Ahead Of Holidays, Nintendo Continues Millennial Nostalgia Push With NES Classic, 'Super Mario Run'

Nintendo Co., Ltd (ADR) NTDOY has continued its push to make 2016 the year of millennial nostalgia by releasing its NES Classic Edition ahead of the holiday shopping season. The NES Classic is a miniature replica of Nintendo’s popular Nintendo Entertainment System that originally came out in 1985.

The NES Classic isn’t the first time Nintendo has relied on nostalgia to drive revenue in 2016. The "Pokémon GO" mobile game was one of the biggest fads of the summer this year and sent shares of Nintendo stock surging. Pokémon was originally created back in 1995, and the new augmented reality game gave millennials a fun blast from the past.

Nintendo is hoping to capture lightning in a bottle once again this month with the release of "Super Mario Run." The original Super Mario Bros was released in 1985 and has sold more than 40 million copies.

After a huge initial spike following Pokémon GO’s success, Nintendo shares haven’t been able to continue their upward momentum. In fact, the stock remains down 17 percent from its July highs. Nintendo bulls are hoping the post-Pokémon correction is simply market consolidation ahead of the next leg up.

Nintendo certainly has a lot riding on the power of nostalgia this holiday season. Nintendo shares are up 79.6 percent year-to-date but are only up 2.3 percent overall in the last 10 years.