After the insanely successful NES Classic Edition completely sold out until Nintendo inexplicably stopped making it, the company is following up with a miniature version of the Super Nintendo that will come bundled with 21 classic 16-bit games including Super Mario World and F-Zero.
It looks like the SNES Classic Edition will be priced at $80, probably because it includes two SNES controllers, where as the NES Classic Edition came with just one, which always felt kind of cheap on Nintendo’s part. We’ve also now got a complete games list for the tiny 16-bit console and the lineup looks pretty solid. Nintendo’s even included the never-before-released Star Fox 2 which has only been available to play through downloads and emulation until now.
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
If you’re in Europe, there’s even more reason to be excited about the SNES Classic Edition because you’ll be getting a version of the console styled after the original Japanese Super Famicom, with a curvier design and rainbow action buttons on the controllers. Everything else about the alternate version of the SNES Classic Edition is the same, though, including games and its release date.
Retro gaming has been popular ever since laptops, tablets, and smartphones became powerful enough to run emulators for classic consoles like the original NES, Sega Master System, and their 16-bit counterparts. But finding the ROMs for your favorite childhood games required a level of know-how, and internet sleuthing, that most gamers don’t have.
Classic games from consoles like the Atari 2600, the original Pong, or from arcade machines like Pac-Man, have been in available in easy plug-and-play consoles for close to a decade now, but those games all kind of suck. That was probably why the NES Classic Edition released last year was such a hit. Not only was it easy to use, it already came with a great lineup of A-list titles gamers actually wanted to play. As a result, this year’s E3 included a bunch of NES Classic Edition clones, including a tiny Sega Genesis.
But gamers started asking for a Super Nintendo Classic Edition as soon as the original NES Classic Edition was revealed, and we even pre-compiled a games list to make Nintendo’s job even easier. The official lineup for the SNES Classic Edition doesn’t quite match our own, but it’s hard to be upset with what they’re bundling for $80.