light gun peripheral in the gun-happy Reagan days of the ‘80s, was a large part of its success. With its vibrant graphics and long, seamlessly scrolling levels,was a revelation at the time; it caught your attention by looking better than any home game had before, kept that attention with some of the best play and design seen in the medium, and then rewarded that attention with a long, deep experience that grew more impressive the more you played it.
Beyond the quality of its technology and the zeitgeist-capturing nature of its sci-fi peripherals, the NES also excelled because it arrived at the perfect time. There was a whole sub-generation of children who were too young to have had an Atari 2600 before the crash. By 1987, when the NES really took off in the U.S., the 2600 was over four years removed from its successful era, and the 5200, Atari’s failed follow-up system that contributed to the crash, had come and gone.