Remember a few days ago when I shared the Angry Video Game Nerd episode on the Power Glove? Well, it was sort of a preview for this video: A full on, sponsored by Mattel, 40 minute video on the Power Glove!
Oh man, this thing is a mess. While the video does show proper usage of the glove, the fact that you constantly have to change program modes, follow a somewhat cumbersome calibration process, and actually still try to play the game makes the power glove not look nearly as awesome as advertised.
The video features clips from the film The Wizard, a personal favorite, which at the time would have been cool to see (more on that in the future.)
“I love the Power Glove. It’s so bad.”
More interestingly though, the video actually acknowledges in some cases how hard it is to play a game with it, since it mentions heavily in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game use of the “thrash mode”, a mode in the glove that attacks at wild. Seriously? This is the “better” option than logical, well timed attacks? Alright then, maybe that’s why the person playing the game doesn’t make it past level 2.
Seriously, in most of these games, the player doesn’t actually make it very far with the glove. Kind of defeats the purpose of the glove being a better way to play if people can’t get as far as they could normally, right?
Anyway, this video was produced by the then-new Game Players magazine, one that in the mid 90’s would become one of my favorite things to get each month. Perhaps I should write about that later in the month, but for now, the Power Glove. It’s so bad.