NETFLIX HIGH SCORE | Review | Netflix Documentary

Netflix’s latest upcoming video game docuseries
High Score, is like a love letter for video
game enthusiasts as it includes plenty of
nostalgic video game factoids. The series
will have you saying things like, “Oh I remember
that!” or, “Oh no way, that’s how they came
up with that!” time and time again.
Narrated by Mario himself, Charles Martinet,
High Score is a six-part docu-series premiering on
Netflix next Wednesday, August 19th. The series
serves as a historical lesson in many aspects
and covers a multitude of topics and milestones
that helped shape the video game industry
to what it has become today. It begins by
discussing the days of the arcades in an episode
titled Boom & Bust giving us an overview of
how huge the arcades were back in the ’80s
something that if your an 80s kid like me,
know that your children know absolutely nothing
about. And how games like Space Invaders and
Pac-Man were all the rise while in the home
console business, Atari was starting to take
things off until a familiar name came to the
block who we all know and love, Nintendo.
As I mentioned, the series does a great job
of discussing the history of the gaming landscape
and how certain things came about. For example,
Nintendo found themselves in

some legal trouble
back in the day with a little game called
Donkey Kong. Universal had an issue with the
word Kong in their name and sued Nintendo
over it as they thought it sounded too similar
to King Kong. Nintendo then hired attorney
John Kirby to defend them in course, where
he won the case. Nintendo was extremely thrilled
by the outcome of the case, so much that they
paid tribute to John Kirby by using his namesake
in future games that have been quite a hit
if I do say so myself with a character who
has become quite the legend within the industry.
(Show footage of Kirby).
The series covers many challenges that companies
had to overcome on the road to their success
too. As I just mentioned, the road wasn’t
always clear for Nintendo. Aside from legal
troubles, they also had issues of how to market
their systems to a western audience which
included rebranding the name from the Famicon
to the Nintendo Entertainment System and the
look and color of the console itself. Marketing
continued through the success of one of the
most popular video game magazines of all-time,
Nintendo Power, and how it came to be so great.
Even gamers faced issues with Nintendo. Nintendo
games were tough. Very tough. And gamers needed
help to get through different areas of the
game. That’s where the Nintendo Power Lane
came into play to help players get through
troubled spots. High Score discusses what
it was like to have a job as a Nintendo gameplay
counselor which is exactly what you would
think it would be like: a dream job.
The series covers RPGs and their impact on
the industry with game influences from Final
Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, and more. But
then it really gets into the good stuff and
talks about the console wars between Nintendo
and SEGA. SEGA actually had a list to take
down Nintendo and while it sounded easy on
a chalkboard, the task itself was very intimidating
if you happened to work at SEGA at the time:
The first task – Defeat Mario. This was done
by the creation of our favorite blue hedgehog,
Sonic. Sonic had an attitude, he was edgy,
sleek, and extremely fast. Mario was cute
and loveable but a the time, not too much
else. At the time, the edge went to Sonic.
The second task – More Sports. Trip Hawkins,
the founder of Electronic Arts partnered up
with football legend John Madden and created
a little game called Madden NFL. The game
initially was intended to be 7 on 7 football,
but Madden argued that it wasn’t real football
and pressed for 11 on 11. It was the first
football game that ever featured that concept
and it caught SEGA’s eye after the game was
published on the Apple II. SEGA partnered
with EA and well, the rest is history.
The third task Cool For Teens – Sega advertised
Sonic as the cool kid in the neighborhood,
rebellious, cool, and occasionally makes mistakes.
Sound like your typical teenager at home?
That’s because it is.
My personal final task: Make fun of Nintendo.
The ad campaign with SEGA making fun of Nintendo
is of legend and is something that isn’t done
as often to this day unless you’re watching
a political ad campaign. 
The series next gets into video game violence
discussing games like Street Fighter and Mortal
Kombat and how these fighting games helped
spark a renaissance to video game arcades
around the world and helped create huge events
that we now know as eSports. But once more,
with some success comes certain controversy
as these series of fighting games including
a game called Night Trap forced the United
States Congress to strike down and make the
industry adopt a game rating system, the ESRB.
The final chapter gets into 3D gaming with
online multiplayer games which I knew had
quite an impact in the industry, but not as
big as I realized until after I watched this
docuseries. Seriously, we all owe John Romero
of iD Software so much with what he brought
to the table giving us a mode that we love
so much, the Deathmatch. Without the creation
of this in the first-person shooter landscape,
online gaming would be a lot different and
a lot of games probably wouldn’t even exist
for that matter.
High Score is a nostalgic roller coaster and
I loved every thrill and moment of it. While
I would have liked to see a little more coverage
regarding some of the greatest video game
series of all-time like The Legend Of Zelda,
Minecraft, Metal Gear, and others it was still
a nice breath of fresh air to enjoy a video
game docuseries and sharpen up my history,
get nostalgic, and even learn a few more new
factoids that I didn’t know about. I give
the series a solid 9 out of 10. Be sure to
check it out when the series becomes available
later this month on August 19th. I hope you
guys enjoyed the video, be sure to subscribe
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are covered quite often and click the bell
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is published. Thanks so much for watching
and until next time, peace.

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