Originally published on Trevor Trove on July 15, 2016
Nintendo made a lot of people around my age very happy today when they announced that on November 11, they are launching a mini NES Classic Edition.
Costing $60, the device will come with an HDMI cable, a USB cable to power the console, a classic NES controller (with additional controllers running $10), and 30 games built in to the hardware. The system will not support additional games down the line or Virtual Console titles of any kind. Given the existence of AtGames similar products like their Atari with 100 games or Sega Genesis with 80 games, it’s no surprise that Nintendo is following suit.
Here’s the full breakdown of the games included (dates listed below are original North American NES release):
- Balloon Fight (Nintendo, 1986) – One of the late Nintendo President Satoru Iwata’s early games, Balloon Fight has you trying to stay afloat longer than your enemies.
- Bubble Bobble (Taito, 1986) – Action-platformer where one or two players traverse through 100 stages…using bubbles.
- Castlevania (Konami, 1987) – Simon Belmont’s original quest to fight through Count Dracula’s castle.
- Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest (Konami, 1988) – Simon’s second trip to defeat Dracula featured a bigger world with more RPG elements than the first, more straighforward action-adventure game.
- Donkey Kong (Nintendo, 1986) – Jumpman is on a mission to save Pauline from Donkey Kong!
- Donkey Kong Jr. (Nintendo, 1986) – Jumpman has taken his revenge and has kidnapped Donkey Kong so it’s up to Donkey Kong Jr. to save his father.
- Double Dragon II (Technos Japan, 1988) – Double Dragon II: The Revenge reunites Billy and Jimmy Lee as they avenge their girlfriend’s (singular) death at the hands of the Black Warriors in this side-scrolling beat ’em up.
- Dr. Mario (Nintendo, 1990) – Mario trades in his plunger for a stethoscope doling out pills for fend of brightly-colored viruses in this puzzle game.
- Excitebike (Nintendo, 1985) – Motocross racing on your NES! Vroom vroom!
- Final Fantasy (Squaresoft, 1990) – The initial entry in the now long-running fantasy series sends your party of four Light Warriors on a quest to defeat Chaos.
- Galaga (Namco, 1988) – Shoot all of the bugs with your spaceship!
- Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins (Capcom, 1986) – Lead Sir Arthur on a journey to fight through monsters and save a princess from Satan, often in his underwear.
- Gradius (Konami, 1986) – Shoot all the things with your spaceship and kill the giant bosses!
- Ice Climber (Nintendo, 1985) – Climb the ice!
- Kid Icarus (Nintendo, 1987) – Help Pit fly through levels of enemies armed with his trusty bow and arrows.
- Kirby’s Adventure (HAL Laboratory, 1993) – Guide Kirby through seven worlds, inhaling your enemies and swallowing them whole, without mercy.
- Mario Bros. (Nintendo, 1986) – Help Mario and Luigi defend the sewers of New York for the first time.
- Mega Man 2 (Capcom, 1989) – Mega Man is back, saving the world from Dr. Wily and his army of robots. Kill Metal Man first. His Metal Blade is ridiculously overpowered and will make the rest of the game easier.
- Metroid (Nintendo, 1987) – Guide Samus Aran across the planet Zebes and fight off Space Pirates as you gain new abilities and weapons.
- Ninja Gaiden (Tecmo, 1989) – Guide Ryu Hayabasa across America and fight off the Malic Four as you gain new spiritual strength and weapons.
- Pac-Man (Namco, 1985) – Waka waka waka waka.
- Punch-Out!! (Nintendo, 1990) – The version featuring “Mr. Dream” after supposedly Nintendo’s right to use Mike Tyson’s likeness ran out.
- StarTropics (Nintendo, 1990) – Armed with his trusty yo-yo, Mike will stop at nothing to find his uncle: archeologist Dr. Jones.
- Super C (Konami, 1990) – Up up down down left right left right B A.
- Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo, 1985) – Go right.
- Super Mario Bros. 2 (Nintendo, 1988) – It was all a dream.
- Super Mario Bros. 3 (Nintendo, 1990) – It was all a play.
- Tecmo Bowl (Tecmo, 1989) – Football!
- The Legend of Zelda (Nintendo, 1987) – It’s dangerous to go alone.
- Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (Nintendo, 1988) – I am error.
An admittedly great list, even if it is missing some of my personal favorites. The lack of a Light Gun means no iconic Duck Hunt; Tetris and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rights are probably locked up elsewhere; Xbox owning Rare and their recent Rare Replay collection took their library out of commission; and games like Dragon Warrior, Rampage, and Paperboy just didn’t make the cut.
I’m sure I’ll pick it up if for no other reason than the convenience of being able to play these games without the adapter nightmare that comes with trying to hook up my original NES to a modern TV.
