Nintendo’s SNES Classic: the latest news about the retro mini console

Walmart confirmed today that it will in fact be canceling all of those SNES Classic preorders it accidentally accepted last week when the product page was mistakenly put live. The company is notifying preorder holders via email — some of whom are game journalists who’ve posted the note to Twitter — saying, "We know that this is incredibly disappointing to you, and we’re truly sorry for this mistake." Well, there you have it, folks: the SNES Classic preorder party is over, at least for now.

"Unfortunately, due to a technical glitch, our page for the Super Nintendo Classic Edition mistakenly launched on Friday evening ahead of the official release date. We have sent cancellations to all customers who ordered the item," said Walmart spokesperson Danit Marquardt in a statement given to The Verge. "We know this is incredibly disappointing to those customers and we apologize for the mistake. We will update our site as soon as product becomes available." Walmart did not charge those who purchased via credit card — the retailer, like many others, only does so when the item ships — and those who did pay via PayPal or with a gift card and had the amount withdrawn from their account are getting refunds.

The least-stressful option for acquiring the Super NES Classic Edition is to preorder it. Nintendo has promised that its latest mini console will be easier to find than the notoriously limited, and now discontinued, NES Classic. But that doesn’t mean you’ll find the new console collecting dust on store shelves. Nintendo has committed to shipping the Super NES Classic from its release in September until the end of 2017. Nintendo, perhaps more than any other video game company, knows the power of scarcity. Expect resellers to grab as much inventory as possible, and flip the consoles for ludicrously inflated prices on eBay and Craigslist.

Yes, if you want a Super NES Classic at retail price, take our advice: preorder far in advance.

Yesterday, Nintendo surprised fans with the SNES Classic, a mini console that bundles together 21 of the best classic games from the company’s 16-bit console in one tiny package. But perhaps no one was more surprised than veteran game creator Dylan Cuthbert, who learned the gadget would include one additional surprise: his long-canceled game, Star Fox 2. Yesterday evening, Cuthbert and several members of the original Star Fox 2 team went out to have a much-belated launch party for a game they’d made two decades earlier.

Star Fox 2 was a sequel the 1993 original, which saw Nintendo branch out in a new direction with a sci-fi-themed rail shooter on the SNES. In the game, Fox McCloud and a team of anthropomorphic animals / pilots defend their home planet from powerful alien invaders. The game let players pilot an angular craft called the Arwing, as they battled robots, alien creatures, and spaceships through expansive levels.

Right on the tail of the SNES Mini Classic’s announcement in the US and Europe, Nintendo has followed up with an equivalent product for Japan. The Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Famicom is based on the system’s original design, shared by the European version, and comes with a slightly different selection of games.

In Japan, the system will include Panel de Pon, Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, Ganbare Goemon: The Legend of the Mystical Ninja, Super Soccer, and Super Street Fighter II. These titles replace EarthBound, Kirby’s Dream Course, Street Fighter II Turbo, Super Castlevania IV, and Super Punch-Out from the US model.

The upcoming SNES Classic from Nintendo fixes at least one problem from its 8-bit predecessor. Just like the NES Classic, the new mini console will feature a replica controller that’s nearly identical to the original. But where the NES Classic controller was hampered by frustratingly short cables, Nintendo says that won’t be the case with the SNES Classic. Instead, it will include a cord that’s around five feet long, two feet longer than the NES. That’s somewhat on the short side, but still a decent improvement — though of course there will likely be some aftermarket wireless options after the system launches in September. On the plus side, the SNES Classic will come bundled with two controllers, instead of one, for out-of-the-box multiplayer action.

Nintendo’s SNES Classic mini console, which comes with a more vibrant system and controller color scheme in Europe, is now up for preorder on Amazon’s UK storefront. The page, which says the product is sold by Amazon EU S.a.r.L. (the company’s official European trading name), appears to have gone live sometime in the last hour.

Pricing is listed on the page as £79.99 ($101.76), but the final amount with shipping mysteriously comes out to around £71.61 ($91.10). Amazon is limiting purchase quantities to one unit per account, but it specifically says it will not ship to the US.

Nintendo’s SNES Classic announcement this morning means 21 stellar retro games are coming back in a mini console bundle this September. The list includes some obvious favorites, like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Metroid, and Earthbound. But one notable addition worth pointing out is Final Fantasy III, which most North American gamers might not recognize because of a localization name change.

In Japan, Final Fantasy III is actually the excellent Final Fantasy VI, making the SNES Classic a great way to replay the iconic role-playing title, or try it out for the first time. FFVI is widely considered one of the best, if not the best, in the series for its sprawling cast of characters — the most in a Final Fantasy game to date — and its prototypical RPG villain Kefka, who set the standard for later maniacal and showy bad guys like Sephiroth, Kuja, and Seymour.

When Nintendo released the NES Classic last year, it came bundled with a surprisingly robust collection of 30 games. They ran the gamut from classics like the original Super Mario Bros. trilogy to more obscure titles like StarTropics, striking a nice balance that covered a wide range of experiences for the 8-bit console. And now, with the just-announced SNES Classic, the company has taken things a step further.

The SNES Classic lineup is just about perfect. It’s a bit smaller than the NES Classic, with a total of 21 games compared to the original’s 30. But the 21 games are substantial: almost every single one is a blockbuster of its day. The roster includes some of the best games Nintendo has ever made, like Super Metroid, Super Mario World, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

Nintendo just dropped a bomb in the sedate post-E3 summer game news cycle by announcing the SNES Classic, a miniature $79 version of the classic Super Nintendo Entertainment System preloaded with 21 fan-favorite SNES games. In other words, it’s basically a SNES version of last year’s nearly impossible-to-find NES Classic.

The NES Classic was adorable, but many fans coveted the Famicom Classic Mini, the Japanese markets version of the console based on the original Japan-only Famicom design. Similarly, the SNES Classic is getting a Europe-only version that shrinks down the sleek curves of the Japanese SNES design. Meanwhile, Americans will get a mini version of the iconic, dour purple and boxy protrusions of the original SNES.