Imitations of Nintendo's popular NES Mini have been spotted on a Chinese import site, with packaging that can quite easily catch out consumers. The much sought after console sold out months ago, with fans trying ever since to get their hands on one without paying astronomical prices from scalpers. A new batch seemed to have appeared on AliExpress, however NeoGAF users spotted some strange design quirks with the supposed new shipment.
Looking closely, you can see that the colours seem slightly off and the product does not appear to be up to the standard you'd expect from a factory. The listing has (not surprisingly) been taken down after convincing photos were paraded on the web.
Since Nintendo decided to discontinue the NES Mini many opportunists have taken it upon themselves to try and make a quick cash-grab, with the system currently on sale via platforms like eBay for an average of around £150, whereas the original price was far lower. It's certainly worth being careful around any product listings purporting to be for this system.
Are you surprised by this fake and how close it gets to looking like the real deal?
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 32
Seeing how ebay is flooded with fake collectible figures after their print run, I fully expect to see these take over and people won't have a clue what they're buying.
Nice try guys, the NES Mini has been discontinued for some time now. No point of selling rip offs now!
Not surprised at all about this and it happens with everything there's demand for
OFF WITH THE CULPRIT HEADS !!!
As much of a deplorable business practice is, there will always be fakes, knock-offs and "replicas". Not saying that I condone it, but if they were to release those for an actual low price, it /could/ allow some people who really wanted one to get one. This wouldn't satisfy collectors, but the average joe. Just my two cents on the matter.
Filthy scumbags.
ebay is just full chinese fakes now. Wouldnt buy any toys especially unless its from argos toysrus etc on ebay
How does it play? Any good? Fake, real...all plastic to me if there's any quality to it
Looks great. I want one.
It seems everyone is making money from this thing except Nintendo
@SLIGEACH_EIRE China is swiftly becoming a global menace at every level.
@GravyThief this is the saddest and most truthful comment I've read today
Looks good to me, but I don't have a real one to compare. What's so obviously fake about it?
Chinese rip offs have come a long way. This thing is actually pretty impressively like the real deal!
That makes me wonder what problems it DOES have. I don't know why people even shop ebay anymore. The ONLY thing sold there seems to be Chinese fakes.
If there's money t be made, the Chinese are always quick to start knocking off fakes... They have no shame!
@NEStalgia there's a lot of things you can legitimately buy from eBay, such as used games and consoles, and even Nintendo itself has its own eBay storefront for new games and some refurbished consoles.
That's the direct result of "we won't produce enough of these because we don't want to".
Keep up the good work, Nintendo.
I bought a cheap Chinese knock off NES mini yesterday. One of those 500 in one games and doesn't have an HD output.
It was cheap though. And I knew it was a knock off when I got it.
This is way too low.
I saw a NES Mini at a secondhand store in Dublin for 250 euro!
Are people still bothering with the NES Classic Mini? I'm still playing it from time to time, but wouldn't ever pay crazy prizes for it or go for a fake.
Basically, just try to grab a SNES Classic Mini instead, or look for another retro console that actually plays cartridges.
I'm more surprised people are surprised by this.
I still suspect that the NES and SNES mini consoles are just excuses to reuse leftover Wii and Wii U parts while testing new emulation software that will eventually come to the Switch.
If it's cheap enough it could be a useful pi case ☺️
Hopefully Nintendo will do another NES Mini run further down the line.
@ZurapiiYohane
Eh...
Depend on the users.
Never buy from Chinese / Hong Kong users on Ebay, except playasia.com that you can trust buy games or merchandises from Hong Kong.
I always order games on Ebay from Japanese or American or European users with rate not low than 99%, and all my orders arrived safely.
At first I thought this article was talking about this Chinese NES mini knockoff:
At least there are more of these than the NES Mini Classic Edition not to mention more games and 2 controllers on it too.
..yea, be carefull, pictures can be deceiving...anyone wanna buy a SNES mini?
@SH007ME
Hahahaha....
Mini SNES... I mean Tiny SNES.
1 does it work?
2 are the emulations decent or even good?
3 is it sturdy and decently made?
4 is it affordable?
If so, I'd buy it and it serves Nintendo right. This is their fault for being Scrooges of the highest order and making sure no one has a chance to get one except scalpers. If this thing is good, I hope they make a mint off it.
@retro_player_22
Where did you find that? And what games are on it?
@Tempestryke This link at AliExpress:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Mini-TV-Handheld-Game-Console-Video-Game-Console-For-Nes-Games-with-500-Different-Built-in/32808605208.html?spm=2114.search0104.0.0.ZE4lIR
Not sure what games on it though but you can find review of this on YouTube, just search for NES Mini Chinese knockoff
@retro_player_22
Thank you very much.
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