Review: NES Remix

Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo

Nintendo has a deep bench of games they can go to when they need to. They have old franchises that they've never used properly, like Balloon Fight. They have old favorites that still remain fresh, like Mario and Zelda. They have the most history of any game company currently existing.

The games they released during the NES era have been picked over and picked over so much that it's hard to find anything new to do with them. And yet, Nintendo found a way.

NES Remix is, at its heart, a celebration of old NES games while providing players with achievements and challenges. It can be by turns incredibly satisfying, incredibly challenging, and incredibly frustrating. It includes classic games like Donkey Kong and The Legend of Zelda as well as not-so-classic games like Clu Clu Land and Ice Climber.

Your enjoyment of the game will hinge on how much you like these older games, and some of them really don't hold up well. The good news is that if you don't like one of the crappier games in the collection, you can usually move on to a game that's more fun to play.

The best part are the remixes, where they take a game and change something major on it. For example, in one remix, you play through level 4-1 in Super Mario Bros., but it's completely covered in ice. In another remix, you do a lap in Excitebike in the dark with nothing but your headlights lighting the way.

The only downside of NES Remix is that right now it only includes 16 games, all from the first two years of the NES. One hopes that they'll expand it with DLC (or free DLC? One can dream) so that it can include games like Kirby's Adventure, Mario 3, Punch-Out!! and others. Even if they don't, it's still a ton of fun and worth the $15.

Final Rating: B+