Video: Unboxing The Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & The Blade Of Light Anniversary Edition

@AJDarkstar For as expensive as it is, I’d have preferred if they actually printed a cart of the English translation.

Useless. I can’t believe you don’t get a physical cart of the game. Yikes.
And totally agree that a true NES cart would have been way cooler.
To me, this is another failed effort (see: Mario 3D all stars).

Next.

Should've been a working NES cart. I paid full price for it anyway so I'm part of the problem here.

Great if you wanted to spend $50 for a $6 game. In my experience this collector edition stuff can look neat but it usually just gets put away in a box and forgotten about before I know it.

I'm not enough of a Fire Emblem fan to justify a collectors edition without a physical game.

It's cool and all, but without the cartridge... To me, it's just a dust collector, esp. as most of them probably even won't be opened.

The game is cheap enough on the eshop for me to justify a digital purchase. The game itself is awesome, esp. for being a 30 year old NES game.

As others have said, this really should have included a functioning cartridge of the game. The packaging looks high quality and VERY cool, but, at the end of the day, I'd be paying a premium for a bunch of cardboard junk that I'll just sit on my shelf and end up forgetting about.

Like I've said before, coming with an artbook AND a digital code is a genuine selling point for me. I, too, have voiced skepticism towards "physical editions" where the box had literally nothing but the code (and commenters in this very blog would tell me that there's a market slice of people who want a game box on their shelves even for a digital release). But now we get something legitimately tangible, for a lower launch price than what such editions normally sport, and everyfan would rather see this price raised by printing a 4 Gb card for a 75 Mb game?

This would've been an easy sell for me if it did have a physical cart, but as is while all the extras are fun to check out for about half an hour, afterwards its just going right into storage to collect dust.

@Grot I bought the last and only non pre order one from my Best Buy on a whim. But I'm in the same boat of maybe putting it on ebay later on. Like I did want it but more so to go with my other FE collector's edition so who knows in a few months down the line if I'll still have it or not.

I really don't get the appeal of collectors editions. Especially ones without the actual game.

I am still mad Nintendo didn't bring this over to Europe.

@TimboSlice how is 3D all stars a failure? It is a great port of the games.

But it's not physical, its a code in a box with loads of tat

AU$90 for paper, cardboard, and a bit of plastic. 😪 You'd think they could afford to throw a cart in (ideally with a digital version of the manual and artbook included on the cartridge for good measure considering how small the game itself is).

Hell, they should have localised the SNES remake while they are at it and throw in a port of the DS's Shadow Dragon (they could have either optimised it for single screen play, or restricted it to handheld play with customisation options a la the Wii U port).

Despite how expensive it is, I would have jumped at it if the NES game had at least been supplied on cartridge, though I would have preferred a cheaper standalone option as I am fed up with tat. I'll usually grab a collector's edition if a CD soundtrack is included though (FE Warriors had a generous 3 disc set, though it wasn't exhaustive).

@nhSnork : The smallest cartridge size is reportedly 1GB, not 4GB. And Nintendo previously printed Super Mario All Stars on Wii on a 4.7GB disc for a 12MB ISO (most of that space pertaining to the emulator as opposed to the game itself), so it certainly isn't unprecedented for games to only occupy a tiny portion of the supplied media. Plus, considering the exorbitant asking price for the package (akin to a full priced AAA release), the argument that a cartridge would significantly increase the cost of production doesn't hold water. Sure, it would arguably be wasteful, hence why I think Nintendo should have localised the other Japan-exclusive games and issued a US$60 collection instead.

Incidentally, all games on other consoles require a 25GB disc at the bare minimum, even if it could fit on a DVD or CD.

I wish they'd give Advance Wars the same kind of love they've been giving Fire Emblem for a long time now.

Also, yeah, they should have made that an actual playable NES cart.

Would’ve bought it if Nintendo actually released it in Europe.

People keep clamouring for a cart are being silly.

Nintendo doesn't make carts anymore for games that would fit in them a hundred times over. Last time they did that was on the GBA with the NES classics carts, and they only did it because they didn't have an eShop at the time for classic & indie titles like they do now.

This game will be removed from purchase on the eshop, yes. Almost certainly that's because they plan to add it to the Nintendo Switch Online NES app, which was designed to be future proof and prevent users from having to buy the same game over and over and over again whenever a new console comes out.

Same deal with the Mario 3D Allstars; they're almost certainly heading toward an N64 app for Nintendo Switch Online members, at which point Super Mario 64 will definitely be a launch title.

Nintendo only does these limited time only promotional things (like the NES & SNES Classic Minis) when they're planning a permanent solution to the issue.

Does that mean you'll need to become a member to enjoy past titles? Sure. But NSO has long since become worth the price of entry on the strength of the NES & SNES libraries alone. And those libraries will be able carry forward to future Nintendo platforms because they won't need to sell the games to you all over again, they can just ask you to transfer your NSO membership to an NS2O membership. No need to reinvent the wheel a fifth time at that point (Wii > 3DS > Wii U > Switch > Switch "2"), because the emulation platform from the Switch is future proof.

That all being said, being the Fire Emblem fan and New Yorker that I am, I secured an Anniversary Edition box from Nintendo NY. Everywhere else were sold out within minutes of preorders, bought out by 3x price scalpers on Amazon and ebay, but Nintendo NY doesn't do preorders for that very reason, and they require ID on new special launches, to boot (that way you can't leave and come back later in the day to buy the game again for resale).

@AJDarkstar
I agree. The clear cartridge seems like a miss whereas a true physical cartridge would have made the set worthwhile economically.

@marandahir
There are certainly advantages to a digital or a streaming game but you do not really own it when the rights are entangled in a myriad of DCMA and on-line checks. Physical means you own it, you can trade, give or sell it. When was the last time you sold a digital game? While it is possible it certainly is not easy.

Collectors editions is not charming to me anymore. They are glorified dust collectors.

Guess I'm in the minority here, but I love having this collectors edition. Granted, I can only recall owning pretty much just one or two other collectors edition for games, so owning this is a bit more novel to me than it would be to most people. But as a huge Fire Emblem fan, this bundle is absolutely fantastic.

I love the detail they put into pretty much everything inside the box. For starters, the art book is really well designed. The hardcover feels great in the hands and the art inside is compiled in a nice ascetic. The highlight of the art book to me however is the gallery of FE1's character art. They are so bizarre compared to more modern FE character design, yet weirdly come across charming. It's also really hard to find to find these designs compiled neatly in one place online, so honestly, this alone makes the art book worth it to me.

I also really like the mockup NES box and replica cart. The box is nicely designed and perfectly matches the feel of how NES boxes were designed. Having a full-blown manual was also a nice touch. As for the replica cart, I feel like photos/videos don't do it justice compared to having it in your hands. It has a really neat effect with the game label being in the back, giving it a sweet behind-the-glass look in the front (if that makes sense).

I'm quite blown away by how much disapproval the replica cart is getting in the community just because it isn't a real working cartridge. Never mind the fact that would have been extremely unlikely in the first place to happen — does anyone who hold that criticism understand this would have driven up the retail price of this package quite a bit? Ironically people would have complained even more about how expensive it would have been, but I digress.

I guess ultimately at the end of the day, this isn't for everyone. In fact, the appeal of this only targets a very small slice of fans. I'll be the first to admit it's not a "perfect" collector's edition package, but it's a nice tribute to the first FE game. And if you are a big fan of the series, it is an amazing concept of a collectors edition. While many are already deeming it a dust collector item, I honestly can see myself digging this out every once in a while.

@javiboy2 @Grot seriously?! You guys managed to get a copy recently? I gave up early on since the preorders went in an instant and didn't expect retailers to keep any in stock at the stores.

@FiveDigitLP I had it on my Bestbuy wishlist and just happened to see it was in stock at my store. A lot of times the higher traffic stores will get 1 or 2 extras outside of pre orders. Same way I was able to get the limited edition of Sakuna of rice and ruin.