Nintendo Mini Classics

Nintendo Mini Classics are a series of small LCD games licensed by Nintendo. Most games in the series are reissues of Game & Watch titles, but the series does include titles that were not from the original Game & Watch line. All of the Mini Classics titles are still officially licensed by Nintendo.

Design

Each Mini Classics unit is designed to look like a small Game Boy. Units typically have all the buttons of a Game Boy, with A, B, Start, and Select buttons, a keychain attached to the top left hand corner, and a stand on the back. Some games, however, do not have a stand, especially Dual-screen releases such as Oil Panic and Donkey Kong. Mini Classics are sold in an assortment of colors, varying from game to game. (Mario's Cement Factory, for example, is blue and Donkey Kong junior is gold.) Similar to the Game and Watch, the Nintendo Mini Classics units have alarm clock features. Some games, like Oil Panic, have two displays.

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  The back of a Mario's Cement Factory Mini Classics system.

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  The stand on the back of a Nintendo Mini Classics system.

Batteries

The unit is powered by two AG13/Button Cell/LR44 batteries, which are packaged with the Nintendo Mini Classic. The Mini Classics version of Super Mario Bros. reportedly drains batteries fairly quickly.

Games

Game & Watch reissues

• Parachute
• Octopus
• Fire
• Snoopy Tennis
• Oil Panic (Dual Screen) (Europe exclusive)
• Donkey Kong (Dual-Screen)
• Donkey Kong Jr.
• Mario's Cement Factory
• Super Mario Bros
• Zelda Game & Watch (Dual-Screen) (1998)^[1]

Original Titles

• Carrera (a racing game branded by the slot car manufactuer Carrera)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Europe exclusive)
• Poker (Europe exclusive)
• Smurfs (Europe exclusive)
• Soccer
• Spider-Man
• Star Trek: The Next Generation (Single Screen) (Europe exclusive)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation (Dual-Screen) (Europe exclusive)
• Star Trek: TOS Beam me up! (Europe exclusive)
• Sudoku (Europe exclusive)
• Tetris (Europe Exclusive) (Licensed by Nintendo)^[2]
• UEFA Euro 2008 (Europe exclusive)
• Yu-Gi-Oh!

Different Colors

Some of the Mini Classics models, particularly the often-reissued Mario and Donkey Kong titles, have undergone several different color changes since the original 1998 releases. A couple of titles have also been given new color-tinted LCD displays since then.

Octopus

• Toymax: Light Blue Case (1999)
• Take 2:

Donkey Kong Jr.

• Toymax: Dark Green Case (1998)
• MGA: Yellow-Green Case (2000) (later reissued with color LCD circa 2005)
• It's Outrageous: Yellow Case with Color LCD (2007)

Mario's Cement Factory

• Toymax: Yellow Case (1999)
• MGA: Grey Case (2000)
• Take 2: Transparent Yellow Case (2002)^{[citation needed]}
• It's Outrageous: Dark Blue Case (2007)

Super Mario Bros.

• Toymax: White Case (1998)
• MGA: Blue Case (2000)
• It's Outrageous: Green Case with Color LCD (2007)

The Smurfs

• Take 2: Transparent Blue-Green Case (2001^{[citation needed]})
• Take 2 (?): Yellow Case (2006^{[citation needed]})

Distributors

• Zappies Ltd, exclusive distributor in the UK.^[3]
• Stadlbauer, maker of the Nintendo Mini Classics, and principal distributor of the titles in Europe.
• Take 2 Interactive, current^{[citation needed]} distributor of the Mini Classics in parts of Europe. The only known distributor of Oil Panic and the games based on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
• Toymax, first American distributor of the Mini Classics. The first wave released in 1998 consisted of Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Jr., Fire, and Parachute. Octopus and Mario's Cement Factory were issued shortly thereafter in 1999. The packaging and an insert included for the last two games indicate that Snoopy Tennis apparently was also released in that time, but a Toymax-branded version of the game has yet to be discovered.
• MGA Entertainment, after the Toymax releases, MGA reissued Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Jr., and Mario's Cement Factory in the USA beginning in 2000.
• It's Outrageous, current distributor of the Mini Classics in the United States. The company re-reissued Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Jr., and Mario's Cement Factory, and introduced several of the newer Mini Classics to America, including Donkey Kong, Zelda, Soccer, Spiderman, and Carrea.
• Playtronic, former distributor of Mini Classics in Brazil.
• Candide, current distributor of the Mini Classics in Brazil. 5 titles were released, all of them are the It's Outrageous versions. The games are Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong Jr., Soccer, SMB Cement Factory, and Carrera.

Notes

• The US version of Carrera has both Stadlbauer and It's Outrageous branding. Both companies' logos are on the packaging, and Stadlbauer's is on the unit itself. This is presumably because Carrera was originally designed for the European market (where Stadlbauer, not It's Outrageous, is the main distributor), where 1/32 slot cars (the Carrera company's main product) are much more popular than they are in the United States.

See also

Nintendo portal

• Game & Watch
• Game & Watch Gallery

References

1. ^ "The Return of Retro". Zelda Universe. 2007-01-30. http://www.zeldauniverse.net/zelda-news/the-return-of-retro/. Retrieved 2009-01-18. 
2. ^ Did you know?
3. ^ Zappies Ltd - The Distributor of Innovation

External links

• Stadlbauer EN, English-translated site for the original distributor
• Stadlbauer DE, original Austrian website for Stadlbauer
• It's Outrageous^{[dead link]}, official website of the current USA distributor
• Game & Watch, fan site for Game & Watch collectors