To celebrate the end of 2021, we are looking back at some of our best articles this year.
Originally published this past February:
During the Wii U era, Nintendo released some games that were more experimental takes on older games. We saw the 3D Mario games go for multiplayer, we saw Star Fox take on a new control scheme, and we saw a new approach to their older games. The virtual console had been well established by this point, but Nintendo then released a new experience that melded the classics with the WarioWare series. WarioWare was a series that took Mario’s rival out of the platforming genre and into the world of minigame compilations, with minigames that only lasted a few seconds.
These microgames as they were called, were small but high-quality experiences that gave you an urge to keep playing, especially when you messed up. The games were set up in the perfect way, getting you used to the style of play, increasing the challenge as you went on, and then throwing in new ideas to change things up. These ideas were taken and then applied to the classic NES games with the result being NES Remix, the spiritual sequel to the WarioWare series. These games took the classics and let us see them in a new light, by giving us WarioWario style microgames where we had to meet specific goals to accomplish in the games. These included defeating a set amount of enemies as Mario in a certain time limit in Super Mario Bros., shooting insects as Stanley in Donkey Kong 3.
However, the remixes also threw us for a loop by doing things such as requiring levels from Donkey Kong to be completed as Link from Legend of Zelda, fighting enemies as Toad in Zelda II, and collecting coins as Kirby in The Lost Levels. Several of the game challenges would have the levels suddenly acting in new ways such as zooming out to mess with your sense of perspective, changing the colours of various objects, and having various platforms disappear. Some sections will be in black and white and some will be closer to 16-bit visuals rather than 8-bit visuals and some have areas that utilize flickering in interesting ways. All of these things made for a very different experience, including a mirrored take on Super Mario Bros. starring Luigi.
Considering that the WarioWare series was in a bit of a rut this time, NES Remix was something needed. It was not just that the game was a spiritual sequel to WarioWare, but that Nintendo was willing to experiment with their older games in new ways. The NES Remix games were based on the idea of taking the older games and doing new things with them that was not possible on the original hardware and this allowed us to see old games in a new light. Nintendo was treading water in terms of the Wii U at that time, and NES Remix allowed everyone to remember why we love these classic games.
Nintendo’s classic IPs are some of the most iconic in gaming and this is something they should exploit more in unique ways. The SP versions of the NES games available on Nintendo Switch show that Nintendo is still experimenting with this concept, and I would love to see them not only bring the NES Remix games to the Switch but also bring some more games in this style as well. There is a lot of room for more games using Game Boy games, SNES games, and even GBA games to be remixed in interesting ways as well.