Famicom Mini & Classic NES Series

For the Famicom’s 20th anniversary in 2004, Nintendo re-released its 8-bit classics on GBA cartridges in boxes styled after the originals.

31 games

Three waves for the 20th anniversary

Nintendo released the Famicom Mini line in Japan in three waves of ten games, each 2,000 yen: February 14, May 21 and August 10, 2004. A Famicom-coloured Game Boy Advance SP launched alongside the first wave.

The first two waves came in red-and-white cartridges matching the Famicom; the third, the Disk System Selection, came in yellow — the colour of Famicom Disk System disks. The boxes imitated the original Famicom packaging.

What reached the rest of the world

Only twelve of the games were released abroad, as the Classic NES Series in North America (June 7 and October 25, 2004) and NES Classics in Europe. Disk System games such as Famicom Detective Club and Super Mario Bros. 2 (the Japanese one, later known as The Lost Levels) stayed Japan-only.

All 31 games in this exhibition