NES Classic Edition, My Thoughts

Recently, Nintendo has announced that they are bringing back the original Nintendo Entertainment System...well, sort of. In November, Nintendo will release the NES Classic Edition!

It's so small, it can fit in the palm of your hand! It's a smaller replica of the NES, and it will have 30 games built right in to it. A list of those games has also been revealed.

- 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 Climbers
- 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

Some of these game choices are rather surprising. For one, I am surprised that there are games that weren't made by Nintendo in this list. Technos is represented, and so are Capcom, Namco, Tecmo, Square-Enix, and Konami. I'm not unhappy about this, they did put some good games from them in here. And I am happy Galaga is in. I love Galaga.

There's also a surprisingly nice variety of genres in this list. Dr. Mario is a Tetris-like puzzle game, Double Dragon II brings in the beat-em-up genre, Galaga and Gradius represent the shooter genre, and Final Fantasy gives representation to the JRPG. Heck, Tecmo Bowl is representing sports games.

Some of the games included here are no-brainers as to why they are included. The original Super Mario Bros. trilogy, Metroid, Castlevania, Final Fantasy, Legend of Zelda, it's obvious why they would be included in this system. Some of the game choices do make me scratch my head, though. For example, Double Dragon II. Why that one and not the original? As well as Super C. Why not the original Contra? And then there's Castlevania. The first two are included, but why didn't they complete the Castlevania NES trilogy? Why was Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse not included? One could argue something similar for Mega Man. Why the second one and not the first one? Heck, why not all six of the original Mega Man games? Maybe it's a popularity thing.

Otherwise for those questions, there's a great selection of games here. I also like that it will have a controller that can be used to play Virtual Console games on the Wii and Wii U. That's a neat feature.

Another thing that concerns me is that there seems to be no way to update this thing and add more games to it. I was hoping this could use the Wii and Wii U Virtual Consoles to add more games to it. I'd love to add the other Mega Man and the original Contra to this thing.

I think this is a great console for those who want to start retrogaming as a hobby, but doesn't have the budget and/or the space for a real NES and cartridges. Let's be honest, collecting the old consoles and games can be pretty expensive, and this is a great way to save some money in starting on the hobby. And considering the selection of games this thing has, this has some great value.

I was a bit too young for the NES, honestly. My consoles as a kid were the SNES and Genesis. I am looking forward to this thing, though. I'd love to play some of the games that helped save the video game industry and helped make it into the massive industry it is today on a console like this. I hope this does well, because I'd love to see one like this for the SNES...