Last month, Nintendo announced the NES Classic Edition (Nintendo Classic Mini in the UK), a miniaturized NES console that comes preloaded with 30 classic NES games. It launches in November for about 60 bucks.
Unfortunately, the 30 games that come with the console (listed below) are all you get. You can’t add more.
So, what do you think about the system’s line up of games? Any glaring omissions? Any titles making you wonder why the heck they were included in the first place?
- Balloon Fight™
- BUBBLE BOBBLE
- Castlevania™
- Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest™
- Donkey Kong™
- Donkey Kong Jr. ™
- DOUBLE DRAGON II: THE REVENGE
- Dr. Mario™
- Excitebike™
- FINAL FANTASY®
- Galaga™
- GHOSTS’N GOBLINS®
- GRADIUS™
- Ice Climber™
- Kid Icarus™
- Kirby’s Adventure™
- Mario Bros. ™
- MEGA MAN® 2
- Metroid™
- NINJA GAIDEN
- PAC-MAN™
- Punch-Out!! ™ Featuring Mr. Dream
- StarTropics™
- SUPER C™
- Super Mario Bros.™
- Super Mario Bros. ™ 2
- Super Mario Bros. ™ 3
- TECMO BOWL
- The Legend of Zelda™
- Zelda II: The Adventure of Link™
Hit up the comments below and let us know what your ideal list of 30 NES games is. Which titles are missing from the above list and which games would you drop to include them? We’ll share your ideas on this weekend’s Molehill Mountain podcast. It streams live Saturday night at 6p PST right here on RandomTower. We hope to see you there!
The game lineup is pretty impressive. I’ve only played 2/3 of those games, so I’ll certainly be pre-ordering it when they become available.
The included games are a damn solid list with 30 completely worthy titles, but it’s a little odd that they went for Super C instead of the original Contra, and Tecmo Bowl instead of the far superior Tecmo Super Bowl. Here’s my ideal list, limited to one game per franchise:
-Batman: The Video Game
-Blaster Master
-Bubble Bobble
-Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse
-Contra
-Danny Sullivan’s Indy Heat
-Donkey Kong Jr.
-Double Dragon II: The Revenge
-Dragon Quest IV
-DuckTales
-Excitebike
-Gradius
-Jackal
-Journey to Silius
-Kirby’s Adventure
-Mega Man 2
-Metal Storm
-Metroid
-Micro Machines
-Ninja Gaiden
-Punch-Out!!
-RC Pro-AM II
-Rad Racer
-River City Ransom
-Shatterhand
-Super Dodge Ball
-Super Mario Bros. 3
-Tecmo Super Bowl
-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project
-Zelda II
It lacks Guardian Legend, Blaster Master, Duck Hunt, the rest of the Mega Man NES titles, the Famicom version of Metroid (probably), Contra, Battletoads, Metal Storm, Life Force, and Tetris (Seriously Nintendo?).
I honestly am building up the art assets to do something I had the idea to do when the Mini NES was announced. Which someone posted a video doing something very, very similar to my idea (and had the better idea of using NFC stickers instead of barcodes)
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dgnD93pwX0
Basically, I wanted to have a multi-system box for the niece and nephews. But instead of cartridges, as seen in the video, my idea was using cards. When you insert the card, it’ll launch the associated game. On the back of the card, it would be styled similar to the console it’s based on. On the front would be a picture of a pixelated cartridge, with cartridge art (either official or unofficial or something, haven’t figured what I’ll do for that)
And basically, I would give the kids a card binder of all of these games, ranging from NES, to GBA. And that also includes Playstation and the Sega consoles. The cartridge idea is nice, but that’s expensive, and well, not quite what I want to go with. Especially considering it’ll be more than just NES.
It’ll be nice for the kids, and it may even be nice for my brother and his wife. His wife a few years back made a comment about how games are so violent these days. May have to include some of the classic violent games as well. Then again, Battletoads does cause actual rage… …. and now I want to rewatch the 4vs Battletoads race that ProtonJon and a few others did a couple years ago. Shame I don’t have time for it right now.
Duck Hunt? How exactly would you play that? I’d rather have Hogan’s Alley anyway, if we were to get a Zapper, too.
I forgot to make a note on the reason why they wouldn’t. Such as it would need reprogramming in general.
The problem with regular duck hunt is the response rate on TVs. There are plenty of TVs out there that don’t have a quick enough refresh rate for Duck Hunt, or any other Zapper game. People say all flatscreens have this issue, but from what I can tell that’s actually false, or atleast by today’s standards. Most TVs have a gamemode or a channel dedicated to game consoles where the response is within the needed range.
Many people think the way the zapper works on the NES is via the scanlines, which this is actually false. The games flash black, and a white box will appear over a target. If the zapper sees the white, it will detect as a hit. This is why if you wanted to impress your friends and cheat at a zapper game, you stood as far away from the TV as possible. You really only just had to point at the TV and get a near perfect accuracy.
Yes, I know how Zappers work. The point is, this thing doesn’t come with one, so… It’s gonna be kinda hard to play Duck Hunt.
But since this is all emulated anyway, if they wanted to, I bet they could make it work. They could use WiiMote/sensor bar tech to tell where you’re aiming, capture and analyze the game’s hit frames to see where the white boxes are, and if where you’re aiming corresponds to where a white box is, then they send the game whatever signal the Zapper did when it saw white. No reprogramming needed, just a shell that could wrap around Zapper games.
Your cheating method might not work so well for Hogan’s Alley, btw, since there are some targets on the screen that you are not supposed to shoot. The hit boxes will cycle through all the on-screen targets, one target per frame, to see which one you hit. You’d be counting on the first frame’s target being one you are supposed to shoot.
The line up itself is not to bad, a few items are not really needed, but my biggest issue with it is that it’s a scam, they charge way to much for something that could be aquired, with a real functional clone console and the ACTUAL cartridges for almost the EXACT SAME PRICE!!
That it doesn’t use the origonal controllers? Thats BS, that it can use the CartS? DOUBLE BS.
That is CANT BE EXPANDED!!.
MASSIVE PILE OF BULLSHIT!
ITs just nintendo milking nostalgia to snare more bucks from gullible people who doen’t know that other, better options are our there.
And worse of all, it will work, then 2 years later, nintend releases an SNES version.
Or they release “EXPANSION PACKS” in clear defiance of there own claim, or whatever shill they pull this time.
Im so done with it.
I don’t need this, I have a retron 5.
I can play all the retro games I want without having to be beholding to nintendos picks of what games are worthy for a console.
Screw you Nintendo. Your soul died with Iwata san.
“with a real functional clone console and the ACTUAL cartridges for almost the EXACT SAME PRICE!! ”
Ok. I am challenging that. A clone console alone would cost $50 for a decent one. That leaves $10 for those 30 games. I doubt you could find very many that would cost less than $10 by itself.
“ITs just nintendo milking nostalgia to snare more bucks from gullible people who doen’t know that other, better options are our there.”
Gullible would be selling retro games for $15. Square, I am looking at you.
“And worse of all, it will work, then 2 years later, nintend releases an SNES version.”
And, that is bad why? I think that would be totally awesome and we will likely follow up this story with one about our dream lineup for the SNES version.
“I can play all the retro games I want without having to be beholding to nintendos picks of what games are worthy for a console.”
And there are a lot of people who don’t have the patience to deal with tracking down working cartridges, replacing batteries on the ones that no longer save, or dealing with spotty hardware.
This isn’t a console for the hardcore retro gaming nerd. This is a console for nostalgic parents who want to share their childhood with their kids, or really any nostalgic person who doesn’t want to spend $300 getting physical versions of all these games, for an affordable price.
That BS. Clone consoles exsist for 30 bucks or less, and even the actual consoles, like the top down nes, are avalible at 35 to 40.
Most of the games on that list? 2 to 5 bucks
A few, maybe 10
I know this cause theres a RETRO game store down the block from me that sells ALL of it, and it’s where I got my retro gear.
IF this were a NEO geo, you’d be right, but it’s the NES, the most COMMON and AVALIBLE and CLONED console ON EARTH.
Nintendo is scaming people to stupid to know better. and I HATE that it’s come to this
I hate that they turned into just another company.
Every time I think they are returning to being who they used to be. they pull this crap and show me that there just as bad as EA and some many others, especially now that Iwata san has passed.
We just gave them a pass for so long, cause of blind nastalgia.
Come on, man. This is going to be much easier to find, buy, set up, and use, for the majority of people. It will be 30 games, and the console to play them on, for the price of a single game today. There will be no cartridges to have to store, fiddle with, or blow on. It will have HDMI. The controller it will come with will also be compatible with the Wii and the Virtual Console. It will have tech support and a warranty. And it will be available in mainstream channels like Walmart, Best Buy, etc.
It’s great that you can find all these games and more at your retro gaming store. You are obviously not the target audience for this thing. That doesn’t make it a scam. It’s a convenience. Not everybody is going to have the time, inclination, and knowledge to go seek out all these games and a working NES, piece by piece, in little shops they’ve never heard of. Someone who is willing to do all that, like yourself, most likely already has done it. Besides, it would cost more than $60 to get all of these games and a NES, even by the most generous of your numbers.
“That BS. Clone consoles exsist for 30 bucks or less”
I bought one of those. It sucks. It doesn’t play half off my games. The built in controllers are terrible. It doesn’t support genuine controllers. There are better ones, but they will cost you more than $50.
“like the top down nes, are avalible at 35 to 40.”
I have never seen one of those retail for less than $70. You have good friends there.
“Most of the games on that list? 2 to 5 bucks”
Hahahahahahahahahahaha! Please.
“I know this cause theres a RETRO game store down the block from me that sells ALL of it, and it’s where I got my retro gear.”
Congrats. A lot of retro game stores sell this stuff. But no retro gaming store anywhere near me will sell me a console and all 30 of these games for less than $300. That is assuming that they have all these games in stock.
“Nintendo is scaming people to stupid to know better.”
Just because you don’t have a need for this console doesn’t mean it is a scam. It just means you are not the target audience for this.
“I hate that they turned into just another company.”
What ever that means.
“Every time I think they are returning to being who they used to be. they pull this crap and show me that there just as bad as EA and some many others,”
What? This makes no sense.
I might have to get one just to play StarTropics again. I wonder if it still comes with the secret coded message in the manual…
Kind of a bummer that it uses WiiMote plugs instead of the original NES connector, but whatchagonnado. Hopefully the buttons and pad feel right.
In the Virtual Console version, you click on the letter in the electronic manual to virtually dunk it in water to make the message appear. Maybe this version will do the same?
After all, awesome as it would be, it’s probably too much to ask for the system to come with reprints of the game manuals.
Andrew Eisen
Yeah. it would certainly up the nostalgia factor, though. I mean, back in NES days, a pretty significant portion of the story and art was often to be found in the manual, rather than the game itself.
Balloon Fight™
BUBBLE BOBBLE
Castlevania™
Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest™
Donkey Kong™
Donkey Kong JrxxxSub Guardian Legend
DOUBLE DRAGOxxxSub Dragon Warrior
Dr. Marioxxx sub Tetris
Excitebikexxx sub RC Pro AM
FINAL FANTASY®
Galaga™
GHOSTS’N GOBLINSxxx sub Maniac Mansion
GRADIUS xxx sub Life Force
Ice Climberxxc sub Cobra Triangle
Kid Icarus™
Kirby’s Adventure™
Mario Bros.xxx sub Deja Vu/Shadowgate
MEGA MAN® 2
Metroid™
NINJA GAIDEN
PAC-MAN xxx sub Ms. Pacman
Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream
StarTropics
SUPER Cxxx Sub CONTRA
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario Bros. 3
TECMO BOWLxxx sub Blades of Steel
The Legend of Zelda
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
The problem with including 30 games is that there were so many great games that didn’t make this list.
Include 40 games by adding:
Ducktales
Castle Vania III
RC Pro AM
Dragon Warrior III
Dragon Warrior IV
Mega man III
Life force
Tecmo World Wrestling
Super Dodgeball
Blades of Steel