This 5-part documentary covers the long history of Nintendo. The well documented, but none the less interesting parts of video games history such as: the great video game crash of the early ‘80s, the console wars throughout the ‘90s, Nintendo’s public fallout with Sony and the rise of Pokémon. Anyone who grew up during this time will feel a lot of nostalgia for what is on offer, getting to see old adverts, retro gameplay and the hype that came with them. Although the documentary is primarily interested in the story of Nintendo, is does cover rival consoles and the games industry in general.
There are talking heads from alumni of Nintendo of America as well as others such as Xbox’s Phil Spencer and Star Trek’s Will Wheaton, plus archive footage of news reports, adverts, and game footage, and a diorama of toy-like figures. This tells the story, starting in the late 19th century where Nintendo began life as a playing card company. Each episode mainly covers a certain point in history, although they do overlap frequently. Depending on when you grew up, or your own personal interest will determine which one you find most enjoyable. The initial episode seems the best from a historical perspective, however.
The main negative of the documentary is how long it is. Five one-hour episodes is simply far too long for the journey that it’s telling, and it has too much unnecessary filler that could easily be edited down. A lot of the archive footage used is obviously going to be standard definition, so is never going to look great, but then there’s too much in the early episodes that is poor quality. It looks like it has been uploaded from a chewed-up VHS tape in the lowest resolution possible. This is all fine if it’s being watch on something small like a phone, but can be pretty headache inducing on a TV.
Overall, there is no arguing that Playing with Power is very informative; however, it drags in a lot of places, and certainly isn’t going to be something you’d want to binge watch. For the casual viewer, this is going to be dull and painful to watch, although gamers with a keen interest in the history of video games will find various part of the series interesting and will enjoy the nostalgic clips it brings with it. There is a much better documentary in here, it just needs editing down a lot. Educational, but not that entertaining.
Available on Crackle.
