Remember those terrible cardboard boxes that Nintendo games used to come in, way back when? The company thankfully moved onto more civilised plastic cases in the GameCube era, but NES, SNES, N64, Virtual Boy, Game Boy and Game Boy Advance titles all came in easily-crushed cardboard packaging which, for modern collectors, means keeping a pricy title in pristine condition is hard work indeed.
If you somehow get a twisted sense of nostalgia from cardboard then you'll be pleased to learn that Retro-Bit's selection of "new" old games uses that very same material in its packaging. It has just launched four new compilation carts which showcase games from Data East and Jaleco, all for very reasonable prices.
The Data East All-Star collection for the NES contains Ring King, Bad Dudes, Side Pocket, BurgerTime and Buggy Popper, along with a set of BurgerTime stickers and two pin badges. The cartridge comes with a plastic sleeve which will keep it dust-free when it's not in use.
The three 16-bit carts are shaped so they will fit into any SNES console, regardless of where you happen to be in the world, and come with a full colour instruction sheet. Each one showcases a selection of vintage games; the Data East Classic Collection, for example, has Fighter’s History, Fighter’s History Mizoguchi, Magical Drop, Magical Drop 2 and Super Side Pocket, and comes with a Magical Drop sticker and some badges (there's a theme here - see if you can spot it).
The Joe & Mac Collection has just three games: Joe and Mac, Congo’s Caper and Joe and Mac 2: Lost in the Tropics. It also comes with a sticker and some badges. Finally, we have the Jaleco Brawler's Pack, which boasts four SNES fighters in the form of Rival Turf, Brawl Brothers, The Peace Keepers (all part of the Rushing Beat series in Japan) and the Street Fighter-style Tuff E Nuff (AKA: Dead Dance). Also included in the box are (you guessed it!) some stickers and badges.
Aside from the rather worrying health disclaimer on the back of the box which states that the carts contains materials known (in the state of California, at least) to cause cancer and reproductive problems, there's little way to find fault with these collections. True, the games featured may not be the very best in the NES and SNES libraries, but we had a blast reacquainting ourselves with the underrated Joe & Mac series, as well as discovering some other games that passed us by back in the day.
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The bonus extras are perhaps a little random, but they're cool all the same - and they certainly add value to what could have been bare-bones releases. We even felt like we were being transported back to the '90s as we tore the cellophane wrapping from those flimsy cardboard boxes; in Retro-Bit's eyes, that's perhaps mission accomplished.
Just heed the warning, OK?
Comments 19
Wish I had an SNES
So many memories..... Gonna get em!
Ah, no problem for me since I'm not in the state of California!
I saw cracking open as in letting us see what kind of boards and chips went into the insides of the thing.
I will probably get at least one.. but I really wish they had released this as it was originally announced; all on one cartridge!
Not to mention the GameBoy collection cart is missing...
That Joe and Mac artwork doesn't sit right with me.
Snes on a regular HDTV, ewwww....
@Jack_Goetz I saw that too. Those are not the faces from the original artwork. They had the more pronounced chin and weren't so "cool" looking.
I'm interested in the Brawlers pac
@Shiryu
it hit people in new jersey by default though
Whoa, uh, I think I'm going to heed that warning. I probably don't need to replay Congo's Caper right now anyway.
Keep in mind when this stuff was announced about a year ago they were doing 1 GB, 1 NES, and 1 SNES cart and listed they'd sell for $19.99.
Here we are now, 0 GB, 1 NES, and 3 SNES for $35 each. NO thanks.
See, if Nintendo had been forward thinking enough to include a working cartridge slot on the SNES Mini then we could have seen modern re-releases of a whole bunch of those classic SNES games in physical format for the system for all the gamers out there who actually wanted them. And, it would have meant basically the entire library of SNES games could have been played on the system, via both old and new cartridge releases, without the need for hacking it. Now that could have been very cool, having the 21 built in games in their by default plus access to the entire library of physical games too--there's some genuinely all-time classics that weren't included in the 21 bundled games--and possibly even as brand new re-releases in perfect condition boxes with paper instructions and all. And having modern 20 game bundle/pack cartridges like this could have been very cool indeed too, if you imagine Nintendo releasing a couple of these every few months down the line. Thankfully, however, it's at least extremely easy to just hack the system and add in all the games you want anyway, seeing as the alternative really isn't an option.
"Cracking open"
Dang, I was hoping for pictures of the circuit boards.
The Brawler Pack is the best of them all, I was very disappointed Nintendo didn't include any beat em up on the Super NES Classic Edition. This beat em up collection will definitely fill that crave.
God, I always kept my large SNES collection ultra pristine, back in the day (including the boxes). If only I'd hung onto it all!
Sucks how these apparently give you cancer because it seems like nice collections otherwise.
I love living in California (small town USA here), but it's California. I'm sure we're convinced breathing the air will give you cancer.
It's likely due to lead solder, or some other nonsense, that really shouldn't be an issue. Just my state being silly.
(What's weird is that we're perfectly willing to overlook the number 1 cancer pollutant in the state so LA can have their cheap water. Just saying.)
@tanookisuit me too
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