For those of us that were actually alive back in the early '80s, there is no denying that the drab grey box that was the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) changed our lives. Though the Atari 2600 and its predecessors broke some ground, and then broke the industry, if you are a hardcore gamer between 20 and 30, the NES was the taste that got you hooked.

In the mid-to-late '90s, the retro gaming craze took hold as the kids that grew up with the NES started to miss the simplicity of the system and games. Fond childhood memories of Kid Icarus and R.C. Pro-Am hit us like an acid flashback, and were it not for the sudden availability of illegal-but-free ROMs all over the internet; the hardcore would have raided the value bins as indiscriminately as Ray Charles trying to find some misplaced balloons. Cool as a Pepsi comercial.Today's the day when you wish you had fed that retro-gaming monkey on your back with some real carts instead of those quick hit ROMs. Messiah has released their Generation NEX console, a NES/Famicom re-release dressed up with some of the technological niceties our great society has developed over the past 20 years. For everyone that still has a few boxes of NES (or Famicom) carts tucked away in a closet, the Generation NEX is all the reason you should need to break them out and start playing the old classics again.The Generation NEX is unmistakably a NES, straight down to its simple grey and black color scheme. Fortunately, 20 years of technological progress has allowed the package to shrink a little, and the NEX is a thin 1.5" tall. Messiah also managed to expand upon the original NES design even while shrinking it down, and added support for Famicom cartridges, 2.4 GHz wireless controllers, and dual-mono sound. Nice package.Though there have been some rather weak attempts to remake the NES/Famicom prior to the NEX, Messiah really put some work into the production to make the NEX feel deserving of the love its users no doubt feel for the original. The device itself is small, cute, and very reminiscent of its forefathers with a front-loading NES cartridge slot and a top loading Famicom slot. The controller jacks are the same as the original NES, meaning you are welcome to use your original controllers if you still have some. Even the packaging is attractive, and the Generation NEX kit includes a cartridge-shaped manual in a slip case, packed with instructions written and illustrated in action-comic-book style and a mini rarity guide developed by Digital Press. Messiah knows who the market for the NEX is, and they certainly aim to impress.If you know what NES graphics look like, you'll have no surprises in store from the NEX. Games look just as bad, or retro-awesome depending on your perspective, as they did 20 years ago. In all the games we played, we were unable to notice graphical glitches or slowdown, a marked improvement over most emulator programs. There are, however, some well known compatability problems due to the NEX's NES-on-a-chip design, and certain fan favorites, like Castlevania III will not run. We did discover that a fresh console does a lot to help old cartridges work, as we managed to get all of our carts working with a minimal amount of huffing and puffing, including a "broken" copy of Zelda we snagged from EB. The console itself isn't much bigger than a cart.The Generation NEX package includes one wired controller. Whether to avoid legal heat from Nintendo or some other reason, Messiah went for a SNES look rather than the traditional NES rectangle. Gone is the NES crosshair D-pad in favor of a Genesis style circular D-pad. Select and Start were repositioned above the B,A buttons, and touch sensitive Turbo and Slow buttons fill the middle of the controller's real estate. There are also shoulder buttons, which do the same thing as the B,A buttons. The controller is quite small, and the B,A buttons are rather squishy, however, the D-pad feels good in action, and the controller is not a hindrance for old-school-paced games. Wireless pads, plus limited edition lunch box.To really feel like you have the future and past blended together in the palm of your hand, you need to get Messiah's Wireless NES controllers, which will work with the original NES or NEX. The controllers use the 2.4GHz band, and have impressive range: Mark Bozon went all the way to the elevator, which is a good 200 feet and several walls distant from my office, and still had a solid wireless connection going, as well as a much higher degree of skill in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game. Messiah dropped the shoulder buttons on the wireless controllers, put the start and select buttons back in their normal home, and put the Turbo and Slow buttons above the B,A keys. The greatest change is the D-pad, which Messiah seems to have modeled upon the sliding-disk style of the NES Max Controller. Though somewhat disconcerting for more modern players, the feel of the disk is simple enough to get accustomed to, and it feels fine even in touchy games like R.C. Pro-Am. The controllers are sold in a tight lunch-box style tin with similarly high-production values as the console itself. Higher, as a matter of fact, as the lunch-box is a limited edition item and each is numbered out of 5,000 units.For all the peeps that didn't have a moment of weakness back in the 16 bit era that led them to trade in entire NES collections for a paltry discount on Sonic and Knuckles, the Generation NEX is the perfect way to enjoy all your old NES carts the way they were meant to be played: on a TV in the company of friends, not on a crappy emulator on your porn-infested computer. Retro-gamers owe a little respect to the games they claim to idolize so, and now there is no more excuse for relying ROMs to back up your retro-street-cred. Available at retail soon, you can order it online right now, right here Another Take: Mark BozonWith the Revolution just months away you may be asking yourself "Why Bozon… Why get the Generation NEX when the Rev is oh so close?" Hey, it's a valid question. Sure the Revolution will be great, and gamers without the luxury of having physical carts of the old classics will still have a way to play them. That isn't, however, what the NEX is all about. NEX is a nostalgia item. It is a way to break out those old gray carts and get a few more miles out of them. In short, it is a chance to truly turn back the clock and experience true NES gaming again. I have played the other knock-off systems as well, I bought a Yobo just recently, and the difference NEX offers is amazing. The NEX system looks like a 1st party piece of hardware, and performs flawlessly. The main controller feels great and looks very much like the controllers released for the top-loading NES, while the wireless versions have the NES Max design. If the classic controllers are your cup-o-tea like myself, NEX still offers that option as well with the classic port design. There is simply no reason not to pick up this piece of hardware if retro games are your passion. I'd love to keep gabbing about this sweet piece of hardware goodness, but I have a score to settle with Gerry after that "improved skill" comment…