I suspect Mike will have something to say about the guts of this list of Top 10 NES Games. First, I’ll just say: this is what journalism has become? Create a slideshow of ten things and then copy and paste, directly from Wikipedia, the description of the games? Does the writer actually get paid for this?
Their list:
1.Bionic Commando
2.Excitebike
3.Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest
4.Metal Gear
5.Tecmo Bowl
6.Contra
7.Mike Tyson’s Punchout
8.Ninja Gaiden
9.The Legend of Zelda
10.Super Mario Bros. 3
Not bad, but I can do better.
The No-brainers
- Super Mario Brothers beats out all other games to the end of existence. The list really should start and end right here. Well, maybe start right here and end at Halo 2, multiplayer. But since it can’t…
- Contra. Okay, so the list really should stop right here. SMB and Contra.
- The Adventures of Link beats out Legend of Zelda, I think. Maybe. At the time, I liked Link better than Zelda. I’ve beaten Zelda as an adult and it still plays well. My copy of Link hasn’t made it so well through the years and so I can’t see how it holds up.
- Kid Icarus beats out Metroid. Metroid was fun, even if you couldn’t shoot down. I played it and beat it once. But Kid Icarus was the game I always wanted to play.
- The NES version of Gauntlet was graphically poor. But fun.
The Surprise Contenders
- Rygar. No saves. Lots of fun.
- The Goonies II. I don’t remember this game well enough to really describe it. All I know is that it was one of my all time favs.
- Ghosts N Goblins beats out Castlevania. Castlevania had worse joystick control than Metroid. Ghosts N Goblins had a knight running around in his underwear…
- Karnov beats out Strider. Strider was fun for the five minutes it took to beat it. But how can you not go with the fat, fire breathing Russian?
- Ultima III Exodus: aka My First RPG.
The Driving Games
I’m forced to stretch the criteria a little in this category. NES games really couldn’t compete with the arcade when it came to the driving games.
- RC Pro AM beats out Excitebike for first spot on the podium. Loved ’em both, but RC Pro AM was better.
- Spy Hunter: This game would be higher if it actually had an ending. Or maybe there is one and nobody has ever seen it. Its just an impossible game. Unlimited deaths for the first 999 seconds and then after that its two deaths and game over?
- Special shout out to the arcade version of Ivan Ironman Stewart’s Super Off-road: There was no feeling like using all seven of your remaining Nitros to squeak over the finish line into first place…
- Arcade Outrun easily knocks off the supposedly 3-D version of Rad Racer.
You Are Ninja Warrior!
- Kung Fu beats out Bubble Bobble. Kung Fu was a great port, even if it did leave your left hand hurting. Bubble Bobble was better at the arcade than NES.
- Double Dragon beats out Renegade.
- Legend of Kage beats out (overhyped) Ninja Gaiden. Ninja Gaiden, along with Strider, was one of only two video games I ever returned to the store (back when you could do such things: “No ma’am, I never opened it.”). Strider because I beat it in a night. Ninja Gaiden because I had other things to spend fifty bucks on.
Sports
- Punch-Out: Never beat it. I think I made it to Tyson once.
- Track and Field: I learned more about angles from Track and Field than I ever learned in school. 37.5 Degrees.
- Double Dribble: Too much fun. Until you saw the exact same dunk for the 1000th time.
- Ten-Yard Fight: Everyone remembers Techmo Bowl and Techmo Super Bowl. But for me, Ten Yard Fight, in the arcade, was the best. The game was so slow that it took approximately forty-five seconds in real time for a guy to run 100-yards. The NES port of Ten-Yard Fight was pretty true to the original. Oh yeah, and pretty boring now too.
- Super Dodgeball: Has to be on here.
Shooters
- Duck hunt or Hogan’s Alley? I’d choose Gotcha.
Special Bonus Mentions
- Arcade version of Icari Warriors. The NES version was impossible.
- 1942. Did they make an NES version?
The Omissions
- SMB3: showed up mostly after I had stopped gaming.
- Mega-Man and Metal Gear I just never got into.
How did we think these games were so awesome?! Those graphics are horrible! ha! But they were the coolest. I think my favorites were either Contra (which still rocks) and Spyhunter.
Watch your mouth Niki!
haha, I remember Strider, that “one night” was at my house. Good game, but way too easy.
Brian, your list is fantastic. I think you and I are the only 2 people on the planet who liked Adventures of Link better than the original. Kids these days complain it’s too hard. What does that even mean?
I’ll take issue with your Ninja Gaiden smack talk. I really disliked Legend of Kage. I couldn’t make sense of it. But I loved Ninja Gaiden. I beat the first two. The second when I was about 25. I still claim the third is unbeatable. My roommates and I played it non-stop for days and couldn’t beat it. You only got 5 continues. Period. No contra code, no nothing.
I also really liked Castlevania (the first one) but didn’t beat it until I was 25 (the same summer I mention above when we got the NES back out for about 3 months.)
For racing games, I’ll add Rad Racer, a noble attempt at 3D, and an opportunity to give a nod to Adam, as he’s the one who let me borrow it at the time. Speaking of Adam, I paid him $6 for a copy of Kid Icarus, that he STILL hasn’t given me……….
But yes, Kid Icarus is possibly my greatest game of all time. It was designed by the same guy who made Metroid (and consequently the Virtual Boy). they used the same game engine but Kid Icarus just did right by me. I bought a copy to download onto my Wii and still play it to this day.
As for Tyson, that game was great. I beat tyson dozens of times. I think with about 30 minutes I could beat him right now. 007-373-5963 is the code to go straight to him. I bought the new remake of Punch Out for the Wii and it is a blast. It brings back all the memories and then some.
Contra was great. I have great memories of beating that with Brian in his basement. We used the code. Natch.
Absolutely, Rygar was fantastic, and Karnov too. I think I borrowed Karnov from Joe Kennedy, or maybe Ryan Kimball.
I still remember the Adventure of Link vividly. Ryan Gray, Brian and i were all racing to see who could beat it first. We would get together at recess and share what we had done in the previous nights gaming sessions. Ryan and I were scared that Brian would beat the game first, so we concocted a story that each copy of Link had slightly different maps. So that even though we wanted to help, we couldn’t since our dungeons were in different places. This also enabled us to say we were further than we actually were. I don’t recall how it ended up, but I remember being nervous Brian would find out eventually. Great game though, and fighting your shadow at the end was mindblowing for this 13 year old.
I still have my old copies of the Fun Club News somewhere.
Mike,
I’ll just come out and say it. If I ever go to therapy, you’re trickery during the great Adventures of Link race of 1988 will surely be one of the things that gets discussed. Its not just the fact that my best friend lied. Its the fact that Greenpeace, honest to goodness Greenpeace, showed up on my mother’s doorstep one day because I had cut down so may trees in this freakin’ forest….
…that they thought that I was training to head down to the Amazon to destroy the rain forest. And no wonder. Day after day I would cut down trees and blow my flute and …. well… I don’t remember now what I was supposed to be looking for, but you can be sure that I didn’t find it.
Bastard.
I will say that I think the greatest aid in beating Link was this:
It was absolutely invaluable in beating the knights. Hold both buttons and push over.
Rygar, Karnov, Kung Fu: The Kennedys.
Metroid: Beau
The Goonies: Chris Derner
Zelda, Double Dragon, Kid Icarus: Bobby Sitzman
I knew it. This wound I caused festers even still, after all these years. What I did was inexcusable. As penance, I will go and hook up my old NES. I will dust off my Adventures of Link cartridge and I will go cut down every tree in that forest.
Also, a memory just struck me about that joystick. I owned one. I remember using it for top gun. Dang, thats a game I forgot. GREAT game. Anyway, on Top Gun, one button was for machine gun and one for missiles. Well, the joystick had it wrong. To my mind, machine guns should be the trigger and missiles the top thumb button. thats not the way it was wired. So I disassembled it and rewired it so it worked “right”. Probably my first “engineering” lesson.
And another thing. It had 4 suction cups on the bottom, but where were you supposed to stick them to when you’re playing in an easy chair? Initially I used a shoe box, but it quickly deformed and became useless. So I cut a piece of wood in a nice oval shape to sit on my lap as a place to suction the thing too. But naturally, it wouldn’t suction to wood as it’s too porous. So I cut out the front of a wheaties box, the glossy ones with a pro athlete on them and stapled it to the top of the wood. Then I could suction the joystick to it successfully. BTW I don’t think I ever beat the final boss in TopGun, as I recall, you had to blow up a……Space Shuttle? What?
Track and Field had to be one of my favorites and my 2nd and 3rd phalanges are still warped from hitting the buttons. Kid icarus is an awesome game and I truly believe Steve H. has it (along with all my soccer training videos). Don’t you remember skipping football practice heating up a totinos pizza, lounging in the basement and throwing chinese stars?
Remember? I’m doing it right now! I still love a good Totinos. Mmmmm. Delicious.
Although, I think the Chinese Star memory might be a few years prior to football practice. At least I hope. 🙂
I remember playing Spyhunter in Karpuk’s basement. Whenever I died on the game I would blame it on one of the little Karpuk’s jumping on my back (which did happen quite often). For some reason, Brian was the only person that ever owned that game on NES, but you could find it in every arcade around. I think Super Mario Brothers is the best (most original) game ever made. I did love playing Rygar, Icari Warriors and Metroid. Beau Fey had Metroid and could never beat it. He loaned it to us and Joe and I eventually beat it and I don’t believe we ever returned it to Beau. Kung Fu was also very awesome.