Old lies from the Nintendo generation

I recently saw a portion of a film called “The Wizard” (1989) starring Fred Savage. It is a story about two brothers (the younger of which is a naturally skilled gamer known as “the Wizard”) on a cross-country road trip to a video game competition at universal studios.

In one scene, the three children are at the house of Lucas Barton, who becomes their rival. Lucas decides to show off his skills by playing Rad Racer for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Except in order to play he uses the “power Glove” which was a real life accessory for the NES that allowed the player to “interact” within the game-space.

Using the power glove, Lucas is able to flawless navigate through a level of Rad Racer, stating afterward that he “loves the power glove; its so bad”.

The implied message of this scene is that the Rival character is somehow a better video game player due to his use of the power glove. Now in terms of the bigger narrative, this message is mixed. In the end, the wizard wins without the power glove, implying that somehow his skill does not require any “enhancement” or “superficial” connection to the game-space. And yet, the fact that the power glove is even in this movie can be construed as a form of corporate brainwashing.

On the one hand, the villain in this scene believes in the superficial transparency of the power glove. The superficial rhetoric is: “Lucas believes the illusion that material possession of a game controller makes him a better gamer.” And yet, parts of the movie itself is basically a glorified commercial. According to IMDB, this film was the first medium to show gameplay footage from the then unreleased “Super Mario Brothers 3”. With this commercial rhetoric in the background, the Power Glove scene’s real message to a child seems to be “if you want to be cool, buy this product”.

In truth, the power glove seemed to be a mediocre product. After doing some personal research and conversing with friends about the subject, I learned that the power glove was usually unresponsive as well as inconvenient. You could never really play effectively and in order to play at all, you would be required to enter a “code” for each game. Therefore, interaction in this space is flawed.

The name “Power” glove implies something. It implies a sense of “power” in the ability to interact within a virtual game-space. However, the fact that the interaction it provides is flawed and unresponsive suggests that this rhetoric is actually, in effect, a con job.

Sources:

Youtube.com
Imdb.com
http://cinemassacre.com/AVGN/Nes_Nerd.html (the angry Video game nerd featured a video where he attempted to play NES games with the Power glove)
Farenheit 451 (1966)
The Wizard (1989)
Notes from Youtube.com
Imdb.com
http://cinemassacre.com/AVGN/Nes_Nerd.html (the angry Video game nerd featured a video where he attempted to play NES games with the Power glove)
Farenheit 451 (1966)
The Wizard (1989)
Notes from a digital media English course