"Super NES Classic Edition" Discussion Thread

[Mandouga]

Press release here

Official website here

This was completely unexpected, IMO. I guess they didn't announce it at E3 because they want people going crazy over it and ignoring the rest of their presentation.

It's not yet available for pre-order, but if the previous NES Classic Edition was meant to be a short-term product, you can bet this will also be...

Oh yeah, everyone is finally going to get to play the original Star Fox and Yoshi's Island. Not only that, but for the first time anywhere, everyone is going to get to play the previously unreleased Star Fox 2.

Also, don't expect this to be expandable either (i.e., downloading more games online). I also imagine that the game pak slot will just be for aesthetics again, so no original Super NES game paks either. You also shouldn't be fooled by the Super NES style controller ports. It says that everyone will be able to use the classic controller and classic controller pro with it as well (which also means that the Super NES controllers that come with it will work with the Wii Remote; at least that's what they're implying).

I'm certainly going to try to get one, if at least for the two Star Fox games, and Yoshi's Island...

 

[Storm Eagle]

They had me at Star Fox 2.

That is all.

 

[Gold Guy]

I'm probably skipping this, but the Star Fox 2 addition is really cool.

 

[Mandouga]

They had me at Star Fox 2.

That is all.

I'm not sure what you mean when you say they "had" you at Star Fox 2. Does that you're planning to get it? I'm sorry, but I'm a little confused.

 

[Leviathan]

I was kind of hoping for Super Mario All-Stars or Pilotwings, but the huge curveball they threw with Star Fox 2 completely negates that.

I'm still shocked that they had a complete, English-translated copy of it for this. Nintendo must have better archives than Disney.

Star Fox 1 and Yoshi are also huge surprises. They either resolved the legal issues with Argonaut and the SuperFX chip, or those were never issues to begin with.

I just hope they make more than a dozen of these.

 

[Storm Eagle]

I'm not sure what you mean when you say they "had" you at Star Fox 2. Does that you're planning to get it? I'm sorry, but I'm a little confused.

Yes, that means that the inclusion of Star Fox 2 has me sold.

I was kind of hoping for Super Mario All-Stars or Pilotwings, but the huge curveball they threw with Star Fox 2 completely negates that.

There's always going to be a game that someone wishes was included. I imagined that DKC2: Diddy's Kong Quest would be one of the games it would have, but whatever. I still have my own copy for the SNES proper.

 

[jaylop97]

That's quite a selection they have but they could have used a little more games, of course nothing wrong with their classics but I think they could have at least thrown in some other games i.e Capcom games or so.

 

[Mandouga]

For the Super FX games, I personally think that there never were legal issues in the first place. I suspect that the Super NES program they made for the Wii and Wii U just couldn't handle the Super FX technology those games used. However, this new "retro-console" as some people call it, uses a completely new program, just like how the previous NES Classic Edition used a new NES program that was different from the ones for the Wii and Wii U, and I'm guessing this one can actually handle it this time.

 

[James Bester]

To me, hearing this news is the equivalent of hearing that a small mine of gold was discovered in a small town in the Appalachian Mountains. It sounds tempting, but there's no way in Hell I'll be able to actually win a race with the audience to attain it. I sincerely hate Nintendo's new marketing strategy of releasing a minimal amount of units to give their products supposedly more demand in the way that they released the Switch and Classic NES, and I doubt they'll change it with this platform as well due to its unfortunate success.

 

[Classic Speedy]

Nintendo claims that they'll have more units of the SNES Classic than the NES Classic, but I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[Mandouga]

Well, I'm giving Nintendo the benefit of the doubt. They say they are not creating shortages on purpose, and I have no (real) reason to doubt them. Remember, though. The previous NES classic edition was never meant to be a "long term product" (I might be paraphrasing, but that was more or less what Nintendo called it). The "artificial shortage" claim likely came from people who were frustrated/upset that they didn't get an NES Classic (or a Nintendo Switch, for that matter) themselves (some people refer to this as "sour grapes"), and/or just wanted an(other) excuse to badmouth Nintendo, regardless if they wanted one or not. Indeed, it may have even come (at least patially) from Sony / Microsoft "fanboys/girls" (with all due respect to those who do prefer Sony or Microsoft to Nintendo), or even not, who never liked Nintendo in the first place either way. Of course, there others who simply just want to watch the world burn...

in any event, I think we should just assume the best, which means there will likely be enough to go around this time.

 

[James Bester]

Well, I definitely don't belong in the "watch the world burn" category. I just find it interesting that Nintendo made such an apparently huge blunder with the Classic NES stock and instantly proceeded to do the same with the Switch months later. Either they're incredibly incompetent at assessing demand, or this was a ploy to get people talking about their products as being must-have in nature due to their scarcity. I honestly believe it's the latter, since I find it incredibly hard to believe that their management would be THAT incompetent after so many years in business.

The truth is that it wasn't a blunder. With this strategy, they've made the Switch look like some kind of commodity when it's really an obsolete system with no virtual console option or even exclusive software. I look forward to when that changes (Metroid Prime 4, Pokemon Switch, Mario Odyssey, Yoshi, and Kirby are all building up a killer lineup, and I'd love to play all of them), but for now, this is how they're managing to stay at the top of their game without really offering much of anything. I don't see them changing up that strategy with the Classic SNES. I mean, I'd LOVE them to, and I hope I can look back at this post and see that you proved me wrong, since I'd be a fool to not want to get my hands on the classic SNES. So I pray that you're right, haha. It's just very difficult for me to have faith in them at this point.

 

[Peter Paltridge]

According to Nintendo, they've been wrestling with Apple for parts, and Apple, being bigger, usually wins.

 

[GWOtaku]

Nintendo claims that they'll have more units of the SNES Classic than the NES Classic, but I'll believe it when I see it.

I'm sure it's true, I'm sure it's also true that demand for this product will be at least as high as it was for NES Classic. I strongly advise jumping on the first opportunity to preorder or order this one, if you think you're interested.

Another difference is that they've apparently added a couple of feet to the controller cables, which is a good thing since complaint #1 for the NES classic itself was that the packaged controller's cable was absurdly short.

While somewhat off topic, in regard to Switch Nintendo's been legitimately moving a lot of units in North America. It's not that supply is particularly low, there's a genuine challenge in keeping pace with demand. No other piece of Nintendo hardware in the company's history has been a faster seller, not even the evergreen Wii console.

The NES Classic situation, however, was a garbage fire from start to finish. No getting around that.

 

[James Bester]

Well, that's what I get for trying to utilize pure assumption and speculation. Such mixed emotions right now... I'm glad Nintendo isn't seemingly using the artificial scarcity method, but I'm also saddened to find out that it sounds like the whole mess with Apple could delay availability of the Switch even longer than I initially thought.

Also wanted to say that the Super NES Classic has ALREADY been made available for pre-order in the UK... well, it was anyway and was then sold out within minutes. What a surprise. Now with all this extra time before the pre-orders are available in the US, I'm sure that the scalpers and their bots are already set to go. Sadly it already appears that the Super NES Classic is set to be a garbage fire from start to finish as well.

 

[defunctzombie]

I'm going to pass. Aside from the desire to keep my sanity intact by not fighting scalpers, I have the Wii disc or GBA versions of all of the included games that I would be playing, and my GC has a Game Boy Player with a Wavebird controller. Not to mention my SNES still works. That 80 bucks could be used for something more constructive than buying Link to the Past for the six or seventh time in 25 years.

I'm not sure what you mean when you say they "had" you at Star Fox 2. Does that you're planning to get it? I'm sorry, but I'm a little confused.

You never heard the phrase "you had me at hello"?

 

[SNS]

I suspect that the Super NES program they made for the Wii and Wii U just couldn't handle the Super FX technology those games used.

I doubt it. The Virtual Console had Super Mario RPG and Kirby's Dream Land 3 and both those games used a chip called the SA-1 which was more complex then either of the Super FX chips.

 

[Storm Eagle]

Well, I definitely don't belong in the "watch the world burn" category. I just find it interesting that Nintendo made such an apparently huge blunder with the Classic NES stock and instantly proceeded to do the same with the Switch months later. Either they're incredibly incompetent at assessing demand, or this was a ploy to get people talking about their products as being must-have in nature due to their scarcity. I honestly believe it's the latter, since I find it incredibly hard to believe that their management would be THAT incompetent after so many years in business.

I don't know if I'd compare it to the Switch. I haven't been hearing about many people obtaining one as of late, but it seems like those who preordered theirs actually got one. There were people who preordered NES Classics and it still didn't do them any good.

 

[James Bester]

I don't know if I'd compare it to the Switch. I haven't been hearing about many people obtaining one as of late, but it seems like those who preordered theirs actually got one. There were people who preordered NES Classics and it still didn't do them any good.

Well yeah. I already corrected the post that you're quoting once I did research on the news that Peter brought up about the whole debacle with the Apple vs. Nintendo parts battle. Thanks for pointing that out nonetheless.

 

[Storm Eagle]

Well yeah. I already corrected the post that you're quoting once I did research on the news that Peter brought up about the whole debacle with the Apple vs. Nintendo parts battle. Thanks for pointing that out nonetheless.

Well I called one of the GameStops near me and asked about preorders. They told me they're offering the SNES Classic as a first-come first-serve deal instead. I can't remember if that's what they did with the NES Classic or not.

I wasn't able to preorder a Switch at Best Buy's site once preorders went live. So I tried going into one of their stores instead. I was actually able to get a preorder going, and I did end up with one when they came out. I tried doing the same thing for the SNES Classic, and they told me that they're sold out. They're still not accepting preorders on the site, but I tried calling Best Buy's customer service, and the representative I spoke to told me that they're not sold out, and that I'll just have to wait until I can preorder. Well we'll see.

Since I live in New York, one other strategy would be going to the Nintendo NY store in Manhattan. There were times when they announced on Twitter that they'd be getting a number of NES Classics in stock on a certain day. Usually 250. People would just have to line up outside until they're open. Before the store opens, they'd give out wristbands to the people lined up, and they were guaranteed an NES Classic as long as they didn't go anywhere. They might just do that with the SNES Classic. It would suck to have to resort to that, but you do what you must.