A surprising announcement came from Nintendo today – The legendary Nintendo Entertainment System returns to stores in a much smaller form factor. In fact, the NES Classic Edition can fit in the palm of your hand and comes loaded with 30 titles from Nintendo and a number of third party publishers. The tiny console will cost $59.99 at retail and includes an HDMI cable for modern televisions. You also get a redesigned NES controller with a new connector and additional controllers will retail for $9.99 for two-player matches. The system is also compatible with the Classic Controller and Classic Controller Pro. Best of all, the new NES controller can be plugged into a Wiimote and used to play NES Virtual Console games on the Wii or Wii U to maximize the retro experience.
Of course, several of the included games are a bit challenging for today’s players so Nintendo has confirmed that each game will support multiple save states.
The list of games included with each NES Classic Edition console:
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
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
There was no mention of an option for downloading additional NES games from Nintendo’s Virtual Console service. The NES Classic Edition console will be available November 11th in North America and Europe.
On a personal note, there is no logical reason a rebirth of a 30 year-old game console should make me smile so much but it is safe to say that Nintendo will get a day one purchase from me. Will you pick one up for yourself? Let me know in the comments section.