Tired of having to download NESticle and other emulators to satisfy your 8-bit cravings?
I know I am.
Grown weary of blowing on those dinosaurian NES carts of yours just to squeeze out one more game?
Damn right!
Fear not, my geeky brethren, because Nintendo of America wants to ease your gaming grief with the release of eight classic NES carts for the Game Boy Advance on June 7.
Some of your favorites (and not-so-favorites) are all here: Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Ice Climber, Excitebike, Xevious, Bomberman and Pacman.
Nintendo's even dusting off Super Mario Bros., the original pack-in game that made you beg your parents for a NES way back in the day. Maybe we can finally get that legendary "negative world" Easter Egg to finally work (after all, with our looks and general physique, this is the only kind of "game" we've got).
All kidding aside, Nintendo's finally putting its massive library of classic games to good use. But why stop with just a small selection of games? Where's Urban Champion? Donkey Kong Junior? Kung-Fu? Balloon Fight? Okay, maybe not Balloon Fight, but you get the general idea of what I'm hinting at.
So far these rehashes of vintage NES games have been a big seller in Japan, where they're marketed under the as "Famicom Minis." Hopefully if we follow suit, (read: buy, buy, buy!) Nintendo will unleash a second wave of throwbacks.
If only Capcom and other third-party publishers would follow suit, I could bust out with Mega Man 2 or Bionic Commando while waiting in rush-hour traffic on I-17.
The Big N is also going retro with the creation of a custom-designed limited-edition GBA unit featuring the same color scheme as those old-school controllers.
The limited-edition GBA unit will retail for $99.99 while the classic carts will go for $19.99 each.
It should tide us over until Christmas when Mario & company pimp out the Nintendo DS, its next-generation dual-screen handheld and make you want to own it.
Buy, buy, buy!
Benjamin Leatherman is contributor to the Web Devil. Reach him at benjamin.leatherman@asu.edu.
