‘Playing with Power’
[Update: The documentary is out today on Crackle. It consists of five episodes, most of which run roughly one hour.]
In just the past year or so we’ve gotten two Nintendo-heavy documentaries. There’s Console Wars, a feature film that deals with Nintendo’s rivalry with Sega; and High Score, a Netflix series that covers all of gaming history, but with large swaths of Nintendo peppered in throughout.
Both projects overlap quite a bit, and we’re probably going to get that same feeling with this new work, Playing With Power. Debuting on Crackle on March 1, the doc aims to cover Nintendo’s history, and grabs gaming celebrities like Cliff Bleszinski and Wil Wheaton: Sean Astin also narrates, which is a huge bonus. Since it’s Crackle, it’ll be free to watch (with ads). We can all enjoy it together!
Hopefully it offers up something new that others haven’t already. The trailer claimsit will get “controversial” with its subject matter, which in some cases means “we’ll vaguely show you some well-known facts, not assert them strongly, then get out of there and wade back into excitement.” The trailer itself does that very thing, ending on a high note on the impact the publisher has had in the industry.
I’ll be watching it on March 1 either way!