Ultimate NES Remix

Genre: Minigame Collection

Players: 1

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Review:

Ultimate NES Remix, released on the Nintendo 3DS in 2014, is a reimagining of minigames based on a variety of games released on the Nintendo Entertainment System that combines elements from the first two games in the NES Remix series, released earlier in 2013 and 2014 on the Wii U. This means that most of this game’s content was pulled directly from those two games.

The minigames in NES Remix are based on 16 games all released on the Nintendo Entertainment System. All of these games were featured in the first two NES Remix games – seven from the first game (Balloon Fight, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Excitebike, Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros., and The Legend of Zelda), and nine from the second game (Dr. Mario, Kid Icarus, Kirby’s Adventure, Metroid, Punch-Out!!, Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link). This works out to be probably the most iconic games out of the bunch (though not necessarily the best – I’d take NES Remix 2’s Wario’s Woods over Dr. Mario and Metroid any day).

Being a combination of the two prior games in the series, it may not surprise you to hear that it lands somewhere between them in terms of how fun it is. The progression isn’t as slow-paced and plodding as the first NES Remix, but doesn’t have a lot of the fun mix-and-match crossover content that took a more prominent role in the second game. You’ll still find some of that stuff here, to be sure, but it plays a much smaller role here than it did in that game. And once again, I must stress that this “Remix” content should absolutely be the main point of this game, and it often feels delegated to mere “bonus” content, which is a terrible oversight.

In addition to the standard challenge, there’s a “Championship” mode that allows you to compete for a high score in three games (a nice extra, but not one you’re likely to spend too long with), as well as “Speed Mario Bros.”, a version of Super Mario Bros. played at a higher speed. The latter is a cute idea, but a highly gimmicky one, and one that’s made far less appealing due to the choppy framerate.

When it comes to the visuals and sound… well, these are Nintendo Entertainment System games, so what did you expect? It’s all pixel art visuals and chiptune sounds, of course, wrapped up in a clean interface with a boxing ring bell sound when you complete a challenge. Remix mode brings in some nice-looking alternate backgrounds, but otherwise this is a pretty no-frills representation of the games in question. At the very least this time the games featured include some of the best-looking games on the NES.

Ultimate NES Remix ultimately (ha) feels like it was created to address one and only one issue with the NES Remix Pack compilation on Wii U – that the two NES Remix games’ content was separated from each other instead of combined into a cohesive package. At least in this respect, Ultimate NES Remix succeeds. However, it does so by being a rehash of a rehash, not really bringing anything new to the table, and after four entries in the series this franchise is still failing to live up to the potential of its concept.

If you’re wanting to play brief snippets of classic NES games on the go, I suppose Ultimate NES Remix will cater to that desire, but there just doesn’t seem to be much a point to it when you can just play the games themselves. The one thing that makes this game worthwhile is the titular “Remix” feature that is far too minimal to be anything more than a small bonus next to an otherwise underwhelming Minigame Collection.

tl;dr – Ultimate NES Remix is a Minigame Collection based on sixteen classic games from the Nintendo Entertainment System. Being a combination of the elements from NES Remix and NES Remix 2, this feels like a halfway point of sorts between the two, and as a result it’s not as slow and plodding as the first game, but doesn’t make as good use of the “Remix” elements as the second game… which itself didn’t use them enough either. In the end, it’s not without its charms, but it really just ends up making you feel like you’d rather play the games featured in the minigames, rather than this Minigame Collection.

Grade: C

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