If you were raised on the original Nintendo Entertainment System, conjure up images of your childhood. What comes to mind? If you’re anything like me, it is probably images of Mario, Link, Little Mac, Samus Aran, Solid Snake, and the Howard and Nestor cartoons from the early issues of Nintendo Power Magazine. These are more than just iconic images from your childhood — they are old friends you may not have dusted off in years.
Let’s dust them off, shall we?
I could spend a thousand words or more just working my way through the tentpole games and characters and not touch on some of the other “classic” games which were part of my (and maybe your) formative gaming experience. We all know about Super Mario Bros (plus the two excellent sequels), The Legend of Zelda (the greatest game ever made), Mike Tyson’s Punch Out! (there can be only one), Metroid, and Metal Gear. We know these games. We love these games, though some more than others. They have created entire franchises which have spanned multiple consoles.
What about the other games? Well, some of these have spawned franchises themselves (some, better than others) and some would make your iconic lists, but there are a number of games I want to mention just in case you forgot.
The first is Contra. Wait, wait, you say. Contra is an iconic game that deserves that top level listing! I agree. It is. The reason I’ve dropped it down here is because of the Konami Code, which my friends and I called the Contra Code back in the day. You remember it, right?
Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right BA BA Start
Yeah, you remember it. Remember busting on that classic controller trying to get the code in before the start screen finished scrolling. Oh, yeah! That’s the code that gives you thirty lives and is arguably the only way to beat Contra. If you rented (or purchased) other Konami games back in the day you probably tried out this code on those games too. Odds are, it worked. Lifeforce? Absolutely!
All hail the Konami Code.
Never before had a game based on a tv show or movie been as good as Duck Tales was. You are Scrooge McDuck and are searching the world to find treasures to officially make you the richest duck in the world. There are five levels and a final boss battle. In a nice touch, you can tackle the levels in any order you so choose. African Mines, The Moon, Transylvania, Himalayas, and The Amazon. You use your cane as a weapon. Most commonly you will use the cane as a pogo stick, bouncing off enemies or off treasure, but you can also use it as a golf club to knock rocks and stuff at baddies. In my mind this is one of the best games released for the NES. I honestly believe that you missed out if you had a Nintendo and never played Duck Tales. Capcom nailed this one. Nailed it.
Double Dragon 2: The Revenge was, as one could imagine, the sequel to the first Double Dragon game. It is much, much easier. This is probably why I like it so much. You play as Billy or Jimmy Lee, the heroes of the first game, as they avenge the murder of Marian – the girl you rescued in the first game. Way to save the girl, guys. There’s nothing like vigilante justice, though.
Battletoads, on the other hand, was the answer to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. You’ve got two toads named Zitz and Rash and are trying to rescue Pimple. Sure, because pimples should be rescued. I didn’t get the chance to play the game often, and I do remember the game being rather difficult, but memorable all the same. Here’s the thing, despite the fact that the game was a presumed response to the TMNT series, I always felt that this was more of a Double Dragon style game. This would make sense two years later when the Battletoads & Double Dragon crossover game came out for the NES. Never played that one, but it sounds delightful.
Bad Dudes may have been an attempt to answer the popularity of Double Dragon. In Bad Dudes the President has been kidnapped by ninjas. It is up to you, as a bad dude, to rescue him. Now, ignoring the preposterous premise of the game (moreso, even, than Duck Tales). You’ll punch and kick (and jump) your way through the game and honestly, it doesn’t matter who you are rescuing. Being a bad dude, you are a brawler and you get the chance to beat up ninjas. What’s better than beating up ninjas? It’s a fairly basic game, and not exceptionally difficult, but it was a lot of fun.
Bubble Bobble is a simple concept of a game. You control one of two cute and squat dragons, Bub and Bob. You shoot bubble out of your mouth to trap and defeat enemies and you climb and jump your way through a variety of levels. I assume this game has an end, but I never found it. I’ll confess, though, that I didn’t make a concerted effort to beat the game. It was just fun to pick up and play from time to time. It is possible, however, that this game does not have an ending. Back in college I played Bugs Bunny’s Birthday Blowout (I think that’s the one…it was definitely a Bugs Bunny game) and I can honestly tell you that I spent four+ hours on that game and played through more than 100 levels and the game DID NOT END. I can only hope that Bubble Bobble actually ends. Regardless, good game. It is worth noting that this is the old school game (like Mario and Contra) where getting hit by an enemy will kill you. What’s up with that?
So long as there have been video games there have been baseball games. While I can appreciate the attempted realism today’s baseball games have brought to consoles, and I appreciate games like Bases Loaded back on the NES, and the original RBI Baseball with the squat little players will always be a favorite, but the baseball game that is tops is Baseball Stars. Baseball Stars stepped away from those squat little RBI Baseball players and provided a variety of lanky players and a number of pre-made teams with players you’ve never heard of. There was even an all women’s team, The Lovely Ladies. Besides the great gameplay, here’s what made Baseball Stars so awesome: You could create a team and then create players. Each win would net your team money and you can spend that on players. The more money you have the more you can spend on the best players with the better maximum stats. As you play, you can then spend money to increase the stats of your players until you make the ultimate team with the best hitters and pitchers. Oh, it’s awesome! This was revolutionary and it was good. There were cartoonish elements to the game, but SNK put in a solid baseball engine to build a fun game around. The music only added to the goodness. The only problem you would ever have is something you face with any NES game with a battery…losing your save. The horrors of losing your save!
There are all sorts of great (and not so great) games that I didn’t have room to talk about. Here’s a short list of some of them: Mega Man, StarTropics, Maniac Mansion, Faxanadu, Rygar, Jackal, River City Ransom, Ninja Gaiden, Rad Racer, 3D World Runner, Kid Icarus, Bionic Commando, Lode Runner, Skate or Die, California Games, Crystalis, Final Fantasy, Kung Fu, Dragon Warrior, Arkanoid, Balloon Fight, Hoops, Bomberman, Karnov, Castlevania, Friday the 13th, Ice Climber, Jaws, The Karate Kid, The Legend of Kage, Marble Madness, Super Spike V Ball, RC Pro Am.
Yes, that is a short list.
Tell us about some of your favorites. Which NES games did YOU love back in the day?
What an awesome nostalgic article! Yes, I remember a lot of those games, and I was never a gamer. I was probably the only kid in my school who never could beat the original Super Mario Brothers and I liked Super Mario Brothers 3 the best because Mario could turn into a cute racoon (hey, I was like 9 okay!)
Now I have the ‘Skate or Die’ theme song stuck in my head. And YES StarTropics RULED!!!!! I never played Zelda much though and I know I had a Double Dragon game but I don’t remember which one. Ducktales was definately awesome, and the baseball, basketball and the wrestling game too.
I believe there was also a Simspons game that I liked to play, but I’m actually shocked that I knew most of the games you listed :0) lol I didn’t think I was that into the Nintendo at the time.
Again, awesome article!
You picked out some good ones. I still have a lot of those. Here are some I thought of:
- Excite Bike
- RC Pro Am
- Double Dribble
- Tecmo Bowl
- Gauntlet
- Super Mario 3 was definitely the best of the three
That shortlist immediately springs to mind.
I preferred Zelda II over Zelda. “Hello. My name is Error.” Classic!
Among my other faves was:
Ikari Warriors
Golgo 13
Master Blaster
The Addams Family: Fester’s Quest
Mega Man II
Deadly Towers
Castlevania III
Wizards and Warriors
Ninja Gaiden II
Sqoon
Metal Gear (“I Feel Asleep!”)
Possibly one of my proudest moments of accomplishment as a lad was finally being able to get Mario to jump that last really long jump in level 8.3. From there, the rest was a snap.
Tecmo Bowl was good, but Tecmo Super Bowl was brilliant.
Clint: Golgo 13 was brutally difficult. I had problems with that one.
My Castlevania drug of choice was Part 2, Simon’s Quest (though I appreciate Part 3 and being able to play as Alucard and turn into a bat, and that one guy who can cling to stuff).
Wizards and Warriors almost got a place in this article.
But…what’s Sqoon?
Matthew: No argument on Tecmo Super Bowl. I had affinity for using the Rams and throwing to Flipper Anderson, though the Bo Jackson / Marcus Allen running back combo was delightful. I may have to find a copy to play on my Retro Duo.
Awwweeessome article. Mmmm… Nostalgia. I do remember the awesome Ducktales game, though I missed out on some of the others.
For me:
Super Mario Bros. 3
Mega Man series
Bionic Commando
Ninja Gaiden
Bart vs. The Space Mutants
There was another game I forget where you were a robo guy that cleared areas with bombs. I don’t think it was Bomberman…
That does sound exactly like Bomberman. Check out the link for the screen caps. I didn’t realize there was an actual story to it.
There’s also Mighty Bomb Jack, but there’s no robot and really no clearing stuff like Bomberman. Fun game, though.
I’m blanking on other possible bomb titles.
Steven: Excitebike is classic. Loved that game. The series is still going strong. They had a very well reviewed version on the N64, and a couple of games on the Wii: Excite Truck and <a href="http://wii.ign.com/articles/975/975068p1.html"Excitebots: Trick Racing.
Sadly there is no track creation on the wii games.
Er…I thought I was linking stuff….
Check Wikipedia for Bomberman and Mighty Bomb Jack, and IGN.com for Excitebike 64, Excite Truck, and Excitebots: Trick Racing.
Weird.
Found it!
It was Robowarrior. I was pretty sure it wasn’t Bomberman (also a good game).
By the way, if anyone still wants to play these games, I expect you can download some for the Wii on their Virtual Console for a fee.
And those that you can’t find there, you might be able to find internet downloads.
Alternately, there is eBay for the games and a console called the Retro Duo that will play NES and SNES games. There may be a couple games the console doesn’t play, and some games may have the sound jacked up a little bit (I have to assume that the music of Kid Icarus wasn’t always that bad), but you’ve got a shot.
The Wii Virtual console is probably the way to go, if you have a wii.
Anyone remember the show ‘Captain N the Game Master?” … sorry, I can’t leave this article alone LOL. Kid Ikarus was in that game but I don’t know who the rest of the characters were or if they were made up.
I LOVED Captain N the Game Master.
The characters I remember being on there regularly:
GOOD GUYS:
Captain N: I believe he was made up for the show, but he did use the NES light zapper
Mega Man: I think he was a character?
Kid Icarus: In more recent incarnations he is known as “Pit”, I don’t remember what they addressed him as there. I think he was kind of a sidekick character, always a little timid.
Simon Belmont: Of Castlevania fame, he was a boasting nincompoop who screwed things up as often as not.
Game Boy: This was a weird character, a 4 foot tall Game Boy. I never cared for him.
BAD GUYS:
Mother Brain: Of the Metroid series. She was the leader of the baddies.
Eggplant Wizard: Of Kid Icarus.
King Hippo: Of Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out.
When I was a kid I used to record some Saturday morning cartoons and watch them over and over. I might still have a tape of an episode of this. I think it was one with Wombat-Man, who was Kid Icarus’s hero using the same sort of gadget-arrows.
Wombat Man’s theme song was a close parody of the old old Batman TV theme, which I got a kick out of.
Besides all the regulars listed above, there were also guest stars like Dr. Wily (of Mega Man series).
I don’t remember Captain N at all, but what I DO remember is the Super Mario Bros Super Show!! There’s some live action Mario there (which, in retrospect, was just as bad as the Super Mario Bros movie).
That show was followed by the classic Zelda cartoon which featured Link saying “well, excuuuuuuse me, Princess!” over and over and over again.
In other news, I was playing Kid Icarus the other week and I absolutely HATE the Eggplant Wizard. Evil!
I hated the original Super Mario Bros. Super Show.
But I did actually like the later incarnations:
There was one based on Super Mario Bros. 3. Each episode had a new song which was catchy to my game-obsessed ears. “Do the Frog” still comes to mind. My favorite episode involved Bowser discovering a way to use multiple power-ups all at once. So he’s flying around with a racoon tail, tossing fireballs, while stomping with the Kurebei’s Shoe. If they’d made a game out of that concept I would’ve played it.
And then there was the Super Mario World cartoon show also. It wasn’t as good as the Mario 3 show, but that’s no surprise, since the game wasn’t as good either.
I was a loyal subscriber to Nintendo Power for a long, long time. My favorite feature of all were the comic series they did. I think this was what they did to fill space after Nester was discontinued.
They had a big comic series on Star Fox, and one on Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and one on Super Mario World, and I think one on Metroid. They had characters and plots that were never seen in the games so it wasn’t just a rehash. My favorite was the Zelda one, especially one added character. Link meets him in the Dark World and in that place this other guy becomes a hawk=man with wings, a beak, sharp talons, but still basically humanoid and able to wield weapons. That guy was my hero. I don’t recall his name.
Super Mario World was still an outstanding game, though. One of the best of the console (SNES)
I have to admit that I didn’t like any of the Nintendo-related cartoons that came out. And I’m the same guy that would watch “Meatballs and Spaghetti,” “Hulk Hogan’s Rock and Wrestling” and “Mr. T and Friends” all morning if you let me. Even I saw that these cartoons were shameless promotional gimmicks to sell me on more of what I was already addicted to.
Captain N. had like two of the worst pieces of NES equipment ever made. The Power Glove and the Light Zapper.
I got my first issue of Nintendo Power because I was a memeber of the Nintendo Fan Club magazine or somesuch. I had a membership ID and everything. Then, one day this thick magazine comes in with a badass claymation rendering of Super Mario Bros. 2, reviews of new games, and tips and tricks that helped me win two games I owned. My mind was blown. I subscribed for four years. Then everything got to be geared toward the Super NES, which not only could I not afford, but didn’t like the games much anyway. Thus ended the Golden Age of Nintendo and $50 a pop video games I just “had to have!”
Most disappointing game? Rampage. You could only play Lizzie and Kong, no wolfman. I paid $40 for the game and beat it in 2 hours. Never to play it again. Total ripoff.
Also was the game Athena. It was obviously marketed for 10 year old girls but had more glitches than Windows ME. Another terrible game: The Goonies. Gawdawful.
Auto Train uses enclosed car carriers and their rates are fairly high, starting at around $100 per passenger each way and about $200 for the car. ,