Global Guts and Legends of the Hidden Temple

It’s pretty obvious by now that I’m a Nickelodeon kid. I wasn’t a fan of Cartoon Network, One Saturday Morning, and I didn’t even get Disney Channel until I was 12. Nickelodeon had a lot to offer though. Besides their original cartoons and clever live action shows, they also had plenty of game shows to make sure their audience never lost interest.

A large amount of the game shows on Nickelodeon were “action sports” competitions. Global Guts is a great example of this. In each episode, kids from all over the world (except third world countries) would compete in three competitions to see who the best kid was. This show taught me that no matter if you win or lose, the best country is always USA. What kid wants to see other kids from Russia and Brazil competing on a game show? At that point in my life I liked to imagine that other kids around the world didn’t exist.

The best part about Global Guts was the final competition—The Aggro Crag. Each level of the competition had a cute name like “Zero G” or “Lap Attack” or something dumb like that. The Aggro Crag was the only consistent level on every episode. The Crag was this huge glowing mountain that the harnessed competitors had to race up to achieve victory. There were always boulders that would tumble down during the climb up and the kids would act surprised by them. The winner received a piece of the Crag which was basically just a hunk of green plastic. I think people sell them on eBay now. The world is a terrible place.

The Aggro Crag.

Legends of the Hidden Temple was another action competition game on Nick but it took place in a hidden temple so it was obviously much cooler. Instead of three dumb kids competing, Legends had 6 groups of 2 players competing for sweet prizes. The best part of the show was the team names: Red Jaguars, Blue Barracudas, Green Monkeys, Orange Iguanas, Purple Parrots, and Silver Snakes.

The host of the show was Olmec, a talking head who knew all the secrets of the temple. I never liked Olmec. He was so serious all the time. Maybe because he was just a head and living life without a body is no laughing matter. The first round was always “The Moat”. The teams would pull themselves across a pool and try not to drown. The second round was “The Steps of Knowledge” where the teams had to prove that they were smart. I never understood this part mainly because I was seven years old and could barely spell my own name.

Lastly were the “Temple Games” and the “Temple Run”. Basically anything that took place in the temple was the best part because it was like watching kids find their way through a labyrinth. People would jump out and scare them, they had to complete puzzles, and unlock secret passages. It was one of the most creative game shows ever.

The only way Nickelodeon could come back better than ever is if they introduced a game show that was like the Hunger Games. 21^st century kids would love it.