According to ITMedia News (a Japanese site) Nintendo has officially announced it will cease support of a number of their more classic-consoles: the Famicom/NES, the SNES, GameBoy, GameBoy Pocket and Nintendo 64 (N64).

Capcom Classics Mini Mix Box: Despite having 3 great games, this compilation is still a mixed bag.After trading in a few games, I had some credit at the local Gamestop available. In an attempt to beef up my GBA/DS game collection, I got Capcom Classics Mini Mix for only $1! Is this fairly recent collection of retro games for the GBA worth it?

The games are good, but a few niggling presentation issues keep it from what is should be.

To be fair, the games included here are oldies but goodies and are were originally NES ports of arcade games that are heavily changed from the originals in effective ways. Strider adds some RPG elements, a plot hampered by a laughable translation, and Mega Man style stage selection to what originally was a fairly generic, but cool, side scroller. Bionic Commando is arguably the best of the bunch here with several levels, some lite RPG elements, and a plot that some how works in spite of censorship (the original villains in the Japanese versions were Nazis; for the American version, all swastikas were removed and the villains are now a generic evil army). Mighty Final Fight takes an ultra-cute kiddy approach to a remake of the first game of the series with a superfluous addition of having your characters level up.

Archon's Amazing Box Cover Art: From WikipediaAh, Archon for 8-bit computers, besides having one of the greatest videogame covers of all time on the famous Electronic Arts album format, was nearly a perfect blend of strategy and action. It's almost like a chess/checkers combination, but where the pieces battle for control of squares in fast action arcade style combat. The game was arguably best on the Atari 8-bit computers and Commodore 64 (C-64), but it was released on many other platforms of the day, including the Atari XEGS (same as the Atari 8-bit version, just on cartridge) and NES consoles. While the game spawned a sequel, Archon II: Adept, in a short amount of time, that *gasp*, tried a totally different angle, it didn't have the same magic as the original. In fact, that would be a problem with other off-shoots and inspired-by's on various platforms, they just didn't capture the same feel as on the Atari 8-bit or C-64 for whatever reason.

What's the most collectible of all NES cartridges? Perhaps it's Nintendo World Championships 1990 Gold, an extremely rare game that was given out as official prizes. According to the auction page, there were only 26 gold editions, and only 90 "gray" editions.

Do you remember the infamous Power Glove for the NES that was featured in the movie The Wizard? Some clever guy has adapted his old Power Glove to use on on his Wii (yeah, this kind of double-entendre is never going to get old!). See the video below and let us know what you think! Personally, I'm not sure I like the idea of modding a classic piece of gear like this--but it also makes me wonder if the Wii's default controller setup won't soon suffer the fate of the Power Glove...

Perhaps one reason why we've been seeing so many features about the NES lately was in preparation for today--can you believe the NES is 20? Classicgaming.com is celebrating with a nice overview of the unit's history, starting with the Famicom and going through some of the "might have beens." No matter what you think of Nintendo today, you have to give them credit for pushing through the wads of nay-sayers after the "Videogame Crash" and showing that, duh, videogames are here to stay. To celebrate the NES's big 20, you might consider stopping by Nolan Bushnell's new restaurant--Uwink Unlike Bushnell's other restaurant chain (Chuck E Cheese), Uwink is catering to an older, more mature crowd. The idea is simple--lots of tech, but an emphasis on using the tech to get people socializing (rather than draw them into the autism of World of Warcraft!). The place is definitely big on Mac, and I'm not talking Big Macs here (most dishes appear to be vegan-compatible). It all looks incredible, and I only wish I lived closer to California! Anyone in the Woodland Hills area care to check it out and report back?

Nintendo and particulary Zelda fanboys will want to check out this video retrospective on the legendary series. It's a fun trip down memory lane and makes some interesting if potentially inaccurate statements about the series. I am serious about the "fanboy" part, because less biased gamers will no doubt cringe at some of the over-the-top claims the commentator makes about the game. For instance, he claims it was the first RPG to allow the player to wander about an expansive map, the first RPG to "pioneer a complex combat system," and so on. You get the idea--sheer rubbish. The commentator also claims that Zelda was the first console game to offer saved games (can anyone confirm this?). While I find the video entertaining, I am a bit put off by the blatant inaccuracies, which unfortunately seem all-too-common with these otherwise well-produced viddies. On a positive note, see what you can score on this awesome NES screenshot quiz! I apparently "suck"...