YouTube stars Benny and Rafi Fine, better known as the Fine Brothers, are at it again with the latest installment of their "Teens React to Technology" video series.
This time, the Fine Brothers gather a group of teenagers born sometime from 1995 to 1998, including "Game of Thrones" star Maisie Williams, and films their reactions as they play with an original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
While IGN has named the 30-year-old video game console as the greatest game console of all time, saying that "if Nintendo didn't step up to the plate, the industry as a whole may have turned out entirely different," most of today's teenagers have no idea what to do with the 8-bit NES. To their defense, though, some of the teenagers know some of the games, which they have already been playing - on their newer consoles, of course.
"Is this a projector?" asks 18-year-old Labib when handed the clunky "video game contraption."
When asked what they think of it, Michael says "it looks like a brick." "From like 1920," chimes in Miracle. Josh, whose brother just bought an NES before the video was filmed, says his dad probably played one of this. Another teen ridicules the coloring of the NES, criticizing Sony for coming up with a "futuristic" game console that's colored beige.
Many of them knew some games played on the NES, with one saying that "Super Mario Brothers" on the NES is "better than the new Mario's for sure," but classic games such as "Metroid," "Legend of Zelda" and "Dragon Warrior 3" were never heard of.
"The Legend of Who?" says Michael.
Most of the teens were excited to play the "old-school" way, with the NES connected to a CRT-screen television. There comes a funny moment when none of them could get the "Super Mario Brothers" cartridge, which, as Madison notes, is "as big as my face," to work before blowing on it, as gamers from the 1980s and 1990s would do.
Before letting them play a round of "Super Mario Brothers," Benny asks them if they think the NES will be as successful today as it was back in the day. The answer is obvious. As Aliz notes, with so many problems on the NES, it won't be successful with the modern desire for "instant gratification."
"We're just spoiled these days," agrees Williams. "You see this one person create something that's, like, super super efficient, people won't stand for anything less."
The teens were off to a slow start on Level 1 of the game, with no thanks to "the least comfortable controller," they have ever laid their hands on, but most of them finished the round successfully. When Benny told them the gaming industry would have been nothing if wasn't for the NES, most of the teens were able to turn around and see the light.
"This is all where it started. It's all thanks to this!" says Tori.
