Last night we staged the now-traditional Retronauts-at-PAX classic free play room takeover, a bloodless flash mob coup in which listeners descend upon the retro console play zone and hog all the machines. One lucky (?) attendee even enjoyed an impromptu Retronauts mini-episode as Bob Mackey, reader Brian Kent and I provided running commentary on his playthrough of Blaster Master.
The real highlight of the night, however, was our discovery that Chip ‘N Dale: Rescue Rangers for NES was a masterpiece decades ahead of its time. Seriously, the thing Rescue Rangers accomplished 20-odd years ago are only now being followed up on by modern platformers. Co-op play, including mutual harassment? Returning to play after dying by floating around invulnerably on a balloon? Yeah, that’s basically New Super Mario Bros. Wii in a nutshell. But it gets better! The game was also clearly worked on by some of the people who made Mega Man 2, aka one of the greatest games of all time.
