thatdemoguy

We are running headlong right into holiday season 2016, the kids are making out their lists, and the parents are making out their budgets. As always videogames will no doubt be a huge portion of holiday sales once again this year, with Microsoft and Sony preparing attractive bundles to attempt to get your consumer dollars and put their respective unit under your tree and into your home. Nintendo, the other major player in the gaming hardware world, is in a bit of a unique situation. We all know that the Wii U is for all intents and purposes, a dying platform (don't delude yourself into thinking otherwise), especially with news of the Switch coming early next year. And their much loved 3DS platform has had steady, but no doubt declining sales. So what are they to do? Well in what could prove to be a quite genius move, Nintendo has a product that could quite possibly prove to be one of the THE popular adult gifts this year, and that's the NES Classic Edition.

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Hitting store shelves for the public on Nov 11th, this unit is pure nostalgia in a box. Classic gaming with a few modern bells and whistles thrown in. But along with the classic joy comes a few inconveniences that need to be addressed. And that's what you all have me for. So let's talk about what you're gonna be getting should you buy yourself a new 'Tendo this holiday.

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Out of the box you get your unit, which is a faithful, yet tiny, recreation of the Nintendo Entertainment System, right down to the distinct and memorable double click of the power button and squishy reset button. It is USB powered, which is included, and displays via HDMI, which is also included. It also comes with one controller (more on this later) and a full set of user manuals. What I find really impressive is that even in it's packaging it retains its classic motif, using the colors and fonts of old. I do have to point out for those who may not know that this unit DOES NOT open and allow use of older software. Instead this unit comes pre-installed with 30 games that should appeal to a very broad audience. There is no way to expand the memory or add games outside of the 30 that are included. When you power up the unit, you are asked for a language preference, but from there you get a clean and crisp retro inspired user interface, with a quite catchy tune. All 30 titles are lined up at the bottom of the screen, are in alphabetical order, and are identifiable by their iconic ORIGINAL box art. Here are the 30 titles that come included

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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

Star Tropics

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

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While some may feel that there are some questionable choices, with some series favorites omitted, like Contra, Castlevania III, and key Mega Man titles, this is indeed a very solid starting point and a deal when its put into consideration that this unit retails for $60. So you pay $2 per game, and for the novice collector or someone who just wants to relive some of the best games on the NES, this is an easy purchase.

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Each game is given four save slots, which can be managed from the main menu. To save a game and return to said main menu though, you have to physically hit the reset button on the console. This is a bit of a strange design choice, especially considering other retro units allow you to access the menu and simultaneously creates a save state with a customizable button combination on your controller. Having to actually get up and go to the console is a bit of an annoyance. Not exactly a non-starter or reason not to buy, but in today's electronic world, that will prove to be an inconvenience, especially when it comes to play sessions where you want to switch games or show off what it does to friends. This will also create the problem of having to hook it up in a particular spot where it will be easily accessible. So for it's small and unimposing size, it actually will command more space than it should.

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Coupled with having to get up to press the reset button, MY BIGGEST GRIPE with this unit is the controlller. Mind you its not with the controller itself, because even though its much smaller than current controllers on modern systems, the d-pad and the buttons are tight and responsive. But my gripe comes in the length of the cord of each controller. The cord is an almost insulting 30". That's only 2 and 1/2 feet. Think about that. That's slightly over the average arm's length. And considering this unit displays via HDMI, this means it will likely be hooked up to your "big" television or put in the room where family convenes. Having to sit that close to the television is just plain silly. Thus if you intend to buy this unit, please think of investing in a third party extension cable. I do know of one in particular from Insignia (available at Best Buy) that sells for $10 and adds 6' of length, thus mitigating one of the issues. There are of course alternate controller options, seeing as how this unit shares the proprietary port used for Wii controllers. Meaning you can interchange any of your WIRED controllers between the Wii and NES Classic, at the cost of authenticity.  But even given those slight grievances, I have to say that this does not detract from my thought that this is a great purchase. Just be prepared to spend $60 for the system, $10 for an extra controller, and $10-$20 on extender cables.

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Now here is where I have to speculate just a little. Nintendo could possibly be sitting on a gold mine and have a hot ticket item for the holiday season. But they absolutely have to make sure that its available. Supply has to be able to meet demand. The problem is this is Nintendo we are talking about, and they have this penchant for playing the shortage game with consumers. Remember the Wii release? Or better yet remember Amiibo? For some reason Nintendo "doesn't anticipate" the popularity of their items and thus have a hand in creating a secondary market and a bubble of false inflation due to the limited supply of the desired item being bought in bulk and sat on by scalpers. I don't forsee the NES Classic being very difficult to produce, so it would behoove Nintendo to make sure that stores are stocked with ample supply. Continuing with this train of thought though, if there is ample supply and this proves to be a successful product, I implore that Nintendo NOT rush to produce a NES CLASSIC 2 with a different set of games. The last thing that is needed is for these to become the new Atari Flashback with multitudes of unwanted and obsolete units sitting on shelves after new ones release. What would be nice though, is that if Nintendo decides to produce "classics" for their other older systems, namely the SNES and Nintendo 64. Maybe next holiday, right?

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So how do you feel about the NES Classic? Will you be looking to pick one up this holiday? If so, will you be trying to pick one up at release or playing the possible market lottery IF there is a "shortage". Feel free to sound off in the comments.