Video Power was on for two seasons and each season had a completely different format. The main basis of the show was news, reviews, tips, tricks and previews of new video games, mainly for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The host was Johnny Arcade (played by Stivi Paskoski), a hyperactive teenager who was a video game expert.
In season one, the show aired a cartoon called "The Power Team." This was a team of video game characters from Acclaim, who would fight crime and solve mysteries. It was very similar to Captain N, then airing on NBC Saturday Morning, and the comparison just did it no favors. The producers looked to reformat the show for season two.
In the second season, the show would transform into a game show. Arcade would remain, but two new hosts were added to the mix: Terry Lee Torok and Steve Treccase, formerly of MTV's Remote Control. The show did a similar format every day: Johnny would give a hint or trick with Video Power Edge, which were mostly common sense (I remember one for Double Dragon and he was like "hit A and B to punch and kick through enemies." Uh, no duh dude). After that, there was a stump the host segment called "Johnny on the spot" where four kids would ask him questions about video games. Most of them were stupid, such as "what turtle wore the red mask in TMNT II: The Arcade Game?" or "what was the doctor's name who was the bad guy in Mega Man?" Johnny would read answers off cue cards and most of them was right. Every once in a while, he'd get stumped, which won the stumper a prize. Then they'd do a segment with the four question askers, between ages 10-16, playing a video game for 2:02. The two high scorers would go on to the next round, while the two low scorers took home games. The games on this part, the ones I remember, include TMNT II: The Arcade Game, Battletoads, Skate or Die 2, Robocop, and Paperboy 2. Each game would be played for an entire week. The two remaining contestants would then answer trivia questions about video games. Each question was worth a different set of points and included audio and visual questions. Then the two contestants would play the game again for 1:01 and the one with the highest total score would win and go on to the video mall.
The video mall was like the GameStop bargain section. A bunch of cheap games nobody wants, with a mix of other prizes as well like sports equipment, music CDs, VHS movies, and other toys. The games didn't stick to the velcro well, so they'd end up with 6-7 games, some that are duplicates. One game was the game of the day, and if it was found, the kid would win a grand prize, such as a remote control car, camera, video game system, bike, etc. Tournaments throughout the year also gave the contestants a chance to win a trip to L.A. and Universal Studios.
Overall, the show was cheesy and cheap. The set was bad, the hosts were over the top, the preachy moralizing of Terry Lee Torok was annoying ("Do your homework", "don't use violence in real life"), the prizes were cheap, and it was just poor executed. It also came out at a time when Genesis was starting to rise in popularity, so wrong place at the wrong time. I thought it was great when I was younger, but now I know better.
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