A Look Back at Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt (1988) for the Nintendo Entertainment System

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing quite well. Welcome to Josh's Nostalgia Corner where I, Josh, will be talking about the movies, TV shows, video games, comic books, and novels that I loved growing up. I used to run a blog called The Review Basement, which you can check out here. Over there you'll find lots of reviews, lists, and other posts. But I was finding that I was reviewing the things that I like, rather than talking about them and it wasn't what I wanted to do. I was also reviewing brand new stuff that had just come out like Only Murders in the Building, Love, Victor, and Free Guy (which I loved btw) and it just wasn't working for me anymore. So I decided to start this blog where I will be writing about the entertainment that I have the best memories of. Like, today's topic is going to be Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt for the NES.

Growing up my family never had a ton of money. We weren't completely poor, but my parents couldn't afford to buy everything my siblings and I wanted. So when it came to things like game consoles we usually had to wait a few years after launch to get the newest one. Which is fine, because we got alot of mileage out of the consoles we had. I mean we were still playing the NES well into 1997 alongside the SNES. 

My mom bought the NES for my dad for Christmas or his birthday in either 1991 or 1992 and the 1988 combo cartridge release, Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt was the game that came with it. With my dad working and my mom home with my siblings and I, she played the NES more than my dad did. But the three of us, me, my sister, and my brother, spent hours watching her play. When I say hours I mean in total. She probably only played about half an hour per day if that. Lol. 

Here's proof that I actually played the console myself. My mom found this picture of me playing Duck Hunt on the floor of the second townhouse we lived in, in the area of the city now known as South Keys. I think this is the most '90s picture I have ever seen myself in. I mean all of those drawers underneath the TV contained audio cassettes, the TV itself is vintage '80s, we have a turntable to play vinyl records, a cassette player, a VCR, and an old style radio. And look, the NES is on the floor, because back then controllers didn't have long cords so you had to sit on the floor, almost right next to the console in order to play the game. Except for the NES, the TV and the VCR my dad still has all of the tech in this picture. Also, I'm not sure if you can see properly, but I'm also wearing Ninja Turtles socks! I'm such a late '80s/early '90s kid!

In the picture of me playing the game, you might be able to see that I hit the duck on screen. But, the picture above shows what happens if you miss a duck. Or two ducks if you're playing with two ducks on screen at a time. That dog was annoying if you sucked at aiming the light zapper gun at the ducks. He laughed at you. Alot. Of course as the years went on and the wires for the controllers and light zapper gun started getting older, it became harder to hit the ducks in this game, which caused alot of frustration for my siblings and I because we didn't know why the zapper gun wasn't working properly anymore. 

I don't have much to say about Super Mario Bros. because, well, it's Super Mario Bros. I don't need to say much about it. Plus I'll be tackling Super Mario All-Stars for the SNES at some point because I have alot more memories playing that and watching my family play that. So I'll talk about Super Mario Bros. more in that post. But this is the only way I played Duck Hunt so I thought I'd talk about that more in this post. 

And that my friends is all I have for you today. This is how things are going to be here at Josh's Nostalgia Corner. Just quick posts, thinking about particular memories, showing off pictures of the past, and talking about the stuff I watched, played, and read from my childhood. I'll be back soon with another post. I don't know when yet, but this is something I'm going to do whenever I feel like doing it. So it could be tomorrow or next week or even two weeks. Until then have a great day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.