Nintendo Classic Mini announced

[Keatah]

I honestly don't now if they know anything, but employees I've talked to act like a big container ship from China is somewhere en route...

 

It's stuck in a garbage gyre.

[Andromeda Stardust]

That wouldn't surprise me much -- Switch is only ~45 days away. If I were Nintendo, I'd be retooling the Classic in an effort to block people from re-flashing it in the same way as the initial batch.

Honestly I don't give a rip if they retool it or not. I just want a reshipment. My one console went to my uncle in Florida (he loved it btw) and I was sure they'd be everywhere after Christmas. Oh NES Classic Mini, where art thou???

[Keatah]

If nintendo treats customers this way by not making enough units, then I say we treat them the same way by not buying enough units.

[+save2600]

If nintendo treats customers this way by not making enough units, then I say we treat them the same way by not buying enough units.

They obviously could care less how many they (don't) sell.

[thadsilverfox]

Investors hitting them hard in the wallet with the underwhelming Switch:

 

http://etfdailynews.com/2017/01/13/nintendo-shares-tank-5-as-new-switch-console-underwhelms/

[Keatah]

Thing with modern consoles is they feel like a burden, all the controller parts, and cables and accessories, and accounts - especially the accounts - you have to manage it all. Keep track of it all.

 

There's something to be said for the simplicity of an off-line game console. IDK, but we were happy with the likes of a brand-new VCS or Intellivision or whatever consoles back in the day. Why can't we be happy with stuff like that again? Why must the general public insist that all this tedium be included in the gaming experience. Why must the public clamor for online accounts? Why must the public suck up the updates at every opportunity?

 

It feels like we're adding more and more to the infrastructure surrounding the "classic videogame experience" in what is turning out to be a vain attempt at sprucing it all up. Rather than crank out cool content we're mired in all this tedium.

 

You know, people haven't changed that much in 40 years. Only what we think has, and that's because companies are telling you (it is so). And everything "online" is just promoting the quickening. Speeding everything up to where the fun gets left in the dust.

 

So who to blame? The companies force-feed us this crap? Or the consumers begging for more?

[Andromeda Stardust]

Investors hitting them hard in the wallet with the underwhelming Switch:

 

http://etfdailynews.com/2017/01/13/nintendo-shares-tank-5-as-new-switch-console-underwhelms/

I could care less what their stock portfolio looks like. Also, a news outlet that doesn't bother to proofread it's articles isn't worth it's salt. From further down the page:

 

Nintendo DX Could Be Huge — But Only If It Launches With Zelda, Mario, And Pokemon

WTH is a DX?

[Keatah]

Thing with modern consoles is they feel like a burden, all the controller parts, and cables and accessories, and accounts - especially the accounts - you have to manage it all. Keep track of it all.

 

I love quoting my own posts, it makes me feel important.

 

Now, I want to contrast that against the VCS with regard to controllers. We had 2 Joysticks, 4 paddles, 2 keypads, 2 driving controllers, and eventually the Star Raiders stand-alone keypad, along with various other 3rd party controllers like the PointMaster stick, Wico Sticks, Amiga pocket joystick, and the CBS Omega Booster Grip thing. And I never felt bogged down with all those choices. I was a kid then, but I don't think that had anything to do with anything.

[keepdreamin]

If I were Nintendo, I'd be retooling the Classic in an effort to block people from re-flashing it in the same way as the initial batch.

 

 

Absolutely not. Are you kidding? The hack is free advertising. Why waste anymore time and money retooling a device who's sole revenue is strictly hardware? They are losing exactly ZERO dollars with people adding more games. They should be striking while the iron is hot and pumping these things out with a fury. Get some PR goon intern to release a vanilla statement like "While we appreciate customers' interest in the Nintendo family of products. We must insist that any modifications to hardware will void the warranty..." just to show they don't endorse piracy. But that's it.

 

The fact they aren't seizing the opportunity just solidifies what we already know, they're morons.

[Flojomojo]

That's short-sighted. If they don't protect their copyrights, they can hurt their future prospects of monetizing old games in their eshop and in the new online service they're offering. The percentage of people who actually hack their Mini is probably very small, but it seems to be comprised of people who haven't done much with emulation prior to this. Everyone added to that group is a potential loss of future virtual console customers.

[Flojomojo]

Here's the manual ...there's some general language about voiding your warranty thru disassembly or use of unlicensed accessories. manual_NESclassicEdition.pdf

[Retro-Z]

Well, the empty space on the display case reserved for the NES Classic at the local Wal-Mart is now filled with a big advertisement for the "Coming in March" Nintendo Switch. The Wal-Mart even chose to remove the tag for NES Classic off of the shelf.

 

Nintendo would likely be better served by focusing on selling NEW stuff NOW. Any gaming company that is obsessed with monetizing their products from several decades in the past isn't going to be a major player in the market.

 

Just look at what remains of Atari and Sega...

 

Nintendo would be better off giving their older library away for FREE as a marketing tool to get people drawn into their brand, not trying to wring every last cent out of Super Mario Bros. 3 or Metroid. If necessary, get people hooked into a subscription service by giving away some games.

 

Nonetheless, the NES Classic was an AMAZING idea for Nintendo, allowing a fairly inexpensive (if not free) way for consumers to experience (or re-experience) part of the Nintendo charm in a cute little plug-and-play NES shaped package. It's too bad they have, so far, been unable (or unwilling) to actually put those units into the hands of paying customers.

Edited January 15, 2017 by Retro-Z

[Flojomojo]

Thing with modern consoles is they feel like a burden, all the controller parts, and cables and accessories, and accounts - especially the accounts - you have to manage it all. Keep track of it all.

 

There's something to be said for the simplicity of an off-line game console. IDK, but we were happy with the likes of a brand-new VCS or Intellivision or whatever consoles back in the day. Why can't we be happy with stuff like that again? Why must the general public insist that all this tedium be included in the gaming experience. Why must the public clamor for online accounts? Why must the public suck up the updates at every opportunity?

 

It feels like we're adding more and more to the infrastructure surrounding the "classic videogame experience" in what is turning out to be a vain attempt at sprucing it all up. Rather than crank out cool content we're mired in all this tedium.

 

You know, people haven't changed that much in 40 years. Only what we think has, and that's because companies are telling you (it is so). And everything "online" is just promoting the quickening. Speeding everything up to where the fun gets left in the dust.

 

So who to blame? The companies force-feed us this crap? Or the consumers begging for more?

I'll bet there are plenty of people using old white Wiis, newer hobbled red Wii, 3DS and especially 2DS systems in exactly this way: cartridges only, never online, with accounts or credit cards never touching the things. That's not for me, but there's nothing saying you need to be online. You can probably use most modern systems like a 1980s VCR. I had a colleague who sat really close to his PS3 console because he didn't realize the words on the controller were just for charging, and that you could unhook them and sit back with the wireless controller. There's plenty of illiteracy in video gaming, and not everyone embraces the available complexity.

[keepdreamin]

Everyone added to that group is a potential loss of future virtual console customers.

 

Nah, the folks who would potentially buy VC titles on the switch aren't going to be the type to be hacking cheap multigame hardware with specialized software anyway.

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

I love quoting my own posts, it makes me feel important.

 

Now, I want to contrast that against the VCS with regard to controllers. We had 2 Joysticks, 4 paddles, 2 keypads, 2 driving controllers, and eventually the Star Raiders stand-alone keypad, along with various other 3rd party controllers like the PointMaster stick, Wico Sticks, Amiga pocket joystick, and the CBS Omega Booster Grip thing. And I never felt bogged down with all those choices. I was a kid then, but I don't think that had anything to do with anything.

That's Apples and oranges. You don't somehow split the paddles into two discrete pieces that function in a completely different way from the whole. Aside from the Pro controller option, you essentially have the two joycons. It's the endless ways to combine the joycons that makes it confusing. Kinda like the Wiimote. You could turn it sideways, point it at the screen, attach a nunchuck or Classic Controller, put it inside a wheel, but gamers accepted it. The joycons are basically a reinvention of the Wiimote for all practical purposes.

[Tanooki]

When all is said and done I think a few arguments are fairly safe to make here:

 

- The Nintendo CE was under produced and will continue to be so. If there is a boat load of them coming, I'd almost guess a few illegal immigrants probably pushed 1/2 the crates into the sea to sneak over to get away from China.

- They will NOT re-tool the thing, it would cost them money. Nintendo is insanely cheap and re-tools nothing unless it's to make a cheaper version of the same stuff late in life to re-boost flagging sales (NCE is not flagging, it's angering in absence.)

- If they could inject a new firmware into it that blocks the system, they may do that, but that would be it, any hardware fixes needed they wouldn't bother

- This is nothing new being shorted, Nintendo's model since the 80s has been to be slow, run out, create hype, sell out more and more driving hype sales until the games can back it up, and so it keeps them profitable on hardware day one

 

The Switch...

- Protest all you want about it or the NCE, it will sell, swearing to punish them not buying it won't do any good, someone else will

- That 5% drop is nothing. Most console/handheld systems cause that kind of bullshit from crybaby know nothing scary analysts spooking investors. If it falls 5% or more a week or month into it being around, perhaps then be concerned.

- Yes it's small, but duh, Nintendo is f'ing up their marketing on it as a console you can carry, it should be a handheld you can dock.

- The joycons people whine over, they're the width of a GBC, and height is around 1 1/2" tall but more like 2" (Like the Wiimote!) with the plastic add on with better buttons and the wrist strap) No one ever whined GBC was painful to hold or Wiimote.

- The joycon addon with the buttons/strap is packed in (2) with the device so the smaller dimensions are not important

- The system with joycon is ready for 2P games out of the box which is huge, unless you're doing FPS games or are a Pro controller snob you're set.

[Osgeld]

out more and more driving hype sales until the games can back it up, and so it keeps them profitable on hardware day one

 

 

yea but that doesnt work anymore, as proven by the U, grandpa aint buying one to play bowling like they did with the wii, and casual just downloads it on their phone, they need street cred and games, its the only things keeping console gaming alive

 

- That 5% drop is nothing. Most console/handheld systems cause that kind of bullshit from crybaby know nothing scary analysts spooking investors. If it falls 5% or more a week or month into it being around, perhaps then be concerned.

 

 

normally I would agree, but nintendo missed an entire generation, and floating on old money being padded by dwindling handheld sales, their response is to release a system that doesnt seem all that great for either market, already released, hell almost legacy titles and new super mario 3d world sonic adventure with a HAT!!!!!!!

 

um ... yea let me just sink a ton of investments into that ship

 

 

No one ever whined GBC was painful to hold or Wiimote.

 

 

well when the GBC was released I was a child, I do find the wiimote quite the pain in the ass, that's why I use the pro controller every chance I am allowed to, and argumentatively if the wiimote didnt suck they wouldnt have sold not one but 2 different gamepads that didnt suck

 

ps im not a pro controller snob, but im a grown ass man with the option to hold a 2 inch wide brick with not enough buttons or a half decent gamepad

Edited January 16, 2017 by Osgeld

[Tanooki]

Well that's your opinion too. Given they got back developers who haven't made games, or at least their known mainline franchises for them as far back as the NES (Dragon Quest 4), or the SNES (Nobunaga's Amibition and Street Fighter) to the Gamecube with Bomberman, I think they do carry some street cred. They've got some franchises (Japan aside) that have not shown up on a Nintendo console at all like Shin Megami Tensei. They also have stuff they've been always denied like Skyrim(Elder Scrolls games) and Disagea 5 as a few examples. It's not about now, but it's about how they carry into 2018 and beyond as they have the names, the titles, and oddly(for them) the third party support for their system for once in a long time.

 

I'm just going by observations of the now by adults who tend to complain about the smallness of the GB Micro or even the SP hurting their fingers but throwing out that the GBC or the old GBA were the right size while the others weren't so great either due heft (DMG-Gameboy.) I'm not saying you're wrong but to each their own. The SP will bug my hands as does the Micro on the L/Rs but the GBC fits like a glove and it has the same general width. Height is another matter, but I could go a couple hours on the Wii playing a game like New SMB and not be sore from it so I think it probably in general will be fine.

 

And even if the WiiU blew chunks they really weren't out an entire generation, and somehow in the end did better than break even on that turd in no part of them screwing it up and the 3DS was added profit. I know Nintendo nuts throw around money comments in retort but they have a point the company has liquid assets into the billions, plus they have Pokemon ranking in 100s of millions alone and not even off the games, but their merchandise, amusement parks, the Go mobile app, and other garbage so they're not suffering for funds either. I think you're being a bit obtuse with the sonic adventure crack though. I made the pun too, but it's just one level that's in a world like that. It's kind of like Mario Galaxy where each area is another planet onto its own with different environments and enemies to deal with. Nintendo lost my faith in them over both Wii systems on consoles, but on handhelds I still do believe they know how to handle it right. If they deal with this in respect to how they handle their portable market I'm confident they should do well, but if they start acting like tools and denying reality like with the WiiU they're in trouble.

[Keatah]

The way I see it is that Nintendo is and old and slow company. At least they're behaving like it.

[Tanooki]

I can see that, and you're not wrong either. But the thing is, it's nothing new. They were just as slow and acted that way with the NES, the transition to SNES 2 years after the Genesis, and so on. They do just make enough change each go around so they're not totally screwed, but they're still a generation behind the curve when it comes to some stuff such as the online presence/networking.

 

The thing is unless they can offend enough people (kids to adults) to stop wanting to buy or put up with their IP they're not going anywhere. They were a 2 system company. Now they're a 1 1/2 system company really. They're handheld makers but now they do Android and iOS with some of their most solid IPs and they're making big bank on that end of things. They're slow, but now handicapped slow. They learn even if it comes at a cost of a hot poker in the ass to do it. Ultimately if they don't close out a system where it's an utter failure they lose money on, and if they don't piss off their board/stock holders into forcing a change or firing a lot of people, they'll hang on just fine. They have enough solid characters and creatures they've invented to fall back on they're almost regretfully too big to fail.

 

Some of it is almost too hard to explain. Pokemon started out as a series of 2-3 games that looked like a fad, one they tried to milk a year longer with Yellow/Pikachu edition. They put out a smattering of toys and clothes as they did with mario and zelda in the 80s, and had a cartoon to back it up out of the gate before it caught on. We're 20 years and months into it and somehow that formula not only hasn't gotten tired, it keeps growing and now it's like how Toys R Us is with parents today who were their kids in their earliest days. Now you have people who started on Red/Blue/Yellow and their kids are gobbling up X/Y/Sun/Moon. They have one wicked safety net outside of the other obvious one (nostalgia = NES Classic Edition and Virtual Console)

[Andromeda Stardust]

Well that's your opinion too. Given they got back developers who haven't made games, or at least their known mainline franchises for them as far back as the NES (Dragon Quest 4), or the SNES (Nobunaga's Amibition and Street Fighter) to the Gamecube with Bomberman, I think they do carry some street cred. They've got some franchises (Japan aside) that have not shown up on a Nintendo console at all like Shin Megami Tensei. They also have stuff they've been always denied like Skyrim(Elder Scrolls games) and Disagea 5 as a few examples. It's not about now, but it's about how they carry into 2018 and beyond as they have the names, the titles, and oddly(for them) the third party support for their system for once in a long time.

 

I'm just going by observations of the now by adults who tend to complain about the smallness of the GB Micro or even the SP hurting their fingers but throwing out that the GBC or the old GBA were the right size while the others weren't so great either due heft (DMG-Gameboy.) I'm not saying you're wrong but to each their own. The SP will bug my hands as does the Micro on the L/Rs but the GBC fits like a glove and it has the same general width. Height is another matter, but I could go a couple hours on the Wii playing a game like New SMB and not be sore from it so I think it probably in general will be fine.

 

And even if the WiiU blew chunks they really weren't out an entire generation, and somehow in the end did better than break even on that turd in no part of them screwing it up and the 3DS was added profit. I know Nintendo nuts throw around money comments in retort but they have a point the company has liquid assets into the billions, plus they have Pokemon ranking in 100s of millions alone and not even off the games, but their merchandise, amusement parks, the Go mobile app, and other garbage so they're not suffering for funds either. I think you're being a bit obtuse with the sonic adventure crack though. I made the pun too, but it's just one level that's in a world like that. It's kind of like Mario Galaxy where each area is another planet onto its own with different environments and enemies to deal with. Nintendo lost my faith in them over both Wii systems on consoles, but on handhelds I still do believe they know how to handle it right. If they deal with this in respect to how they handle their portable market I'm confident they should do well, but if they start acting like tools and denying reality like with the WiiU they're in trouble.

All good observations. I found the SP to be painful for any game titles that require frequent use of the L/R buttons (Super Circuit and F-Zero were cramp inducing nightmares), but the 3DS xL is the perfect size for my large man hands. And even the Wii-U gamepad feels a bit large even for my big hands which is surprising. The Switch tablet with attached joycons seems like a slimmer more streamlined controller compared to the Wii-U gamepad. That said, I do plan on getting a Pro controller for docked gaming as it looks more comfortable to hold than the bulky dual Joycon, and also that it has a proper Dpad for VC titles.

 

Despite what anyone says, the Joycons are just glorified Wiimotes, but it is a brilliant redesign. The options aren't much different to the variety of Wiimote options, right down to the mini-wheels. They are cute, and I might even get a pair.

[Tanooki]

No doubt they are like WIimote 3.0. You had the original, then they gave it a sense of detection in relation to the sensor with motion plus which is 2.0. Now 3.0 here it senses speed, tilt, depth from an object like before. But that eye on it can also see the shape of whatever it's looking at and generally know what it is (a cup, a hand, etc) and interact with it. Then it has that haptic feedback or more going on where it has a bunch of shifters in it that move around so it can feel like you're rolling marbles or ice cubes in a cup on the palm of your hand which should have some interesting uses too.

 

Come to think of it, seeing that 1-2 Switch mini game which clearly was Wild Gunman... perhaps they'll do some more Classic NES games like the Wii got with DUCK HUNT. Maybe a thing like the old Game & Watch GB titles where you have a classic mode and modern mode. Classic you get the snickering dig Duck Hunt dog in all that 8bit glory, but then you get some Unreal Engine4.0 (non bloody obviously being Nintendo) more realistic looking or more Wind Waker/Dragons Lair cartoon style Duck Hunt as well. I'd totally be down for that. Nintendo would be the one box ready for the light gun revolution out of the box again.

[jhd]

If anyone in Western Canada still wants a NES Classic, Joey's is offering one as a prize in its current contest.

 

Joey's is a chain of seafood restaurants: https://joeys.ca/

 

According to the official rules, the odds of winning a "NES Classic Mini Game Console" are 50/210000, or 1 in 4200.

 

The odds are not great, but perhaps better than the chances of finding one at retail.

[+FujiSkunk]

According to the official rules, the odds of winning a "NES Classic Mini Game Console" are 50/210000, or 1 in 4200.

 

The odds are not great, but perhaps better than the chances of finding one at retail.

 

[Pixelboy]

According to the official rules, the odds of winning a "NES Classic Mini Game Console" are 50/210000, or 1 in 4200.

 

The odds are not great, but perhaps better than the chances of finding one at retail.

That actually made me laugh!