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New NES Games You Can Buy in 2026

2026-08-31 · Buyer's guide · Updated 2026-08-31

Nintendo stopped making NES games in 1994. Other people did not.

There is a working industry producing brand new NES cartridges right now. Real PCBs, real shells, printed manuals, boxes with artwork. Some are technically astonishing, pulling effects out of 1983 hardware that nobody managed in the commercial era. Some are small and charming. All of them boot in a real NES.

This year opened with three new cartridges from a single publisher in January, which is a reasonable indicator of how healthy this scene is. Here is who is making them, what they cost, and which ones are worth your money.

We covered the Game Boy side of this separately, and the two scenes overlap a lot.

Quick Recommendations

If you want	Start with	Price
The best NES homebrew ever made	Micro Mages	$30–$40
Polished platforming with big production values	Twin Dragons	$45–$55
The newest releases	Mega Cat Studios	$40–$60
Everything at once, cheaply	An EverDrive flash cart	$100+ once

First, The Hardware Question

Settle this before spending anything, because it confuses people.

New NES cartridges are standard NES cartridges. They are not a proprietary format. A cartridge published in 2026 works in:

An original front loading NES
A top loading NES
A Famicom, if you buy the Famicom version or use an adapter
An Analogue Nt or similar FPGA console
Most clone consoles, with the usual caveats about clone quality

The one thing to check is region and format. Publishers label NTSC and PAL clearly, and some titles ship in both. If you have a PAL NES, buy the PAL version or expect speed and music to run slow.

You do not need to buy new hardware to buy new games. If you have a working NES, you are done.

Mega Cat Studios: The Most Active Publisher

Mega Cat is the label doing the most volume right now, and it opened 2026 with a triple launch on 29 January: Plyuk and Old Towers for the NES, plus Super Fanger for the SNES.

Plyuk is a puzzle platformer built around cloning yourself to escape a laboratory. The clone mechanic is the whole game, and it gets genuinely difficult.

Old Towers is an action puzzler where you play a polymorphed deity retaking Mount Olympus. It originated as a Genesis title from Retrosouls before this NES version.

Mega Cat's back catalogue is worth browsing beyond the new releases. It has been publishing NES, SNES and Genesis cartridges for years, including Coffee Crisis, and it handles its own manufacturing and distribution.

Mega Cat Studios sells direct through its own store. Not an affiliate link.

The Ones That Actually Impress People

If you buy one NES homebrew cartridge, these are the shortlist.

Micro Mages. The consensus best in class. A four player co op platformer from Morphcat Games that fits into a 40 kilobyte cartridge, which is a genuinely absurd technical achievement, and it plays brilliantly. Tight controls, great level design, and it holds up against commercial NES platformers rather than being graded on a homebrew curve. This is the one to start with.

Twin Dragons. Published by Broke Studio, a French label with a strong reputation for production quality. An ambitious platformer with excellent level design and presentation that looks like a late era commercial NES release.

Lizard. An exploration game with an unusual structure and a distinctive look, built by a developer who clearly thought hard about what the NES could do that nobody tried.

From Below. A falling block puzzle game that sounds unremarkable and is quietly one of the most playable things on this list.

Nebs 'n Debs. A colourful platformer that makes clever use of the hardware, and one of the more approachable entries here.

Broke Studio And The Smaller Labels

Broke Studio publishes NES and Famicom cartridges out of France with high production values, and is worth watching for new announcements.

Second Dimension has been producing NES homebrew and translations for a long time, generally at lower prices with plainer packaging.

Catskull Games puts out small runs of original NES titles.

Piko Interactive occupies a different niche, acquiring rights to unreleased and obscure games and producing them as cartridges. Less "new game," more "game that should have come out in 1993 and did not."

Developer stores on itch.io remain the overlooked option. A lot of NES developers arrange their own small cartridge runs and sell them from the same page hosting the digital version. This is where the bargains are, alongside plainer packaging and longer shipping times.

Our guide to homebrew publishers covers each of these in more detail, including restock behaviour and shipping.

The Cheaper Route: Flash Carts

If you want to play new NES games on real hardware without buying a cartridge each time, a flash cart is the honest answer.

An EverDrive style cart loads homebrew from an SD card onto a real NES. Most homebrew developers release a free or paid digital version alongside the physical one, so you can support the developer directly and still play on original hardware. Many of the best NES homebrew titles are free downloads from their creators.

EverDrive N8 Pro

That is a larger one time cost that pays off quickly if you intend to explore rather than collect. Our flash cart guide compares the options.

The trade off is obvious. You get the games and lose the object, and for a lot of people in this hobby the object is most of the appeal.

What To Expect For The Money

These are short games, mostly. Two to five hours is typical. You are paying for a small manufacturing run, not a lot of content.

Production quality is usually genuinely good. Printed manuals, proper boxes, custom shell colours. The better publishers care about this and it shows.

The best ones are real games. Micro Mages is not a novelty. Neither is Twin Dragons. The tools and the expertise have matured to the point where the top tier competes with commercial NES releases on merit.

Stock is the recurring frustration. These are limited runs. Publishers make a batch, sell it, and reorder when they can. Restocks happen without published schedules.

Who Should Skip This

If you do not own an NES and are not planning to, buying cartridges is the wrong order. An emulation handheld plays the entire NES library plus a dozen other systems for less than two of these cartridges cost. Our best retro handhelds guide covers that route.

If you want maximum games per dollar, this is emphatically not it. This is closer to buying vinyl than to buying games.

If you are buying to resell, be careful. Limited runs sell out, but not everything appreciates, and publishers restock more often than the scarcity language suggests.

A Note On Playing Your Games

Everything here is a legitimately published cartridge or a developer authorised download, sold by the people who made the game. That is the appeal. We only cover playing games you own and supporting preservation, and we do not link to or discuss ROM download sites.

Homebrew is the cleanest corner of retro gaming in this respect. The creators want you to have these games and many give them away.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are people still making new NES games in 2026?

Yes, in real volume. Mega Cat Studios released two new NES cartridges in January 2026 alone, and publishers including Broke Studio, Second Dimension and Catskull Games produce new titles regularly. Many more developers release digitally without a physical run.

What is the best NES homebrew game?

Micro Mages is the usual answer and it is hard to argue with. It is a four player co op platformer that fits in 40 kilobytes, plays as well as commercial NES platformers, and does things with the hardware nobody attempted in the original era. Twin Dragons is the strongest alternative.

Do new NES cartridges work on an original NES?

Yes. They are standard cartridges, so they work in a front loader, a top loader, an FPGA console and most clone consoles. Check whether you are buying the NTSC or PAL version, since a PAL cart in an NTSC machine and vice versa causes speed and audio problems.

How much do new NES games cost?

Roughly $29.99 to $64.99 for a boxed release with a manual, depending on publisher and production values. Cartridge only releases without packaging are cheaper. Deluxe or collector editions run higher.

Where can I buy new NES games?

Directly from publishers. Mega Cat Studios, Broke Studio, Second Dimension, Catskull Games and Piko Interactive all sell from their own stores, and many individual developers sell cartridge runs from their itch.io pages.

Can I play new NES games without buying cartridges?

Often yes. Most homebrew developers release a digital version alongside the physical one, frequently free. You can play those on original hardware through a flash cart like an EverDrive, or through an emulator on a handheld. Buying the digital version still supports the developer.

Why is everything sold out?

Limited manufacturing runs. Producing NES cartridges means ordering PCBs, shells, labels, boxes and manuals in fixed quantities, so publishers make a batch, sell it, and reorder later. Restocks happen but rarely on a published schedule.