Things weren’t all bright and sunny from the offset after early revisions of the console reportedly crashed, but by the end of 1984, the Famicom was the best-selling video game console in Japan with over 2.5 million units shifted. Nintendo wouldn’t crack into the video game market in North America proper until 1985, but it did manage to get into arcades through the Nintendo VS. System, which was largely based on the Famicom’s hardware. The rest, as they say, is history.
Incredibly, while the NES was discontinued in 1995 in North America and Europe, the Famicom was still in production in Japan until 2003. The very last Famicom was manufactured on 25th September 2003.
The Famicom (and NES) has sold 61.91 million units since its release. It’s the home of so many Nintendo franchises — Super Mario Bros.; The Legend of Zelda; Metroid; Kid Icarus; Mother. This is also the console where many huge third-party series made their debut, such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Mega Man, Castlevania, Contra, and many, many more. Tons of popular licenses, such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Batman, and even Disney with DuckTales jumped onto the bandwagon and spawned some classics.
It’s safe to say, even if you’ve never owned an NES, you’ve probably played more than a few of the games on the console — whether in a compilation, a remaster, or a remake, the NES’s legacy speaks for itself. And many of them are available on the Nintendo Switch Online service.
In the space of a few years, Nintendo went from a humble Japanese toy manufacturer to one of the biggest names in the technology and entertainment industries. It salvaged the reputation of the video game industry in the West, and quickly became the video game developer. There’s a reason your parents probably ask if you’re “playing your Nintendo”, regardless of what console you’re actually plugged into.
