NintendoLegend.com – Eric Bailey has loved the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) video game console for over 20 years. Although he does enjoy picking up more titles, he has always been more of a player than a collector, preferring loose cartridges that he can actually push into the machine than any complete-in-box sets. He has a huge respect for such collectors, but a couple years ago, he had an issue when he was trying to research information on NES games he did not have and wanted to possibly try playing sometime.
He found that he was dissatisfied with the available reviews currently residing throughout the Internet. Nobody, not even certain NES experts, had a full set of trusted reviews available to browse. In fact, many sites that had a section specifically for NES reviews were woefully incomplete. But on sites with reviews for every title, like GameFAQs.com, the reviews varied wildly in their opinions, length, writing quality, factual legitimacy, and style. This was especially an issue for slightly obscure titles, where nobody could seem to agree on whether it was any good, nor could they express their opinion in clear terms.
Exactly one year ago, he began his mission to simply have one page on the Internet where all the NES titles were listed in alphabetic order, and each title had a review for it, with a rating score. Thus began the NintendoLegend.com project, which he often describes as “one crazy retro gamer's quest to write a quality review for every NES video game ever released in North America.”
In one year, that first review has been followed by over 150 more, and has truly become a labor of love. What began as a generic Wordpress blog and a new Twitter account has blossomed into a website with 8-bit flavor, a humble following, and a swell of new visitors through NES-related Google searches and links from more prominent websites such as NESGuide.com.
“The best part of it, probably, is the conversations I've had the privilege of having with fellow retro gamers passionate about the NES,” Bailey explained. “There's always been a great source of enjoyment in finding commonalities with people, and retro gaming is no exception. I've had a blast doing this, and I think people are really beginning to realize that I'm serious about building this library of what I hope to be a complete collection of informative, comprehensive, well-written, fairly objective, enjoyable-to-read NES game reviews. We'll see.”
Despite a couple significant hiatuses brought on by “real life” events, questions concerning his direction and techniques, and the occasional minor controversy or disagreement brought on by a review or Facebook post, Eric has consistently shown a commitment to a formula of simply posting NES reviews, one after the other, as a following gradually builds to see him through the entirety of the challenge and wish him the best.
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On a personal note, and speaking of wishing him the best, I want to both congratulate Eric on his first year anniversary, and thank him here for being the first site to link to Flailthroughs. We'd barely been around a month longer than Nintendo Legend, and knowing somebody was reading at that early juncture, before the numbers were proving it, was really heartening.
This is a man who is passionate about the NES and puts a lot of thought into his reviews, and watching him undertake this enormous project has been a real treat. Congratulations, Eric!
Simply: Thanks. :D
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