The Great Gatsby For NES (2011)

F. Scott Fitzgerald's major work, The Great Gatsby, is not something I was expecting to have a video game based upon. The novel is a portrait of 1920's United States through the eyes of Nick Carraway, who moves to New York from the Midwest and gets involved in the lewd and prodigal world that rotates around his neighbor Jay Gatsby. The story lives almost exclusively of the descriptions of the way of life and mundane affairs of the privileged members of society in the Roaring Twenties: the glamorous parties, the desire of the nouveau riche to hide their humble origins, the contempt of the established old money lineages for those without family history of prosperity, the materialism of all of them, the Mafia connections and smuggling of alcohol, the several love relationships that cross each other, and so on. Besides this, the story has a sense of mystery which derives from the little that is known of Gatsby's obscure past.

None of this is video game material. That didn't stop Charlie Hoey, whom, with help from Pete Smith, Dylan Valentine and Michael DiMotta decided to translate it into the new medium but with a twist, as if it was a found NES game. And they went to extraordinary lengths to get all the detail needed for this double tribute to look like the real thing: besides creating four levels that boast original 8-bit tunes straight from the Jazz Age, they even created a fake booklet, wrote the credits for a non-existing Japanese developing team, came up with the route supposedly taken by the cartridge to get to their hands and got a genuine-sounding title to wrap everything: Doki Doki Toshokan: Gatsby no Monogatari (if I translated it correctly, it means "Extraordinary librarian: the Gatsby fable").

The game's first level, Gatsby's Party, takes place at an atypical social gathering. To make this game the creators got their hands in every detail of the book that had even the slightest potential of action or drama, and then multiplied that potential as many times as necessary. That said, I can't recall, in the source material, Nick getting hurt by waiters going past him and then throwing his boomerang-hat to defeat them (while it stays in his head). There's a prelude in the book, a small poem that works as a metaphor and summary of the story: "Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her; If you can bounce high, bounce for her too, Till she cry 'Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover, I must have you!'". The action potential I talked about might elude a normal reader, but not the designers of the game, whom besides getting Nick to jump very high also introduced a gold hat that, when caught, gives us golden immunity. Even Owl Eye man is there, quoting the book and telling us where the hell Gatsby is. By transcribing some of the work the game is already being too faithful, so immediately after we have dancers who hurt us when we hit them and drunkards throwing bottles in the air, besides chandeliers that mysteriously drop from the ceiling to smash us up. Well, this is a story about a social-climbing fraud, so gather those coins for points; for 1-ups there are plenty of martinis spread around the levels (something Nintendo of America wouldn't approve of). At the end of the party we reach Gatsby and then we get to watch a short cutscene of something that happens before Nick meets Gatsby and that takes quite a dramatic turn here.

The next level is called Valley Of Ashes and it's extraordinary: in the book you only catch glimpses of Nick boarding the train a couple of times, to get to work or to some party in Manhattan, and then sitting inside; here, on the other hand, Nick impersonates the best Tom Cruise or Harrison Ford he can and jumps across the top of the train, this while being attacked by blue-dressed guys that run towards him the second they see him (I'm guessing... ticket inspectors), a few birds, the usual drunkards and some floating giant pair of glasses that shoot blue rays. If you read the book you may remember this as a reference to the billboard to doctor T. J. Eckleburg's practice, described as featuring blue eyes behind yellow-rim spectacles. The page where they start going after Nick like if they were Dr. Robotnik or Mike Tyson must have been ripped off my copy.

New York City, which Nick visits three times in the book, is the third level. It looks like this is based on the second of those trips, when Gatsby takes the narrator to have lunch with a friend. It starts with some homeless people jumping all over and features a section reminiscent of Donkey Kong. The homeless first appear in the previous level, but in a suicidal state, constantly jumping onto the train tracks, which made it impossible to get them in a screenshot. Nick stumbles upon his love interest here, golf pro Jordan Baker, except here she is apparently a tennis pro, says something that in the book is said before the events of the whole game and meets Nick in Manhattan, which never happens. And then, since Jordan says a girl has to jump into the sewer to get a drink, why not a section in the sewers, with green rats and crocodiles jumping vertically? Nick finally gets to the place where he is supposed to have lunch with Gatsby and his friend Meyer Wolfsheim. He is a mobster, although not hostile towards Nick. But he is a mobster, so the designers decided to include some machine gun wielding gangsters, the most dangerous enemies in the game (the more unpredictable are the homeless-fleas). Then, Wolfsheim himself is turned into a kind of Vincenzo Coccotti and confronts you atop some barrels, alongside half a dozen henchmen armed with sticks and... bread? You beat them in two seconds and Gatsby's friend explodes. Then comes a cutscene with the climax of the story, so go read the goddamn book first.

We finally get to West Egg Beach, the glorious last level which can be beat in 30 seconds. Nick comes across some nasty crabs, a few blue men (ghosts? I'm really lost here) and jumping red fish. Then you leap across some platforms and throw yourself into the prophetic green light. The game ends with a metaphorical cutscene, the dreams and aspirations of the characters in ruins, and a typical engrish message straight from 80's Japan. Please Mr. Fitzgerald, give us the sequel so it can be adapted.

You have to read this work, if not because it is one of the contenders for the title of Great American Novel and regarded as one of the best books of the 20th century, then only to properly appreciate this marvelous adaptation. The game is freely available here. Try for a "No Death Game!!" and there will be an alternative ending waiting, it's so worth it (it has snow! and all). Check out an interview with the creators there.