The not so long wait is finally here! It was originally teased a few months ago and now the Big N finally released to the public arguably one of the best consoles to come out of the 90’s era! We take a look at the SNES Classic Edition.
Before anything else, let’s take a look at what’s inside the box first:
It is good to note that this time around the package comes with 2 controllers! And the cord is much more longer to boot that stretches around five feet, so expect that these wires will get tangled up just like it did back in the day… Hey its all part of the nostalgia, right?
Surprisingly, holding the controllers took me back to my childhood… It feels almost exactly the same as it did back in the day! (It is actually the same size). Though I think the D Pad was a little stiff this time around, but I might be wrong since I really invested a lot of time in the 16 bit era back then, ,much so that the directional input feels a bit loose. Who knows? That stiffness might change from prolonged use. But overall the controllers feel solid enough. And it should be because THIS is the way the console is meant to be played!
We also have the usual HDMI cord and USB Cable bundled here, the HDMI cord is also longer this time around and is the same length as the controllers. The same length can be said for the USB cable. In my package though there was no USB power brick adapter bundled, which might be tied in to the region I got it from. Also, I wished I had that poster that our western consumers got on day 1… That could have added a bit more to the nostalgia factor, because I remembered before that the consoles included a huge poster that teases the system’s library.
And finally we have the console itself. Nothing fancy here as it is simply a shrunken down version of its older brother, the power and reset buttons function like the original but the latter now has a new feature that takes you back to the menu screen when you slide it. Also, the Classic Edition really doesn’t take up too much power with its low voltage specifications, meaning you can power it up by using your TV’s USB port… More outlet space yey!
The controller ports actually serve as a cover now for the new pads. You can easily take it out with one finger and put it back in place after playing.
On another note, the hardware feels light enough to put in a bag or a jacket pocket, so I would imagine taking this baby for trips as it is easy to bring around.
Now let’s take look at the real reason why we are getting this beast… The games themselves!
A bit of a backtrack. Personally, I skipped on the 8 bit Classic NES because I thought that some if not most of the games did not really quite hold up today (save for a few like Super Mario Bros. 3). The Super Nintendo was a different case, aside from the impressive library of games, most of these I actually played and remembered A LOT more than the previous entry.
Just by looking at the list below, you know that these are groundbreaking stuff that paved the way for the future of video games:
Contra III: The Alien Wars
Donkey Kong Country
EarthBound
Final Fantasy III
F-ZERO
Kirby Super Star
Kirby’s Dream Course
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Mega Man X
Secret of Mana
Star Fox
Star Fox 2
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
As an added feature you customize your enjoyment for these games by playing in various video outputs, such as adding scanlines that’s a throwback to those old TV sets, you can even resize it to a 4:3 aspect ratio, or if you want, play it in perfect pixel mode! Also, you can choose a type of border to fill up your widescreen display.
I won’t go in detail into all of those games as they were thoroughly reviewed way back. But one game should be worth mentioning because it is actually a game that is seeing the light of day 20 years after its original planned release and that is Star Fox 2.
According to the news, good ‘ol Star Fox 2 got ultimately shelved by Nintendo because they thought it would not compete with the new bling at that time which was the original PlayStation. So now that everything is waaaaay back the past and the nostalgic factor is now kicking in, I guess its the perfect time for this game to roll out as an exclusive for the Classic Edition… Or maybe not?
Trying out the game I found it to be a far cry from the original Star Fox. But its not all that bad honestly. Almost gone completely now are the “on rails” gameplay that we all know and love from the original.
In the second installment, they traded it for a somewhat “open world with a timer” approach, because every stage is available to you from the get go. In this game you have to prioritize and manage what to do first. This is important because there is always a looming threat in the map that threatens your planet in all directions. Your ship’s life also carries over in between missions, so aside from the constant pressure that’s going on in real time on the map, you also have to pay close attention to your health.
Speaking about gameplay, it took me a bit of time to get used to the controls because of the added freedom it gave. At first I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing as I found the wide vastness of space to be really confusing, but the map really helped me focus on what I need to be doing.
Sadly, there are some points in the game (especially in the busy ones like, say a boss battle) that the frame rate drops to an almost unplayable state, which kind of says to you the that the console really hit its limit with this game. To add salt to the wound, the graphics really didn’t hold up.
I found the normal mode to be a bit easy but for some reason, I appreciated the game a bit more when I cranked it up to hard mode. This is, for me, the way the game should be played.
Overall the SNES Classic Edition is a solid device that stays true to its original roots, whether you are an old school retro fanboy or a curious gamer who would like to experience what’s it like to game in the 90’s, this console has everything going on in spades. Now if you’ll excuse me, its time to show some of the young ones here that gaming has got it good back then!
Oh if it only had Chrono Trigger… This system would have been PERFECT!
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