Your favourite NES games of all time!

[i_hate_flying]

I've been trying to remember what my favourite NES games were in a sudden bought of nostalgia lately. I owned (still own, they're all in storage) maybe 40 or 50 of these games. Which games are your favourites?

So far, from my collection, I've remembered:

Crystalis (one of my favourite games of all time, I ever created a book of drawings and writings for a sequel when I was a kid)
Strider
Ninja Gaiden I-III
Bionic Commando
Battle of Olympus
Dragon Warrior I-IV
Final Fantasy I
Faxanadu (I wish they'd make a new one)
River City Ransom!!!!
Rampart
Ultima Quest of the Avatar
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Castlevania I-III (II the most)
Metal Gear I and II
Blaster Master
Zelda I and II
Shadowgate
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Contra
Double Dragon I-III
Maniac Mansion
Duck Tales
Super Mario 2 and 3 (2 the most)
Fester's Quest and Adventure Island used to drive me nuts so I wouldn't say they're faves
Life Force
Ikari Warriors I and II and Jackal are worth mentioning
Metroid
Bomberman
Mega Man's
Marble Madness

Had Bad Dudes, Heavy Barrel and The Guardian Legend and played them a lot, but they're not my favourites really

I think I've forgotten some important ones for some reason.

 

[mi1ez]

Some important ones? Like maybe Duck Hunt!

How about Excite Bike!

 

[mi1ez]

Konami Hyper Soccer!

 

[mi1ez]

Konami Hyper Soccer!

 

[i_hate_flying]

I was just thinking about RC Pro Am and Excitebike actually

Never played Konami Hyper Soccer.

 

[mothhive]

Kung Fu
Goonies 2
Mario 2 and 3 (3 the most. Was so excited seeing it in a shop right after watching The Wizard )
The Castlevania series
Metroid
The Double Dragon Series
Duck Hunt
Tetris

 

[boonality]

Definately RC ProAm and Exitebike. But also Mike Tyson's Punch out and All of the Mario Bro's, and tetris.

I still play Mario 1, 2, & 3 on the Wii I have a super nintendo that i still regularly play yoshi's island and tetris and Dr. Mario.

 

[ducker19]

I agree, RC ProAm is a classic.

 

[i_hate_flying]

Ah yes, SMB 3.

It just so happened that my step-mother went on a trip to Tokyo in the winter of 1988. She said she would bring something back for me. That woman, being the kind of person she is, always put a lot of thought into gifts. When she came back from her trip, she had not only Super Mario Brothers 3 for the Japanese Famicom system, she had the grey adapter that allowed the game to be used on US NES consoles! It appears some wise old Japanese gamer with a white ZZ Top beard was knowledgeable enough to supply her with everything she needed. Either that or they got a lot of Americans going there for the games before they hit the States. I don't know, it was 1988 after all. I do remember there being a ridiculous amount of time between when I got that game and when it finally got released in the States. Definitely more than a year.

The best part? The day after she returned, our school was cancelled because of snow and I got to stay home all day and play. I think half my school showed up at my house on their bikes or on foot anyway, despite the road conditions. I was 10 years old.

To this day, I still don't know WTF those little mushroom dudes throughout the game were saying to me because I've actually only played the Japanese version. Good memories, those. If I wasn't only 10, I would have realised that game import would potentially be big business and I would have gotten rich!! Haha.

 

[reconviperone1]

METROID, THE BEST GAME EVER MADE PERIOD.

 

[Ananan]

Definitely Romance of the 3 Kingdoms. That game was SO far ahead of it's time.

I guess I was ahead of my time too, loving strategy games as a youngster.

edit - I almost forgot the NES version of Ghosts and Goblins. I played that to death; never did finish it. It was too hard.

 

[i_hate_flying]

Definitely Romance of the 3 Kingdoms. That game was SO far ahead of it's time.

I guess I was ahead of my time too, loving strategy games as a youngster.

edit - I almost forgot the NES version of Ghosts and Goblins. I played that to death; never did finish it. It was too hard.

Rot3K is still ahead of its time!

Oh man, that Ghosts and Goblins. I never threw or smashed controllers, but I really wanted to. I HATED that game. I thought it was for the SNES??

 

[dmroeder]

Certainly Metroid.
T&C Surf
Skate or Die

We used to play Tecmo Bowl on a projector. A bunch of drunk dudes playing nintendo on a giant screen = total chaos. I remember fights breaking out over it. Good times.

We'd play gauntlet too. That game never ended

For some reason, I liked Rygar too. I remember playing it all weekend until we beat it. You couldn't save the POS, so you had to keep playing. Really it was a pretty crappy game, but for some reason I liked it.

I have a good friend that is not really a video game guy at all, but he could destroy Dr. Mario. Nobody could beat him on two player.

 

[gta_bmx]

I'd add the following:

RBI Baseball (the first one with the chubby/cartoony players, the later ones sucked)
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out
Tecmo Bowl
Donkey Kong
Karate Champ
Kung-Fu

On a sad note, my wife recently threw out an unopened, still factory sealed "Nintendo Action Set" which came with the control deck, the zapper, and a copy of Super Mario Brothers/Duck Hunt. Someone had bought it for her developmentally disabled brother back in the 1980's. But he already had an NES, so they just put the new one in his closet in case his original NES ever died. The original one hasn't died yet, and he's since moved onto GameCube. And in a fit of spring cleaning while I was away on a business trip, she pitched the factory sealed Action Set in the trash. Women. :-(

 

[tmeacham]

River City Ransom
The Adventures of Bayou Billy
Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode
Golgo 13: The Mafat Conspiracy
Final Fantasy
Stealth ATF
Dragon Warrior
Tecmo World Wrestling
Shadowgate
Strider
Mega Man
Conflict

 

[robwright]

Castlevania forever!

 

[nickc07]

On a sad note, my wife recently threw out an unopened, still factory sealed "Nintendo Action Set" which came with the control deck, the zapper, and a copy of Super Mario Brothers/Duck Hunt. Someone had bought it for her developmentally disabled brother back in the 1980's. But he already had an NES, so they just put the new one in his closet in case his original NES ever died. The original one hasn't died yet, and he's since moved onto GameCube. And in a fit of spring cleaning while I was away on a business trip, she pitched the factory sealed Action Set in the trash. Women. :-(

I am not much of a collector and I am also too young to remember the NES, but what would that have been worth? I mean a factory sealed game system that is 20 years old.

 

[JonathanDeane]

Silent Service was great hmmm I liked all the usual hits SMB, Castlevania, I also liked Monopoly... Zelda part 1 was good hated 2.

Edit: Favorite of all time though? I would have to say I loved LifeForce. That game was hard but not impossible to beat and just really enjoyed it.

If this was the SNES the choices for my all time favorite would be much much harder but I would have to say it would either be Street Fighter 2 Turbo or Gradius III.

 

[steve_c10]

Duck Hunt for sure...and Zelda (Thought the cartridge was made of real gold...damn young age)

 

[infornography42]

Two words.... Bubble Bobble.

 

[Alex The PC Gamer]

OMG, Bubble Bobble!

-Pro Am
-Ice Hockey or Blade of Steel (both were good)
-Punch Out
-Zelda: Link (I think it's the second one - it came in a gold cartridge)
-Mario 3
-Mega man series
**Edit**
-Contra
-Double Dragon
-Ninja Turtles
-Ninja Gaiden

and.....*drumrolls*

-Battletoads!

 

[GrandAdmiralThrawn]

Zelda
Mario bros 3
Battletoads
contra
Arch Rivals (I wish real basketball worked that way )

I forget the name but it was a raceing game were you saw the track from above, me and my brother would play that one but we found that the computer was pretty hard to beat so we teamed up he would race and I would drive the wrong way around the track and crash into the computer cars and wreak them, after awhile my brother's was the only car not on fire

another one that we liked but I don't remember the name was a side scroller game and you are ninjas but the ninjas can transform into things like a tiger or a scorpion or a bird, I remember it was fun but seemed to be quite difficult.

I am wondering does it seem like those older games were a lot harder than many current ones?

 

[infornography42]

Yes, older games were much harder. When games became more about story and characters and backgrounds, they became less about being absurdly difficult tests of manual dexterity and mental acuity.

So much is this the case that if you say to a gamer that something is NES hard, they know you mean REALLY F'n HARD.

 

[chmod000]

Oh christ...flashback city.

Nice one on Golgo 13 Trav...killer game.

For pure finger-bleeding mayhem it's gotta' be Track N' Field...I don't think any other game ever had so many people trying to figure out the best way to hold the controller while button mashing to the extreme. People were using their feet to hold the controller and all other forms of Yoga contorsion.

Rob's probably right (no pun intended!) with Castlevania. I STILL remember beating Dracula, after about 20+ tries, and then throwing my controller in pure disgust when the beast or whatever it was busts out and takes his place. I didn't play it again for like a month in personal protest. I think I eventually beat him though.

Others would be:

Super Mario Bros.
Zelda
Metroid
Contra
Kung-Fu Master
Excitebike
1942
10 Yard Fight (here comes the boooooooomb!!)
Commando
Double Dribble
Ikari Warriors
Karate Champ
Solomon's Key

 

[surrealdeal]

what's the one where you're in that space ship, and you turn into a chick in a thong?