The 1980s Gamer in You is Going to Be Like, Totally Psyched About This

Video games today are not for me. The graphics and story lines are a little too realistic, and you need Wifi and a headset and you’re oftentimes playing against people across the world whom you’ve never met. Not my cup of tea. Three decades ago, however, I was a total gamer. It was the ’80s, I was in elementary school and I dominated Super Mario Bros. The Legend of Zelda was my jam. I would sneak out of my room late at night (which means, probably, around 9:30 p.m.), wake my sister up and we’d spend hours in the dark, side by side, battling each other on Dr. Mario.

Well, lucky for me and all the other ’80s kids out there, today Nintendo is re-releasing its Classic Edition console (SQUEAL!). And get this, it comes with 30 games—including all the Mario Bros. editions, Pac-Man and Donkey Kong—pre-loaded. You can watch the games three different ways, in CRT filter mode so they look like they did back in the day (scan lines and all); in 4:3 mode so they play just as they did on the original console, albeit stretched a bit wider; and in a pixelated mode where each pixel is a perfect square, allowing you to see the games just as they were designed. Thanks to an HDMI cable, you can be playing on your 65-inch LED screen, instead of the 12-inch Zenith you grew up on.

Oh, and the controller is the same, too. Only one comes with the box though, so you better believe I’m buying an additional one (for $9.99), calling a babysitter, picking up some wine and heading over to my sister’s house tonight at 9:30 sharp to reclaim my throne as the Dr. Mario all-time high scorer. And then she'll throw her controller at the wall and I'll call her a wicked huge baby and then we'll make popcorn and watch Lethal Weapon. Just like we did way back when.

BUY IT HERE: NES Classic Edition, $59.99