Nintendo Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name

Whatever one might say about Nintendo's marketing in the late NES era, it certainly wasn't afraid of the proverbial:

In theory, of course, this World of Nintendo photo spread is a concise way of featuring everything from Milton Bradley's licensed Mario and Zelda puzzles to plastic game cases and caddies.

But the two players pictured here are clearly much more interested in each other than in playing Konami's Castlevania -- as evidence, we note that neither can bring himself to actually look at the screen.

And why not?  Nintendo's brochure designers, no doubt recruited from the company's love hotel division,  have created the perfect atmosphere for romance, right down to the neon magenta mood lighting.  And each young man's role is clearly laid out with complementary coded hair-dos -- closeted preppie on the left, rough trade on the right.

A glass of Kool-Aid, a beanbag chair, and thou.