The console is distributed in three variations, featuring the unique design of the original systems released in Japan, North America, and Europe respectively.

[19] With the release of the NES Classic Edition, Nintendo was strongly criticized for the system's lack of availability for the console, which reached levels of popularity that they had not been fully prepared for.

[20][21] PC Magazine called the situation "badly handled by Walmart" and said that the future availability of the console was "not looking good".

[24] On August 22, 2017, pre-orders officially opened at several major retailers, causing many of their sites to crash before customers could buy the system, as well as at physical GameStop locations in limited amounts, which also sold out quickly on a first-come, first-served basis.

[25] The Target website became "glitched out", removing the items from users' carts,[25] and pre-orders from Walmart were sold out in less than a minute.

[25] Polygon also confirmed that the Tai Ding internet bot was being used to quickly pre-order systems before humans could get the chance to order them, which was proving successful due to a lack of CAPTCHAs on store websites.

Due to overwhelming demand, Nintendo changed their plans, with Reggie Fils-Aimé confirming the continued production of the system throughout 2018 alongside announcing the return of the NES Classic in 2018, which many people were unable to get after scalpers bought masses of them and resold them for much more than their MSRP.

[30][31] In May 2018, Nintendo of America announced via Twitter that both consoles would be in stock throughout the second half of 2018, with the NES Classic returning to stores on June 29.

[32] On December 13, 2018, Reggie Fils-Aimé affirmed that both the NES and SNES Classic Editions will not be restocked after the 2018 holiday season, nor does Nintendo anticipate producing any similar mini-console version of its other home consoles in the future.

[35] IGN rated the SNES Classic Mini 8.5 out of 10 points, praising the included games, the image quality, the longer controller cables and the rewind feature.

"[42] Reggie Fils-Aimé said "For us, these were limited time opportunities that were a way for us as a business to bridge from the conclusion of Wii U as a hardware system to the launch of Nintendo Switch.