Nick Arcade came out in 1991, at the height of video game superstardom. Arcades were bouncing back with Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat, the NES was still humming along, and the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo were bringing home gaming to the new generation. It was the perfect time to bring along a video game-based game show similar to Starcade from the 80s. Unfortunately, Nick Arcade fails to successfully fill this void with a show that tries to be a lot of things and does almost none of them correctly.
What are the flaws? Here's a list:
1. Right off the bat, the host. Starcade had Geoff Edwards, a wonderful game show host veteran who showed the right amount of enthusiasm, encouragement and warmth while keeping the show moving. Nick Arcade had Phil Moore, a relatively unknown Orlando-based stand-up comedian who prior to hosting this show was known as the warm-up act on shows such as Remote Control and Mickey Mouse Club. Moore was the complete antithesis of Edwards. He was cheesy, hyperactive, over the top, slowed things down with his bad jokes, and seemed to care more about being a big ham than keeping the show moving. He was easily one of the most irritating game show hosts I've ever seen.
2. The contestants. On Starcade, you got video game fans who were devout game players. On Nick Arcade, too many times it felt that the contestants were picked randomly without any prior knowledge of their video game skills. This led to too many failed video game challenges and face-offs with low scoring wins. On a game show based on video games, you should have contestants who seem to know, care or at least be competent in playing video games.
3. For a show about video games, there isn't much gaming involved. The main game board with Mikey is a fine concept, but too many of the squares involve nothing related to video games! The points squares, prizes (wish they were video game based), Enemy, and Video Challenges were fine and fit the theme of the show, but the video puzzles had absolutely nothing to do with video games. Neither did the pop quiz questions. The only time video game-based questions were even asked was to break a tie and that happened rarely. The show was so poorly staged and structured that contestants almost never got to the goal in time. The sudden death goal should be used less frequently, not more frequently, than the contestant hitting the goal on their own.
4. Speaking of Video Challenges, yes, we finally get some game play with known titles, not the custom-based ones they use for Face-Off rounds that seem rushed. I have two issues with them. One, the players never seemed to be able to beat the challenge. The poor quality of gameplay grinds the show to a halt almost. Two, the selection of games is limited. Some are cool, like Sonic, Bonk, and Actraiser, but there are no arcade-based games, a slim selection of Nintendo and Sega based ones, leaving contestants with Neo-Geo, Turbografix, and Atari, systems kids at this time were not buying in big numbers. This likely also contributed to the low win ratio in the Video Challenge segments.
5. The bonus round... this was a train-wreck from the get-go. The show attempts to place the player "inside a video game", but it's nothing more than a blue screen similar to those used by TV meteorologists. Too many times the contestant is busy looking off- camera to figure out what to do, but by the time they figure out, they've lost all their energy, having to start over and use up precious time. It's an ambitious concept that strikes out and results in baffled contestants losing at a very high clip. Not sure what show had more losers in the bonus round, this or Legends of the Hidden Temple.
Overall, Nick had some awesome game shows like Double Dare, GUTS, and Legends of the Hidden Temple, but this wasn't one of them. I'd put this over with Think Fast in one of the concepts that failed rather than succeeded.
What are the flaws? Here's a list:
1. Right off the bat, the host. Starcade had Geoff Edwards, a wonderful game show host veteran who showed the right amount of enthusiasm, encouragement and warmth while keeping the show moving. Nick Arcade had Phil Moore, a relatively unknown Orlando-based stand-up comedian who prior to hosting this show was known as the warm-up act on shows such as Remote Control and Mickey Mouse Club. Moore was the complete antithesis of Edwards. He was cheesy, hyperactive, over the top, slowed things down with his bad jokes, and seemed to care more about being a big ham than keeping the show moving. He was easily one of the most irritating game show hosts I've ever seen.
2. The contestants. On Starcade, you got video game fans who were devout game players. On Nick Arcade, too many times it felt that the contestants were picked randomly without any prior knowledge of their video game skills. This led to too many failed video game challenges and face-offs with low scoring wins. On a game show based on video games, you should have contestants who seem to know, care or at least be competent in playing video games.
3. For a show about video games, there isn't much gaming involved. The main game board with Mikey is a fine concept, but too many of the squares involve nothing related to video games! The points squares, prizes (wish they were video game based), Enemy, and Video Challenges were fine and fit the theme of the show, but the video puzzles had absolutely nothing to do with video games. Neither did the pop quiz questions. The only time video game-based questions were even asked was to break a tie and that happened rarely. The show was so poorly staged and structured that contestants almost never got to the goal in time. The sudden death goal should be used less frequently, not more frequently, than the contestant hitting the goal on their own.
4. Speaking of Video Challenges, yes, we finally get some game play with known titles, not the custom-based ones they use for Face-Off rounds that seem rushed. I have two issues with them. One, the players never seemed to be able to beat the challenge. The poor quality of gameplay grinds the show to a halt almost. Two, the selection of games is limited. Some are cool, like Sonic, Bonk, and Actraiser, but there are no arcade-based games, a slim selection of Nintendo and Sega based ones, leaving contestants with Neo-Geo, Turbografix, and Atari, systems kids at this time were not buying in big numbers. This likely also contributed to the low win ratio in the Video Challenge segments.
5. The bonus round... this was a train-wreck from the get-go. The show attempts to place the player "inside a video game", but it's nothing more than a blue screen similar to those used by TV meteorologists. Too many times the contestant is busy looking off- camera to figure out what to do, but by the time they figure out, they've lost all their energy, having to start over and use up precious time. It's an ambitious concept that strikes out and results in baffled contestants losing at a very high clip. Not sure what show had more losers in the bonus round, this or Legends of the Hidden Temple.
Overall, Nick had some awesome game shows like Double Dare, GUTS, and Legends of the Hidden Temple, but this wasn't one of them. I'd put this over with Think Fast in one of the concepts that failed rather than succeeded.