NES Remix
Nintendo’s classic NES library gets a brilliant twist — 200+ challenges across 16 iconic games, remixed into something entirely new.
NES Remix is one of those rare games that genuinely does something new with old material. Rather than just emulating a collection of NES titles and calling it a day, Nintendo and developer indieszero built an entirely new experience around them — chopping each game into focused micro-challenges and then, in the Remix modes, splicing the games together in ways that make no sense and are absolutely brilliant.
Released as a digital-only download on the Wii U eShop in December 2013, NES Remix featured challenges drawn from 16 NES games — everything from Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros. to Wrecking Crew and Pinball. The challenges are short, snappy and ranked: you get up to three stars based on your clear time, and rainbow stars if you absolutely nail it. Collect enough stars and you unlock the Remix stages — the real reason to play.
Each of the 16 featured NES games is broken down into a series of challenge stages. A stage drops you into a specific scenario — “jump over 3 barrels,” “defeat the Freezie,” “reach the top” — with a time limit and sometimes a restricted number of lives. Clear it and you get a star rating. Clear it fast enough and the stars turn rainbow.
The real genius is the Remix stages. These unlock after you earn enough rainbow stars across the main challenges and throw everything at the wall — you might be playing Super Mario Bros. as Luigi running backwards, or controlling Donkey Kong Jr. while the floor flickers on and off, or managing two Marios simultaneously in Mario Bros. They are chaotic, inventive and genuinely funny.
“Examples include beating a stage from Super Mario Bros. backwards as Luigi, or playing Donkey Kong as Link from The Legend of Zelda. The possibilities feel almost endless.”
NES Remix draws its challenges from 16 NES titles — a mix of first-party Nintendo classics spanning the system’s early years. The focus is heavily on the Mario lineage but also includes Link’s Awakening-era Link as a guest in Donkey Kong, and several non-Mario Nintendo titles. Each game has between 3 and 8 challenge sets covering different stages and scenarios.
Note: each icon above uses a representative screenshot — individual NES title art varies. The challenge descriptions give a flavour of each game’s challenge sets rather than listing every individual stage.
The Remix stages are the crown jewel of NES Remix. These unlock after earning enough rainbow stars and combine games and mechanics in ways the original developers never intended. They’re short, punchy, and frequently hilarious. Remix I and Remix II each contain around 16 stages of escalating weirdness.
Remix I highlights:
- Invincible Mario — Super Mario Bros. World 1-1, but you must defeat 15 enemies as star-powered invincible Mario
- Spotlight mode — Climb to the top of Donkey Kong’s 25m stage with only a small spotlight revealing the screen around you
- Can’t stop running — Super Mario Bros. World 2-3, but Mario won’t stop sprinting. Navigate it anyway.
- Two Marios — Mario Bros. Phase 3, but you control two Marios simultaneously to collect all the coins
- Flickering floor — Donkey Kong Jr. on Mario’s Hideout, but the platforms flicker in and out of existence
- Silhouette mode — Super Mario Bros. World 1-1 rendered entirely as a dark silhouette. Only the shape of the level is visible.
- Frozen World 1-1 — The level is iced over. Mario slips and slides as if on an ice stage.
- Zoomed-out battle — Mario Bros. Phase 2, but the camera zooms out progressively as you defeat enemies
Remix II highlights:
- Link plays Donkey Kong — The Legend of Zelda’s Link appears in the Donkey Kong 25m stage. His movement and jump physics are completely different from Mario’s — it’s much harder than it sounds.
- Tiny Mario — Super Mario Bros. but Mario is scaled down to a tiny fraction of his normal size. The hitboxes are terrifying.
- Upside-down Balloon Fight — The screen is flipped vertically. Everything floats the wrong way.
- Dark Ice Climber — Ice Climber with the screen nearly completely dark — only a small area around Popo is visible.
- SMB backwards as Luigi — Super Mario Bros. World 1-2 running right-to-left as Luigi. His slightly different jump physics make it feel alien.
- Multiple Links — Control several Links simultaneously through a Zelda dungeon section. Miss with one and they’re gone.
- Fast-forward mode — Everything runs at double speed. Reflexes need to be on point.
There’s also a Bonus section with additional single-stage challenges that don’t fit neatly into any one game’s chapter — a grab-bag of extra weirdness to round out the package.
Completing stages in NES Remix unlocks stamps — small pixel-art icons themed around each featured NES game. These were designed for use with Nintendo’s Miiverse social platform, which let you attach stamps to posts shared with other players. Each game has its own set of stamps drawn from its cast of characters and items: Mario stamps, Donkey Kong stamps, Link stamps, and so on.
With Miiverse shut down in 2017, the stamps no longer serve their original social purpose — but they’re still unlockable in the game and serve as a satisfying completion tracker. Collecting them all requires finishing a comprehensive set of challenges across all 16 games, making them a de facto 100% checklist.
NES Remix was well received, earning a 71 on Metacritic — solid for a budget eShop title with no physical release. Critics who loved it were enthusiastic: IGN gave it 8/10, Nintendo Life gave it 9/10. The consensus was that the Remix stages in particular were genuinely inspired and that the package as a whole showed exactly what a thoughtful approach to retro content can achieve.
Critics who were more measured noted that the base game challenges could feel thin for players who grew up with these NES titles — the core stages are very short and the difficulty only really ramps up in the Remix sections. But for the price point and format, NES Remix represented excellent value and a genuinely fresh take on retro content rather than a lazy emulation dump.
- NES Remix was developed in partnership with indieszero — a studio previously known for Retro Game Challenge (2007), a game with a very similar philosophy of celebrating classic NES-era titles through new challenges.
- The game was a surprise release, appearing on the Wii U eShop without any prior announcement during a Nintendo Direct in December 2013. The reveal was met with genuine excitement.
- Link from The Legend of Zelda appears as a playable character in the Donkey Kong stages — climbing ladders and jumping across platforms with his Zelda physics. It is deeply strange and completely brilliant.
- A sequel, NES Remix 2, was released in April 2014, featuring challenges from 12 more NES games including Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, Dr. Mario, Kirby’s Adventure and Metroid.
- Both NES Remix and NES Remix 2 were later bundled together as NES Remix Pack — a physical Wii U retail release — making it possible to own both games on a disc.
- The Miiverse integration allowed players to share their star rankings and best times with other players. This feature became unavailable when Nintendo shut down Miiverse in November 2017.
- Rainbow stars — the top ranking requiring exceptional speed — are not just cosmetic. They are specifically required to unlock the Remix challenge stages, making speed-running individual challenges functionally necessary to access the game’s best content.
- NES Remix was removed from the Wii U eShop on 27 March 2023, following Nintendo’s decision to close the Wii U and 3DS digital storefronts. It can no longer be purchased digitally.
- The game’s existence hinted at a broader “Remix” concept Nintendo never fully followed through on — IGN’s review famously ended by asking for SNES Remix, Game Boy Remix, and N64 Remix. None were made.
- Wild Gunman, one of the 16 featured games, is a Zapper light-gun title from 1984. In NES Remix, the light-gun mechanic is adapted to work with the Wii Remote, replicating the original shooting mechanic without needing a CRT TV.