0
The NES games appreciation thread!
I don't know about you guys, but my entire childhood was one big ride with these fantastic games!
Some of my favorites :
1.Contra
By Konami | Released: 1988
Perhaps the best example of the NES's capability at adapting and even improving on arcade games of its era, Contra offers the best shooting action on the NES and is also the console's definitive multiplayer experience. Contra deftly captures the spirit of the testosterone-fueled '80s summer blockbusters, with obvious nods to the Alien and Rambo series. Alternating both horizontal and vertical scrolling levels with cool 3D-imitating third-person view stages, Contra was designed with short attention spans in mind. 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. And if you somehow run out of those, you can always steal one from your unsuspecting partner. Any discussion of Contra wouldn't be complete without a nod to its iconic 8-bit soundtrack. After a few minutes with Contra's militant anthems you'll want to put your controller down and headbang along.
Our Fondest Memories
I'd always have the 30 man code active in the beginning, but eventually stopped using it as I got better over the years. Still, dying needlessly was satisfying. If you have 120 lives, killing yourself was fun.
2. Duck Hunt
By Nintendo | Released: 1985
What Top 100 NES Games list would be complete without Duck Hunt? A game no one bought, but everyone had. Duck Hunt is the game that immortalized forever Nintendo's light gun called the Zapper, and was certainly the game that used the underused peripheral more than any other. But it was this release combined with Super Mario Bros. (and sometimes World Class Track Meet or Gyromite) as a bundled-in offering with the NES made it one of the most proliferated games on the console. Sure, Duck Hunt's gameplay was as simple as pointing-and-shooting, and one could easily cheat by standing an inch from the television. Unfortunately, virtually all televisions today render the game unplayable, so a new generation of gamer has yet to be exposed to the wonder of duck hunting and skeet shooting. Perhaps the most interesting tidbit of all about Duck Hunt, however, was the stand-alone product's incredibly small size. The entire game fit on an infinitesimally small cartridge sized at 192 kilobits.
Our Fondest Memories
Even as a young'un, I felt some injustice every time a guest brought the Zapper up against the television's bubble screen. You can't do that! Though the dog, mocking me with laughter, encouraged delinquency. I'll show you, dog...
3. Duck Tales
By Capcom | Released: 1989
Out of all of the games built on Capcom's famous Mega Man architecture (that wasn't a Mega Man game, that is), Duck Tales is perhaps the best of the bunch. 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. Sure, it borrowed from Mega Man apart from the engine – selecting stage orders, for instance – but standing on its own, Duck Tales is one of the must-have games in any NES aficionado's library. The gameplay is of the classic action-platforming variety. Gamers take the role of Scrooge McDuck, who goes through various stages to collect wealth, defeating enemies with his pogo stick attack. When one stage is cleared, Scrooge can pick from any of the remaining stages to undertake his next quest. When the game culminates on the sixth and final stage, Scrooge is a force to be reckoned with. 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.
Our Fondest Memories
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. Most memorable of all is Tales' peerless soundtrack, particularly the tunes for Transylvania, African Mines, and the Moon. 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.
4. Legend of Zelda
Embark on a quest to find the Triforce, slay Ganon and save Princess Zelda in the timeless adventure game from Shigeru Miyamoto that invented the genre. Originally released for the Famicom Disk System in Japan, the game arrived in the US on cartridge in 1987. In an ingenious marketing ploy, Nintendo released the game on a gold cartridge, so if you hadn't heard about the glory of Zelda, the shiny cart would definitely catch your attention. And since Zelda originated on the Disk System, the US version also included the ability to save your game status via battery back-up -- a first for the NES. The game's release heralded the end of the days when console games were all about linear quests and never-ending twitch gameplay with small level variations or increasing speed settings.
Release Date: July 1987
Genre: Action
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo R&D4
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Pallantides
Bookmarks