‘The Wizard’: A 96 Minute Commercial for the Nintendo Power Glove

The movie biz was a strange place back in the 1980s. During that decade more than any other, Hollyweird tried adapting anything and everything into a movie if they thought it might make them a buck or two.

Never was this more apparent than in 1989, when Universal Pictures released beloved cult classic (and critical failure) The Wizard, a 96 minute glorified commercial for Nintendo’s ‘Power Glove’ add-on.

[Neonridr]

"I love the Power Glove... it's so bad"

[theflamey]

I want to find one just for the hell of it

[Neonridr]

I ended up getting one long after it was the "it" product (if it ever was considered that). I got it from Toys R' Us when they were on clearance so I ended up paying $20 for it, I believe.

Honestly, I don't even think I got $20 worth of enjoyment out of it, lol. It was so finicky and rarely worked well for most games. I ended up taking the glove off and just using the controller on the side of it to play things, lol.

[rainslacker]

I actually got one when it first came out. The controls sucked. The glove itself was pretty cool to play robot cyborg with, and the controller on the top of the glove itself was easier to use than the NES controller, so I did that a lot. I can't recall it ever controlling a game very well with the motion control stuff though...even the games made for it. It certainly didn't work as well as was demonstrated in the movie.

@Neon

Don't think it was ever considered the "it" product. To date, I don't know a single person that had one besides me. Even of all the collectors I know, none had one when they were first out. I remember it getting some press, but wasn't the years hot product that I recall. I recall wanting it, although that was before seeing the movie, and I got it for xmas, or my birthday.

I probably had more fun with it playing cyborg Ninja...as me and my friends had a plethora of crappy Ninja toys, as American Ninja was the big movie back then.:) The thing did look pretty cool when your 10 or 11 years old.

Speaking of the Wizard movie though, when I see that kid in the picture now, I fondly remember how cringeworthy he was when I first saw the movie. What's sad, is that modern kids movies have the same cringeworthy kids in them.

I think these articles unfairly attribute this movie as a 90 minute power glove commercial. The thing was only featured for like 2 minutes in the movie. It was a 90 minute Nintendo commercial though, with what is actually a reasonably decent, albeit stupid, plot for the kind of movie it is. That Mario game showing at the end was pretty epic in the theaters as I recall. But when I last watched the movie a few years ago, I was pretty amused that the apparent new, never before seen game at the competition seemed to have Fred Savage know what needed to be done for the kid to win the game.

Ah....the good ol' days huh?