While the announcement of the SNES mini is hardly a surprise, especially given the runaway success of its 8bit sibling, the inclusion of Star Fox 2 certainly is. The sequel to arguably one of the finest games of the 16bit era was cancelled late into its development and never saw the light of day (aside from a leaked prototype ROM).

I missed out on the NES mini, mainly because I assumed that Nintendo would keep on churning them out for a good while, so I'm much more tempted this time around. No word from Nintendo Aus/NZ so far about a release date for here [Update: NZ release is set for 30/09, which is the same day as elsewhere], but hopefully it'll be in line with the rest of the world.

The game line up is cracking, too:

• Contra III: The Alien Wars
• Donkey Kong Country
• EarthBound
• Final Fantasy III
• F-ZERO
• Kirby Super Star
• Kirby's Dream Course
• The Legend of Zelda™: A Link to the Past
• Mega Man X
• Secret of Mana
• Star Fox
• Star Fox 2
• Street Fighter 2 Turbo: Hyper Fighting
• Super Castlevania 4
• Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts
• Super Mario Kart
• Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
• Super Mario World
• Super Metroid
• Super Punch-Out!!
• Yoshi's Island