As a child of the 90s, growing up and playing with my (now yellow) Super Nintendo after school is one of my earliest and fondest memories. Countless hours were spent trying to figure out how to beat Zombies Ate My Neighbors with my friends Anthony and Peter, explore every nook and cranny in Super Mario World, and never once getting past the second level in Disney's The Lion King. When Nintendo announced the SNES Classic Edition, I was elated. The thoughts of riding my bike with my friends while discussing Mega Man X and if the Nintendo 64 is really going to be the best thing ever flooded my mind, and I knew I had to buy the SNES Classic.
Like millions of others, Nintendo hooked me on nostalgia and the longing for those endless summers of my youth clouded the fact that I knew I would have a difficult time actually buying the system legitimately (I paid almost $300 for a NES Classic). Fast forward a few months and I'm driving to the worst part of Los Angeles to buy a mini Super Nintendo from the back of a converted food truck. Needless to say, I'm glad I did.
Similar to the classic system before it, the SNES Classic Edition comes bundled with a handful of games and is about the size of a donut. Unlike the NES Classic Edition, this comes with two official controllers and a previously unreleased game. The inclusion of a second controller is a huge plus over the system before it due to the fact that getting a good second controller for the NES Classic Edition was a bigger hassle than it needed to be.
The game selection on the SNES is pretty decent and the addition of Star Fox 2 is a pretty crazy idea in itself due to the fact that Nintendo officially released a "new" Super Nintendo game 26 years after the release of the original console. Having to unlock Star Fox 2 by playing through the first level of Star Fox seems like a strange idea initially, but I'm glad Nintendo forced me to play both to really appreciate the massive leap forward in visuals and gameplay between the two games. While I wish this bundle included some of the timeless classic Disney and LucasArts games, the lineup here is pretty solid, and I can't see anyone having a hard time finding at least one game they can enjoy.
Bottom line. Finding the SNES Classic Edition is well worth the hassle.
In the video below Alex Parker and I dive deep into the system's library and discuss its pros and cons, games we used to love back in the early 90s, and why this unique system is worth hunting for.
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