Nintendo Mini NES review – rediscover the sheer joy of video games

It is not a ridiculous overstatement to suggest that the Nintendo Entertainment System saved the games industry. Back in early 1980s, when the company released its fledgling console in Japan (where it was known as the Famicom), the business was undergoing a crisis. A flood of competing consoles and an unregulated, uncontrolled publishing model meant that there were too many machines and too many mediocre games. Some pundits in the US even suggested that video games were just a fad and that the bubble had burst. Then came the Nintendo Entertainment System.