Nintendo NES Classic Review – Cute, but lacking something

There was immediate enthusiasm when Nintendo announced the gem in July . For little money a new version of the console where it all started for many gamers, including thirty games and equipped with a modern HDMI connection. It’s a nice offer. Although there were immediately some reservations about the price, because more than sixty euros for the device and one controller seems like a lot. Especially for those who like emulators and can already play the thirty games that Nintendo supplies in a different way.

The inside

However, anyone who unpacks the NES Classic will quickly be sold, because as said: the thing is cute little. The box is not much larger than the average Raspberry Pi housing. That is not surprising, because the NES Classic is not much more than that. The Classic contains a single-board system made by the Chinese Allwinner. Built around Allwinner’s R16 soc that contains four Cortex A7 cores and a Mali400MP2 GPU. The system also contains 256 MB DDR3 RAM and 512 MB NAND flash storage.

That is modest by today’s standards. However, if you compare the specs with those of the original NES, which ran on a 1.79 MHz single-core processor, you must conclude that the NES Classic has too much power on board rather than too little. However, it was probably cheaper for Nintendo to put together such a system than to go for a system with lesser specs.

It does make the NES Classic run like a charm. The system started lightning fast and loading the games is also quite fast. That is of course also allowed, with games from the 80s with a file size of less than 100kB. Still, the experience on that front is a lot better than, say, Nintendo’s Virtual Console, which is a lot slower. The comparison with the Virtual Console, for which Nintendo has been offering the thirty games on the NES Classic for some time, is therefore positive. The games on the Classic run just a little smoother. The emulation of the Classic is better, including flashing sprites. Probably because the NES Classic allowed some layers of software to escape.

Playing games on the NES Classic is therefore downright pleasant. At least, as long as you’re in a game. Then games not only turn out to run smoothly, they also look good – as far as that is possible with games from the eighties. The controller is also pleasantly familiar, and better than most clones with a USB connection that are for sale. For the record: the NES Classic does not have the controller connection of the original NES, but the connection of the WiiRemote. Good, because it is smaller than the original connection, so that the proportions between NES and NES Classic remain somewhat the same as far as plugs are concerned. It is also nice that you can connect the new controller to a WiiRemote and use it with the games you play via the Virtual Console.

Cord too short

Still, that’s not what stands out most about the controller. Yes, it plays nicely, but the ease of use is a bit overshadowed by a lack of the button shelf. And due to a lack of cord. There is only 75 centimeters between the controller and the small console. That’s not much, especially when you consider that the original controller’s cord was eight feet long. A short cord fits the shrunken proportions of the Classic, but it’s not comfortable, because it means you have to sit close to the console. Nintendo also supplies an HDMI cable and a USB cable, with which the console draws in its power. Both are 1.5 meters long.

It means that with some effort you can sit up to two meters away from the TV, which is not much, especially for those who have their TV on the wall. It is therefore not surprising that manufacturers of peripherals already provide various solutions, ranging from an extension cord for the controller to a wireless variant. Nevertheless, we rather opt for longer cables between the console and the TV. You want to keep the console at hand while playing.

Awkward Reset

The console itself has two buttons: Power and Reset. You often need the latter in particular. You use it to exit a game and return to the console menu where you can choose a new game or change settings. It doesn’t match the retro look of the Classic, but an extra button on the controller that would take you back to the menu would have been welcome. What would be a really nice solution is a combination of buttons to go back to the menu. Press and hold Start and Select at the same time, for example. If that were possible, the mini console could have been placed near the TV, rather than near the player. Now it’s a clumsy combination, that short cord from the controller and the Reset button on the console.

However, there is still a solution to the problem. Because the controller has the same connector that Nintendo uses with the Wii and WiiU, the various controllers that Nintendo supplies for modern consoles also fit. If you connect a Wii Classic Controller, you will notice that the controller’s Home button acts as a Reset. Ideal. An additional advantage is that you also have a joystick at your disposal, which is nice in games like Gradius.

The games

To offset those drawbacks, Nintendo has selected an excellent stock of games for the Classic. The system includes thirty, ranging from Balloon Fight to Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros, Galaga, Pac-Man, Kirby’s Adventure, The Legend of Zelda, Castlevania, Metroid, Ninja Gaiden and five different Mario games. They are games from the eighties of the last century, all games that are more than known by the current generation of people in their thirties and forties, and which may have even been played by twenty-somethings in their youth. For that target group, the NES Classic is pure childhood sentiment. For a younger target group, who grew up with the PlayStation and its successors, the games may be a bit too blocky.

Furthermore, it is of course a pity that it is a closed system. Old cartridges cannot be used and new games cannot be added to the selection afterwards. Nintendo was probably afraid of piracy and so kept the system closed. You have to do it with these thirty games. Naturally, attempts will be made to hack into the system. However, the first sounds about this are not yet promising, although Nintendo uses open source software somewhere in the NES Classic. The source seems to have been released in the meantime.

Scanlines

What is nice about the NES Classic is that Nintendo has added something to the original games. For example, it is now possible to save your progress in every game. That was often not possible in the original games or much more difficult than now. For purists it’s cheating, but for them it’s an option that you don’t have to use of course. Of a completely different order is the option to tinker with the display. By default, the games are displayed in a 4:3 aspect ratio. However, you can also choose to use the original, often almost square proportion. Even more fun is that with the ratio of 4:3 you can choose to add artificially generated scanlines to the image, so that it looks like you are playing on an old-fashioned picture tube.

Then there’s the price of the mini console. The NES Classic costs about 65 euros, although it is stunted here and there. For that money you get the console, an HDMI cable and a USB cable, but no accompanying adapter. You also get a controller included. However, two controllers can be connected to the mini-NES, and many games can also be played by two players. A second controller costs an average of 15 euros, which increases the total considerably. It is quite a lot of money for a console that lacks user-friendliness and where the range of games is not expandable. For a similar amount you can buy an emulator based on a Raspberry Pi and two controllers, a system that may not be completely legal, but is much more flexible.

Hack

Incidentally, there is a nice and above all simple hack possible on the NES Classic. Anyone who opens the box will see that there is enough space inside to place a power bank, which can then be soldered to the USB connection. This gives the console an internal power supply. In this way it is easy to make a portable version of the NES Classic with a small external screen with HDMI-in.

The Nintendo Classic Mini is therefore an attractive gadget that will certainly be popular with Saint Nicholas and Santa Claus, although it may be on the expensive side for that. Moreover, the thing is sold out everywhere and the question is whether new NES Classics will be available for Sinterklaas and even for Christmas. Perhaps it will turn out that the NES Classic is the best gift you can’t get.