At $79.99, is the SNES Classic Edition worth it?

Everyone knew that the SNES Classic Edition was going to happen, but what we didn’t know was what kind of line up we would be getting in the games department. That all changed when Nintendo official debuted the system today in a press announcement with the game list in tow.

At $79.99, you have a pretty killer list of games that are featured on the console. Games like Final Fantasy 3/6 and Earthbound will scratch your RPG itch and the console has plenty of other favorites like Street Fighter 2, Star Fox and Super Metroid to make everyone happy.

The thing that sealed the deal for me however was the inclusion of Star Fox 2, a game that was never officially released on the Super Nintendo; as it was cancelled in lieu of the Nintendo 64 being on the way. Until this point, the only way to play the game was via an emulator or reproduction cartridge; but even those versions were earlier builds. It will be interesting to see what version of Star Fox 2 will be on this system and I intend to find out myself.

There’s plenty more that can be said for this system, including the fact that it includes games that have never made it to Virtual Console platforms like Yoshi’s Island; but the other interesting factor for me is how much money this could save people compared to buying the physical cartridges. I did some digging around and this is what I came up with:

Contra III: The Alien Wars™ $40.50
Donkey Kong Country™ $16.50
EarthBound™ $143.50
Final Fantasy III $35.00
F-ZERO™ $10.50
Kirby™ Super Star $40.50
Kirby’s Dream Course™ $20.00
The Legend of Zelda™: A Link to the Past™ $25.00
Mega Man® X $25.00
Secret of Mana $50.00
Star Fox™ $11.50
Star Fox™ 2 $50.00 *
Street Fighter® II Turbo: Hyper Fighting $15.00
Super Castlevania IV™ $30.00
Super Ghouls ’n Ghosts® $20.00
Super Mario Kart™ $25.00
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars™ $50.00
Super Mario World™ $10.00
Super Metroid™ $45.00
Super Punch-Out!! ™ $20.00
Yoshi’s Island™ $25.00

So there you go, on the current market; these 21 games would cost you around $700.00 to pick up individually and that doesn’t included the purchase of a SNES system. At $79.99, that’s quite the steal! Of course, there are other ways to play these games with emulators or even flash carts; but for picking up something straight off the shelf? its very economical, indeed.

That is, if you can find it on store shelves.