Honestly, that still amazes me, it was so much better than all of those it was nuts. And that's saying something when I was surrounded by a dozen new G.I. In the realm of 8-bit graphics and extremely limited storage space, Nintendo RPGs (and other RPGs of the time) had a difficult time telling expansive, immersive stories. For instance, a giant mouth spouts out vortexes that suck you into a side-scrolling stage with a creepy worm mini-boss. It's like Marble Madness turned into a platformerand it worked! 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. Oops. It's a weird gory little body horror shooter, you're working your way through a giant planet-sized being trying to rescue a princess who's the last surviving member of her race. But after the Wonder Boy series went in the direction of RPG-lite, I was happy to have Master Higgins keeping the flame alive on his trusty skateboard. Above all else, what surprised me most about Rescue Rangers is that it was so fun to play. Using awesome spy tools hood mounted machine guns, oil slicks, smoke screens you could take on each enemy in style. If one company was known for its amazing licensed NES games, it's Sunsoft. Sunsoft's Batman, released Stateside in 1989, bucked convention, both old and new, and provided gamers with what proved to be an awesome action-oriented experience full of deep gameplay and immense difficulty. 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). The cast was so memorable and the experience so well defined that many elements were kept completely intact for the recent Wii re-imagining of the game there's no improving on the perfection of King Hippo, Great Tiger or Glass Joe. American gamers weren't privy to subsequent releases until Dragon Warrior VII hit the PlayStation in 2001. Game Boy-shmameboy! I was one of those poor saps that actually enjoyed a similar and ultimately less impressive game, Legend of Kage, so I took to this game immediately. He's hidden himself inside the enormous, Tower of Babylon-esque World Tree a massive, multi-leveled living structure that holds the entire game's worth of town, fortresses and enemy lairs within its roots, trunk and branches. The Deadly Tower of Monsters. This game was much tighter in control and actually gave a better sense of accomplishment to the player. This game eats 8-bit novices for breakfast to this day. Each stage is procedurally generated and features certain objectives that need completed. Initially, this appeared to make the game much easier, but in fact, Ninja Gaiden II's difficulty could easily be considered on par with the original, if not for different reasons. The ridiculousness of the premise was only matched by the difficulty of the game's control scheme, and the superb 8-bit soundtrack that accompanied all the hungry, hungry action. Its fast-paced 2D action style made it a game preferred by those with quick reflexes, and its arsenal of weaponry, which can be chosen from a Mega Man-like menu, gave the gameplay variety, with certain weapons working best against certain enemies and bosses. With little emphasis on the scaled-up world of the titular chipmunks, many of the things lying around the inflated settings could be picked up and used as projectiles on exploration. And since everybody seems to be teaming up, you may as well take on the combined forces of the Dark Queen and Shadow Warriors with a pal the game's difficulty seems to indicate that it's built for two. Armed only with a brick-zapping raygun, your only defense in Lode Runner is the ability to bury your opponents alive, thus freeing them of an enticing pile of gold. This made it a prime game for high score hunting, with certain parts of the experience that were of the make and break variety. Kickle Cubicle's appeal seemed to be centered in its balanced approach. The Big N's amazing 1980s home console reinvigorated the videogame market with classic, genre-defining games including Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. 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. A stagnant, square-shaped screen presented the player's blobbish character with a puzzle. And if that five dollar coupon on the manual wasn't enough, Pizza Hut ads even made it into the game itself one of the earliest examples of that kind of advertising in gaming history. In fact, the first top-down game was a 2D shooter called Spacewar developed in 1962.. But in reality, the games were different enough, and Ice Climber so much better to me when I finally played it, that I felt silly for ever thinking that. 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. What a glorious game, from the overall design down to the visuals and music. 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. If Battletoads & Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team strikes you as a bit gimmicky, we've got news for you: it is! It was also the longest Mega Man title in the classic series, reintroducing all of the Robot Masters from Mega Man 2 in addition to an extended trek through Dr. Wily's dangerous castle. This isn't the Super Mario Bros. we oft talk about as one of the most groundbreaking games to ever be released. is the original masterpiece boxing game that isn't really about boxing at all. Or you can just skip the work and enter the Konami Code to get fully powered up in a matter of seconds. Now why couldn't real NHL be like that? It's flashy, it's clever, and it's one of the few puzzle games worth revisiting on the NES. Don't worry, Fred! The sequel to the original Mega Man was quick on the heels of the first, with barely a year in between the release of the two titles in the United States. Mega Man started the craze. That's where Nintendo stepped in and published the game itself for a spring 1994 release. You took on the role of a nameless hero setting off to save a village of Elves who are slowly being poisoned by the magic of the malevolent Evil One. In it, our metal-clad protagonist, Kuros, sets out on a quest to save not one, but several distressed damsels (and we're not talking about some ugly dude in mushroom regalia). But after getting used to Castelvania's inherent control quirks, what was found was a smooth action game rife with suiting atmosphere and difficult gameplay. The Konami code let me finish this co-op version of Gradius. Sure, Duck Hunt's gameplay was as simple as pointing-and-shooting, and one could easily cheat by standing an inch from the television. Unlike the Adventures of Lolo series, which was unforgiving in its difficulty, Kickle Cubicle's difficulty spikes were much more reasonable. In Klax, a conveyor belt feeds tiles that can be stacked in columns. One of the major debates among NES aficionados is the sheer amount of ports that appear on the console, and how many of them are inherently sub-par to their arcade counterparts. But if you venture into this territory, be ready for unforgiving difficulty, one of the game's hallmarks. One of the counter-examples to this argument is Mario Bros., an NES port that's not perfect when compared to the 1983 arcade original, but one that is about as close as can be expected, with smooth gameplay and crisp graphics that do the original proud. The Guardian must thwart the planet's demise by setting off Naju's self-destruct sequence before it reaches Earth. May meet, because Castlevania III allowed gamers multiple paths as they progressed through the game. The permutations through Mega Man were many, giving the game great replay value. 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. After ripping open all of my other presents, all I cared about was Mega Man 3. Excitebike was one of the 18 launch titles for the NES here in America, and distanced itself from the pack by offering truly addictive motocross gameplay. 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. In a sort of desperate-sounding effort to distinguish itself from other puzzle games that may happen to feature falling colored blocks, Klax's title screen boldly proclaims that "It is the nineties, and there is time for Klax." Feeding jellybeans to Blobert to transform it into different items and it was fun just to experiment with, such as making a blow torch with a cinnamon bean and a rocket with a root beer bean. Have you played the Lost Levels? 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. The nameless Boy and his pet Blob would overcome obstacles, defeat enemies and progress through the game by way of using special Jellybeans that would allow the Blob to become different objects and perform different feats. More importantly, this clever title takes platforming's greatest crutch gravity and turns it on its head. Gradius' unique power-up system makes for some tough decisions: do you beef up your defenses in order to tough out that inevitable meteor shower? It was sort of like Mega Man meets Strider, which I thought was spectacular for the time. Baseball Stars is unequivocally the best baseball game, and overall sports simulation, the NES ever saw. Thanks to Saberman who contacted us earlier today, we have yet another Amiga news story to share with you all. Cue Dragon Warrior III, the third game in the long-running RPG series from Enix, a game that came only a couple of years after the original landed stateside. You worked your opponent into submission, going for the pin, and victory gave you the chance to take on tougher challengers, but not before training your chosen warrior to be stronger with interstitial mini-games. Ask anyone who played this game extensively and they'll tell you, it was one of the hardest games of all time. programmer and designer David Crane abandoned his traditional Activision backing, formed Absolute Entertainment, and went on to create what has become known as one of the NES catalog's quirkiest games, A Boy and His Blob: Trouble in Blobolonia. If you missed their heyday in the '80s and '90s, Micro Machines were essentially the same thing as those other toy car brands they were just smaller; about half the size of the others, in fact making them really, really tiny. Buy Buy Buy. Death Rally is a top-down combat racing game developed by Remedy, published by Apogee, and distributed by GT Interactive Software. Each can be one of six diverse character classes, which dictates their role on the frontlines. I had hoped there might be some special secret, which there wasn't. Punch-Out!! This is a game that looks,. This NES follow-up refined and focused what started on the portable platform, offering a polished action experience married with overhead map and town exploration ripped right out of the best RPGs of the age. Perhaps the best example of the NES's capability at adapting and even improving on arcade games of its era, Contra offers the best shooting action on the NES and is also the console's definitive multiplayer experience. And for the most part, franchises that did flood the NES were of a high quality. 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 North American sequel to everyone's favorite game does not disappoint. But rest assured that like the original, Ninja Gaiden II's difficulty level is nothing to scoff at. Go find a movie of it if you don't believe me it's amazing. Voodoo?) But man, the game delivered. You could upgrade its engine, increase the rate of fire of its bullets, increase the number of its bullets, give it the power to fire secondary missiles and even wrap it in a force field. As a big fan of Final Fantasy's class system I was one happy little kid when I fired up Dragon Warrior III to discover that it had added a similar job system of its own. Little did I know that Nintendo put the NES hardware in the arcade cabinet. It wasn't so. Asset Pack 'Spy Fighter' NES. The gameplay is of the classic action-platforming variety. I still equate the smell of bananas to Mega Man 6 to this day. I remember the one clue you had to solve by soaking an included piece of paper in water to reveal it the answer. Little Nemo's cover art of a tyke in his pajamas most likely resulted in it finding its way into the hands of many a NES gamer's little sister, which is where probably where I first chanced upon it (I had a strict "no girly games" policy when I was 10). If you can stomach the Princess in all her pinkness, her levitation ability will get you over the game's widest gaps. It looked extremely impressive for its time and I loved the soundtrack. Re: Top Down Shooter Engine. 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. Although you control Mickey, Minnie accompanies you throughout the Mousecapade, which plays out as sort of a puzzle-solving platformer. River City offered a city to explore filled with rival gangs more than happy to smash things over your head if you happen into their territory. To this day I still vividly remember the cutscenes that showed my sword becoming more powerful. 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. Essentially the '80s answer to The Lord of The Rings films, it was a fantasy film written by Star Wars' own George Lucas and directed by Ron Howard it starred Warwick Davis as a hobbit-esque Nelwyn and none other than Val Kilmer as his brash human companion Madmartigan. Post by nia_prene Sat Jul 03, 2021 9:07 pm. Taking cues from open-ended adventure games like Metroid, you'll need to find certain weapons and equipment to progress in Bionic Commando, and that sometimes means returning to area you've previously visited to take care of unfinished business. to aid him in reaching new areas. I guess it's no wonder that Super Metroid and Metroid Prime remain my two favorite games of all time. Not too shabby. Fast forward another 15 years or so and I spend my nights playing Call of Duty 4 while he frequents games like BlazBlue. You'll find a few other games that got thrust into the limelight the same way on this countdown, like VICE: Project Doom. As I played it for the first time in two decades, I recalled many afternoons spent with the cutesy Twinbee fighters. 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. Aside from its special place in history, however, Kung Fu is also a rewarding example of early "beat-'em-up" videogames in all of its 2D glory. So what if it wasn't originally a Mario game? I will always have a special place in my heart for the original Super Mario Bros., but it was this sequel that took platforming to new heights with tighter controls, more complex levels and, of course, special upgrades like the Super Leaf and Tanooki Suits. . 2. 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. Perhaps. 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. Though the dog, mocking me with laughter, encouraged delinquency. With a friend you can tag-team your opponents. 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. My favorite design was the fighting system: the loser of the fight heads to the penalty box. "Blades of Steel!" shipped in two forms on the NES, one featuring Mike Tyson as the final boss and the other with him removed. And Christmas of 1990 was when I finally got my hands on the game I would be obsessed with until this day. This makes it all the more mysterious that he appears as a strapping naked dude on the cover, but hey, those were different times. And what gamers found in Mega Man 2 was something seen in few games since a title that was virtually flawless. The inability of the NES to more accurately render detailed animations continues to be one of the system's greatest charms, though, so it's no real negative against the game, just a chuckle-worthy aside that might leave you just a bit embarrassed today. You can collect power-ups by "juggling" bells on heart-shaped beams of pure love, thus altering their colors and endowing you with different abilities. Metal Storm's awesome tech inspired me to seek out games with superior graphics, ultimately leading me to the used game store to trade in my NES and all my games, including Metal Storm, for a Genesis. Using a sort of glorified stamp tool, you could concoct you own mixture of bricks, ladders, ropes and baddies, then set it to life. The heroes of Ikari Warriors, Ralf and Clark, even went on to cameo in several of those later games, you can play as them in several King of Fighters sequels, as well as the most recent Metal Slug installments. Top. on the NES is a straight port of the top-down shooter arcade game that sees up to two players clear different stages featuring paths, hordes of enemies, and powerful bosses. The key to Jackal's success, like so many other games on this list, is cooperative gameplay. Oh, and they advertised this sucker like crazy in comic books at the time (no, really). Rad Racer doesn't disguise its arcade origins; in fact, it unabashedly rips off SEGA's arcade contemporary, Out Run. 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? 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