Nintendo is dominating the news at the moment with its Pokémon GO app.

That thing has seemingly taken over the world, which is kind of what the Wii did between 2006 and 2013, as did the Game Boy and Tetris at the end of the 1980s.

And the NES earlier in the 80s. We’re noticing some kind of Nintendo based pattern there…

Nintendo Classic Mini NES

Anyone who grew up during the 1980s probably had a NES. The Nintendo Entertainment System (known as the Famicom Disc System in Japan) was a glorious thing.

With its 8-bit graphics and boopy sound effects, you stuffed a games cartridge into the thing and were played classics within 60 seconds.

Now, Nintendo has done a wise thing in releasing a modern version which will play on your TV!

The success of Nintendo’s first two apps has ensured the company isn’t going anywhere (its market value has risen by $7 billion), which will be to the chagrin of certain sects of the gaming press who have taken issue with the company for no reason.

It’s clear some of them consider the company behind the times as it doesn’t churn out a perpetual stream of violent shooting based games.

These puerile titles with godawful scripts and dialogue which have somehow become established as “mature” games for intelligent adults.

So we’re absolutely delighted Nintendo is sticking to its guns and ignoring a worryingly large proportion of journalists who think like that—it’s a two-fingered salute to them through the brilliance of the Nintendo Classic Mini NES.

It’s a NES, simply put, which can fit in the palm of your hand. It comes pre-installed with 30 classic games and you can buy up to two NES controllers for it.

All you need to do is plug it into a TV with an HDMI cable and you’ll be raring to go.

The Games

What have we got to look forward to, then? There were almost a 1,000 games released for the NES as developers cashed in on the new gaming craze (considered a fad when it first emerged).

Many of that lot are terrible (which the Angry Video Game Nerd has dedicated his time to showcasing), but there are also hundreds of gems to catch up on. Here are just a few which will be available:

• Super Mario Bros. (the first ever one!)
• Super Mario Bros. 2 (the weird one)
• Super Mario Bros. 3 (still one of the best games of all time)
• Metroid
• The Legend of Zelda
• Donkey Kong
• Ghost’N Goblins (still possibly the hardest video game ever)
• GRADIUS
• Final Fantasy
• Castlevania
• And many more!

Be warned – the NES era of Nintendo games was marked by remarkable difficulty levels. Due to technology restrictions, games could only be very short.

To artificially make them appear longer, developers ramped up the difficulty to create near impossible challenges – literally.

Some of the games, such as Ghosts N’ Goblins, are borderline impossible to beat.

Canny, but astonishingly brutal—buying this little box of joy and infuriation will be the most challenging gaming experience of 2016!

When is it Out Already!?

The Mini-NES hits stores on 11th November 2016 at around $60, which is about £50. A complete bargain for what you’re getting.

If you’re more used to modern games and fancy HD graphics, this is the ideal opportunity to get your retro gaming knowledge up with some of the best games ever.

What we hope will happen is Nintendo will do the sensible thing and release a SNES Classic Mini version as well.

What we consider to be the best games console of all time deserves to be sitting in peoples’ home again – let’s make it happen!