Nintendo are going to release an HDMI connected NES complete with 30 NES games built into the box! The NES Classic Mini. It will cost $59.99 and launch in November. It looks like the size of a small streaming box.

They've confirmed it won't play NES cartridges and won't connect to the internet, so no eShop. Still, there are a decent amount of games included. You will be able to create multiple suspend points per game in order to keep your progress.

It will come with a classic NES pad and also support the Classic Controller and Classic Controller Pro for two player. Or you can buy another new NES pad for $9.99.

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Here are the included games:

Balloon Fight

BUBBLE BOBBLE

Castlevania

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong Jr.

DOUBLE DRAGON II: THE REVENGE

Dr. Mario

Excitebike

FINAL FANTASY

Galaga

GHOSTS'N GOBLINS

GRADIUS

Ice Climber

Kid Icarus

Kirby's Adventure

Mario Bros.

MEGA MAN 2

Metroid

NINJA GAIDEN

PAC-MAN

Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream

StarTropics

SUPER C

Super Mario Bros.

Super Mario Bros. 2

Super Mario Bros. 3

TECMO BOWL

The Legend of Zelda

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

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Lots of heavy hitters in there. Is this an April fools? Probably not. I would totally drop money to have this many games in a convenient box.

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/07/nintendo_entertainment_system_nes_classic_edition_coming_this_november_ships_with_30_games

There's been Megadrive reshells sold the same way, so it could happen.

I'd buy one if it happened anyway, some of those preloaded titles are ones I still own on original carts. I just don't want to have to dig out a NES and an old tv to play them on.

Of course they're selling the pad separately :/

Be cool if you could sync any Bluetooth controller. Still. Be even better if these titles were available on other consoles

It does come with a controller, fyi.

Nintendo today announced the mini-NES, a $60 machine that will come pre-installed with 30 classic Nintendo games. It’ll also come with an HDMI cable, a power adapter, and what Nintendo is calling an NES Classic Controller, “patterned after the iconic design of the original NES controller.”

Very interested! Older brother got rid of all our NES stuff years ago.

@rhombus_of_terror: You get one pad in the box and you can buy a second one if you want to play any of the games two player.

I suppose the other takeaway here is how I didn't see this coming. No leaks or rumours or anything, which is pretty impressive at this point.

You have to wonder if it's something they've been waiting to do for a while.

Oh man that's cool. I'm not sure if I really want one as I'd rather just play these games on Wii U. Wonder if there's any way to play other games on it.

Now if they made mini SNES I'd be more interested.

I own most of these on cart already, but I'm still interested in this, if only to play them on an HDTV and not have to use something that could damage them like a Retron5 (Yes, there is an issue with the pins getting bent and breaking carts. I own one and am terrified to sacrifice my NES games)

This looks cool and I will probably get one. I just wish it had more games/a way to get additional games. Some of the choices seem...odd. Castlevania 2 but not 3? Is anyone going to take the time to actually play through the original Final Fantasy again? NES Pac-Man (It's not that Pac-Man isn't a good game, but considering how many ways there are to play arcade perfect Pac-Man out there these days it's a little odd, and it's also not a game that's necessarily strongly associated with the NES.)

Still this seems cool, and like any sane person what I REALLY hope is that it opens the path to something like this being done for the SNES in the nearish future.

Well, what I'd really like to see is a tear-down of what is inside and what isn't. What sort of protection is on it. I would assume all games sit in/on a single memory chip ROM or Non-volatile memory chip, so does that mean you could solder a microSD slot in its place? And that only if there is something neat or interesting on the PCB worth fooling around with, again that comes down to what is inside and what isn't.

I suppose if it was built to last (not a cheap knock off) $60 might be okay, but it would have to be built like a brick shit-house in that case. Then again are we talking straight up 80s era code or do these games have modifications for modern 'saving' and 'pause' modes where appropriate?

The other interesting question woudl be what do teh PCBs look like? Could a tinkerer strip out the innards and put it in a custom case with a screen? Could that be done easily or is the PCB made just weird enough that you have to really tear it down thus making it not worth the effort?

I hope if they do a SNES one that it is like the Genesis ones you can buy and lets you use carts for games not in the system. I already have the games on this list that I want to play on my 3DS so I can't really see myself getting one of these. I wouldn't complain if it was a gift but I don't imagine I'll run out and buy one

Still have my old NES, need to pull it out and make sure it is still working though.

Those are about all the NES games I would want

There are probably several of these out there already, just not from nintendo.

I've seen similar ones for the Genesis, Atari 2600, and the Intellivision.

With these things a major part of whether or not they succeed seems to rest on whether or not they have a slot for actual games; aging NES's are kind of the worst to get working these days. Also they have Castlevania 1 and 2 but you do want to be able to play 3 on there.

Cool thing to pull out for a small get together to reminisce about your childhood over a few drinks. You can throw it in a backpack and just go.

I agree. I still have my SNES, but its only compatible on 1 TV in my house because every other TV I have is strictly HDMI/USB and has no AV/component slots.

Sega has a Genesis thing just like this and no one seemed to care lol

This would be perfect for me but this part is concerning;

Sadly you can't use your original NES carts with the console - something even the most basic "Famiclone" offers - and there doesn't seem to be any means of getting new games onto it.

That has to be some sort of oversight or news that is yet to be found right? No way to get other games on there - while it looks like most of the games that I'd look to have on there are already baked in, it's a weird choice to say "30 games no more have fun".

Having a locked-down selection is tough when you miss out on great less popular games, the most well-known games aren't what I'd be looking to play again. They did put a few surprising more obscure things on there though (& wasted a slot on DK Jr. since there was a cart with both that and DK on it).

This is news that I didn't expect to hear about today. I view the hardware not as competition to the eShop but rather a way to get more interest in the eShop. If you think about it, the best way to generate excitement is provide a way for more players to engage with the games. So why not bridge another gap between 1980's Nintendo and the HDMI world of today? I really like my Wii U and the eShop is filled with interesting games that I want to play. What Nintendo is doing here is really smart because it's affordable, it's filled with timeless classics, and it's portable (to a degree). It's not impossible to see this as a hot ticket item for the Christmas rush this year, and to see the overall reach of Nintendo to gain as 2017 comes upon us and more talk focuses on the NX and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Any way to pre-order? I can see these things running out fast.

I wasn't super interested until I saw the system itself. Now I must have it.

Yeah that's cool, but I'd be more tempted to buy a SNES version.

Huh. As someone who was going to buy an original NES would this push the value of those up or down?

Think its great, high time Nintendo did this, Sega has for years. Looks cute, I'll be getting one.

No cartridges.

No access to eShop to buy more games.

No point.

Midway-through-Julypril Fools!

Pity they only have Mega Man 2; there are many people that consider Mega Man 3 the best out of the original six. Also, they should definitely have (Mr.) Gimmick, which has never had a proper release outside of Japan and Scandinavia.

Imagine they make mini cartridges for this thing.

Missed opportunity to officially introduce the beauty of Tetris Battle Gaiden to the world stage.

Hopefully it'll be cheap as hell. I'll buy one to put a raspberry pi in.

You'd have to wait for a SNES version of this for that to even be a possibility though right.

I'd be down for this but the game selection leaves much to be desired. Where's Castlevania 3? Ninja Gaiden 2 and 3? Dragon Quest? And only Mega Man 2? I mean sure, licensing can be difficult, but you'd think getting one game in a series would open the floodgates for more.

Would be more interested if it had more games. Wheres Bump'n Jump and Bad Dudes?

Buy our old games, again!

That's awesome. I would personally prefer a new SNES, but this is still really cool.

To echo a few others, the selection is kind of strange in a few places. Super C instead of regular Contra? Who cares about Punch Out with Mr. Dream? I know they can't (or won't) get the Tyson license back, but why bother? I'd love to see River City Ransom and maybe a couple of other sports games - Blades of Steel and RBI Baseball, perhaps.

And on top of that, I can't play the cartridges I still own? I think that's pretty much a deal-breaker.

I will buy this.

There's some problem with the original code for Contra bring lost to time so Super C is probably the closest thing they could get. And Punch Out is still a great game with or without Tyson. Why wouldn't they release the copy then can actually get.

The only major problem I see is not giving people the option to play more NES games not on this list.

I've never even owned an NES, but this is insanely exciting news to me. 60 euros for that system and all those games? Bring it on Nintendo.

For Punch Out! it's both a licensing thing (the deal with Tyson was almost certainly not in perpetuity) and an appearance thing (Nintendo does not want to be in business with Tyson after his conviction, which is why it was changed in the first place.) That makes sense.

The original code for Contra isn't "lost." Maybe the source code is, but there are literally millions of Contra cartridges in existence, and the game has been included on various compilations and legal emulations over the years. Since this thing is almost certainly going to be some kind of emulator rather than new ports to bespoke hardware the source code isn't necessary. It's either a licensing thing (maybe Konami wanted too much money for it?) or just a game selection thing (someone at Nintendo prefers Super C.) There may be some video games lost to time, but Contra is definitely not one of them.

I imagine the number of people who still have NES cartridges at home is pretty slim, and those that do probably already have a NES console to go with it. Nintendo isn't aiming this at them, so don't be surprised there isn't a cartridge slot.

Convenience, form factor and cost seem to be the priorities here. Having a cartridge slot conflicts with all of those.

Though of course, a way to access more games than the 30 listed would be nice.

I feel like a lot of people are expecting this to be more than what it is. Fair enough, but the way it's described, it's simply a plug-and-play thing preloaded with games, like Atari, Sega, and countless knockoffs have done before. The type of thing that can be found in a Wal-Mart toy aisle. No cartridge slot or additional games in the future makes sense. This is what it is. Granted it would be great if there were future packs of games or something to add on to it.

I think it's a cost thing. This thing is priced at $60 and adding a cartridge slot might cut profits. Plus it would increase the size.

That being said, while people with NES carts generally do have systems, some of those systems may be broken, and none of them play well with modern TVs. There are a bunch of systems on the market that specifically exist to play old games on new TVs, and there would be a market for an official Nintendo version. However that market would probably be relatively small and Nintendo is likely looking at this as a mass market device designed to shift a lot of units, so the cartridge slot probably isn't worth the cost and space on the device.

I don't understand why Nintendo isn't offering some kind of download service or even selling game packs on some kind of SD card like media, though. An Ethernet or SD card port is small and cheap to add.

They should have done this years ago. There's a lot of people who want to play the old games but don't really care enough to buy a Wii or Wii U to do so.

This is cheaper and lets them play 30 awesome NES games. I already have a Wii U so I won't buy it but I want the NES controller for VC games on the Wii U.

I'm really hoping the success of this will drive a SNES version as well. Trying to think which 30 games I'd most want on that system and it's a LOT of RPGs so far so I need to think more.

Fucking real tempted to buy this just for Star Tropics even though I have an NES and a copy of that game buried somewhere in this house.

This seems neat. Granted it seems a little pointless if you bought these games already for the Wii U and 3Ds, but that's a pretty solid collection of games nonetheless. Though its interesting they got Final Fantasy 1 and Mega Man 2 but not other games in each series. Where's Mega Man 3? I feel getting a mini system with 30 games included at about $60 dollars is good value.

Well it's pretty crazy to expect any piece of hardware to boot up old NES carts in 2016. However it would be cool for the thing to have an online store with classic digital games for sure