NES Remix

As some of these NES titles represent the very backbone of visuals in games today, it's hard to overstate their importance, even outside of the mechanics that make them fun. And remix levels generally put a nice coat of paint on the classics, like placing up a shadow behind our favorite floating 'Balloon Fighter' or a gradient background here and there to appease the eyes. Particularly engaging is one remix level which reverted a 'Super Mario Bros.' scene to a more pixelated state as time went on, requiring you to collect coins to reshape the image. Still, very few remixes match that from a visual standpoint. And we've seen everything else too many times before.

Far less interesting than the sometimes-augmented visuals are the never-augmented scores and sounds. If your phone often rings to the sound of Link opening a chest or Mario collecting a coin, you might find yourself in a haze of glorious ritual in the midst of gaining stars. The rest of us are stuck with an absurdly chirpy start-screen tune and a yearning for modern revelations in the Nintendo audio lore. I'd rather close my eyes to 'Super Mario 3D World's background noises.

'NES Remix' is a gateway drug. It's just enough to remind us of better times and better highs. But it's not enough for sustained enjoyment. Despite the sometimes engaging final challenges and remix levels, the majority of your time is spent achieving the most minor of goals for minor rewards. You might as well just buy the full games themselves and skip a marketing ploy when you see it.

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