Fans of the 90s (and late 80s) will be happy to know that Nintendo is bring back the Nintendo Entertainment System in the form of a modern and miniaturized package. The NES Classic Edition is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand and offers up 30 built in classic NES games! It will be available for the holiday season at $59.99 sans old school RCA jacks and finicky cartridges!

Nintendo has not provided details on the internals of the console, unfortunately, but it seems to be using a low power SoC that runs emulated versions of the games. That is to say that it is likely Nintendo is using modern components rather the original hardware. One clue is that Nintendo states that gamers will be able to use multiple suspend points on each game and will not have to worry about using continue passwords each time they load up a game. A poster over at Ars Technica suggests that Nintendo may be using the guts of an existing or new 3DS handheld console to power the NES Classic Edition, but we'll have to wait for someone to get thier hands on it to know for sure what is going on under the hood.

On the outside, the NES Classic Edition looks nearly identical to the NES many gamers (myself included) grew up with except for the controller ports being different and of course the physical size! There is even a cartridge slot cover though it is only there for aesthetics and does not actually open (it would have been awesome if it opened to reveal an SD card slot!). Around the back you will find the AC power input and an HDMI video output which is great to see in this age where hooking up an old school console can be a pain (or a chain of adapters heh). There is no word on what resolution the console will output at or if there will be any upscaling…

Speaking of controllers, Nintendo has brought back the old school rectangular gray controller from the original NES which it is calling the NES Classic Controller. This controller plugs into the NES Classic Edition console using the same proprietary port found on the bottom of Wii Remotes (because going with a USB port would have been too easy heh), and users can plug up to two NES Controllers into the console to play with a friend or plug the controller into a Wii Remote in order to play classic games found on the Wii and Wii U Virtual Consoles.

The NES Classic Edition comes with a single controller. Additional controllers will have a MSRP of $9.99. Alternatively, gamers can plug their Wii Classic Controller or Wii Classic Controller Pro game pads into the mini NES.

The bite-sized NES will come with 30 built in games. This number is sadly not expandable as there is no external memory or internet connection on the console (modders would have loved this thing…).

The list of games is as follows:

  • 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

I am excited to see the Castlevania and Zelda games on here along with, of course, the Super Mario Bros. games. I do remember playing Dr. Mario and Ninja Gaiden as well, but there are several games that I have fond memories of playing that did not make the cut! For example, I remember playing a lot of Super Off Road, Duck Hunt (how do they not have this? I guess the old gun wouldn't work with new TVs so they would have to figure something else out though), RC Pro-Am which I loved, and a few others I can't remember the names of anymore).

I have no doubt that this is going to be an extremely popular seller and a great gift idea for the gamer in your life (or yourself! hehe). I wish that it had more games or at least ROM support so that it had a bit more life, but for what it is it is not a bad deal. After all, the original NES launched at $199.99 in 1985 which would make it almost $450 in today's dollars! For those interested, it should be up for pre-order at some point, but for now it is still notify only at Amazon US.

Are you excited for the tiny NES Classic Edition or is your trusty NES and cartridges collection still kicking? What were your favorite NES games growing up (if any)?