Nostalgia is a powerful vice. Every child of the 1980s knows that the Nickelodeon Game Show power rankings read as: Double Dare, Guts, Legend of the Hidden Temple and way off the in the distance was the video game themed show called Nick Arcade. For those of you with the means now would be a good time to pause your VCRs and put away your two-button joystick as you watch the unofficial pilot of Nick Arcade.
Judging from the pilot the downfall of Nick Arcade was not the lackluster custom made mini-games but maybe the most awkward contestant-game show host banter in the history of television. You cannot fake dead silence and thousand yard stares the junior high contestants give the show’s host.
Double Dragon III, Super Mario Brothers 3, Sonic the Hedgehog, Skate or Die and Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker all get some airtime on Nick Arcade during the radical “arcade” challenges. Before Major Leaguing Gaming channels (hey, look it’s MiddleEasy’s MLG channel) there was Nick Arcade. Before Nick Arcade there was Fred Savage in the movie The Wiz. With the benefit of hindsight in the early 1990s Nickelodeon should of just played The Wiz on a loop rather than invest millions of dollars into the Nick Arcade game show.
