"Unforgivable" Stranger Things season 5 NES blooper has retro game fans fuming, albeit mostly jokingly

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"Unforgivable" Stranger Things season 5 NES blooper has retro game fans fuming, albeit mostly jokingly News By Dustin Bailey published 1 December 2025

As The Simpsons would put it: "Boy, I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder"

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The '80s nostalgia trip of Stranger Things arguably peaked in season 5 with a brief scene inside the bedroom of Derek Turnbow (Jake Connelly), an absolute wonderland of toys and games that looks like something out of an era-appropriate Sears catalog. But a key mistake in the episode's presentation of Capcom's classic action game Ghosts 'n Goblins has caught the – mostly joking – ire of retro game enthusiasts.

When we see Derek's room in episode three of season 5, it includes everything from Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots to a Hang-On arcade cabinet, with a conspicuously placed Domino's pizza box for good measure. Derek himself is playing Ghosts 'n Goblins on NES, which is shown prominently onscreen during the episode.

There's just one problem: the screen isn't showing the NES version of Ghosts 'n Goblins. While Derek is holding an NES controller, the TV is showing the original, graphically superior arcade version. As you might imagine, there are already at least three Reddit threads, multiple tweets, and even a Threads post dedicated to calling out this "unforgivable" mistake. (Thanks, Time Extension.)

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At least most of those complaining are doing it with tongue in cheek, channeling the vibe of that "boy, I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder" line from The Simpsons. 99.9% of Stranger Things season 5 viewers will never notice the mistake, but the remaining tiny percentile of us will have a piece of trivia we'll be able to annoy friends and family members with for years to come.

The part that actually bugs me, though, is that Derek is playing with the cartridge cover of the NES flipped wide open. Come on, man! You're gonna get dust in that thing!

Check out our Stranger Things season 5 volume 1 review for our more substantial thoughts on the new episodes, or follow our guide to the Stranger Things season 5 release schedule to know exactly when the next batch is landing.

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Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.

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