Remember This? Contra NES Speed Run

The yesteryears of gaming have become prime pieces of historically poignant culture bait. It's still just within a lifetime ago that things like the Atari and NES made up for the bulk of our free-time when it came to interactive entertainment, yet it's easy to forget just how challenging and fun those kind of games used to be. Well, you don't have to thank us right now, but we're bringing back the good with the bad, allowing you to reminisce on just how challenging and nerve-wrecking the original Contra on the NES used to be.

There's no better way to enjoy a Friday afternoon as you prep to go all-in on a bright and sunny weekend (with a dash of snow) than to break out those fond memories of side-scrolling, platform action brought to you by none other than one of the original Japanese masters of the burgeoning digital age of video games that budded in the 80s like a large zennia basking in the summer glow after coming off a rainy spring... Konami.

Now the real meat and potatoes is in the skill exhibited in the video by Toa d (presumably pronounced toe-ah dee). The kid drops some wicked side-scrolling skills like he came right out of a retro film featuring a video game prodigy trying to get to California.

His impeccable skill impressing young and old viewers alike – especially with his uncanny run through Stage 5 – is just another reminder that gamers these days have it off easy, with all the checkpoints and auto-saves and the whole Logan go here and do that cues.

But that's not all. After you enjoy Toa d dropping skills worth a dome full of dimes, there's another run-through from xISOmaniac from the popular Battletoads game. Check this out below.

Now whether this guy is a maniac for pilfering ISOs from places that are frequented more often by lawyers representing the MPAA, RIAA and video game publishers than college students who are penniless and broke, is entirely up for debate, but no one can deny that this maniac has mad skills.

This guy also has a description that would make the speech writers for Oscar winners feel like they've been wasting time writing middle-school reports about summer vacation. I'm not going to repost all of it, and you'll probably want to check it out on his YouTube page, but here's a snippet...

The maniac describes a lot more of how his passion for speed-runs came to be, and why he has a channel on YouTube. It's some interesting stuff, well worth reading for that bit of anecdotal history alone.

Have there been any games from your far (or recent) past that hits you hard with nostalgia?