Accompanying the super nostalgic hype for the Famicom in Japan right now (mirroring what’s happening here in the west for the NES Classic Edition), San-Ei is about to release (out on December 23) a fantastic collection of Famicom-inspired stationery, as well as a tote bag. I want it all. You can already pre-order all items through Amazon Japan. Found via Spoon & Tamago.
As I wrote earlier, I’m a very happy owner of an NES Classic Edition, and I find it pretty neat that Nintendo has put online the original printed manuals for all 30 of the games included in the set. Even better though I think are the manuals for the Famicom. Picture, the cover to Japan’s Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.
I’m not one to wait in line for things, but this morning I did it for the first time in Canada, in order to get an NES Classic Edition. I’ve covered plenty of console launches in Japan for game sites, but never actually waited overnight in line for one — the only time I did wait in line for something was for the first iPad, and I went to line up at around 4-5am at one of the Bic Camera stores in Ikebukuro (my neighborhood at the time), and was the first one there.
But yeah, I really wanted an NES Classic Edition, and from what I was seeing, it was looking like getting one online was going to be impossible. So this morning, as I was biking to work, I made a last-minute decision at the point where normally I would turn left to go to the studio to instead keep going and check out EB Games. As I got there, they said they had just given their last ticket to someone — they were now sold out of all 75 consoles they received. I decided I’d try my luck again and check out the Best Buy on Ste-Catherine, and that’s where I hit pay dirt.
As I got there, it looked like a line of about 30 people. I went to the back of the line, and asked the people in front if it looked like we were going to get one. There was still no confirmation, but they figured chances were good that the store would have gotten at least 30 consoles. A few minutes later (I got there at around 9:15), a staffer came out saying he would hand out tickets for the number of consoles they had. He had 48 tickets. I got number 34.
You’ve seen the recently announced Nintendo Classic Mini Famicom, right? This video does a great job of showing it off, and although I’d sure like to get one, I’m still quite looking forward to getting the NES Classic Edition when it comes out.
The best thing about this announcement though is that Nintendo re-released GameCenter-CX segments that were produced for them, covering some of the games that will be included with the Mini Famicom. The easiest way to watch them is through this YouTube Playlist, which contains all of them, as well as a few more (like the recent Pokémon series). Thanks to my fellow GameCenter-CX addict and Arino Kacho fanclub member Kyle for the heads-up.