Platforming with zombies and mummies? Continuing the tradition started in Mega Man 2 of having eight Robot Masters to start out with instead of six, gamers could choose one of eight starting stages, inherit defeated boss robots' weapons, and move on to the next stage to exploit possible weaknesses with the player's ever-growing arsenal. Fester's Quest was an amazing game that was both deep in its delivery and excruciatingly difficult in its execution. nia_prene Posts: 17 Joined: Sat Dec 04, 2021 9:50 pm. Sunsoft's Batman, released Stateside in 1989, bucked convention, both old and new, and provided gamers with what proved to be an awesome action-oriented experience full of deep gameplay and immense difficulty. Extending the gameplay to many times the length and difficulty of the original, Castlevania III allowed gamers to take the role of Trevor Belmont, Simon Belmont's ancestor, as well as the roles of three other playable characters that Trevor may meet during his quest. Pit is a fledgling winged angel who is tasked with working his way out of the Underworld and to the Sky, where the evil Medusa has taken control. Batman taught me the meaning of "envy;" I went to a neighbor's house and played it all day, mastering the diabolical wall jump platforming challenges, and I wanted the game for myself. I didn't care that it was ugly (and it was), the platforming goodness of Mickey Mousecapade was surprisingly addictive. Difficult but you get infinite continues and all enemies follow a pre-established pattern. Match three games were starting to gain in popularity when Klax came out. Just like Mega Man 4 pulled a bait-and-switch with Dr. Cossack, Protoman served the same function in Mega Man 5. Enix had added a ton of new features to the game, and the build up to going out and getting it was up there with getting Final Fantasy II for my SNES. After a few minutes with Contra's militant anthems you'll want to put your controller down and headbang along. If that was your name in high school, nobody would have ever messed with you. Even though I was completely taken with the new 16-bit game systems by the time this came out, Dragon Warrior IV was still one of my most anticipated games at the time. To make things interesting, at one point in your quest, your original classes undergo a change, making it advantageous to lug around a useless Thief just so you'll end up with a badass Ninja. A port of a graphically superior arcade version, Konami gave Super C lots of love to help it make a successful transition, including the addition of several unique levels. The cartoony visuals manage to. Though I thought the Genesis release of Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse was ultimately a better game, I found myself going back to play this one more because of how easy it was to get into and how satisfying it was to play. Before long your middling grenades are replaced by sleek missiles capable of taking out even the largest of enemy tanks. and seeing that the game was in 3-D. That was enough for me. And here's the kicker the pit stop comes to you! Half RPG, half Ghosts & Goblins-inspired gameplay Gargoyle's Quest is another hard to beat, yet totally memorable experience. Since the beginning of console gaming, movie licensed titles have held the stigma of being awful. This grappler was unmatched in its diversity of moves and over-the-top personality, and remains today a favorite of thousands of fans across the world. And who could forget Mr. X's maniacal laughter each time he defeated Thomas, keeping his kidnapped girlfriend for his own. Not only is it one of the very best and most iconic videogames ever conceived, but having shipped with the majority of NES consoles, Super Mario Bros. quickly became synonymous with the NES itself. Because of that, there was no rushing around; Dragon Warrior was for patient gamers only. It wasn't until a decade or two later that I finally understood that a poor localization was responsible for the game's extreme weirdness. Bye-bye, Abobo. I never was satisfied with the party I formed; so half way through the game, I'd start a new game with a completely different party. Old-school arcade gamers have found and will continue to find a lot to love in any iteration of Mario Bros., but new gamers beware! Things just get weirder from there, with household appliances eventually standing between you and whatever your adorable goal may be. Top. When the game culminates on the sixth and final stage, Scrooge is a force to be reckoned with. Never got to play the arcade version, but it's definitely one of my favorite NES games. In premise, the Lolo games were as simple as can be. You play an M-308 Gunner mech, which features awesome (Magnetic? 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. 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 NES's original adventure with Konami's cigarette-smoking, tough-as-nails commando, and the stealth action now most associated with PlayStation platforms was just as intense in the '80s as it is today. Not content to just slash his foes to death, Niki had to slice and dice them with a whirlwind blade just to be that much more radical. Final Fantasy also offered new ways to navigate its sprawling overworld. but this Sunsoft sidescroller, which originally was supposed to be a licensed Terminator game, holds up well enough to make this list with absolutely no nostalgia from yours truly. Made up of only five stages and a few types of enemies, a skilled gamer can get through Kung Fu in its entirety in less than ten minutes. Use that sword and you'll understand why this one has certainly earned its classic status. 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. You were fighting the clock, too, and if you ever ran out of torches then it was Game Over for you. On horseback, must prevent 3 bandits from boarding the train. The original Mega Man is perhaps best-known, however, for its staggering difficulty level. 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. There are over a hundred single-screen levels to conquer in Bubble Bobble, clear all the enemies before you timer is up and you are safe to move on. Most memorable of all is Tales' peerless soundtrack, particularly the tunes for Transylvania, African Mines, and the Moon. Not too bad for a couple of sweaty, shirtless Rambo clones. I was lucky enough to rent Mega Man 4 over and over again before buying it later on. But Slumberland is an unexpectedly dangerous place, and the game's advanced difficulty level no doubt took some unsuspecting youngsters by surprise. Tecmo World Wrestling's main gameplay screen split the action, with the core wrestling taking place on the top half on the screen while the television's lower portion was dominated by the text bubbles of an overly enthusiastic ringside announcer calling all the play-by-play. These mysterious monoliths eventually became a series standard. The Tetris cartridge was circulated amongst us and our various neighbors forever after collected dust. But if you wait for the axe's power to fully recharge between swings, the individual swipes will pack more impact. As a major Wonder Boy fan, I naturally thought Adventure Island was some kind of rip-off. But Klax is more than just the sum of its '90s neon parts. The NES had its fair share of unique puzzle games, and Adventures of Lolo 3 might take the cake as the genre's quintessential title on the console. - Levi Buchanan, IGN Wireless & Retro Editor. 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 was introduced to the NES version of the game after I played the arcade/Neo Geo edition, but I have to say that the NES version was infinitely more awesome. 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 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. Over a decade before the name Tony Hawk first began to become synonymous with skateboarding videogames, Electronic Arts was innovating on the NES with the impressively diverse Skate or Die. I was playing the amazing Super Mario Bros. in a 7-eleven game room months before the NES was even announced in the US. Worked like a charm, I got arcade perfection at home! "A winner is you!" Mega Man 5 continues the tradition of tight action-platforming which made the series incredibly prolific by the time of its release. More of them should go play Kid Icarus, one of the hardest games of the 8-bit generation. The current-day Ninja Gaidens have a reputation for being overly-difficult, but it was this NES original that initially set the trend. I felt such a sense of relief every time I returned to the vehicle from an on-foot segment, like running indoors to escape the Boogeyman in the woods. Legendary Wings may have the distinct honor of being the weirdest result of Capcom's efforts to diversify shooters in the 1980s. The Boy was virtually helpless without his Blob and his stash of flavored Jellybeans, making this title an interesting mix of action-adventure and puzzle gameplay. Either way, there's a lot to see and like about Fester's Quest. Kickle Cubicle's appeal seemed to be centered in its balanced approach. Fusing action with platforming, and even some RPG elements, Kid Icarus is one of those key first party NES games that often finds itself ignored. An item-based menu allowed you to equip gems, whips and special weapons. Skate or Die brought gamers several different skateboarding events including downhill races, freestyle ramp competitions and a joust match fought in a drained swimming pool. The key to not being obliterated is, of course, power-ups. What's more, it was a fledgling HAL Laboratory that created the series, a company more popularly-known today for the Lolo-like character Kirby. 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. Haha, the box art to this game was awful (just a guy that looks like Iceman from Top Gun with enormous sunglasses). Jackal's premise is that the resolution to all conflict lies in explosions lots and lots of explosions. It was integral if you wanted a high score. Not one, not two, but three games in one. Super C, the somewhat unfortunately-titled sequel to Contra, features the same co-op shooter action of the first without toying with the formula too much. The detailed, cartoon-like graphics go a long way towards easing the pain of the game's extreme difficulty, as does the inclusion of cooperative play at least you have someone to blame when you run out of continues on the second level. Top-down action video game Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine: 2006: Microsoft Windows, . If you have 120 lives, killing yourself was fun. Death Race (1990 video game) Devilish (video game) Die Hard (video game) Dig Dug II. Around the corner from my house growing up was a rare sight these days a mom and pop video store. But when it's revealed that Wily is indeed behind Cossack's deeds, Mega Man is forced to trek through not one end castle, but two, a trend that is kept up in Mega Man 5 and 6 as well. Once again I say "screw you Angry Nintendo Nerd" with this one. And for the most part, franchises that did flood the NES were of a high quality. We're glad it did, because it's still a blast to power up our blades today. Your standard melee attack was a stabbing knife, with distance-attacking firearms available later on, but no matter what your armament, you had to be precise with your placement or cheap death was inevitable. As mentioned previously, the Super Nintendo isn't a processing monster like the Sega Genesis so a second player on-screen would create slow down in most games. Gamers could then figure out which boss was weak to that weapon and attempt to use it against him. And, like DuckTales, this led to a high quality NES platformer from Capcom. That is, until my copy started getting corrupted. Our own Mark Bozon has been working diligently to bring this title back to life, perhaps by way of the Virtual Console. "Blades of Steel!" Much like with platformers, the Nintendo Entertainment System was not hurting for top-down shooters. DuckTales was probably my favorite show on television when the game hit, yet I could hardly sit through an entire after-school episode before powering on my NES to play it. You play as The Guardian, a female cyborg warrior tasked with preventing Earth's impending destruction via a collision with a rogue alien world, Naju. Tengen, an ambitious Atari-associated game developer, began releasing official NES games in 1988. The gameplay mechanics of the original Castlevania remained intact, but there was a whole lot more that had been added that transferred it from the realm of action-platformer to the realm of action-RPG. 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. Some of them are good. But those few weeks I spent with Metal Storm remain precious. From simulated parallax that means multiple backgrounds moving at varying speeds to precise, multi-celled animation, this mech platformer pushes the NES to the very limits of its hardware capabilities. These days, though, I can't help but chuckle at the highly suggestive between-round power-ups. Each can be one of six diverse character classes, which dictates their role on the frontlines. Ice Climber's biggest claim to fame for its time, however, was the ability for two players to play the game simultaneously. What I think is funny is that my strongest memory of Skate or Die 2 is the amount of time I spent explaining to my friends that the game was different than T&C Surf Designs or 720. Back in the day of the NES, the now-common occurrence of franchise flooding was seldom a problem. The pseudo-3D levels that broke up the side-scrolling action in Contra are replaced with vertical-scrolling levels, but the graphical style, gameplay and even the guns all remain identical to the original. Sweet game. Gorillas, lizards, frogs and other feral friends can be temporarily tamed when Nemo feeds them candy (do not try this at home), at which points he saddles them up Yoshi-style, allowing him to reach new areas. Well, the only Vertical / Horizontal switching shooter that comes to mind on the NES immediately is Legendary Wings. Two guys with a knife and a suicide complex decide to invade Russia. Setting those aside, though, SMB2 is a wonderful platformer that is wrongfully considered the black sheep of the canon. Totally bodacious to the max! Mega Man 2 is often glossed over as being too easy even on the "Hard" difficulty setting, but that doesn't take away from everything the game offered. Mega Man's unique approach is what initially made it so interesting to gamers. Not too shabby. But even if we never see it again, it's earned its spot on this countdown. Tecmo's long dead and more recently revived series Ninja Gaiden got its start on the NES in 1989 with what's considered one of the best, most difficult action platformers ever. Tubular stuff, Niki. It looked extremely impressive for its time and I loved the soundtrack. The quintessential platformer, it's hard to imagine a video game industry today without Super Mario Bros. technology that allows it to flip from floor to ceiling with abandon. And believe us, the tanks get larger. Section Z was a forced-scrolling shooter made by Capcom, one of that company's few entries into a genre more closely associated with Konami in the 8-bit era. Dozens of Castlevania games have come and gone over the last two decades, but the series started for American gamers on the NES. In Qix, the titular entity bounds randomly about the playing field while the player attempts to gain ground by drawing boundaries with a stylus of sorts. I once spent three hours rolled into morphball while dropping meticulously timed bombs so that I might progress upward through a small crevice in the original Metroid. Happily, this fine action platformer broke with the stereotypical dungeon crawlers, allowing you to hop around, bashing enemies with your Wand of Whatever without a single roll of multisided dice, virtual or otherwise. Unlike its source, the NES version is an exploration-focused game with both side-scrolling platforming levels connected by a top down overworld-like area. Then you've got "Ninja," which summoned up the best emotions from Ninja Gaiden, the Ninja Turtles and Zen: Intergalactic Ninja. to aid him in reaching new areas. In the original Dragon Warrior, the hero was on his own. Having Punch-out at home sealed the deal on selling me on an NES, since I loved the arcade game. "Daggers and wingboots, mantras and monsters await you." Instead of a game that relied on epic, blind exploration and top-down dungeon-crawling action, Zelda II introduced a completely new idea for the series, and one that hasn't been revisited since. Rescue Rangers also ratcheted the difficulty down quite a bit, making it a good experience to share with a less-skilled partner. I played Super Mario Bros. 2 for the first time while in the hospital following open-heart surgery, so I have very personal feelings about the game. After all, with the exception of Pit's inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the last Kid Icarus game was released on Game Boy nearly two decades ago. The answer is multifaceted it's the ability to play a season and track statistics. 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. At least, they're our favorite NES shooters to play. Simon earned experience points for killing enemies and collecting money to buy new goods. Do you need anything else? The beloved NES game is every bit as addictive today as it was 20-plus years ago, which is a testament to the quality of its design. Although "licensed software" is a term that causes the blood of today's game reviewers to run cold, in the late 1980s, Disney and Capcom formed a union that inexplicably resulted in a steady series of excellent titles for the NES based on Disney trademarks. But when something isn't broken, you shouldn't attempt to fix it, and Capcom released what was in essence the same experience from the three earlier titles in the series. 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. Naturally, it was only a matter of time before a videogame followed the television show and toys. Its action-platforming style was well-known by Mega Man 3's release, and with the addition of two important new characters, Rush and Protoman, and a new skill, sliding, Mega Man 3 is many fans' favorite in the franchise. But those 4 are the only ones I know! My mom and one of my sisters were out all day, and when they came home, my mom had an NES box in her hand. Our Fondest Memories 9 Darius Twin 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. This one's a classic in both gameplay and theme. put you in the rookie shoes of underweight title contender Little Mac and challenged you to duck, dodge, jab, hook and uppercut your way to success against one of the greatest rogues' galleries of ridiculous opponents ever assembled for any videogame, ever. Once all four had been collected, the legendary titular sword "Crystalis" could be created. When Simon's Quest dropped on the NES in 1988, many gamers were confused. Using your own bubbles to bounce your way up to out of reach platforms takes some serious platforming skills. 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. If you are wondering, that formula is one part Aliens, two parts First Blood, and perhaps a dash of Predator to keep things exotic. Note: the Power Glove will not enhance gameplay, but you'll look pretty darn rad, we promise. We celebrate 100 of our favorites in the pages that follow with our list of the best games for Nintendo's killer system. As much as I enjoyed, I honestly don't believe I ever beat it. Dracula is the bad guy? Opening up the initial level of Robot Masters from six, as seen in the first game, to eight as seen in each subsequent Classic Series title, Mega Man 2 was also the only Classic Mega Man game to have a difficulty setting. The game, presented in a manner similar to Epyx's popular California Games, came to the Commodore 64 and the NES. Someone brought a copy in, I played it, and instantly fell in love with it, playing over and over until I got my speed run down to around 14 mins on a real cart. I was one of those poor saps that actually enjoyed a similar and ultimately less impressive game, Legend of Kage, so I took to this game immediately. The point-and-click adventure genre seems to be in the midst of something of a renaissance, as developers like Telltale Games are working tirelessly to bring series like Sam & Max, Monkey Island and Strongbad's Cool Game for Attractive People to modern platforms. Because I was the kind of nerd that kept track of developer names, when I saw that the creator of Pitfall was behind Boy and His Blob, I was sold. Then, Skate or Die 2 came along and trumped its predecessor in many ways, offering a full storyline adventure in addition to the standalone skating events as well as adding in the "Double Trouble" half pipe, a massive structure that spanned two full game screens and let you pull off highly stylish (for the time) vert skating tricks. The sequel to the original Mega Man was quick on the heels of the first, with barely a year in between the release of the two titles in the United States. An interesting take on the Tetris formula, Dr. Mario presented gamers with a new puzzle-based quandary how will you use the multi-colored pills thrown into play by a white coat-wearing Mario to eliminate the viruses plaguing your screen? While Niki is a game that hasn't aged as well as titles like Super Mario Bros., if you grew up with it, as I did, the nostalgia factor has you covered. Some of Ring King's lasting popularity is for reasons a bit more dubious, though, in that it's one of the most laughed-at games on the 8-bit Nintendo because of some unintentionally suggestive visuals. And that's saying nothing of its amazing action-platforming gameplay, which was oft-replicated and never exceeded. Contra deftly captures the spirit of the testosterone-fueled '80s summer blockbusters, with obvious nods to the Alien and Rambo series. The game's protagonist, Master Higgins, a yachting playboy with a knack for taming giant lizards, sets out on his adventure with little more than a ball cap and a grass skirt. Alternately, you can put Toad's speed to use in plucking coins for the game of chance at each level's end. 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. Capcom listened to clamoring gamers' wants and introduced Mega Man's brother Protoman as a character of consequence. The arcade version hooked me first, but the NES edition kept my addiction going. No other NES game ever earned that honor, but it's easy to see why Crystalis did this post-apocalyptic tale of thermonuclear aftermath skillfully blended fantasy and science-fiction into one dynamic story. Before you knew it, your screen was full of viruses with scant a place for your pills to go. Asset Pack 'Spy Fighter' NES. The game was extremely popular, resulting in an official sequel, a Game Boy Advance spinoff title, and a spiritual successor in the form of the PS2 game called Heavenly Guardian. You made your choice, and advanced to a different next level depending on your selection. When I visit my mom today, that sticker is still there, reminding me of a time when I couldn't play every game I wanted to. As usual, the game introduced eight new Robot Masters to defeat in any order the gamer desired, inheriting defeated boss' weapons to use on other less-fortunate foes. It appears Dr. Wily is behind the madness yet again. When you aren't pounding all manner of non-amphibious fauna, you are racing speeding vehicles, repelling down pits and performing various other stunts uncharacteristic of your every day brawler. I also loved the take-offs of popular wrestlers that Tecmo had going on here. It's the touching tale of a young boy and his pet frog, Fred. 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. But even without it, Maniac Mansion was still an excellent adventure game with a good sense of humor. Still, dying needlessly was satisfying. The levels are similarly themed but diverse; from pulsing, organic biomasses to blistering fire fields to gleaming space stations, Life Force keeps things interesting for the duration of the admittedly short flight. A game no one bought, but everyone had. Willow begins simply, buts grows in strength and power as he explores dungeons, gains new items and learns powerful magic spells. Ah, Kid Niki, with your crazy hair and your even wackier spinning sword. While not entirely innovative, Final Fantasy did make some interesting iterations on the RPG formula. I had hoped there might be some special secret, which there wasn't. Plus, being able to build an "ultimate weapon" out of blades I already had was a great touch. This makes it all the more mysterious that he appears as a strapping naked dude on the cover, but hey, those were different times. You know that random guy named Captain Commando in the Marvel vs. Capcom fighting games? Turned off? During a time in gaming where linearity reigned supreme, it allowed gamers to choose from one of six stages to start, but at the end of each Mega Man would fight a Robot Master that would sacrifice his weapon upon defeat for use in another level. 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. It's these adventure game elements that make River City Ransom the thinking man's beat-em-up. Several classic NES series seem to follow identical paths. 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