Nintendo will shortly be unleashing their NES Mini system into the wild, to celebrate we decided to list our favorite NES/Famicom games!
The NES is a system that had a lot of memorable games, but many have failed to stand the test of time in my book. I think for me, I’d have to say Duck Hunt. Which made my Games of the Year list for 1985. The premier NES Zapper game, it’s truly an unforgettable one.
I never grew up with the NES and so all of its games I have only played in retrospect. Some of these titles, like the Super Mario Bros. games, have held up really well while others have not in my opinion. But there is one game that I constantly go back to and replay despite its general reception and that isZelda II: The Adventure of Link. This game is everything I wanted from a 2D action-platformer. It is challenging but with enough skill it is entirely manageable. The controls are fluid and the way Link constantly gets upgrades on his adventures is a good mark of progression. You feel yourself getting stronger. This is why Zelda II is one of my favourite Zelda games of all time and my favourite NES game.
As Megaman 3 is a really easy and mainstream answer I would like to talk about my second favorite NES game: Felix the Cat. This hidden licensed gem came up even after the launch of the SNES, but when I was a kid I didn’t even knew about it. It’s a short and fun platformer with a really interesting mechanic: Felix can upgrade his magic bag, transforming it into more powerful forms, for example: Going from an extendable boxing globe to a jumping tank, giving Felix more efficient ways to dispatch is enemies. Also, as other late NES games, in this game there are varied stages, like aerial and submarine stages, being my favorite round 4, as it combines a cheerful beach aesthetic with all the gameplay mechanics. }
The NES was the first console that was ever truly mine. Sure, I had played plenty of video games before its release on systems such as the Atari 2600 and Mattel’s Intellivision, but those games weren’t chosen by me, and the hardware that gave them life was owned by close relatives. The NES was distinctly mine, and the experiences it provided shaped me as a gamer. That is why I could literally rattle off a dozen games, from Faxanadu to Rygar, that I absolutely love. While Megaman and Castlevania are probably my favorite series on the system, my favorite game might just be a little title by the name of Blaster Master. Blaster Master is a neat little Metroidvania experience that ignited my love for the genre years before the genre properly existed. In it, you play as a teenage boy named Jason who must pilot an upgradable space-age tank by the name of SOPHIA through a series of diverse subterranean environments. Jason will sometimes also go on foot and explore isometric “dungeon” areas to battle bosses and find upgrades for SOPHIA. These upgrades, in true Metroidvania fashion, allow you access to new areas. It really is unique and deep 8-bit experience, and I sincerely recommend you seek it out, or at the very least read up on Inti Creates’ remake of the game, known as Blaster Master Zero, which is due out on 3DS in 2017.
Being a Kirby hardcore fan, I should answer with Kirby’s Adventure. It’s one of the most impressive titles on the NES and it’s also the most important Kirby games, since it introduced its trademark feature: copy abilities. It’s really good and everyone should have this game in their NES collection. But on the other hand…I don’t have much nostalgia for that title, since I was introduced to it with the GBA Remake. To be honest, my “actual” favorite NES Game is DuckTales. I played it so many times and I never get tired of it. And it’s always the first game, that comes up in my mind, when I hear “NES”. So…it’s a tie between DuckTales and Kirby’s Adventure (I hope that’s legal).
Super Mario Bros. 3 is my favorite bar none. The game built upon the foundations on what made the Mario games really good and just expanded upon the formula. This release brought the addition of the world map into the Mario universe and changed up the gameplay with more power-ups. Overall, it is a very solid release that is still playable, even to this day.
Of all of the franchises that were pioneered back on the NES,Super Mario Bros. earns my highest recommendation. The groundwork for the platformer genre was already laid out, yeah, but Super Mario Bros. established the standard. This is the NES game I have replayed more than any other, and while Nintendo has iterated upon the Super Mario framework, this classic is still playable, elegant, and fun. Plus, it established much of the Mario iconography we take for granted nowadays. That’s worth celebrating, right?
I never owned a NES/Famicom until very recently…so I don’t have found childhood memories of playing it.The Legend of Zelda would need to be my pick. It was such an influential game in many ways (and not just starting the Zelda series). When it was released on cartridge, it introduced game saving for the first time.The game throws players into an adventure with little story and guides. There’s hints here and there, but the game truly feels epic. The gameplay is incredibly tight, and the mechanics in The Legend of Zelda don’t feel outdated. The Legend of Zelda impacted hundreds of games, and has earned every reason to be celebrated.
What do you think? What’s you’re favorite NES game? Let us know in the comments.
NES/Famicom was my starting point on loving video games, and it really changed my life as it gave me emotions of having fun. Without it, I could’ve became a boring human in the world. I’ve started playing Super Mario Bros. as my first NES game, then Dengeki Big Bang/Clash at Demon Head as my first Famicon game. Eventually I have never played any Mega Man games until today, and really enjoyed playing Kirby’s Adventure for Famicom when I was staying in Japan. However, I have one game that I really have enjoyed playing when I was a child, and that was Little Nemo Dream Master.
As I couldn’t have any chance playing any Mega Man games back then, while I totally refused playing Ghosts N Goblins as being a sore loser, Little Nemo Dream Master was the replacement to those games in my childhood. It was unique that although the main protagonist can’t fight until he reaches the final stage, using the hands of some friendly creatures was a fun thing to me. This was way before Mario rode on Yoshi and Donkey Kong joined with his Animal Friends, or even Kirby rode on Rick and other of his furry friends and Bomber Man rode on that Kangaroo-like animal. A boy fits inside the frog to swim, fits inside the mole to dig underground, fits inside a bee to fly, and rides on a mouse equipped with a deadly hammer…you’d never see that back in those days! But anyways, the stage concept was unique, the characters were interestingly great, the music was wonderful, and although this game was based on the actual comic made in 1905 to 1911 and an animated movie released in 1989, Capcom really did a great work of making such wonderful masterpiece into a video game.
My first gaming systems were a Sega Genesis and a Nintendo 64, so I don’t have much nostalgia for games before that. However, I’ve played a lot of NES games since though things like Virtual Console, and there’s only one answer for me.
BUBBLE.
BOBBLE.
I will say this as many times as it takes until everyone knows how awesome this game is 😀