Wizards & Warriors is about probing every corner with your trusty blade for treasure chest, precious gems and the like. 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. It should come as no surprise that the man behind the rock is Yoshihiro Sakaguchi, a composer that worked on the Mega Man series, also distinguished for its 8-bit anthems. For instance, a giant mouth spouts out vortexes that suck you into a side-scrolling stage with a creepy worm mini-boss. Taito's iconic dragon duo's first outing is also their best. This was his debut hiding inside a jetpack-equipped flying spacesuit and advancing against the forces of auto-scrolling space invaders out in the darkest reaches of the galaxy. Popo and Nana are equipped with mallets to fend off enemies on any given mountain they're climbing, but it's usually hazards of a different variety that stymie the advance of even the most ardent of Ice Climber players. It's still a blast to this day and Tecmo should bring it back. What at first appeared to be an awkward platformer quickly revealed itself to be a true test of gaming mettle. A key eye for subtle detail was needed for success, as your exploration could often come to a sudden and gruesome end if you missed even a single key weapon or item early in the labyrinth. Whatever!). Note: the Power Glove will not enhance gameplay, but you'll look pretty darn rad, we promise. The game was extremely popular, resulting in an official sequel, a Game Boy Advance spinoff title, and a spiritual successor in the form of the PS2 game called Heavenly Guardian. Now you can see why I'm so messed up. Viewing it from afar, I was disappointed, thinking she bought Track and Field. Some people made maps. When the game culminates on the sixth and final stage, Scrooge is a force to be reckoned with. My best memories of Ring King are the epic fights I had on the higher difficulty levels. It was essentially a late generation Mega Man-esque science-fiction platform/actioner at its best. As far as legacy, we never would have had games like Symphony of the Night if the trail wasn't blazed back on 8-bit with Simon's Quest. Though a bit cumbersome to control with just an NES D-Pad and menu bar of potential actions to take, this tale of seven diverse high school kids exploring a kooky manor populated with wacky, blue-skinned mad scientists and alien tentacles was nevertheless addictive, thanks in large part to the great variety of ways to win. But Section Z separated itself from the likes of Gradius and Life Force with a non-linear path to forward progress after each side-scrolling section you successfully survived, you'd be presented with two different teleporters. Pit is a fledgling winged angel who is tasked with working his way out of the Underworld and to the Sky, where the evil Medusa has taken control. 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). With Mega Man veterans like Keiji Inafune and Yoshihiro Sakaguchi getting the most out of the technology, Duck Tales proved to be an amazing game in its own right. Oddly, I remember the original Mario Bros. as the first game I ever played on a big screen TV. The Deadly Tower of Monsters. Yeah, it can do that too. Oops. Now, try them out for yourself! This original and its sequel, Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II, are still fondly remembered by faithful Nintendo fans to this day for their unique and light-hearted twist on genre conventions. We'd head to Mr. Movies in Minnesota, I'd see the box art, freak out, and he'd pick up something else. And this time Mario doesn't steal the spotlight. 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 rudimentary, yes, but it extended Lode Runner's life indefinitely. But man, the game delivered. I remember getting this game like it was yesterday. Top. And what gamers found in Mega Man 2 was something seen in few games since a title that was virtually flawless. Things just get weirder from there, with household appliances eventually standing between you and whatever your adorable goal may be. Rygar's action/adventure gameplay elements have helped it attain a sort of "cult classic" status. Throughout the game's island world, which include tropical jungles, tepid swamps and cool caverns, our man Higgins happens upon various implements of stone-age destruction, like axes and, uh skateboards. Fantastic. And that's saying nothing of its amazing action-platforming gameplay, which was oft-replicated and never exceeded. Top-down shooter. Skate or Die brought gamers several different skateboarding events including downhill races, freestyle ramp competitions and a joust match fought in a drained swimming pool. No longer bound by primitive side-scrolling constraints, the levels of SMB2 can be freely explored, with secret areas, warps and more to discover. The game simply used the convenient foundation of the sport to construct a deceptively deep, endlessly addictive gameplay design that's all about pattern recognition, fast reaction times and comically over-the-top cartoon personalities. Yeah, it looks like a dress, but it really frees up his arm for easy decapitations. The game I consider the best of all-time is a flawless experience. The NES had its fair share of unique puzzle games, and Adventures of Lolo 3 might take the cake as the genre's quintessential title on the console. This was so I could put on different weapons and gloat (because once you don the final tier of weapons and armor, you can't remove them). The original Battletoads was definitely awesome, but I seemed to favor the design that paired up those TMNT-ripoff characters with the classic brawler characters. 2. 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). Capcom seemed to remove Mega Man's classic foil, Dr. Wily, in lieu of a new creator of evil robots, Dr. Cossack. In this list, I explore ten of the best shooters to be released in North America for the Super NES. All of the terrain was interconnected into one big map, an idea later expanded upon and matured by the SNES's Super Metroid. American gamers weren't privy to subsequent releases until Dragon Warrior VII hit the PlayStation in 2001. Eventually I did finish it five years after the game was released. Get the Best NES Shmups Here These are by far the best NES shmups for any retro gamer to try. It's like Marble Madness turned into a platformerand it worked! Oh, and they advertised this sucker like crazy in comic books at the time (no, really). - Matt Casamassina, IGN Nintendo Editor-in-Chief. Completely unlike anything else at the time. Konami's classic NES hockey sim started out with exactly that, which was incredibly impressive for the time. The music rocks, the night/day system inspired my brother's own work with Shantae, and like Zelda II it's truly unique among the series. You had driving levels, featuring an overhead viewpoint straight out of Spy Hunter. It's one of the earliest games that convinced me that RPGs were my favorite. Enix had added a ton of new features to the game, and the build up to going out and getting it was up there with getting Final Fantasy II for my SNES. I came back the next day to challenge Joker, but I don't think we ever beat him. Thankfully, Sunsoft didn't throw this game into the dumpster after losing the Terminator license, because Journey to Silius is one of those seldom-played but everyone-should-play-it NES gems. A hit among the new RPG crowd that was developing around Nintendo's 8-bit console, Dragon Warrior III continued with conventions set by, of all games, Dragon Warrior II. Using awesome spy tools hood mounted machine guns, oil slicks, smoke screens you could take on each enemy in style. The gameplay is of the classic action-platforming variety. But one has to travel back to the fall of 1985 to find the origin of these two arctic explorers, who first appeared in one of the launch titles on the NES, Ice Climber. 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. Taking a chance on a game with a title like "Wizards & Warriors" in the video game section of my local rental store was a risky venture in an era of a crappy Dungeons & Dragons-inspired RPGs. But that didn't matter. After a few minutes with Metal Storm you'll pity Mario for being such a ground bound chump. I only bought this game several years later, but in the meantime, I got a Mega Man 5 sticker in a box of Apple Jacks, and stuck it to a shelf in my room. 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. I remember seeing this game being pushed on the Home Shopping Network months before it was available in stores. put you in the rookie shoes of underweight title contender Little Mac and challenged you to duck, dodge, jab, hook and uppercut your way to success against one of the greatest rogues' galleries of ridiculous opponents ever assembled for any videogame, ever. I had a password that started players at (or near) the final town, but with all the ultimate weapons and armor still unequipped. Thankfully, Tecmo decided not to tinker with Ninja Gaiden II too much, and what resulted was yet another smash hit for its fictional ninja protagonist. The original Mega Man is perhaps best-known, however, for its staggering difficulty level. Once again I say "screw you Angry Nintendo Nerd" with this one. And here's the kicker the pit stop comes to you! You sped through a scrolling track, weaving up and down into and out of four parallel lanes filled with obstacles, traps and humongous hills. I always thought Ice Climber was just another way to repackage Mario Bros. "It's just the same game with a bunch of white," I thought. Tecmo's long dead and more recently revived series Ninja Gaiden got its start on the NES in 1989 with what's considered one of the best, most difficult action platformers ever. What a glorious game, from the overall design down to the visuals and music. The ever-flatulent Bub and Bob enter the Cave of Monsters in a blaze of bubble-blowing glory, trapping all manner of beasts in their sticky, spherical emissions. The game also seemed to take forever to play which made me wonder at the time if it was one of the biggest games ever made. 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. A complete reworking of an inferior arcade brawler of the same name, Rygar for the NES tells the heroic story of a man and his deadly yo-yo shield. Firepower 2000 is notable for being one of the few shoot em' ups on the Super Nintendo that allows two-player action. No sooner would an unprepared adventurer leave a town and cross a bridge into a new area than he would find himself smashed by an enemy much stronger than he. Metal Gear created the stealth genre, paving the way for Metal Gear Solid to later revolutionize and refine it. And Mega Man 3 took the mantle and ran with it. Sound easy? It wasn't, of course, but it felt that way. My mom and one of my sisters were out all day, and when they came home, my mom had an NES box in her hand. 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. Today, the game known as Tengen Tetris is a rare title to have in your collection, but it's a worthwhile play. Each world in SMB3 features a unique style, and Mario's quest takes him through desert, grasslands, above the clouds and below the sea there's so much to explore that we still make discoveries every time we dust off the cartridge today. Some of them are good. Because of that, there was no rushing around; Dragon Warrior was for patient gamers only. That's awesome! Yes, Super Mario Bros. 2 is a repurposing of a non-Mario Japanese Famicom game called Yume Kj: Doki Doki Panic, but why hold that against it? I guess since it was an unlicensed Nintendo game, Codemasters had a hard time getting retailers interested in stocking it. Tengen's tetris was pulled from shelves almost immediately when it was revealed that Nintendo's hold on the Tetris name stateside was legitimate. I thought I knew Ninja Gaiden until I saw my friend spawning red clones that mimicked his actions. Link mainly navigated around an RPG-like world map, with action occurring sporadically in side-scrolling sequences. Willow on the NES, then, was notable for having the likeness to both actors, as well as many of the supporting cast from the film it was a movie tie-in adventure developed by Capcom, and was in many ways that company's take on Nintendo's Legend of Zelda formula. One could get lost in the sea of statistics the game tracked for you, the endless roster customization, the hiring, firing and outright creation of players, and amazing gameplay. Miryia's ability to transform into a spaceship and back put Samus Aran to shame. And Christmas of 1990 was when I finally got my hands on the game I would be obsessed with until this day. Others called Nintendo's own hotline for help or consulted a magazine. We encourage you to read our updated PRIVACY POLICY and COOKIE POLICY. The Guardian Legend is an action-adventure/top down shooter released for the NES in 1989. "Blades of Steel!" While a clipper ship and canoe allow you to access new areas of the map, it's the airship that's worth holding out for. It was the first game I ever played with an NES Advantage. In 1991, Turtlemania was in full swing, and every marketer worth his or her weight in branded merchandise wanted a piece of animals-that-kick-ass pie. That was the cryptic fantasy tagline offered up on the box of Faxanadu, one of the best and least-known Nintendo-published adventures to hit the NES throughout the 8-bit systems lifespan. Although the game offers a fairly decent challenge, the experience of kicking serious alien ass can be had by less talented players, thanks to the legendary Konami Code, which, in its most famous implementation, gives you 30 lives to burn through as you please. Platforming with zombies and mummies? - Sam Claiborn, IGN Game Help Associate Editor. 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. Punch-Out!! And that's where Lolo's difficult gameplay comes in, because it's getting those icons that are the true feat. It would be great to see Nintendo revive the Faxanadu concept someday. When one stage is cleared, Scrooge can pick from any of the remaining stages to undertake his next quest. It wasn't until a decade or two later that I finally understood that a poor localization was responsible for the game's extreme weirdness. Though Nintendo didn't develop Faxanadu in-house, it's easy to see why the company decided to grab publishing rights for it in America it was a unique side-scrolling action/platformer with RPG elements reminiscent of the company's own Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Snake parachuted into the jungle fortress of Outer Heaven with nothing but his courage and a pack of smokes, and skillfully avoided detection while sneaking through the enemy encampment to find and destroy the titular weapon of mass destruction or, if sneaking didn't work, he beat the snot out of the soldiers in his way. Continuing the tradition started in Mega Man 2 of having eight Robot Masters to start out with instead of six, gamers could choose one of eight starting stages, inherit defeated boss robots' weapons, and move on to the next stage to exploit possible weaknesses with the player's ever-growing arsenal. Crap I should really get this awesome gem of a game back to him. In fact, I'm not sure I ever bought it, so if anyone ever sees Andy Folkers can you tell him I still have his copy of one of the best NES games of all time? Several classic NES series seem to follow identical paths. 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. Top down light artillery robot. It wasn't only the aesthetics that made the original Castlevania a great game, one that spawned one of the most popular and well-known series in gaming history. Old-school arcade gamers have found and will continue to find a lot to love in any iteration of Mario Bros., but new gamers beware! 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. I still believe that the NES original is the greatest top-down racer ever developed. Just to be extra cool, and to remind you you're still in the '80s. Well, the only Vertical / Horizontal switching shooter that comes to mind on the NES immediately is Legendary Wings. DuckTales was probably my favorite show on television when the game hit, yet I could hardly sit through an entire after-school episode before powering on my NES to play it. 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. While it was known mainly for platformers such as Super Mario Bros. and the like, it had a decent selection of shooters. While two Lolo games preceded the 1991 release of the series' third iteration in the States, the game known by fans as Lolo 3 is most fans' favorite. The place was red and full of aliens to shoot or avoid It wasn't even that compelling. Choreographing delicate rescue operations with my cousin was a blast, sending one Jeep to collect P.O.W.s while the other threw out cover in the form of myriad bullets and grenades. Only later did I learn the convoluted history of who made what, so Hudson, I owe you an apology for my playground rants about your integrity. Tengen, an ambitious Atari-associated game developer, began releasing official NES games in 1988. I used to apply the Konami code to every game from Konami just to see what would happen. And if the gamer managed to finish with $10 million in funds and has two special hidden treasures, a unique ending can be unlocked, as well. Worked like a charm, I got arcade perfection at home! The ability to choose your own path had my permanent attention. But mastery of navigation in Section Z was a true badge of honor to hold in the NES age (and Captain Commando survived the adventure intact, after all, if he went on to beat up Wolverine and Ryu in the late '90s and early '00s). Treat them well and you'll be riding through the eight islands in style. I'm a lifelong Samus Aran groupie. "Daggers and wingboots, mantras and monsters await you." 9 Darius Twin . 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