The miniature Nintendo that Japan's getting is way cooler than the US one
All the way back in July, Nintendo tickled the nostalgia of Nintendo fans by announcing a miniature, $60 version of its original console. The NES Classic Edition has 30 built-in classic games, and you'll be able to get it on November 10.
If you live in Japan, however, it's a bit of a different story. In its home country, the NES was known as the Famicom (short for "family computer"), and it had a different design. The controllers were actually hard-wired to the console, so you placed them in little cradles on the side of the console when you were done playing.
Basically, the Famicom is rad.
Accordingly, Nintendo has announced the Japanese version of the NES Classic Edition called the Mini-Famicom. Here's how it looks:
It sounds like it's the same basic deal: For ¥5,980 (roughly $60 USD), you get 30 built-in Famicom games, two controllers, and the system itself, which connects to modern TVs via HDMI. It looks like it recreates the basic design of the Famicom in a smaller form factor, which means the bolted-on controllers are probably smaller as a result.
The game library is largely the same as it is in the U.S., with a few exceptions. For example, the American football classic "Tecmo Bowl" has been replaced by "Tsuppari Oozumou," a sumo wrestling game.
It connects via HDMI just like the western version, so you can almost certainly just import one and play it if you so desire. The games will obviously all be in Japanese, but if you care about importing something from Japan, I assume you understand what you're getting into.
Overall, though, this thing is way cooler than the one we're getting. The cradles for the controllers, the color scheme, and the big "Family Computer" logo on the front all contribute to an amazing console design that I think wins out over the western NES.
The Mini-Famicom comes out in Japan on November 10. Here's the trailer for it: