The 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is nearing its 30th birthday, making it positively ancient in most teenagers’ eyes. That makes it perfect fodder for the The Fine Bros’ latest video in their Kids React… series. Here they investigate how a bunch of teenagers, including Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams, react to the old school console.
While the 17 year old Williams, who plays Arya Stark in the HBO series, and some of her fellow teens are initially confused by the mystery object – “It looks like a brick,” muses one of the teens, “from, like, 1920,” adds another – most of them are actually quick to embrace it.
The NES was released in the US in 1985, and is largely given credit for reviving an industry devastated by the video game crash of 1983. That’s more than 10 years before the oldest of our teen gamers here was even born, but that does not deter some of them from reacting to the console somewhat nostalgically. That is, of course, after they figure out how to turn it on, using an ancient and well-tested method.
“I can’t imagine a world without home video games. That’s like saying TV wouldn’t work. Or like a movie wouldn’t work,” says one awed gamer. “It’s a classic. Like a classic vinyl record.” Williams adds that it’s a shame “kids” today are missing out all of the fun, while another gamer astutely points out that owning a NES today would be the pinnacle of hipsterdom. “You’re going to get the highest hipster status ever known!”
Other reaction videos from The Fine Bros include one where a whole bunch of kids are completely befuddled by the concept of a walkman and another where children are introduced to 1977 Apple II computers and are equally confused.
