More than 30 years after its initial release, the Nintendo Entertainment System was a sought-after Christmas gift in 2016, having been miniaturized and updated as the plug-and-play NES Classic Edition. Now, there is evidence that Nintendo could be prepping a similar re-release for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
On Christmas Eve, a Twitter bot dedicated to sharing trademark applications revealed that Nintendo had filed documents pertaining to an image of the company’s SNES controller, according to a report from Go Nintendo. This might suggest that the company is considering a SNES version for 2017.
Twenty-five years after the console’s initial release, producing a miniature version of the SNES packed with pre-loaded games wouldn’t be any more difficult than forging the NES Classic Edition. The necessary hardware wouldn’t be much more expensive than the components required to play NES games and the same companies that licensed their titles for inclusion on the NES Classic Edition would likely be involved with a SNES version, too.
Given that the NES Classic Edition was a huge hit, it would certainly stand to reason that Nintendo would want to release a follow-up. The SNES library is just as packed with iconic titles as its predecessor, so it could certainly elicit the same nostalgic feelings from gamers.
That said, it’s certainly possible that Nintendo filed the trademark application for a completely different project. It could be some new component of its Virtual Console service set for the Switch, or even just the renewal of existing copyright protection over the SNES controller design itself.
If Nintendo is considering a SNES edition, it seems likely that we won’t hear anything official for the next few months. The release of the Switch is likely to consume all of the company’s resources in the immediate future and it would be unwise to distract from the launch of a new piece of hardware in favor of hyping up a re-release — but when Christmas 2017 rolls around, it’s possible that the likes of Super Mario World and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past will be entertaining gamers once again.
