In all its 35 years of existence, we’ve never seen this classic Nintendo Famicom/NES game being played quite like this.
Read More
famicom
No one needs to wait their turn to play as Luigi thanks to an epiphany about the Nintendo classic.
Famicom Mini Weekly Shonen Jump 50th Anniversary Version is all about manga/anime games, but that could spell disaster for North America.
27 years after the first 8-to-16-bit Nintendo video game migration, it might be time to do it all over again, so we called the company to see if they’d give us any more info.
Experience all of the fun and frustration – mostly frustration – of the classic Nintendo game with some added features.
The family that games together on a giant controller…probably gets in lots of fights when someone is late to press jump.
As we head towards the end of the year, video game publishers are pulling out their big guns. But what if the modern gaming world leaves you feeling cold? Maybe you’re burned out on multiplayer first-person shooters, and open-world game sandboxes hold as much appeal to you as the pet poop-concealing one in your neighborhood park.
In that case, you’ll be happy to know that this December, Nintendo’s 8-bit Famicom, the Japanese version of the NES, is getting its first commercial cartridge release in more than two decades.
Sony’s PlayStation 4 has been on the market for fewer than 18 months, but already we’ve seen about as many special-edition incarnations of the console, from a lacklustre The Evil Within–themed unit, to an undeniably cool metal Dragon Quest model, to one, for some reason, based on Disney’s Frozen.
And now, thanks to a joint venture between Konami and Sony, there’s yet another model joining the special-edition ranks: The Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain PS4.
Although millions of people have fond memories of playing games on Nintendo’s original Famicom (known internationally as the NES), not too many people spend much time actually playing with the system anymore. After all, portable gaming devices like Nintendo’s own 3DS and even smartphones now boast more powerful hardware specs than the classic 8-bit console, and have just as large a library of legitimately fun games as well as the capability to play old-school titles as software downloads.
Of course, the flipside to having so many great portable games to play or, in the case of smartphones, extremely important websites to visit, is that your mobile devices are going to be running out of juice before long. Now, though, there’s a way to give your new tech a recharge and your old tech a shout-out simultaneously, with this battery pack/card reader that’s styled after the Famicom’s Player One controller.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that a lot of our readers have fond memories of the glory days of the Nintendo Entertainment System. As nostalgic as the iconic piece of 8-bit hardware is for North American and European gamers, though, it’s even more so for Japanese fans, who got the equivalent Famicom years before the NES launched overseas.
Japanese humor website CuRAZY recently stopped to take a look back at all the time they spent with a tiny red controller in hand during their formative years, putting together this video of 13 Famicom experiences pretty much every Japanese gamer had.
For most children of the 80s, video games mean the Nintendo Entertainment System, or Famicom in Japan. Even if you didn’t have one in your home, you surely had a friend with one of those enchanting boxes. Ah, the thrills of 8-bit action, midi music, and blowing frantically on cartridges!
Though many parents might have written the devices off as mere toys, there’s an undeniable shared experience that the NES provided for children in many countries around the world. But have you ever wondered how your experiences with the system compared to those of kids in Japan, the console’s home? Well, wonder no more!
The Nintendo Family Computer, which quickly came to be known by the abbreviation-loving Japanese simply as the Famicom, was launched in its native land in 1983, a time when the world was still in black-and-white and people travelled to work by horse-drawn cart. It was a grim, unforgiving time, but games like Donkey Kong and Popeye made life that bit brighter, and before long people even had electricity and TV sets to connect their new consoles to instead of just staring at the back of the games’ boxes.
Today, on this space-age date of July 15, 2014, the Famicom turns 31 years old, so we felt it would be a good time to think about just how much we owe this little bundle of plastic and circuitry.
It’s 1987. You’re looking awesome in your oversized Michael Jackson “Bad” t-shirt as you slot a chunky, grey game cartridge into your NES console. But instead of the Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt title screen, all you see is a jumbled-up mess of an image that looks like an 8-bit Picasso. What do you do? The same thing everyone did – you take the game cartridge out, blow into it, and put it back in. Lo, and behold: this time the game loads perfectly and you can squish goombas or shoot ducks to your heart’s content.
But in the pre-internet age, how did we all “know” to blow into cartridges? And like rubbing the magnetic strip on a credit card or shaking a Polaroid photo, why did we keep doing it even when product manufacturers and scientists insisted that it didn’t work and could actually cause damage? Joe Hanson, biologist and author of the popular science blog It’s Okay To Be Smart, offers up some answers in a neat YouTube video asking just that.
MOST POPULAR
Now
Studio Ghibli debuts new loungewear collection inspired by its dynamic, beloved heroines
Japanese love doll mistaken for drowned corpse, saved by emergency services anyway
Tokyo Olympics to allow spectators, provided they “cheer quietly”
Baby tanuki prompts adorable standoff as it tries to get into Tokyo art museum【Videos】
Cooking disaster leaves Japanese kitchen looking like a bloody murder scene
Princesses, fruits, and blacksmiths: Study reveals the 30 most unusual family names in Japan
Honda has created a GPS navigation system for your shoes【Video】
What does “Konnichiwa” really mean? Understanding Japanese greetings
Watch the dying art of the punch perm, a quintessential Japanese hairstyle, in Mr. Sato’s new ‘do
Super Mario kimono, Bowser underwear part of gigantic Nintendo/Japanese fashion brand collab
Weekly
Japan’s shortest train line may also be its creepiest, looks like something out of a horror film
Kanna Hashimoto wins Guinness World Record for getting tissues really fast
How easy is it to win super expensive Japanese whisky at a gacha machine in Tokyo?
Anime voice actor star of Cowboy Bebop marries former idol less than half his age- Baby tanuki prompts adorable standoff as it tries to get into Tokyo art museum【Videos】
Japanese high schools abolish old rules, provide freedom with underwear, hair and dating
“The best curry I’ve ever had in my life, ever” comes from a Tokyo curry vending machine
Woman says she’s a foreign student struggling in the pandemic, asks us to buy her homemade chocolate- Cooking disaster leaves Japanese kitchen looking like a bloody murder scene
Teacher in Japan literally picks up truant kid, carries him out of house to make him go to class
Monthly
Super Mario Bros. is actually a three-person co-op game, as long as you play it like this【Video】
Manga legend Rumiko Takahashi reveals her insane working schedule
Coca-Cola’s green tea cubes are an awesome new way to make Japan’s favorite drink【Photos】
Man cooks rice, stir-fried noodles in convenience store parking lot before starting police chase
Magic gummy candies become a viral hit on social media
Poll asks Japanese fans to name their favorite depressing anime
We buy a delicious new burger without saying a single word- Japan’s shortest train line may also be its creepiest, looks like something out of a horror film
Is milk really the best match for cereal? Why not try beer and these five other liquids?
Crackdown on illegal maid cafes looks to be making maids a rarer sight on streets of Akihabara
Yearly
Nintendo puts out important notice for casual gamers who’ve bought a Switch during the pandemic
Studio Ghibli releases 400 images from eight movies free to download online
Customers race to Uniqlo for new summer face masks, but are they really worth the hype?
A Pokémon glitch no one discovered in 18 years has been found…by a pet fish in Japan?!?【Videos】
Man sheds half his body weight, looks like a handsome model in just one year
Akihabara saying goodbye to landmark as giant Sega arcade announces it’s closing for good
Top 10 anime women with biggest, most impactful breasts, voted by thousands of Japanese netizens
Man loses 200 times at crane game, calls police to investigate, staff member loses 300 times too
Hayao Miyazaki has a gripe against Japanese female voice actors
Japanese wife/artist solves “I don’t know. What do YOU want to eat?” problem in an awesome way
RECOMMENDED STORIES
Princesses, fruits, and blacksmiths: Study reveals the 30 most unusual family names in Japan
Honda has created a GPS navigation system for your shoes【Video】
What does “Konnichiwa” really mean? Understanding Japanese greetings
Watch the dying art of the punch perm, a quintessential Japanese hairstyle, in Mr. Sato’s new ‘do
Super Mario kimono, Bowser underwear part of gigantic Nintendo/Japanese fashion brand collab
Restaurant worker putting pubes on curry heralds return of baito-terror
Now you can cuddle both cats and lovable robots at new Lovot store in a Kawasaki pet store
You COULD eat a terrifying octopus egg in Japan, but SHOULD you? Let’s find out!【Taste test】
Sugoi Japan Award 2016 winners: The manga, anime, novels Japan thinks you should binge on
Are these grapes growing on a tree trunk? Nope! They’re Jabuticaba, the otherworldly fruit with an awesome name
Beautiful Mt Fuji photo looks like a buggy video game scene
11 different ways to say “father” in Japanese
Newest Tamagotchi product is shaped like a smart watch that you can feed, evolve and chat with
How easy is it to win super expensive Japanese whisky at a gacha machine in Tokyo?
-
