“I love the Power Glove…it’s so bad”
Last night, I had the pleasure of reacquainting myself with a cinematic masterpiece from my youth - The Wizard. In 1989, The Wizard took the nation by storm with its harrowing tale of three kids determined to make it to “Video Armageddon,” a national Nintendo competition at Universal Studios in California.
With a cast like Fred Savage, Christian Slater and Beau Bridges, how can you possibly go wrong? Fred Savage plays Corey Woods, a nine year-old boy from Utah whose family is in ruins. Christian Slater plays his older brother Nick. Beau Bridges plays his father, Sam. Corey and Nick also have a younger half-brother, Jimmy, who lives with his mother (his mother is Sam’s second ex-wife). Jimmy is “special.” Ever since the drowning of his twin sister Jennifer, he rarely speaks and is eventually institutionalized. Doing what every nine year-old kid would do, Corey springs his little brother and they begin hitchhiking their way west toward California.
Along the way, they meet another young wandering soul, Haley, played by Jenny Lewis. They pick her up at a gas station/bus stop and she joins them in their westward trek. At that same stop, Corey accidentally discovers that his little brother has a gift. “You got 50,000 on Double Dragon?!” he exclaims. You see, Jimmy is like the Nintendo Rain Man - master of all things 8-bit. Once his true skills are recognized, the group decides to make the journey to Video Armageddon and attempt to win the $50,000 prize. Oh, and did I mention that there is a laughingly wimpy bounty hunter sent to retrieve Jimmy? That’s right. The plot is: A 9-year old and his Nintendo-genius pick up a girl at a gas station and travel alone to California to win a video game championship while being pursued by a bounty hunter and culminating with an exciting game of Super Mario Bros. 3.
Let me tell you - this movie is ridiculous. Seriously, it is. However, any movie that prominently features Double Dragon, Ninja Gaiden, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Super Mario Bros. 3 and the Power Glove is OK in my book. 
I had not seen The Wizard in at least fifteen years. It was never even one of my favorite movies as a kid, though I remember liking it. Still, I had so much fun watching it last week. In fact, I need to pull out my favorite emulator and freshen up on some 8-bit video game awesomeness. A gripe though: “Rain man” or not - there’s no way that kid knew about that warp whistle if he had never seen the game before. I don’t care how good he is. If you’ve ever played SMB3, you know what I’m talking about.
An additional bonus: You get to see young Spider-man make a cameo appearance. Check out this screenshot!
Technorati Tags: 8 bit, nintendo, nostalgia, super mario bros, wizard
You know, Zack, I never did really like any of the actors in that movie, but I do love to remember the days of Nintendo. I remember that the year I got mine, my dad played so much that he had to quit cold turkey. He was playing all the time and he told me that he had to stop for good because it was wasting too much of his time. He was addicted.
You know, that was really the start of it all. The Battlefields, the Half Lifes, and the Halos of this era are all the decendants of Mario, Zelda, and Contra. It is interesting to see how far games have come in a short time and yet it is still fun to go back and play the old Nintendo games.
Philip
September 11th, 2006
Trust me, Philip - My comments about the cast were utter sarcasm!
And you are right about the old games being fun. I love \’em. I highly recommend grabbing one of the many emulators out there and going to town.
Nintendo Emulators
I\’ve used Nesticle and Nestopia in the past. Have fun!!
Zack
September 11th, 2006
Toby’s got a serious mullet. Sweet.
Jordan
September 20th, 2006