Nintendo Quest

Plot

The starting point of the film is when Jay Bartlett's friend Rob McCallum (executive producer) challenges him to acquire every one of the 687 NES games officially released in North America in just 30 days. The only caveat is that Jay can't buy anything from internet retailers. The film then follows Jay and Rob and the film crew as they travel south through the States visiting various second-hand stores and basements, some impressively stocked with mint-condition gaming relics. With online purchasing disallowed, Jay meets a world of persons sharing his enthusiasms, some whom are more than happy to aid in his quest, while others comically get in the way. As his quest develops, the viewer is given a history lesson on Nintendo, and learn why this company's gaming software means so much to the filmmakers and the development of video gaming.

Reception

Robert Workman of Geek and Sundry points out that in Nintendo Quest, "the industry takes a backseat to instead focus on one man’s ultimate nostalgia trip, in a tale that’s just as much about the journey as it is the destination." Mike Diver of Vice Magazine describes the film as "a documentary on collecting with a difference", noting it "focuses exclusively on the catalogue of the Nintendo Entertainment System, probably the most important games console of all time, responsible for righting the industry's course after a colossal financial slump in the early 1980s and ultimately becoming a fixture in more American homes during the decade of Ronald Reagan and Molly Ringwald than causal racism," and that "it features a fantastically passionate Nintendo fan at its core, one Jay Bartlett, a Canadian with Bowser and Bomberman in his blood."