BULL: You sure do like Nintendo, man. What’s the attraction?

AB: I think nostalgia, largely. I grew up playing the NES, a lot, as I imagine most my generation did, and it looms large. And not only did I grow up in the age of Nintendo, but also in the age of Tarantino, Kevin Smith, and even Kevin Williamson. So: I’m a sucker for pop culture references, and I think Nintendo games are a good chunk of the pop culture of our youth, yeah?

Plus, this story, and the novel it’s from, is trying to deal with nostalgia and memory, and it felt like both, so (hopefully) the repeated NES references aren’t just thrown in for fun (though there’s that, too), but are kind of the narrator looking back and feeling nostalgic.