[Retro On] Playing through the top 100 NES games! [NSF56K]

AlyceInWonderland

Oh wait, I remember now. My first NES game was definitely Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt.

Hours and hours of playing that game only to die thousands of times and never beat it. I loved SMB so hard when I was little (...and now).

House of Paincakes

UncleSporky wrote: »

You are a good man. Always glad to see some classic NES playin'.

Also, I know you probably aren't taking requests, but I wanted to let you know about two NES games that are not on your list but worth checking out: Gun-Nac (space shooter) and Shatterhand (punchemup sidescroller with great music). They are not well known by any means but they're the best NES games I've come across since the classic era.

I don't want to go too deep into "Why isn't XXX on the list?!" but seriously, EVERYONE needs to check out Shatterhand. You run around punching fools and the cool mechanic was the little robot buddies you got. You find these blocks that show a Greek letter (alpha, beta, etc.) and when you get three of them, you get a robot. Depending on the letters you picked up, your robot will be different. You can change the lettering on the blocks by punching them so you can always mess around with different robots. One of my favorites for sure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ-42KqgwXE

Delzhand

There's been some discussion of great games not on the list, and I'd like to say that Power Blade is pretty high on my list. I only discovered it this year, but it's a platformer that uses the enemies of Megaman, Castlevania, and Mario 3, has the tight controls of Megaman, and features an Arnold Schwartzenegger clone who throws razor boomerangs (with pretty good return physics for an NES game) and can transform into a energy-beam shooting Robocop. It's filled with powerups that let you throw more/faster/further/stronger boomerangs. There are grenades, but the default weapon is so cool I never use them. The levels are about 1/4 Metroid, 3/4 Megaman in complexity - there are multiple ways to go, and you'll go up, down, and backwards about as often as forward. The music is also as catchy as the NES Megaman tunes.

I don't know why it never caught on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiluQeNoBT4

Brainiac 8

Woo, I still own Powerblade for my NES. :^:

House of Paincakes

Powerblade looks pretty cool but man, those running animation sprites are awful

Skull2185

I think that anytime there is a "top -number- games on NES" list, SMB3 should claim the number one spot. My fondest early gaming memories come from that game. It was damn near perfect in every way also.

Slagmire

Still got to question the placement of several of these games on your list and how some are missing completely - but you said it yourself: it's your list. So far, I like what you're doing here - keep it up.

EDIT: I do see you thought about adding a suggestion list though. Here's what I might add:

Startropics II
Super Spy Hunter
Metal Storm
Mighty Final Fight
Vice: Project Doom
Ninja Gaiden III
Chip n' Dale's Rescue Rangers
Mission: Impossible
G.I. Joe
Rescue: The Embassy Mission
RollerGames
The Lone Ranger

UncleSporky

House of Paincakes wrote: »

Powerblade looks pretty cool but man, those running animation sprites are awful

What are you talking about, I run like that all the time

lionheart_m

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

Woo, I still own Powerblade for my NES. :^:

I was so dissapointed with Power Blade 2. Just like I was with Power Punch 2 aka Mike Tyson vs the Universe!

Brainiac 8

Never played Power Blade 2. Hurry up and get to Mega Man 2, good sir.

Toxic Pickle

I noticed that Top Gun isn't on the list anywhere either.

Not that it was a super great game or anything, but it's a game that deserves notice for the fact that if you could land on that fucking aircraft carrier, you should probably apply to the Air Force.

Brainiac 8

Urg...Top Gun...the bane of my existance.


The AVGN was right on point with how utterly craptastic and cheap that game was.

UncleSporky

Toxic Pickle wrote: »

I noticed that Top Gun isn't on the list anywhere either.

Not that it was a super great game or anything, but it's a game that deserves notice for the fact that if you could land on that fucking aircraft carrier, you should probably apply to the Air Force.

Man, that's a whole separate sorta list.

Slagmire

Toxic Pickle wrote: »

I noticed that Top Gun isn't on the list anywhere either.

Not that it was a super great game or anything, but it's a game that deserves notice for the fact that if you could land on that fucking aircraft carrier, you should probably apply to the Air Force.

There are many... many things wrong with this statement.

Arikado

I remember Top Gun. I literally demanded my dad drive me back to the video store to exchange it back when I rented it for a weekend as a kid. I claimed it was "broken".

Toxic Pickle

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

Urg...Top Gun...the bane of my existance.


The AVGN was right on point with how utterly craptastic and cheap that game was.

That was one of the best episodes the Angry Video Game Nerd ever did. He could not fucking land on that carrier. It was even funnier when he later did an episode on the Nintendo Power Glove, to show how shitty it was....

Except he actually managed to land on the carrier while using the glove. The look on his face was priceless. Even if it was scripted, I laughed my ass off.

Brainiac 8

Not to mention that the level after that you had to align up with another plane to refill on gas.

If you couldn't do it, the plane left and it was then IMPOSSIBLE to finish the level since your gas would run out.


God I hated that game as a kid, and still do to this day.

eatmosushi

This thread is going places.


(Defender of the Crown goes here)

Brainiac 8

Just realized that two of my favorite games on the NES is on your list, and I can't wait till you play them: The Guardian Legend and Maniac Mansion. :mrgreen:

Idx86

Batman was so much fun, but hard as shit.

CowShark

I think the first game I ever beat was Dragon Warrior.

River City Ransom was my favorite game to play with a friend. Glad to see it's in the list, or I would post up some bitchin'.

Although I wish the Terminator 2 video game was on there. There's a level where you need to not kill people in the hospital, so you have to shoot them in the knees all level! Brilliant!

Toxic Pickle

Seriously, I consider River City Ransom to be one of the best games of all time. It was such a simple brawler, but the co-op was just fantastic, as were the character animations, and the fact that you could use anything (including enemies and even your own friend!) as a weapon.

It's one of those great games that just couldn't be done today.

Spicy_Rev

I do love RCR. I think getting that on Virtual Console made getting a Wii worth it. I think you could do that game today, but you need the same character models. It made it so worth it.

Also, I am pretty sure that I beat a few games before this one, but I distinctly remember beating Rampage and it had that terribly unsatisfactory ending. It can not be forgotten.

Tomanta

Idx86 wrote: »

Batman was so much fun, but hard as shit.

This. I think it may have been my favorite Batman game until Arkham Asylum. Which doesn't say much for the franchise.

The list is missing Metal Storm . I remember renting that and being blown away by the graphics (my have we come a long way). Plus you can change gravity at will!

UncleSporky

The best part about RCR was that it was one of those rare games that was not Nintendo Hard - it punished you for dying, but it was not terribly punishing. It's one of the first action games I remember with infinite lives. Also that infinite life with no penalty cheat with two players, if you can manage to leave the screen before the other player is fully dead.

Morvidus

My god, I am definitely subscribing to this thread. I rememer doing 10x the chores for my parents when I was a kid just so I could have enough allowance to buy half the games on this list.

My NEStosterone is definitely getting the better of me.

Spawnbroker

Hey guys, thanks for all the support! I went to see Avatar and Sherlock Holmes today, and both were really good! I tried to bring along Bill and Ted to play while waiting in the theater, and boy was that a mistake; this game is genuinely terrible. I don't know how it made the top 100.

I am going to have to use a walkthrough every step of the way for this game. I couldn't figure out the fucking phone book without a guide, because it doesn't explain it very well in-game.

Delzhand

Toxic Pickle wrote: »

Seriously, I consider River City Ransom to be one of the best games of all time. It was such a simple brawler, but the co-op was just fantastic, as were the character animations, and the fact that you could use anything (including enemies and even your own friend!) as a weapon.

It's one of those great games that just couldn't be done today.

BARF!

Spawnbroker wrote: »

Hey guys, thanks for all the support! I went to see Avatar and Sherlock Holmes today, and both were really good! I tried to bring along Bill and Ted to play while waiting in the theater, and boy was that a mistake; this game is genuinely terrible. I don't know how it made the top 100.

I am going to have to use a walkthrough every step of the way for this game. I couldn't figure out the fucking phone book without a guide, because it doesn't explain it very well in-game.

I rented that game as a kid. I couldn't even get started. Then, like 18 years later I must have looked it up on Gamefaqs or something - you have to dial the number that's flashing red or something? Just to begin playing the game? Fuck whoever thought that up. Even if it was in the manual, rental games didn't usually come with them.

SteevL

I rented Bill & Ted when I was a kid, but my only real memory of it was playing the wild west level. And it was isometric. It didn't really leave an impression on me, good or bad.

toolbert

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

Just realized that two of my favorite games on the NES is on your list, and I can't wait till you play them: The Guardian Legend and Maniac Mansion. :mrgreen:

I put waaaaay too much time into that game when I was a kid and yet I didn't beat it till I was about to finish High School. It was still tons of awesome. I liked the mix of shump and Zeldaesque gameplay.

I think the first game I ever finished was Megaman 2. That game, for a while, was the only thing I would play trying to beat it faster each time. Man, now I want to go back and play it D:

EclecticGroove

I loved me some River City Ransom. And another NES game I spent waaay too much time on was Clash at Demonhead. I had so much fun with that game.

Spawnbroker

toolbert wrote: »

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

Just realized that two of my favorite games on the NES is on your list, and I can't wait till you play them: The Guardian Legend and Maniac Mansion. :mrgreen:

I put waaaaay too much time into that game when I was a kid and yet I didn't beat it till I was about to finish High School. It was still tons of awesome. I liked the mix of shump and Zeldaesque gameplay.

I think the first game I ever finished was Megaman 2. That game, for a while, was the only thing I would play trying to beat it faster each time. Man, now I want to go back and play it D:

You're encouraged to go back and play any games I am playing and tell us how it went

That's part of why I decided to post about this, to bring back old memories of NES games we played as kids.

Edit: Oh and if anyone has any tips / tricks for any games I am currently playing, post them! It'll certainly help me out if I haven't played them before

darren66

Maniac Mansion is on that list?

Dude, you have to play that to conclusion - I can't believe they fit that game into a NES.

Delzhand

Wow, you guys aren't kidding about Shatterhand. It's a blast.

Taya

The first NES game I ever beat was Tiny Toons Adventure. 8-)

I beat Super Mario Bros for the first time on the Virtual Console.

The first NES game I ever saw was the original Zelda. I didn't know "the Nintendo" could play more than one game. Nintendo = the game with the three hearts in the corner.

Brainiac 8

Spawnbroker: Did you try what I said about Spy Hunter?

It's worth trying for a hoot.

Spawnbroker

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

Spawnbroker: Did you try what I said about Spy Hunter?

It's worth trying for a hoot.

I tried it out, couldn't get it to work

I had to move on to other games though, because I have a looooong way to go. I haven't hit a true RPG yet, and I know those will take most of my time. I believe The Magic of Sheherazade is the first real RPG I will be playing.

Spicy_Rev

While not a great game, I have fond memories of Karnov. That ball-headed dude could shoot some fireballs. I never understood for one second what the plot was or why anything was happening, but dang it was fun to play.

Brainiac 8

Karnov was wonderful fun actually, except those blasted mummies took so many hits to die....or un-die....or something. O_o

Apothe0sis

This list fails in every respect. I am so utterly appalled that the words escape me. Why is U-Four-Ia not on this list? I'm shutting this thread down for violations against the universe.