If you missed out on the NES Classic Edition the first time around, Nintendo is keeping to its promise to release more of the old-school, miniscule consoles this summer. Expect them back in stock on June 29.
Nintendo of America announced this week that the NES Classic Edition will be back in stock starting June 29 and that the consoles will be available, alongside the SNES Classic Edition, through the end of the year. That last bit is especially important, because it lets people know they likely won't miss out on the gadgets without a pre-order this time around.
The first time the NES Classic Edition hit the scene, Nintendo shocked the world by pulling a Nintendo and only making a small number of the consoles available. If you didn't pre-order one of the machines or snag it off of a shelf immediately after launch, you probably never got one. For whatever reason, Nintendo basically offered "we didn't expect them to be this popular" as some sort of sound reasoning for not making more.
It's pretty likely that they weren't making more NES Classic Editions because they were already full steam ahead on the next mini-console, the SNES Classic Edition. However, copious amounts of fan outcry did the trick. Not only did Nintendo promise and deliver on making plenty of SNES Classic Editions available, they announced they would bring back the NES Classic sometime this summer. As noted above, that's actually happening starting June 29. And, assuming Nintendo actually believes they're ready to roll through the rest of 2018, there's no need to get in a street fight or sell your kidney to add one to your retro collection this time around. Pre-order one if you're feeling worried, but we figure they should actually be in decent supply this time.
What's great about the NES Classic Edition is that it looks like the original console, has an original controller, and comes packed with 30 games for 60 bucks.
The games come with helpful features like suspend points, which make it easy to "save" your game, unlike with progress on the original cartridges. Also, you can choose from several display modes, ranging from Pixel Perfect to CRT filter and a 4:3 ratio.
As for the games, some of the best NES titles are up for grabs, including everything from Super Mario Bros. and Pac-Man to Metroid and Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. What's interesting here is that, now that Nintendo has announced the Virtual Console will not be coming to the Switch, subscribers to their online service will gain access to a bunch of games that are also on this hardware including Balloon Fight, Dr. Mario and Donkey Kong. Nintendo is kind of chomping their own flavor here but, as stated above, they've always marched to their own beat.
Either way, yay, we're getting more NES Classic Editions!
