NES Advantage Stick

Today’s header image was created by Jay. It’s a photo of my NES Advantage Stick

Talk about a handicap

I can’t really talk about the games I used to play as a child without going into detail about how I used to play games back in the days of cartridge gaming. As Jay mentioned in a previous post we had a NES Advantage stick… Talk about a sodding handicap that thing was HUGE!!

Even as an adult the joystick on it is massive, the only other controller like it that I have is my ps3 arcade stick AND that has more buttons. Who in their right mind would play something like Metroid or, Heaven forfend, Contra with that bad boy?

The NES Advantage Stick, obviously. I wouldn’t mind playing Contra with a PS3 Arcade Stick – Jay.

Talk about a death wish

Our particular release day poison was a choice of the first Super Mario game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Captain Skyhawk and power Blade. Although I’m sure we got power Blade and TMNT later on, and I seem to remember playing a top down driving game as well but the name of it alludes me.

It’s called Spy Hunter -Jay.

power Blade was my particular choice most of the time. Something about the guy on the cartridge looking like The Terminator with a boomerang.

Tell me he doesn’t look like Arnie.

Arnie twoking things with a boomerang? Must of been out of bullets.

In addition to the MegaMan style gameplay your main weaponry was a boomerang… Yep a boomerang! One of the mechanics of the game was being able to shoot in all directions even while jumping, making playing the game with an arcade stick even more challenging.

To accurately translate what I’m trying to say, imagine you were given the chance to play dark souls for the first time, however you were given a guitar controller instead of a pad… Yeah that was what I was facing for my first outing into gaming.

Or like when we used to play Virtua Fighter with a Sega Saturn steering wheel? – Jay

Having recently got hold of a NES again with an advantage stick I was shocked to find actual size of the thing was only massive because I used to be a very small person. I no longer have to smash any of the buttons with the entirety of my hand, growing has happened between then and now.

So in closing

Despite the sometimes harsh nature of controlling certain games with the arcade stick I still point blank refuse to play any NES game with a pad, I never have and I never will.

Thanks for taking the time to read through my rambling post about the NES Advantage stick. If you used to play games with one, leave me a comment or question if you like and I’ll catch you another time.

Squidgey.