It’s easy to understad Roger Ebert’s position that games aren’t art when you realize that he once became addicted to TMNT on the NES, arguably one of the hardest and, I believe, worst games on the platform.
In this video clip from the Siskel & Ebert 1989 gift guide, Ebert reported that he “started playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with it. And after a while, after a week of this, I’d find that every time I had a spare moment and every time I came home, I was in front of the set playing with these mutant turtles.” You see, for a week, Ebert was basically a 12-year-old boy.
Considering he probably hasn’t played many games since that lost week, I suspect his opinions on the medium are slightly distorted. However, he’s still a great movie reviewer, so lets let him rail against Dark Tower as much as he wants.