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Our Favourite Nintendo Game That We Still Play Today

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Asking a gamer to nominate their favourite Nintendo game is like asking a parent to pick their favourite child. Well, guess what, we are going to do the unthinkable!

But before we crown our favourite, let us tell you about the top 3 contenders (that we still love playing till this day!):

First contender, Wave Race 64 (N64) – yes, we did pick Wave Race 64 above Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64 and Goldeneye 007. Don’t get us wrong, the aforementioned games are superb, but nostalgia draws us to Wave Race 64. What wasn’t there to like – realistic water physics, challenging courses and an absolutely cracking 2 player challenge – ‘Bonsai!’. We lost a lot of hours playing this game head to head. Oh yeah, the N64 controller was perfect for this game.

The second contender is none other than Super Mario Bros. (SMB) on the NES. This 2D platformer catapulted the Mario franchise into the stratosphere for good reason. The game had great level design, matched by awesome gameplay, a mesmerising Koji Kondo tune and most importantly, intuitive control – what more could you want!

Well, if it wasn’t for the next game, I guess the choice would have been easy and SMB would have walked away with the prize. Let us tell you about a 16-bit platformer that took the SMB ingredients, gave them a fair shake and then poured the contents into the SNES for a game we call (drum roll please), Super Mario World (SMW)! With SMW, the 2D platformer reached its pinnacle – sublime level design, 16-bit aesthetics that were an absolute feast for your eyes and the sound was perfectly atmospheric. This was a game that you could lose yourself in. SMW is one of those games you can either pick up and play for half an hour to get your Mario fix, or play till the wee hours of the morning. SMW walks away with the prize of our favourite Nintendo game of all time. Thank you Mr. Miyamoto for creating the definitive 2D platformer.

Phew, that was hard!

 

TIGER Electronics + Famicom = FAMIGER NES Edition

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Another jaw-dropping creation by the French modder OktoRetroLab, posted by Recalbox, this time, the mod is a fusion of an old Tiger Electronics handheld and a Famicom – making a pretty cool FAMIGER!

We reckon it’s the perfect use of a Tiger Electronics handheld 😉

source: Recalbox / OktoRetroLab

 

Retrofy Your Nintendo Switch Dock

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The Nintendo Switch is still our go to contemporary gaming system, so when we see clever peeps injecting nostalgia with their Switch, we definitely take note!

One such clever peep, Imokruok has created two cool casemod docks for his Nintendo Switch, one based on the 8-bit NES and the other on the 16-bit SNES, albeit the North American version 😉

The best part is that Imokruok has documented these creations in step by step photos, so make sure you check out the full compliment of pics in the above Imgur links. Oh yeah, check out the video of the NES Switch dock builds process below:

NES Switch dock (build pics in comments) from r/NintendoSwitch

Donor SNES case – it all begins!

The completed SNES Switch dock – it’s a beauty

The NES case mod – it all has to start somewhere!

The finished product!
image source: Imgur

 

LEGO Nintendo Entertainment System Set

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Whoa, LEGO and Nintendo have given us a one two punch of sets – first with their LEGO Super Mario, and now, the awesome LEGO Nintendo Entertainment System set!

This awesome LEGO NES set will be available from August 1 and will retail for AU$349.99. You’ll now be able to assemble your own console and retro CRT TV, then turn the crank to make 8-bit Super Mario move across the screen! We are excited 🙂

source: LEGO

 

FunKey S – All Your Retro Games On A Keychain

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We promised no more Kickstarters, but this FunKey S – the world’s smallest handheld gaming system, has grabbed us by the scruff off the neck and it ain’t letting go!

You can relax with the question about funding, the FunKey S is already well and truly funded – by a long shot! Right, let’s get straight to it – if you want a retro gaming system small enough to fit on your keyring so that it can be taken anywhere, then the FunKey S is your jam. The FunKey S features a clam-shell design, just like the classic GameBoy Advance SP. Once opened, it greets you with a 1.54″ IPS LCD screen and a D-pad style controller. This teensy little beast is no slouch, with an ARM Cortex-A7 CPU @ 1.2 GHz under the hood. Playtime is roughly 90 minutes on a 20 minute charge, which is pretty decent too.

Most importantly, the games are loaded via its SD card slot, supporting memory cards up to 128GB, which should be enough for pretty much every retro game under the sun – which bring us to the shady part. To play NES, SNES, Game Boy (Original, Color, GBA), Sega Master System, Sega Genesis / Megadrive, Sega Game Gear, Atari Lynx, Playstation, WonderSwan and Neo Geo Pocket games, you will have to hunt for ROMs in some pretty murky areas on the web, which is kinda not so legal.

If you are craving to play classic video games on the go, then you can’t really go past this small and very cute foldable handheld!

story & image source: technabob

 

Retro Gaming Graffiti

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Let’s start by saying we don’t condone illegal graffiti. However, when graffiti is welcomed as street art and makes a societal impact, we definitely take note.

The /r/Graffiti Reddit thread is one place that is full of great graffiti, some topical with recent events, and some tugging on our nostalgic heartstrings.

Here are a few that caught our eye, even the freight train carriage with the three-button NES controller! Check out the rest on Reddit.

image source: reddit – /r/Graffiti

 

How Much Storage Would It Take To Store Every Nintendo Video Game That Can Be Emulated?

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So how much storage space would it take to store every Nintendo video game (from the stable of their major consoles) that can be emulated?

Don’t worry about trying to work out the answer, as Reddit user, RHYTHM_GMZ, has already done all the hard work for us.

You’ll need roughly 7.53TB (yep, that’s TERABYTES!) of space to be able to emulate every darn Nintendo video game! With the Wii making up 6.56TB of the 7.53TB total, you may want to know the breakdown of the rest of the Nintendo game libraries, so here you go:

  • NES – 237 MB
  • SNES – 1.7GB
  • N64 – 5.5GB
  • GB/GBC – 568MB
  • GBA – 8.4GB
  • NDS – 83.2GB
  • GameCube – 867GB
  • Wii – 6.56TB

For those of you that prefer to visualise these figures, we have you covered – see below!

NOTE: Games libraries based on the uncompressed NTSC versions

[story source: RHYTHM_GMZ  via Reddit]



Metroid: Mother Brain Is an Iconic Villain

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By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.

Metroid’s Mother Brain is considered one of the most diabolical she-villains in video game history.

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with defeating Mother Brain every time I put my Metroid cartridge into my Nintendo Entertainment System. It took me a while to finally defeat her, and when I did, I wondered if Mother Brain had a backstory. How did she get to possess such vast power?

When I would play the original Metroid, I found Mother Brain fascinating. In later Metroid games, we got a little backstory on Mother Brain, but none of it seemed that imaginative. The original design of Mother Brain was the best. All of the designs in later games, especially in Super Metroid, when Mother Brain looked like a brain with a grotesque chicken body, were slightly extreme and almost silly. In the original Metroid, Mother Brain was captivating and menacing by just sitting in a glass jar, controlling the game like a puppet master. When I would defeat Mother Brain, my imagination would run wild. Was what we saw in the jar her original or real form?

image source: Samolo via Deviantart

Metroid was not the easiest game to beat. It took me several tries before I finally completed the game. I wasn’t an expert at the game like my brother. It took him just a day or two to defeat Mother Brain. Then he would usually move on to another game and beat that before me as well.

In the video game magazines of the time, like Nintendo Power, they never really went into much depth when it came to the iconic, she-villain. But the early games didn’t tell as much about Mother Brain either. It must’ve been a boring existence, just sitting there in a protective glass jar, ruling the planet, hoping that a bounty hunter wouldn’t come along and destroy you. However, she did have an army of henchmen protecting her. Villains in other major games at the time were primarily male and mostly on the beefy side.

Mother Brain was engrossing because she was so different from all of the other heavy villains in video games. Mother Brain is one of the reasons Metroid is a classic NES game.

image source: metroid.fandom.com

 

Sydney Hunter and the Curse of the Mayan – Nintendo Switch Review

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Grab your hat and whip, it’s time to venture into the jungle in Sydney Hunter and the Curse of the Mayan, out now from the team at COLLECTORVISION Entertainment.

In Sydney Hunter and the Curse of the Mayan players take control of an explorer that has stumbled into a Mayan temple just as the calendar has come to a finish and the unluckiest days begin. The feared deity Kukulkan has decided that he wishes to freeze time and only an outsider can foil his plans and fulfil the prophecy. To save the world and time as we know it, Sydney must reconstruct the Mayan calendar that has been divided into several segments and spread out to various god’s temples. Spanning over 11 different temples and facing 13 Mayan gods, players will have their work cut out for them in this epic quest.

Feeling very much like a love letter to the NES and its 8-Bit heritage, Sydney Hunter feels fantastic to control and responds exactly how players would expect an action adventure game to feel from that time period. Visuals are limited but always feel very rich and vibrant, lots of contrast means that there is rarely a boring screen and something fresh and interesting is always going on. Traversing each temple and discovering how each one works and its secrets, really feels like setting off on an adventure every time. Boss fights are simple, elegant and to the point, meaning that having to retry a failed battle never feels like a chore. Various items to find that will allow access to new areas as the game progresses, each one adding unique elements to the gameplay.

There is some fantastic humour sprinkled throughout that really adds to the charm and ensures that the game never takes itself too seriously. The soundtrack is also comprised of multiple beautiful chiptune tracks that really hit that nostalgic sweet spot and will easily get players humming along. Between the secrets scattered about in each temple and 2 different endings to see, there is plenty of reason to keep playing and discover everything Sydney Hunter has to offer.

Sydney Hunter and the Curse of the Mayan is a wonderfully charming and beautifully simple “Metroidvania” game that is sure to have players both old and new captivated. A must have title on whatever is your system of choice!

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Mat Panek, Chief Reporter
Retromancer – Collector, repairer & fan of retro games & tech. Atari to Amiga, Nintendo to Sega! LD, Zip, Beta and a proud dad! One half of the TiredParents on Twitch.

Follow Mat on Twitter and Twitch

 

 

Disclosure: Sydney Hunter and the Curse of the Mayan [Nintendo Switch eShop code] was kindly provided by Novy PR for this review.

 

 

The Rare Nintendo M82 Display Kiosk Could Be Yours!

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This Nintendo (NES) M-82 store display kiosk on eBay is rare as rocking horse poop, hence the hefty price!

For those that never saw one in the flesh, the Nintendo M82 was a demo kiosk to showcase the NES and its games. The kiosk held 12 games and was used to let people play the latest games in store before they made a purchasing decision. The kiosk also had functionality to time limit play to ensure everyone got a chance to play some 8-bit console awesomeness.

Now, where did we leave that $51,000……

source: eBay