Nintendo's NES Classic will be up for sale starting Friday at Amazon. A nifty way to light up your nostalgia candle just in time for the holiday breaks. You can now enjoy The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, Metroid, as it will be bundled with 30 classic games. The demand for this awesome retro device is pretty high so for those planning to get it should go online early to compete in a 'fastest click' contest.
Everything looks gorgeous as the console's looks and feels were accurately miniaturized, except for the controller of course which by the way will set you back $9.99 for player 2. But did you know there's one particular flaw that everyone might have overlooked?
The NES Classic is almost too perfect but certain people found that the miniaturization went too close for comfort. I have no problems with the console itself being shrunk but a Nintendo Force's post at Twitter says that the cord for the controller has been 'miniaturized' too, only 2.5 feet long. "Original '80s cord length is over 7 feet. #NESClassicEdition controller cord is 30 inches, or 2.5 feet."
Why is this a problem?
Now, this won't be a problem if you're playing on smaller monitors but most homes nowadays have huge TV sets, especially those that belong to gamers that would want to experience the game in big screens. Imagine yourself just 2.5 feet away from the screen; that would hurt your eyes a lot.
And if you're a retro enthusiast who wants to plug the NES Classic into a CRT TV after figuring out how with all those cable conversions, you would still risk your eyes because you'll be staring at a CRT screen up-close. At this point, flashbacks of my mom and dad yelling at me not to get close to the TV while playing Super Mario Bros. just popped into my mind.
How to resolve this and maintain a good set of eyes after playing?
The clever guys at Nyko already have a product for pre-order that extends the NES Classic controller's range by extending the cord, of course. The product is called Extend Link for NES Classic Edition and it extends the range 6 feet more, so you'll have 7.5 feet in total. Half a feet more than the original 80's controller cord. The cord extension promises you freedom needed to completely enjoy and just sit back and relax while playing Classic NES games on your big TV screen. It also is compatible with wired controllers for Wii and Wii U.
Why not just have wireless controllers as it normally is today?
I do not have data yet as to officially why wired controllers are implemented for the Classic NES but for starters I think that the hardware will be more expensive if Nintendo were to put wireless functionality on the mother board, plus much work has to be done in terms of responsiveness and I think they deprioritized this. Second, it's probably to give that nostalgic feeling when playing with wired controllers.
I would predict that some smart guys will make a wireless adapter or even new wireless controllers where you can just plug a receiver at the console end and play worry-free. Another prediction is that modern controllers can be hooked up with the Classic NES still via some sort of receiver.
