The NES Classic is the surprise hit of the holiday season and with Black Friday around the corner, it’s going to take some ingenuity to get your hands on the much-in-demand throwback product. The demand for the Nintendo Classic Mini NES edition calls back to the days when the Wii was nearly impossible to find, but don’t worry: Even though the NES Classic is the most in-demand gaming product of the season (or even the last several seasons), you will still have a chance to get one. Several stores are likely to get new shipments of the console just in time for Black Friday.
Black Friday Mini NES Deals: Is Nintendo Classic Edition In Stock And On Sale?
The NES Classic Edition runs for just $60 and contains 30 digital versions of original NES games, along with a controller and a huge amount of nostalgia (even though you won’t have any cartridges to blow into). There’s just one problem: It’s hugely hard to actually get the thing. A few days before Black Friday, every major retailer is sold out of the Mini NES. Even Walmart, which pushed out a little bit of stock over the course of several days, seems to have run dry.
However, do not despair. The Mini NES will not be easy to find on Black Friday, but it won’t be impossible either. Most retailers, online and otherwise, have been getting stock steadily throughout the week (and selling out of it almost immediately). The NES Classic is steadily trickling out from Nintendo’s distribution centers and if Walmart had enough stock to put it on shelves on random weekdays during November, you can bet they’re saving up some of the hottest holiday item for the biggest shopping day of the year.
Beyond that, it’s exceedingly likely that Best Buy, Target, Walmart, Amazon, Gamestop and other top retailers will get an additional shipment of the NES Classic Edition before Black Friday. After all, they’ve been getting small shipments all along and even during the heady days of the Wii’s first weeks, retailers got an extra shipment of the extremely rare console in time for Black Friday (I should know. That’s how I got my Wii!). The NES Classic Edition isn’t nearly so hard to make, and Nintendo is surely ramping up production for the hotly desired item.
If you want to get a Mini NES on Black Friday without paying hundreds of dollars on eBay, what you need to do is simple: Pick a top retailer and be ready to wait in line. Walmart has gotten steady shipments, so they may be the best bet. You could also just wait until after Black Friday: Nintendo is clearly doing its best to ensure that more units are getting out there, so if you wait a few more weeks, the NES Classic shortage may be a thing of the past.
