Tag: Famicom
Video Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Side-By-Side Graphics Comparison
See the new game next to the Famicom original
The most notable difference about Square Enix's upcoming release Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is the graphical overhaul. Since the release of the original Famicom title, the third entry is now obviously looking like a completely brand new game with the HD-2D update for modern platforms. To highlight...
Random Sakurai Breaks Down The Differences Between Famicom And NES Music
Explaining why Castlevania 3 sounds better in Japan
Masahiro Sakurai is once again delving into his video game knowledge with a video all about the intricacies of NES and Famicom audio. What begins as an introduction to the consoles' different audio processing channels (pulse, triangle, noise and DPCM), soon turns into a history lesson about how...
News Famicom Controllers For Switch Are Now Up For General Sale In Japan
Switch Online membership no longer required
Just recently, we reported on the newly announced Official Joy-Con Charging Stand for the Switch (which is totally to allow users to charge their Joy-Con when used as additional controllers with the 'Switch 2' - wait, where are our tinfoil hats?). Amid all the initial confusion, however, we happened to...
News Switch Online NES Controller Limited-Time Sale Now Live (North America)
Get 20% off the regular price
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition can be played with all sorts of controllers, but if you want to perfectly recreate the retro speedrunning magic, you're going to need the official wireless NES controllers. Thankfully, they're currently on sale. Switch Online members in the US and Canada can now get 20% off...
Random Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Overtakes NES Lifetime Sales
Nintendo's best-selling Switch game breaks another record
The 2017 release Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has been an absolute juggernaut for Nintendo during the Switch generation and if you needed a reminder about just how successful it's been, here's a little fun fact. The 61.97 million units shifted as of March 2024 actually means this single game has now...
Video Nintendo World Championships Japanese Gameplay Officially Revealed
The Famicom 'Special Edition' comes with NSO controllers
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is on its way to the Switch this July and if you're eager to see more, you might want to take a look at the final episode of "Famicom Talk Shop: Kobayashi-Toy Store" starring comedian and actor Kendo Koybayashi and featuring other Japanese talent. The...
News Nintendo World Championships: Famicom Special Edition Includes NSO Controllers
Switch Famicom controllers will also be sold to the "general public"
Japan often gets different game bundles, and it seems this trend is set to continue with the upcoming Switch release, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition. It's been revealed the 'special' Famicom Edition actually comes packaged with two Famicom wireless controllers. These...
Random Sakurai Talks About "The Most Incredible Year For The Game Industry"
In his "personal opinion" it's 1986
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai is back at it with a new "Grab Bag" video - this time discussing the "most incredible year for the game industry". In his own "personal opinion", it's 1986 - a year that marked the beginning of multiple major franchises, the arrival of the NES in Europe, and the...
News Sunsoft Announces 'Retro Game Selection' For Switch, English Release Planned
Three Famicom games in one collection
Japanese game company Sunsoft has officially announced Sunsoft is Back! Retro Game Selection for the Nintendo Switch. It will be making its way across to the hybrid system in Japan later this month on 18th April. The good news is an English version is also on the way! This upcoming release will be comprised of...
News Metroid For NES Could Be Inducted Into The Video Game Hall Of Fame
Other nominees include games like SimCity & Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
The Strong Museum has officially revealed its 'World Video Game Hall of Fame' finalists for 2024 and once again there's some Nintendo representation. The NES/Famicom title Metroid - starring Samus Aran - is featured as a nominee this year alongside an all-star cast made up of...
News Nintendo Releases New EarthBound Beginnings Switch Online Icons
Following the announcement of Mother 3 for Japan
Mother 3 got a surprise announcement for the Switch Online service yesterday, but the catch is it's only available in Japan. To add to the pain, Nintendo has now released new Switch Online icons based on the Famicom title EarthBound Beginnings. They will be available until 28th February 2024, so be...
Review The Mysterious Murasame Castle - The Legend Of Zelda's Action-Focused Sibling
The mystery is why this took so long to be released outside Japan
This review was originally published in June 2014. We're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in the Nintendo Switch Online NES library. Although not originally released outside Japan, chances are that longtime Nintendo fans in the West have noticed nostalgic...
News Coleco's Failed Negotiations With Nintendo Apparently Resulted In The Birth Of The Famicom
"The rest is history"
Time Extension recently got the chance to speak to Coleco exec Bert Reiner about the history of the American toy and console maker. According to his account, there was a time when Nintendo almost ended up buying and marketing the 1982 video game system 'ColecoVision' for Japan but negotiations fell through. The former Coleco...
News Nintendo's Famicom 40th Anniversary Website Is A Treasure Trove Of Trivia
Dive in
Nintendo's Famicom has turned 40 years old, if you can believe it. The little console that could pretty much singlehandedly saved the video game industry with classics such as Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., and The Legend of Zelda, and now Nintendo is paying homage with a comprehensive website celebrating everything Famicom. The website...
Random Modder Creates Stunning Portable SNES, And We Want One
Too cute!
Over five years ago (or exactly five years if you're in Japan), Nintendo launched the Super NES Classic Edition, an adorable and convenient miniature console loaded with some of the best games available on the SNES. But what if you could take it on the go? As spotted by the fine folk over at Time Extension, a fan-made portable SNES (or...
News River City Ransom Director & Miracle Kidz President Passes Away
Worked on multiple classics at Technōs Japan
We've got some incredibly sad news coming out of Japan today. Miracle Kidz president Mitsuhiro Yoshida passed away at the end of last month on August 30th. Yoshida worked at Technōs Japan (known best for the beat 'em up series Double Dragon) - helping create classics like Kunio-kun (Downtown Nekketsu...
Random Have You Seen This Cute, Unreleased Precursor To The Top Loader NES?
What could have been...
The North American version of the top-loading NES-101 All the way back in 1988, Nintendo would show to the media a brand new piece of hardware that would eventually become the Super Famicom, or the Super NES in the West. It was an exciting time for the gaming community as Nintendo entered the 16-bit era, though it seems...
Random These All-In-One SNES And Famicom Consoles Are True Works Of Art
We'll take two!
We've seen our fair share of custom designs for retro consoles over the years, but we reckon this one takes the cake. Swedish audio-visual artist Love Hultén has created all-in-one devices for the Famicom system and the SNES, combining the genuine consoles with a 9" Sony Trinitron PVM-9042QM display monitor. The result is not only...
News My Famicase Exhibition 2022 Is Now Accepting Entries For Fictional Famicom Cartridges
Fantastic fan-made fideo games
The My Famicase Exhibition is a long-standing tradition for artists who love retro games. Every year, Meteor — a Japanese retro game and goods shop — opens up applications for anyone who wants to be a part of the art, and all you have to do is design a cover for a Famicom cartridge. They're now accepting...
Random Artwork In Retro Japanese Magazine Depicts Link As A Female
Update: Years later, a clearer image appears
Update: Thanks to @HistoryofHyrule, we now have a much clearer look at the mysterious female Link spotted in the 1986 issue of Shonen Captain. Further details on the image's origins can be found in our original article below. Original Article (Tue 2nd Apr, 2019 04:30 BST): Back in 2015,
News NES Classic Battletoads Is Getting A Physical Re-Release, But Only In Japan
Columbus Circle is launching a new version today
Battletoads is one of Rare's most beloved games from the NES era. An attempt to create a media brand that could rival the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Battletoads mixed platforming with side-scrolling combat, and is famous for its unforgiving difficulty level. It spawned several sequels (including a...
Review Blazing Rangers (NES) - A New NES Game In 2021? Youbetcha, And It's A Good 'Un
Toasty!
Gaming is not short of NES-like experiences these days; titles filled with 8-bit-style blocky pixels, beepy music, and some controllable character for you to take from the left side of the screen to the right. These games tend to chase the past from a comfortable distance, the harsh technical restrictions of almost 40 years ago something to...
Video Remembering Zelda's Sister Game - The Mysterious Murasame Castle
Link's forgotten sibling 'Takamaru'
It's been long documented that Metroid and Kid Icarus were closely developed. They share the same engine, many of the same staff members and were released within the same time period - hence why people call them sister games. What's lesser known however is The Legend of Zelda had a sibling of its own. Together...
News It Took This Nintendo Fan Over 20 Years To Complete Their Famicom Collection
Snow Bros. acquired!
The Japanese YouTuber Somari has finally completed the Nintendo Famicom collection, and it only took 20 years. According to Kotaku, they started the collection (which is similar but different to the NES library of games) in December 2000 with the 1986 release Mobile Suit Z Gundam: Hot Scramble, and most recently acquired the...
News The Famicase Art Exhibition Is Back
Check out the class of 2021!
Every year, around this time, the My Famicase Exhibition is released upon the world, showcasing hundreds of fan-made designs for the Famicom cartridge. Each one has been dreamed up, designed, and submitted by (usually) an artist, along with a description of what the game would be — but the catch is that none of these...
News English Famicom Detective Club Trailer Drops Ahead Of The May Release
It's been more than 30 years since their initial launch
Fair warning: don't watch this trailer if you want to play Famicom Detective Club blind, as it does reveal some of the story! The story of Famicom Detective Club is a wild one: released only in Japan over thirty years ago, the series is popular enough in Japan that Nintendo wanted to add Ayumi...
News After 20 Years, This Amazing Famicom Collection Is Finally Complete
1053 games, fully boxed with instructions
The Famicom was Nintendo's first smash-hit home system and spawned the NES in the west. The shared library of these systems is immense, especially by standards of the period – in Japan alone, over 1000 games were released for the console. "How long would it take someone to collect all of those games,...
Feature 8 NES Games That Were Better On Famicom Disk System
Saves + Synth > Passwords
The Famicom Disk System (or the Family Computer Disk System to give its full title) released in Japan — and Japan only — on 21st February 1986. This Famicom add-on came with a wave of new games on bespoke Nintendo-branded floppy discs which had several advantages over cartridges at the time, plus one or two drawbacks...
Random No, This Isn't A New Colour Of Famicom - It's Just Really Dirty
The years have not been kind to these bits of plastic
This image could be a PSA warning about the dangers of smoking... at least when it comes to your consoles. In a tweet by @arare_wansaka, these two consoles - a Famicom and a Super Famicom - look like a rare colour variant, with the more common white, grey, and red plastic replaced with a sexy...
Poll Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & The Blade Of Light Is Out Today, Are You Getting It?
Experience a slice of Nintendo history
There are a lot of big releases this week, but one that stands out on the Nintendo front is Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light. Sure, it might not be a new release, but it is a slice of Nintendo history - marking the first time the 1990 8-bit Famicom title by Intelligent Systems has ever been...
News Nintendo Launches Website For The Original Super Mario Bros. Game
Celebrating 35 years
Mario's 35th anniversary celebrations are well and truly underway. So far Nintendo has announced new games, merchandise, and even events and promotions for other first-party titles like Splatoon 2 and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. If that's still not enough Mario-themed goodness for you, Japanese websites for Super Mario Bros...
News Bandai Namco Announces The Namcot Collection For Nintendo Switch
Launching in Japan this June
During the Japanese Nintendo Direct, Bandai Namco revealed it would be releasing the Namcot Collection for Switch on 18th June 2020. No, it's not a typo, 'Namcot' was the name Namco used for its console publishing business between 1984-1995. This upcoming collection will be available as a physical release and as a free...
News Hey Nintendo, Can We Please Have Famicom Wars?
You know, the original Advance Wars game
After months of waiting, Nintendo has finally announced the next batch of SNES and NES titles will be added to the Switch Online service next week. There are a total of six titles coming to the libraries in America and Europe, but as usual, the line-up is slightly different in Japan. This time around, it's...
Random Reimagining The Famicom As An Apple-Style Home Computer
Introducing the Family Computer PVM System
The classic Nintendo Famicom was a design masterpiece compared to the boxier version which regions outside of Japan got in the form of the NES. Around the time of its release, there was a bit of a trend for having combined CRT monitors incorporated into a gaming device, such as the Vectrex from 1982. Later,...
News Fan Releases English Translation Patch For Namco's Famicom Game Youkai Douchuuki
Fight through Hell
Long before Level-5 launched its Yo-Kai Watch video game series on Nintendo hardware, there was an old school Famicom game released in 1988 about the supernatural monsters, creatures, spirits, ghosts and demons commonly found in Japanese folklore. The game we're referring to is Youkai Douchuuki. It starred a young boy named...
News The Switch Famicom Controller's Microphone Actually Works, Just Like The Original
Could future Joy-Con have a mic built-in?
As you may well remember, to coincide with the launch of the Nintendo Switch Online - Nintendo Entertainment System collection, both NES and Famicom-style wireless controllers were released for the Switch for online subscribers only. The Famicom versions are exclusive to Japan - just like the system on which...
Random Child Holding Famicom Controller The Wrong Way Causes Outrage Online In Japan
We live in dark times
If you ever want to cause mass outrage in Japan, apparently all you need to do is hold a Famicom controller upside down, get someone to take a photo of it and then wait until it goes viral on the internet. This is what happened earlier this week when a photo of a child holding a Famicom controller the wrong way supposedly...
News Bandai Namco Files Trademarks For Classic Famicom And NES Titles
A link to the NSO?
Bandai Namco might have plans for a handful of Famicom and NES games in the near future. According to Gematsu, the Japanese company recently filed trademarks for games that were originally released on Nintendo's classic hardware. These games include Battle City, Warpman, Final Lap, Family Pinball and Aratanaru Densetsu. As the...
News Wireless Famicom Controllers Are Being Released For The Nintendo Switch In Japan
Available in a two pack
While the western Nintendo Direct was happening, Japan also held its own presentation. During this, it was revealed Japanese Switch owners would be able to play Famicom games via the Nintendo Switch Online service with the assistance of brand new wireless Famicom controllers. These controllers will even be available in a two...
News Nintendo Classic Mini Double Pack Releasing In Japan On 15th September
Double the fun!
The NES Classic Mini and SNES Classic Mini have been a roaring success, with sales for both devices temporarily outperforming modern generation video game systems during certain mo
Hardware Review The Shōnen Jump 50th Anniversary Famicom Classic Mini Is Gorgeous, But Pointless
Nintendo loves gold, only gold
Nintendo may have fixed the supply issues which plagued the launches of the NES and SNES Classic Editions, but many will still be haunted by the devilish degree of difficulty they experienced in securing one of these
News How Sharp Accidentally Copyright Trolled Nintendo Almost 40 Years Ago
Famicom Wars
First, let us kick off this article by saying happy birthday to the Family Computer! Released in July 1983, (July 15th, to be exact) the 8-bit warhorse is turning 35 years old this year. That's quite a milestone for even long forgotten hardware, but Famicom/NES games still live on today, either as part of the Classic Mini line or as...
News The Internet Is Pouring Some Serious Salt On That PC Port Of Chrono Trigger
Why couldn't it just port the DS version?
Let's not beat around the bush, Chrono Trigger is one of the greatest RPGs of all time, so it's understandably one of those games treated with an almost palpable sense of reverence. So when Square Enix, seemingly out of nowhere, released a port on PC, fans old and new rejoiced. Until, that is, they realised...
News Fan-Made "Mega Maker" is Releasing Next Week
DIY Mega Man
“Super Mario Maker's” popularity proved something most people in the ROM hacking community already knew for years: there is a game designer hidden in all of us. Yet most of us do not have the technical expertise to look up code and understand how it works. Level editors are nothing new, of course, going as far back as some games...
Video Tinkling The Ivories With Doremikko, The Famicom's First Piano Video Game
Welcome to the Magic Forest
Those of you old enough to have been alive during the NES era may recall seeing adverts for Miracle Piano Teaching System, released in 1990. It aimed to teach kids how to play the piano via the on-screen instructions delivered using the NES itself, but despite its groundbreaking nature, it wasn't the first device of its...
News Famicom Title "Ganbare Goemon Gaiden: Kieta Ōgon Kiseru" Translated to English
1990 JRPG spin-off includes healthy doses of Ebisumaru
Despite very few and far between official Western releases, Konami’s “Ganbare Goemon” series has quite a following outside of Japan, a deserved status considering that despite a few ninja duds it is a strong and solid series that made its way across several generations of Nintendo...
News Famicom Version of "Rampart" Translated to English
But your castle is (with)in another castle!
If you fought in the great medieval wars of the 1990s, you might read the headline and wonder what the fuss is all about. After all Atari's "Rampart", a perfect mix of artillery / puzzle game, conquered the arcades and gained quick cult status among gamers; it also had many home conversions, even managing...
News Italian Discontinuation of the NES Mini Seals Its Fate
Our favourite Italian plumber is saddened
In yet another confirmation that wraps up the final applicable region, the NES Mini has reportedly been confirmed as discontinued in Italy. Following North America, Japan and Australia, this marks Europe as the fourth
News The Famicom Classic Edition Has Now Also Been Discontinued
No new information on the NES Classic Edition production in Europe
As we reported earlier, the NES Classic Edition has been discontinued in North America. It also appears, via an update on the official website, that the same has occurred for the Famicom Classic Edition in Japan. A message on the site says: This product has ended production for...
News Nintendo Has Discontinued The NES Classic Edition in North America
No information available for other regions
Earlier this year there was chatter online around the potential discontinuation of the Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition (Nintendo Classic Mini: Nintendo Entertainment System in Europe); some retailers in Scandinavia, for example, suggested they'd been told no more stock was coming, but...
