When diplomacy failed on NES
Good thing relations between the U.S. and Russia are much friendlier 30 years later!
In case you had forgotten, the Nintendo Entertainment System arrived in the ’80s.
That means you'll see lots of telltale markers of the era throughout NES Works. America's distrust of Japan meant there were constant efforts to scrub all signs of Japanese origins from games and packaging. There's going to be lots of surfer lingo, dude. Expect some intense neon colors on boxes before too long, too.
Oh, and Russians were almost always presented as very, very bad people.
See this week's video for an example, as the second of the three games covered here straight-up demonizes (and revolves around the indiscriminate slaughter of) Soviets. Meanwhile, the first game echoes the impact Russian-U.S. tensions had on the Olympic games.
And the third game... well, I dunno. It's about making hamburgers. Everyone loves that.
But a common thread weaving together two out of three games ain't bad, right?
I'd like to say U.S.-Russian relations are much better all these years later, but those old Cold War tensions have been simmering for a long time and keep bubbling to the surface. Oh well.
