Sunday 1 October 2017

Good Things Come in Small Packages


This was released yesterday, but I thought it would be more fitting to write about the AFL grand final on the 30th of September, since I could use the title that references September.

After a long, long wait, we were finally able to pick up our mini SNES / SNES classic!


The full list of games on the console are:

  • 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


Star Fox 2 was never released, so this will be its first official release.

MrFodder and I were super excited about this one. I think we were both a bit too young to really appreciate the NES, but the SNES and N64 are probably my two fondest consoles. I was incredibly sad that we only ever rented Yoshi's Island from Blockbuster, so after we finished the game (in one night), we returned it and I never got to play it again. It was far superior to Yoshi's Story and the music was amazing.

The first problem we had after getting it was deciding which game we would play first. We decided on Donkey Kong Country, which is almost two-player, in the sense that one of you plays Donkey Kong and the other plays Diddy Kong. Only one person plays at a time, but if one of you "dies", it swaps to the other person and they have to finish the level.  If you crack open a DK barrel, it brings your partner back to life. I remember playing with my brother when we were young, and sometimes we'd purposely try to avoid the DK barrels just so the other person wouldn't come back. So petty.

The great part is that the game records who finished which level. I got to play Diddy Kong.


Hahahahahha, I am the superior one in this relationship!

I also beat all the bosses we've come across so far.


OK, it's a bit misleading. I did beat the rat boss on my own, but MrFodder beat the ostrich boss, but must have also been hit by a walnut or something at the same time, because he died and I took over just to see the boss collapse. But... I count it as a win for me!

The game looks really pixelated on our TV.

MrFodder checked out Yoshi's Island and I had completely forgotten how much I hate the sound of Baby Mario crying.


It's pretty amazing how well the games have held up. The graphics are definitely far behind the kind of stuff we see today, but it didn't even matter, even scaled up to a 65" screen.

The games also brought back that feeling of Nintendo Hard, which I haven't felt in a long time. I've never heard MrFodder drop so many F-bombs in a single gaming session before (fittingly, he was playing F-Zero). Some of my incredibly rusty platform gaming skills were starting to come back, but there were so many occasions of "Where did that guy come from?!" and "I swear I pressed jump!" that I felt like I was 10-years-old again. I think we both did a lot better than we did as kids, but I was incredibly grateful that we managed to rack up 21 lives, because we definitely needed them!

I'm really happy that we remembered to pre-order one of these. It's not even the nostalgia (or maybe it is and we haven't worked that out yet), the games are just genuinely fun.

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