The New 8-Bit Heroes Screening & Review

Promo Banner From The Movie Event Page

I recently attended the sole Los Angeles screening/premiere of video game documentary, "The New 8-Bit Heroes", and was surprised to learn that it was more than just a simple documentary and that it had quite a few other things surrounding it.

Retro gaming is definitely on an upturn at the moment and the NES is at the forefront of the current retro game boom. The plot of the film is equal parts love letter to retro NES gaming and a look at how this classic gaming scene can survive, and potentially thrive, in the current age and market where a game can be retro, but not archaic. By this I mean people can plan and marvel over retro-inspired games like "Shovel Knight", but might not wish to play new games created on actual retro hardware, at least not in the mainstream. Well, how does one documentary fit all this in you ask? Well, that is where things start to get complicated.

Director Joe Granato explaining the NES Maker

Just need to wait for that blu-ray...

Let's look at the documentary itself first. At its heart "The New 8-Bit Heroes" is a film about a group of people (headed by Joe Granato, who also directed) who decide to complete an NES game that was conceptualized by a young Granato and a childhood friend at the height of the NES' popularity. This game proposal, really a series of conceptual drawings made by children labeled "Mystic Searches", was submitted to Nintendo and rejected in due course. I have no idea how many others have done this sort of thing as children, but I have personal recollections of sending in writings of mine to publications I had no business submitting to at a young age, so this resonated with me a bit. Now this game goes from a series of musty drawings, to what appears to be a flash game, then embarks on the long, slow road to become a full-fledged NES game that takes elements of Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Castlevania, and many other classics and mixes them together to get what honestly looks like one of the most unique games I've seen in a long while, retro or otherwise.

Along this journey the team encounters many obstacles such as learning obscure programming language and techniques, overcoming the minuscule size of the NES cartridge without sacrificing too much in the way of content, and learning how to downscale their music to be able to be played using the NES' sound capabilities. They're aided by a colorful cast of characters including James Rolfe (Angry Video Game Nerd), Pat Contri (NES Punk), Norman Caruso (Gaming Historian), writer Piers Anthony, former Nintendo employee Howard Philips, and scores of others. Really, I could spend the rest of this article simply listing all the amazing people who appeared in this documentary, but take this small sampling for now. Anyhow, after many stops and obstacles the crew manages to complete the game and all their hard work ultimately pays off.

The New 8-Bit Heroes Trailer

Random edited screen of "Mystic Searches"

"Mystic Searches" title screen

Now before you start the outcries of "Spoilers!" remember that the documentary is just part of it. This is where the rest of the LA event comes into play. Sure there was a movie to promote, as well as the game "Mystic Searches" itself, but Joe Granato and crew were also out to promote their new game-making tool the NES Maker. This tool aims to make the engine that was used to create "Mystic Searches" into a commercially available product. The audience, as well as passerbys, were allowed to take a look at this tool, see it in action, have its many features laid out by Granato, and even allowed to take a stab at modifying a few of "Mystic Searches" screens. This was arguably one of the best parts of the night and I am pleased to say that I not only tried it out, but also managed to crash it. Also, due to the fact that it was the game being edited itself, those who tried it out also got to demo "Mystic Searches" in a somewhat indirect way. Having had some experience with other game making tools this one was pretty simple and easy to understand and I hope to report on it more in the future. I also hope to demo more of the "Mystic Searches" game itself since it sadly seemed like an afterthought of sorts at the screening.

So what is "The New 8-Bit Heroes"? Is it a documentary promoting the new game "Mystic Searches"? Well it is in that that is the main focus of the plot, but the film is more about the journey than the finished product. Is it a film to promote the NES Maker tool? Well no, except for a casual line at the film's epilogue it isn't even mentioned even though a lot of the current marketing seems focused on it. Is it a nostalgia piece about the NES? Yes and no, as this is definitely a factor, but not the film's main point even though it does tug on nostalgia a bit more than is necessary at times. In the end its really hard to talk about the film itself with so many other projects and products surrounding it. The film is definitely a good one, but there were scenes that felt just a bit too dramatized for my tastes. I can understand the need to recreate certain scenes and encounters, but I would have preferred a more raw documentary. Some of the appearances were a bit of a stretch as well, as if they were included simply for the sake of having their name and picture on a poster as their input wasn't always vital to progressing the story. These points make me wonder how much of this documentary was actually scripted. With that said, there also felt like there was too much story being crammed into this one film at points, but the editing was well-done and it never felt like it dragged.

Don't get me wrong though, the film is still amazing and I don't want it to seem that I walked away disappointed, because I didn't. In short, I recommend this film whole-heatedly and hope that more people take a look as it becomes more readily available. I also hope to get my hands on both "Mystic Searches" and the NES Maker soon!

-Manuel (alavic_222)

Fore More Information:
The New 8-Bit Heroes Website: http://thenew8bitheroes.com/
The New 8-Bit Heroes Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheNew8bitHeroes