Mini NES Announced

Yesterday, Nintendo made a surprise announcement that seemingly no one saw coming. On November 11th, they’re launching a mini NES, called the NES Classic Edition. It resembles the original Nintendo Entertainment System, but it’s considerably smaller. The MSRP will be $59.99 in the U.S.

The mini NES Classic Edition. It connects to a TV via HDMI, and it includes 30 digital games that are built into the system. It’s the same concept used in the Atari Flashback systems that have been released over the past decade or so. It comes with a replica of the original NES controller, and you can buy another controller (priced at $9.99) for two-player games.

Mini NES Classic Edition with controller.The Game Lineup

It’s not surprising that the roster of 30 games includes Nintendo classics like the Super Mario Bros. games, Zelda and Zelda II, Excitebike, Kirby’s Adventure, Metroid, and Punch-Out!!

But it is a bit surprising that some great third-party games are included as well. That includes Final Fantasy, Mega Man 2, Tecmo Bowl, Ninja Gaiden, Super C (the sequel to Contra), and the first two Castlevania games. Here is the full lineup, along with links to reviews and gameplay videos of some of them:

  • Balloon Fight
  • Bubble Bobble
  • Castlevania (review)
  • Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest
  • Donkey Kong
  • Donkey Kong Jr.
  • Double Dragon II: The Revenge (review)
  • Dr. Mario (review)
  • Excitebike (review)
  • Final Fantasy
  • Galaga
  • Ghosts N’ Goblins
  • Gradius
  • Ice Climber
  • Kid Icarus
  • Kirby’s Adventure (video)
  • The Legend of Zelda (review)
  • Mario Bros.
  • Mega Man 2 (review)
  • Metroid (review)
  • Ninja Gaiden (review)
  • Pac-Man
  • Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream
  • StarTropics (review)
  • Super C (review)
  • Super Mario Bros. (review)
  • Super Mario Bros. 2 (review)
  • Super Mario Bros. 3 (review)
  • Tecmo Bowl (review) (video)
  • Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

This is really a great lineup. It has a bunch of one-player classics, with several great two-player games as well. Maybe not all 30 are among the best NES games ever, but it is a very strong lineup and it has something for everyone.

It’s Not Perfect

The NES Classic Edition is a cool concept and a great value, but it’s certainly not perfect. My biggest complaint is the lack of a cartridge slot. If it could play actual NES carts, that would’ve been amazing. It truly would have been a new model of the NES. The top-loading NES I have doesn’t even support composite cables (only RF), so I really would have loved to get an HDMI compatible NES.

Also, there is no online play for any of the games. This isn’t particularly surprising, but it’s a feature that many NES fans would have truly loved. Also, since the game library is built-in, you won’t be getting more games for it beyond the 30 that are included.

Another minor complaint is that the controller is a replica of the original, rectangular NES controller as opposed to more comfortable “dog bone” model released later on. Here’s a picture that shows the difference between the two (from my controller collection page).

Original rectangular NES controller (left) and "dog bone" controller (right).
Original rectangular NES controller (left) and “dog bone” controller (right).

My Thoughts

When I first saw the news of this system, I thought it was joke. I didn’t just think it was a hoax, I was sure of it. But it’s real, and I was shocked. When I found out it didn’t have a cart slot, I couldn’t picture myself buying it, even though it was certainly a cool thing to see Nintendo making. I own an NES already, along with one-third of the games in the list above.

But then I thought about it some more. Ninja Gaiden and the original Legend of Zelda are games that I’ve enjoyed in the past, but don’t currently own. And Final Fantasy and Zelda II (and a few others) are games that I’ve always wanted to try. This gives me a perfect excuse to finally add those games to my collection, and have a cool collectible mini system as well.

While this probably won’t become anyone’s primary gaming system, it would be a great thing to hook up to a second TV–especially where visiting friends or family could easily play it without having to deal with a bunch of carts. Whether you’re nostalgic for the old classics, or just want to get a taste of the NES era you may have missed on, this would make a good addition to your collection. I’m looking forward to it.

Check Availability on Amazon.com

E3 Thoughts

This year’s E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) is underway, and it brings lots of news and announcements about games that are coming in the near (and sometimes not-so-near) future. I’m not going to list off all of the announcements, but I am going to discuss a few of the games that most interest me.

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The new Zelda game for Wii U (also coming to NX) now has a title…and a new trailer.

Even though I’m generally not a fan of the cel-shaded look in Zelda games, I have to admit it really looks great in Breath of the Wild. The world is huge, detailed, and…alive. Link can climb cliffs, trees, and buildings, and it looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun just to explore.

Link can interact with the environment in a variety of ways. He can push boulders down a hill onto enemies below, cut trees down to make a bridge, set things on fire, cook food, and so on. That should be fun to play around with and try all sorts of things.

Link rides a horse in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.From watching some of the Nintendo Treehouse coverage, it seemed that weapons break rather easily, and that sounds like it could be annoying. But I’m sure that will be remedied a bit further into the game, when you can obtain higher quality weapons and shields.

The game looks amazing though, and I can’t wait to play it in 2017. At this point, I’m not sure if I’ll be getting the Wii U or NX version of the game…mainly because I still don’t know what NX really is just yet. But either way, I plan on buying Breath of the Wild on day one.

Stardew Valley

It was announced that the PC farming simulation is coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Wii U. As a long-time Harvest Moon fan that hasn’t played a farming game since the GameCube days, I’ve been dying for some Wii U farming fun.

Stardew Valley screenshot.
(PC version shown)

Stardew Valley looks like an old-school (2D) Harvest Moon game, but with more depth, customization, and options. It has marriage and mining like the Harvest Moon games, but it also has some RPG elements to give the game more variety. And the developer seems quite excited about utilizing the gamepad screen in the Wii U version. It’s due out this winter, and I can’t wait!

No-Shows

First of all, I am aware that Nintendo wasn’t going to be doing a “full” E3 this year. They originally said Zelda Wii U would be their sole focus, and then they added a second day of their Nintendo Treehouse stream to show other upcoming games. So I was not expecting any huge new announcements.

But with that said, I was still hoping they would at least talk about already-announced things like the Animal Crossing app that’s due this fall. Or Disney Magical World 2, which has an American release date of October 14th. I was also hoping for some Virtual Console announcements. But they will likely have a Nintendo Direct video at some point this summer to discuss these things and more.

And as far as I can tell, Natsume made no mention of Harvest Moon: Seeds of Memories, which they’ve said is coming to Wii U (and PC) this year. They already seem to be shifting their focus to a new 3DS Harvest Moon game, subtitled Skytree Village. That makes you wonder if Seeds of Memories is still coming, and if so, when? Natsume isn’t saying a word.

I’m not into Pokémon, but that Pokémon Go app does look like a cool concept. It lets you capture Pokémon in real life! There’s also a wearable accessory coming that will light up to let you know when a Pokémon is available nearby. You can then push a button to try to catch it without pulling out your smartphone.

My Nintendo Picross

Nintendo’s current loyalty/rewards program, My Nintendo, launched on March 31st. And in many ways, it is inferior to their previous program, Club Nintendo. For example, points expire after only six months (vs. two years in Club Nintendo). Also, physical game purchases do not earn any rewards at all!

But it’s not all bad. You can earn coins on a regular basis just by doing things such as signing into Miiverse once a week or starting up the Wii U or 3DS eShop once a week. There are additional ways to earn coins if you use the Miitomo app as well.

I’ve earned enough to coins to redeem their first new reward, an exclusive, digital 3DS game called My Nintendo Picross: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. The title is certainly a mouthful, even if you abbreviate it as MNP:TLoZ:TP. But as you can probably figure out, it’s a Picross game with graphics, music, and sound effects based on The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (which has been released on GameCube, Wii, and recently, Wii U).

My Nintendo Picross: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess title screen.If you’re unfamiliar with Picross, the name comes from the combination of “picture” and “crossword.” It’s a logic/puzzle game in which you are given numbers for each row and column of a grid. Each number set indicates how many blocks on that row/column need to be filled in. So if a row has the numbers “3 2,” that means it will have three consecutive blocks filled in somewhere, followed by at least one empty space, and then two more consecutive blocks filled in. When you’ve filled in all appropriate boxes, you’ve completed the puzzle (and a picture).

My Nintendo Picross gameplay screenshot.I’ve been a fan of Picross games for years; I loved the original Mario’s Picross on Game Boy, and the Picross e games on 3DS are good too. So it’s no surprise that I’m really enjoying My Nintendo Picross so far. My biggest complaint with the Picross e games was the boring music. This is not a problem here, as My Nintendo Picross has some great, quality Zelda tunes.

On the downside, My Nintendo Picross has just 91 puzzles: 45 regular Picross puzzles, 45 “Mega Picross” puzzles, and apparently just one large “Micross” puzzle. This compares to 150+ puzzles found in the Picross e titles. It will still take a number of hours to complete them all, but it is less content than you would get in the $6 Picross e games. One other minor complaint is that you can’t skip the tutorial if you already know how to play.

With that said, this is a quality game that I’m having a lot of fun with. This is miles better than Nintendo’s Club Nintendo exclusive Wii game from 2010, Grill-Off With Ultra-Hand! If you’re a fan of Picross or puzzle games in general, I recommend picking this up with your My Nintendo coins.