None of those games ended up having the lasting appeal and addictiveness of one of its other contemporaries, though the first-party Nintendo sports sim known simply as Ice Hockey. Between territories are neutral zones, filled with shops that carry life-giving junk food and high-priced moves that become absolutely necessary as you progress. Eventually, you must learn to apply your gravity-defying skills to puzzles, while at the very same time applying your blasters to the faces of many, many enemy robots. The ship rising out of the scrolling ocean, the . The Deadly Tower of Monsters. It's like Marble Madness turned into a platformerand it worked! The Guardian Legend is an action-adventure/top down shooter released for the NES in 1989. It was a solid companion for the early Zelda games, and perhaps a factor in why Capcom was later approached to develop some portable entries in the Zelda series for Nintendo. I should fix that Near the end of the NES' lifecycle, puzzle games were THE craze. The current-day Ninja Gaidens have a reputation for being overly-difficult, but it was this NES original that initially set the trend. That was the cryptic fantasy tagline offered up on the box of Faxanadu, one of the best and least-known Nintendo-published adventures to hit the NES throughout the 8-bit systems lifespan. Konami's classic NES hockey sim started out with exactly that, which was incredibly impressive for the time. Haha, the box art to this game was awful (just a guy that looks like Iceman from Top Gun with enormous sunglasses). If you are wondering, that formula is one part Aliens, two parts First Blood, and perhaps a dash of Predator to keep things exotic. Double Clutch (video game) Dough Boy (video game) Down the World: Mervil's Ambition. 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. Jackal and Ikari Warriors on the NES. The ever-flatulent Bub and Bob enter the Cave of Monsters in a blaze of bubble-blowing glory, trapping all manner of beasts in their sticky, spherical emissions. Capcom considered the NES obsolete at this point and refused to publish the game in the United States. Oops. Yes, Fred who's just hopped into the backyard and touched a radioactive reactor that mutates him into an enormous amphibious monster. And explore you did. For all of these reasons and more, NES was recently named the best console of all time. It is possibly the most awesome car ever made aside from the "Metal Attacker" in Blaster Master. Gamers new to this unique genre could easily access the game, but gamers who were veterans of the genre could find enjoyment in the game as well, collecting items in order to reach each subsequent stage. River City Ransom's excellent amalgamation of action, adventure, beat-em-up and RPG game elements has won it many vocal supporters, yet it seems destined to remain in the shadow of big name brawlers like Double Dragon. - Craig Harris, IGN Nintendo Executive Editor. I doubt anybody would rank the title in their top 10s, but for a 20-plus-year-old action romp, it was as the title suggests pretty rad. 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. I guess it's no wonder that Super Metroid and Metroid Prime remain my two favorite games of all time. It has been called a combination of Zelda and 1942. The Game Pak is truly worth tracking down for its multiplayer selection, including a wacky cooperative mode. 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. Last, you throw Radical into the mix. Of course, you don't have to hit the mean streets of River City alone. I had no qualms with wasting the POW block if I didn't get my way. Fester's Quest was an amazing game that was both deep in its delivery and excruciatingly difficult in its execution. 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. Release Date : 2021. Although it is fun to pummel some of Double Dragon's most notorious thugs, Battletoads fan will probably be the most satisfied with this cartoonish, goofy beat 'em up. 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. 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. Konami's The Goonies II followed on the heels of a little-known Goonies game for Nintendo's PlayChoice-10 arcade machines. The NES Willow game is better than George Lucas' movie. 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. The great thing about TMNT was its ability to let gamers use all four Ninja Turtles at will, even though it was only a one-player action game. 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. Not too bad for a couple of sweaty, shirtless Rambo clones. 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. . 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. 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. I can remember looking at the Rad Racer flap at Toys R Us (remember the old system of flaps and slips?) 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. Completely unlike anything else at the time. Zelda was an action-adventure game with RPG elements, and in an age without the Internet, people were on their own about how to get through the game in one piece. The new Rush Adaptors combined Mega Man with his robotic dog into one unit for the first time, and yes, Dr. Wily is again behind the robotic destruction coursing through the game, this time masquerading as the ill-disguised Mr. X. The answer was simple line up the appropriate colors of pills matching the viruses, and voila, they disappear. Mega Man is one of the few franchises on the NES that made it to four games. As I played it for the first time in two decades, I recalled many afternoons spent with the cutesy Twinbee fighters. Vague memories of a strange, somewhat girly shooter plagued me as I restocked my NES collection a few years back. - Jeremy Dunham, IGN Games Editorial Manager. Taito's iconic dragon duo's first outing is also their best. Baseball Stars is unequivocally the best baseball game, and overall sports simulation, the NES ever saw. Indeed, GunNac is a technical marvel as shooters on NES go: It's smooth, fast-paced, loaded with danger and projectiles flying in all directions, and insanely challenging. Developed by Konami and published by its subsidiary Ultra (a ghost publisher created only so that Konami could publish more games per year than Nintendo allowed), TMNT proved to be a fun, challenging game with crisp graphics and compelling gameplay. Growing up, my neighbors seemed to have all of the great games, when we could only afford one here and there. In retrospect, it's nowhere near as good as the MSX original, but back then I didn't know better. Super Mario Bros. 3 does everything an NES game possibly can, and pushes the NES to the very limits of its capabilities, and we can unequivocally call it the greatest NES game of all time. Meanwhile, the company worked rapidly behind the scenes to override Nintendo's infamous lockout device that kept unofficial cartridges from being played on its console. In other words, it's just about everything. Every Ice Hockey player discovered their own perfect combination of men, and then it was on to the ice. 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. But the original is still the best, which is probably why it was singled out for a Game Boy Color release ten years after its Nintendo console debut in 1999. 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. Platforming with zombies and mummies? The Guardian must thwart the planet's demise by setting off Naju's self-destruct sequence before it reaches Earth. 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. Early adopters who made the next-gen leap without looking back missed an incredible game design. However, Mario Bros. was eclipsed by Super Mario Bros. almost immediately upon release in the United States. The sequel features the same great stuff as the first: catchy, mead-swilling tunes; stylized fantasy graphics; and the peculiar use of "ye olde Engrish." Unnecessary, sure, but so necessary. 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. 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. By the time Mega Man 6 hit the NES, the console was virtually dead. Ice Climber's biggest claim to fame for its time, however, was the ability for two players to play the game simultaneously. Above all else, what surprised me most about Rescue Rangers is that it was so fun to play. A pretty solid movie, really. But those 4 are the only ones I know! It should come as no surprise that the man behind the rock is Yoshihiro Sakaguchi, a composer that worked on the Mega Man series, also distinguished for its 8-bit anthems. In fact, ideas in Metroid have been replicated time and time again, and its collection-based themes and upgrade-encouraged RPG motif can be found in a vast range of games since, from the PlayStation's Castlevania: Symphony of the Night to the more recent Xbox Live title, Shadow Complex. More than any other past gaming console, the NES was the birthplace of long-lived mascot characters. The original Castlevania was a typical action-platformer on its facade, but once explored, the game proved to be much, much more. Evidence of this is all over the place, from the enemies to some of the music. Turned off? I guess since it was an unlicensed Nintendo game, Codemasters had a hard time getting retailers interested in stocking it. 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. The top-loading NES replaced the classic system, the Super Nintendo was over two years old, and the 16-bit battle was waging all around it in full force. Konami's Castlevania was followed up by Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, a game that strayed entirely from its origins. Astyanax is armed with a massive golden axe which has a unique mechanic attached to it it's linked to a power meter at the bottom of the screen which depletes and refills after every attack. And some were fortunate enough to have friends who knew answers. "Games are too easy now." 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. Because of that, there was no rushing around; Dragon Warrior was for patient gamers only. Try to spot the Hulk Hogan and Big Van Vader rips! And that's saying something when I was surrounded by a dozen new G.I. And Kid Niki was indeed a radical adventure, starring a young ninja-in-training whose own princess-rescuing adventure was set apart by two defining features his spiked-out, punk-rock hairstyle and his vicious spinning sword. It wasn't even that compelling. The car is called the G-6155. 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. Mega Man 5 continues the tradition of tight action-platforming which made the series incredibly prolific by the time of its release. Konami even tossed in two new, NES-exclusive extra levels, making it even more "in-demand" when it hit store shelves. I was blown away by how complete an experience Crystalis was. It has its quirks, and the water level is insane, but it crams a lot into an NES cart. 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. It may be hard to believe, but at one point Zombies were a greatly underrepresented class of brain-dead enemy in videogames. I bought my own cart off of eBay and experienced the wonders of this influential grinding J-RPG without the help of my peers. In fact, the first top-down game was a 2D shooter called Spacewar developed in 1962.. After releasing several games for the Atari 2600 and other computer-based consoles, famed Pitfall! We're glad it did, because it's still a blast to power up our blades today. 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