Anyone who grew up in the late 80s-early 90s remembers the Super Mario Bros Super Show, and Captain N: The Game Master. What I want to talk about today is something I haven’t really seen people on the cblogs. I want to talk about GamePro TV and Video Power.
GamePro TV was a show in the early 90s that followed a formula a little bit like X-Play. It was hosted by JD Roth, and sometimes co hosted by Brenan Howard. The formula of the show was basically composed of previews of upcoming games for all consoles, reviews, and the all important cheat codes. Other parts of the show, viewers were able to send recordings of them on tape or via phone message asking for help on a certain game or to brag how they completed a game. For me as a Nintendo Power subscriber only, I gladly watched the show as much as I could to get the up to date news on all things not Nintendo.
Watching episodes of the show now all I can ask myself is, “How in god’s name was able to sit through this crap?!” This show is very painful to watch from beginning to end. The main reason why is how obvious that the two people on the show are trying to emulate Bill and Ted. This goes especially for the co host Brenan, he’s like a cross between Bill and Ted and a Mountain Dew commercial.
Video Power, now that show has a bit of history to go over. It originally was a show that was composed of live action sections that included mostly previews and reviews of Nintendo games. The second half composed of a cartoon called The Power Team. The cartoon pretty much followed the formula of other shows like Ninja Turtles where a group of video game characters thwart the plans of Mr. Big (The last boss of NARC). I pretty much don’t remember a lot from this show, all I seem to remember is that the blue cop (Player 1 in NARC) was the leader of the group and he rolled with Kuros from Wizards and Warriors and some other super obscure characters and they rode on Bigfoot. It wasn’t until the next season when I was really wowed by the show.
The following year, Video Power went through a complete overhaul turning into a game show. I was always a big fan of game shows when I was a kid. What really caught my attention was at the end of the show, the last kid was allowed to go into a fake store full of games and grab as many as he could stick on his Velcro vest. For that reason alone I thought that video power was better than Double Dare which I know is complete blasphemy.
After watching an episode of Video Power after god knows how long, I wish I was able to forget what I’ve seen and just stick with my memories. The host of the show doesn’t act like the hosts of the other show I talked about; he instead tries to act really wacky. The thing about this is that it comes off as really annoying and absolutely stupid. I wish I could go back in time and punch this guy in the face.
After going through these shows, what does it say about me gaming in the early 90s? I guess it just means that I was such a fan of video games that I would happily gobble up anything that TV crapped my way.
oh and thanks for reminding me about Video Power. I was just thinking about that show the other day and couldn't remember the name of it nor that cartoon.
I used to watch video power every morning before going to school. I dreamed of going to that show and stumping that fucker with a question like HOW MUCH IS THE RETAIL VALUE OF THE POWER STAFF IN FINAL FANTASY BITCH?!!! And he would say $12345 and smirk in satisfaction and I would say NO BITCH, WRONG, THE MERCHANT ONLY GIVES YOU HALF THE PRICE, IT'S ACTUALLY $24690 MOIHERFUCKER! OWNED!
I WIN THE NEO GEO ASSHOLE! GIRLS IN THE AUDIENCE, SUCK MY DICK
I remember always wanting to be on Video Power. I would have discussions with my brother about our strategies for running through the maze at the end whilst grabbing as many games as possible. And I swear that every so often they would gave away a Neo Geo. Not sure how the kids would be able to afford any games that weren't included with it.
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I remember that as well...:D
I WIN THE NEO GEO ASSHOLE! GIRLS IN THE AUDIENCE, SUCK MY DICK
I remember always wanting to be on Video Power. I would have discussions with my brother about our strategies for running through the maze at the end whilst grabbing as many games as possible. And I swear that every so often they would gave away a Neo Geo. Not sure how the kids would be able to afford any games that weren't included with it.