Nintendo’s Mini NES will have a retro TV mode and save points

Nintendo may often be considered a company that looks to the past for its future, but it's understandable when its back catalogue is so strong. One of its more exciting recent announcements is the Nintendo Classic Mini which will bring many of the console's classic games to the modern era, in a compact, affordable package.

Set to go on sale on 11th November for £50, the NES Mini will come pre-loaded with 30 games, including many of its most beloved, like: Balloon Fight, Castlevania, Double Dragon II: The Revenge, Dr Mario, Final Fantasy, Ghosts and Goblins, Mega Man 2, Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros 1-3, Legend of Zelda and many more.

Nintendo has continued to drip feed information about it to us over the past few weeks and now we also know that it will come with a couple of different visual modes, letting you experience a modern re-imagining of the games, or their classic look.

There is a standard HD output, for those that are happy with a look that is a little crisper than anyone ever experienced on old TVs, but you can also switch to a retro CRT mode, which gives you a 4:3 aspect ratio and some black bars to simulate what it was like back in the day.

For the purists, there's also a “pixel-perfect” mode, which makes sure that all pixels in-game are displayed as singular blocks, rather than the more nuanced higher-definition variants we have thanks to today's TVs. That should make it look as close to what it did on the original NES as possible.

Nintendo has also announced (via Ars) that each game will have permanent save points, as well as temporary ones, suggesting a blending of quicksave/autosave and manual saving.

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KitGuru Says: I may have to pick one of these up. Although I have an original Mega Drive, Saturn, N64, Gamecube and a number of other retro consoles, I never had a NES so don't feel that same attachment. Do you guys like the look of this micro-console?

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