When colors are matched you guessed it they disappear. Along the way you'll explore via many, many knightly leaps lofty treetops, labyrinthine caverns and an unexpectedly tall castle tower. And this time Mario doesn't steal the spotlight. Every Ice Hockey player discovered their own perfect combination of men, and then it was on to the ice. 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. While Qix was never lauded for its graphical flair, the NES got not only the look but the mechanics of this strange geometric puzzler down perfectly. Shadowgate's unique spin on the point-and-click concept spawned several spiritual successors like Deja Vu and The Uninvited on the NES, as well as its own direct sequel years later on the Nintendo 64. The key to not being obliterated is, of course, power-ups. Gargoyle's Quest II was the sequel to the Game Boy original Gargoyle's Quest, a game that was itself a spin-off of Capcom's Ghosts 'n Goblins starring that series' infamous flying red demon as its hero. I'd always have the 30 man code active in the beginning, but eventually stopped using it as I got better over the years. Fantastic. I didn't care that it was ugly (and it was), the platforming goodness of Mickey Mousecapade was surprisingly addictive. Life Force's moderate difficulty sets it apart from its peers in a genre generally geared towards the masochistic. Yes, Fred who's just hopped into the backyard and touched a radioactive reactor that mutates him into an enormous amphibious monster. Although the NES had trouble tackling some of its arcade contemporaries, games like 1981's Qix were a perfect match for its capabilities. A game no one bought, but everyone had. Navigate up the ramp of a moving semi and you'll instantly up your arsenal. Baseball Stars is unequivocally the best baseball game, and overall sports simulation, the NES ever saw. 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 remember the one clue you had to solve by soaking an included piece of paper in water to reveal it the answer. But after Baseball Stars hit the shelves (and subsequently flew off of them), expectations on what a sports game could do changed forever. Watching elaborate slams and suplexes in the glorious 8-bit cinematics captured my imagination immediately. And so the Battletoads Rash, Pimple, and Zits were born (kids love acne, right?). Platformers were my favorite genre during the 8-bit generation thanks to Mario and Alex Kidd, so why wouldn't I fall for Castlevania? This intense top-down shooter fills a retro-fied void on Xbox One and Series X with its wild brand of gory gameplay and thematic celebration of 80s culture. Find these and other excellent NES titles in our online store. Also, it was the closest thing to "Gleaming the Cube: The Game" as I could find. edited 2y. Well, the only Vertical / Horizontal switching shooter that comes to mind on the NES immediately is Legendary Wings. 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. These days, though, I can't help but chuckle at the highly suggestive between-round power-ups. Asset Pack 'Spy Fighter' NES. 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. Axelay combines top-down and side-scrolling shooting stages into a masterful SNES shooter that really has fun with the console's Mode 7 techniques. Use that sword and you'll understand why this one has certainly earned its classic status. We could only afford a new game every few months growing up, and when we were stuck with a game like Kung Fu, you might think we were disappointed. Batman didn't try to do anything unique, but rather took a cue from a few already-established NES staples to make Batman a fun, worthwhile experience. 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. That's awesome! 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. The visuals weren't as vibrant and the animations weren't as fluid, but the gameplay was spot-on. I guess it's no wonder that Super Metroid and Metroid Prime remain my two favorite games of all time. The day this one was conquered was when I finally found Game Genie codes, booted up two players and made sure either my brother or I stayed alive to keep the progress on our assault. But those few weeks I spent with Metal Storm remain precious. I could whip through Super Mario Bros. in 10 minutes without losing a life, but progressing Link toward his final battle was an epic undertaking and one filled with surprises and satisfying rewards throughout. Despite the unparalleled hype, no one was disappointed. 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 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. As a kid, Shadowgate was straight spooky. Back in the day of the NES, the now-common occurrence of franchise flooding was seldom a problem. I'm a lifelong boxing fan, so being able to "sim" matches this early was something of a breakthrough for me. If one company was known for its amazing licensed NES games, it's Sunsoft. You had driving levels, featuring an overhead viewpoint straight out of Spy Hunter. R.C. A uniquely saccharine shooter, Stinger pits two quite capable, but very pastel space cruisers against some deceptively cute enemy forces. This game mixes amazing platforming with some quirky gun and driving missions; almost like Bayu Billy, if that game didn't suck and instead played like Ninja Gaiden. Yeah, it can do that too. Wyatt Earp's Old . Any discussion of Contra wouldn't be complete without a nod to its iconic 8-bit soundtrack. 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. The place was red and full of aliens to shoot or avoid 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 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. - Colin Moriarty, IGN Guides Associate Editor. Some of them are good. 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. 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. The current-day Ninja Gaidens have a reputation for being overly-difficult, but it was this NES original that initially set the trend. The sluggish junker you start out with is soon augmented with shields and weapons of your choosing. The Tetris cartridge was circulated amongst us and our various neighbors forever after collected dust. Cruising the skies unhampered by the copious random battles of surface travel is truly exhilarating. This fantastic racing game was the first game I owned for my NES and it kept me hooked for weeks. Blades is notable for much more than being an early advancer of recorded voice-work in gaming, though, as its take on professional hockey was brutally realistic (in that it realistically presented the most brutal unofficial aspect of the game fistfights). Whatever!). Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Millipede Nintendo Entertainment System NES 1988 Box and Manual only Authentic at the best online prices at eBay! In Kid Icarus, gamers take the role of Pit. Once all four had been collected, the legendary titular sword "Crystalis" could be created. 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! This is another one that really paved the way for others too. Overworld puzzle-solving was equally as important there was even a riddle that you couldn't solve unless you opened up the physical game box and read a piece of paper packaged with the game. Mega Man 3 is the epitome of what the NES offered, and though less-fondly remembered than Mega Man 2, is another must-own for the console. I love games with invincibility codes and considering the number of cheap enemies you fought, it was a good idea to leave it on. Now, try them out for yourself! A balanced team, for instance, may include two Fighters, a Black Mage to deal damage and a White Mage to heal. If you are wondering, that formula is one part Aliens, two parts First Blood, and perhaps a dash of Predator to keep things exotic. Naturally, it was only a matter of time before a videogame followed the television show and toys. The late, great Little Samson saw extremely weak sales in the US and so it usually comes up short in the Fond Memories department. Rescue Rangers also ratcheted the difficulty down quite a bit, making it a good experience to share with a less-skilled partner. The most anticipated game on the NES, SMB3 had nothing short of a feature length film (The Wizard) plugging it before it hit store shelves. What makes the game so special, then? One could get lost in the sea of statistics the game tracked for you, the endless roster customization, the hiring, firing and outright creation of players, and amazing gameplay. 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. 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. Fighting enemy parties that never consisted of more than one enemy, the original was about narrow-minded preparedness. Released in 1988, it pioneered something very important for the racing genre. Then you've got "Ninja," which summoned up the best emotions from Ninja Gaiden, the Ninja Turtles and Zen: Intergalactic Ninja. And then there was Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, the follow-up to the smash hit The Legend of Zelda. Now if I could only figure out what that tank game with huge bosses was. After a few minutes with Contra's militant anthems you'll want to put your controller down and headbang along. 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. Castlevania was not only a brilliant vid, but the music too is timeless I can still hum it on cue. 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. Add it to the list! I found it hilarious that Nintendo had to shrink down Little Mac to a third the size of his replicate the arcade version's over-the-shoulder effect on the NES hardware, but even with the compromise, the game was better on the NES! 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. I couldn't stand the cartoon (I was a DuckTales sort of guy), but to my surprise the game was an addictive platforming masterpiece. And did we mention your car can transform into a boat? 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. 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? Little Samson arrived at the tail-end of the NES era, when most gamers had moved on to newer, although not necessarily better, consoles. 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. Although it featured a very simple premise to collect gold while avoiding enemies Lode Runner advanced the action-puzzler by adding level deformation to the gameplay mechanics and therefore dynamic solutions to environmental challenges posed. Perhaps the NES's only intentional B-game, Zombie Nation is actually pretty fun, and always good for a laugh. Out of all of the games on the list, Journey to Silius might have one of the most interesting histories. Dozens and dozens of games have spawned from this very title, the first of six Mega Man games released on the NES, and for good reason. The Deadly Tower of Monsters. This was so I could put on different weapons and gloat (because once you don the final tier of weapons and armor, you can't remove them). There is an art to snagging territory, and players eventually must learn how to manipulate the irrepressible Qix itself. 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. It wasn't so. Sure, Castlevania is only six stages long, but you'll require a lot of luck and skill getting through even half of it. Star Valor is a space-themed action RPG with top-down shooter elements that puts you in control of your own spaceship and destiny out in the cosmos. Nintendo was pretty heavy handed about content on the NES, so some of the ribald stuff in MM was yanked. The answer is multifaceted it's the ability to play a season and track statistics. 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