Nintendo's story, Snead is happy to stay on the surface and even warp-whistle through awkward bits about lawsuits and missteps. Thus, he offers a glossing-over that isn't all that thrilling. Maybe to make up for the professional tensions skirted, Snead stuffs his series with a relentlessly booming score. It's so loud and persistent that at times I struggled to focus on what was being said by interviewees. The music refused to be background. It's as if Snead were trying to make up for a lack of any dramatic tension with an orchestral score that screams at you to feel something. Not every scene is approaching Bowser. When music isn't actually building to a climax, all these crescendos move from diminishing returns of tension to outright irritating. You wait for catharsis, and instead, it's just another sloppy segment with more yowling orchestrations.
This series is inexplicably paced. The layout is simply linear. Snead locks into a chronological order that robs tension because we know this humble gaming stand in Kyoto will lead to towering success. Beyond that, he structures his chapters like movie trailers, relentlessly employing montages. Here is a montage, slapping together some cultural context of popular TV shows, Oscar mishaps, or music that rocked the radio waves. Here is another, stringing together a bunch of game footage. How about another montage of giddy kids tearing gift wrap away from NES on Christmas day? Is this bone-dry section about cartridge costs per unit boring? (Yes.) How about a sprinkling of sound bites that tease what's coming up next, moments before an expert just tells us what happened next? Now, another montage of newspaper headlines!
From a superficial exploration of Nintendo's Japanese branch to a disjointed pace, and an astoundingly annoying score, Playing With Power: The Nintendo Story makes for a dreadfully dull watch. Sure, in the nearly five hours of screentime, there's some interesting information unearthed. But Snead has buried it deep in bells, whistles, and Nintendo n...
The story of how a small Japanese playing card company became the culture-transforming force known as Nintendo.
- (4)
- March 1, 2021
Mar 1, 2021 · Playing With Power: The Nintendo Story - Apple TV. Available on Philo, Prime Video, Tubi TV, Plex. How did Nintendo go from niche playing card company to global juggernaut of gaming? The creators of Video Games: The Movie and Executive Producer Sean Astin pull back the curtain on the famously secretive company. Documentary 2021.
Feb 22, 2021 · Playing With Power: The Nintendo Story peels back the curtain on the famously-secretive Japanese company that would eventually take the global videogame industry by storm.
