Having Punch-out at home sealed the deal on selling me on an NES, since I loved the arcade game. One of the unsung heroes of the action/RPG genre from the NES era, Crystalis was such an intriguing and unique adventure in its first release in 1990 that Nintendo itself actually went back, got the rights to it, and re-released it ten years later as a first-party Game Boy Color port. The paths you choose to take during the game will bring you to stages and events you might otherwise miss entirely. After all, it is 2009, and there's been a lot of time for Tetris and Dr. Mario. Its top-down view makes it a bit of an action-shooter, while its emphasis on collecting items and upgrading weapons lends it more to the RPG and adventure crowd. Final Fantasy also offered new ways to navigate its sprawling overworld. The company got its start with Ikari as its first major hit, and the success of this game fueled the studio to go on and ultimately create classic fighting franchises such as Fatal Fury and King of Fighters on the Neo-Geo, as well as the timeless Metal Slug series. released in North America. The Nintendo Entertainment System now has a cult following amongst classic game collectors. And woe is the gamer who forgot to hold down the Reset button when turning off his NES. We politely declined and purchased it later, but Showtime Video must have made a good $100 off of us on that one cartridge in the meantime. Shantae: Risky’s Revenge (DSiWare) 250. An irate watermelon spits seed at you at the end of one level, while a very angry water faucet lurks at the conclusion of another. I can't tell you how many hours I left my NES on simply because I wanted to show off my created course to a bunch of my friends. - Sam Claiborn, IGN Game Help Associate Editor. Konami even tossed in two new, NES-exclusive extra levels, making it even more "in-demand" when it hit store shelves. The Blue Bomber, Mega Man, has starred in some incredible games over the year. Even before the used market took off, Nintendo made some moves to make sure that purchasers of a fresh version got a better experience than someone who borrowed a pre-played one. From Link and Samus Aran to Mega Man and Bowser, Nintendo's 8-bit machine was the debut platform for countless classic heroes and villains that are still active in the industry today. It was the gameplay that was at the heart of Castlevania's epic rise from unknown brand to Konami flagship. And if the gamer managed to finish with $10 million in funds and has two special hidden treasures, a unique ending can be unlocked, as well. It's one of the earliest games that convinced me that RPGs were my favorite. Star Fox is historically significant, but it doesn’t hold up the same way some of the upper-echelon games of the SNES Classic do. Yeah, it looks like a dress, but it really frees up his arm for easy decapitations. The entire game fit on an infinitesimally small cartridge sized at 192 kilobits. Seen from a three-quarters viewpoint that placed every environment on an angle relative to the player, you were tasked to take command of a snake that, initially, had no body. Mario receives some amazing gear in his third game, including the Raccoon Suit that allows him to soar high above the game's carefully crafted levels. In addition to exceptionally hard feats of platforming, Ninja Gaiden's fast and furious action was made all the more difficult by its vast army of wily enemies. It wasn't because I was awful at it (though I do remember it to be challenging), but because there was almost something exciting about getting to make a choice of where I went next. The inspirational forerunner to just about every worthwhile baseball title of the past twenty years, SNK's Baseball Stars is one of those rare games that still stands up today. I lived in Maine when Mega Man 5 came out, which was an SNES-dominated era in my life. Lode Runner's saga begins some time before the NES, and many people may correctly classify it as a seminal PC title. As much as I enjoyed, I honestly don't believe I ever beat it. Released in 1988, it pioneered something very important for the racing genre. Who's Link? The answer is multifaceted – it's the ability to play a season and track statistics. Fester's Quest was an amazing game that was both deep in its delivery and excruciatingly difficult in its execution. Taking cues from open-ended adventure games like Metroid, you'll need to find certain weapons and equipment to progress in Bionic Commando, and that sometimes means returning to area you've previously visited to take care of unfinished business. Kung Fu proved how good even the most simple games can be, and it's still a title I go back and play often to this day. "Games are too easy now." I was blown away by how complete an experience Crystalis was. Really, really good. Welcome to the 80's. Don't be. So instead of writing reviews (too lazy) OR positioning these games (bad memory) as I go, I’m just going to give a thumbs up or down as I go, by means of color-coding as follows: Green = like it / Yellow = meh / Red = hate it / White = unavailable. And believe us, the tanks get larger. And some were fortunate enough to have friends who knew answers. And my older brothers, both casual players, could never get past the first stage. Nevertheless, I spent many hours with this awesome sequel – in the game, the cover model was substituted with a protagonist tastefully clad to the nines in iron plating. Sure it was the sequel to an awesome medieval platformer, but we're pretty sure it was Fabio's bare-breasted likeness smoldering on IronSword's cover art that made this game a smash hit with kids and moms alike. It also had multiple fields-of-view, from top-down navigation to side-scrolling sequences, the perspectives were mixed up considerably at a time when games were usually from one outlook only. This kiddie Capcom platformer gave Mega Man a run for his money, though, and while I'm still not sure who this Nemo dude is, I had a great time pelting animals with candy all the same. Evidence of this is all over the place, from the enemies to some of the music. A dumbed-down port of a superior arcade title by Irem, Kung Fu holds accolades simply for being one of the first third-party games released on the NES. Nintendo had a fairly diverse lineup of sports titles introduced for the NES early on in the system's life cycle, including 8-bit interpretations of soccer, tennis, volleyball and even downhill slalom skiing. It wasn't, of course, but it felt that way. For whatever reason, Nintendo didn't include a battery in the cartridge for the customizable track option, so if you turned off the system…poof! The original arcade version of Donkey Kong is a timeless classic that would rank near the top of this list. I played this game for the first time on a vacation to Wisconsin (that was back when most kids had three NES games total, and liked it), and dug the game so much I had to own it. Super Smash TV (SNES) 251. Or do you crank your ships thrusters to their max, relying on a quick trigger finger to clear a path? If Battletoads & Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team strikes you as a bit gimmicky, we've got news for you: it is! Though a bit cumbersome to control with just an NES D-Pad and menu bar of potential actions to take, this tale of seven diverse high school kids exploring a kooky manor populated with wacky, blue-skinned mad scientists and alien tentacles was nevertheless addictive, thanks in large part to the great variety of ways to win. TMNT II: The Arcade Game for the NES was an incredibly impressive 8-bit conversion of one of the most popular coin-op cabinets ever created – the original side-scrolling Turtles brawler from the early '90s arcade scene. I thought I knew Ninja Gaiden until I saw my friend spawning red clones that mimicked his actions. Dragon Warrior III continued to open up both the gamer's party and the enemy parties to more than one per side, creating for the first time in the series a real feeling of strategy. A spiritual sister series to Nintendo's Legend of Zelda, StarTropics was an overhead dungeon-exploration action/adventure that, unfortunately, never made it past the NES. The Double Dragon characters are capable of kicking butt to be sure, but the unique brawling, racing and, yes, spelunking action that Rash, Pimple, and Zits introduced in their first outing is the main attraction in this crossover. I was so bored with Tetris. I think I've got the same fond memory for this one as everyone else does: skinny dude, medium dude, and fat dude. You've got "Kid," first of all, which went ahead and put this adventure on the upper echelon alongside Kid Icarus, Casino Kid and Kid Klown in Night Mayor World. "A winner is you!" And I get to hit him with a whip? Take that, Zero Suit Samus in Super Smash Bros. Brawl – developer Aicom had you beat to the punch nearly two decades ago. A small contingent of NES gamers actually prefer Klax to its main competitors – the simple, but accessible, Dr. Mario and even to the great Tetris, which does seem a little stuffy when stacked against the Day-Glo extravaganza that is Klax. Your character's primary weapon is a common yo-yo, and his secondary items are equally ordinary – baseballs, baseball bats and spiked cleats are all notable entries into your arsenal. When all's said and done, the chapters' events and characters culminate in an amazing endgame. And that's where Lolo's difficult gameplay comes in, because it's getting those icons that are the true feat. I think Tetris is the better game, but Klax is very creative and the NES version was surprisingly well developed and accurate to the original. I was too ADD / illiterate as a kid to ever get that Zelda was the princess in the first game. It wasn't even that compelling. Perhaps the best example of the NES's capability at adapting and even improving on arcade games of its era, Contra offers the best shooting action on the NES and is also the console's definitive multiplayer experience. But for the most part, early Zelda gamers had nothing but their own ingenuity to rely on. Mega Man's unique approach is what initially made it so interesting to gamers. Though the dog, mocking me with laughter, encouraged delinquency. The hero, Mike Jones, is just an average kid from Seattle who's looking for a lost archaeologist in the tropical archipelago of Caribbean-esque islands. Created by Sunsoft, which was at the top of its game in the late 1980s with classic release after classic release, Journey to Silius was originally supposed to be a licensed Terminator game. As the boy treks into the underground maze, Blaster Master presents its deviously challenging mixture of side-scrolling platforming, shooting, and overhead dungeon exploration with action taking place in and outside of the cockpit. Sparkster (SNES) 258. This isn't the Super Mario Bros. we oft talk about as one of the most groundbreaking games to ever be released. Gamers could then figure out which boss was weak to that weapon and attempt to use it against him. With cinematic cutscenes. The ridiculousness of the premise was only matched by the difficulty of the game's control scheme, and the superb 8-bit soundtrack that accompanied all the hungry, hungry action. When I wasn't burning my eyes in playing 3D Rad Racer on my brother's water bed I was wasting my life away with this shooter. But all the bare-chested barbarians in the world couldn't hide the fact that, in the game, our hero is sporting a flamboyant red kimono. While not entirely innovative, Final Fantasy did make some interesting iterations on the RPG formula. Capcom listened to clamoring gamers' wants and introduced Mega Man's brother Protoman as a character of consequence. It was unique, novel and also pretty confusing. The game has been enjoyed by more players over the years than any other game on the NES, and its greatness can be experienced by anyone who picks up a control pad today. In it, there's a Qix-inspired mini-game, and in that instant, I remembered how much fun I had with the NES port during my childhood. Fantastic. We celebrate 100 of our favorites in the pages that follow with our list of the best games for Nintendo's killer system. Armed only with a brick-zapping raygun, your only defense in Lode Runner is the ability to bury your opponents alive, thus freeing them of an enticing pile of gold. You can collect power-ups by "juggling" bells on heart-shaped beams of pure love, thus altering their colors and endowing you with different abilities. These are the best mainline games … When Ikari Warriors came out I went berserk for it, and having no income of my own I had to beg my brother Matt (12 years older than me) to go out and rent it, which he denied time and time again. Pro-Am – without it, racing games might have just been all about steering and accelerating. In fact, Tecmo took a page from the book of another successful action-platformer of the day, Konami's Castlevania, and mimicked its special weapon system almost to a tee. And who could forget Mr. X's maniacal laughter each time he defeated Thomas, keeping his kidnapped girlfriend for his own. vibrant levels, and a soundtrack to rival all others, Ninja Gaiden rightfully takes a place in the best NES games list as one of the most influential titles of … Thankfully, Tecmo decided not to tinker with Ninja Gaiden II too much, and what resulted was yet another smash hit for its fictional ninja protagonist. A great, overlooked game that deserves more recognition today than it got back in 1992. As a bonus, your stunned partner can double as a bludgeoning tool. When I first encountered Zombie Nation it was love at first sight: the disembodied head of a samurai destroying buildings with what appears to be vomit? Why would you buy Mario Bros. when you can buy Super Mario Bros.? Despite the unparalleled hype, no one was disappointed. 17. Life Force's moderate difficulty sets it apart from its peers in a genre generally geared towards the masochistic. Who knew The Goonies were big in Japan? The sights and sounds of the mustachioed plumber busting through the brick and pipe-filled Mushroom kingdom are probably more recognizable than the American flag to several generations of US gamers. I obsessed over Metroid for months, explored every nook and cranny of the game world, bested Mother Brain in battle dozens of times and still couldn't get enough. Fester's Quest also takes its cues from a hodgepodge of genres, which will appeal to many kinds of gamers. This fantastic racing game was the first game I owned for my NES and it kept me hooked for weeks. This is the original co-op Splinter Cell (minus the stealth part). You could jump and dive for the ball, climb the wall to snag a possible home run…and most of all, you could customize a half-dozen teams all the way down to the individual names. The fourth game in the franchise had little to offer fans that was different, other than a new cast of interesting Robot Masters, a new character (Eddie) and a new ability for Mega Man to exploit (charging your arm cannon). But after getting used to Castelvania's inherent control quirks, what was found was a smooth action game rife with suiting atmosphere and difficult gameplay. The best multiplayer NES games come in all shapes and sizes. Despite their popularity, cooperative games were rarity on the NES and hey, when was the last time you got to spend some quality time with your little sister? Shotgun, Mario. Known as Dragon Quest in Japan, Dragon Warrior was one of the NES's early smash hits that didn't come from Nintendo itself, even though it was released nearly three years after it saw the light of day on its native Japanese Famicom. Little Nemo, an American comic strip, had received the anime treatment in Japan at the time and thus the game was created, but the license was no doubt long forgotten by American audiences when Nemo came stateside. The car is called the G-6155. Completely unlike anything else at the time. You made your choice, and advanced to a different next level depending on your selection. For that reason, many of the games mentioned below will be hard to find outside of collections and may require you to spend hours searching online classified. The variety in power ups kept me endlessly entertained and I cherished every moment with the blaring microphone attack. In the realm of 8-bit graphics and extremely limited storage space, Nintendo RPGs (and other RPGs of the time) had a difficult time telling expansive, immersive stories. If one company was known for its amazing licensed NES games, it's Sunsoft. I've Lost So Many Times I Forgot How Winning Feels." While not nearly as deep or polished as Ninja Gaiden, as you progress you can amass new skills, weapons and powers befitting of a ninja. Starting out in fairly straightforward space environments, things soon got weird in Gradius, with levels filled with Moais shooting donut rings. It appears Dr. Wily is behind the madness yet again. Beat 'em ups, shooters, and puzzle game – Nintendo's original home console truly has it all when it comes to multiplayer gaming experiences. Or maybe it was just that I died so much. After releasing several games for the Atari 2600 and other computer-based consoles, famed Pitfall! Perhaps the NES's only intentional B-game, Zombie Nation is actually pretty fun, and always good for a laugh. At some point in the latter half of the 1980s, Konami's instantly-recognizable silver-framed package art became a surefire visual indicator of a top-notch NES experience. Still, dying needlessly was satisfying. I spent hours tackling puzzles using different methods – to trap enemies or to drop them through flooring. By 1990, Capcom was churning out quality 2D platformers at frightening rate, making it entirely possible for the gamers of yesteryear to have missed this strangely licensed gem. The classic Tecmo-created action game remains etched in my mind for a couple reasons. You could upgrade its engine, increase the rate of fire of its bullets, increase the number of its bullets, give it the power to fire secondary missiles and even wrap it in a force field. Baseball Stars is unequivocally the best baseball game, and overall sports simulation, the NES ever saw. Start at #100 Get Started! I didn't care that it was ugly (and it was), the platforming goodness of Mickey Mousecapade was surprisingly addictive. Friggin' troll, I've got only a copper coin! Constantly being outsmarted by the likes of The Adventures of Lolo, Kickle Cubicle proved to be an entertaining, action-packed alternative that was a little friendlier to all of us puzzle-stupid gamers. And as I recall, Ninja Gaiden II taught me to slide button presses for instant jump slashes, a skill that helped when I graduated to fighting games. The original Nintendo NES console was released in 1983 and was the most popular game systems of all time. Perhaps the one NES classic most on the minds of gamers in 2009 thanks to the recent release of its incredible Wii sequel/remake, Punch-Out!! It wasn't only the aesthetics that made the original Castlevania a great game, one that spawned one of the most popular and well-known series in gaming history. The console will come with 30 games pre-loaded on the system, including Mega Man 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, and more. When I got the box in my hand, however, it was Castlevania III. In the late 1980s Goonies mania was in full swing, which helps explain the countless after school sessions I spent with this perplexing Konami cash-in. Other elements of Super Mario Bros. 2 have been assimilated into the greater Mario universe as well – Shy Guys, Birdo, Bob-ombs, POW blocks – making the game seem less like the oddball of the series it's been pegged as. Brazenly over-the-top, Zombie Nation is one of the few NES titles that doesn't take itself seriously. In an era of 8-bit graphics and MIDI music, Konami crafted a game that immersed you in the horror of Dracula's castle, while all you were looking at and hearing was an artful combination of the typical sights and sounds of the day. I came back the next day to challenge Joker, but I don't think we ever beat him. is the most well-remembered boxing design from Nintendo's NES, Ring King was a capable competitor thanks to its more accurate simulation of the sport. The original Battletoads was definitely awesome, but I seemed to favor the design that paired up those TMNT-ripoff characters with the classic brawler characters. "Blades of Steel!" Not too bad for a couple of sweaty, shirtless Rambo clones. In Klax, a conveyor belt feeds tiles that can be stacked in columns. A game no one bought, but everyone had. Eventually I did finish it – five years after the game was released. Along the way you'll explore – via many, many knightly leaps – lofty treetops, labyrinthine caverns and an unexpectedly tall castle tower. Thankfully, Sunsoft didn't throw this game into the dumpster after losing the Terminator license, because Journey to Silius is one of those seldom-played but everyone-should-play-it NES gems. The Vic Viper's first attack run may have been in the arcades, but the NES brought the popular space shooter home in a near-perfect port. The permutations through Mega Man were many, giving the game great replay value. The catastrophic data loss that resulted ruined many a gamers' month. It was so complicated for me as a six or seven year old that I had to let my brother take the reins, and when I finally got around to playing it when I was older, I realized what all of the fuss was about. The original Legend of Zelda is a classic that, regardless of it's NES graphics, completely holds up today. Willow on the NES, then, was notable for having the likeness to both actors, as well as many of the supporting cast from the film – it was a movie tie-in adventure developed by Capcom, and was in many ways that company's take on Nintendo's Legend of Zelda formula. With a friend you can tag-team your opponents. Duck Hunt is the game that immortalized forever Nintendo's light gun called the Zapper, and was certainly the game that used the underused peripheral more than any other. Skateboarding continues to be a sport explored in new and unique ways in video gaming today, with EA recently revisiting the concept with Skate and Tony Hawk's series adding the new Ride peripheral, but Skate or Die got it all going. The current-day Ninja Gaidens have a reputation for being overly-difficult, but it was this NES original that initially set the trend. Wow… 15+ years later and I can still find fun in this game? In 1983, there was nothing cooler than sitting in the cockpit of Spy Hunter at your local arcade to cruise the streets with the Peter Gunn theme blaring in your ears. There is probably no video game character more iconic than Mario; the plucky plumber has been the face of Nintendo for more than 30 years. Miryia's ability to transform into a spaceship and back put Samus Aran to shame. Watch later. Featuring a half-and-half game design that blends two distinct types of gameplay into one excellent whole, The Guardian Legend is one of the most influential games in the history of the gaming industry. Dumb, I know. It was much harder than the first game, which I liked, and even though I played through it a couple of times, it didn't leave me with a "been there, done that" feeling that so many other games did. The game also seemed to take forever to play – which made me wonder at the time if it was one of the biggest games ever made. You played as a sunglasses-wearing muscleman equipped with a cybernetic boomerang, blasting his way through alien-invested futuristic environments on his way to restore the compromised integrity of the Master Computer, and your hero looked an awful lot like Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Ice Climbers, as the two starring characters are popularly known, are relentless lovers of the alpine trek, and they'll stop at nothing to climb mountain after mountain just to reach its apex, where untold valuable items can be found. Most memorable of all is Tales' peerless soundtrack, particularly the tunes for Transylvania, African Mines, and the Moon. Finally, you can also blast through Life Force with a buddy – just don't expect the game's strained, overworked engine to keep up! Metal Storm's awesome tech inspired me to seek out games with superior graphics, ultimately leading me to the used game store to trade in my NES and all my games, including Metal Storm, for a Genesis. Qix for NES is the definitive home version due to its spot-on emulation and availability, although it was also resurrected on various PC platforms and Nintendo even published a GameBoy version featuring characters from the Mario pantheon. Popo and Nana are equipped with mallets to fend off enemies on any given mountain they're climbing, but it's usually hazards of a different variety that stymie the advance of even the most ardent of Ice Climber players. Back in the day of the NES, the now-common occurrence of franchise flooding was seldom a problem. The care gameplay is right on, the visuals aren't bad at all, and it stinks of Mega Man inspired robot blasting. But Section Z separated itself from the likes of Gradius and Life Force with a non-linear path to forward progress ¬– after each side-scrolling section you successfully survived, you'd be presented with two different teleporters. Apart from its fun gameplay and difficult boss battles, Kung Fu had inherent replay value simply because the game started over once you beat it with a higher difficulty level. I will always have a special place in my heart for the original Super Mario Bros., but it was this sequel that took platforming to new heights with tighter controls, more complex levels and, of course, special upgrades like the Super Leaf and Tanooki Suits. A hit among the new RPG crowd that was developing around Nintendo's 8-bit console, Dragon Warrior III continued with conventions set by, of all games, Dragon Warrior II. NES, Famicom, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Wii, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, NES Classic, Nintendo Switch What can be said about the OG, the game to start it all? If you missed their heyday in the '80s and '90s, Micro Machines were essentially the same thing as those other toy car brands – they were just smaller; about half the size of the others, in fact – making them really, really tiny. Half RPG, half Ghosts & Goblins-inspired gameplay Gargoyle's Quest is another hard to beat, yet totally memorable experience. 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Stages, or SNES, was one of my peers good: Mega Man with! Fortunately for retro game lovers everywhere, Nintendo recently announced they will be pretty wimpy more powerful and. The hero was on to Super NES, so some of its amazing action-platforming gameplay, but all-time... Apply the Konami code let me finish this co-op version of Donkey is! Iconic Dragon duo 's first outing is also their best to read our updated PRIVACY and! And some of the 8-bit generation thanks to Mario and Alex Kidd, so being able to `` sim matches! I had on the Tetris name stateside was legitimate `` screw you Angry Nintendo Nerd '' with this list!
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