Every once in a while, we catch wind of classic video game auctions that wind up fetching seriously impressive sums of money. Today, we're hearing about one that is perhaps more impressive than any other video game auction that came before it: a sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 that sold for a whopping $156,000 at auction over the weekend.
Nintendo has announced a new smattering of SNES and NES games that will soon be heading to Switch Online. Chief among these fresh arrivals is Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy Kong's Quest. Back in July, we saw the original Donkey Kong Country added to the lineup of SNES games available to Switch Online users, so it seems that Nintendo's goal is to slowly add the entire Donkey Kong Country trilogy to the service.
Nintendo doesn't seem to be having the best of times this year when it comes to security. Following the hack of hundreds of thousands of Nintendo accounts back in April, the company experienced another data breach in May, this time yielding a massive amount of source code for many of its old games and consoles. While the gaming industry is still coming to grips with the full repercussions of this leak, some more enterprising individuals have apparently put in the work necessary to use that source code and build what they claim are prototypes of some of Nintendo's earliest franchises, including Super Mario, Star Fox, and even Legend of Zelda.
Throughout the first half of this year, LEGO and Nintendo have been trickle releasing information about their new LEGO Super Mario sets. It turns out that Super Mario isn't where LEGO and Nintendo's team up ends, as the two companies today announced the LEGO Nintendo Entertainment System. As the name suggests, this new LEGO set will have you building an NES, its accompanying controller, and even a retro '80s TV all out of LEGO bricks.
A Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) original game console LEGO set was leaked. This set looks to roll with several exclusive parts, including a Mario JUMP flat brick and several 1-peg pieces - like a turtle shell and a mushroom. There's a one-brick flat mystery block too. With this set, you'll be able to create all sorts of different scenes from the original game - and expand beyond the original, too.
Another month, another batch of classic Nintendo games being made available to the new generation of gamers. Nintendo has been dutifully filling up its roster of titles from the bygone NES and SNES eras but a few fan favorites are still noticeably missing. The company is starting to fill in those gaps with this month's additions, finally bringing one of the two most iconic gorillas in the world to the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service.
Despite how gaming advocates push for the image of games as more than just pointless pastimes, the gaming industry as a whole has been terrible at recording and keeping its own history (ironic given its use of save game systems). This threatens to deprive future generations of the fun and sometimes ludicrous games of the past and, hopefully, learn from those. Fortunately, console makers have started bringing their old titles back to life and none of the current big three has a history more vibrant and varied than Nintendo as evidenced by the more than 80 classic titles now available on the Nintendo Switch.
It has become almost a common practice for console makers to turn back time slightly and give players access to games from the past. In Nintendo's case, it goes back way into the past, back to the glory days of the company. Of course, some might argue that one could always relive that time with an emulator and some questionably acquired ROMs. Few of those, however, would be able to add some modern gaming conveniences, like playing a decades-old multiplayer game with someone far, far away.
Some of the more interesting perks of being a Nintendo Switch Online subscriber are the collections of retro games you gain access to. Nintendo has two such collections currently on offer: one for NES, and a second for SNES. Switch owners can only play these games with an active subscription to Switch Online, and they can even buy special controllers that mimic the familiar gamepads of both consoles.
One of the perks of Nintendo's Switch Online service is access to a roster of classic Nintendo titles that were promised to grow every month. That, however, mysteriously stopped after the introduction of SNES titles back in September. Worry not because Nintendo has finally announced the addition of new games to the Switch Online list and it happily does include four games for the SNES, including a long-lost sequel to a less-known but still beloved franchise.
What is old is new again, or something like that. The past years have seen the proliferation of retro gaming consoles, shrunk down to the size of your hand (or hands) as well as designs that try to appeal to the powerful and apparently profitable sentiment of nostalgia. Most of them try to bring back the past to the present as they were, prioritizing design fidelity over modern utility. To that extent, this new 8BitDo N30 2.4g wireless mouse is different, bringing the aesthetic of an age long gone to a tool few people can't live without these days.
Four of seven extremely rare Famicon (NES) games created by Konami for schools and a public utility company in Japan decades ago have been discovered and dumped online for use with emulators. The emulation was made possible by two Russian enthusiasts and a very lucky auction discovery, one that included special and extremely rare hardware that is needed to use the game cartridges.