6.02.2011

Nintendo Top Ten

Posted by Scotty Fields on 3:33 PM

Over the memorial weekend a friend of mine came in and hung out with me. We broke out "Old Faithful", my original NES and rocked some of our nostalgic favorites. A dare to beat Contra with just 3 lives started it and, after giving up on the original dare (I couldn't beat Contra without using at least one continue), all weekend was spent playing Nintendo games.

I have a special place in my heart for the NES. In fact, I have a special place in my house for it as well. I have a rubber made container that has over 200 NES cartridges, two NES consoles, 3 controllers, the zapper, the original RF connector and an AC power cord. Once I break out the system I usually enjoy it for many days before storing it away again.

I brought the container out and placed it in the living room on Saturday and it didn't leave until early Monday morning. We played Zelda, Dragon Warrior, Bad Dudes, Top Gun, Double Dragon 1 and 2, Renegade, Bionic Commando, Castlevania 2, TMNT 2, Contra, and Gemfire. My buddy and I are notorious for our week-long games of Gemfire and this weekend was no different. We spent at least eight hours playing just Gemfire in our two days of NES-dom.

Playing these games made me think of all of my favorite games for the NES. I organized them into a list (in no certain order) of my top ten.

Solomon's Key

If you have never played this game you definitely should. A cool concept of making blocks and solving puzzles. I have spent hours and hours solving these puzzles without using the flags in the game that let you skip levels.

Adventure Island

An extremely challenging platformer from Hudson. You play the game as a hawaiian man looking for his princess (at least that's what I think). This game first gained popularity as an arcade game so you have probably seen this one before. Extremely difficult in later levels.

Lolo 2

My favorite old-school puzzler. You play as a blue ball who is searching for his red ball girlfriend (Lala). This game is a top-down style puzzler that involves moving blocks in the right place and the right order to protect yourself while grabbing the egg inside of a chest which then clears the room and opens the door. I liked Lolo 2 over the original because the puzzles are much more difficult in Lolo 2.

The Legend of Zelda

You can't call yourself a gamer unless you have at least played this classic. If you haven't heard of this game you probably have been living under a rock for the last 20 years. If you haven't played it then you should. Right now. Come back when you get done.

Final Fantasy

Just looking at this image brings a wave of nostalgia. What a cool game. Square's first masterpiece is definitely the best version of an RPG on this console. Many of the things we have all come to know and love on all Final Fantasy games are in this one. Airships, the four elements, awesome boss fights and the famous black mage! This one might be a bit difficult to go back and play but if you are up for a crazy challenge then go buy/download it.

Super Mario Bros 2

My favorite Mario game on the system. This game actuallly started as another title completely and was bought out by Nintendo and then released as the second installment of the Mario Brothers series. Ever wonder why nothing in this game looks like all of the other Mario Bros games?

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out

When this game hit the market it received a lot of publicity (for a video game back then) and rightfully so. Every match pits Little Mac (you) against a larger, stronger opponent. The key to winning each round is to recognize each opponent's attack pattern and counter accordingly. I would definitely rack this game up as a puzzle, strategy and action game along with it's sports appeal.

Gemfire

A great strategy game from KOEI. This game let's you manage provinces and their wealth, food and army size throughout the course of several years. The real fun begins when you attack or you defend against an oncoming attack. When this happens the world map is replaced with a battle map and turn based movements of troops. The AI is not the most challenging so I recommend playing this with a friend.

Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest

This game took the arcade classic and made it into a side-scrolling RPG. Loads of fun and challenges are packed into this great game.

Zelda 2:Adventures of Link

One of the most difficult games for the NES and the only side-scrolling Zelda game. This game was great change-up from the first Zelda and has some of the most difficult boss fights of all of the games in the Zelda series.

These are my top ten. Which games made your NES top ten and why?

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