All cylinders are firing on Nintendo’s nostalgia engine. First, Pokémon Go tapped into 20-odd years of childhood memories to become a global sensation, and now the house of Mario has revealed a rerelease of its pioneering 1983 Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
The Nintendo Classic Mini is due to be released 11 November, will retail at $59.99 (£49.99 in the UK) and come with 30 games preinstalled, including The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Brothers, Final Fantasy and Kirby’s Adventure.
The cartridge flap doesn’t open (boo) and Kotaku has reported that Nintendo won’t be releasing extra games beyond the original 30. The console won’t be able to connect to the internet, which is arguably truer to the spirit of the original NES, if something of a missed opportunity – it would’ve been great to see modding communities make new games for the NES.
You do however get a NES Mini controller for your money, and Nintendo has said the Wii’s Classic Controller Pro is compatible. You’ll also be able to connect the NES Mini controller to a Wii Remote, and play a Virtual Console NES game on a Wii or Wii U console. The package comes with an HDMI cable and a USB cable, but no AC adapter for the latter – which you’ll need to play the system.
Nintendo isn’t the first company to rerelease a classic console. Last year, Sega put out a new version of its 1988 Mega Drive system. Nostalgia is undoubtedly a driving force here – Nintendo itself pitched the new NES as a way to “defeat the boss that you could never beat” – but there’s also a deeper appeal. In a hyper-connected gaming landscape, there’s undoubtedly an attraction in something that cuts away from that – something that, like Pokémon Go, foregrounds the act of playing together in physical shared spaces.
Below is the full list of games available on the Nintendo Classic Mini:
- 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
Disclaimer: Some pages on this site may include an affiliate link. This does not effect our editorial in any way.
