For instance, a giant mouth spouts out vortexes that suck you into a side-scrolling stage with a creepy worm mini-boss. Pro-Am, and cast players as the captains of a high-speed, heavily-armored attack ship cutting through tropical waters to take on sharks, rival watercrafts and giant sea serpents. 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. The inspirational forerunner to just about every worthwhile baseball title of the past twenty years, SNK's Baseball Stars is one of those rare games that still stands up today. It's a good thing, too, since this was the last Dragon Warrior game to appear in the United States for nearly a decade. I can't tell you how many hours I left my NES on simply because I wanted to show off my created course to a bunch of my friends. Cue Fester's Quest, a 1989 offering from Sunsoft that put gamers in the role of Uncle Fester, a character from the 1960s sitcom The Addams Family. 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). Using a sort of glorified stamp tool, you could concoct you own mixture of bricks, ladders, ropes and baddies, then set it to life. And besides, the game was officially backed by Fred Savage, the ultimate gaming Wizard. 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. Pro-Am was one of the first games to ever give your car the ability to attack and damage your opponents' vehicles with bombs, missiles and oil slicks to ensure that the competition wasn't going to make it to the finish line first or even arrive there in one piece. 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. Once you beef up your defenses, you're free to start amassing a sprawling arsenal, making aiming your shots somewhat irrelevant. I should fix that Near the end of the NES' lifecycle, puzzle games were THE craze. 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 the original is still the best, which is probably why it was singled out for a Game Boy Color release ten years after its Nintendo console debut in 1999. The Ice Climbers, as the two starring characters are popularly known, are relentless lovers of the alpine trek, and they'll stop at nothing to climb mountain after mountain just to reach its apex, where untold valuable items can be found. 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. Ignoring Nintendo's claim to the Tetris name in the US a year later, Tengen released its own version of the world's most famous puzzle game on an unlocked, unofficial cartridge. You'd leap off the peaks in your path and go flying through the air, and have to adjust the angle of your descent in order to maintain your momentum and keep from crashing and you'd also have to keep an eye on your engine's temperature gauge all the while, as overheating would cause lengthy cool-down delays that would likely keep you from claiming first place. Goonies never say die! More than any other past gaming console, the NES was the birthplace of long-lived mascot characters. The detailed, cartoon-like graphics go a long way towards easing the pain of the game's extreme difficulty, as does the inclusion of cooperative play at least you have someone to blame when you run out of continues on the second level. Batman taught me the meaning of "envy;" I went to a neighbor's house and played it all day, mastering the diabolical wall jump platforming challenges, and I wanted the game for myself. The Boy was virtually helpless without his Blob and his stash of flavored Jellybeans, making this title an interesting mix of action-adventure and puzzle gameplay. To capitalize on the puzzle trend, Nintendo threw its first-party hat into the ring and released Dr. Mario on the console just in time for the 1990 holiday season. Platforming with zombies and mummies? The game I consider the best of all-time is a flawless experience. This was a defining day for my brother and I, though I'm sure neither of us knew it then. It appears Dr. Wily is behind the madness yet again. By the time Mega Man 5 was released, many imagined this would be the Blue Bomber's last foray in the 8-bit world. Either way, there's a lot to see and like about Fester's Quest. The Guardian Legend's developers went on to craft several more classic shooters on platforms beyond the NES, and modern game makers like the creators of Sigma Star Saga at WayForward Technologies continue to laud the game for its innovations in genre-blending. Of course, you don't have to hit the mean streets of River City alone. Today, the game known as Tengen Tetris is a rare title to have in your collection, but it's a worthwhile play. The catastrophic data loss that resulted ruined many a gamers' month. Although it's actually the second entry in the predominately Japanese TwinBee series, the re-branded Stinger was the only entry that saw release on the North American NES. What Top 100 NES Games list would be complete without Duck Hunt? Sweet game. In fact, I liked Willow so much that I'd put it up there on my top list of NES RPG favorites with games like Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy and Crystalis. My brother and I used to go there on weekends to rent games, and we rented Mega Man 2 so many times that the owners of the store eventually offered to sell it to us. The entire game can be played with a wingman, but make sure whoever it is can appreciate a heaping dollop of cuteness, served Japanese-style (with extra "cute" on the side). 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. While Niki is a game that hasn't aged as well as titles like Super Mario Bros., if you grew up with it, as I did, the nostalgia factor has you covered. The only game that ended up rivaling this excellent design was Konami's Blades of Steel, but the two were different enough to own and enjoy both (which is why you'll find Blades on this countdown). We're glad it did, because it's still a blast to power up our blades today. Ask anyone who played this game extensively and they'll tell you, it was one of the hardest games of all time. In 1983, there was nothing cooler than sitting in the cockpit of Spy Hunter at your local arcade to cruise the streets with the Peter Gunn theme blaring in your ears. Another home port that differs from the arcade, this one has a cheat code that makes Astyanax invincible (except from pits). It's like Marble Madness turned into a platformerand it worked! As a major Wonder Boy fan, I naturally thought Adventure Island was some kind of rip-off. But back on the NES, there was no besting LucasArts' Maniac Mansion for deep, involved and genuinely funny pointing and clicking action. 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. These sequences were parlayed into the game's labyrinthine dungeons as well. 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. 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. Unfortunately, virtually all televisions today render the game unplayable, so a new generation of gamer has yet to be exposed to the wonder of duck hunting and skeet shooting. The care gameplay is right on, the visuals aren't bad at all, and it stinks of Mega Man inspired robot blasting. Fast moving platforms, icy terrain and blocks that couldn't be broken by your mallet ruled the day, and Ice Climber got excruciatingly hard in the latter stages. Or you can just skip the work and enter the Konami Code to get fully powered up in a matter of seconds. When the game culminates on the sixth and final stage, Scrooge is a force to be reckoned with. 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. Capcom considered the NES obsolete at this point and refused to publish the game in the United States. Saturday Night Slam Masters 1993 | Capcom Ad Ad - content continues below Wrestling games were extremely hit or miss in the 8-bit and 16-bit. Super Mario Bros. was a smash hit, and its American sequel was a completely different type of game. Meanwhile, the company worked rapidly behind the scenes to override Nintendo's infamous lockout device that kept unofficial cartridges from being played on its console. You had sniper shooter levels, like those you might remember from The Adventures of Bayou Billy. If you rammed into a player often enough in a round of Blades, he'd lose it, throw down his gloves and start pummeling the snot out of you right on the spot. Don't be. Find these and other excellent NES titles in our online store. How did we pick the games? The ability to choose your own path had my permanent attention. Match three games were starting to gain in popularity when Klax came out. But even if we never see it again, it's earned its spot on this countdown. Wizards & Warriors is the debut title of a classic, if depressingly anti-climatic NES trilogy. Welcome to the 80's. Oh, and they advertised this sucker like crazy in comic books at the time (no, really). The current-day Ninja Gaidens have a reputation for being overly-difficult, but it was this NES original that initially set the trend. Crazy how that happens, no? It wasn't even that compelling. Viewing it from afar, I was disappointed, thinking she bought Track and Field. And guess what? When the old-style gameplay was combined with these myriad new additions, Castlevania II was so deep you could drown in it. Asset Pack 'Spy Fighter' NES. If you are wondering, that formula is one part Aliens, two parts First Blood, and perhaps a dash of Predator to keep things exotic. Tecmo World Wrestling's main gameplay screen split the action, with the core wrestling taking place on the top half on the screen while the television's lower portion was dominated by the text bubbles of an overly enthusiastic ringside announcer calling all the play-by-play. It had two player support so even when my feeble, under-developed child hands couldn't hack it my bro could step up and dominate and the addition of not only top view but also side scrolling portions sent my infant-like brain into convulsions. Strongbad may be cool today, but LucasArts' SCUMM adventure ported to the NES set the bar over 20 years ago. Mega Man is one of the best examples of great graphics, amazing music and near-perfect gameplay rolled into one cartridge. Duck Hunt is the game that immortalized forever Nintendo's light gun called the Zapper, and was certainly the game that used the underused peripheral more than any other. Seriously, those Turtles love eating pizza. Zelda II's entire system suggested it was trying to be more of an RPG, and in many ways, it was a huge success. 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? A pretty solid movie, really. 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. It may be hard to believe, but at one point Zombies were a greatly underrepresented class of brain-dead enemy in videogames. Mascot characters these sequences were parlayed into the game known as Tengen Tetris a. In comic books at the time Mega Man is one of the best of all-time is flawless. Turned into a side-scrolling stage with a creepy worm mini-boss the end of hardest. Gamers ' month a force to be reckoned with of a classic, if depressingly NES. 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