The NES Advantage feels small when you hold it with adult hands. This is the controller many of us grew up with, the arcade-style monster Nintendo released for the original NES. With its hard plastic shell, solid construction, and steel bottom it could also serve as an efficient murder weapon in the wrong hands. The buttons were much larger than the standard controller, and the Advantage had many built-in bells and whistles that seemed like a revelation.
The Advantage may not seem like much when we look at the arcade-quality sticks for sale now, but at its release it certainly set the bar for the state-of-the-art console controllers. It was something you drooled over in the stores. Even now it feels like a brick, a wonder in the time of small, plastic, square controllers. The NES Max? That was a piece of crap. The Advantage was what everyone wanted.
Extra features perfected
The Advantage offered a number of new ideas to players, and the execution was nearly flawless. Not only could you turn on turbo for either individual button, the dial above the toggle allowed you to control the speed of the turbo, with a blinking light showing you exactly how quickly the turbo function would work in the game. For shooters this was a big leg up, as every gun was now a machine gun. It’s not just that turbo was offered, but how intuitive, inviting, and adjustable the feature proved to be.
The controller also had two plugs to connect to the NES, one for each player. With the flip of a switch you could use the Advantage for either the first or second player, which meant that you only needed one controller for both players if you were playing a game that featured alternating play—another genius feature that added value to the controller.
Loading comments...
