Nintendo launches Classic NES Games for GBA SP

Well here's something many never saw coming (unless you're among our forum crew who were tipped off several days ago). Nintendo is taking a page from the past, introducing an all-new GBA SP design resembling the classic NES console.

But that's not all! On June 7, you'll also be able to choose from several other popular classics like Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, The Legend of Zelda, Excitebike, Ice Climber, Xevious, and Bomberman. Click <a href="http://www.the-nextlevel.com/news/0403/gba_sp_classic.jpg">here</a> for image.

These "are the best games ever," gushes Perrin "Mallrat" Kaplan, Nintendo of America's vice president, marketing and corporate affairs. "And if you aren't just dying to get your hands on the gnarly new Classic NES Limited Edition GBA SP, you're a total dweeb."

Oh, in case you're wondering, there's no special price point for the new GBA SP design. You'll still have to fork over 99.99 and it won't offer any new features that the existing designs offer. But word on the street indicates this is a limited edition, so make sure you camp out at your local game store if you expect to pick one up.

Looks like it's time for me to start saving my pennies again.

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These "are the best games ever," gushes Perrin "Mallrat" Kaplan, Nintendo of America's vice president, marketing and corporate affairs. "And if you aren't just dying to get your hands on the gnarly new Classic NES Limited Edition GBA SP, you're a total dweeb."

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Did he really say that?

If so, I don't know whether to think of him as a childish buffoon or a comic genius.

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Originally Posted by Bacon McShig

Did he really say that?

If so, I don't know whether to think of him as a childish buffoon or a comic genius.

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No joke. She said that. :)

Perrin is a she

I think Perrin's a she.

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PV didn't use proper punctuation, so I win.

I'm assuming shops are going to be taking pre-orders on these right? Anyone from EB or GameStop want to verify?

i didnt work today so i dont know

ill check tomorrow though

"And if you aren't just dying to get your hands on the gnarly new Classic NES Limited Edition GBA SP, you're a total dweeb."

DiffusionX works for Nintendo now? The apocalypse is surely near...

The GBA looks cool.

The games are a total rip-off and I feel sorry for anyone who forks money over for them.

Collector's Items.

The boxes have got to go, though.

Um, the games are selling at $20. Not bad, but not good either.

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Originally Posted by Shin Johnpv

Perrin is a she

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Updated for future reference. *points above* Sorry Perrin.

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Originally Posted by Scourge

I'm assuming shops are going to be taking pre-orders on these right? Anyone from EB or GameStop want to verify?

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Very likely, but since the GBA SP itself is already out, our company may not set up a reserve sku for it. I've got to go by my store anyways, so I'll have an update later this evening.

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Originally Posted by Damian79

Um, the games are selling at $20. Not bad, but not good either.

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$20 dollars for a straight NES port of Super Mario Brothers when you can go to Gamestop and get Super Mario Brothers Deluxe for Game Boy Color that also includes the Japanese SMB2, a fun versus mode and tons of unlockable shit for about 12 bucks.

SOUNDS GREAT!

Technically it isn't the Japanese SMB2.

Seeing as how you are drooling over a console you already own that has a different skin and the words "DOA Ultimate"...SOUNDS GREAT!

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Technically it isn't the Japanese SMB2.

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OMFGLOSTLEVELSDATSNOTRIGHT!!!!

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Seeing as how you are drooling over a console you already own that has a different skin and the words "DOA Ultimate"...SOUNDS GREAT!

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That makes absolutely no sense. Aside from the fact that I praised the new GBASP, do either of these objects come with a fuckable Kasumi pillow? Yeah, didn't think so.

Great, Nintendo pulls out the Atari Playbook for Marketing and Regurgitating Old Products...

That's always a great sign. :P

Famicom Mini: Super Mario Bros has sold over 350,000 copies as of March 28, anyone who thinks this is a stupid business decision is a moron

With that said, that GBA SP looks awesome and I'm definately going to pick it up

Yeah...Lost Levels. It isn't SMB2. There's stuff missing. I'll go to the store and sell you a body pillow that I drew a DOA character on for 200 bucks, BTW. What's that, you say? You like collecting stuff?

edit: 350K copies? Wow...apparently SOME people want it ;p

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Originally Posted by Mairu

Famicom Mini: Super Mario Bros has sold over 350,000 copies as of March 28, anyone who thinks this is a stupid business decision is a moron

With that said, that GBA SP looks awesome and I'm definately going to pick it up

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Almost as moronic as comparing Japanese sales of a title to the potential sales in the U.S. of the same title and expecting them to be identical. We all know how well the Atari 2600 did in Japan, for example.

Nintendo is grasping at straws because they have little else to offer - just like Atari did, over and over and over again. While it might not be a "stupid business decision" (something I didn't say, btw), it's not a great sign of things to come.

It was sadly more clever before you edited it into that unintelligible mess. Give it up or leave it in Fight Club.

I'd like to repeat this-

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The games are a total rip-off and I feel sorry for anyone who forks money over for them.

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Smart business decision? Yes. Pathetic? Absolutely.

They don't HAVE to sell 350K copies for it to succeed as a profitable product (and while you are busy telling people not to put words into your mouth, don't put words into anyone else's--nowhere was it said that it would sell 350K in the States). And I don't see how they have so little to offer...you know how successful Nintendo-published GBA games are? And I'm not even counting ports.

And to Slip: How does my edit make anything unintelligible? I added a sentence at the bottom. Speaking of grasping straws...

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Originally Posted by bahn

Updated for future reference. *points above* Sorry Perrin.



Very likely, but since the GBA SP itself is already out, our company may not set up a reserve sku for it. I've got to go by my store anyways, so I'll have an update later this evening.

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Checked our system, no reservation sku...yet.

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Originally Posted by BoBVila

They don't HAVE to sell 350K copies for it to succeed as a profitable product (and while you are busy telling people not to put words into your mouth, don't put words into anyone else's--nowhere was it said that it would sell 350K in the States). And I don't see how they have so little to offer...you know how successful Nintendo-published GBA games are? And I'm not even counting ports.

And to Slip: How does my edit make anything unintelligible? I added a sentence at the bottom. Speaking of grasping straws...

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Don't be an idiot - he *CLEARLY* speculates that it will be successful here *because* it was successful there.

Again, I'm not talking about units sold or how successful it might be, I'm talking about the practice of rehashing old crap because little else is working for them. It'll bite Nintendo in the ass if they go to that well too often.

No...he said it was a smart business decision. There is a difference. Smart businesss decisions sometimes don't work out in the end. People like to collect stuff+a 20 year old game sold a third of a million copies=very little chance of not making money. Doesn't mean it WILL.

That said, with such little effort required, it doesn't have to sell much at all to be successful, so long as they don't spend millions on advertising for the games.

*shrugs*

I wouldn't mind having the original Zelda on the go. Why don't they also do Zelda 2 aswell?

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Originally Posted by haohmaru

Almost as moronic as comparing Japanese sales of a title to the potential sales in the U.S. of the same title and expecting them to be identical. We all know how well the Atari 2600 did in Japan, for example.

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:lol:

While the JPN and US gaming markets are very different, you're really fucking stupid if you don't think SMB will sell very well.

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Originally Posted by Mairu

:lol:

While the JPN and US gaming markets are very different, you're really fucking stupid if you don't think SMB will sell very well.

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Agreed. Wasn't SMB 3 for gba in the top 20 selling games of the YEAR?

And espically at 20 bucks, people will jump all over SMB and Zelda.

I think you all are giving the general gaming populace more credit then they are worth. 90% of people who own an SP don't know about or don't care to track down SMB DX and will just get this instead. Not to mention EB and Gamestop hawking this to everyone, plus the whole retro phase, and it's the "cool" thing to have.

seriously Nintendo is just playing into this retro phase its smart its no different than other companies playing into the Mature Blood phase with GTA clones

you knwo if konami put Contra on this for 20 bucks then itd only be 3 dollars more expensive then the used beat up copies you find at Gamestop and EB

not a bad deal

ohh also Gamestop has stopped taking back NES, SNES, Genesis and Dreamcast games

theres gonna be a spike in the cost of NES used carts in a few years from it

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Originally Posted by Mairu

:lol:

While the JPN and US gaming markets are very different, you're really fucking stupid if you don't think SMB will sell very well.

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For the 3rd time, that's NOT what I said.

How about a course in remedial reading? You *REALLY* need it.

You're doing the same thing to me :)

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Almost as moronic as comparing Japanese sales of a title to the potential sales in the U.S. of the same title and expecting them to be identical. We all know how well the Atari 2600 did in Japan, for example.

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If you did not mean anything other than what you purely stated, there was absolutely no reason for you to include this statement at all.

Well, they could have left the Fami SP in Japan and not given us this. That's what MS and Sony do with pretty much all their LE consoles.

Whether you like the concept of this or not, it's great Nintendo is releasing this here. If you don't like it, don't buy it, but at least Nintendo is at least giving you that option, where others are just giving the US the cold shoulder on most LE consoles (MS's upcoming Halo bundle notwithstanding, though I can already say it would have done much better if released much earlier). I think it'll pay off, and I think it'll help towards US publishers at least giving a second thought to the release of LE consoles. Regardless of your thoughts on LEs, being able to go into a local store and buy something at regular price if you want it is a far better option than paying higher prices and shipping fees to import.

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Originally Posted by haohmaru

While it might not be a "stupid business decision" (something I didn't say, btw), it's not a great sign of things to come.

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It's definitely not stupid business, and actually I think it's brilliant. NES retro stuff is the in thing now, and Nintendo's finally cashing in somewhere other than Hot Topic.

I think you can point to much better examples of Nintendo's lack of creativity.

Well, although I know emulation is one alternative, next to getting the original NES back, I am happy that these are being reintroduced to the market in portable form. I got Super Mario Bros. deluxe, but I actually have wanted the true original for quite some time after picking up the GBA SP.

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Originally Posted by Mairu

You're doing the same thing to me :)


If you did not mean anything other than what you purely stated, there was absolutely no reason for you to include this statement at all.

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No, chief.

I said that Nintendo is going down the same road as Atari with rehashes and rereleases and faces a dearth of original material.

You said that it was moronic to assume that it was a "stupid business decision" and that the game sold 350,000 units in Japan - which had nothing to do with what I originally said.

I said that THAT (the Japanese sales figures) didn't mean all that much (and provided an example) and that besides that, I wasn't even talking about that to begin with.

You said, again, that it's fucking stupid to think that it won't sell well - which (AGAIN) I didn't say it would or wouldn't.


So, just so we're REALLY clear here:

Nintendo is rehashing ancient material for the Nth time and it's getting old, just like with Atari. They are revelling in the past and should move the hell on. They need to focus on new material and right the fucking ship before it sinks, even if this old bullshit sells a million copies, because in the end it won't matter all that much if they have nothing new to peddle.

We clear now? :)

Also, you kids play nice.

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Originally Posted by haohmaru

Nintendo is rehashing ancient material for the Nth time and it's getting old, just like with Atari. They are revelling in the past and should move the hell on. They need to focus on new material and right the fucking ship before it sinks, even if this old bullshit sells a million copies, because in the end it won't matter all that much if they have nothing new to peddle.

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I don't see how this decision is preventing Nintendo from focusing on new material. You can argue that they need to do more of it, but it's not like these GBA ports are a drain on the company.

Personally, I'm not gonna buy one of these games, but I do want that SP.

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Originally Posted by burgundy

It's definitely not stupid business, and actually I think it's brilliant. NES retro stuff is the in thing now, and Nintendo's finally cashing in somewhere other than Hot Topic.

I think you can point to much better examples of Nintendo's lack of creativity.

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Brilliant? We've been down this old tired road before, through Activision Classics, Atari's Greatest Hits, Midway's Greatest, Namco Musuems, Intellivision Lives, the 2600 Jr., the 7800 that played 2600 games, the release of every major Atari franchise on dozens of consoles over two dozen years, retro this and that, blah blah blah ad nauseum and you think that this, somehow, is "brilliant"? Sorry, it's been done literally dozens of times already. Hardly innovative.

What it really is:

It's a blatant attempt by Nintendo to cash in on its past because its future looks to be sucking hard. Survivalist, maybe. Brilliant? Nyet.

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Originally Posted by burgundy

Also, you kids play nice.

I don't see how this decision is preventing Nintendo from focusing on new material. You can argue that they need to do more of it, but it's not like these GBA ports are a drain on the company.

Personally, I'm not gonna buy one of these games, but I do want that SP.

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Innovative games by Nintendo for the Gamecube/GBA SP over the past few years that aren't sequels, remakes, or clones:

(please insert a list here)

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Originally Posted by haohmaru

You said that it was moronic to assume that it was a "stupid business decision" and that the game sold 350,000 units in Japan - which had nothing to do with what I originally said.

I said that THAT (the Japanese sales figures) didn't mean all that much (and provided an example) and that besides that, I wasn't even talking about that to begin with.

You said, again, that it's fucking stupid to think that it won't sell well - which (AGAIN) I didn't say it would or wouldn't.

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My first reply in this thread wasn't towards you specifically

I do believe the Japanese sales figures do mean something, because Nintendo's situation in Japan is similar to their situation in USA. Sales figures have been similar in both continents and their placement compared to Sony is also similar both here and there. Nintendo's GBA games sell well in JPN and they sell well in USA, and 'retro's' popularity seems to be similar in both countries.

It also proves that the NES/FAMI Rerelease is already a commercial success.

I don't think anyone's saying Nintendo's decisions here are innovative, because clearly they're not. It's an intelligent business decision.

And as far as comparing them to Atari, they haven't gone out of business and they are currently alive in more than just their name (See: Infogrames purchasing the Atari name).

There have been games released for both the GC and GBA SP that are not sequels and have not been released in this country before. As far as clones... that's debatable, because everything is a clone of something else.

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Originally Posted by haohmaru

Brilliant? We've been down this old tired road before, through Activision Classics, Atari's Greatest Hits, Midway's Greatest, Namco Musuems, Intellivision Lives, the 2600 Jr., the 7800 that played 2600 games, the release of every major Atari franchise on dozens of consoles over two dozen years, retro this and that, blah blah blah ad nauseum and you think that this, somehow, is "brilliant"? Sorry, it's been done literally dozens of times already. Hardly innovative.

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I never said it was innovative. Maybe "brilliant" implies ingenuity, in which case I retract it. But it's very smart and very sound. Retro is in and Nintendo is cashing in.

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Innovative games by Nintendo for the Gamecube/GBA SP over the past few years that aren't sequels, remakes, or clones:

(please insert a list here)

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Welcome to the rest of the industry. But that's not really the point. If Nintendo has a dearth of creativity, they have it whether or not they cash in with these NES ports.

I'm pretty sure no one here is racing out to pick up Xevious this June, so I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.

Calm down dude. :p

The Nintendo retro thing at the moment is really weird. I have seen quite a few people tracking down old nintendo games. Hell, I have seen couples that were looking for old NES games they played.

To be honest, I find it a little... creepy.

Nintendo needs to release a compilation of their old arcade games on GC. The Donkey Kong and Punch Out! names should be big enough to sell it.

I'll let you guys get back to arguing. ;)

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Originally Posted by Mairu

I don't think anyone's saying Nintendo's decisions here are innovative, because clearly they're not. It's an intelligent business decision.

And as far as comparing them to Atari, they haven't gone out of business and they are currently alive in more than just their name (See: Infogrames purchasing the Atari name).

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I agree from a financial standpoint that the big "N" has something to gain here.

However, Atari is alive in name only and Hasbro bought it for a paltry sum a few years ago, only to (happily) unload it after they followed the same maligned strategy that did the original company in many moons before. Atari was no longer a company at all, it was a Trademark, that's all.

My entire point is that it seem Nintendo is beginning to traverse this already travelled road - sequels, remakes, and re-releases. They can only survive for so long before their library loses its steam and their dwindling audience loses their patience.

Of the three major consoles, I've been pulling for Nintendo's GC most of all, hoping it would be a great gamer's system. When I see stuff like this, it makes me nervous - I've seen it before and sooner or later it will fail. Nintendo's console status (other than SP) is already in a crisis. They're losing their audience which has grown up while the company hasn't and pulling them in one last time by appealing to history reeks of desperation to me.

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Originally Posted by burgundy

Welcome to the rest of the industry. But that's not really the point. If Nintendo has a dearth of creativity, they have it whether or not they cash in with these NES ports.

I'm pretty sure no one here is racing out to pick up Xevious this June, so I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.

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I disagree with this premise. Resources are resources and marketing strategies and sales require diligence, effort, patience, finances, advertising and programming. To say that these releases have no impact on the rest of the company and its production is somewhat naive - not to mention the impact it might have on their audience as well as their perception of the company that they are buying from. Of course there are consequences.

We can agree to disagree.

The NES-styled GBASP looks spiffy, but the NES classic games are way too expensive for what they are at $20 each.

What Nintendo could and should have done is bundle several NES games on a single cartridge, and sell it as a compilation pack (like Namco Museum, Activision Anthology, etc.) for $20-$30. All of those games could comfortably fit on a 4 MB (or even 1 MB) GBA cartridge with plenty of room to spare. I think you could easily fit 20-30 NES games from that era onto a single cartridge.

Another problem is marketability. The only games on that list that I really see selling in great numbers are Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. Most of the other games are good, but not something I'd pay $20 (or $10, or even $5) for.

For example, who really wants the NES versions of Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, or Xevious? I'd much rather have the arcade versions of those games, which were much better. Pac-Man Collection can be had for $20 or less (I've seen some stores selling it for $10), and it has a much better version of Pac-Man than the one on the NES, along with three other games to boot. There's no reason to get the NES version, unless you're a collector, or totally nostalgic for the NES version with its idiosyncrasies. NES Donkey Kong was missing a level (the pie factory), and it already came out on E-Reader anyway. Xevious was an OK port, but why settle for NES when the GBA hardware could provide a near-perfect replica of the superior arcade version?

One other problem I see here, which negatively affects my desire to get these: The GBA has lower screen resolution than the NES. As such, we're not really getting perfect emulation anyway. Therefore, why do I care about having a $20 "NES cartridge" in my pocket, if the GBA (as advanced as it is) can't even do proper justice to the games because the emulation engine has to drop every 6th scanline to compensate for the physical LCD resolution? In some ways, I'd almost prefer to have ports (recreations) rather than emulations, because then the graphics could be reworked to look better on the GBA (one reason why Konami decided to recreate, rather than emulate, the games for Konami Collector's Series: Arcade Advanced).

Sorry, but I'm just not feeling the NES love here. I could certainly overlook the flaws if all the games were bundled into a single value-priced collection. But each individual game at $20 a pop? No sale!

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Originally Posted by haohmaru

I disagree with this premise. Resources are resources and marketing strategies and sales require diligence, effort, patience, finances, advertising and programming. To say that these releases have no impact on the rest of the company and its production is somewhat naive - not to mention the impact it might have on their audience as well as their perception of the company that they are buying from. Of course there are consequences.

We can agree to disagree.

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There's definitely some impact, but I think you're overestimating it. The perception point is valid, but it seems that the market hates Nintendo no matter what it does anyway.

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Originally Posted by NeoZeedeater

Nintendo needs to release a compilation of their old arcade games on GC. The Donkey Kong and Punch Out! names should be big enough to sell it.

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They did...it's called Animal Crossing.

No those are all NES versions in Animal Crossing aren't they?

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Originally Posted by Agent X

The NES-styled GBASP looks spiffy, but the NES classic games are way too expensive for what they are at $20 each.

What Nintendo could and should have done is bundle several NES games on a single cartridge, and sell it as a compilation pack (like Namco Museum, Activision Anthology, etc.) for $20-$30. All of those games could comfortably fit on a 4 MB (or even 1 MB) GBA cartridge with plenty of room to spare. I think you could easily fit 20-30 NES games from that era onto a single cartridge.

Another problem is marketability. The only games on that list that I really see selling in great numbers are Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. Most of the other games are good, but not something I'd pay $20 (or $10, or even $5) for.

For example, who really wants the NES versions of Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, or Xevious? I'd much rather have the arcade versions of those games, which were much better. Pac-Man Collection can be had for $20 or less (I've seen some stores selling it for $10), and it has a much better version of Pac-Man than the one on the NES, along with three other games to boot. There's no reason to get the NES version, unless you're a collector, or totally nostalgic for the NES version with its idiosyncrasies. NES Donkey Kong was missing a level (the pie factory), and it already came out on E-Reader anyway. Xevious was an OK port, but why settle for NES when the GBA hardware could provide a near-perfect replica of the superior arcade version?

One other problem I see here, which negatively affects my desire to get these: The GBA has lower screen resolution than the NES. As such, we're not really getting perfect emulation anyway. Therefore, why do I care about having a $20 "NES cartridge" in my pocket, if the GBA (as advanced as it is) can't even do proper justice to the games because the emulation engine has to drop every 6th scanline to compensate for the physical LCD resolution? In some ways, I'd almost prefer to have ports (recreations) rather than emulations, because then the graphics could be reworked to look better on the GBA (one reason why Konami decided to recreate, rather than emulate, the games for Konami Collector's Series: Arcade Advanced).

Sorry, but I'm just not feeling the NES love here. I could certainly overlook the flaws if all the games were bundled into a single value-priced collection. But each individual game at $20 a pop? No sale!

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I am not sure I agree with this. Portability is a key factor, otherwise no one would buy the system itself. And it is marketing aswell. Seeing a 4 in 1 cart makes the game look EXTREMELY budget. This is why the "platinum", "ea classics" sell so well. It makes the consumer think that they are getting an awesome quality game at half price(which they are). While the 4 in 1's tend to make the consumer think that they are getting a bunch of crappy games.

Though I have no idea who these games are being marketed to. The same demographic as Mario Advance 4? In which case people paid full price for the game(heck even I did).

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Originally Posted by NeoZeedeater

No those are all NES versions in Animal Crossing aren't they?

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You're right. I skimmed over that. That's what I get for trying to correct the legend.

That said...I don't think the arcade originals would sell nearly as well as NES ports. Especially with Punch-Out...people overwhelmingly prefer the drastically changed NES rev over Super Punch-Out which is much closer to the original.

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Originally Posted by Damian79

Though I have no idea who these games are being marketed to.

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The same people who throw down $20 for an Excitebike t-shirt.

It's the in thing now.

I do think it would be kind of neat to see how these games hold up on their own, and not as a part of a collection. Part of me wants to see how much more motivated I'll be to get through a game knowing I can't just hit Start and choose another one.

Gamestop is now Taking pre-orders on the NES SP