The NES Advantage Belt Buckle: so much retro it hurts

These days, with everybody out to prove how "old school" they are via t-shirts, game controller buckles, game cart collections and even Mario score comparisons (sorry guys, but CliffyB beats you all, sez Nintendo Power), it can be hard to stick out of the crowd -- until now. From the very kids responsible for the brash commercialism behind the NES Buckle, comes the NES Advantage Belt Buckle, which brings a bit of arcade nostalgia to the front of your pants. Honestly, we never found the controller to be much of an Advantage at all, unless you count those isolated incidents where it was wielded as a weapon against a particularly sucky Contra companion -- not that that ever happened, of course -- but there's no arguing with the look here, and you really never know when you and a couple turbo buttons will be needed to wield control over the Statue of Liberty. The buckle is available now for $50.

[Damage @ Dec 1st 2006 12:04PM]

Dude, Advantage kicked so much when you're playing RC Pro AM.

And that was about it.

Though occassionally, I still wish I had mine to hook up to the PC. For what's its worth, the Advantage was a good heavy duty stick.

[Sam @ Dec 1st 2006 12:10PM]

It was heavy duty. That think never broke. And the turbo kicked ass. I wonder if mom threw mine out...

[Juan @ Dec 1st 2006 12:14PM]

"Wanna play with my joystick?

Whoa, not turbo! Neither of us are ready for that."

[strider_mt2k @ Dec 1st 2006 12:16PM]

The retro, it is too much the retro!

[Galang @ Dec 1st 2006 12:24PM]

such a small "joystick"

[R @ Dec 1st 2006 12:27PM]

plus, it's the wrong color.

[R @ Dec 1st 2006 12:32PM]

That's just asking for someone to come try to mess with the joystick while you're wearing it.

Hey, baby . . . wanna wrestle?

[TexRob @ Dec 1st 2006 12:25PM]

Way to go Engadget with the super obscure Ghostbusters 2 reference, I commend thee.

[Christian Martin @ Dec 1st 2006 12:29PM]

...I got nothing.

[TexRob @ Dec 1st 2006 12:47PM]

The Super NES advantage was a pretty nice controller, I had both. Everyone knows that the only truly better controller than the regular d-pad was the NES Max though. NES Max was THE controller for the hardcore Metroid fan. Also very hard to find at the time.

[Damage @ Dec 1st 2006 12:53PM]

Oh yea, the NES MAX was the pad to have... Too bad that the new Wii Joypad didn't use the Max as the basis...

[cuby @ Dec 1st 2006 1:18PM]

i second the kudo for the GB2 ref -- outstanding.

[caleb @ Dec 1st 2006 1:26PM]

Rotate it so the joystick is on top of the two buttons for a little bit of childish humor.

[TS @ Dec 1st 2006 2:02PM]

Engadget, when guys toss us little pieces of genius like the GB2 reference, it really makes the various silly things you do melt away. Much can be fogiven when you give us amazing posts such as this one. :)

[R @ Dec 1st 2006 2:40PM]

I don't get the Statue of Libery/Ghostbusters 2 reference. I remember that the Ghostbusters slimed Lady Liberty with the (implausible) pink goo, and she (magically) came alive and stomped around NY . . .Why that didn't win the Best Screenplay Oscar, I'll never know . . . but what does that have to do with this joystick? Or turbo buttons? "Contra?"

And oh yes, the use of the terms "joystick," "Statue of Liberty," and "your pants" all in the same article . . . fallic references galore.

[illiniUC09 @ Dec 1st 2006 2:47PM]

they used this controller to control the statue of liberty.

somehow...

[R @ Dec 1st 2006 2:42PM]

Did I misspell phallic? Sorry. Engadget needs a spell check feature in Comments!

[v_dogg @ Dec 1st 2006 3:24PM]

R, just use Firefox 2.0 Spell check built in.

[par @ Dec 1st 2006 3:48PM]

R dude, you still haven't jumped on the Firefox bandwagon? ts ts ts

[R @ Dec 1st 2006 3:55PM]

Alas, no. Firefox has been banned by our tech guys here at work. The best I can do is IE7. At least I have tabs!

[Ryan @ Dec 1st 2006 3:56PM]

The only time I used the NES Advantage was doing 2-player NES Baseball solo. Stack a second gamepad on top and play both sides simultiously.

[James @ Dec 1st 2006 6:05PM]

My Advantage would still be working today if it wasn't for the hamster and it's affintiy for corn-based plastics.

[GazzyC @ Dec 2nd 2006 6:29PM]

OMG that is sooo emo :P

[Travis @ Dec 3rd 2006 9:56PM]

The other game that the Advantage worked perfectly for was Bigfoot, the monster truck game. There was no way to beat the drag races without it.

[neil Ross @ Feb 6th 2007 1:26AM]

They actually give you money for your old one, but who in their sane mind would??????
Found an alternatice and bought a licensed one for a real cheap price on an awesome online buckle shop

[Meg @ Jul 15th 2008 9:50AM]

Yeah, It's too expensive for my taste as well, found few on http://www.hotbuckles.com and their price is around $17