Double Dare (NES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
190A playthrough of Gametek's 1990 license-based game show game for the NES, Double Dare.
In this video I play two games against the CPU. The first is at difficulty level two, and the second, beginning at 17:17, is played on level three.
Double Dare was a popular game show for kids that ran on Nickelodeon back in the late 80s, and it was a regular go-to show for my sister and I for several years. It was part of a run of shows that seemed to celebrate making a big mess - remember Wild and Crazy Kids, You Can't Do That On Television, and What Would You Do? They were are staples of the weird fad.
The Double Dare adaptation for the NES is a fun game that has been ported over from the PC version. Like the show, it pits two pairs of kids against one another in a trivia contest. If you don't know the answer, or if you think that the other team doesn't, you can dare them. They can either answer it (for double points) or double dare you to answer. At this point, if you don't answer the question you'll take part in a physical challenge. After this back-and-forth, the game will eventually end with the winning team running an obstacle course for prizes.
The physical challenges include things like golfing with eggs, throwing bananas at gorillas, and catching pies in your pants. They all rely on a simple power gauge (like you'd find in a golf game) to fire something at something else, and they're mildly amusing distractions between questions.
(I do wish that they had included the nose picking game, though. I loved that one!)
The final round gives you a minute to clear eight obstacles. These events feel a bit like Track & Field style challenges with the heavy button-mashing that's required.
Though it's based on the old CGA DOS game (which is actually the one I played as a kid), Rare gave the game some nice cosmetic upgrades in the port to the NES. The graphics are bright and lively (not to mention the impressive bit of parallax scrolling at the start of the obstacle course round), and the soundtrack is yet another example of Dave Wise's talent for composing chiptunes.
True to the show, there's not a lot of substance here, Double Dare is fun. It would've been great rental fodder back in its day.
(And if you'd like to see something thoroughly random, here's a game show game that actually starred Marc Sommers in FMV form! https://youtu.be/_hQnVZZUB0M )
*This video is a newly recorded replacement for the 240p one that I uploaded about six years ago.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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