SNES Classic is adorable, limited

Nintendo nostalgia has kicked into high gear after Friday’s launch of SNES Classic, a limited-release miniversion of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System first released in the United States in 1991.

The SNES Classic looks pretty much like an SNES, except that it is adorably small. Another noticeable design difference is that the Classic doesn’t have a cartridge slot because, well, you don’t need cartridges to play these days. But Nintendo has kept the overall look and feel of the console; there’s even a completely nonfunctional eject button.

The controller cables on the SNES are substantially longer than on Nintendo’s last nostalgia console, the NES Classic, which suffered greatly from too-short cables. They measure about five feet – probably still too short for your main big-screen, but pretty good for a smaller television.

To be a success, though, all Nintendo really had to do was deliver these classic games on my modern TV without messing it up. And it has done that. It’s hard to deny that feeling that classic controller in-hand was fantastic, as was seeing some of these familiar graphics and hearing those soundtracks.

Nintendo has released a pretty good set of one- and two-player games from the SNES’s greatest hits, which include “Donkey Kong Country,” “Super Mario World,” and “Mega Man X:”

As a bonus, it also includes the never-before-released “StarFox 2,” which unlocks after you beat the first level of its predecessor.

As with the NES Classic, Nintendo lets you “suspend” games in progress, so you don’t have to wait to get to a save point in a game. (Though that is always an option as well.) There’s also a “rewind” feature – though it’s not particularly easy to use – that you can access to return to an earlier point in a suspended game.

Of course, any discussion of the SNES Classic also has to address its supply issues. Outside of the product itself, this has been a pretty controversial little console. Nintendo has been down this road before, having released the NES Classic — a shrunken version of the Nintendo Entertainment System, in limited quantities. When it announced the SNES, preorders sold out just as fast and stores ran into all kinds of technical problems,

much to the chagrin of a nostalgia-driven gaming public.

Addressing supply complaints, Nintendo of America chief executive Reggie Fils-Aime told the Financial Times that the company increased production of the SNES

The games

Classic and encouraged people not to buy from scalpers or pay more than the retail $80.

Is it even worth that? If you are more interested in the games than the trappings, then take a close look at the list of games. If your favorites aren’t on there, then you may find that your money is better-spent elsewhere, even if this is an adorable little console. 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