When can you buy the NES Classic, a plug-and-play game console featuring 30 classic games? Keep looking, Nintendo says. Watch video
Instead of the haunting refrains of "Castlevania II: Simon's Quest," disappointment, maybe anger, are echoing Friday in Lehigh Valley households.
As soon as it debuted for sale Friday morning, stores throughout the area sold out of the Nintendo NES Classic, a miniature plug-and-play game system stocked with 30 games for the Nintendo Entertainment System dating to the 1980s.
At Best Buy in Bethlehem Township, a line formed well before the 10 a.m. opening for a chance at tickets being handed out to buy one of 25 of the consoles in stock. At the Greenwich Township store, it was the same deal, only with 14 in stock. Target a few doors down had even fewer.
"I'm starting to think it was a marketing ploy," said Jason Dailey, assistant manager at Gamestop in the Palmer Park Mall. He got only a handful in, and they all went first thing Friday.
Store staff couldn't even say when they might get more in stock, or even whether any at all may be available by the time holiday shopping starts in earnest Black Friday, Nov. 25.
Nintendo Co., in a statement Friday afternoon, said: "The 'Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition' system is a hot item, and we are working hard to keep up with consumer demand. There will be a steady flow of additional systems through the holiday shopping season and into the new year. Please contact your local retailers to check product availability. A selection of participating retailers can be found at www.Nintendo.com/nes-classic."
At The Game Gallery, 315 Northampton St. in Easton, employee Douglas Ackerman said none came in for sale Friday but a handful were expected to arrive in time for Saturday's 11 a.m. opening.
If you already have an original Nintendo Entertainment System, you can still find games for it used. These are for sale Friday, Nov. 11, 2016, at The Game Gallery, 315 Northampton St. in Easton. (Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com) John Owens, of Stewartsville in Greenwich Township, left the Best Buy near his home empty-handed after walking in shortly after opening, going to the gaming department and finding only a void where he'd hoped to celebrate nostalgia.
Chelsea Balz, also of Stewartsville, showed up to pick up a NES Classic for her boyfriend, Aaron Argondizzo, and instead left with her iPhone pressed to her ear, relaying the bad news.
"He's probably going to kill me," she said.
M&M's and the military: Veterans Day trivia
Harry Cleveland, of Forks Township, visited Staples next door to the Phillipsburg area Best Buy and saw a line at Best Buy before it opened.
"I thought I was missing out on something," he said.
Across the region, Nintendo fans certainly were missing out on something Friday.
Priced to move at $59.99 with one controller, the NES Classic comes with an HDMI cord to connect easily to modern flat-screens, and a host of classic games, from "Punch-out!!" and "Tecmo Bowl" to the "Castlevania" series, first through third "Super Mario Bros." and lots more.
This photo released by Nintendo on Nov. 10, 2016, shows the Nintendo NES Classic console that went on sale Friday, Nov. 11, 2016, and proved to be an instant hot-seller. (Getty Images | For lehighvalleylive.com) Friday's NES Classic debut comes as Nintendo is phasing outs its Wii U console in Japan, The Associated Press reports. That console went on sale in 2012 and is being replaced by Switch, set to go on sale globally in March 2017. Nintendo says it will show it to reporters in Japan on Jan. 13.
The Japanese video game manufacturer has already shipped Wii U machines for U.S. sales through March, company spokesman Kenichiro Matsuura said Friday, according to the AP.
Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and on Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.