Blades of Steel & Super Team Games retrospective: Body checks and balances | NES Works
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ส.ค. 2022
- In this episode, I learned that the Power Pad is not really designed for use on hardwood floors. Bring back that deep-pile ’70s shag, baby. My feet are killing me.
Super Team Games gives us the last of Nintendo's casual-appeal titles for 1988. There's still one final Nintendo-published game for the year, but it's kind of the opposite of casual-appeal-really, the closest Nintendo themselves ever got to "git gud" difficulty on NES. But Super Team Games is meant for small people to pretend to exercise with, or for big people to be uncomfortably intimate with.
As for the headline feature, Blades of Steel, it's an even more casual-appeal approach to hockey than Nintendo's Ice Hockey. You don't have to make any meaningful choices in this game besides deciding when to shoot for the goal... and how hard to hammer the punch button during player-versus-player fights.
Production note: NES footage captured from @analogueinc Nt Mini. Video upscaled to 720 with XRGB Mini Framemeister.
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![หาทำ EP.41 : ผัดวุ้นเส้นที่รักกับนายกล้วยหอม “หลิง-ออม” [Eng Sub] | จือปาก](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/r2jrLOQRthI/mqdefault.jpg)
12:16 Well this is either gonna be "Skate or Die!" or the slightly lesser known "Trampoline or Allergic to Nuts!"
Say what you will about the Power Pad, but even though I only ever played on it once, at a friend's house - I remember everything about that day, including who the friend was, where his house is, to this day, and that fact that only suckers actually used that thing with their feet.
I know just what you mean. I knew one kid that had the Power Pad. Now, this was not something I was ever interested in owning, but as obsessed with Nintendo as I was, I had to try the thing. And yeah, it didn't take long to figure out that smashing the pad with your palms was much easier than actually jumping on it.
A friend had one and brought it over once for a sleepover. I feel like that was about the limit of fun to be had from it. Yet somehow the idea of using your hands never occurred to me. I was always a scrupulous rule follower then as well. It wouldn't be until the '00s that I started hearing people talk about how "everyone" did that instead and it utterly perplexed me as to why anyone would even want to do that. It defeats the entire point of it.
"Bladesssss of Steelll"...I think it was the first time I heard digitized speech in the NES...loved that game.
BLADES OF STEEL
The intermission "game" in Blades of Steel blew my tiny child mind. "Whoaaaa a game within a game!" I always preferred BoS to Ice Hockey, just because of how angry the goalie gets when you score
Blades of Steel was huge here in Canada, it's the only hockey game that challenges Ice Hockey for popularity; well on NES at least.
Interesting, I never knew that.
@@PSVitaat2am I mean it's just anecdotal, I'm not a historian or anything. I just remember everyone I knew, even the people that weren't all that into gaming, had some combination of Ice Hockey, Blades of Steel, and NHL 94.
@@MrTableDesk Not anecdotal at all brother.
Every kid on the playground had at least played Blades of Steel. I cannot remember one kid hating it, not even the anti-sports kids.
Loved blades of steel, especially the soundtrack
Ah, everyone's favorite player PLEASENO has entered today's video. Seeing the NP coverage each video takes me back, too... I remember these early issues well since I read them cover to cover frequently since I wasn't always able to get the games when they came out (more often than not, having to wait years after). I guess it was the child's version of living vicariously through a magazine to feel like I was playing the games.
10:56 And 'Lee Carvello’s Putting Challenge' was _right there_ next to it on the shelves.
the visceral imagery of "flail about on an imprecise pressure-sensitive tarp to awkwardly make your way to the finish line" is a good show of what makes these scripts shine. The slog of the power pad really comes through here.
It's kind of amazing it took them 20 years to figure out the ideal way to trick people into exercising. Heck, I've done a lot of Ring Fit...
Blades of Steel blew my teeny little mind as a kid, the first time I rented it and discovered the halftime entertainment was a game of Gradius. Such a cool inclusion.
(Although my favorite NES hockey game is the Kunio-Kun one, which is pure insanity. Shame it only officially came to the US a few years ago.)
^ Heckuva collection they released that Kunio hockey on, so many games getting their first official English localizations
Blades of Steel was so popular in Canada that as of a couple years ago (I think 2016'ish is when I saw it) the Montreal Canadiens were regularly playing a animated video sequence using Blades of Steel sprites on the Bell Centre Jumbotron during TV breaks. In front of 21000 people. And I have no doubt that pretty much everyone in their 30's and 40's knew the reference.
Blades of Steel goes in my NES hall of fame. Such a fun game. By the way, you are proud of that “packing less of a graphical punch” line, aren’t you :)
Y'know, it is kind of bizarre how it's normal in professional hockey to just fight a dude, and perhaps it's not the best image for young boys to look up to... But as a Canadian who grew up with hockey, I have to commend Konami for capturing that particular NHL tradition. It's the little thing that tells you they cared.
It is absolutely something to look up to. If you have beef, settle it one one one, fisticuffs fair. Nothing dirty.
I like how in this game, only the loser goes to the penalty box.
@@FreshTillDeath56 l think the main part he was arguing was more that solving your issues with your fists isn't really conducive to healthy or even happy living, moreso than "don't ever be direct, just passive-aggressive / avoidant all your life".
Canadians basically invented violent hockey.
Blades of Steel was the go to Hockey game until the NHL series appeared on Genesis. Still play it to this day, makes for some great party games.
I must have been weird. I loved the Power Pad.
i laughed so many times during the super team games retrospective, the writing in this episode is especially top notch!
Polyam representation? In NES Works? It's more likely than I thought.
I had STG as a kid, but even then getting more than two kids on a Power Pad without the thing sliding across the floor into another zip code was a tall order. It does sound like a fun idea for my next Halloween "party."
I had to rewind because I thought I had misheard.
lol this made me flip out too. I wonder what how miniscule the Venn diagram overlap of "polyamorous" and "retro game fans" would be. Too bad he had to mention "swingers parties" in the same slot later as if these are the same thing 😑
@@SovrinnKFunnily enough, I know five polyamorous people, and I think that all of them are retro gaming fans. Sadly, none of them watch this channel!
I played so much Blades of Steel on Wii as a kid, it's still one of my favorite NES games. It had a lot more depth than Ice Hockey but I loved that game too
We used to love the penalty shot mode in blades of steel as well as kids. We wanted the timer to run out and the game to end in tie, just to play that. So game on, build some legos and when the timer is out, penalty shots.
[Duke Nukem Voice] "I got Blades of Steel"
My best friend (also my next door neighbor) and I played the heck out of Blades of Steel back in the day! He even went out and bought the NES Max controller just for that game! Those were good times! :)
OHH YES. Blades of Steel is my favorite NES game of all time! So glad you covered it! Thank you!
Let's face it - you all played Blades of Steel only for those fighting sequences :D
I've never played it myself, as I can't stand hockey (and I'm Canadian. Yes, not every Canadian loves hockey). But Blades of Steel certainly had it's fans and the first thing they would talk about was the fighting!
Can't believe you didn't even mention the iconic digitized voice sample in Blades of Steel lol 8 year old me thought that intro was the coolest thing ever, and the game would remain probably my favorite sports game until Super Tecmo Bowl 3 on the SNES (to be fair I was never as into sports as my family wished I was)
I didn't have STG but I did have a power pad (my family got the big NES bundle with the three-in-one cart) and I actually played it a decent amount despite only hanging World Class Track Meet. Everybody who didn't have one thinks hands were the way to go, but you can actually stand in the balls of your feet, lower your center of gravity a bit, and move your heels up and down WAY faster than you can beat your palms with enough force to trigger the sensors. This is the key to TRUE S P E E D
haha as soon as I saw Priscilla Presley pulling that steaming hot meat out of the pot I knew we were in for a good time 😂
Super Team Games may not have been great to own, but as someone who experienced it at a friend's house, it was a blast. The cartoon aesthetic and creative differences when compared with Track & Field made STG delightful.
Oh man, blades of steel is great arcadey hockey game back in the day.
One interesting feature about Blades of Steel is that the loser if the fight is the one that gets a penalty.
It was the same in Ice Hockey
my brother and i liked to start a game and walk away for a few min so we could play the tie breaker part of blades of steel
The Pittsburgh Penguins would like to have a word here.
Not to mention this game has a lot to learn about the Offside rule.
I liked Blades of Steel back in the day, but as a Hockey fan I never understood why they left out Detroit. With a limited team roster, I would have thought they would have went with the original 8 teams and or cities. Detroit being one of the original 8, I think it was done dirty by Konami.
I feel the same way as a fan of Bostons team, but my theory is that they wanted to cover more of the geographical area and thus a couple of the originals were omitted.
@@SynopsisGrim That makes sense. Too bad Don Cherry wasn't still coaching the Bruins at the time, he is could have gotten them into the game. Who would argue with Don? :D
@@SynopsisGrim Sorry Detroit.
I caught that aboot you snuck in there😂😂
The Powerpad -- and Powerpad games -- sound more like the kind of stuff parents would want to buy for their kids, wanting them to exercise, rather than anything kids would ask for.
Loved seeing those Nintendo Power pages. Those illustrations looked FUN. Thanks, Jeremy!
EDIT: Oh, the Super Team Games remind me of Japanese Undoukai. I wonder if it was based on those.
My 6-year old daughter enjoys playing World Class Track Meet with the Power Pad, but Super Team Games is too complicated and difficult for her.
Blades of Steel! I had that one, first NES game I cleared a full set in. Was overjoyed.
It's really interesting to see the Nintendo Power segments - it's the kind of in depth stuff you don't get anywhere else. Great work!
My favorite part of Blades of Steel was the Overtime Shootout. I used to let the game run without playing to ensure a tie just so I could get a Shootout.
I always longingly looked at other power pad games (as we first got an NES power set in late 1988 after much convincing “we’ll get exercise”)
I will say world class track meet got a TON of use in the day as there was nothing like stomping your feet into the ground next to a friend/sibling (the first time till everyone discovered your hands can do it faster).
If anything it was kind of the great great grandfather of the same kind of thinking that made the Wii such a hit in 20 years (even if it’s gimmick had a similar short life span)
It's nice to see Naked Gun repped.
Friends: the new Heiankyo Alien?!
Sure, if Heiankyo Alien were to hang out at a coffee shop and eventually have a sexual relationship with all of its roommates
"BRRAAAIDS OFFF SHHHTEEL"
Blades of steel’s penalty shots are also worth mentioning
absolute love of the game blades of steel in my family! so excited to see it!
loooove Blades of Steel, still to this day
Love The Naked Gun movie. Thanks for that.
episodes featuring a good game followed by a significantly worse game are always fun to watch and this one did not disappoint
Hi quacc :)))))))
The best 8-bit sports and pro wrestling reviewer in the business.
Blades of Steel was regular at my house. One of the few games my dad outright loved.
would love if you showed off more nintendo power stuff with games like this.
Another fantastic video Jeremy!
Two things about Blades of Steel:
1. The arcade version has this weird arcade ports gimmick where, in addition to trying to beat the other team, you have to manage the time remaining to play. A credit gets you a certain amount of game time. When you score, you gain bonus time; when the opposing team scores, you lose time! This is separate from the amount of time in the *hockey* game, and you can actually lose the arcade game, as in run out of time, separately from losing at hockey. Between periods there's a couple of bonus games that can earn you extra time to finish.
2. Both the NES and arcade games have, in those few times you hear it, great music. Arcade victory music: th-cam.com/video/Fju2aFk9c-g/w-d-xo.html Also, searching to find a link to it uncovered this guy who did an acapella version of the NES music: th-cam.com/video/y1DkbHnvRnw/w-d-xo.html
Rocky and Bullwinkle aren't Canadians; they're full red-blooded Americans who love their country if not their government (unless there's a Dudley Do-Right part in The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle and Friends)
I was thinking of Dudley, yes. But I just realized that LJN’s X-Men came first, and that included Wolverine.
@@JeremyParish Ah yes, back in the days in which adding a Canadian to the team would have counted as a diversity hire
Rocky and Bullwinkle lived in Frostbite Falls, Minnesota. Bullwinkle also spent time in Moosylvania, an island situated directly between the United States and Canada that the U.S. insisted was part of Canada and Canada insisted was part of the U.S.
I was going to challenge your assertion that Blades of Steel was the first piece of Canadian representation on NES/Famicom, but after doing a bit of research it looks like they never made a game based on the original Gundam series for the system; just one based on Z Gundam (which lacked a Canadian protagonist) and a bunch of SD Gundam games (who's protagonists aren't human.)
Wait, Amuro was Canadian?
@@JeremyParish From Prince Rupert, BC.
@@221b Learn something new today!
@@221b I'm not sure why this knowledge surprises me, but it has- could have sworn he was meant to be Japanese.
Up next: Fatal Binary Choice = Skate or Die!
Hey now, it could be Win Lose Or Draw Or Die
If you don't get excited for next week's episode, then you're just another Poseur Pete!
New video... all is right with the world.
I loved Blades of Steel!
I spent a plurality of my childhood in front of this game.
Wait, I'm not the only person who believed that Rocky and Bullwinkle was a Canadian thing?
Another beauty Jeremy. The shootout mode in Blades of Steel was very underrated. The aesthetic of the whole game was so Konami. So 80s. It's like you had the human characters from Contra playing ice hockey 😅 The end snapshot photo was picture perfect...literally. Lastly, the overall game was much better than the arcade counterpart. The sounds and gameplay for that were atrocious
Power pad is fantastic. Super team games rocks but it was exhausting as hell. Too much footwork to complete a race. World class trackmeet was way more fair with how much runninf was required per event. Had my power pad in my college dorm in 2000! Random people on my floor had a blast.
As a Canadian, I feel seen. Can confirm that Blades of Steel was _the_ game until EA's NHL came along (literally everybody I knew with a Genesis had NHL '94). It's probably fair to say it was in the same tier as Tecmo Bowl in the sports gaming pantheon. I had Nintendo's Ice Hockey which was still fun, but didn't have much to it outside of the matches themselves. Definitely wished I'd lucked into Blades of Steel at the time instead.
9:16 To quote you later in this review, it's not worth your time "you flail about on a plastic pressure-sensitive tarp, to awkwardly make your way to the finish line" and that's without the Power Pad.
I played a ton of Blades of Steel, only thing i really remember is that you can play a Gradius minigame mid hockey game
we used to only fight on here 😄💪🏾
Ice Hockey and Blades of Steel are both good sports games for the NES. Which one is better comes down to personal preference. One thing that Blades of Steel has that Ice Hockey doesn't is a tournament mode.
I only ever knew one kid with a Power Pad. He was, of course, the richest kid I knew.
Proof that money can't buy everything, like good buying instincts.
I really enjoyed World Class Track Meet and Short Order/Eggsplode, but a lot of the other Power Pad games seemed totally "meh" at best (if that!), such as Super Team Games. I do recall Blades of Steel being quite popular among sports game fans back when it was current.
Nailed it! @3:16
Two episodes to go for the one hundred episode. 😀👍🎮
As Nintendo Power attests, Blades of Steel is great with 2 players. My family played a lot of that of that as a kid. I don't know if I ever had Super Team Games but Power Pad games were not that great. And more Konami next time as they adapt EA's Skate or Die, another game my family liked.
Yeah. Aside from Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt, Blades of Steel was the NES game most likely to draw the interest of adults in the room during a birthday party.
I'm guessing that Blades of Steels coverage might have been a bit light because Nintendo was trying to limit its competitiveness with Ice Hockey.
Well, from my own perspective, I lived in a small town of roughly 5000 people back in the 80s. Had three different friends who played and loved Blades of Steel. I never even heard of Ice Hockey until about 5 years ago. Go figure.
My biggest question about Blades of Steel: exactly what is the announcer saying so frequently during gameplay? It sounds like "HIT THE PASS" but that doesn't make any sense. Still, the digitized "BLADESH OV SCHTEEL" at the title screen blew my eight-year-old mind the first time I heard it.
It’s “With the pass!” The samples in the arcade game are much easier to understand!
@@JeremyParish I learn something new from every Video Works episode!
My french-canadian ass could never understand that line as a kid.
Ah that and 'Dubah Dibbah' are mainline nostalgia.
I seriously dislike most sports game, but Blades of Steel is fantastic.
"Blades of Steel" and "Jackal" felt unfinished on the Famicom Disk System, whereas they were complete on the NES.
its really interesting to see games that are in a way "Completed in localization"
@@alex_-yz9to It's been suggested "Jackal" was scaled back for the FDS. If you look at the ads, the pictures were from the NES version.
Blades of Steel was the only sports game I enjoyed playing with friends back then. Even now, sports games are the genre I tend to ignore. The only sports game I'm even remotely considering picking up is Forza Horizon 5.
"you have to be 4'11 to play super team games"
>is 4'11 and in my 20s. i cry
The fun part about BoS’s fights is that only the loser goes to the penalty box.
I was able to beat Cheetah in hurdles in World Class Track meet, but couldn't do shit against the CPU in Super Team Games. Also I was never able to figure out how to get skateboarding to work since I never had a manual.
Jeremy you wasted the opportunity of recording yourself using the Power Pad while wearing spandex, a sweatband and legwarmers.
That's what the Power Pad classic "Dance Aerobics" is for!
Minnesota is a State!
3:16 - Now i need to go back thru all your videos and see if this "aboat" is just a sly Canadianism or not.
Finally found the 8-bit polyamory crossover video I've been looking for!
You'll enjoy the Anticipation retrospective as well
I hope we haven't seen the last of PLEASENO
His spirit will live on until Bandai stops inflicting these things on us
My best friend had Blades of Steel but after playing Ice Hockey, it's that one my brother and I got (yes I'm canadian, French to be more precise). BoS was a bad hockey game in my opinion, and the fact that if you lost a fight you had the penalty was just stupid. I mean neither offered a very accurate hockey experience but i felt ice hockey was still closer.`
I had kept a good impression of Wayne Gretzky Hockey after renting it once but a few months ago i looked it up on yt and the video had a CPU vs CPU game and i realised... the CPU never shoots! (or almost never anyway) They'd get in the zone and just pass the puck back and forth like 10 times but never shot.
Is it “with the pass” or “it’s a pass”?
Based on the arcade version it’s “With the Pass”
V.H.S.
I can assure you that every young boy here in Canada who owned an NES in 1988 also owned a copy of Blades of Steel.
I hate to peddle in stereotypes, but I kinda figured
Personally, I find Ice Hockey much more fun to play compared to Blades of Steel.
Fond memories of playing blades of steel in a friend’s basement. Always took Chicago for some reason. Oh and I like it very hot and awfully wet
You, here in the comments. You came down here to get the hot story, didn't you? Footage of retro games to sell to your lousy blogs. Sure, you think Jeremy's a big hero. The man of the hour. Well do any of you understand how a man can hurt inside?
There may be no "me' in "team" but it is an anagram for "meat". (which I like very hot and wet, thankyouverymuch)
...a fatal binary choice, eh? Well, I can't skate, so I guess I'll die. :P
You used the term polycule! Badass
The graphics in Blades of Steel are excellent. 😀👍🏒🎮
☝️🤓 not to be a Mister Know-It-All 🫎, Rocky and Bullwinkle live in Frostbite Falls Minnesota