UPDATE
Sakurai’s latest video has arrived and it’s about how…dying in video games is good for you?
ORIGINAL STORY
Many gamers have been loving every video Masahiro Sakurai has been dropping on his “Creating Games” channel. The video game icon makes every video special by not only talking about the video game topics you’d expect from him but ones you wouldn’t expect. Many of those topics fit in his “Grab Bag” section of videos, of which he dropped one recently that showed respect to a system that truly “changed the game.” We’re talking about the original Famicom, or as many in the west know it, the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was the console that helped save the video game market and the system where Sakurai developed his first console game!
As Sakurai notes in the video, when the Famicom/NES came out in 1983, which was right when the big video game crash in the US happened, the system was leagues above what came before. By that, he noted how the graphics were just “blobs” of pixels and nothing more in previous consoles. In addition, the animations were incredibly basic, and the sounds were equally small-scale. However, with the Famicom, things were different.
The technology upgrades were able to make the graphics pop more. Despite the limited tech, the processing power allowed developers to make more expansive worlds, which is why we had grand-scale RPGs back in those days. Even the music and sound effects were able to be more robust due to the technologies that were within. Sakurai even noted how they had a special addition to the Famicom in Japan, which allowed the music to be even grander than it was in the West—showing that Japan still knows how to one-up the world when needed.
Another element that Masahiro Sakurai felt helped the Famicom soar was the controller. He brought out his own controller from the one he bought three decades ago and showed it off. The simple design and button commands made each playing experience fun.
He also highlighted how the “bundles” helped sell the system in the West, like with the “Action Pack” that put two games in one for people to get, or the bundle with R.O.B. that is iconic to this day.
To end the video, Sakurai enforced how while the Famicom/NES might be outdated by today’s standards, it helped “shape the industry” in a way that we should be grateful for. Moreover, it helped reboot the industry in many places, including the US. So while it’s old, to Sakurai, it’s “pure perfection.”
