NES Advantage

I was digging around my basement last summer I came upon many loose X-Men figures, and six mint in box.  I have way too many collections on the go and have come to the conclusion that I must consolidate.  There is just no room for the X-Men figures, and to be honest, I forgot I had them.  I posted them on Craigslist and Kijiji and was able to sell a few of them for $40, however the post was up for months and they just weren’t selling.

There is a store in Peterborough called Things From Mom’s Basement that sells all sorts of retro toys.  If you were ever a kid who liked toys, you will definitely find something that you like here!  He had a few NES titles so I asked him if he would like to do a trade.  He gave me $110 for my X-Men figures plus $50 of store credit so that I could pick up the NES games I didn’t have.  There are two titles that stick out in my mind.  The first game is Cobra Triangle which was released by RARE Games in 1988.  While I did not have this title when I was a kid, it feels like a decent game.  People often compare it to RC Pro AM (also released by RARE Games) and with reasonable cause.  The games are nearly identical in that they are both racing type of games where you upgrade your vehicle.  I don’t think RC Pro Am had any boss battles though, so this is one thing Cobra Triangle has going for it.

The second game that is worthy of mention is Dick Tracy.  This game had a lot of potential, but was a complete bust… much like the movie released around the same time!  The Angry Video Game Nerd (while annoying) on youtube hit the nail on the head.  The driving sequences were brutal in terms of controls.  Also, it just wasn’t’ fun driving around town when people are shooting at you for no apparent reason from the roof tops.  It’s as if every building had it’s own sniper.  The side scrolling action wasn’t much better than the driving parts.  The game itself was probably only released do to the hype of the movie, but this enthusiasm quickly evaporated when people realized the movie sucked big time!

But I digress… the real find that I’ve added to my collection was an NES Advantage joystick controller.  This was one of the first controllers that allowed you to speed up, or slow down a game… and when you consider that most NES games were nearly impossible to beat, the name Advantage really hits home.  It is made with a combo metal and plastic base which gives it a nice heavy feel to it.  The only problem I have with is that I’m not used to using a joystick anymore.  I’m too used to the gamepads so this puts me at an NES Disadvantage… did you see what I did there… the humour never stops here at my nintendo dimension!