My very first NES Power Pad

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

So, I had some DP store credit burning a hole in my pocket ... and since Soul Calibur 4 will likely be a "greatest hit" in a years time, I figured why not buy something of the classic variety.

While perusing the wonderful aisles and end-caps of the store, I spotted two near mint condition NES power pads on the floor of the store.

Between all the (potentially undeserved) continued hype surrounding Wii Fit, the onset of "Summer Olympic fever", and a few days of enjoying New International Track & Field on DS ... I already had some serious athletic gaming on my brain.

While unfolding the pads to check their condition (again, near mint) I came to the sudden realization that even though I grew up in the NES era, and managed a Funcoland for about 5 years (and within all of those years did massive used NES business) I had NEVER OWNED or USED a POWER PAD!

That was all she wrote. I went over to the used NES games, picked out all the power pad titles that Joe had in stock - World Class Track Meet, Super Team Games, Street Cop, and Short Order / Eggsplode ... grabbed both pads (assuming I'd need two for 2 player games ... which I think was a mistake on my part ... but I'll keep one for my collections sake as I've noticed a slight variation on the printing layout on both of them) and made my purchase.

Lissette and I spent the better part of the evening with my Gen Nex and the pads. Both work great (and surprisingly well considering all the historically negative reviews I've read on the device) and I'm amused to look back at the past 20-something years of peripheral history, from Wii Fit, to DDR pads, to the Power Pad/Family Trainer Pad, the more things change the more they stay the same.

While all of the games are sweat-busting workouts that really can't be maintained for more than 20-30 minutes at a time (unless you're a really well conditioned cardio athlete) they're all pretty fun. Lis and I agree that Eggsplode is probably the most fun and least intense of the bunch, and World Class Track Meet is the simplest and most fun of the athletic type games.

I see that Bandai Namco are bringing the peripheral back for the Wii ... and I look forward to picking that up as well now that I've had a very recent first taste of the device.

I really wish that the things could be used for standard NES games that would be appropriate for single-button-press movements like Tetris or Pac-Man.

And what US Power Pad games actually use SIDE A of the pad? Anybody have any idea about that? None of the ones I picked up did.