SNES Classic, it's happening

Richard Kain

Richard Kain

CAGiversary!
SNES Classic arriving in September

Surprising pretty much no one, Nintendo announced the SNES Classic today. It will be coming out in September.

One of the big differences between this and the NES Classic is that there will be 9 fewer games for it. While the NES Classic boasted 30 NES games, the SNES Classic is only going to have 21 games total. But in order to twist the knife for classic game collectors, Nintendo announced that the 21st game on the machine is going to be the never-officially-before-released Starfox 2. You can be sure that collectors will be lining up in droves to get the only commercially released copy of Starfox 2.

The SNES Classic is also going to be $80, while the NES Classic was a cheaper $60. Part of this is likely due to the extra controller. While the NES Classic came bundled with one controller, the SNES Classic will have two. Also, the needed hardware to run SNES games is noticeably higher than NES emulation hardware.

About as predictable as the sun rising, but I will likely be trying to secure a pre-order after the debacle that was the NES Classic supply.

 
Can't wait to not get one because of shortages!!

*le sigh*  :cry: I was fine with missing out on the NES classic, but I really want one of these.

 
R. Kasahara said:
:cry: I was fine with missing out on the NES classic, but I really want one of these.
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You and everyone else. The NES is fondly remembered, especially by those who grew up in the 80s. But the SNES is beloved, and is widely regarded as "THE" classic system of choice. And the line-up they got for this thing! Being only 21 titles, it's not nearly as many as you would like. But it's a murderer's row of the choicest picks.

Link to the Past, Super Mario World, Mario Kart, Super Metroid, Yoshi's Island, all of the usual expected first-party titles are accounted for. But then they throw in third-party choices like Street Fighter II: Turbo Edition, Mega Man X, Final Fantasy III, Secret of Mana, Mario RPG, and Contra III. One of my personal favorites, Super Punch Out even made the cut. Quirky titles like Earthbound and Kirby Dream Course are also on the roster. There are plenty more titles that they COULD have put on it. But the selection on hand is going to have a lot of SNES enthusiasts salivating.

A lot of classic gamers are going to be disappointed by the omission of Chrono Trigger, perhaps the SNES's most popular JRPG entry. Personally, I'm a little more put off by the fact that Act Raiser isn't showing up. I know it doesn't hold up quite as well as a title like Chrono Trigger, but it is still one of my more favored early SNES games. (and the music in it is still fantastic)

 
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DSBrad said:
Can't Nintendo just put those all Switch instead....
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Of course they can, easily. But if they did that, it might be harder for them to sell the $80 physical product. Come on, you know exactly what's happening here. Nintendo sold a ridiculous amount of NES Classics in a short window of time. From the sound of it, they did not anticipate the success that the diminutive throwback would enjoy. Now they're getting ready to ride that gravy train for another year. Why bother putting out digital versions now that may or may not sell well, when they could release a physical version with only 21 games, and rake in huge sales?

 
Richard Kain said:
Of course they can, easily. But if they did that, it might be harder for them to sell the $80 physical product. Come on, you know exactly what's happening here. Nintendo sold a ridiculous amount of NES Classics in a short window of time. From the sound of it, they did not anticipate the success that the diminutive throwback would enjoy. Now they're getting ready to ride that gravy train for another year. Why bother putting out digital versions now that may or may not sell well, when they could release a physical version with only 21 games, and rake in huge sales?
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I know exactly why its just irritating to me that I've bought most of these games 3 or 4 times. I want to buy this and I want a VC on the Switch. Business wise it makes sense, just eventually wish I could stop buying the same games. Easy money for Nintendo.

 
Wow, what a list of JRPGs in there... FFIII, SMRPG, Earthbound and Secret of Mana? I mean, it's missing the RPG/game of all time (Chrono Trigger) but I still can't knock that list. Having Star Fox 2 in there is awesome, and the rest of the games in there are solid. 

I'm not too hopeful about getting one though...:whistle2:/ 

 
DSBrad said:
I want to buy this and I want a VC on the Switch. Business wise it makes sense, just eventually wish I could stop buying the same games.
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I feel your pain. But I wouldn't expect the Virtual Console to come back in the same fashion that it existed before. Oh, I'm reasonably confident that they'll have something comparable eventually. But I don't think they are going to brand it as the "Virtual Console" anymore. My guess is that they will just put these games up as individual purchases on the eShop, and they will simply be eShop titles. We've already seen a little bit of this with the release of SNK NeoGeo games on the Switch eShop. In the past, these games would have definitely been on the Virtual Console. Now they are just released as normal downloadable titles that happen to be from a retro system.

When is this going to happen? I have no clue. And I can't say with any certainty that the Classic retro systems have anything to do with Nintendo dragging their feet on this. I would feel a lot better about purchasing digital games on Nintendo platforms if I knew that I didn't have to buy them again when a new system came out. The lack of consistency on this point is why I never bothered to go deep on acquiring Virtual Console titles. (while my PSN account is swollen with legacy titles that I can play on multiple hardware platforms)

 
Richard Kain said:
You and everyone else. The NES is fondly remembered, especially by those who grew up in the 80s. But the SNES is beloved, and is widely regarded as "THE" classic system of choice. And the line-up they got for this thing! Being only 21 titles, it's not nearly as many as you would like. But it's a murderer's row of the choicest picks.

Link to the Past, Super Mario World, Mario Kart, Super Metroid, Yoshi's Island, all of the usual expected first-party titles are accounted for. But then they throw in third-party choices like Street Fighter II: Turbo Edition, Mega Man X, Final Fantasy III, Secret of Mana, Mario RPG, and Contra III. One of my personal favorites, Super Punch Out even made the cut. Quirky titles like Earthbound and Kirby Dream Course are also on the roster. There are plenty more titles that they COULD have put on it. But the selection on hand is going to have a lot of SNES enthusiasts salivating.

A lot of classic gamers are going to be disappointed by the omission of Chrono Trigger, perhaps the SNES's most popular JRPG entry. Personally, I'm a little more put off by the fact that Act Raiser isn't showing up. I know it doesn't hold up quite as well as a title like Chrono Trigger, but it is still one of my more favored early SNES games. (and the music in it is still fantastic)
Click to expand...
Act Raiser would have been an welcome if surprising addition. I recently replayed through Chrono Trigger on the DS (excellent version of that game), though I agree that it would have been great to see it added to that list. A part of me is tempted to buy the SNES Classic just for Star Fox 2, but I think I'll save my money for a Switch instead.

Richard Kain said:
I feel your pain. But I wouldn't expect the Virtual Console to come back in the same fashion that it existed before. Oh, I'm reasonably confident that they'll have something comparable eventually. But I don't think they are going to brand it as the "Virtual Console" anymore. My guess is that they will just put these games up as individual purchases on the eShop, and they will simply be eShop titles. We've already seen a little bit of this with the release of SNK NeoGeo games on the Switch eShop. In the past, these games would have definitely been on the Virtual Console. Now they are just released as normal downloadable titles that happen to be from a retro system.

When is this going to happen? I have no clue. And I can't say with any certainty that the Classic retro systems have anything to do with Nintendo dragging their feet on this. I would feel a lot better about purchasing digital games on Nintendo platforms if I knew that I didn't have to buy them again when a new system came out. The lack of consistency on this point is why I never bothered to go deep on acquiring Virtual Console titles. (while my PSN account is swollen with legacy titles that I can play on multiple hardware platforms)
Click to expand...
This past weekend I fired up my Wii that had been in storage for the past three or so years and was delightfully surprised to see all the old VC games I had purchase (Mario Bros 1,2 & 3, Super Mario World, Super Castlevania IV, Super Metroid, Mario RPG, a few Kirby games, etc). The idea of rebuying these games that I've purchased 1-3x already is a bit much particularly if the Wii VC is pretty much the exact same as the SNES Classic sans Star Fox 2.

 
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