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. A dumbed-down port of a superior arcade title by Irem, Kung Fu holds accolades simply for being one of the first third-party games released on the NES. Now you can see why I'm so messed up…. Any discussion of Contra wouldn't be complete without a nod to its iconic 8-bit soundtrack. Blades is notable for much more than being an early advancer of recorded voice-work in gaming, though, as its take on professional hockey was brutally realistic (in that it realistically presented the most brutal unofficial aspect of the game – fistfights). - Mark Ryan Sallee, IGN Game Help Editor-in-Chief. Opening up the initial level of Robot Masters from six, as seen in the first game, to eight as seen in each subsequent Classic Series title, Mega Man 2 was also the only Classic Mega Man game to have a difficulty setting. 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. This is also one of those games that might not have been given a lot of attention if it weren't for the influence of the magazine, Nintendo Power, which featured it on the cover of its April 1991 issue. Nintendo had a fairly diverse lineup of sports titles introduced for the NES early on in the system's life cycle, including 8-bit interpretations of soccer, tennis, volleyball and even downhill slalom skiing. - Unlocked 475, Skate or Die 2: The Search for Double Trouble, Battletoads & Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team, A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game, NES was recently named the best console of all time. 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. The heroes of Ikari Warriors, Ralf and Clark, even went on to cameo in several of those later games, you can play as them in several King of Fighters sequels, as well as the most recent Metal Slug installments. It was so complicated for me as a six or seven year old that I had to let my brother take the reins, and when I finally got around to playing it when I was older, I realized what all of the fuss was about. After a few minutes with Contra's militant anthems you'll want to put your controller down and headbang along. Confusion aside, the game left players confounded with its intricate, wide-open design. 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. Use that sword and you'll understand why this one has certainly earned its classic status. Some estimate that 800 NES games were released for the system from 1985 to 1995; far too many for us to process. Might and Magic: Secret of the Inner Sanctum. What makes the game so special, then? Made up of only five stages and a few types of enemies, a skilled gamer can get through Kung Fu in its entirety in less than ten minutes. It was even more awesome when you drive far enough to reach the boathouse and change into the speedboat. My greatest memory of this game is trying to convince a dozen IGN editors why this game was so awesome nearly 20 years ago. And if you somehow run out of those, you can always steal one from your unsuspecting partner. This list does not feature unlicensed NES games. Basketball is pulled off very well, with lots of action moving back and forth on the court, with just the right amount of technique thrown in for some good strategy. 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. While not entirely innovative, Final Fantasy did make some interesting iterations on the RPG formula. 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. If you can get past the partially naked winged dudes, Legendary Wings offers some other treats as well. Feeding jellybeans to Blobert to transform it into different items and it was fun just to experiment with, such as making a blow torch with a cinnamon bean and a rocket with a root beer bean. It was rudimentary, yes, but it extended Lode Runner's life indefinitely. Fond memories for this one really only go a year or so back. VPD may in fact be in my top 10 NES games of all time personally, and I didn't discover it until back in 2002 when a few of the WayForward guys all got into retro gaming together. And yes, it was awesome. Alternating both horizontal and vertical scrolling levels with cool 3D-imitating third-person view stages, Contra was designed with short attention spans in mind. Released in 1988, it pioneered something very important for the racing genre. Feeding the Blob flavored jellybeans from apple to vanilla caused the Blob to transform into everything from a car jack to an umbrella. In fact, all the negative feelings around this one almost kept it off the list, but when it comes down to it Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was one of the greats, and a dang good title. 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. Even as a young'un, I felt some injustice every time a guest brought the Zapper up against the television's bubble screen. Tengen's tetris was pulled from shelves almost immediately when it was revealed that Nintendo's hold on the Tetris name stateside was legitimate. The sluggish junker you start out with is soon augmented with shields and weapons of your choosing. Thank you for becoming a member. It was like memorizing pi but the password was completely useless beyond this game. That's right – if you've ever cursed the skies after falling prey to the infamous Blue Shell, you can trace the source of your rage all the way back to Rare's R.C. In the game, players take the role of Amagon, a Marine who is trapped on an island after his plane crashed. After all, it is 2009, and there's been a lot of time for Tetris and Dr. Mario. Some people made maps. The game also offered the sibling heroes an upgrade to their fighting repertoires, with several impressive new skills like the unforgettable Cyclone Spin Kick, and some iconic new set pieces in which to do battle, like a stage that took place aboard a helicopter in-flight thousands of feet above the ocean. However, word of mouth combined with a Nintendo Power promotion that sent copies of the game around the country allowed it to blow up. Shop at GameStop online and in store today. 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. Unforgiving, head-scratchingly perplexing, deep, dangerous and unlike anything else on the system in theme and feel. Speed boosting strips placed directly on the track also made their first appearance in this design, which was so well received that it went on to inspire several sequels as well as influence the creation of Nintendo's own hybrid combat/racing series, Mario Kart. He then leaps down a nearby hole in the ground and disappears into a vast subterranean labyrinth without a trace. And here's the kicker – the pit stop comes to you! terns are played on your projection television. 1. This is a list of NES games. Rygar's action/adventure gameplay elements have helped it attain a sort of "cult classic" status. 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