Othello (NES) Playthrough
97A playthrough of Acclaim's 1988 board game for the NES, Othello.
Vs. Com-1 0:38
Vs. Com-2 6:06
Vs. Com-3 12:17
Vs. Com-4 22:23
Special Mode unlocked 36:00
Vs. Com-5 36:43
Ending 53:50
The board game Othello was created in the 1970s as a variation of Reversi, and it saw its first video game adaptation by the end of the decade. By the early 80s, Othello had become a major fad in Japan and electronic versions of the game were widespread and commonplace. Dedicated set-top boxes, arcade cabinets, and cartridges for home consoles were all raking in the yen, and the Famicom was no different.
HAL's Othello, created under the leadership of Satoru Iwata, was released in late 1986, and two years later it was published in North America by Acclaim.
The box describes Othello as taking "a minute to learn, a lifetime to master," and that slogan aptly sums up the secret of the game's success. Beneath its spartan presentation lurks a devilishly challenging puzzler that can be enjoyed by players of all ages and skill levels.
The game is played with white and black pieces on a board divvied up by an 8x8 grid. You take turns slapping down pieces one at a time, and any of your opponent's pieces sitting in an unbroken line can be flipped to your color by boxing them in between two of your own pieces, and you're required to capture at least one piece on each turn. If you can't make such a move, you're forced to pass your turn until a legal move becomes available. The winner is whoever has the most pieces on the board at the end. It's simple, but some real strategy is required to play well, especially against the computer at its higher levels. It's a lot of fun if you like games that force you to stretch your brain a bit.
One neat little detail about Othello that I only recently learned: in an interview featured in a 1974 issue of The Ushio, a Japanese magazine, Goro Hasegawa, the game's creator, explained that the game's name and board design were inspired by Shakespeare's Othello. The black pieces represent Othello, the Moorish commander of the Venetian forces in Cyprus, the white pieces are Desdemona, a Venetian senator's young white daughter who marries Othello, and the green board is the field of battle. The setup creates a rather clever parallel to many of the play's themes, particularly in how it poses Othello as his own worst enemy, as well as how it positions jealousy and treachery in direct opposition to naivete and faith.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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