The Game Pak is truly worth tracking down for its multiplayer selection, including a wacky cooperative mode. The NES had a handful of memorable wrestling sims, including Nintendo's own Pro Wrestling and WWF WrestleMania, the first wrestling game to ever license the use of real world performers, but from a gameplay standpoint, none of them ever trumped Tecmo World Wrestling. Ignoring Nintendo's claim to the Tetris name in the US a year later, Tengen released its own version of the world's most famous puzzle game on an unlocked, unofficial cartridge. 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. If that was your name in high school, nobody would have ever messed with you. To this day, this is still the only game that's ever shipped with a coupon for five bucks off an order at Pizza Hut printed on the back of its instruction manual. You've got to remember the historical time period that the NES was released it was an age when the Cold War was still a very prominent problem in many American's minds, and game companies certainly didn't shy away from the free advertising that the fear-inspiring nightly news and morning papers were instilling in the purchasing public. You play as Gizmo from a top-down perspective as he travels through a vast building to eliminate the gremlins using a variety of weapons, including a crossbow. Don't worry, Fred! Just be careful writing down those passwords! You were fighting the clock, too, and if you ever ran out of torches then it was Game Over for you. Nintendo was pretty heavy handed about content on the NES, so some of the ribald stuff in MM was yanked. Kratos' Blades of Athena are simply an upgrade of Rygar's one (and only) Diskarmor! Well, the only Vertical / Horizontal switching shooter that comes to mind on the NES immediately is Legendary Wings. Capcom listened to clamoring gamers' wants and introduced Mega Man's brother Protoman as a character of consequence. And did we mention your car can transform into a boat? The game, presented in a manner similar to Epyx's popular California Games, came to the Commodore 64 and the NES. Death Race (1990 video game) Devilish (video game) Die Hard (video game) Dig Dug II. ** No Japanese exclusives ** The likes of Jackal doesn't count but Gunsmoke does because the screen automatically scrolls up even though it's not your traditional. When the eight stage select-bound stages were defeated, players entered a more linear part of the game, where both Protoman's and Dr. Wily's multi-stage castles had to be completed for the gamer to see any light at the end of the tunnel. I think I've got the same fond memory for this one as everyone else does: skinny dude, medium dude, and fat dude. Top down light artillery robot. And what gamers found in Mega Man 2 was something seen in few games since a title that was virtually flawless. It's not only the hardest in the franchise, but one of the hardest NES games period. Konami's classic NES hockey sim started out with exactly that, which was incredibly impressive for the time. Ask anyone who played this game extensively and they'll tell you, it was one of the hardest games of all time. And then, of course, the difficulty starts off easy enough, but advance through half a dozen areas and you find yourself in a fight for your very life. 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. It may be hard to believe, but at one point Zombies were a greatly underrepresented class of brain-dead enemy in videogames. Do you need anything else? 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. Metal Gear created the stealth genre, paving the way for Metal Gear Solid to later revolutionize and refine it. Simple, straightforward side-scrolling action, lots of baddies to send flying off the screen with a quick swipe of your blade, and stylish graphics for its time. As a major Wonder Boy fan, I naturally thought Adventure Island was some kind of rip-off. Although Nintendo's licensed, "official" version of Tetris was ubiquitous, happening upon this strange, black cartridge in the cobwebby recesses of a used game joint proved an eye-opening experience for this young NES collector-to-be. And some were fortunate enough to have friends who knew answers. But even if we never see it again, it's earned its spot on this countdown. This game was much tighter in control and actually gave a better sense of accomplishment to the player. It looked extremely impressive for its time and I loved the soundtrack. Watching my neighbors play the series endlessly as a child, my first independent go-around with Dragon Warrior was when I was in the 8th grade in 1997. If you have to play one Mega Man game to familiarize yourself with the series, make it Mega Man 2. But if you wait for the axe's power to fully recharge between swings, the individual swipes will pack more impact. Simon Belmont, the whip-wielding Vampire Hunter, controlled uniquely. Each world in SMB3 features a unique style, and Mario's quest takes him through desert, grasslands, above the clouds and below the sea there's so much to explore that we still make discoveries every time we dust off the cartridge today. Legendary Wings may have the distinct honor of being the weirdest result of Capcom's efforts to diversify shooters in the 1980s. After a few minutes with Contra's militant anthems you'll want to put your controller down and headbang along. What stuck out most for me about Double Dragon II was how varied the game was. 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. Growing up, my neighbors seemed to have all of the great games, when we could only afford one here and there. Hampered somewhat by obtuse point-and-click adventure elements reminiscent of Shadowgate that threw many people off, The Goonies II still offered a sprawling mansion and its subterranean environs to explore via traditional platforming. Get ready to relive the days when shooting down enemy forces and dodging oncoming fire while sipping a can of Surge was all we needed for a quick adrenaline rush. It would be great to see Nintendo revive the Faxanadu concept someday. When the game dropped, I was on a weird banana oatmeal kick, and I would make a batch every few hours as I played the game over and over again. Platformers were my favorite genre during the 8-bit generation thanks to Mario and Alex Kidd, so why wouldn't I fall for Castlevania? Have you played the Lost Levels? After a few minutes with Metal Storm you'll pity Mario for being such a ground bound chump. shipped in two forms on the NES, one featuring Mike Tyson as the final boss and the other with him removed. Friggin' troll, I've got only a copper coin! And rely on it they did, making The Legend of Zelda one of the NES' most famous games, part of a franchise that thrives to this day. Thankfully, Rad Racer turned out to be a great racing game that was my second-favorite racer of the generation, right after OutRun on the Master System. The tank felt like a portable fort, like home with a cannon mounted on the roof. As far as legacy, we never would have had games like Symphony of the Night if the trail wasn't blazed back on 8-bit with Simon's Quest. Punch-Out!! 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. 6 yr. ago. Thanks to Saberman who contacted us earlier today, we have yet another Amiga news story to share with you all. The catastrophic data loss that resulted ruined many a gamers' month. I bet 75-percent of them stop whining about regenerative health after getting their arrows taken away by an Eggplant Wizard for the eightieth time. 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. And talk about difficult if you were unlucky enough to lose all of your lives in the game's final stages (which gamers did over and over and over again), you'd have quite the trek in front of you to get back to where you were to try all over again. Half RPG, half Ghosts & Goblins-inspired gameplay Gargoyle's Quest is another hard to beat, yet totally memorable experience. 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. The entire game can be played with a wingman, but make sure whoever it is can appreciate a heaping dollop of cuteness, served Japanese-style (with extra "cute" on the side). But Klax is more than just the sum of its '90s neon parts. For all of these reasons and more, NES was recently named the best console of all time. Death Rally is a top-down combat racing game developed by Remedy, published by Apogee, and distributed by GT Interactive Software. And if you somehow run out of those, you can always steal one from your unsuspecting partner. Match three games were starting to gain in popularity when Klax came out. If there was ever a more perfect title for an NES game, we don't know what it was Kid Niki: Radical Ninja got it exactly right. There really is nothing quite like punching a guy in the gut, jump-kicking him in the face and watching him fall backwards out of a chopper's open side-door, then imagining his terror as he plummets to a watery death in the waves below. It's like Marble Madness turned into a platformerand it worked! The Cobra Triangle gunship was a versatile vessel, and the power-ups it could obtain were what made this one a blast to play. Wizards & Warriors is about probing every corner with your trusty blade for treasure chest, precious gems and the like. Although prominently featuring traditional Japanese settings and mythology, Demon Sword seems to have suffered from a poor North American localization, as evidenced by the goofy box art featuring a naked blonde guy glaring at his sword. What Top 100 NES Games list would be complete without Duck Hunt? 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. Toad, the Princess, and Luigi all offer unique qualities that make them viable protagonists. 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. 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. Popular California games, when we could only afford one here and there Hunter. 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