Ooh... River City Ransom and Final Fantasy III are both fantastic games to have included - I'm jealous!
But overall, I think that the Western lineup of games is more appealing to me; probably not a surprise as those are the games I have more familiarity with and nostalgia for.

Which set of exclusives do you prefer?

Reminder of what the NES Classic Mini exclusive games are:

* Bubble Bobble
* Castlevania II: Simon's Quest
* Donkey Kong Jr.
* Final Fantasy
* Kid Icarus
* Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream
* StarTropics
* Tecmo Bowl



Anyone else surprised that Super Mario Bros 2 is the USA game, while the Japanese Super Mario Bros 2 isn't included?  Seems weird, but maybe that's just me.

Honestly the R1 NES inclusives seem to be more varied and relevant to the other games released. For example were getting Donkey Kong Jr., and Castlevania II which are proper sequels to the games on the console. Also stuff like Bubble Bobble, Star Tropics, Kid Icarus and Punch Out are FAR more relevant in the NES's history compared to the more obscure Japanese choices.

Obviously the hardwired controllers won't be Wii compatible, but what about the expansion controller port? Is it just for decoration, or is it a functional port for Wii Classic Controllers too?

That is weird... At first I figured it was due to the Lost Levels being a Famicom Disk System exclusive and they're specifically marketing this as recreating the original hardware... But Zelda 2 and Metroid were Disk System exclusives too, plus the footage of Zelda 1 is clearly from the original Disk System version. And speaking of Zelda 1, I couldn't help but notice Controller II had the mic feature dummied-out, if they're using the original version, won't that screw things up since the Pols Voices were immune to arrows in it?

They're probably looking for variety and want all 30 to be unique which is why the Japanese version of SMB2 isn't in the Japanese version since it's too similar to SMB1.  All the series with sequels in both collections have a sequel which is different from the original it's based off of.  Probably why MM2 is the only game from that series in the collection while Castelvania got 2 in the Western release since the second Castelvania is pretty different from the first.

The system sure looks cool but won't those controllers be ridiculously tiny?  I think the NES Mini has got it beat in that department.

Final Fantasy III is a big exclusive for this.  If the NES Mini had a translated version of FF3 I would buy it just for that.  But I don't expect NOA to go to that kind of trouble for a quick 'n' easy nostalgia product.

The Western version certainly seems overall superior. Those tiny controllers look rediculously uncomfortable. The fact that our version's controller is full-sized and Wii compatible more than makes up for the fact that theirs comes with both controllers out of the box.

It may work in the Japanese market. But otherwise, you'd have to be a child or a... no, better not make that reference publicly.

Save it for the Funhouse, Shaymin. We got a thread there that will fulfill your needs.

I don't recognise most of the different games, but I wouldn't mind having an official translation of the NES version of Final Fantasy III. I know it will never happen though.

I'd much rather have the western game selection, but Yie Ar Kung Fu might arguably top the entire list in terms of nostalgia. That game was huge at the bodega near my elementary school.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXEsu6dzJ6I

I love it, thanks for sharing.