Wow, I was just talking about this to someone yesterday. Eerie...

The best thing about the power pad was, after borrowing a friend's for a day or two, I discovered that I could make tremendous jumps by jumping off the pad for a few seconds, then back onto it. New world record!!

so balance board version 1?

haha I remember playing on this thing! That track and field game was awesome. Wasn't there some sort of police/detective game too where you had to roam the streets and hunt down criminals and stuff too?

@Jordan311: Billy Club! [en.wikipedia.org]

World Class Track Meet, man that was fun. I remember getting tired and using my hands in a crunch to try and win.

They should incorporate this controller to the wii. Just imagine, running on the spot waving the controller around...

It never ceases to amaze me how ludicrously crap adverts from the 80s/90s seem nowadays.

I still have mine from way back then and it still works! My favorite way to cheat in World Class Track Meet was by using your fists in stead of feet to run super fast.

screw the new pad commercial, what you guys need to do is hit the menu button and select the video called "real life pokemon battle". thats some funny shit.

@XenonXylophone: They aren't much better now. Tune in to any kid-oriented station and wait for the commercial breaks. Scary stuff.

They should just re-use this commercial for the Wii-Fit.
You know render in the little Wii-fit pad and they're set!

I always thought it was really nasty how they all wore socks. Yuck!

So WiiFit is pretty much an updated Power Pad?

@QuickPick:

Funny you should ask... looks like it's making a comeback, tho not till next year, apparently.

@XenonXylophone: yes, because commercials today are SO much better lol.

The power pad was so great. I dont' think I ever played any game for it other than World Class Track Meet though.

FUCK YEAH!

@SirMeow: not just the socks, but their general appearance was rather revolting

lol my friend had this. we used to play it a lot. Then SNES Came and it was all Maximum Carnage, Mortal Kombat 2, and TMNT Turtles in Time. Oh and Knights of the Round, and the WWF Game with the superpowers, that was pretty funny. Oh what I would do to go back to that time.

yeeeeeeeeeeeah billy club! That brings back memories!

:-/ Who the heck advertised back then? Wow, Sony sure had some creepy commercials, but at least they weren't absolutely corny like this.... thank goodness Nintendo has some good advertisers this time >_> If they still did this with the wii, wow, that would be hilariously bad.

@HUEG_BOSS: My brother and I would use our fists. So much so we got calluses and blisters, hehe.

Bah, the point of the powerpad was to add the extra bullshitting power of "excercise" to kids' arguments for owning an NES. It worked too ^-^ Some of the games were actually decent; Track Meet brought out kids inner hacker by allowing all sorts of creative cheating, and Short/Order Eggsplode were actually pretty entertaining on their own. Not so much Short Order (simon with jumping) but Eggsplode is actually making me a bit nostalgic. Sort of a timed Whack-a-Mole game, with each hole keyed to a button on the pad; very frantic, and the layouts were good enough you had to be strategic about it. That was the only one that really delivered on the whole exercise thing, come to think of it. The last few levels should be used to train fucking ninjas.

And how is this ANY stupider than the average modern toy commercial? Watch a Pokemon advertisement some time: they're using the exact same playbook.

....IIII HAVE THE POWAAAAAAAAAARRRRR!!!!!

... and by the way ... it's POWER

Ninentdo is secretly attempting to make Americans more fit, so when the mother country finally passes us in its capitalistic endeavors, they can outsource all labor back to the U.S. and make us slaves of industry. Having us fit and able to operate technology is just a "good investment" in the business venture.

Now you're playing with power!
...
...yeah...
...power gets boring....

Anybody here play Short Order & Eggsplode? Eggsplode has got to be one of the better games for the Power Pad (maybe the best?), mainly because it is about 8000 times more manic than World Class Track Meet. All it consists of is hitting the corresponding button on the pad to what is happening on screen, but by the time you hit the later levels you're jumping all over the place slamming your feet on the ground trying to get those bombs before they...eggsplode! Oh so clever marketing. If you're still into making an ass of yourself these days, pick up a copy (and make sure you have the pad, too).

Super Team Games Super Team Sucked. It had a certain rythm to it that 9 year olds hyped up on Dr. Pepper & Pixie Stix couldn't slow themselves down enough to play it. That and I still have no idea how to do the damn skateboarding section...

@poematik14: That is exactly what I was thinking.

I remember playing Short Order and Eggsplode. My fondest memeory of the power pad was my dad trying to be cool and play, he twisted his ankle, fell down and tried to hold on to my tv; knocked it down and swore videogames off for the rest of his life. ohh...nintendo if you only would haved focused on the casual gamers then, my dad would have been sold and I my videogame collection would have been way bigger.

How much money was the Power Pad? Anyone remember?

Did anyone else read the article and notice Populous coming out for the DS? That was news I could use.

hah! in your fance, Dance Dance Revolution. There was a game long before that had fat kids cheating and using their hands.

Thanks for sharing that commercial with us! That was the exact bundle I got when I was just a little kid. I remember it had the power pad, zapper, NES system, 2 controllers, and a single cartridge that contained the original Mario, DuckHunt/Clay Shooter, and the Track game where you run on the pad. I still remember the day my brother and I got the NES, we were way beyond happy. Ah the joys of childhood, when I never could have even begun to imagine or dream of systems like Xbox360, PS3, and super powerful game PC's.

LOL I remember sitting down and beating on the powerpad with my fists so that I could beat the fastest opponents. Good times :)

The trick was to use the tips of your fingers like you were poking someone, that always got the fastest times.

oh god... "body power"... hah hah. classic.

for the wii... "wrist power"... maybe that'd send the wrong message though.

I'd still take this over seeing my ugly Mii in Wii Fit.

NES, 2 Controllers, Zapper, 3-in-1 cart, and the power pad. Back when consoles were worth shilling out for.

@BrainofJTD: Funny, I dont recall reading the FCC release information about that sku. I wonder what its cost to manufacture is, and if it had the 90 or the 65nm chipset.

Have we changed? Or did the business model change?

00:16
How come theirs some creepy kid staring and probably smelling their feet?
Why does he look so excited, seriously.

I roomed with a guy in college who actually built a DDR pad from scratch out of one of these and the guts of a PS2 controller. Kinda neat in a mildly unsettling way.

@BrainofJTD: Yeah really... these days you're lucky to get the AC adapter to plug it into the wall, let alone a game to play on it.

God i remember this. My parents bought it for my little brother and I. It was so freaking cool waking up on christmas morning and seeing this all set up. My dad was always the one who had to "test" everything to make sure it a good toy or not. The trick was to use your hands. ;)

@supercrap: Same here. Triple jumps got tricky though :)

@sadkermit: @hueg_boss:@lestat730: same here with the hands. That's so funny if you think about it.

How can Wii Fit compare with the power pad?

Nice to see there's a lot of us 'old' gamers in here who got the NES when it first came out :) Things have changed so much... It's truly amazing how far we've come in 20-25 years. With kids being born today with systems like Xbox360 and PS3 out I can only imagine what my future kids and even my future grandchildren will be playing...

I had a better trick than using my hands to run super fast ! The idea was to have something to get a grip in front of you (like a table) to be really stable, and run by only lifting your heels. It was super fast and made your legs hurt after 2 minutes !