 Hi there, in about a month we'll be seeing the release of a new quote-unquote console from Nintendo, a plug-and-play miniaturized NES preloaded with 30 games. Now just to get this out of the way right away, here's some things you should know about this gizmo. No, it doesn't open up the same way the actual NES does, it only looks like that for cosmetic purposes. And no, there's no port for SD cards or anything like that, just the two controller ports. It also does not connect to the internet, so until someone finds a way to hack this thing we got 30 games here and only 30 games. And you know what? That's fine with me, I'm mostly excited about having a new badass NES controller, it can plug into the Wii U too, which is nice. Also this device supposedly supports save states or restore points, the same way they referred to on the virtual console. That's going to make a lot of these older games much more palatable than their original incarnations. And besides, the people that are upset that you can't download more games for it or whatever, bear in mind you're not the target audience for this thing. This device was made for everyday Joes who haven't considered gaming a hobby since they were teenagers at the latest, people that don't know a thing about emulation and don't care. Or maybe they're scared off by the potential legal ramifications of it. This device is Nintendo's way of reaching out to that audience that hasn't touched these games since they were kids, and they wanted to make it as simple as possible, so no firmware updates or discs or whatever the hell, just plug it in and start playing Mario 3. And that's fine by me. Let's get to the games, I'll talk about each of these very briefly and show off a little bit of footage for each so you know what you're getting with each game. So that means I don't have to spend a whole lot of time talking about Super Mario Brothers, Mario Brothers 2, Mario 3, or Legend of Zelda. I mean come on, if you're watching this video you've already played these, so you don't need some guy on the internet to tell you about them. All I can say is that if you play them today, they don't feel outdated. They still hold up fantastic as interesting and accessible games that absolutely anyone can pick up and play. Staying on that point, the whole pick up and play idea appears to be what Nintendo is going for with this device because there's a lot of games like Balloon Fight on here, just a single screen arcade game style that supports up to two players. You have three lives to defeat all the enemies on screen by popping their balloons. There's also the Balloon Trip Mode, which is a really tough side scrolling game. Next there's Bubble Bobble, same sort of concept here but there's a lot more to it with hidden areas, special abilities, and a hundred levels to complete. This is one of the best multiplayer co-op games on the NES and it definitely deserves to be here. Castlevania is here, one of the best side scrolling action platformers of all time because of the match of Simon Belmont's range of abilities and the level design. Curiously, Castlevania 2's Simons Quest is also here. This game was seen as kind of broken at the time, just a bad layout, confusing and cryptic game design and a lousy translation. Save States may help this game, but I'd much rather play the first or third games in the series. Next there's Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. These are reasonably faithful arcade ports, although the conveyor belt level is missing from the NES port of Donkey Kong and neither game gets to be as insanely difficult as their arcade counterparts, but maybe that's a good thing, it might save some smashed controllers. We skip ahead to Double Dragon 2 The Revenge. Why this and not the first game? Because the second game is to player co-op and the first game is not, simple as that. This is a pretty good beat-em-up for the most part that gets pretty tough the further you play along. There's no Tetris on here but we get the next best thing with Dr. Mario. This is another single-screen puzzle game that's self-explanatory. And there's also Excitebike. The best part of this game is being able to design your own track like a jerk and make your friend try and finish it at a reasonable time. It's great. Final Fantasy is the most inspired choice on this list, and I'm really interested to see how mainstream audiences react to this game because while it's a fine RPG for its time, it's buggy, unbalanced and very grind-heavy. Don't get me wrong, this is a much better choice for an RPG than, say, Dragon Warrior. But just understand what you're getting yourself into with the original Final Fantasy. Galaga is one of my personal favorite arcade games of all time, and one of two shooters in this package alongside Gradius. Personally, I would have liked to have seen Life Force instead, since it's co-op, but it's cool that they included both a fixed vertical shoot-em-up and a side-scrolling shoot-em-up for a little bit of variety. We also have Ghosts and Goblins and Dear God, this might be the hardest game in the entire NES catalog. That's actually playable anyway. I'm glad this is here just to remind people how unconscionably brutal video games used to be. Thank God for save states. There's Ice Climber. This game really isn't all that great or all that interesting, and I'm willing to bet this is only here because of the Ice Climber's inclusion on the Super Smash Bros. series. Ice Climber isn't bad. I'd just rather see something else in its place. Speaking of Super Smash Bros., we also have Kid Icarus, and this is a much better game. I love the old-school arcade mechanic of flipping from one side to the other by running off the edge of the screen. I think this is a better game than people remember, featuring upgradable weapons and items, stores where you can buy stuff, and some interesting level design. Kirby's Adventure is one of the best games on this list, clocking in at 6 megabits, which is pretty huge for an NES game, and it's evident because this game looks freaking spectacular, easily the best-looking game out of the 30 on this list. But more than that, this game remains to this day one of the best Kirby games ever made. The original Mario Bros. NES arcade port is here, a good two-player game where you take turns being awful to each other. You gotta love that. And one of my favorite games of all time, Mega Man 2 is included. This is THE go-to example of a perfect match of action, platforming, and level design, and a top five NES game ever. Not to mention a kick-ass soundtrack. Well, you knew Metroid would be on here since it's a first-party game, but this is another one where I'm interested to see how mainstream audiences react. This was a really frustrating game back in the day where you had to draw your own maps, poorly in my case, and just kind of stumble your way around until you find the next item or boss. If you play the original in Metroid today, you have to use save states, so its inclusion here makes sense. The first Ninja Gaiden game is included, and yeah, just repeat what I said about ghosts and goblins. This game is really, really hard, especially once you get to levels five and six. I will say this is a better game than Ghosts and Goblins, with a cool story featuring tons of great pixel art, so you'd be better off playing Ninja Gaiden over that if you want a challenge. Next there's Pac-Man. I know there's actually three versions of Pac-Man on the NES, but they're all the same. For clarity's sake, I'm guessing the Namco version is included here since that's what's on the 3DS Virtual Console. And yeah, it's classic Pac-Man, exactly as you'd expect. Punch-Out featuring Mr. Dream is here, not to be confused with Mike Tyson's Punch-Out. They're the exact same game, but since Tyson got sent to prison for rape, Nintendo pulled him from the original game entirely, renamed it, and replaced him with Mr. Dream. It's the same game though, a super-addicting title with tons of personality, in other words, a perfect showcase of what Nintendo did best back then. Star Tropics is another inspired choice. This is a top-down adventure-style game like Legend of Zelda, although this is more of a science fiction story. This isn't just a tropical Zelda, though, so to speak. This game is more linear and story-driven, and the action is a little different since you can jump. It's a solid title. The sequel to Contra, Super C is here, but sadly not Contra. I guess Konami wanted too much money or something. While everyone would prefer Contra, Super C is still a really good game that captures the same kind of action, so if you're disappointed that Contra isn't here, don't let that be a deal-breaker. Super C is pretty damn good in its own right. In a similar light, Tecmo Bowl is here, but not the superior Tecmo Super Bowl. This one I'm a little bummed out about, because I mean, Tecmo Super Bowl had more players, the larger playbook, and the funny scene with the player running out of the hospital after he's healed from his injury. So yeah, Tecmo Bowl is limited, but it still captures the same gameplay mechanics, so it's not a total loss. Finally, last but not least, we have maybe the most polarizing game in this entire collection, Zelda II, The Adventure of Link. Do you remember trying to beat this game back in the day? It was insanely frustrating, because after you die three times, you go all the way back to the stupid princess, and you have to make the Walk of Shame back to the dungeon where you died. It sucked. Well, thankfully with save states, that won't be a problem here, while Zelda II will still be a crazy challenge, especially that last dungeon. It'll at least be a little more playable and a lot less needlessly frustrating, so I'm glad it's here. So there you go. That's all the games on the NES Classic Edition. I just wanted to show off a little footage of each so you'd know what to expect. As you can see, it's not a perfect selection of titles. I mean, personally, I would have loved to see DuckTales or Tetris or Tecmo Super Bowl or Contra or Bionic Commando or Blaster Master or seriously, I could name like three dozen games, but no list would be perfect. This collection is as good as you could reasonably expect.