Japan Gets NES Conversions For GBA, Limited Xboxes

Thanks to Planet GameCube for its news that Nintendo has announced a series of 10 re-releases of classic NES games for the GameBoy Advance in Japan. The titles include Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, and Pacman, and will be released alongside a Famicom Edition GBA SP, previously only available in a slightly modified, limited edition. Elswhere, orthancstone writes "Gamespot is reporting that Microsoft is releasing two new limited-edition Xboxes in Japan, an Anniversary Edition in 'pure white', and another in 'Kasumi blue'. The blue Xbox will be limited to 5000 consoles, and will come bundled with Dead Or Alive Online, while the white Xbox will be limited to 1000 consoles, and will only be available online."

Comments

And there was a great smacking of foreheads...

[bedurndurn]

Microsoft: You know that thing you guys don't want? Now it's available in three collectable colors!

why not...

[jkcity]

why not just make consoles skinable already like nokia phones, its not exactly as if it would be that hard todo, nokia was helped to where they where today by making there phones skinable, the same could be true for the first console maker that does, people like to personalize things, and which ever console they feel more personal with is the one they'll probably spend money on games for.

Yay for Microsoft!

[p-p-pom]

Selling 6,000 units (5,000 blue + 1,000 white) seems quite an ambitious goal... if they manage to do that in the space of one month, that would represent already 50% of their sales (based on the most recent figures I could find at http://m-create.com/jpn/s_ranking.html). Wow!

Retro Gaming

[Sancho]

I'll admit, I've bought a few "rereleases" on the GBA. Mostly because they're terrific games with lots of replayability and they suit me to play in short burts while I travel. However, Nintendo won't be seeing a dime from me on these titles unless:

1) They cost less than $10. Not likely with the cost of making cartridges. Some people in the article seem to think that they will end up costing $20! Absurd, for games like Ice Climber. With Mario, at least they should include the Lost Levels!

or

2) Multiple games are included on a single $20 cart. It's not terribly hard to do and gives more value to the player.

Of course, if the carts are only ever available in Japan, I won't be buying any period. I'm not going to import (and pay the extra cost) Ice Climber. Even Zelda I just got on a Disc with 3 other games. I can play it on my Gamecube. I'm not jonesing for portability that badly.

Re:Retro Gaming

[Kris_J]

They cost less than $10. Not likely with the cost of making cartridges. Some people in the article seem to think that they will end up costing $20! Absurd, for games like Ice Climber.

This is why the e-reader is so good. Because the games are simply printed on card, the manufactoring costs are almost zero per copy.

Re:Retro Gaming

[pecosdave]

How to play Zelda on GBA legally with only minor "cheating".

Animal Crossing on the Game Cube contains many old NES games. These games can be played on the Cube or transfered to the GBA using a link cable. Zelda is on the disk, only a legitimate way to unlock it has not been found, it's been unlocked using Action Replay.

There is one major flaw to doing it this way:
The game will be loaded into RAM. You can suspend the Gameboy, if you have a GBA SP (or a third party rechargeable pack for a normal GBA) you can theoreticaly play it forever since you can charge it while suspended, unfortunately if you turn off the GBA the game is lost. No saving, turning it off for three months, then resuming.

So: Game Cube $100
Animal Crossing $50
GBA SP: $100
GBA Link cable $10
Action Replay $40
----------------------
For only ~$300 you can have a nearly legitimate version of portable Zelda that can't survive a dead battery. (yes, I can get all that stuff cheaper to, I'm just going on general MSRP/OTC retailer prices)

Re:NES not new on GBA

[Anonymous Coward]

PocketNES has been around since 2001, long before Nintendo thought of emulating NES on GBA.
In fact it looks like Nintendo was inspired by PocketNES to make their own emulator for Animal Crossing and the e-Reader.

Ah Nintendo...

[Thedalek]

The company that pushes the boundaries of "How many times will you buy the same item?" For those of you who already have the e-Reader versions of some of these games, Nintendo will undoubtedly come up with some incentive to entice you, such as lost levels, alternate graphics modes, and promotional materials. And then, again in six months when they release the Classical Collection discs for the Gamecube (just a vague rumor I've heard batted around with no real merit).

Re:NES not new on GBA

[Gothic_Walrus]

Yes...but that's illegal. The rereleases are not.

Stealing or not stealing? Hmm...

Sounds like a good idea, but...

[shoptroll]

The Famicom styled SP sounds pretty cool.

However, I have a small contention on the games.

1) At least two of those games, Ice Climbers and Excitebike, I believe are available through the e-Reader system.
2) I highly doubt these will be released in some budget format, however, there is no way that these would fill up all the space in a standard GBA cartridge, so maybe they will drop the price?
3) If my guess is anything, I'll bet that Super Mario Brothers would be a port of the SMB DX port they did for Game Boy Color. I think that one did have the Lost Levels in the original 8-bit style, however you needed to beat the original game or something to get to them.

Let's first see if these even make their way over here.

Re:NES not new on GBA

[bluGill]

It is legal iff (not a mispelling, math speak that means if and only if) you own the origional cartrage. Fair use comes into play.

6000 le Xboxes?

[scot4875]

6000 limited edition Xboxes? Isn't that enough to just about double their Japanese user base?

I kid, I kid...

--Jeremy