Celebrating The NES Classic's 10th Anniversary

Released on November 10, 2016, in Japan and Veteran's Day 2016 in North America, the NES Classic was a console emulated with 30 games, with titles such as Ninja Gaiden, Tecmo Bowl, Castlevania, and of course, the iconic Super Mario Bros. That year, yours truly had a birthday coming up in two days and wanted to get my hands on one. Unfortunately, by the time I went to my local GameStop and Best Buy, they were all sold out. All hope was not lost, as I was able to purchase one on eBay weeks before Christmas. I know what you're going to say: "You gave in to the scalpers." You're right. I did, but I wasn't able to get one for my birthday. I had a justifiable reason for doing it. Scalpers are one of the worst people on this planet and are the true example of why we can't have nice things. They take advantage of people's desperation by hoarding multiple NES Classics, just to turn around to inflate the price of them. If you've watched videos on YouTube regarding these snakes jacking up the price of the NES Classic, chances are you were extremely pissed. I was one of those irate people back in 2016. Scalpers who buy lots of items such as Pokémon cards and Hot Wheels and inflate the price of them on the internet, should be banned for life from third-party sites like eBay and Amazon. I have to put some blame on Nintendo for allowing this to happen in the first place. Stores like GameStop and Best Buy should've instituted a strict one per person policy to prevent would-be scalpers from reselling the NES Classic online. This includes other game consoles and new ones in the near future. If you're a retro gaming fanatic like me, nostalgia was the main reason why many people wanted to have an NES Classic in their homes. I've been playing video games for nearly 40 years and scalpers who do increase prices on stuff we love will only make it difficult for others to afford certain things. Not only that, but it ruins it for everyone. Every selling site should have a blacklist for scalpers. It'll weed out the ones who prices things that they're trying to sell fairly and those who jack up the prices of items just to make money off of desperate individuals.

My First Impressions of the NES Classic

When the NES Classic arrived to me, I was so eager to play it. The first game I've played was Castlevania. I've never played it before, and it was a good game. The Vampire Bat in Level 6 gave me a hard time, attacking me as I was trying to inflict damage to it. The hardest enemy that I had difficulties with at first was Frankenstein's Monster and Igor. Igor is invincible and will throw fireballs at you. The way to inflict serious damage to him is if you have either the Holy Water or Boomerang and a shot multiplier before Igor can hit you. I've since beaten him and the entire game, as well as other games such as Ninja Gaiden and Super Mario Bros. 3. I've also played Tecmo Bowl, but I wish there were more sports games added onto the NES Classic. The only issue I had with it was the short controller cords. That's the issue many people had with the NES Classic, but it still sold 3.8 million units. Also, you can save your progress at any point during a game. If you were born and/or grew up in the 1980s, everyone knew the struggle of playing as a character with only three lives and if you lose all of them, you'd have to start all over again at the beginning. The NES Classic having this option was helpful and beneficial. I was disappointed that it didn't have the games I grew up playing such as Tiger Heli and the first Contra game. If you want to get your hands on one, it starts around $111, according to PriceCharting. So, if you love reliving your childhood again, the NES Classic won't disappoint at all.

Let me know in the comments what your favorite game or games on the NES Classic. Make sure you like this story if you enjoyed it, subscribe to my page, follow my socials, and please leave a one-off tip to show your support.