Last November, a surprise re-release of an adored retro console hit the shelves, although no one seemed to be able to get their hands on one.
Of course, I’m talking about the NES Classic Edition, a miniature version of the Nintendo Entertainment System that included 30 of its best games, including "Super Mario Bros." and "The Legend of Zelda."
Fans criticized Nintendo about the supply issues — a brand-new NES Classic Edition can now only be found on sites like eBay for exuberant prices, nearly four times the price of its original $59.99 MSRP.
Over the summer, Nintendo announced the next entry in their “Classics” line: the Super NES Classic Edition, a re-release of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System that includes 20 of its best games, such as "Super Mario World," "Super Metroid" and "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past," in addition to including "Star Fox 2," a previously unreleased game that never saw the light of day due to conflicts in Nintendo’s release schedule at the time.
After it was announced, fans, such as myself, were concerned. Has Nintendo learned from their mistakes? Would they make more Super NES Classics? These were some of the questions people asked, and an answer would not be given until close to launch day.
Preorders across numerous websites went live between the summer and its release in late September, all which sold out in minutes. I was lucky (read: dumb) enough to be up at 2 a.m. (I had a class in six hours) when preorders went live at Best Buy, and I secured a console.
Some would call it an act of goodwill, others would call it an act of stupidity, but a few weeks prior to the console’s launch, I decided to sell the console at face value to a friend who had not been able to secure a preorder. I figured I would try my luck at the midnight launch of the system.
So come Sept. 29, the day leading up to the launch of the console that night, and I learned that the Walmart down the street had 13 consoles to sell. I decided to show up at 10 p.m., which would hopefully be early enough that I would fall somewhere in the middle of those 13. Luckily, I was the 13th person there. I was able to secure a Super NES Classic with no issues.
So what do I think about it? Honestly, the Super NES Classic Edition is leagues better than its predecessor, and that’s due to the games included. The SNES is home to some of Nintendo’s greatest games of all time, and those games are present on its miniature re-release.
