My 400th Story: Celebrating 10 Years of the NES Classic

Greetings, Vocal readers and subscribers! I've reached yet another milestone: 400 stories on Vocal. I'm aiming to reach the 500 stories mark by the end of this year. Is it doable? There's only one way to find out. To celebrate this milestone, I'll be talking about a game console that will turn 10 later on this year, except it's a miniature version of an old game system that everyone wanted to get their hands on. I'm talking about the release of the NES Classic. I'll be sharing the good and the bad of the game console.

The Good

• Nostalgia was one of the main reasons why people wanted to own an NES Classic. Released in November 2016, it sold 3.8 million units, and they couldn't wait to play their favorite games. Every time you play a game that you loved as a kid, especially one you haven't played in years, you get a feeling to reminisce on the good old days of gaming.
• The NES Classic was emulated with 30 games, with such titles as Ninja Gaiden, Tecmo Bowl, Castlevania, and of course, the iconic Super Mario Bros.
• You can save your progress at any point during a game. If you were born and/or grew up in the 1980s, everyone knew the struggle of playing as a character with only three lives and if you lose all of them, you have to start all over again at the beginning. The NES Classic having this option was helpful and beneficial.

The Bad

• Whenever a game console that people are interested in is set to be released and once it's available for purchase, here come the scalpers. Stores such as GameStop and Best Buy had them in stock, but they were limited. However, there were those who took advantage of everyone by purchasing multiple consoles and then turn around to resell them, inflating the price as much as $500 or higher. The retail price of the NES Classic was $59.99. This selfish action drew the ire of gaming fanatics, people on social media, and even YouTubers. This is the kind of thing that ruins it for everyone else and taking advantage on other people's desperation. I was going to buy an NES Classic for my birthday, which was a couple of days away. By the time I went to my local Best Buy and GameStop, they were all sold out. I did end up buying one as a late birthday gift before Christmas.
• One of the complaints people had about the NES Classic was the controller cord being too short. I wish it were a little bit longer or even wireless. As someone who was born in the 80s, I was accustomed to having the NES cord being longer, so I wouldn't sit too close to a TV set and hurt my eyes.
• 30 games on the NES Classic was great, but the other games that I grew up playing weren't on there. My personal favorites were Tiger Heli and the first Contra game. I wish there were more titles added on there.

Although discontinued in April 2017, with a brief relaunch in December 2018 and being discontinued again, the NES Classic can still be found on sites such as Walmart and eBay. There are some knock-off versions of it, so be aware of them. Since the release of the NES Classic, stores should've limited them to one per customer and the same should've applied to online retailers to prevent this from happening. Scalpers who jack up the price of game consoles in order to make a quick buck off of people's desperation should be banned from sites like eBay and Amazon for life. They're the kind of people that everyone should hate.