Topic: YOUR Favorite Three NES Games

[vorpal86]

This is something that may grab your interest... Or maybe not. Who knows. Anyway....

I'm gonna list here my 3 favorite NES games, and give a brief description why. If anyone else wishes to add in, feel free to do so. Perhaps I'll start a new thread for Snes / Master System and Genesis next. Could put all 4 here but would be too much to take in for one post. Not that I wouldn't like to Raise the Brand. : P

There is of course many more favorite games but the ones I mention here have been completed at least 3 times from begining to end. Ever wondered why you find yourself playing a game you've beaten before again and again knowing there are countless games out there that could ALSO be your favorite that you haven't played yet, or know even exists? That's what a favorite game is.

NES
1 - Dragon Warrior

• I've always loved the sound effects in the 8 Bit Dragon Warrior series. The tremendous blow effect had me at "chewww-eat! And then the contact! BAM! Good Bye Metal slime! But it's true. The game was simple and fun and the wandering around to level up waiting to see if and what spell you would get next. Good times!
  
  

2 - Bionic Commando

• The sound effects in this game as well were very well chosen. The swinging around, the grappling onto things sounds. This game can be finished quite quickly if you are skilled enough. Under an hour. The fast pace of this game will keep you busy and it was very fun swinging around trying to land on solid ground. It was and still is fun. Kinda, sort a' like an action RPG with the life up's system and the upgrades. More good times. I even have bought a copy of Rearmed. That one was tougher but not bad a - tall.

3 - Zelda II - The Adventures of Link

• Believe it or not, even though it's not much more fun to me than the original Zelda, Adventures of Link is one of my favorites. Mostly because way too many people didn't like it as much as the original Zelda due to it's change of style. I like being able to level up and find secret caves in the marsh, or under a rock to find myself with new Side - View camera action levels. The UP attack and DOWN attack skills were awesome and it gave you a different way to battle as you progressed. Still, even more good times!

It's kinda difficult to tell for sure as there are many games that hold a spot in my heart.. (sigh..) to know for sure which are really my favorites. Mega Man, Ninja Gaiden, Blaster Master... Grr. So many! Sorry if the brief descriptions given here were not brief enough.

Carry On!

[TerraEsperZ]

Only three? Wow, that's going to be tough... Then again, I've lost some of the nostalgia I once had for the NES so although I still have warm memories of the games I used to play back then, I don't actually enjoy playing them as much as I did. For one, systems with more power allows for more complex and more interesting gameplay. Second, I've come to find the graphics too limited in terms of colours and complexity thanks to the palette and number of simultaneous sprites limit. That doesn't take away from what the NES and talented programmers managed to accomplish on its very limited hardware, but it seems I've "outgrown" it.

...except NES music of course. I'll always love the sound of the 2A03, MMC5 and VRC6 chips

So, to discuss my choices:

1 - Mega Man IV

    I had to include a Mega Man game in this list considering my personal history with the series. Contrary to most people, I chose the fourth game instead of the second or the third. For one, I was never a fan of the more limited "classic" gameplay and preferred Mega Man to be able to slide and charge the Mega Buster as it opens more possibilities for enemies, bosses and stages. Second, I personally feel that the series' more cartoonish aesthetic finally reached a plateau with the fourth game both with the enemy design as well as the stages themselves. Levels for the second and third game felt more generic and industrial instead of interesting places to visit. And finally, although I'll always love some of the music from the first three games, the fourth one really resonated with me (as did the fifth mind you) and especially every song from both Drs Cossack and Wily's fortresses.

2 - Kirby's Adventure

    Kirby's first game with his power-stealing abilities was one of his best, and I loved everything about it, from the gorgeous stylized graphics to the amazing soundtrack. I still prefer it over its remake Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland which had a worse soundtrack (it tried its best to reach up to the original but never quite makes it at the best of time) and worse graphics (they're objectively good, but look too realistic compared to the stylized original).

3 - Bucky O'Hare

    This choice might be weird, but it's based as much on nostalgia as on the game's variety in levels. This game feels like a much more playable version of the first Battletoads game that was quite varied but also almost impossible to complete. The music and the graphics are great, you collect more playable characters with unique abilities as you complete levels and like I said, the stages are varied in terms of obstacles and challenges. An unrecognized classic platformer.

[RT 55J]

When the NES is cool, it's really cool.

Shatterhand
High-octane side-scrolling punching action assembled with deadbolt precision and ingenuity. "Serious fun" was Natsume's slogan back in the day, and they really meant it here. Your bare fists provide you with a rather short range, which is never really improved upon, so really have to hone your reflexes. The game does provide upgrades to give you a flying robot buddy to dish out some additional damage. There are 8 different possible helpers, and they are all cool. Overall, it's unrelentingly difficult (I've never beaten it), but I feel that it always plays perfectly fair with you. Even nowadays, I don't think that many action games, of any genre, are as well put together as this is.

tl;dr - It's a game where you can block bullets by punching them. Also, killer graphics, awesome sound.

The Guardian Legend
This is my nostalgia choice. It's a hybrid of a vertical shoot-em-up and overhead Zelda thingy. The overhead sections aren't amazing, but they get the job done and provide a heavy dose of atmosphere. The shmup sections are amazing. Compile knew how to push obscene amounts of sprite flicker out of the system. It's completely frenetic and chaotic and it's brilliant. Crazy weapons (lightsabers!), enemies, and bosses; also, a lifebar. Call me a wuss, but I tend to like shooters with a life bar better (Contra exempted).

For the longest time the game absolutely confused me. I never had any idea what anywhere after the intro stage, the passwords didn't make any sense, and it just seemed like a slipshod game. Then, one day, I had an epiphany and everything just clicked. The weird passwords? All those umlats are there to help you not get capitals and lowercase letters mixed up. Where to go? Just look on the map on go to the blinking dots, and explore at your leisure. After I figured that all out, I managed to complete the game over the course of the next week or so. To date, it is the only NES game that I've completed on the original hardware.

Super Mario Bros. 3
Like The Guardian Legend, this is another game which I enjoyed on a surface level for quite some time, but was never able to get very far into it until some neurons clicked. One evening I was playing with my younger brother (I was player 2), and we stayed up playing through the game without any warp whistles. I recalled that he stopped playing somewhere around the 3rd or 4th world, but I kept on trucking forward until 3 or 4 in the morning when I finally beat the danged thing (as Luigi ). Throughout the entire experience, I was amazed by the sheer breadth of high-quality game design that I always missed out on because I had always warped to World 8.

Other favorites that I really just have to list off because:
Zen: Intergalactic Ninja (Konami's last A-list NES game imo)
Zelda 2 (incredible swordplay. better than Zelda 1 overall)
Mega Man 2, 5
SMB2j (the Lost Levels)
River City Ransom
BATMAN
Summer Carnival '92 - Recca
Gimmick!
Donkey Kong Jr. (inexplicable nostalgia, perhaps, but seriously the game needs a DK '94 style reiteration)
Balloon Fight (pretty much the best part of Animal Crossing)
Metroid (it's a love-hate relationship)
Metal Storm
Vice: Project Doom
Solar Jetman (best cave-flier on the NES, pretty much by default)
Contra/Super C
Yume Penguin Monogatari (just for sheer silliness)

[tylerkendo]

Battletoads
Barcelona Track and Field(watching the runner fail every hurdle had me in stitches)
Faxanadu

[tylerkendo]

Is Battletoads NES ?

[alucard]

This is a tough one just to pick 3, but I'd have to say:

1. Dragon Warrior 3

2. Contra

3. Guerrilla War

[TonyStarki]

My #1 is by far Tecmo Super Bowl, the other 9 fall in no particular order...

1. Tecmo Super Bowl
2. Super Mario Bros. 2
3. Super Mario Bros. 3