Topic: SNES Classic thread

[BranDonk Kong]

Is there really not a thread for this yet? 21 games (including Star Fox 2), 2 controllers, $80...

[ShyGuy]

Why only 21 games?

[Khushrenada]

Because that makes Blackjack!

[Dasmos]

Kirby Super Star has 8 games, so it's only a few games short of the NES Mini..

[Phil]

Is there really not a thread for this yet? 21 games (including Star Fox 2), 2 controllers, $80...

Already a news thread I guess in the news forum. 

[Adrock]

I'd love to get my hands on this though I guess Virtual Console would scratch the itch.

I'm impressed Nintendo went with Final Fantasy VI over IV. Notable hold outs for me would be Chrono Trigger, Illusion of Gaia, Super Mario All-Stars (I know, I know), and Super Bomberman. Also, Mortal Kombat II and Killer Instinct though they're absent for obvious reasons.

[lolmonade]

I'll reiterate what I said in the news thread.  Their best decision in this was packaging-in the second controller. 


Assuming this is obtainable at all, I hope the controllers feel as good as the NES classic's controller.


This IS a pretty darn good list of games.  That said, if people are really that irked about the games included, I have no doubt there'll be means to "add" games to the library if you're willing to do the research.


My oldest son's just starting to get old enough to where he's expressing interest in playing games.  I'm fairly tentative about introducing them to him at age 5, but I see this as a great way for me to slowly let him acquaint himself, for us to share fun in playing games, and at some point, allow him to play a gated library of games without having to worry he's going to either accidentally purchase something without permission or damage a $50-70 controller.


That's again, assuming I'm able to actually find one.

[Ian Sane]

The only game on here that seems like an odd inclusion is Kirby's Dream Course.  There wasn't really much buzz about that game at the time it was released and it isn't regarded as some SNES classic today.  I have it and it's a pretty unexceptional game.  Tetris Attack would have been a better inclusion but that requires the Tetris licence so I see why it wasn't included.  Same with Kirby's Avalanche and the Puyo Puyo licence.

I don't know how much input Nintendo has in what third party titles get included so I'm not going to give them flack for no Chrono Trigger.  It may have been Square's decision what to include and they certainly didn't include anything that doesn't belong, they just have enough classic SNES games that we would want more of them.  Since Konami owns Hudson Soft and Square Enix owns Enix and Taito it would have been nice to have those third parties included as well to provide more variety.

Super Bomberman seems like a major omission but I wonder if it's excluded because it supports the Super Multitap and the SNES Classic clearly does not.  Nintendo might feel that it would be confusing if the game mentioned some four player mode that isn't supported.

Super Mario All-Stars' absence would make sense in theory since those are really NES games but it would make a lot more sense if the NES Classic was still in stores and they wanted those games to be selling points for it.  Does Nintendo have to pay Rare for the DKC games?  That might explain why they only put one of them on here.

[Adrock]

Secret of Mana also supports the Super Multitap. I'm curious how that works out.

I don't believe Nintendo has to pay Rare since the terms of th sale were all Nintendo related IP remained with Nintendo (hence why Nintendo kept the rights to Diddy Kong, Krystal etc.) while all non-Nintendo related IP remained with Rare.

[Ian Sane]

Secret of Mana also supports the Super Multitap. I'm curious how that works out.

You're right.  Forgot about that.

[nickmitch]

Nintendo never put out a second shipment of the standalone NES Mini controllers (to my knowledge), so it's no surprise they're including 2 here.

I told a co-worker about this and he lamented the exclusion of Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball.

[Mop it up]

Is there any way to know when pre-orders are going to go live?

[nickmitch]

You can go to best buy or amazon to get an email on when they'll be available, but that email might come late.

Or you can follow @Wario64 on twitter and set it to notify you every time he tweets until it goes live.

[Ian Sane]

Nintendo never put out a second shipment of the standalone NES Mini controllers (to my knowledge), so it's no surprise they're including 2 here.

I told a co-worker about this and he lamented the exclusion of Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball.

Is it rare to be familiar with the concept of intellectual property and licencing and such?  Nintendo doesn't own MLB or Ken Griffey Jr.'s likeness and it should be obvious that they can't just re-release a game like that without getting permission from the other parties and paying them.  Sorry to pick on your co-worker but I notice these kind of requests way too often.  With the NES Classic I remember seeing people complain that TMNT and Duck Tales weren't included despite the obvious rights issues... plus the fact that those are third party games and Nintendo doesn't own the rights to every game on a Nintendo system.  And these were people on gaming forums or comments on gaming sites/youtube videos ie: people that should know this basic stuff.

It just shows that stuff I thought everyone knows are not as common knowledge as I thought.  The kid that thought there was a code in Street Fighter II to turn it into Mortal Kombat is now grown up.

[ejamer]

To be fair, licensing issues can be overcome.


For example: TMNT (NES) was released on Virtual Console for a while, although at a premium price. DuckTales has been remade and is also coming out on Capcom's Disney Afternoon game in the near future.


There are ways around IP issues, usually involving envelopes stuffed with cash. The question is always if the time/cost/effort is justified. Griffey Jr MLB obviously wasn't deemed worthwhile.

[Mop it up]

I don't think paying for the licences are worth it for a compilation like this, since each game comes out to being priced just under half the VC and the package already has plenty of perceived value as it is.

[nickmitch]

Nintendo never put out a second shipment of the standalone NES Mini controllers (to my knowledge), so it's no surprise they're including 2 here.

I told a co-worker about this and he lamented the exclusion of Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball.

Is it rare to be familiar with the concept of intellectual property and licencing and such?  Nintendo doesn't own MLB or Ken Griffey Jr.'s likeness and it should be obvious that they can't just re-release a game like that without getting permission from the other parties and paying them.  Sorry to pick on your co-worker but I notice these kind of requests way too often.  With the NES Classic I remember seeing people complain that TMNT and Duck Tales weren't included despite the obvious rights issues... plus the fact that those are third party games and Nintendo doesn't own the rights to every game on a Nintendo system.  And these were people on gaming forums or comments on gaming sites/youtube videos ie: people that should know this basic stuff.
It just shows that stuff I thought everyone knows are not as common knowledge as I thought.  The kid that thought there was a code in Street Fighter II to turn it into Mortal Kombat is now grown up.

This is basic stuff to people who follow the industry and post on video game forums.  I actually looked up that game a little bit to see how far down "old video game licensing hell" (as I called it) it is.  It's developer is now defunct, but Nintendo published it.  It had the MLB license, but not the MLBPA, so only Ken Griffey is in it.  Everyone else is fake names, but you can change the names.

To be fair, he may have been half joking, but his response was pretty immediate.

[Agent-X-]

So while all of you are discussing games and licenses, I'm lamenting the curse that keeps on giving that seems to be NOA. What is taking so long for preorders to be made available? Or is North America going to be made to wait for this thing to launch like last time while the rest of the world gets its pre-orders??

[Shecky]

I told a co-worker about this and he lamented the exclusion of Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball.

Same, that was a very fun and fast paced baseball game.  9 innings took about 15 mins.

[Shecky]

Nintendo never put out a second shipment of the standalone NES Mini controllers (to my knowledge), so it's no surprise they're including 2 here.

I told a co-worker about this and he lamented the exclusion of Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball.

Is it rare to be familiar with the concept of intellectual property and licencing and such?  Nintendo doesn't own MLB or Ken Griffey Jr.'s likeness and it should be obvious that they can't just re-release a game like that without getting permission from the other parties and paying them.  Sorry to pick on your co-worker but I notice these kind of requests way too often.  With the NES Classic I remember seeing people complain that TMNT and Duck Tales weren't included despite the obvious rights issues... plus the fact that those are third party games and Nintendo doesn't own the rights to every game on a Nintendo system.  And these were people on gaming forums or comments on gaming sites/youtube videos ie: people that should know this basic stuff.

It just shows that stuff I thought everyone knows are not as common knowledge as I thought.  The kid that thought there was a code in Street Fighter II to turn it into Mortal Kombat is now grown up.

Sure, I know WHY it wasn't included, but it would be nice to have a decent baseball game for a change.  BTW, the game had MLB team names and logos, but not real player names (except for Griffey).  So in one sense it is a lot like Mike Tyson's Punchout.

[nickmitch]

I told a co-worker about this and he lamented the exclusion of Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball.

Same, that was a very fun and fast paced baseball game.  9 innings took about 15 mins.

The art of the arcade sports title is all but lost.

[Mop it up]

The Mario sports titles still exist, though I guess that doesn't help if you still want real teams and players. Plus, the Mario sports games haven't really improved or added anything since their inceptions.

[BranDonk Kong]

Nintendo sold its majority stake in the Seattle Mariners last year, so that's probably one of the reasons it wasn't included.

[Ian Sane]

I told a co-worker about this and he lamented the exclusion of Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball.

Same, that was a very fun and fast paced baseball game.  9 innings took about 15 mins.

The art of the arcade sports title is all but lost.

I blame the sports leagues.  They now all insist of having one exclusive game and it has to be a sim.  In the past you could have three or four companies making NFL or MLB games at a time.  They also don't like arcade sports games because it usually has a much more irreverant design and sports leagues are SUPER SERIOUS about their branding.  I remember reading about how each NFL Blitz game for example moved more and more towards a sim because the No Fun League kept complaining about the arcade elements.  And of course no one thinks they can sell an arcade sports game without a major sports league licence (which is probably true).

[NWR_insanolord]

The NFL is the only sports league that currently has an exclusivity deal. Major League Baseball used to, but it expired because 2K didn't want it anymore.