If you're kicking yourself for missing the sold-out Nintendo Classic Mini NES, now's the time to start your preorder engines. Nintendo has just announced a follow-up in the form of the Super NES Classic Edition, which recreates the 16-bit console of the early 1990s as a small HDMI-compatible box preloaded with 21 games, including a long-lost sequel that never saw the light of day.
Like its predecessor, the SNES Classic Edition is essentially a hard drive full of the biggest games of that generation, shaped like the original console but small enough to hold in one hand. In keeping with tradition, the US and Japanese version will be blocky with purple buttons, while the one that hits Europe and Australia will be more shapely and adorned with primary colors.
Two controllers are included, and it looks like Ninty learned its lesson from last time: the cables are now approx. 5 ft (1.5 m) long, as opposed to the two-foot (0.6-m) wires on the NES Classic Mini that kept us pressed against the screen and opened up the market for third party wireless options.
The console outputs to a TV via HDMI and is powered through USB, although strangely the European/Australian edition doesn't include the power adapter. Players can either buy that separately or just plug the device into the USB port on a TV, PC, laptop or what have you.
The popularity of the original SNES was largely due to a library of amazing games, and the list of titles on the Classic Edition reads like a greatest hits album. Donkey Kong Country, EarthBound, F-Zero, Kirby Super Star, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Star Fox, Super Mario Kart, Super Mario World, Super Metroid and Yoshi's Island are all accounted for.
But the biggest surprise is the legendary Star Fox 2, which was famously canceled in 1995 to give the upcoming Nintendo 64 Star Fox game some breathing room. Its inclusion here marks the first time the game has ever been playable by the public.
Sega and Atari are doing similar retro rereleases, but nobody knows nostalgia like Nintendo. With a huge back catalog of classics to draw from, the announcement of the SNES Classic makes us hopeful that this trend will continue next year with the Nintendo 64. Either way, it should help tide us over while we await word on the Switch's Virtual Console plans.
The Super NES Classic Edition will be available September 29 for US$79.99, but if demand for the NES Classic is anything to go by, you might want to preorder pretty soon. Check out the full list of games below.
- Contra III: The Alien Wars
- Donkey Kong Country
- EarthBound
- Final Fantasy III
- F-ZERO
- Kirby Super Star
- Kirby's Dream Course
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
- Mega Man X
- Secret of Mana
- Star Fox
- Star Fox 2
- Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting
- Super Castlevania IV
- Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts
- Super Mario Kart
- Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
- Super Mario World
- Super Metroid
- Super Punch-Out!!
- Yoshi's Island
Source: Nintendo
