Best of the Best NES Games

Posted in Off Topic

I'm in a list kind of mood tonight. I'm not sure how many of you actually played this ancient machine from the 80s called a Nintendo Entertainment System, ever heard of it? This machine rocked all other game consoles and made them plead for mercy back in the day. This 8-bit wonder rotted my brain for nearly 10 years of my childhood. The game library is massive indeed, so I decided to wittle it down to the best of the best for each genre, IMO. Feel free to add your own lists, I'd like to see em.

RPGs:
-The Legend of Zelda - The original Zelda game that started it all. Top-down view action-RPG. The graphics are little dated even for NES, but gameplay FAR outweighs that problem.
-Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link - The 1st Zelda sequel. This time they changes the top-down view for a side-scrolling RPG adventure. Still a blast to play and it implements a level-up system.
-Crystalis - Called a Legend of Zelda clone, but IMO was much better than Legend of Zelda. It is bigger, longer, better graphics, and better sound. Made by SNK this is a top-down action-RPG. You level up, collect more powerful magic, swords, and armors. And you set out on a grand quest to save the world as well as random town side-quests.
-Dragon Warrior IV - The best old-school, turn-based RPG on the NES, IMO. It had the best graphics, characters, and story of any of the original Dragon Warrior games on the NES.
-The Battle of Olmpus - The NES's God of War. This game was a side-scrolling action-RPG set in Ancient Greek Mythology. Overlooked by many, sadly.

Shooters:
-Contra - The best shooter on the NES. Grab a buddy and shoot endless hordes of enemies, aliens, and automatic defenses as a buff military type that can switch between flame throwers, machine guns, laser guns, and other weapons.
-Dragon Spirit - A fantasy based shooter where you control a dragon. The game had great space-ship shooter-style gameplay, with power-ups included, and had impressive cutscenes for an NES game with japanese-anime style art.
-Gradius - Awesome space-ship shooter that includes various power-ups for your ship.
-Star Soldier - A classic space-ship shooter from NES's early days, more power-ups and flying enemies here, starting to see a theme with me?

Beat 'Em Ups:
-Double Dragon - Can't go wrong with a classic like Double Dragon. What all other beat-em up games were built off of.
-Frankenstein: The Monster Returns - An incredible horror-themed action game that was overlooked due to it being released late in the NES's life (at this time Sega Genesis and SNES were both out). It plays like a mix between Golden Axe & Castlevania, and does an incredible job at doing it.
-Monsters in My Pocket - A game based on, of all things, 6-inch tall classic monsters (Frankenstein & Dracula). A horror-themed action game that's a blast to play and does a great job showing off what the NES can really do graphically.
-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turles II: The Arcade Game - Grab a buddy and fight through hordes of Foot Soldiers, Bebop & Rocksteady, Krang, & Shredder.

Action:
-Mega Man 2 - The best of the Mega Man NES games, IMO. The most balanced game, and the most well thought-out bosses & level-design of the NES Mega Man games. But all the NES Mega Man games are great, pick up any of them if you can. But the first one is punishing in it difficulty.
-Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos - One of the most impressive games for the NES. Great cutscenes for an NES game and a very in-depth story for it's time. Impressive graphics, good use of NES sound, impressive gameplay, and impressive boss battles. Challenging gameplay, though. The same things can be said about the 1st and 3rd games in this series as well. But the 2nd one was always my favorite.
-Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six - The only good comic-based game on the NES. This game pitted you as Spider-Man against the six members of the Sinister Six. Each member had a level full of platforming and henchmen to dispose of, and then you fought the super-villain at the end of the level. Pretty good gameplay, decent graphics, good use of webbing and web-swinging, and impressive boss battles. The first truly impressive comic-based video game IMO.
-Bionic Commando - Capcom really outdid themselves with this one. This, IMO, was Capcom's crowning achievement on the NES. This game mixed military action, contra-style run & gunning, and great platforming into a game I still play from time-to-time to this day. Play as a unique soldier that has a bionic arm grafted to his body. Instead of jumping, you swing from object to object much like Spider-Man using your extendable bionic arm. You can gain various kinds of guns and gizmos through-out your battle across enemy lines to save captured super-soldier Super Joe.

Platformers (This is where the NES REALLY shines!)
-Super Mario Bros. - The classic that Nintendo owe's it's initial success with the NES. Play as Mario or Luigi and save the Mushroom Kingdom and Princess Peach from the evil King Koopa. 32 levels full of super-mushrooms, fire-flowers, invincible-stars, goombas, Koopa Troopas (Turtles), and Bullet Bills to play through. Primitive graphics even for NES, but the gameplay far outweighs this issue.
-Super Mario Bros. 2 - The sequel to Super Mario Bros. (at least it was in North America). Still a platformer, but everything else about the game has changed. This isn't a bad thing, though. This is still a very fun Mario game, and has much more impressive graphics and sound than the first game.
-Super Mario Bros. 3 - Many consider this game to be the greatest game ever released for the NES. This game went back to the run & jump with coins & power-ups style of the first game but expanded and evolved the concept tenfold. Better graphics, better sound, bigger levels, more levels, more secrets, more power-ups, more bosses, more added mythos to the Mario Universe. A landmark masterpiece of gaming.
-Kirby's Adventure - The very first, and IMO, the best 2D Kirby game released. An action-platformer set in a fantastical land. Kirby takes on the powers of any enemy he inhales which will help him against many enemies, obstacles, and bosses.
-DuckTales - A great platformer made by Capcom. Take control of Uncle Scrooge as he's on a quest to become even richer searching for the greatest treasures on Earth. Great graphics and sounds, and awesome level design & gameplay make this game a blast to play.

-Nate-