For the past few days, Nintendo has been offering in stores a "new console", with this amazing Game & Watch Super Mario Bros.
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View PriceRead ConclusionGame & Watch: Super Mario Bros
- An ultra-faithful modern replica of the Game & Watch of yesteryear
- The general finish
- The packaging
- A real little collector's item
- No back support
- Video game interest all in all very limited all the same
- The audio part
In order to celebrate Mario's 35th anniversary as it should be, Nintendo has already launched a compilation called " Super Mario 3D All Stars not forgetting the recent Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit. Not enough for the Japanese giant, which decided, in 2020, to relaunch its small Game & Watch electronic console marketed in the 80s. Obviously, Mario obliges, Nintendo has decided to offer a new Game & Watch in a limited edition Super Mario Bros. .
Nintendo and nostalgia…
After bringing us back a few years with its NES Mini, then with the Super Nintendo Mini, Nintendo now offers players to reminisce about the blessed time of Game & Watch, these little electronic games from the 80s, whose battery cover comes from often to be missed on the few rare copies that are sometimes found in garage sales. A Game & Watch both "next-gen" and vintage, dedicated to the timeless Super Mario.
On the packaging side, Nintendo has gone all out to tickle the nostalgic fiber that drives most of the (old) gamers that we are. The small Nintendo console is housed in a cardboard box with a very old school look, itself protected by a plastic box bearing the image of Mario. Once the plastic cover has been removed, we find a very “vintage” golden box, and we have to admit that the first contact is really very successful. Added to this is a small mention "Special Thanks to You" on the tab, as on some Famicom games.
Once removed from its packaging, this Game & Watch version 2020 immediately displays real similarities with those of our childhood, starting with… plastic. Indeed, it doesn't look like much, but to the touch, this Game & Watch feels very… Game & Watch. The touch is identical to that of the time with regard to the back of the console, and this also applies to the front, with a design very respectful of that of 30 years ago (and dust).
Too bad, however, not to have included a small foot to unfold, like on Nintendo Switch, to hold the Game & Watch on a table. It is therefore impossible to highlight the clock without resting the console on a support.
At the front, it's hard to hide the nostalgic tear that runs down his cheek when faced with a look again perfectly identical to the Game & Watch of yesteryear, with the same "gold" side as a certain Octopus, but also ( and above all!) red buttons that are both soft and reactive as in our sweet memories.
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2020 requires, no battery here, but an integrated 525 mAh battery, and a USB type-C port on the side to recharge the beast. Still on the side, there is an On/Off button. Aesthetically, it's hard to find fault here, and those who were essentially looking for a "nostalgic" product will be more than happy.
Two Super Mario Bros…
Once started, the small Game & Watch Super Mario Bros allows you to immediately appreciate the quality of its LCD screen. Admittedly, the screen is quite tiny, but the whole is perfectly clear, and the first start-up also allows you to fully appreciate the directional cross of the machine, and the responsiveness of all the buttons.
Pressing the Time button, and the small console turns into a clock, with a very successful animated background (Super Mario of course) and a lot of little surprises to discover. Excellent !
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By pressing the Game button, you have access to a menu allowing you to choose Super Mario Bros, the founding opus of the 80s, but also Super Mario Bros 2. This is not the Super Mario Bros 2 of our childhood, the one with cherries and turnips to dig up, but well from the opus published in Japan (The Lost Levels), a very (very) difficult Super Mario Bros.
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Note that the machine automatically manages "Pauses", and you can completely stop your game when the final boss approaches, to resume it a few hours/days later at the same place. The Quick Resume, Game & Watch style in a way!
... and Dance!
In addition to the two aforementioned games, the small Nintendo console also allows you to enjoy a “real” Game & Watch type game, namely Ball. The latter features a juggling Mario, who must catch the balls that go from left to right, using either the directional cross or the buttons.
To use, Nintendo's little Game & Watch Super Mario Bros is really very pleasant, despite a (necessarily) very compact side, and a loudspeaker that you can't push all the way through, otherwise you'll quickly bleed from the left ear (and the nostril also potentially).
The set is ultra-light, and we can't resist this desire to re(re)finish for the umpteenth time this Super Mario Bros that we were already taking great pleasure in starting over every day at the end of the 80s, after having swallowed a doublet of chocolate Pitch and a glass of milk. Ditto with regard to the game Ball, with an ultra-simplistic principle, but nothing that will prevent many players from quickly swearing to reach the score of 999. “Like the good old days” finally….
Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros
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At the time of next-gen, ray-tracing, 4K and 120 fps (but not all at the same time), Nintendo is launching this very vintage Game & Watch Super Mario Bros console with an absolutely exemplary overall finish . Everything here smells of the 80s, from the packaging to the plastic of the console, through the feeling of the buttons. Admittedly, the interest of the set remains very limited, and the audio output is quite strident, but Nintendo should succeed in "trapping" more than one nostalgic collector with this new deliciously retro creation. The ideal Christmas gift for gamers in their forties who are a little jaded by the current video game movement? Maybe…Most
- An ultra-faithful modern replica of the Game & Watch of yesteryear
- The general finish
- The packaging
- A real little collector's item
- Lots of little surprises
- This desire to relaunch Super Mario Bros, again, again...
The lessers
- No back support
- Video game interest all in all very limited all the same
- The audio part
