Classic NES Series

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Classic NES Series (known in Japan as Famicom Mini, and in Australia and Europe as NES Classics) is a series of games released on the Game Boy Advance, which are ports of games that originally appeared on the NES platform. The games were released at a 2000 JPY/$20 USD price point, which was cheap for Game Boy Advance games.

The cartridges were a different color from normal, being maroon and white in Japan and gray in all other regions, matching the colors of Famicom and NES cartridges. In Japan, the series had unique packaging - a clear plastic box holding a smaller cardboard box with the original Famicom game's box art.

Having already been released in enhanced forms on the GBA, many NES titles were omitted from the series, such as Super Mario Bros. 2, River City Ransom, and Final Fantasy. Tetris had already been released as Tetris Worlds, but could not be re-released in its original form due to a dispute with Elorg.^{[citation needed]}

Two releases, 2nd Super Robot Wars and Mobile Suit Z Gundam: Hot Scramble, were limited to giveaways - 2000 copies of each were given away randomly to people who bought Super Robot Wars GC and Mobile Suit Gundam: Warriors' Traces respectively.

Classic NES Series Titles[]

Titles Exclusive to Japan[]

Changes[]

Typically, these ports were left largely unaltered - some glitches like the Minus World in Super Mario Bros. aren't fixed. However, some changes were made:

Certain sprites were altered to fit the Game Boy Advance's smaller screen.
Two-player modes are removed from each game's title screen until players connect with a link cable. The game is usually downloaded to the other player's system.
Bomberman's multiplayer mode was removed outright, a move that received much criticism.
The Legend of Zelda was altered to change the mistranslations in its intro.
Some games now support saving - some, such as Donkey Kong and Pac-Man, have high scores saved, while Excitebike allows players to save the custom track designs they create.

Criticism[]

Many of the titles in the Classic NES Series were available in other forms, such as on sets of five-dollar e-Reader cards and within the game Animal Crossing, so a common sentiment among reviewers was that the twenty-dollar price tag was too high.

Others criticized the series simply because it consisted mostly of games that Nintendo had re-released many times before. Some games, such as Xevious and Donkey Kong, were criticized for being the inferior NES ports of certain arcade games, lacking certain features such as the 50m level from the latter. Others, such as Metroid and Pac-Man, had already been brought over as part of other GBA releases, like Pac-Man Collection.

The Bomberman port was criticized for its lack of a multiplayer mode.

Promotional material[]

In the Japanese releases, aside from a special Game Boy Advance SP that featured the colors of the original Famicom (red, white, and gold), there were also three collection boxes that were released, each of which were able to hold up to 10 games (generally the games in the series the box represented). The boxes also came with a cover depicting an array of sprites, generally from the same games the box contained. Inside the box was also a specialized gold plate commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Famicom system, with the image depending on the box (the first series box had the Famicom System itself, the second series box showing a monitor, and the third series box showing a Famicom Disk System floppy). The volume boxes were meant to contain the following games:

Volume 1

01: Super Mario Bros.
02: Donkey Kong
03: Ice Climbers
04: Excite Bike
05: The Legend of Zelda
06: Pac-Man
07: Xevious
08: Mappy
09: Bomber Man
10: Star Soldier

Volume 2

11: Mario Bros
12: Clu Clu Land
13: Balloon Fight
14: Wrecking Crew
15: Dr. Mario
16: Dig Dug
17: Adventure Island
18: Ghosts 'n Goblins
19: TwinBee
20: Fight on Goemon! Mechanical Quest

Volume 3 (Famicom Disk System)

21: Super Mario Bros. 2
22: The Mysterious Murasame Castle
23: Metroid
24: Kid Icarus
25: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
26: Shin Onigashima
27: Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir
28: Famicom Detective Club Part II: The Girl in the Back
29: Castlevania
30: SD Gundam World: Capsule Warriors – Scramble Wars

To a lesser extent, a Game Boy Micro was also released that sported the colors of the original Famicom.

For the overseas releases, the only promotional item released for the games was a special Game Boy Advance SP modeled after the colors of the NES.

Famicom Mini/Classic NES Series
Famicom Mini Series
First Series	Super Mario Bros. • Donkey Kong • Ice Climber • Excitebike • The Legend of Zelda • Pac-Man • Xevious • Mappy • Bomberman • Star Soldier
Second Series	Mario Bros. • Clu Clu Land • Balloon Fight • Wrecking Crew • Dr. Mario • Dig Dug • Adventure Island • Makai Mura • TwinBee • Ganbare Goemon! Karakuri Dōchū
Third Series	Super Mario Bros. 2 • The Mysterious Murasame Castle • Metroid • Hikari Shinwa - Palutena no Kagami • Zelda II • Shin Onigashima • Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir • Famicom Detective Club Part II: The Girl Who Stands Behind • Castlevania • SD Gundam
Classic NES Series
First Series	Bomberman • Donkey Kong • Excitebike • Ice Climber • The Legend of Zelda • Pac-Man • Super Mario Bros. • Xevious
Second Series	Castlevania • Dr. Mario • Metroid • Zelda II