Most mature gamers out there can probably remember spending saturday mornings in their pajamas in front of the television playing Super Mario Bros for the NES. This little gaming box was amazing; truly remarkable. It brought you daily bursts of joy and entertainment. The graphics were out of this world, and you could even have fun playing multiplayer with your friends.
Jump forward to now. The televisions and consoles look a little different, but basically do the same thing. They bring you the same joy and amazement the little NES did. The graphics are still pushing the limits of our imagination, and even if you don’t have any real friends, X-Box Live is always there to help.
There is one major difference between then and now, and its one that is proving an annoyance to many gamers, including myself. You see, when I go into my closet and pull out my NES and SNES, they both still work great (a little blowing required). These machines are 10, 15, 20 years old, and still function like they were made yesterday. The quality of these consoles is unparalleled and something I wish the present-generation companies would imitate.
Everyone knows about the X-Box 360’s Red Ring of Death, and I’m sure people remember the issues plagueing the early PS2’s. These major issues receive a lot of media attention, but to me, its the little things that bother me. Last month my Nintendo Wii’s disc drive broke. I had to send it in for repairs, and Nintendo did a great job fixing it (even repairing the covers for the memory card/controllers) that had broken off). They even left my decals on the Wii. (Something Microsoft has been bad with).
Two weeks ago my Rock Band guitar snapped in half while playing Green Grass and High Tides on Expert right at 92%. Perhaps I was a little tough on it, but nothing beyond the normal wear and tear was used on both my Wii and Guitar.
Going further back, I own exactly 2 SNES and 2 NES controllers that still work perfectly. For the N64, I have 6 controllers. For the Gamecube, I have owned a total of 8 controllers and 1 wavebird. I am down to 1 Orange, 1 Platinum, and 2 black (one is sticky, the other doesn’t move up the best) that are functional. One of my Wii’s Nunchucks now has difficult moving to the left, but I spilled some alcohol in that so I won’t fault Nintendo for it.
Maybe I’m asking for too much, but I just wish gaming companies would put a little more quality into their products. I shouldn’t be forced to replace products because they were used in one too many Super Smash Bros matches. There is no reason why a controller or console shouldn’t last its full duration if handled properly, and I pray for Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo’s next generation of gaming devices that they put a little more time into quality control, and a little less time on giant enemy crabs.
