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"High Score", a six-episode Netflix documentary about the “golden age of video games” is premiering on Wednesday, Aug. 19
- Thread starter The Main Event
- Start date
Lol THIS. I jumped to SF episode and they really called it Fight Games? It's always been a fighting game. Do we call Shooting Games "Shoot Games"
I did like whatI watched so far though
I found it weird that in the RPG episode when they go to Japan they just flat-out skipped over Dragon Warrior to focus Final Fantasy. No mention of Dragon Warrior or Phantasy Star. Strange.
It's the only counter (and a historically valid one) for saying this isn't the Golden age. From a quality, quantity, and diveristy POV, today is the best gaming has ever been (even if mobile is a cesspool and much of AAA publishing isn't far behind).
I think where you can say we're in the Golden Age is by including VR. I know this is a touchy subject for some, but what we're seeing in VR is absolutely analogous to what we saw in the early 2D days or the early 3D days. The same spirit and experimentation and everything else that went with those eras. Heck, I was just recently turned onto the fact that Visual Pinball now has really good VR support. It's absolutely shocking how real those pinball machines look on the Valve Index. I own all the tables in Pinball FX2 VR and was still not prepared by the awesomeness. This is the type of stuff that's kind of common, but will never be a mainstream thing. And there's a ton of that in the VR scene if you embrace it.
"Fight games" sounds stupid but at least they didn't use the term "thump 'em up" like Zzap did in 1986.
Whats wrong with the Toys that Made Us style? It's *comical trombone* pretty... *cuts to interviewee, who says "Uuuh..."* ...fine to... *Crackerjack decoder ring sounds* ...me. *cuts to interviewee blinking in an exaggerated way with cartoonish "blinking" noises*
I get the criticism about it feeling a bit ADD. I would much prefer they not jump around so much, but it's still a lot of fun to watch. I am curious about the things that some people on here are claiming are inaccurate. Maybe someone with a vast knowledge of gaming history can put a list together of the inaccurate statements with corrections?
I understand why some of you are disappointed it's not as comprehensive as you would like, but I assume the idea behind it was to reach a broad audience, and too much deep diving would likely cause a lot of casual viewers to tune out. I think it's good considering it's a mainstream release on Netflix.
As others have said, most people's golden age refers to the time around their teens that they were really into something (movies/video games/comics/etc). Gaming as a whole is so much bigger than it used to be, and reaches so so many more people than it used to, but with that I think a big segment of it is kind of shitty, especially the AAA and mobile space where MTX, GaaS, and exploitative practices seem to be a big focus of their games. Personally the 16-32 bit era (especially SNES/PS1) is my "golden age" of gaming, but I still do appreciate and recognize where we are now and the reach games have made.
Just watched it, WOW. I get that it's old and iconic but that's so messed up.
I watched it all on a road trip today. It's not for hardcore gamers. I was hoping to learn at least one new thing, but nope. But it is well put together, at least.
Everytime they cut to competitions they really break the flow. Anyway cool documentary considered who it's aimed to.
I mean ... eh. It's gaming's Vader / Luke moment. It's not like the documentary stormed into an FF7 Remake thread with the intention of ruining that twist for people that are experiencing the story for the first time. Given the context of the documentary and the statute of limitations, it's nothing.
I couldn't believe it either.
When I saw them transition from talking about Ultima to Japan, I thought to myself "here comes Dragon Quest!" And to see Final Fantasy pop up instead made me pretty disappointed.
That is just not how it went down at all.
I already didn't really care for the very US-centric viewpoint about Nintendo the savior after the crash, but the RPG episode took me out completely. They didn't just skip Dragon Quest, they also glossed over Wizardry. It's a shame that this will be the source of a lot of misinformation to come.
I see that the series isn't meant to be a definitive history, but more of an overview about how gaming and the sub-genres became so popular. I wish it was more comprehensive like NoClip does it, but I appreciate it for what it is. I did FINALLY give Jerry Lawson his long, long overdue props for inventing cartridges. And more seasons are (hopefully) to come.
They also said Street Fighter was the first game to feature players fighting each other when the first game I was aware of doing that, Karate Champ came years before.
Watched some of the first episode, man the cajones on those guys making the modded cabs lol. Going toe to toe with Atari and coming out on top. Good stuff. Also this docu series in general makes me feel less old seeing all the early arcade/console titans still chugging along. Obviously not all are still around but its cool to see so many of them featured and seemingly doing quite well.
I'd seen how early programming for bits on those grid sheets before but it was still cool as hell seeing the Space Invaders creator showing the original enemy designs and docs.
This is pretty well produced, only thing I'd change is the narrator VO is a little hammy and 'all audiences' geared but other than that its a good watch so far.
I'd seen how early programming for bits on those grid sheets before but it was still cool as hell seeing the Space Invaders creator showing the original enemy designs and docs.
This is pretty well produced, only thing I'd change is the narrator VO is a little hammy and 'all audiences' geared but other than that its a good watch so far.
Finished it today. Not great, too much focus on irrelevant things (competitive gaming, random stories nobody has ever heard of before) and plenty of errors. It finally gained some focus and was better quality during the last episode or two. Though there was one segment that literally missed translating Japanese - no subtitles or text at all. I found it pretty jarring and indicative of the whole series.
My wife enjoyed it for the most part but even she was annoyed by how many time and focus changes there were. She has less knowledge so there was a lot that interested/amused her - the sound designers at Nintendo, a lot of the Sega stuff, all of the coverage for Doom, etc.
Can anyone recommend other game industry documentaries that are more complete and representative? We have watched Indie Game: The Movie. Preferably something that covers more completely the industry during the 90s and early 2000s. SNES, N64, GameCube range in particular. Need some PlayStation history for sure.
My wife enjoyed it for the most part but even she was annoyed by how many time and focus changes there were. She has less knowledge so there was a lot that interested/amused her - the sound designers at Nintendo, a lot of the Sega stuff, all of the coverage for Doom, etc.
Can anyone recommend other game industry documentaries that are more complete and representative? We have watched Indie Game: The Movie. Preferably something that covers more completely the industry during the 90s and early 2000s. SNES, N64, GameCube range in particular. Need some PlayStation history for sure.
I liked it! Binge watched it this weekend. The production was really well done with the interviews.
My favorite video game documentary is about Tetris called "From Russia With Love" which was made by the BBC.
Watching the episode about Sega and Sonic, and I think it's pretty damn wild that they're showing footage from a tech demo rom hack called Sonic 1 The Next Level. It's not just briefly showing up in a montage either. They feature extensive footage of it, showing the title graphics and everything, during the segment with Chris Tang doing the gameplay analysis. It's just so bizarre how they decided to show this instead of any of the official Sonic games.
Yeah, this was really weird. It must have been done on purpose because how can you mistake it for an official Sonic game?
i think i would prefer a videogames that made us series and focus on one game and tell the stories of its completion. btw if you want a little more in depth videos about some videogames try this channel.
www.youtube.com
nice production values and deserves way more views and subs.
strafefox
My Youtube show called Splash Wave is focused on documenting the 16bit era of video games from a creative, business and technical perspective. I try to hi-li...
www.youtube.com
nice production values and deserves way more views and subs.
It really went down hill after the first 2 episodes. One of the episodes where they talk more about the Genesis they spent an enormous amount of time about some guy that won a Sonic competition. But really, this is not that great. The first episode was promising but went downhill. Sure there are some cool things, but when talking about the Golden Age of gaming where was the Intellivision, ColecoVision, Atari 5200, 7800, Sega Master System etc.? They missed a lot of stuff. Overall it is not horrible but not great as well.
I don't think the series ever really grabbed a hold of the topic. I just finished the last episode. It wandered off in a bunch of different directions and the information they presented sounded like it may not all be true or stretched. For something like this, I would hope they would have done more research. It felt like they hit a lot of the same beats as the old G4 documentaries and Console Wars without really making sure they told a coherent narrative.
I think the focus on the competitive side in its infancy was kind of useless. I think they didn't really go enough into arcade culture or the business of arcades or what really made it the "golden age of video games."
Every cultural event was built around marketing and that may have been true, but it misses what it meant to play games then and the limited number of perspectives felt like this was rushed and didn't really consult anyone who was covering games at the time or has done the research.
I think the focus on the competitive side in its infancy was kind of useless. I think they didn't really go enough into arcade culture or the business of arcades or what really made it the "golden age of video games."
Every cultural event was built around marketing and that may have been true, but it misses what it meant to play games then and the limited number of perspectives felt like this was rushed and didn't really consult anyone who was covering games at the time or has done the research.
Man I thought this was really bad. This used probably the most annoying documentary format there is. All of the things you'd think were important was shown in the most surface level way possible and then they decide to dedicate 5-10 minutes to anecdotes that are barely related to the episode topic.
I'm amazed they managed to hide ads for Dragon Quest products while capturing footage of modern-day Japan, honestly.
Only watched part of the fighting game episode. Seems pretty surface level. Not sure if I'll watch anymore based on the impressions here on the other episodes.
I did too. I chalk it up to the director's personal preference.
Although it's also way easier to get in touch with Amano (who does a lot of video interviews) vs Akira Toriyama ( who has virtually no footage of him out there). So that might have been a factor.
While I like the series as a whole, there are a number of issues I had with it.
1. Starting with Space Invaders and skipping anything to do with Ralph Baer, the black box, and only mentioning Pong in passing.
2. Bizarre editing choices. Why Begin Episode 1 with Space Invaders and end it with the Story of Nolan Bushnell Playing SpaceWar rather than starting with that anecdote?
3. No one really cares about the Sega/Nintendo World championships. It would have been better to spend more times on the titles that made the NES/SNES/GEN popular and save the world championship stuff for a second season stand alone episode on competitive gaming/eSports (tracking the rise from those early competitions through EVO, and League of Legends, to Modern eSports)
4. As others have mentioned, focusing on Final Fantasy rather than Dragon Quest for the birth of Japanese RPGs is particularly bad. While this series is clearly aimed at American audiences, I'd expect a little better than that. Also the lack of mention of Wizardry is disappointing too, for similar reasons.
These may seem like I'm ragging on the doc, but I liked it overall. Its just frustrating because none of these seem like issues that would have been particularly hard to avoid or to do correctly.
1. Starting with Space Invaders and skipping anything to do with Ralph Baer, the black box, and only mentioning Pong in passing.
2. Bizarre editing choices. Why Begin Episode 1 with Space Invaders and end it with the Story of Nolan Bushnell Playing SpaceWar rather than starting with that anecdote?
3. No one really cares about the Sega/Nintendo World championships. It would have been better to spend more times on the titles that made the NES/SNES/GEN popular and save the world championship stuff for a second season stand alone episode on competitive gaming/eSports (tracking the rise from those early competitions through EVO, and League of Legends, to Modern eSports)
4. As others have mentioned, focusing on Final Fantasy rather than Dragon Quest for the birth of Japanese RPGs is particularly bad. While this series is clearly aimed at American audiences, I'd expect a little better than that. Also the lack of mention of Wizardry is disappointing too, for similar reasons.
These may seem like I'm ragging on the doc, but I liked it overall. Its just frustrating because none of these seem like issues that would have been particularly hard to avoid or to do correctly.
Not really a fan of cheesy documentaries, too much championship shit and it was way too surface level "video game" stuff for someone that's on era like me
I think the biggest factor is these are short overview documentaries meant for the general public so they they don't have time to cover all those games.
For what it is I'm really enjoying it. Nostalgia is a hell of a thing. I know most of the history in these but I'm picking up some new stuff. I also like the diverse voices.
Lol at those expecting Netflix to do a nerd compendium of global video game history. I have not seen Netflix do such intellectual endeavors before.
This documentary's strength is delving into the stories of some early pioneers- not all of whom are well known and for being accessible to non gamers. It's well worth a watch although I'm only on episode 4.
Though admittedly I can see it leaving some hardcore folks wanting more, that is a compliment to the detailed in depth focus on specific people and topics. It's more depth than breadth.
This documentary's strength is delving into the stories of some early pioneers- not all of whom are well known and for being accessible to non gamers. It's well worth a watch although I'm only on episode 4.
Though admittedly I can see it leaving some hardcore folks wanting more, that is a compliment to the detailed in depth focus on specific people and topics. It's more depth than breadth.
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I might tap out after 3 episodes. This seems like a documentary lovingly created by someone who did a wikipedia search for "video games" one time. I really am kind of baffled by some of the things this series chooses to focus on. It hits a few early gaming highlights but glosses over SO much. It mostly seems aimless and like it doesn't have anything to say at all.
I guess like most stuff on Netflix this is content with getting the "oh yay, nostalgia!" clicks, it's just a shame that they were able to get some industry legends to show up for this thing but then didn't do that much interesting with them. If anybody's interest in video game history was piqued by this I urge you to check out The Ultimate History of Video Games by Steven L Kent. I read that about a decade ago and that was a fantastic book that goes into a lot of detail about some of the great eras of gaming, like the Atari boom and the 16 bit console wars.
I guess like most stuff on Netflix this is content with getting the "oh yay, nostalgia!" clicks, it's just a shame that they were able to get some industry legends to show up for this thing but then didn't do that much interesting with them. If anybody's interest in video game history was piqued by this I urge you to check out The Ultimate History of Video Games by Steven L Kent. I read that about a decade ago and that was a fantastic book that goes into a lot of detail about some of the great eras of gaming, like the Atari boom and the 16 bit console wars.
Yeah I agree, it's a fun watch (just finished all episodes) and it's polished and highly entertaining. So for those aspects alone I'd recommend it to anyone interested in gaming. But overall it's not very informative (very surface-level) and I found the weird asides of them focusing on tournaments and competitive gaming to be shoehorned in. Why not give that an episode in and by itself instead of inserting these little vignettes in there? I guess they wanted a more human element to some episodes, but it fell flat completely for me.
In fact the entire series feels more like short 10-15 minute youtube videos haphazardly slapped together without any clear goal.
I enjoyed the first 3-4 EPs then it felt like it went off the rails a bit. Not in-depth enough for the hardcore but a great insight for the Millennials that didn't know about arcades and how games started in the early days.
I thought the interviews were great and really insightful. Having finished the series I thought the SF and Starfox episodes were highlights and I really enjoyed the Nishitani, Akiman, Nakano Sagat and Dylan Cuthbert interviews.
I really appreciated the fact that the interview subjects were the focus of the episodes and outside of the narration from Martinet the interviews were the main avenues for discussion about each subject. I didn't want something that was going to turn into a sequence of talking heads from magazines, modern day personalities or other games media and I'm glad that the show didn't go in that direction.
I really appreciated the fact that the interview subjects were the focus of the episodes and outside of the narration from Martinet the interviews were the main avenues for discussion about each subject. I didn't want something that was going to turn into a sequence of talking heads from magazines, modern day personalities or other games media and I'm glad that the show didn't go in that direction.