PPR at the Movies: Nintendo Quest Review

henever you talk to anyone about video games, and I mean anyone, no matter their walk of life, or intimacy with the pastime, there’s one name that’s bound to come up, and is easily one of the most notable consoles in gaming, even to this day—the Nintendo Entertainment System.

The reverence for Nintendo’s 8-bit game box is a palpable force among both older, and youthful generations of game enthusiasts; which is why titles from its game library are still the among most sought after games to collect out of any other console out there.

Which brings us to one man, Jay Bartlett—a young adult dude who’s attributed a great deal of his being to then influence and wonder that the NES has given him, straight out of London, Ontario.

So much so that he’s teamed up with friend and independent film maker, Rob McCallum, to set out on what they call the social experiment of a lifetime. The pair sets their sights on collecting every NES game they can within 30 days, without the use of the internet, sticking exclusively with in-person transactions on a cross-country trip through the USA, and doing so all in a documentary they call, “Nintendo Quest.”

As far as a video game documentaries go, this premise is loaded with potential, tapping into a campaign that nearly anyone who’s ever played a video game can identify with, to some extent.

Unfortunately, this is where the film fails to follow through.

We’re set up for a journey with what we originally were lead to believe to be one with an underdog that’s attempting the impossible, and what we’re taken on instead is an underwhelming pursuit that barely sticks to its own outline of rules, and a protagonist that’s really challenging to relate to.

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