Classic NES Series

From the moment the asshole neighbor kid got his Game Boy Advance, I knew I wanted one. He'd come barging into my clubhouse, GBA in hand, rockin' Golden Sun while I'm over here playing Game Boy Color or Super Nintendo. He never let me play it, so my only experience with the thing was hearing its CPU blaring the same five or six seconds of Golden Sun's battle theme. Sure, it's a quality theme; that game has phenomenal music, but let's be real, the GBA's lack of dedicated sound hardware was noticeable even to an eleven year old. My only experience aside from this with GBA prior to getting my own was with Mortal Kombat Advance.

I don't know how I didn't pick up on MKA's lack of- uh... quality? Yeah let's go with that. I just wanted the game, and would do anything for it. Around the same time, I'd learned that Funcoland would take trade ins, and that I could sell my old games for new ones. It still didn't occur to me to sell my games en masse though, that was my Dad's idea. I begged him to get me a GBA, and he basically said "I'll see what I can do". What he ended up doing was gathering up all my broken NES stuff and selling it to Funcoland in exchange for a refurbished GBA and three games.

The problem is, I didn't really want to do that. I didn't know it yet, but that moment would change my life. It encouraged me to learn how to repair electronics. As it turns out, I greatly missed my NES and the games. I was so bummed out about the whole thing. I was convinced that I'd never play Super Mario Bros. or Mega Man 5 again. I even went so far as to record footage of Mario 2 on a VHS tape just so that I could have some memory of what these games were. I didn't know about emulation, and I had no idea that NES consoles were fixable. If I knew at 11 that I'd be who I am now at 35 because of that moment, I wonder how I'd have reacted. It's true, the only reason I got into electronics repair ~which is my career now~ is because my NES was sold to fund a Game Boy Advance. I couldn't fix the damn thing, nobody could. So sure, I had this Game Boy Advance now. It even had Mario 2, but it wasn't NES Mario 2. There was a missing component to that game that the NES version had in spades. I don't know what it is, but I noticed it. The GBA quickly became my go to machine, even over more powerful stuff. Sure, I could play Tony Hawk 2 on the TV, but I can't take my progress with me to school, so why bother? I've always been pragmatic to a fault with these types of things. Over the years, I grew fonder and fonder of the GBA, but something was still missing.

Fast forward a few years to 2004. Game Boy Advance is still my primary console. I'm flipping through Electronic Gaming Monthly, you know, the patrician's choice of gaming focused magazines. Within the pages I saw this:

Back when referencing 1-1 was novel

I read this magazine cover to cover repeatedly every month, and this page drove me insane. Late 2003 to mid 2004 were chaotic for my family and I. Hell, they were chaotic for my entire community. To be blunt, the whole damn town and surrounding environment burned down. Once beautiful forests now looked like the intro to Terminator 2. Living in an environment like this for six months is tough. My parents had just bought a house, but we weren't going to move until the school year was finished. Frankly, I wish we'd have just left. These random NES re-releases were something to look forward to and covet. I didn't know what to expect with the new house. At least with this, I knew what I was getting.

I'd get my hands on Super Mario Bros, as well as Metroid, Zelda, and Zelda II. I had four out of the twelve, and I was happy with that. I'd eventually find better ways of playing NES, up to and including motivating and teaching myself to repair the consoles. At that point, I'd just play an NES, and forgot about these.

I'm not here to make you cry, or feel sorry for me. I wouldn't be me if these things hadn't happened. I wouldn't have bothered writing this if I wasn't horribly traumatized. I'm joking of course. It's been over 20 years since I've thought of these in with any depth. I have mixed feelings on this set now that I'm so far removed from it. Sure, it released at exactly the right time and motivated me in ways that are only apparent now; but are they good?

The Game Boy Advance has a smaller screen resolution than the NES. As a result, several of the games in this collection appear "scrunched up" in some way. The limitation was obvious to me a child but I'm not sure it would be to someone less familiar than I was.

I own two of these, plus Metroid Zero Missions, which has the Original Metroid built into it as a hidden reward. I'm not going to review the ones I don't own because I don't feel like they're properly conveyed unless you're looking at them on a Game Boy Advance. It simply wouldn't be fair. I did play Zelda 1, Zelda 2, and Metroid on these as well, but I don't really remember what compromises were made. I'd presume they're fine, but I don't trust my own judgement anymore having replayed Super Mario Bros. 20 years after the fact.

There were several models of Game Boy Advance released during it's short life. Each of them offer a different experience while playing these NES re-releases. Generally, I use a GBA with an IPS display installed. You can't use something like that to reliably play one of the most important releases in this set. Trust me, you'll see. The landscape GBAs original screen is notoriously dark. I used to play it under a large florescent lamp to see anything on it. Nobody sane is doing that these days. The GBA SP has a washed out front lit screen and it's how I played these originally. That's a fine screen for a 13 year old in 2003, not so much now. The colors are washed out to holy hell and it makes Dr. Mario hard to play. If you're going to play these, I suggest using a Nintendo DS. You can load them into slot-2 and play them as backup whenever you're bored with your Slot-1 game. I keep Dr. Mario in my DS almost always.

The only NES game that translates perfectly from what I've seen is Dr. Mario. Primarily because you can fit the whole game onto the GBA's smaller resolution screen without making too many compromises. Super Mario Bros. is scrunched to all hell and it reminds me of those old "faces of meth" PSAs. The NES version looked incredible, but here? Something bad happened here.

Jesus Fucking Christ

See, this is exactly why I won't judge these unless I have the cartridge. As mentioned, the GBA cannot display NES games in full resolution. Workarounds were developed and some were better than others. In Super Mario Bros. case, they did whatever the hell this is. If you're playing this on an emulator, or in my case, a GBA with a IPS screen, this is what you'll see. Most people who would consider playing this at all will be using a similar set-up. It's incredibly distracting and makes for a terrible experience. Larger displays make the problems even more apparent. Small Mario has no neck, and Big Mario's moustache fades in and out of existence. Please understand, this game looks fine on an old GBA/DS. The flickering is impossible to see as their screens don't refresh as quickly as modern displays. You'll still see that it's scrunched, but thats so much more tolerable than the flicker that you stop noticing after a few minutes.

You ever just sit back and question everything?

This doesn't look the best, but it plays like a dream. When you use original hardware, you can't go wrong. The form factor of that first GBA model makes this my ideal way to play Super Mario Bros. on a portable. If you have a screen mod that'll smooth out the flicker, you're all set. The Nintendo DS is a close second. There's no input lag, and those consoles fit in my hands far more comfortably than a 3DS or Switches Joycons. I've never tried it on the Switch Lite. Maybe I'll steal my kids and see if it's any good there. Even if it was though, that thing's to big to put in my pocket. I haven't forgotten about Super Mario Deluxe. If you're unaware, it's a Game Boy Color remake of Super Mario Bros. with extra modes and tons of bonus content. I think it plays like crap. I'd choose this over it any day of the week.

No opportunity to talk about this game will be passed up

Some say that this is a worthless port and they're wrong. I play this more than any other GBA game. It's so simple to pick up and play, it tracks your high score, and it just works. There are several versions of Dr. Mario on Game Boy Advance, and honestly, I think this might be the best one. If for no other reason than that it's the most aesthetically pleasing to me. WarioWare inc. has a version of Dr. Mario, but it's missing some music, plays strangely, and I don't like the virus designs. There's Dr. Mario/Puzzle League, which is fine, but the music is utterly fucked and the extra modes don't add anything to the core game.

The Greatest game of all time

Dr. Mario plays exactly like the NES version, and it looks pretty much perfect. Here, rather than do whatever the hell they did with Super Mario Bros., they seem to have squished things just a little bit. The clipboards are a little wonky, but unless you're looking at the original release side by side with this, you won't even notice. I think it looks and sounds better than any other version on the GBA.

I don't think Dr. Mario needs a ton of extra features to make it "worthwhile". The core gameplay is good enough to stand on it's own just fine. The ability to save high scores sweetens the deal.

Nobody will ever play this with me :(

Finally, despite what others might claim, multiplayer is available on this cartridge. In fact, you don't even need two copies of the game. There's no downside to owning this version unless you're really, really into the extra modes that are included in Dr. Mario / Puzzle League. As bad as that version of Dr. Mario looks and sounds, at least it plays okay. Plus, you get Puzzle League with it. If you're as big a fan of this game as I am, it's reasonable to own both.

Now available on the school bus

Strangely, I've owned the Classic NES Series version of Metroid on two non consecutive occasions. I know why I sold them even if I don't remember actually doing so. Don't get me wrong, theres nothing technically wrong with that release. The problem boils down to the fact that Metroid Zero Mission exists. It's a remake of this game that also includes this as a bonus. Unlike with Dr. Mario, The Classic NES and Zero Mission releases are exactly the same. The only difference I could find between the two is that the Classic NES Series version has some flicker and slightly different menus.

Zero Mission's Menu

Classic NES Series

This is kind of interesting. Zero Mission's in game menu is like a prototype version of what we'd later see in the Classic NES Series. There's no border initially, and the text formatting is a mess. The prompts that appear when you save a password share similar differences. Beyond that, there's nothing to say here. Metroid on NES is great, but I'd much rather play Zero Mission. Unlike the GBA Mario 2 remake, they completely reimagined the game and rendered the NES version a novelty. Its inclusion in Zero Mission makes perfect sense, whereas its release as a standalone cartridge makes me scratch my head. I don't know why I kept buying this one, I knew Zero Mission existed, I just couldn't find it. By the time I had, I still didn't know NES Metroid was built into it. I suppose I was too busy having fun to look at the menus.

Why didn't I look here sooner?

Both the NES Classic and Metroid Zero Mission version play competently. The only difference between these and the NES version is that the password system has been haphazardly circumvented. Now, anytime the password screen pops up the game asks if you'd like to save. This is nice because while I hate using passwords to record progress, I love screwing around with them for fun. Metroid's password system is screwed up. So screwed up in fact that you can crash a Nintendo 3DS with it. I haven't found anything that can outright crash the emulator used here, but I'm sure it exists. while inputting ENGAGE RIDLEY MOTHER FUCKER will crash your 3DS, it does nothing of note here. The game simply reverts back to the title screen.

Classic NES Series games came specially colored cartridges. Here in the United States, they came in "slightly more grey than usual". The labels were all plain black with the games logo haphazardly plastered on it. The banner "CLASSIC NES SERIES" in red across the top made it exceedingly clear you weren't getting a GBA game. I really appreciate this because it helped with the used market. Imagine buying a cartridge only copy of "Zelda" only to pop it in and discover it's an NES game. This wouldn't have bothered me in the slightest, but I could imagine younger people getting pissed off. It was exceedingly clear just by looking at it that you're getting something NES related.

In Japan, these were released as "Famicom Mini" and it's clear they got a lot more love there than they did over here. They came in these cute little boxes, the FDS games came in yellow cartridges, etc. The Super Mario Bros. one I have is colored like a Famicom console. This makes perfect sense. Famicom games had no uniform color scheme. Super Mario Bros. is yellow, Akumajou Densetsu is black, Donkey Kong 3 is red. Having each non FDS game in the series be uniform is clever, if kind of inauthentic. I don't have any of the FDS games, so I have no idea how those handle disk side swaps and the like, but if I get one, I'll update this page with the information.

In the US, we got twelve games in two waves. First wave of eight was:

• Super Mario Bros.
• Donkey Kong
• Pac-Man
• Xevious
• The Legend of Zelda
• BomberMan
• Excitebike
• Ice Climbers

Just like with Metroid, some of these were already available on GBA in some other form. Pac-Man is playable within Pac-Man Collection. Excite Bike, Ice Climber, and Donkey Kong were all e-reader games. I suppose $20 bucks is worth not having to scan in those cards every time you wanna play Donkey Kong. I dunno. Really, only Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda are worth your time.

A second wave was released a little later, and while sparse, all but one are bangers.

• Metroid
• Castlevania
• Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
• Dr. Mario

As I mentioned, I picked up Metroid, but I also picked up Zelda II. It was fine from what I remember, but who the hell knows? Castlevania is a great pick, and I remember seeing it on shelves. That section of the GameStop is now stocked with Naruto shirts.

Shortly after the final wave of these released, the Nintendo DS hit store shelves. Suddenly, the world was too cool for high priced re-releases of decade old games. They'd make a resurgence though, and how! The next time Nintendo would release NES games on a portable, it'd be on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console service, which no longer exists. I was disappointed with the 3DS' NES Virtual Console. The button layout isn't well suited for NES and I get hand cramps.

I'm glad Classic NES Series exists, even if it's half baked. I cannot stress enough how novel these were. At least, to me. I had no access to the e-Reader, or Animal Crossing at the time. Playing an NES game on my Game Boy was the closest thing I had to playing NES the way I used to. Now? I can't even imagine collecting them all, even for documentation here. There's nothing special about them, and at best, it'd be a critical look at Nintendo doing the best it could with limited technology. The carts I have are good enough for me.