Stack-Up retrospective: Blech demo | NES Works

Gyromite's companion release constitutes the only other game ever officially designed for R.O.B.... and, frankly, we'd all have been better off if R.O.B.'s library had begun and ended with Gyromite. Seemingly rushed to production (the game evidently hit Japanese store shelves a mere month after completion), Stack-Up makes poor use of R.O.B, of the NES, and of players' time and money. At least the music is catchy.

[@moshingsafely]

I think I'm the world's biggest Stack Up fan. I just love the programming mode for some reason. It's like other people do Sudoku puzzles, like comfort food for the part of their brain they like to use. Strangely, I never liked Gyromite very much! Luckily I managed to actually snag a copy of Stack Up from a Toys R Us in the dying days of the NES, and it's really funny to me that it's going for like $400 now. I mean, it's fun but not THAT fun.

[@inkajoo]

What's weird about this is you don't

[@dowingba]

If the game knows the blocks' initial positions, and it knows what moves you've told Rob to perform, it

[@HydraSavior]

I won't say I want anything to do with Nintendo's Trojan Horse into the American gaming market, because both games seem infuriatingly slow, and the hardware's price would have been better spent on other games, but having watched both your reviews I am more enamored with Stack Up's concept than Gyromite's. My thinking is that Gyromite is a game that moves a function that could be accomplished with the controller to the outside world, while Stack Up's game is the actual arrangement of the physical objects. Stack Up's "real world" portion seems more fun and unique than Gyromite's layer of abstraction for pressing the A and B buttons. Anyways, thanks for the review of both--this is the first time I've seen thoughtful coverage on the maligned peripheral.

[@221b]

I'm surprised Nintendo never tried to revisit this type of technology. With modern consoles having wireless communication built-in something like ROB would actually be substantially easier to produce now than it was in the 1980s, since they would be able to just stick a Bluetooth chip in there instead of screwing around with complicated light sensors and button-pushers.

[@AVUltra]

Honestly ROB just looked like an old robotic robot card dealer or chip sorter, kidified.

[@mario64remix]

Every time a new video appears I instantly drop everything to watch it.

[@active_ate9183]

Thanks for making the investment for capture HQ video of the game and ROB at work.

[@azforu29]

Man, this hurts. The things I recall when it comes to games. Companies, dates, developers, the memory chips used, all fading into darkness the older I get. I've seen the industry form from Intellivision to PS 5 , and I forsee creative dark days ahead. I hope I'm wrong. It's too important to me.

[@LBOOGIEDAMANN]

Just so happened to watch this the week of Christmas, perfect ending to the season.

[@SuperNorstShow]

With how long it takes for a new Chrontendo episode to come out, its refreshing to see a competing series that takes an in depth look at every game on this console. I am an avid fan of the NES, it is my favorite console, and I currently own about 160 games for it. Content like this is excellent as it points us to great games that are worth taking a look at, while also giving us an honest opinion on what to avoid. Excellent Work dude.

[@necrotick]

In your Gyromite video, you stated R.O.B. was not an accessory to play Gyromite. Rather Gyromite was an accessory to play R.O.B. That looks like the case with Stack Up, as well.

[@RT55J]

You could say, perhaps, that this game doesn't quite stack up.

[@brentjamesonparker]

You did it!!! You got that channel layout looking real nice! Great vid as always :)

[@ERMediaOfficial]

There are flash games out there that are pretty much Stack Up's Robot Programming game, but those come with a virtual robot and incredibly complex sequences which makes it quite fun. So the biggest flaw here was that the game had no digital memory. If the game remembered your commands and checked them against a set of pre-defined commands, you couldn't have cheated and the game would have been better^^

[@Damaniel3]

6:30

[@b-bum]

The WR "No ROB" speedrun of this game is one of the best things I've ever seen.

[@julescab]

I had the deluxe kit as a kid, and just seeing it work again, is a blast!

[@RubyRed64]

If they wanted to make this game extremely expensive, rhey could've put weight sensors on the pedestals to detect weight of a certain amount of blocks

[@timf7413]

While I agree it's odd that the game has no feedback mechanism for Rob, I also have to admit that I do think it underscores what you said in the Gyromite video in that it's not intended to be so much using Rob to play with the video game so much as it is using the video game to play Rob. It's basically a piece of software designed to make Rob do things as opposed to a proper game in its own right.