The Nintendo Entertainment System, known as the Nintendo Famicom in Japan with a radically different design, is an 8-bit third-generation video game console released by Nintendo in Japan in 1983. It was redesigned as the NES and released two years later in the US, retailing for $179.99. Arguably the first majorly successful video game console after the North American video game crash of '83; probably why it looks more like a VCR than a console.