I’m a sucker for the design aesthetic of the NES. The color scheme, the shape and layout of the controller, and everything else. I also love emulation. I’ve written about OpenEmu a couple times, and I’ve been using a Wii U Pro controller with it a lot lately. It’s great and pairs easily with computers, but this NES-styled Bluetooth controller looks awesome.

Sure, it’s got four buttons (and shoulder triggers) instead of the classic two-button NES layout, but that just means you can use it for more than NES games. The NES30 looks very well built and sells for around $40. You can use it with your phone, tablet, or computer, and it would look cool just sitting on your desk. I’m going to pick one up and hope that they release a SNES-styled version sometime in the future. I’m more nostalgic about the NES controller, but the SNES had the best controller of all time, in my opinion.

Via Gizmodo

Note: There’s a contest in this post!

Six months ago I found out Capcom was releasing Ducktales Remastered and I got really pumped about it. I love Ducktales and I love Remastered versions of classic games. Fast forward a few months and I find out that Capcom created these amazing press kits to promote the game, and I was sad because I knew I’d never get one.

Then I found out that Capcom had a few Ducktales press kits left over, and they could be won be either singing the Ducktales theme song or creating some fan art. Now I was really pumped. I sing and play guitar a lot, and I play the Ducktales theme song constantly just because I love it. When I found out about this contest, I immediately threw on my Ducktales game shirt, sat down in front of my computer, and played the song. I should have used something other than my internal mic because the audio kind of sucks, but I was too excited and wanted to enter as quickly as possible.
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I’ve been enjoying the Top Hat Sasquatch Instagram account way too much lately. Not only have I been posting pictures of my nostalgic junk for the past week, but I’ve been finding all sorts of cool photos by browsing interesting tags. I thought I had seen a lot of cool retro gaming stuff, but today I found something that takes the cake.

72Pins. A site where you can get NES cartridges designed to look like games that never existed for the NES. Modern games like Call of Duty and Skyrim are available, as well as carts based on movies and TV, like Adventure Time and Arrested Development. The art is great and the carts still have whatever random game was used on the inside.

I had seen the Call of Duty cart around the web before, but somehow I’d never heard about 72Pins. I love stuff like this and quickly ordered the Sonic, Adventure Time, and Totoro carts. I can’t wait to see what else they release.

They also offer custom carts, and with Tim’s awesome 8-bit THS mascot, I’m definitely looking into ordering some.

Time is running out to order your holiday gifts online so they arrive by Christmas. But, honestly, who are we kidding? This is just an excuse to showcase some cool Nintendo gear you can actually buy for yourself. These picks will serve as a perfect Yuletide diversion.

Nintendo Geek Gift Guide

Celebrate the Mario’s 25th anniversary with the Super Mario All-Stars collection. This single Wii disc brings together Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario Bros. 3. It’s a reissue of the All-Stars set made available in 1993 for the NES except with updated graphics and sound. There’s also a CD soundtrack and 32-page book on the history of Super Mario. $50.00 is a small price to pay for some of the best-ever video games.

NES a little too old for you? Try the amazing Supaboy from Hyperkin that shrinks down the Super Nintendo Entertainment System console to the size of a controller. It features a 3.5-inch LCD screen and rechargeable battery for hours of mobile game play. Even better, you can hook it up to a TV and connect two SNES controllers for big-screen play. Alas, it doesn’t come with any cartridge but you can take your pick in the game section of many used media retailers. Supaboy is a steal at just $100.

Need some quiet time around the holiday? Try Jeff Ryan’s book Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America. Get the history of Japan’s biggest game company and it’s U.S. invasion. We even discussed it on an episode of our podcast.

If you grew up with the Nintendo Entertainment System like I did, I’m sure you wasted countless hours blowing into your games trying to get a few more levels of gameplay out of them when they were on the fritz. Usually that didn’t accomplish anything besides making you look like a dork, but now you can relive your old NES memories while playing the harmonica.

Some genius on Etsy has jammed some harmonicas into old NES cartridges, and should be rewarded for his amazing idea, so head over to his shop and buy one or two.

I think I speak for us all in saying, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

Found via Chris Coyier