The NES — specifically the Nintendo Entertainment System, not the Famicom — turns 40 today.
The console’s staggered rollout across the US makes its launch a bittier affair than the orchestrated, worldwide drops we’re used to these days. But four decades ago, the first units were purchased in the United States and Western gamers began playing with power.
Europe saw similarly piecemeal launches in the years that followed. Mario became a household name there, too, although the NES wasn’t the same, all-conquering hit across the pond, where SEGA had a stronger foothold.
Still, with such a strong library from Nintendo itself, plus third-party powerhouses like Capcom and Konami delivering brilliant games while British dev Rare established itself as a premier Nintendo partner, the grey-brick-box carved out mindshare all the same. You couldn’t play Mario on a Mega Drive, could you?
For decades, the NES has had a monopoly on the retro video gaming space in a popular sense, thanks to a mix of undeniable quality, the console’s sales success, and sheer nostalgia that comes with a system so many people enjoyed as a kid. But is the latter is falling off a tad? Is this platform’s outsized mindshare being chipped away by Father Time?
Years pass, new gamers are born and raised, and there’s now a generation of video-game-loving parents for whom the Nintendo Entertainment System wasn’t a formative console. When their kids go digging through wardrobes, they won’t find a dusty NES and a box of frayed cardboard boxes buried in the back. Asking about this titanic 40-year-old system may well elicit quizzical looks these days, even from Nintendo fans. Do you have any NES carts in your collection? How many of you reading were even born in 1985?
Naturally, over a long enough time scale, familiarity and enthusiasm fall off. Not respect – there’s still plenty of that. You’re being deliberately obtuse to deny the transformative effect of the console and its library. But actual, card-carrying fans with firsthand affection for the NES? It feels like they’re on the decline – at least if the genial shrugs of the people I’ve asked in the run-up to the 40th anniversary are anything to go by!
With the wealth of video games available and the enormous history of the medium to digest, no wonder people’s passions are shifting as the medium ages. Anyone gatekeeping or dismissing younger players who — tsk — haven’t done their homework and played OG Super Mario Bros. before Wonder, or for whom the DS is ‘their’ first Nintendo, needs a talking to.
The NES is also possibly the most discussed and dissected console in video game history. Every five years since the turn of the millennium, we’ve seen retrospective blowouts and generational deep-dives across every strata of games media. Haven’t we been there and done all that on the 15th, 20th, 25th, 30th, and 35th anniversaries!?
Well, perhaps. But as we move forward, there’s always worth in reviewing where we’ve been – and it’s never been easier to sample the 8-bit bottle. This vintage is drinking now, so pour on, garçon!
Looking around at the official options to play NES games in 2025, there’s always room for improvement, but Nintendo is doing a fair job of surfacing its 8-bit library with a 79-game-strong selection of first- and third-party titles on Nintendo Switch Online, ranging from classics to curios to Somebody picked up a cheap licence, hmm? to Urban Champion.
Some of us, though, the possibility of access being unceremoniously revoked — which has happened with one Super NES game at the time of writing — makes us wary of relying on access through subscription services like NSO.
Fortunately, there are innumerable ways to play NES games 40 years on. Perhaps you’re rocking an NES Classic Mini conveniently sitting under the telly. Maybe you’ve taken the MiSTer route or grabbed an Analogue NT or another FPGA system – or maybe a rough-and-ready clone console. Hell, you can play these games in a browser these days. (I’d say they deserve better than that, but of course I would.)
Or do you — shocker — still play on your original console? Have you gone down the retro rabbit hole and invested the price of a PS5 Pro in an incredible upscaling setup?
Or do you just not play NES games these days?
No judgement here! We’re just interested to get a temperature check on how you tend to enjoy Nintendo’s 8-bit output in 2025. Let us know in the poll below, and join Team NL in wishing Nintendo’s little (read: actually quite large) grey box the happiest of birthdays. Why not go retro this weekend, hmm?
*goes and turns on UFO 50*
Close enough. Look, GOTY’s coming, you know!? Tick tock.
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