Nintendo

"The Adventures of Lolo? You better have saved the receipt!"

Nintendo is one of the biggest video game companies today, known for its influence and impact on the video game industry. The Brothers Chaps have praised Nintendo in many interviews and have made many Nintendo references in the Homestar Runner body of work.

The probable reason for the prevalence of Nintendo allusions throughout Matt and Mike's work is the central part the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) played in their upbringing^[1]. Along with cartoons and breakfast cereal, the NES was an important part of their Saturday mornings as children. As one of their motivations in creating Homestar Runner has been to recreate this lost cultural experience^[2], it is not surprising that they have infused their work liberally with references to Nintendo.

Appearances by system

Game & Watch

• Handheld Games Menu — The menu looks like a Game & Watch handheld.
• Pigs on Head LCD Version — This game is specifically designed after the generic look of the Game & Watch series of LCD games produced by Nintendo from 1980 to 1991.

Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)

• Email japanese cartoon — In an Easter egg, you can click on one of Homestar Runner's tapes labeled NES endings to view the endings from various NES games.
• Email mascot — An NES is among the old electronics that The Cheat pummels with a golf club.
• Under Construction — The credits include references to Nintendo employees Hiroshi Yamauchi, Shigeru Miyamoto, and Takashi Tezuka.
• Sample of Style Too: Some Outtakes — The Brothers Chaps can be seen playing an NES Top Loader.
• Email Videro Games — The controller Strong Sad is holding in the instruction manual is very similar to an NES controller.
• Stinkoman 20X6 — The game contains a couple of NES references.
• Email bedtime story — The Cheat and Moses Malone are shown holding NES controllers as they play The Adventures of Lolo and The Adventures of Bayou Billy in "The Ch8t's Cheatventures in Moses MaloneLand".

Game Boy (GB)

The Game Boy all up in a blender

• Email 2 emails — Homestar claims to have built a time machine out of Strong Bad's blender and Game Boy.
• Thy Dungeonman II — When you try to give away something you do not have, the game states: "Just like ye to giveth away something thou doesn't have. And ye STILL has my Game Boy."
• Teen Girl Squad Issue 10 — Tompkins plays the original 1989 Game Boy. The Koopa shell and the mention of Bowser possibly indicate he is playing Super Mario Land, although Bowser never appeared in the Super Mario Land series. However, only two games made for the original Game Boy, Tetris Attack, and Yoshi's Cookie, featured Bowser, as they were both ported from other systems.
• Email alternate universe — The Cheat purchases an alternate universe portal made from a Game Boy in a blender.
• Teen Girl Squad Issue 13 — Tompkins is again seen playing his Game Boy, this time with a virtual pet.
• Trogday Micro Game — The game is designed in the style of a Game Boy game, and can be played using a Game Boy/Game Boy Color emulator.
  • Burninate the Barnyard — This spinoff re-skin shares the visual style and emulator compatibility of the original.
• Marzipan Beef Reverser — This game is designed in the style of a Game Boy game, and can be played using a Game Boy/Game Boy Color emulator.

Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)

• Super NES — The title is the name of the system, as the toon was made using Mario Paint.
• The running gag Couch Mumbling involves a sleep-talking Strong Bad referencing a SNES game or accessory.
• RhinoFeeder — This game is apparently playable on the Super FunMachine, a parody of the SNES.
• Strong Bad is a Bad Guy — This toon was also made using Mario Paint.
• Let us give TANKS! — In an Easter egg, the "next generation Gamepad" seen with Reynold's brother's action figure resembles that of an SNES.
• SBCG4AP Advertisement — Strong Bad states the game was made with the Super FX chip, which refers to the Super FX enhancement chip installed in some SNES games, such as Star Fox, allowing the system to render polygons. Strong Bad also mentions they used Mode 7 which allowed the SNES to render an impression of 3D graphics in games like F-Zero.
• Email specially marked — Strong Bad's brain resembles the second form of the final boss of Contra III: The Alien Wars.
• The Homestar Runner Enters The Spooky Woods — Pom Pom's costume is Burt the Bashful from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. Strong Bad asks him to "do some Mode 7".

Virtual Boy (VB)

• StrongBadZone game and Vector Strong Bad — The 3D vector graphics mimic those of the Virtual Boy.

Nintendo 64 (N64)

Thy Dungeonman 3

"N64 Paddle" sprite

• The catchphrase of the Rocoulm "Come on in heeeeere..." is similar to that heard when Mario enters the "Big Boo's Haunt" stage in Super Mario 64.
• Thy Dungeonman 3 — One of the possible presents that the hag might have gotten is a Nintendo 64 Controller (called an "N64 Paddle" in this game).
• SBCG4AP Advertisement — Strong Bad states the game was made with "that red thing you stuck in the N64", referring to the Expansion Pak.

Nintendo GameCube (GCN)

• Email sbemail 206 — Homestar mentions the WaveBird, a wireless controller for the GameCube.

Nintendo DS (NDS)

Homebrew Poptire DS

• Weekly Fanstuff, May 24, 2007 — The entry was a Nintendo DS port of Population: Tire.
• PAX East - 8 Apr 2018 — The Brothers Chaps show off several of their WarioWare D.I.Y. microgames in various stages of completion, using the DS game and its companion software for the Wii. These microgames have also been shown on social media, and were later released in a YouTube compilation.

Nintendo Wii

• Viidelectrix — This section of Videlectrix's website, named after the Wii, includes versions of classic games available for play through the Wii's internet channel.
• Limozeen Live! — There is a Wii in the background.
• Strong Bad Gameways — The entire short is a parody of the Wii's ubiquitous safety warnings, done in the style of an airline safety film.
• Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People — WiiWare game series developed by Telltale Games and Videlectrix. The corresponding advertisement and gameplay trailer both feature the Wii. The game consists of 5 episodes, each priced at 1000 Wii Points and released on a monthly basis from August-December 2008.
  • Homestar Ruiner
  • Strong Badia the Free
  • Baddest of the Bands
  • Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective
  • 8-Bit is Enough
• Workin' on the Game — In preparation for the SBCG4AP game, one of the Videlectrix Guys attempts to use a Wii remote on an old-fashioned computer.
• Several Homestar videos have played on the Nintendo Channel.
• Baddest of the Bands — The King of Town eats a Wii remote.

Nintendo Wii U

• @StrongBadActual tweet (30 Aug 2016) — Strong Bad responds to his robot-panted self being modded into a copy of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U by saying he'll be finally able to take down Tom Nook and his crime family. Tom Nook is the character in the Animal Crossing series of games who you pay your mortgage to, commonly joked in fan circles to be a mob boss.

Nintendo Switch

• @StrongBadActual—
  • August 25, 2017 — Strong Bad encourages a user to call Nintendo or Telltale Games and vote in favor of "SBCG5AP" on Nintendo Switch.
  • September 22, 2017 — Strong Bad asks a user to call their local Telltale representative for a Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People Switch port.
  • January 6, 2018 — In response to a suggestion of a Videlectrix collection on Nintendo Switch, Strong Bad replies that he needs to find experts in porting "games that look like they were from an obsolete console and were played in a now-obsolete player" to a "current console that plays games that look like they are from an obsolete console".
  • January 14, 2018 — Strong Bad suggests putting the entire Videlectrix catalog on Nintendo Switch in the form of "Videlectrix Collectrix Volumes 1-5".
  • August 7, 2018 — Strong Bad tells someone to call their local Telltalem'n or Telltalelady about a SBCG4AP Switch port.
  • September 20, 2018 — Strong Bad dismisses the idea of being added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, saying he is a "niche-cult-l33t-indie-underground-web-chicken tenders-acquired taste for dorks in-the-know".
  • January 30, 2019 — Strong Bad doubts SBCG4AP is high on the priority list for being ported to Nintendo Switch.
  • February 6, 2019 — Strong Bad discusses getting the rights for a SBCG4AP Switch port from Telltale Games.
  • April 16, 2019 — Strong Bad "votes yes one million" on Stinkoman being in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
  • May 13, 2019 — When asked about a Homestar Runner Switch game, Strong Bad replies that Videlectrix "doesn't have the clout they (never) once had".
  • June 12, 2019 — Strong Bad says he wishes he was in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (or "Super Smashy Towne Ultra-mint").
  • September 19, 2019 — Strong Bad wants SBCG4AP released on Switch, but instead considers "Dange-VR-esque: The Mighty Oak Has Fallen And OH Look Out It's Falling Directly On You Because This Is VR!!".
  • February 27, 2020 — When asked about a Stinkoman 20X6 Switch port, Strong Bad tells the user to start working on it, and notes that "Switch port" sounds like how Coach Z might say "sauce pot".

Miscellaneous

The Brothers Chaps' personal gaming lounge?

• Email environment — Homestar Runner needs to insert a game pak, a reference to Nintendo’s cartridges names.
• 2003 Pulse interview — Matt says, in Bubs's voice, "There was this one time when I hooked up my lawnmower to my Nintendo. And after that, I got the high score every time!"
• Email lackey — In a DVD Easter egg, Strong Bad says that he is "already playing Nintendo in the other room" by the time that Strong Sad finishes reading the Strong Lib.
• Hallrunner game — When talking to the mother, she calls Nintendo "intendro".
• Bug In Mouth Disease — When Strong Bad removes his head from the TV, a room with a New-Style NES, an SNES, a black GameCube, and some Nintendo 64 game cartridges are visible.
• @StrongBadActual tweet (15 Jan 2019) — When asked who he mains in Super Smash Bros., Strong Bad replies he strictly "Stinkomains".

Sources

1. ^  The Boston Globe Interview - 9 Aug 2003
2. ^  All Things Considered Interview - 8 May 2005

See Also

• Atari 2600
• Couch Mumbling
• Donkey Kong
• Floppy Disk Container
• Kirby
• The Legend of Zelda
• Mario
• Mario Paint
• Mega Man
• Metroid
• Namco
• Pokémon
• Punch-Out!!
• Retro Gaming Character Variations
• Sega
• Sega Tapes
• Street Fighter
• Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People
• Nintendo Power Interview - July 2008
• Video Game References