ONM Remembered – #424
“That’s right, blame Nintendo’s dull screen instead of your own failings.”
from Official Nintendo Magazine issue 137 (February 2004)
I feel like every darn week I’m mentioning yet another feature ONM ran for a few months before dropping, and in this case it’s Nintendo Know-it-all, wherein two members of the public would square off to prove who knows more Nintendo minutiae. I think some instalments might even have pitted a game developer against a joe schmoe, though in this case it’s pitting a couple against each other.
It’s probably aiming for a cheeky vibe that dabbles in both self-deprecating nerd humour and “haha, look at those sods who aren’t as geeky we are” affair (much like in ONM #416), though in this context it just perpetuates the stereotype of gatekeeping nerds evicting anyone from the fandom who can’t recite inane trivia. We’ve had nearly twenty years of that, lads, maybe now’s the time for a change of regime. Evict everyone who knows too much instead. I want to see communities where literally no one knows what’s going on and people think Spyro the Dragon’s real name is Lance Duboule. Who’s going to prove them wrong?
I kinda like this. The silly commentary is what sold me on it.
Come to think of it, silly commentary sells a lot of things in this magazine, and in life too, I guess. Without silly commentary I probably wouldn’t watch Let’s Plays and MST3K likely wouldn’t be a thing.