After the breakout success that was the Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly abbreviated to NES for easier reference, The House That Mario Built would strike gold once again in the early ’90s with a 16-bit successor.
The Super Nintendo launched worldwide between 1990 and 1992, and despite fierce competition from Sega’s Mega Drive/Genesis would go on to dominate that generation of consoles with breakout hits like the visually spectacular Donkey Kong Country, the 3D boon that was Star Fox/Starwing, and the absolute classics of Super Mario World and The Legend of Zelda: A link to the Past, to name but a few.
To celebrate its oldest console’s legacy last year, Nintendo released the Nintendo Classic Mini: NES, a pint-sized version of the original hardware with 30 games built into it, which wouldn’t even stay on the shelves long enough to fly off it. Repeating the idea this year is the Super Nintendo Entertainment System version, coming this time with 20 highly-acclaimed games and one major exclusive surprise. Is this in-demand toy worthy of its initial high-selling status?
Coming in authentic, yet considerably smaller branded packaging, the Nintendo Classic Mini: SNES is rather unassuming when taken out of the box for the first time. Miniature and very lightweight – almost to the point of wondering if there’s anything in the unit at all – it retains all the key design elements of the original: the sliding power function, reset button, eject trigger that has no purpose or forced reaction on this rendition, are all present in one form or another. Even the front two controller ports have retained their original distinctive shape, although this is now a flap concealing the actual inputs for the included pads.
Yes, you read that right: pads as in two, as Nintendo has this time included a duo of Super NES controllers with each Mini unit, each one being incredibly authentic to the real deal in size and feel, but each having somewhat of a more slippery matte grip. This could easily be due to being fresh out of the box, though. Getting two straight away is a big plus as not only were separate NES controllers as difficult to find as the unit itself, but the SNES version has all the key hardware it needs right out of the box for all of its included games.
Cord length of the controllers has been improved this time around, although admittedly not nearly enough for anyone rocking a big entertainment setup, and the only way back to the main menu after launching the game still being the reset button on the hardware is an irritation – authentic but annoying. The classic L + R +ABXY reset method does actually work on all the games now instead of a select number, but this only resets the current title instead of reaching the main menu.
Coming with the unit is the standard instruction booklet, although it’s unlikely to ever be needed due to a very simple setup process, and an HDMI lead and micro-USB to USB cable. On the one hand, it is annoying that Nintendo has yet again avoided packaging any sort of plug with this, yet the flip side of that thought is that the included cable not only allows for USB port powering, which has become increasingly common, but also for computer connections, which opens the way to other, potentially non-ethical means of games and emulation possibilities, a huge selling point for many. Admittedly, a separate USB plug attachment would have made everyone happy in this instance, which would have been nice to see included with the package.
Contents and housing aside, what will garner the highest interest in the Nintendo Classic Mini: SNES is the thing that matters the most: the games! Accessed from a nifty sliding menu upon switching the unit on, the line-up is as follows:
- Contra III: The Alien Wars
- Donkey Kong Country
- EarthBound
- Final Fantasy III
- F-ZERO
- Kirby Super Star (actually a collection of games in one)
- Kirby’s Dream Course
- Mega Man X
- Secret of Mana
- Star Fox
- 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
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
These games, all fully featured and emulated beautifully, are the cream of the crop for the Super Nintendo library, and barring a few notable exceptions like Chrono Trigger are an ideal representation of the machine’s legacy. Two of them in particular have never been officially emulated before due to their use of the SuperFX chip in their original forms – being Star Fox and Yoshi’s Island.
These titles for their retro value are debatably worth the price of admission alone, but Nintendo has also included another Super FX game, one that has never officially been released anywhere in the world before. Star Fox 2, which was cancelled upon completion reportedly to allow Lylat Wars/Star Fox 64 and the Nintendo 64 breathing room, is built into each SNES system in all its completed glory. Adding this title has given the Nintendo Classic Mini: SNES an even bigger boost in value proposition for collectors and enthusiasts, let alone regular fans.
Returning display options include a CRT filter to emulate older TV pictures, a 4:3 standard output, and a Pixel Perfect mode that shows the game as the makers intended. Also included are up to four save states for each game; regardless of the title, a quick press of the reset button back to the main menu allows for a save up to that point.
New to the SNES is the rewind feature, whereby after setting a save state, a player can choose to rewind up to the last few minutes of that play and redo their actions. This, besides being a neat feature to see in action, can help greatly with some of the more trial and error games on the list, like Super Punch Out!! and Street Fighter II Turbo.
Although slightly more expensive than its predecessor and bringing forward a couple of the same issues only lessened to a degree, the additions and arguably higher quality games line-up of the Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Nintendo Entertainment System make it a highly viable and worthy purchase for not only Nintendo fans, but gaming enthusiasts on the whole.
