Popular SNES Classic preorders sell out quickly at local GameStops

Sorry, Mario, but you’ll have to find the latest piece of Nintendo nostalgia gaming goodness in another castle.

Just as quickly as they were announced Tuesday morning, preorders at area GameStop stores for the Super Nintendo Classic Edition were gone. Clerks at eight of the Inland Northwest’s branches of the Texas-based gaming retailer reached by phone said they’d exhausted their allotment of guaranteed systems within minutes of making them available.

GameStop wasn’t the only retailer offering preorders of the console, but it was the only one that announced it would be taking them at the counter on Tuesday. Best Buy, Target and Amazon all posted online links to buy the hot-ticket item, which quickly went dead as the day wore on.

In a news release, Gamestop announced more of the kitschy consoles – miniaturized versions of the 1991 successor to Nintendo’s first home console loaded with 21 classic games right out of the box – would be available in stores when the console is released Sept. 29.

The GameStop website appeared to be overwhelmed by traffic Tuesday morning, as a landing screen informed visitors the page would be “back soon.” A banner on the store’s website later indicated that, like other retailers, their supply had been exhausted as of Tuesday night.

Interest in the SNES Classic edition has been intense among the retro gaming crowd since last year when its predecessor, the NES Classic, flew off store shelves during the holiday season. Enthusiasm apparently took even Nintendo, which has its American headquarters in Redmond, Washington, by surprise, as system shortages persisted following the NES Classic’s release last fall. The company has promised more systems of the Super Nintendo version will be available in response to intense demand.

The SNES Classic will sell at the suggested price of $79.99 and come with two controllers. Its release will mark the first time gamers will get their mitts on Star Fox 2, a sequel to the 1993 space combat game that turned heads for its graphical prowess using the Super Nintendo’s SuperFX graphics card to achieve three-dimensional gameplay.

Other titles included on the system are Super Mario World, the hero plumber’s 16-bit adventure that debuted with the console, Street Fighter II Turbo, Donkey Kong Country, Final Fantasy III and Super Metroid.