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More classic Nickelodeon game shows on Paramount+
MSTieScott:
When I was a kid, there were exactly two games in the video challenge area that I ever wanted to see -- and one of them was Sonic, which I didn't actually care about, but at least I had heard of it. You're right that that part of the show could have used stronger games but the producers had to work with what they could get.
I agree that Nick Arcade would have been more fun to watch if the kids had been given some time to practice the video games and the Video Zone. I shared your impression that the contestants had never seen most of the console titles before in their lives. It makes me wonder whether the contestants were selected before the tape day or whether the show was just recruiting whatever willing children they could get from families who had paid to enjoy a day at Universal Studios.
Also, Double Dare and Finders Keepers presumably didn't give their contestants practice time, so maybe nobody realized that in this case, the show would have benefited from it?
Although as I think back, my memories are telling me that the Video Zone did provide the right level of challenge. Contestants usually got at least one attempt at the final boss, at which point they completely forgot to try to avoid the obstacles and subsequently lost over and over again. It felt like only once a season or so would somebody get stuck on level one for the entire 60 seconds. Maybe it wasn't that the Video Zone was too hard; it just ended before there was time to get into it. Which we already agreed was the problem.
JasonA1:
--- Quote from: MSTieScott on April 08, 2021, 01:54:54 PM ---Also, Double Dare and Finders Keepers presumably didn't give their contestants practice time, so maybe nobody realized that in this case, the show would have benefited from it?
--- End quote ---
Yes. Although I'm immediately reminded of Marc (and Mike Klinghoffer) in this article describing how they'd try to help the kids with the Double Dare obstacle course (Ctrl+F on "The kids would be funny"). I'm sure there was a version of that happening on Nick Arcade.
But the whole of preparing contestants is something I've gained more and more appreciation for as I see it happen with my own eyes. There's a group we've both worked with who do their best to duplicate the stage setups backstage - tape out the same distance between podiums, sometimes with the art dept. building them a replica of what's in the studio. When a show gets as complex as Nick Arcade, and you're able to have a quasi "boot camp" where contestants get reps with all of the stuff they're being asked to do, the on-air product is better for it.
-Jason
WhammyPower:
--- Quote from: MSTieScott on April 08, 2021, 01:54:54 PM ---It felt like only once a season or so would somebody get stuck on level one for the entire 60 seconds.
--- End quote ---
I found at least three occasions in season 2 where someone got stuck saving people getting sucked by the UFOs for all of the 60 seconds. They're in episodes 46, 47 and 60. I've been contemplating about whether I should make a YouTube video of these or not.
And Nadine was just slower than the demise of Flash.
Loogaroo:
--- Quote from: TLEberle on April 03, 2021, 10:43:34 PM ---Finders Keepers had not only ninety seconds for the end game but six prizes. Double Dare had eight.
--- End quote ---
Finders Keepers also made the odd decision of putting their grand prize in the front game as the reward for their Instant Prize Room, but we won't get into that.
--- Quote from: MSTieScott on April 08, 2021, 04:27:10 AM ---And severely truncate the contestant interviews. Those were always a slog.
--- End quote ---
After sitting through 200+ episodes of Double Dare last summer, you would have thought at some point that kids are just too shy to talk about things extemporaneously. (The number of boys who "liked sports" was too ubiquitous to count.)
Allstar87:
--- Quote from: WhammyPower on April 08, 2021, 02:38:59 PM ---I found at least three occasions in season 2 where someone got stuck saving people getting sucked by the UFOs for all of the 60 seconds. They're in episodes 46, 47 and 60. I've been contemplating about whether I should make a YouTube video of these or not.
--- End quote ---
It happens in 45 as well. If you want to add one more, it's cleared in 61, but it takes the contestant 55 seconds to do it. Easy to see why the UFO game was my least favorite.
And if you were wondering if anyone else in season 1 ever failed to clear the first level... It happened just one other time, in the Alien Moon Base on episode 17. The poor kid was clearly trying their hardest, though.
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