One of the most hot-button topics in gaming at the moment is Nintendo's freshly announced Super Nintendo Classic Edition. The $79.99 device comes packed with 21 games, including the never-before-released Star Fox 2. Well, if you were planning on getting one, there's a major difference between the American version and the versions releasing in Europe and Japan.
According to Kotaku, the Japanese and European version of the SNES Classic Edition will come with a slightly different design from what's going to be available in America, as well as slightly different game collections.
The Japanese and European edition is based on the Super Famicom design, which is still a miniature console but the controllers are green, blue, yellow and red instead of purple and periwinkle. The American design sees the 'Y' and 'X' buttons on the console colored in periwinkle purple, while the 'B' and 'A' buttons are a dark purple, matching the power and reset buttons on the console itself. A matte gray livery with a hint of cobalt in the saturation tops out the American design.
For Europeans and the Japanese, the more traditional Super Famicom design is used, which was available in the Japanese and PAL regions, and will be available for those in Australia, Japan, and Europe. There're three different shades of gray, with the outer-most shell being a concrete matte gray, while the inner shell is more of a flat steel color, and the cartridge slot, power button and reset button are gun-metal gray. The 'Y' button is green, the 'X' button is blue' while the 'B' button and 'A' button are yellow and red, respectively.
It's not just aesthetic changes being made between the two versions either. According to Kotaku the Japanese version of the SNES Classic Edition comes with Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem and The Legend of the Mystical Ninja.
A real shame that certain other classics weren't included in either version, such as the much-requested Chrono Trigger and Secret of Evermore, two of Square's popular games from back during the 16-bit era.
Of course, the comment section on the article broke down over whether or not the American or Japanese version actually looked better and few people were concerned that some of the games would be different in both versions.
Then again, when the NES Classic Edition launched a ton of people bought it and then modded the thing to oblivion, adding lots of new games to the collection and giving gamers an opportunity to expand the library beyond the 30 games included in the bundle. There's undoubtedly going to be gamers who end up modding the SNES Classic Edition and adding in anything that didn't make the initial cut.
The only thing left for gamers to decide is whether or not they'll want to get the Japanese version of the Super Famicom, or get the American version? I suppose a lot of it boils down to your taste in colors, taste in controller liveries, and whether or not Fire Emblem and the Mystical Ninja will be worth importing the system from Europe or Japan.
