New Famicom Mini series to hit Japan

TOKYO--Due to popular demand from nostalgic fans and to sales continuing to hit the weekly top 20s, Nintendo has announced it will release a third series in its Famicom Mini line of games for the Game Boy Advance in Japan, called the Famicom Mini Disk System Collection.

All the titles in the third Famicom Mini series will be ports from an old Japanese peripheral called the Disk System (pictured) to the GBA. The Disk System was an expensive add-on device for the Famicom (Japanese NES) that played games from proprietary floppy disks. Nintendo released the Disk System in 1986 to compensate for the memory limit of Famicom ROM games at the time, but the machine never made its way overseas, since Nintendo later found a way to overcome the memory issue.

About half of the titles announced for the Famicom Mini Disk System Collection are classics that saw a North American release, while the other half are games that were never released outside of Japan. Nintendo will release the games in the Famicom Mini Disk System Collection on August 10 for 2,000 yen ($18.50) each. The company announced it will stop production of Famicom Mini Series 2 on the same day.

The Famicom Mini Disk System Collection games are:

• Parthena no Kagami (Kid Icarus)
• Akuma-jou Dracula (Castlevania)
• Link no Bouken (Zelda II: The Adventure of Link)
• Super Mario Bros. 2 (Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels)
• Metroid
• Nazo No Murasame-jou
• Famicom Mukashibanashi: Shin Onigashima
• Famicom Tantei Club: Kieta Koukeisha
• Famicom Tantei Clube: Ushiro ni Tatsu Shoujo
• SD Gundam World: Gachapon Senshi