The SNES Classic looks something like this, but smaller. (JCD1981NL/Wikimedia Commons under CC BY 3.0)

I am a child of the 90s. This means I totally had a Super Nintendo as a kid, and I totally played the shit out of Super Mario World. Therefore, when the SNES Classic was announced, I decided I needed it. Given this knowledge, you’d think I’d be kicking ass and taking names with my 8-bit Luigi (because I’m always Player 2), right?

It turns out, my memories of Super Mario World were tinted with rose-coloured glasses. I suck, my dudes. This is not to say that I’m not having a blast trying to remember which button is regular jump and which button is spin-jump. I’ve died well over twenty times and Nerdboy keeps very generously sharing his 1-Ups with me, and many laughs have been had so far.

Other games included in the SNES Classic bundle that are two player friendly include Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario Kart, two Kirby games, Street Fighter, and somehow Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy III (although I’ve not tried the multiplayer function on the latter two RPGs).

The only single player games that either my Nerdboy or I have tried are Star Fox, Yoshi’s Island, and MegaMan. I must say, these games hold up pretty well, given their age - who doesn’t love Yoshi, though? The mechanics on Super Mario World are a little bit wonky, however. The run function tends to get slippery - that is to say, when you stop holding down the left or right D-Pad arrow, sometimes your character keeps going, often right off of a platform. That gets a negative point from me, because I rely heavily on the game doing what I want it to.

An exciting addition to the console for many Nintendo fans was the never-before-released (at least in North America) Star Fox 2, as well as the rare and crazy-expensive Earthbound. I know for a fact that Nerdboy was playing Star Fox late into the night on the day that we picked up our console, having dressed appropriately for the occasion (he has a t-shirt that reads: McCloud’s Repair Service, est. 1993).

All things said and done, I’d give the SNES Classic console a solid 4/5 stars, due to nostalgia and fun, inexpensive date nights with Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi.