Gaming Best NES Games

[satan665]

Hoping that some of you are old enough to have had a nintendo (8-bit) or maybe just played on emulators. What I want this thread to be about is the best NES games; and tell a little bit about them and why you liked them. Do as many as you want. (try not to repeat what others have already listed)

Some of the Classics I'll get out of the way:

The legend of Zelda: This was a great game for nintendo. The levels weren't linear, so you could go wherever you could manage. It was challenging enough without being too frustrating. The music was ok, where basically anything that wasn't super-annoying could be considered good for nintendo. Zelda really set a standard for NES games that few lived up to. You could increase your health, had a bunch of useful weapons and tools and there was a bunch of secret places you had to find. I can still play this game today and be happy doing so.

Contra: This is one of my all-time favorites. playing 2player coop, where you can work together well, or just try to jump so that the other player falls through the bottom of the level and dies. If you do that though, the 2P controller can affect the jumping of the first...and he can steal your lives too! None of the later Contra games were as good as the first. No story, you just drop down and start shooting until your hand gets tired and you destroy some evil alien brain thing. The spread shot was the best weapon, but I liked the Laser personally.

[Semjaza]

Hmm allright.

Goonies II - I've always loved this game. It was rather revolutionary for its time. A weird combination of action and adventure and it even has some RPG-esque elements. By today's standards it's incredibly vague and you get lost rather easily... but if you keep trying, you'll make it. Thankfully it has a password screen so you don't have to do it all at once.

Basically the Fratelli's somehow get out of prison again. They kidnap and hide all of your friends and for an unexplainable reason, a mermaid. You play as Mikey. You go out with your yo-yo and try to save them and finally the mermaid. Obviously it has little to do with the movie in any remote sense.

It's set up rather strange. There are areas that you go between. Towns, caves, basements, etc. You travel between areas mostly via doors and there's a bizarre variety of characters to meet.

Clash at Demonhead - This is my favorite NES game. It's another action adventure. This time you play as a secret agent known as Bang who is on a quest to rescue Professor Plum and stop the Doomsday Bomb. You run around a very large map fighting monstes, meeting some friends and learning new abilities. I think it's as fun now as when I first played it.

Battle of Olympus - This is, for all intents and purposes, a Zelda II clone. However, in many ways it is quite a bit better. In a few other ways, it's not quite as good (insane amounts of monsters that have projectiles you can't dodge, for example).

The game follows Roman/Greek mythology. It's quite a bit of fun. You can actually name your character and the girl you're trying to same in the story as well. Gameplay is a lot like Zelda, but with money and a lot more abilities to learn.

Jackal - Awesome army game from Konami. You drive around in a jeep and blow stuff up. Tanks, helicopters, trucks, etc. It's a lot of fun.

That's all I feel like mentioning for now heh.

[Shinmaru]

My favorite NES game has always been Super Mario Bros. 3. It was the game that got me hooked onto gaming for good...I had been playing games for a couple years, but never for any long length of time. SMB3 changed that. I would play the game for [i]hours[/i] every day. It was that much fun. I loved it to death. The power-ups, the levels, the bosses, the graphics, the music...it was all just so damned awesome.

The Legend of Zelda: Adventure of Link is probably one of the more underrated titles for the NES (though, it has undoubtedly received more attention because of Zelda: Collector's Edition). The game was radically different from the original Zelda but it was still an awesome game in its own right. I never got [i]close[/i] to beating it when I was younger, though. The game, quite literally, ripped me a new one.

Gauntlet was pretty cool, too. Who can deny the action of Gauntlet? I know I can't. I never got close to beating that game, either. I was really bad at games when I was younger lol. The action was solid enough to keep me interested, even after I would get killed endlessly.

[Guest Crimson Spider]

River City Ransom: One of the first (a pratically lost genre) wandering-fighting games. I say that it was ahead of it's time, because it looked crisp, had a very good system of play, and the ability to upgrade your character as you choose.

[Fyodark]

hmmm yeah theres alot of good NES games out there

Dragon Warrior: First RPG I ever played, and its actually not bad when you consider it was one of the first RPG's of its type, and on NES, but I have a special affinity for it, just because it was the game that introduced me to RPG's.

Trog: This game was just fun. 2 player mode beat out single player, but either way whats not to like about running around collecting eggs and eating cavemen?

Megaman (all of the NES ones): One word can describe these games: difficult. The Megaman games' actual game [I]size[/I] is insanely small compared to the amount of time you spend playing it, simply because you die, and die again, and then think you'll pull off a level, but die yet again. This challenge kept you coming back for more and eventually feeling great about yourself when you finally beat the game.

The Adventures of Lolo: Blockpushing and puzzle solving at its 8bit greatest, 'nuff said.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Great coop action game.

Um, I'll drop another reply if I think of more that deserve mention (without just rambling on about every good game that comes to mind).

[satan665]

Jackal is great, I loved when you rescue a bunch of hostages and get blown up, and they fly all over and the second player can steal them.

Kung Fu: For some reason this is one of the games I never get tired of. It only has five levels of side scrolling, with a boss at the end of each and endless streams of people trying to hug you to death. It doesn't really matter much though, I never run out of fun playing it. I've managed to beat it through 4 times once, after you win your girlfriend gets captured by faster bad guys. The hardest part of the game is the wizard. he's the boss of the 4th floor and is a real pain. You can kick his head off of his body, but he grows it back uninjured!

Bad Dudes: The game is actually pretty bad, the the opening line is:

The president has been captured by Ninja's
Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the president?

That opening nominated it for me.

[Guest ScirosDarkblade]

LIFEFORCE!! Well, and Gradius 1. Both killer. Sure, they're hard, but I still think that Lifeforce is the best spaceship arcade shoot-em-up there's ever been. Partly because of its music. The Gradius music is some of the best out there. Anyway, that game is definitely in my top 10 for NES.

TNMT 3: The Manhattan Project. Another killer game. Some of the best co-op action ever, and it is way better than TNMT 2, in large part because the Turtles had different super moves. Also its music was great. Overall it's a classic, and anyone who's played it would agree. Even TNMT 4 isn't as fun for me.

[Magnum Apex]

[color=darkblue][font=trebuchet ms]There are so many...

Punch-Out!! - A classic from Nintendo. You controlled a skinny, short, apparently defenseless little kid named Little Mac (I think that was his name), and you faced off against bigger, stronger, and very colorful opponents. The game was all about timing, as you had to both wait for an opening to throw a punch, and calculate the time in which you had to press left or right in the d-pad to avoid one yourself. In the end, you'd face off against a seemingly impossible opponent, none other than the controversially insane Mike Tyson. I'm proud to say I was able to beat him, once, which I believe is accomplishment enough.

Mega Man 2 & 3 - In my opinion, the best NES Mega Man games. I don't need to tell you how great these games are. While some may find the series outdated, shooting around while jumping platforms and stealing the Robot Masters' weapons was all the fun you needed in the 8-bit era.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game and The Manhattan Project - While the first game was decent, I found it extremely hard and sometimes boring. The sequel was a port of the arcade classic, and it was beat-em-up bliss from there. The Manhattan Project became my favorite of the NES series, which I believe wasn't an arcade original.

Shadow of the Ninja - I'm still hoping Natsume revives this classic in the same way TECMO revived Ninja Gaiden. Shadow of the Ninja may be lesser known these days next to Jaleco's Last Ninja and Team Ninja's masterpiece series, but the game was packed with then over-the-top action, challenging bosses and creative level design.

Super Mario Bros. 3 - I think Super Mario World was Mario at his prime, but 3 was [i]way ahead[/i] of its time, and miles better than its predecessors, whether American or Japanese. I remember loving the green shoe I always hopped in, and with it come other great gaming memories.

Street Fighter 2010 - Believe it or not, not until a few months ago did I realize this game was, in fact, a branch of the SF universe. I made the connection once, especially with "Ken" as a playable character, but I thought CAPCOM just used the same name by coincidence, or CAPCOM of America mistranslated the title. The fact that it was a platformer didn't help matters, either. It was still a very fun shooter, though.

Ninja Gaiden series - I don't think I need to get into the details. This series basically tried to do everything with a limiting hardware, yet it succeeded, and for that it deserves praise. Quality storyline, music, gameplay, graphics and difficulty, these games had it all.

Double Dragon II and III - Parapapa papa, parapapa paPA! The theme from the second game's first level will forever be stuck in my head. River City Ransom did a better job with this genre, but at the time I preferred DD over RCR, probably because the characters looked better and the levels were more fun to look at and play in. DDIII is my favorite, as it introduced better use of weapons, and the graphics were exponentially improved. Heck, the playable brothers even made an appearance as bosses in... oops, almost gave it away.

Paperboy - The surreal life of a paper delivery kid. If riding a bike in my neighborhood were [i]that[/i] fun, I'd be doing it even at 21.

Dr. Mario - While people played Tetris, I played Dr. Mario. Obviously inspired by the Russian classic, it was fun on its own, as it offered a slightly different take on the sub-genre.

Bart vs. the World - Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the NES game that had tons of fun Simpsons minigames? If so, that's the one I like. The title offered more variety than the previous Simpsons game did, where you had to fight aliens and co.[/color][/font]

[Brasil]

[quote name='Cyke][color=darkblue][font=trebuchet ms]Bart vs. the World - Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the NES game that had tons of fun Simpsons minigames? If so, that's the one I like. The title offered more variety than the previous Simpsons game did, where you had to fight aliens and co.[/font'][/color][/quote]
I have a vague memory of Bart skateboarding down the Great Wall of China, and another level seemed Metroid-inspired, with Bart jumping up an insanely long vertical corridor. I'm not completely sure that was from Bart vs the World, but I'm pretty sure it was. I don't think there were a slew of minigames in there, though. It might just be the varied gameplay and hazy memories merging to form a mutated recollection.

Pity someone has mentioned Contra already, so I'll bring up Duck Hunt.

Duck Hunt was the very first shooter I ever played, and I loved it. My dad preferred the clay shooting variation in it, but I got off on the pain I inflicted on those little ducks. Occasionally, I'd try to blast the dog, but to no avail. I recall having this gaming helmet contraption with a microphone for voice-activated shooting. That was a really great peripheral to have for Duck Hunt. Just a short "peh" and BANG. If only I could find the name of that helmet...Laserscope, I think.

[Heaven's Cloud]

[QUOTE=Cyke][color=darkblue][font=trebuchet ms]There are so many...

Punch-Out!! - A classic from Nintendo. You controlled a skinny, short, apparently defenseless little kid named Little Mac (I think that was his name), and you faced off against bigger, stronger, and very colorful opponents. The game was all about timing, as you had to both wait for an opening to throw a punch, and calculate the time in which you had to press left or right in the d-pad to avoid one yourself. In the end, you'd face off against a seemingly impossible opponent, none other than the controversially insane Mike Tyson. I'm proud to say I was able to beat him, once, which I believe is accomplishment enough.
[/color][/font][/QUOTE]

[color=indigo]Mike Tyson's Punch out is the [b]only[/b] reason to own the power glove...heh.

Renegade: This is one of the hardest games I have ever played. The object of the game is to walk through various parts of a city beating the crap out of gang members. You could pick up weapons and learn special abilities but it always seems like the various scene bosses are at least three or four times stronger than you. My most vivd memory if this game is losing over and over and over again.

Tiger Heli: Another impossibly hard game. The purpose of this game is to save various hostages wth your helicopter while fighting an entire war by yourself. You fight everything in this game, tanks, foot soldiers, antiaircraft guns, airplanes. It was one of those games that was so difficult that you would play it over and over just in an attempt to beat the third level.

Duck Tales: This was a pretty cool game. It was the Disney platform of a Mario Brothers game. You played as a very nimble Scrooge MacDuck who is trying to recover his stolen diamonds. The diamond were obviously stolen by monsters that resembled disney charecters, because monsters like diamonds. Scrooge's main weapon was bouncing off of people's heads with his walking cane.

Manic Mansion: I think it was out on the computer before it was released on NES. It was a very fun game, most Lucas Arts games are fun though. This game and Deja Vu got me interested in RPG's.

Deja Vu: Great game. This was one of the first point and click RPG's that I can remember. Sure it contained some pointless traps, but who doesn't enjoy clicking on a sewer lid only to be devoured by a alligator?[/color]

[Semjaza]

If you like Deja Vu, you might like The Uninvited and Shadowgate. They play the same, but with different locales and stories. Game Boy Color also got a game with Deja Vu and Deja Vu 2 in it... I don't think 2 was ever released here.

Dragon Warrior III - Dragon Warrior was my first RPG. DWII was good, but not what I expected. It was too vague, among other things. III, however, rocks. There's not as much character development as in some of the others, mostly because you create the three other members of your team.

The game is huge. You have a massive overworld, which alone is several times larger than the world in the original. Once you get past that, you wind up in the underworld... which is also pretty damn big as well. The cool thing about the underworld in III is that it's actual the main world in the first game in the series. This is because III is a prequel. Great game and even better in the Game Boy Color version.

Little Nemo the Dream Master - What an awesome game. You play as Nemo, a child in pajamas that has to defeat the evil in the dream world. It's made even better by your ability to get animals around the stages to join your cause. The weird thing about this is that you don't ride the animals, you actually go inside of them heh.

By the way, I have a longer thing about Clash at Demonhead here: [url]http://www.slownerveaction.org/1up/classics/nes/cad.html[/url]

[Hittokiri Zero]

Mmmmm... so many good games =).

The Legend of Zelda and Duck Hunt obviousley rank among the top of my list, the Duck Tales and Chip and Dale games were also pretty entertaining =). But nothing beats the greatness of Contra my friends and I used to spend hours playing Contra and surprisingly it never got old -_o. The original Contra is alot better than the newer ones so for anyone who plans on playing Contra try playing the original then moving on up so you get a better appreciation of what the game is really about.

[satan665]

Metroid: Definetely one of the best NES games. I think metroid was the best of the 2D games where you jump from platform to platform through levels. It was open-ended and you could get weapons and beat bosses in any way you could manage. It also had a female hero, which may have been a big deal at the time. I think Metroid was a pretty good balance of frustration and fun; it wasn't too hard or too easy. I just beat it for the first time a month ago, damn you mother brain!

Metal Gear: This game was just cool! You could sneak around and hide from guards and cameras, get a bunch of weapons, let yourself get captured,...there were a ton of things that were really revolutionary to the NES. The storyline was cool, with the guy walking you through the game starting to give you bad advice and try to get you killed. Then you find out he's the Big Boss (great name) you fight in the end. It had all kinds of cool equipment like remote missles and Oxygen tanks, a compass, land mines, cigarettes! The second game was a bit of a disappointment to me, but I really love this game. It parallels Metal gear solid almost completely if you've played both.

[Muad'Dib]

Two words for ya...

DUCK-HUNT! I'm surprised nobody else mentioned it... it's gotta be one of the original 'light-gun' games. Except you used the Nintento Zapper (R). Nothing satisfies a NES addict like sniping little pixelated ducks... and the clay discs.

OK, so technicaly, Duck-Hunt came as a double-pack for Mario Bros., but that's OK!

[satan665]

If you actually look, you'll see that Duck Hunt was mentioned more than once. Try to add new games.

[Muad'Dib]

Woops... my bad... Don't mind me, I'm just stupid ^.^