Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda

foreign just in case you know what an interesting fun little release Game and Watch Super Mario Brothers from 2020. this was released to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Super Mario Brothers uh which strangely enough like uh the 35th anniversary of Mario was taken really damn seriously by Nintendo obviously 2020 was a funky little year for the world uh but I I think if it wasn't Nintendo would have gone all out for Mario's 35th and instead they just went somewhat out I remember Russell Nintendo cretins were waiting all year for Nintendo to announce their big plans for the 35th anniversary of Super Mario Brothers uh earlier in the year there were rumors and reports going around that Nintendo was planning uh it's a lot of Mario re-releases like a ton I remember reports saying something along the lines of pretty much every Mario game is gonna be playable on Nintendo switch that could have meant anything and I I guess I was kind of going along with a lot of the marketing that went with the 35th Anniversary I remember Nintendo released some commercials where they showed pretty much Mario's uh General whole lineage was playable on Nintendo switch and I say General because obviously there were some missing things we didn't have Game Boy Game Boy coloring Game Boy Advance games available on Nintendo switch at the time we didn't have you know DS games or 3DS games uh easily available uh you know Mario Galaxy 2 wasn't on switch 3D Land 64 DS like a lot of Mario's history wasn't there but but I think the the core Big Boy points uh were playable but that was all because they announced things like Mario 3D All-Stars and Mario 3D World Plus Bowser's Fury they also announced things like uh Super Mario Brothers 35 in this big Mario 35th Anniversary direct this was a really cool thing to wake up to and they genuinely had a ton of an announcements with this being one of them a special Game and Watch unit dedicated to playing the original Super Mario Brothers this launched that holiday season for fifty dollars uh which is a little up there especially when this thing is pretty much just for playing Super Mario Brothers uh but there's a bit more to it and I just think this is really cool so the packaging is really reminiscent of something like Game and Watch balls packaging and it says color screen here because uh there were gaming watches that were part of the color screen Series so of course this is another one of them uh 20 30 40 years later and we have all these Mario Sprites and everything but these are just overlays as when we uh take this off uh this uh is for Game and Watch ball and yet for some reason Nintendo also included the game Game and Watch ball which was the first game and watch game uh this was also re-released via Club Nintendo which is really cool but this one included with the game and watch Super Mario Brothers Edition uh has Mario in it so you know that makes it worthwhile for somebody like me I can't get enough of this 35 year old on the back it shows all the functions of Game and Watch Super Mario Brothers we can play uh you know uh Super Mario Brothers Super Mario Bros the Lost Levels uh that's not a feature that belongs in the complaint department uh ball and time of course because this is a color screen this is a standard like LCD screen this is a pretty standard display Modern Display uh Game and Watch ball isn't like that uh monochromatic LCD Game and Watch display we're all used to uh you know it's uh it's digital boo opening it up the flap says special thanks to you which is uh similar to uh what the game and watch ball unit said and uh yeah we get a funny little USBC cable like it's so tiny so yeah this is a rechargeable unit unlike other Game and Watch games which uh use a standard watch size batteries and yeah a pretty basic user manual nothing special what really matters here is the unit itself it's genuinely really beautiful this is such a nice piece we turn it on there I don't know what I expected so yeah being a Game and Watch unit we have the watch functionality and we can shift through all these different Mario locals Nintendo specifically said there were 35 little secrets to this unit and that pretty much just equated to uh different animations and uh different just things happening on the watch face the pause button also doubles as a set functionality and we can adjust the volume adjust the brightness set the time but we're all about the games here we have Super Mario Brothers oh man what's this pretty interesting to see the copyright logo go from in 1985 to 2020 meaning this is a very slightly different build of the game I mean I know for a fact it just starts you off saying one player game or two player game uh and uh you you know we can do two player game just because it alternates I don't really think there is a way to connect this to another Game and Watch unit so playing Super Mario Brothers on this Game and Watch is pretty much identical to playing Super Mario Brothers anywhere else it feels good and that's partly due to the fact that the controls on here feel pretty damn nice specifically the d-pad I mean this is like an old school Nintendo d-pad and it just feels very precise the B A buttons I mean they're they're a little rubbery they feel a little toy like a little a little vintage uh but that back kind of adds to the charm it just may not be like the preferred button feel for Super Mario Brothers just because uh it's a little hard to be like super precise with them uh it's very easy to be precise with the d-pad the d-pad is great but other than that it's pretty much the exact same game except this one doesn't have a uh a start screen uh it just it just tells you do you want one player or two player game uh so you know that's pretty interesting same goes for Super Mario Brothers the lost levels it's the same game and it's just as as you remember the interesting conclusion is obviously ball which is kind of cool from a Nintendo history perspective I mean that is like The Game and Watch Game however I think it was a ginormous missed opportunity uh mainly because there was already a gaming watch for Super Mario Brothers uh this was released back during the height of the NES game when Game and Watch was kind of on its way out game boy was starting to be introduced but Nintendo released a Game and Watch version of Super Mario Brothers and uh this is uh not Super Mario Brothers it is it is an LCD adaptation of the concept of Super Mario Brothers but it's still really cool nonetheless and I think this would have been amazing to see just re-released remade uh for the game and watch uh Super Mario Brothers for 2020. in fact I would have loved to see like a Game and Watch Gallery style remake of this or even a Game and Watch Style Gallery remake of ball so uh Nintendo used to do these Game and Watch Gallery games on the original Game Boy Game Boy Color game Game Boy Advance where it would be a collection of original Game and Watch games and you could play them in their original LCD style but they would also offer kind of modern uh Sprite based remakes of the games and I think that would have been cool to see for Game and Watch Ball but uh instead we just get the uh you know the standard LCD Style just with Mario's head now golly outside of that and the few little like touches on the clock portion which are just Sprite bass it's just kind of like oh that's kind of cute like oh at certain times certain different things happen and I can uh change the setting oh wow that's so cool I spent 50 dollars yeah that's another big thing about this fifty dollars I think it's worth it if this kind of thing is cool to you this is a collectible slash desk toy I remember when I got this back in 2020 I kind of just had it laying on my desk and uh the speed you can uh turn this on and immediately get into a game of Super Mario Brothers and it also saves your spot as to where you were last uh it's unmatched this is probably the quickest way to get some original Super Mario Brothers action and I think Mario 1 works really well as just a Time waster kind of game and uh for that I think this unit is really damn good but at the same time there was nothing really stopping Nintendo from including way more stuff in here I mean really like just Mario one and Mario the Lost Levels like why not all the NES games not even all the Platformers you could have had Mario 1 Mario the Lost Levels Mario 2 Mario 3 Dr Mario Yoshi the Wario's Woods for the masochists they could have included more game and watch games I mean like these are tiny ass games they could have gone a long way with this uh specifically I mean like I think at the very least they should have included the original game and watch Super Mario Brothers game but for 50 dollars I mean the quality here is genuinely unmatched this is a super premium feeling device I mean all the Game and Watch units felt really really high quality I mean this one's a little dinged up but it's still really damn nice gaming watch just has this like really premium feel to it it just feels like these have this class to them that you'd find on like an actual like really nice watch it's really funny how premium these feel but that's a part of The Game and Watch style and on top of that the emulation of the games themselves is really top-notch this is kind of Nintendo taking a crack at the uh the cheap handheld games you could find uh in the video game department around this time there was like that retro bit one there would always be like the Sega at games ones or the Namco at games Atari portable whatever and much like the NES classic edition this was kind of Nintendo like taking the reins and telling them like you're showing them like look this is how it's done you idiots and yeah it's a little more pricey uh at fifty dollars a lot of those a lot of those other hand towels would be like 30 35 bucks to be fair they all included like dozens maybe even hundreds of games but this really includes like the game you know like like all those games combined uh the vast majority of them don't mean compared to Super Mario Brothers I think this could have been a lot lot more I would have loved to see more games included for the price but for a cute little desk toy collectible that's also functional as a Time waster I think this was pretty cool but Nintendo themselves devalued the hell out of it just one year later we got the Legend of Zelda Game and Watch uh pretty much the exact same setup right here like genuinely like pretty much everything is uh basically the same I mean even down to the special little Easter egg here special thanks to you it it's the same thing but uh they definitely went a lot more heavy uh with this version than the Mario one I actually have the game and watch out of the box but uh you even get this cool little display cardboard display here that you can actually set up to uh you know hold this unit on a shelf and even if you're not gonna do it just the packaging here is so nice just it's a really meaty cardboard container we can also get my Nintendo points for this thing and uh the user guide is a little thicker this was released for the 35th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda uh which was pretty much the only thing they released for the the 35th anniversary of Zelda 2021 yeah we got a Skyward Sword HD that was pretty cool but that wasn't really for the anniversary that was just kind of because you know they released it when they released it we got a tears of the Kingdom trailer like the first major look of gameplay during E3 but uh before they they showed that off uh AJ enuma at that E3 event uh pretty much said like hey and we're working on this the Zelda gaming watch this is it they pretty much said right there like this is all we're doing for the 35th anniversary of Zelda and it's pretty strange I think a lot of people were expecting Wind Waker and Twilight Princess HD from the Wii U to come over to switch but to be fair they were just doing Skyward Sword so I think that would have undermined that game releasing significantly you know like why would you buy that when you could buy Wind Waker Twilight Princess or like I feel like people would be overwhelmed with the amount of Zelda games on the Shelf I think Nintendo is very deliberate with the Zelda games they decide to release when they release them so I guess this is all they really felt comfortable with uh releasing for the anniversary of Zelda uh what Nintendo decides to do on certain anniversaries always perplexes me so the 25th anniversary in Mario all we really got was like Super Mario All-Stars on the Wii but then the 25th anniversary of Zelda was pretty nuts I mean like we got like Skyward Sword four Swords on DSi where the gold Wii remote the Zelda Symphony uh the Ocarina of Time 3D like it was just non-stop stuff and then the 30th anniversary of Mario we got Mario Maker uh that was pretty much it 30th anniversary of Zelda uh oh they they released a Skyward Sword uh on the Wii U virtual console and uh they also put out some amiibo I think that was it oh uh Twilight Princess HD earlier in the year it's really random what they decided to do in 35th anniversary of Mario they were going all out I don't know why 35th Anniversary yeah sure they go all out 35th anniversary of Zelda this is pretty much it and yeah pretty much same deal as the Mario one though this one has a bit of extra detail we have a Triforce on the back and it actually lights up when we turn the system on here so they kind of made us and then the screen brightness kind of bleeds through the back and uh kind of illuminates the Triforce which is pretty cool the clock setup is pretty much the exact same thing as the Mario one but this one based on Zelda one but there's way more features in this one this was fifty dollars as well and it feels like they kind of listen to a lot of the complaints with uh the Mario game and watch and this one includes a bunch more features and also games if we go to the game here we can actually get a timer right here based on Zelda 2. and this is really cute it just it feels so well done very well made with great animations great faithfulness to the original game you get the sound effects and we can actually control this you can actually kind of make like a little game out of it and see how many uh enemies you can uh defeat in a certain uh time which is really cool so this is not only functional as a standard timer I mean we can just leave the game on standby and it'll play by itself but when we start taking control of it then uh we can see like a little high score thing so uh this is like really cool in more ways than one but the games are kind of the core thing here we got the original Legend of Zelda interestingly we don't actually have like a different copyright date like we did with Mario so much like Mario Zelda one and two play exactly how you'd expect uh of course we have the exact same d-pad and buttons here though we do have a start and select button now which is obviously uh very useful in a game like Zelda where we have to go into menus to swap different items out and all that kind of thing just a matter of fact that we have Zelda one and two makes this like a better deal value-wise uh compared to Mario's Game and Watch I I feel like Mario's Game and Watch is more accessible because you know it's Mario Zelda 1 and 2 are still Classics I mean you can still appreciate the hell out of those games today but they're definitely harder to get into from a modern perspective uh however we don't just have Zelda one and two we have Zelda Link's Awakening on the Game Boy which again is just kind of a weird thing about this game and watch unit uh just a weird Choice the fact that uh you know it's it's the Game Boy game uh when that is in fact the fourth Zelda game it came out after A Link to the Past on the Super Nintendo and there's genuinely no reason why these Game and Watch units shouldn't be able to play Super Nintendo games but whatever Link's Awakening is a phenomenal game but it's just the regular game boy version it's it's not DX on the Game Boy Color which that's fine I mean the original version is divine uh I I think it's kind of cool because at this point Nintendo normally just re-releases DX so to play the original game boy version uh yeah sure to make that one on this game and watch it's all about being retro anyways so I think that's why they decided to do the original game boy version and thankfully you know you know promo video 's game link 's Awakening always filled this screen which looked gross and thankfully you can you can change the screen size on on the games which is nice and much like how Mario had ball Zelda has Vermin yeah that definitely felt a little weird uh at least Mario is kind of like oh it's Mario you can just put him in any game and watch game and it'll work uh Zelda is just just kind of weird it's kind of weird to just throw Lincoln to Vermin and just be like yeah there you go especially because much like Mario there's a Zelda Game and Watch unit that they could have you know remade uh and had that version playable on this game and watch but to be fair that game is a dual screen game so whatever overall this unit really shows how they took the criticisms of the mar unit and uh learn from them and made this a really great little uh still again desk toy collectible because I don't think these are really anything more than that these are really damn am cool I I really like that Nintendo did these uh but I don't use them maybe if they're on my desk at in the moment I'll pick it up I'll give it a go but uh most of the time I I I'm a little worried they're so nice looking I don't want to ruin them in addition I don't think these did that crazy well these were always considered limited time things uh but you can still find these things for MSRP or lower on Amazon and in other places I think they just over produced these and it's not that people aren't willing to eat up you know handheld units for uh you know Zelda and Mario I think it's mainly because uh most people outside of uh very die hard Nintendo fans know what the hell a Game and Watch is and this packaging is more about being a Game and Watch than it is about telling you hey you can play Super Mario Brothers on this tiny little handheld for 50 bucks it's really strange that this got such a wide release I mean like this was available literally like every store while things like the Nintendo switch online controllers are such limited items I I honestly feel like the NES controllers or Super Nintendo controllers or N64 controllers for a Nintendo switch would have more Mass Appeal than the game and watch Super Mario Brothers so I definitely think they over produced these and uh it's unfortunate because I feel like this might have scared Nintendo off from doing this but uh you know Nintendo seems to be doing these Retro Gaming things in twos you know you got the NES classic edition Super Nintendo classic edition and that was it We Got Game and Watch Super Mario Brothers and gamingwatch Legend Zelda and that was it it would definitely be cool to see this with other Nintendo series or uh with other Nintendo games but uh similar to the classic edition mini consoles like uh I I kind of just buy them I play them for a little bit and then they kind of go in storage or on the Shelf uh just as cool little things that Nintendo did but to be fair that's all these were always kind of meant to be cool little commemorative Game and Watch releases it's really great that Nintendo brought the Game and Watch watch brand back for these kind of things and it also gives hope for them doing other handheld related knickknacks uh you know back when the Super Nintendo classic edition was uh really hot I remember the idea of them doing like a Game Boy classic that was really damn cool and these showed that that was definitely a possibility Nintendo can make 50 dollar handhelds these days with good screens a pretty good battery life with USBC for recharging I would love to see them do more stuff like this it doesn't necessarily have to be a Game and Watch style but uh just unique little handheld doodads that can play these old classic games I think there's definitely a huge market for that I just think the problem is like I said most people don't know what the hell a gaming watch is these days so thank you so much Nintendo for releasing these things I spent fifty dollars on and barely played

Channel: Scott's Stash

Views: 282,251

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Id: rTr_97ihIrs

Length: 21min 8sec (1268 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 20 2023