The Super Nintendo Essays is a series of posts detailing my history with and passion for the SNES. It had a profound effect on my life as a gamer, and I wanted to share some of my most memorable stories about it with you!
In the summer of 1994, I received an unusual package from Nintendo. Just a few months before, they had sent me a copy of Super Mario All-Stars as part of a promo for buying an SNES. This wasn’t a game, though. Inside, was a VHS tape about the upcoming Donkey Kong Country. Though I didn’t know about it before watching the video, I knew that game like the back of my hand long before it was inevitably released later that year.
As a kid who didn’t know any better, it was more than just an infomercial for an upcoming game. I really thought Nintendo was letting me in on a huge secret. I mean, look at those graphics! It was not only a revolutionary jump forward for the SNES, but it looked better than anything on the recently-released Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation.
I watched that tape on repeat for months. Not sure what it was, but I couldn’t get enough of it. Pretty sure that tape stayed in heavy rotation until Santa finally gave me a copy for Christmas that year.
Looking back, this tape was clearly a product of its time. From the cheesy rock music, to the dated fashion, to the overall “extreme” attitude, it’s probably for the best that it stays there. However, this style of extended coverage sort of lives now in terms of let’s plays and Nintendo’s own extended streaming sessions during trade shows. Maybe this was a pioneer for modern video game coverage after all?
Check out previous posts in the Super NES Essays series!
In Third Person 