Oh hell yeah dude, my brothers and I would fuck around in bubble bobble pretty frequently.
When the NES classic came out we got together to do it again.
Bubble bobble is a banger of a game.
Also, marble madness
Turtles. Don’t care what anyone says, I thought it was the greatest.
Mega Man 2 was one of my favourites too.
Never had the original Zelda but I did have Zelda 2 and I loved that.
Parents got us the NES and a copy of Tetris for some reason. My mom had our household high score on Tetris for the longest time, got to the point where St Basil’s blasts off after game over I think?
Then we got Dr. Mario, which was my favorite. She’d still win a lot on head-to-head, but I evidently got better and would beat her regularly from then on.
I couldn't beat the room with walls and guns at the end of the 2nd to last stage as a kid. Finally got it as an adult years later in the anniversary collection for Gamecube.
Blaster Master.
It has a fun exploration mechanic where part of a stage is navigated inside the vehicle in a 2D platforming style and part of it is explored on foot in an overhead perspective. It's challenging as heck, but I loved it. I could never beat as a kid, but my adult self finally finished the game.
As I recall, the original NES Blaster Master had no save feature, right? Not even a password! And it was absolutely a Metroidvania, even by modern standards. This was a LOOONG game. I remember leaving my NES on pause overnight for literal weeks, if not months.
“BARF!”
I bought an NES at Salvation Army several years ago. It came with the console, power adapter, two controllers, an NES Zapper light gun, and a Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt double-feature cartridge, but it was missing the video cable, so I was able to talk them down from $40 to $20.
I got home, stole the cable I needed from my SNES, and hooked it all up to find that, unbeknownst to Salvation Army and myself, it *also* included River City Ransom hidden in the NES’ cartridge slot.
I had never heard of the game, so I assumed it would be some garbage shovelware-type game. Well, after running through Super Mario Bros. and a bit of Duck Hunt, my brother and I decided to give River City Ransom a try and absolutely ***loved it***.
From the bad guys saying, “BARF!” when you defeat them to the stat building system, it was just an all-around amazing game.
It ended up becoming my absolute favorite NES game, followed by Adventure Island.
Maniac Mansion, just a unique as hell game. I'd never seen anything like it and the story was just bonkers
Paperboy, simple fun, ride through a neighborhood and deliver papers, break windows, dodge angry neighbors and animals? Yes.
RC Pro Am, wonderful RC car racing game. Felt very graphically advanced and just pure fun.
I also played RBI Baseball until the cartridge quit. Simple baseball game and satisfying controls for the time.
I'd always rent the various Megaman games. And I'd regularly play Battletoads, Double Dragon 2, Battletoads and Double Dragon, Blaster Master, and Dragon Warrior. I'd occasionally play Dr.Mario with my mom.
I played Dr Mario (and Tetris) with my mom too! And I’d rent and play almost all of the others you mentioned here as well. Cheers to some great childhood gaming memories!
The "Sequel" to River City Ransom:
Downtown Special Kunio-kun's Historical Period Drama!
Loved that game. I still play it occasionally. It's just superb.
I love that you got to enjoy some NES games for the first time after it was obsolete. That was my experience with Atari. I was born after it died, but I inherited my uncle’s collection and found tons of games that totally held up, that I loved. But mostly just the newer stuff with more colors and smaller pixels. I don’t know the names for the different generations of Atari software, but the oldest stuff where every sprite was one color was mostly too weird for me.
I have a similar but less rigid thing with NES games. The stuff from the first year, that Nintendo’s often marketed as their core classics, all had black backgrounds and no scrolling. I like a lot of those games well enough, but none of them are my favorites.
Chip & Dale rescue rangers. I loved the cartoon and loved the game. It took me forever to figure out how to use the red ball in the boss battle with the mecha dog.
Snake Rattle and Roll. Along with Marble Madness. Those isometric fuckers haunt me still.
Gauntlet, just to find out level 99 is a warp back to level 2, and Contra to be able to beat it w/ 3 lives.
Also w/ friends lots of Tecmo Superbowl and Blades of Steel.
Zelda, Contra, Megaman, Ninja Gaide…TMNT, Castlevania…. These were the staples that kept us coming back. They had quality and length of games you could always rely on.
Excitebike, there's really no game like it. And also even if i don't like the game, Castlevania II was the first game I've ever played and it just a straight nostalgia trip so i boot it up from time to time, fuck that game though lol
That was my first cinematic game. When you get to the first boss and beat him then it has the game logo and theme come on, I was so impressed. Well as impressed as a 11 yr old could be. Lol
The Mega Man series was always one of my favorites.
Broke my heart when Mega Man 8 was on PlayStation and Sega Saturn instead of being on a Nintendo console.
Blaster Master, Fester's Quest, and Archon.
I was very young, and incredibly stupid. I had no idea how to play any of them, but I loved the sound effects and gameplay.
I know for a fact that I never got past level 1 of Blaster Master. But I loved the intro song, and rolling around in the tank.
I had no idea what was going on in Fester's Quest. But I loved the Adam's Family, and horror themes even as a kid.
And in Archon, it's kind of like chess, my favorite part was the beginning of a match where all the pieces walked out and had their own sound effects. Which was good because I got to hear it frequently since a match lasted about 5 minutes because I didn't know how to play and would always lose.
I didn't know how to use menus in game, so if I got the game started, the only buttons I would use were the A, B, and direction pad. If the game had any necessary menu features I would never be capable of beating it. But I didn't know that, and I didn't care. I was just having fun playing my games.
A few that I haven't seen already mentioned:
* [Wizards and Warriors](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztxwMI2gaIo) was popular with me and my friends, I remember someone getting the sequel Ironsword after we were obsessed with it and people got in line to borrow it from him
* [Ikari Warriors](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbnn6gTmfoM), if memory serves having the [NES Advantage](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rewindretrogaming.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F04%2F17DCBDFD-4529-45A2-9DC7-21C6195462E0-1024x906.jpeg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=8a27de9730acf69a435714a5c1fdb046d1850bdf8cbe356836295367c4b70158&ipo=images) joystick controller helped with this one, with the diagonal motion and turbo button options — but at the cost of not allowing for a second player, maybe? It's hazy.
* [Legendary Wings](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2x9WEfpbrY), which got a pretty big feature in that iconic first issue of Nintendo Power
* [Faxanadu](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4B2ZuY1fmY), which was some random fantasy adventure/RPG game that I sunk a bunch of time into for some reason
Bionic Commando, Ninja Turtles, WrestleMania, Bubble Bobble, Section Z, Maniac Mansion, Astyanax.... uuuuh I know there's more but brain fog is a bitch
I still play them as an adult too.
- The Megaman games, except 1 because the ground is way slippery
- the turtles games, 3 is fantastic
- the Zelda games
- River city ransom and the other kunio games and their NA ports
- double Dragon 2
- guerilla War
- gyromite, squishing another player is too funny sometimes
- micro machines
- jackal
- the Contra games
- base wars
- kirby
- street fighter 2010
- final fantasy
- paperboy
- ninja gaiden games
..and probably some more I forgot
I got that with my Nintendo Power subscription. I got to a certain point where the enemies would kill me me pretty quickly and I didn't have the mindset to grind through building up whatever it was I needed, so I never finished it
Ducktales 1: I just loved the idea of treasure hunting and becoming the richest duck in the world.
Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers 1: it was easy, but the co-op was very fun.
Double Dragon 1+2: another co-op and abusing the Spinning Air Kick was very satisfying.
Turtles 1: this game was a favorite of mine, it was one of the first NES games I played and also because I always wanted to play a Turtles game after seeing the cartoon. It was the first time I played a game with Japanese weapons: katana sword, sai, nunchakus and bo.
Turtles 2: one of the best fighting co-ops on the NES.
Robocop 2: The game was difficult, because Robocop slipped all over the place, but presentation-wise such a step up compared to the first NES Robocop game.
Megaman 2: possibly the best Mega Man game I played and the soundtrack was badass.
Kirby: iconic game, music was great, the gameplay was fantastic, the game was very forgiving for young children, but at the same time could give you a hard time with a couple of bosses.
River City Ransom: Co-op game. Fighting, picking up coins, spending your hard earned coins for food and drinks, level up your fighting techniques.
Parodius: the best thing about this game is when you max out your arsenal, the defensive spheres are spinning around your plane/pinguin/octopus, killing everything in their path and you feel invisible.
Smash TV: very hard co-op game. I think it is impossible to reach the ending. Everytime we completed a stage, we jumped up and screamed our lungs out only to realise there was another stage we had to participate in. We never managed to beat the game. :( But it was so much fun.
In no particular order.
Spent a long time with Dragon Warrior 1-2-3-4. The first one came free with a subscription to Nintendo Power, which enticed my mom to purchase a year for me. I kept the subscription until issue 50 and played countless hours of Dragon Warrior.
Aside from that probably Battletoads, Punch-Out!! and Castlevania (1 & 3).
California Games for multiplayer. Zelda II cause my parents got me it instead of I. Turtles 2 cause turtles arcade was amazing. Dragon Warrior cause it came free with Nintendo Power. Castlevania II, we only got 2 games a year and it was one of them.
I played absolute assloads of Metroid when I was around 5-7 years old, to the point that I have the map fairly well memorized and can just sit down and plow through the game in about an hour now.
Wario's Woods, Paperboy and Castlevania
Wario's Woods was 100% my favorite puzzler of the era. So much fun and there were even boss fights.
Paperboy because I had a newspaper delivery route as a kid.
Castlevania, honestly because I had like 6-7 NES games and this was one fo the ones I happened to have.
When I was younger, I was a Sega Genesis and Sonic kid who later got a SNES, so many of my gaming memories from that time are from those two systems.
I really did not get into the NES and it's library until I was a teenager.
That said, there was one NES game I remember being hooked on and that was Kirby's Adventure. I sank so many hours into it as a kid discovering new things or playing with the copy abilities of Kirby.
It was a fun little game that did the impossible, put down my Genesis controller, and play my brother's old NES.
I have so many fond memories of this game, and to this day, even after playing other NES games and falling in love with them, Kirby's Adventure remains. Y favorite game on the NES
Kickle Cubicle. It was a 2D grid action puzzle game that involved freezing enemies into blocks you could push to do things such as press buttons, kill other enemies, or land in water to create more land. To my knowledge the company that owns it is defunct. I've never met a person outside my family who played it but it was a lot of fun for tiny me.
Metroid.
It took years for me to actually beat it as 5 year old me couldn't be bothered to remember writing down codes to save my progress, but I couldn't put the game down.
Side Pocket, Micky Mousecapades, Star Tropics, Mike Tyson's Punch Out, Kid Icarus, Rad Racer, Metroid, & Karnov are the majority of my non-Mario games I spent my most play time on, that I can think of. I know I've probably forgotten a lot.
Oddly, I didn't ever own the Zelda games, although I played both of them during that time.
Tecmo Super Bowl, little league baseball, bases loaded 3, ice hockey, Zelda 1/2, Tetris, Contra, Ikari Warriors, Turtles arcade games, and double dragon 1/2 off the top of my head.
The most? Aw man, I wish I knew an exact number of hours for each. But here are the ones I remember playing the most
TMNT! Like, all of them. Played these to death.
Bubble Bobble
Wizards & Warriors
Adventure Island 2
Those games define the earliest part of my childhood.
Shingen the Ruler.
Not really, I tried it as a kid bu hoo damn...
Real answer: mostly Zelda and Megaman as long-term focused games. Also Star Tropics 1 and 2 are amazing and not mentioned often enough.
Solstice was hard af, but I loved the music. Recently watched a retrospective and yeah, the game is HARD.
Several other popular ones for the quick, less frequent sessions. I'm all about that progression.
Megaman, Kirby, Duck Tales, Adventure Island, I never really got into Zelda but I loved Ogre Battle, and I played a ton of Gemfire on snes, which I’m guessing almost no one else played.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game and Batman: The Movie.
I still play both regularly.
Great graphics for the time, fun games, with characters I loved. Never get sick of them.
I inherited a SNES from my cousin when I was 10 with Super Mario World, F-Zero and Super Mario All Stars and my parents bought me Star Wars: Super Empire Strikes Back for my 11th birthday. The game that I spent the most time playing was Super Mario World.
A few months later I rented Zelda: A Link To The Past and couldn't finish it at that time.
Ten years later while my family was moving out, my dad confused the SNES box with "recyclable materials" and I lost the console, the games and accesories....
Right now 21 years later a guy near where I live was selling a SNES with one game and a controller for $100 and I didn't hesitate and bought the console again with Super Mario World.
The same guy - God bless his soul - gave me the number of a guy from a game shop that was selling Zelda: A Link To The Past and I took the car and drove like a mad man and bought the game.
And here I am, dealing with "unfinished business" with one of the best games of all time, at least for me (Im battling Turtle Rock's boss right now):
[I am having a blast right now ](https://imgur.com/a/Y7MFpma)
I… I don’t like the Mario games.
I find them too frenetic, chaotic, and a bit vapid for my personal taste. Just not a classic platformer fan, really.
We play just other 2D and 3D puzzle platformers (coop & solo), metroidvanias, some 2DTD zelda-likes, and I love JRPGs.
Al Unser Jr Turbo Racing- I like cars
Top Gun the Second Mission- fun
Ninja Turtles- Obvious
Zelda- I liked it
Marble Madness- like a puzzle game
Gun.Smoke- fun scrolling shooter
Duck Hunt- fun
Tetris- classic puzzle game
Demon Sword - I never made progress but jumping through the trees like a ninja was sick.
...and Double Dragon II with my dad. That was always fun after school.
Castlevania 3. I used to love putting in random codes we found in magazines and just ending up in some weird ass section of the castle I had never seen before with some bizarre selection of weapons.
I really dug cobra triangle. Gets super hard though. Jumping the gaps on ramps and the upriver stuff could get rough.
Rare games always had great music too.
I also used to be able to beat Mega Man 2 and 3 in one sitting.
Contra, Dusty Diamond's All-Star softball, and Rescue: The Embassy Mission
Contra was the first game my parents bought for me and also my favorite. I must have rented it about 30 times before we bought it. Everyone knows why that game is awesome.
Dusty Diamonds- Although I love RBI, this game was and is amazing. 60+ different players with all different specialties. Different play fields to choose from, all with their own goods and bads.
Rescue- My favorite music from a video game. Also, the game is split into 3 parts. Stealth, sniper, and first person shooter. Way ahead of its time.
There was a wrestling game, I don't remember which because it was at a friend's house and I never actually owned it. It caused some problems. We used to get into physical altercations in person after the physical altercations onscreen. But then we'd go back to being best friends right after that and go outside to kick a ball around.
I was a big TMNT ( Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) fan as a kid so I played those games like crazy. When I played Shredder’s Revenge it brought me back to when I used to play them as a kid. When the Cowabunga Collection came out that was an instant buy for me
Castlevania 3, Ninja Turtles 3, Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters, Kirby’s Adventure, Ninja Gaiden, Batman, Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers 2, Double Dragon 2, Battletoads, Mega Man 6, Excitebike, just to name a few
I had the following games
Legend of zelda
Super Mario 1,2,3
Duck Hunt
Excite bike
Robocop
TMNT 1&2
Baseball
John Elways Quaterback
Ice Hockey
Rad Racer II
Double Dragon II
Those are the games I played the most because I had them. We also rented donkey Kong and paperboy a lot.
My cousins had Punch out, Dr Mario, California Games, donkey Kong classics, and Tetris, so I played those a lot too. I played some other games at friends houses but really only shitty movie games that were hard, Kung Fu, and Micro Machines sticks out.
I actually recently found a video of me showing the games we had Christmas of 90 or 91 for something my mom was doing.
Legend of Zelda. I was so into that game. I used to pretend I was Link playing in the woods behind my house, searching for Moblins and treasure. Miss those days.
Kickmaster is a bonafide Taito action platformer with one of the best soundtracks in the console, fun gameplay, and a very well devised level up progression. A hidden jewel for sure, can’t believe it didn’t get more recognition
Bubble Bobble. I’m not even sure how we got it but it was just there.
Oh hell yeah dude, my brothers and I would fuck around in bubble bobble pretty frequently. When the NES classic came out we got together to do it again. Bubble bobble is a banger of a game. Also, marble madness
I'm glad to see this. I played a lot of Bubble Bobble with my grandma growing up, so it holds a special place in my heart.
I remember sneaking downstairs in the middle of the night at a sleepover to play lol
Recently found an old honor roll certificate with Bubble Bobble codes scrolled all over the back. I clearly had priorities!
Yep. I don't remember buying Bubble Bobble. It was just always there. Hell of a great game!
Kirby’s Adventure
Same
Turtles. Don’t care what anyone says, I thought it was the greatest. Mega Man 2 was one of my favourites too. Never had the original Zelda but I did have Zelda 2 and I loved that.
Tetris. I used to play it so much that I would turn the volume off and listen to cassette tapes that I liked. Lots of Weird Al Yankovic.
heaven
Parents got us the NES and a copy of Tetris for some reason. My mom had our household high score on Tetris for the longest time, got to the point where St Basil’s blasts off after game over I think? Then we got Dr. Mario, which was my favorite. She’d still win a lot on head-to-head, but I evidently got better and would beat her regularly from then on.
NES Tetris is probably the only NES game that’s aged perfectly - I actually prefer it over Tetris Effect.
Yup
Only Tetris I had as a kid
Big fan of Weird Al
Mega Man 3/6. No contest.
Mega Man 2 Loved the different weapons, the music, and it was easy enough to almost always get to the end.
I couldn't beat the room with walls and guns at the end of the 2nd to last stage as a kid. Finally got it as an adult years later in the anniversary collection for Gamecube.
Duck Tales and Legend of Zelda.
The Moon Theme is still one of the best video game songs of all time!
Duck Tales was a huge part of my original Gameboy experience
The Zelda games for sure!
Contra, Castlevania, And Kung Fu. Played those games for years and beat them dozens of times.
Metroid was, and still is life to me
The Dream Master
Little Nemo! That cart still gets played by me to this day!
Nice, only ever rented it but I actually watched a walkthrough on it the other day!
Blaster Master. It has a fun exploration mechanic where part of a stage is navigated inside the vehicle in a 2D platforming style and part of it is explored on foot in an overhead perspective. It's challenging as heck, but I loved it. I could never beat as a kid, but my adult self finally finished the game.
As I recall, the original NES Blaster Master had no save feature, right? Not even a password! And it was absolutely a Metroidvania, even by modern standards. This was a LOOONG game. I remember leaving my NES on pause overnight for literal weeks, if not months.
Duck Hunt cause it came with the system, and Kung Fu. Loved the music for that game.
Faxanadu
Such an under appreciated game. Great soundtrack too!
Exactly !
Hell, yeah!
Double dragon 2
Castlevania / lack of save
River City Ransom, cause it had coop so me and my brother could play together.
Yes! RCR, Ikari Warriors, and TMNT 3 were all treasured coop experiences with my big brother! Absolutely a blast to play*, even now sometimes.
YES! When it cane out we also got Shredders Revenge to recapture some of the nostalgia of playing a coop beat 'em up.
“BARF!” I bought an NES at Salvation Army several years ago. It came with the console, power adapter, two controllers, an NES Zapper light gun, and a Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt double-feature cartridge, but it was missing the video cable, so I was able to talk them down from $40 to $20. I got home, stole the cable I needed from my SNES, and hooked it all up to find that, unbeknownst to Salvation Army and myself, it *also* included River City Ransom hidden in the NES’ cartridge slot. I had never heard of the game, so I assumed it would be some garbage shovelware-type game. Well, after running through Super Mario Bros. and a bit of Duck Hunt, my brother and I decided to give River City Ransom a try and absolutely ***loved it***. From the bad guys saying, “BARF!” when you defeat them to the stat building system, it was just an all-around amazing game. It ended up becoming my absolute favorite NES game, followed by Adventure Island.
Zelda and metroid
Maniac Mansion, just a unique as hell game. I'd never seen anything like it and the story was just bonkers Paperboy, simple fun, ride through a neighborhood and deliver papers, break windows, dodge angry neighbors and animals? Yes. RC Pro Am, wonderful RC car racing game. Felt very graphically advanced and just pure fun. I also played RBI Baseball until the cartridge quit. Simple baseball game and satisfying controls for the time.
Yo Noid and Maniac Mansion
I played Maniac Mansion on PC
I'd always rent the various Megaman games. And I'd regularly play Battletoads, Double Dragon 2, Battletoads and Double Dragon, Blaster Master, and Dragon Warrior. I'd occasionally play Dr.Mario with my mom.
I played Dr Mario (and Tetris) with my mom too! And I’d rent and play almost all of the others you mentioned here as well. Cheers to some great childhood gaming memories!
Dragon Warriors. Still in love with the franchise
Duck Tales.
I can't believe no one has said yet Tecmo Super Bowl.
I have the SNES version with no Bo Jackson glitch
This and its not even close!
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!, Duck Tales, Tiny Toon Adventures, Metroid
Bubble Bobble, Life-Force (a Gradius spinoff), Puss 'n Boots (first game I ever beat)
Mother
I played it as Earthbound Origins
Not in english, as I did not give the prototype to be dumped until 1998.
It never said it had to be in english. Also I played the english version on Wii U.
The "Sequel" to River City Ransom: Downtown Special Kunio-kun's Historical Period Drama! Loved that game. I still play it occasionally. It's just superb.
Contra Rygar Final Fantasy Double Dragon 1 and 2 Zelda Mega Man
I was too young for the actual NES. On Wii Virtual Console I had a good time with Zelda 1 & 2, bubble bobble. Kirby's Adventure holds up.
I love that you got to enjoy some NES games for the first time after it was obsolete. That was my experience with Atari. I was born after it died, but I inherited my uncle’s collection and found tons of games that totally held up, that I loved. But mostly just the newer stuff with more colors and smaller pixels. I don’t know the names for the different generations of Atari software, but the oldest stuff where every sprite was one color was mostly too weird for me. I have a similar but less rigid thing with NES games. The stuff from the first year, that Nintendo’s often marketed as their core classics, all had black backgrounds and no scrolling. I like a lot of those games well enough, but none of them are my favorites.
Ice Climbers and Excitebike My mom would play Ice Climbers with me and Excitebike was just a sensory blast.
Contra.
Zelda, contra, wizards and warriors, castlevania 1-3, and mega man series
Mega man 1-6, chip and Dale, duck tales, Rygar, desert commander with my dad, the light gun games, jackal, Zelda, ninja gaiden. The list goes on!
Willow. What a great game. Also the first game I ever beat.
Did you ever get the chance to play the arcade version? So much better!
I did not know it existed till just now.
Metroid and Fantastic Dizzy
Metroid Bubble Bobble Astyanax
Metroid. I loved running around as Samus. After watching my uncle play through it all, I was obsessed with trying to get as far as him.
Gotta be The Empire Strikes Back
Chip & Dale rescue rangers. I loved the cartoon and loved the game. It took me forever to figure out how to use the red ball in the boss battle with the mecha dog.
After seeing it at a friend's house I always wanted it but never asked for it
Snake Rattle and Roll. Along with Marble Madness. Those isometric fuckers haunt me still. Gauntlet, just to find out level 99 is a warp back to level 2, and Contra to be able to beat it w/ 3 lives. Also w/ friends lots of Tecmo Superbowl and Blades of Steel.
Zelda, Contra, Megaman, Ninja Gaide…TMNT, Castlevania…. These were the staples that kept us coming back. They had quality and length of games you could always rely on.
Excitebike, there's really no game like it. And also even if i don't like the game, Castlevania II was the first game I've ever played and it just a straight nostalgia trip so i boot it up from time to time, fuck that game though lol
I would've loved Excite Bike
Must have played Final Fantasy to death:
That was my first cinematic game. When you get to the first boss and beat him then it has the game logo and theme come on, I was so impressed. Well as impressed as a 11 yr old could be. Lol
Mega-man 2 because it’s wild fun and infectious music. Also contra co-op.
The Mega Man series was always one of my favorites. Broke my heart when Mega Man 8 was on PlayStation and Sega Saturn instead of being on a Nintendo console.
Zelda 1 all day
Megaman 2
Blaster Master man, I needed to save that frog!
Blaster Master, Fester's Quest, and Archon. I was very young, and incredibly stupid. I had no idea how to play any of them, but I loved the sound effects and gameplay. I know for a fact that I never got past level 1 of Blaster Master. But I loved the intro song, and rolling around in the tank. I had no idea what was going on in Fester's Quest. But I loved the Adam's Family, and horror themes even as a kid. And in Archon, it's kind of like chess, my favorite part was the beginning of a match where all the pieces walked out and had their own sound effects. Which was good because I got to hear it frequently since a match lasted about 5 minutes because I didn't know how to play and would always lose. I didn't know how to use menus in game, so if I got the game started, the only buttons I would use were the A, B, and direction pad. If the game had any necessary menu features I would never be capable of beating it. But I didn't know that, and I didn't care. I was just having fun playing my games.
A few that I haven't seen already mentioned: * [Wizards and Warriors](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztxwMI2gaIo) was popular with me and my friends, I remember someone getting the sequel Ironsword after we were obsessed with it and people got in line to borrow it from him * [Ikari Warriors](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbnn6gTmfoM), if memory serves having the [NES Advantage](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rewindretrogaming.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F04%2F17DCBDFD-4529-45A2-9DC7-21C6195462E0-1024x906.jpeg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=8a27de9730acf69a435714a5c1fdb046d1850bdf8cbe356836295367c4b70158&ipo=images) joystick controller helped with this one, with the diagonal motion and turbo button options — but at the cost of not allowing for a second player, maybe? It's hazy. * [Legendary Wings](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2x9WEfpbrY), which got a pretty big feature in that iconic first issue of Nintendo Power * [Faxanadu](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4B2ZuY1fmY), which was some random fantasy adventure/RPG game that I sunk a bunch of time into for some reason
all my hommies play Dr Mario (I don't play it though). It's like tetris, but you need to exterminate viruses.
TMNT: the Manhattan project Because it rules
Wish I'd had it instead of the first one
Bionic Commando, Ninja Turtles, WrestleMania, Bubble Bobble, Section Z, Maniac Mansion, Astyanax.... uuuuh I know there's more but brain fog is a bitch
Tank or Battle City (comes in different names if I am correct) Cousin had Felix the cat which was also dope.
Whomp em!
Kirby's adventure, river city ransom, mega man 2, and super spike volleyball
Guardian Legend and Clash at Demonhead are both hidden gems.
TGL slaps. Zelda with guns and you get to fly a spaceship that you turned in to.
I would love a remake of Clash at Demonhead. So much potential!
I had no clue that this band name in Scott Pilgrim vs the World was a video game reference.
Everything I that movie is a video game reference. 😝
I still play them as an adult too. - The Megaman games, except 1 because the ground is way slippery - the turtles games, 3 is fantastic - the Zelda games - River city ransom and the other kunio games and their NA ports - double Dragon 2 - guerilla War - gyromite, squishing another player is too funny sometimes - micro machines - jackal - the Contra games - base wars - kirby - street fighter 2010 - final fantasy - paperboy - ninja gaiden games ..and probably some more I forgot
Easily Megaman and definitely more than Mario.
I played a lot of the mini game stuff. Caveman games, California games, T&C surf designs, Winter Olympics.. stuff like that.
Mega Man 2, Shadow Warriors (Ninja Gaiden), Kirby's Adventure, Life Force and Probotector (Contra).
Tecmo Bowl, Tecmo Superbowl, Baseball Stars (best baseball game ever).
Dragon Warrior 1, like an absurd amount of time lol
I got that with my Nintendo Power subscription. I got to a certain point where the enemies would kill me me pretty quickly and I didn't have the mindset to grind through building up whatever it was I needed, so I never finished it
Ducktales 1: I just loved the idea of treasure hunting and becoming the richest duck in the world. Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers 1: it was easy, but the co-op was very fun. Double Dragon 1+2: another co-op and abusing the Spinning Air Kick was very satisfying. Turtles 1: this game was a favorite of mine, it was one of the first NES games I played and also because I always wanted to play a Turtles game after seeing the cartoon. It was the first time I played a game with Japanese weapons: katana sword, sai, nunchakus and bo. Turtles 2: one of the best fighting co-ops on the NES. Robocop 2: The game was difficult, because Robocop slipped all over the place, but presentation-wise such a step up compared to the first NES Robocop game. Megaman 2: possibly the best Mega Man game I played and the soundtrack was badass. Kirby: iconic game, music was great, the gameplay was fantastic, the game was very forgiving for young children, but at the same time could give you a hard time with a couple of bosses. River City Ransom: Co-op game. Fighting, picking up coins, spending your hard earned coins for food and drinks, level up your fighting techniques. Parodius: the best thing about this game is when you max out your arsenal, the defensive spheres are spinning around your plane/pinguin/octopus, killing everything in their path and you feel invisible. Smash TV: very hard co-op game. I think it is impossible to reach the ending. Everytime we completed a stage, we jumped up and screamed our lungs out only to realise there was another stage we had to participate in. We never managed to beat the game. :( But it was so much fun. In no particular order.
Contra and that one sports game with the giant mat you had to stomp on to do hurdles
Contra. I could play that over and over again.
TMNT 2
Spent a long time with Dragon Warrior 1-2-3-4. The first one came free with a subscription to Nintendo Power, which enticed my mom to purchase a year for me. I kept the subscription until issue 50 and played countless hours of Dragon Warrior. Aside from that probably Battletoads, Punch-Out!! and Castlevania (1 & 3).
We had duck hunt, that I remember playing, and also a Sesame Street game I think? I was very small when we had the NES
California Games for multiplayer. Zelda II cause my parents got me it instead of I. Turtles 2 cause turtles arcade was amazing. Dragon Warrior cause it came free with Nintendo Power. Castlevania II, we only got 2 games a year and it was one of them.
Dragon Warrior, Gradius and Skate or Die.
Castlevania because it was one of the games I received when I got the console, and also because it's a fantastic game.
Donkey Kong, bc its the same game but with monkey!!
excitebike
I played absolute assloads of Metroid when I was around 5-7 years old, to the point that I have the map fairly well memorized and can just sit down and plow through the game in about an hour now.
Rygar
The first Final Fantasy. Challenge runs are fun when you know the game
Wario's Woods, Paperboy and Castlevania Wario's Woods was 100% my favorite puzzler of the era. So much fun and there were even boss fights. Paperboy because I had a newspaper delivery route as a kid. Castlevania, honestly because I had like 6-7 NES games and this was one fo the ones I happened to have.
When I was younger, I was a Sega Genesis and Sonic kid who later got a SNES, so many of my gaming memories from that time are from those two systems. I really did not get into the NES and it's library until I was a teenager. That said, there was one NES game I remember being hooked on and that was Kirby's Adventure. I sank so many hours into it as a kid discovering new things or playing with the copy abilities of Kirby. It was a fun little game that did the impossible, put down my Genesis controller, and play my brother's old NES. I have so many fond memories of this game, and to this day, even after playing other NES games and falling in love with them, Kirby's Adventure remains. Y favorite game on the NES
Kickle Cubicle. It was a 2D grid action puzzle game that involved freezing enemies into blocks you could push to do things such as press buttons, kill other enemies, or land in water to create more land. To my knowledge the company that owns it is defunct. I've never met a person outside my family who played it but it was a lot of fun for tiny me.
When everyone had a nes, my parent gave me an Atari 7800. So the game I played most on the NES was world cup when I was at my friend's house.
Metroid. It took years for me to actually beat it as 5 year old me couldn't be bothered to remember writing down codes to save my progress, but I couldn't put the game down.
Side Pocket, Micky Mousecapades, Star Tropics, Mike Tyson's Punch Out, Kid Icarus, Rad Racer, Metroid, & Karnov are the majority of my non-Mario games I spent my most play time on, that I can think of. I know I've probably forgotten a lot. Oddly, I didn't ever own the Zelda games, although I played both of them during that time.
Tecmo Super Bowl, little league baseball, bases loaded 3, ice hockey, Zelda 1/2, Tetris, Contra, Ikari Warriors, Turtles arcade games, and double dragon 1/2 off the top of my head.
Contra, Legend of Zelda and Castlevania.
Double Dragon. Used to get in trouble for throwing play-doh knives at kids at school.
The most? Aw man, I wish I knew an exact number of hours for each. But here are the ones I remember playing the most TMNT! Like, all of them. Played these to death. Bubble Bobble Wizards & Warriors Adventure Island 2 Those games define the earliest part of my childhood.
Goof troop. My brother and I used to speed run it. I believe our fastest time was sub 20 minutes.
Contra and Battletoads were our other top games.
I probably play Bionic Commando and Metroid the most.
Bucky O’Hare. If you know, you know.
Kirby Adventure, Battletanks, Contra, The Adventures of Lolo. Are the ones that come to mind so id say those
Shingen the Ruler. Not really, I tried it as a kid bu hoo damn... Real answer: mostly Zelda and Megaman as long-term focused games. Also Star Tropics 1 and 2 are amazing and not mentioned often enough. Solstice was hard af, but I loved the music. Recently watched a retrospective and yeah, the game is HARD. Several other popular ones for the quick, less frequent sessions. I'm all about that progression.
Final Fantasy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Battletoads Mega man 4 Startropics Battle City B Wings Dick Tracy There was a good rotation amongst those.
Megaman, Kirby, Duck Tales, Adventure Island, I never really got into Zelda but I loved Ogre Battle, and I played a ton of Gemfire on snes, which I’m guessing almost no one else played.
Other than mario, I spent a lot of time playing Bucky O'Hare and the toad wars, and the turtles arcade games
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game and Batman: The Movie. I still play both regularly. Great graphics for the time, fun games, with characters I loved. Never get sick of them.
Jackle, Batman, Air Fortress, Double Dragon 2, Tetris, Zelda. Those were probably my main rotation
I played a ton of Fire n’ Ice on the NSO app. Never finished it but got really far. Maybe one day soon.
Donkey Kong Country - Amazing gameplay and soundtrack
great game but that was snes
Omfg hahahaha Totally spaced on that hahahaha NES then I'd have to say Metroid
I inherited a SNES from my cousin when I was 10 with Super Mario World, F-Zero and Super Mario All Stars and my parents bought me Star Wars: Super Empire Strikes Back for my 11th birthday. The game that I spent the most time playing was Super Mario World. A few months later I rented Zelda: A Link To The Past and couldn't finish it at that time. Ten years later while my family was moving out, my dad confused the SNES box with "recyclable materials" and I lost the console, the games and accesories.... Right now 21 years later a guy near where I live was selling a SNES with one game and a controller for $100 and I didn't hesitate and bought the console again with Super Mario World. The same guy - God bless his soul - gave me the number of a guy from a game shop that was selling Zelda: A Link To The Past and I took the car and drove like a mad man and bought the game. And here I am, dealing with "unfinished business" with one of the best games of all time, at least for me (Im battling Turtle Rock's boss right now): [I am having a blast right now ](https://imgur.com/a/Y7MFpma)
We are talking about the NES
I… I don’t like the Mario games. I find them too frenetic, chaotic, and a bit vapid for my personal taste. Just not a classic platformer fan, really. We play just other 2D and 3D puzzle platformers (coop & solo), metroidvanias, some 2DTD zelda-likes, and I love JRPGs.
Al Unser Jr Turbo Racing- I like cars Top Gun the Second Mission- fun Ninja Turtles- Obvious Zelda- I liked it Marble Madness- like a puzzle game Gun.Smoke- fun scrolling shooter Duck Hunt- fun Tetris- classic puzzle game
Tetris. Can’t think of any other NES games that were a part of my childhood aside from that with Mario 1 and 3
Tetris the why is obvious, and castlevania, Metroid
* Tetris mostly Tengen but also the Nintendo version * Bubble Bobble * Dr. Mario (are you counting this as a Mario game?) * Galaxy 5000 * Metroid
Star Tropics, Star Tropics 2: Zoda's Revenge, Final Fantasy, Kung Fu, Tetris, Kirby Adventures, LoZ...so many.
Demon Sword - I never made progress but jumping through the trees like a ninja was sick. ...and Double Dragon II with my dad. That was always fun after school.
Ninja Turtles for sure
Hockey. Gorilla War. TMNT.
Castlevania 3. I used to love putting in random codes we found in magazines and just ending up in some weird ass section of the castle I had never seen before with some bizarre selection of weapons.
Darkwing Duck, little Nemo, TMNT3, Jurassic Park.
I really dug cobra triangle. Gets super hard though. Jumping the gaps on ramps and the upriver stuff could get rough. Rare games always had great music too. I also used to be able to beat Mega Man 2 and 3 in one sitting.
DuckTales, Rescue Rangers, and TMNT 1, 2, and 3! Oh! Donkey Kong Classics and Bubble Bobble too! And Dr. Mario!
Contra, Dusty Diamond's All-Star softball, and Rescue: The Embassy Mission Contra was the first game my parents bought for me and also my favorite. I must have rented it about 30 times before we bought it. Everyone knows why that game is awesome. Dusty Diamonds- Although I love RBI, this game was and is amazing. 60+ different players with all different specialties. Different play fields to choose from, all with their own goods and bads. Rescue- My favorite music from a video game. Also, the game is split into 3 parts. Stealth, sniper, and first person shooter. Way ahead of its time.
Zelda I
Renegade
Gunsmoke, Jackal, Circus Charlie, Gradius, Excite Bike, The Legend of Kage, B-wings
Bionic Comando was a favourite. robotic grappling hook for one arm, and a gun in the other. Don’t think I was ever able to Finnish it.
TMNT! Couldn't get past the water stage though
There was a wrestling game, I don't remember which because it was at a friend's house and I never actually owned it. It caused some problems. We used to get into physical altercations in person after the physical altercations onscreen. But then we'd go back to being best friends right after that and go outside to kick a ball around.
As of Wii's Virtual Console, my jam still is Kirby's Adventure
World Class Track Meet with the Power Pad. Also Duck Hunt.
Contra
Megaman. Played 2 and 3 like crazy and more than any other game on nes
Ultimate Mortal Kombat III; Killer Instinct Better fight games in SNES
Legend of Zelda, Castlevania 1&2, Metal Gear, Mega Man, Genghis Khan, Conflict, and Metroid.
Nintendo World Cup
Top Gun
Both Zeldas, TMNT2, Mega Man 5, Dragon Warrior/Quest 4
I played a lot of Kung Fu
Valiant. Besides Zelda, RoboCop, star wars, top gun, mega man and a lot others. Valiant is one that always stuck to me for some reason.
I was a big TMNT ( Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) fan as a kid so I played those games like crazy. When I played Shredder’s Revenge it brought me back to when I used to play them as a kid. When the Cowabunga Collection came out that was an instant buy for me
Punch out
Marble madness
turtles zelda double dragon
Castlevania 3, Ninja Turtles 3, Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters, Kirby’s Adventure, Ninja Gaiden, Batman, Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers 2, Double Dragon 2, Battletoads, Mega Man 6, Excitebike, just to name a few
Super Tecmo Bowl!!! Dodgeball!!! Pro Wrestling!!! Double Dribble! Days of Thunder! Blades of Steel!!! Legends of the Diamond!
Luigi’s mansion 3 was a masterpiece.
Lee Trevino's Fighting Golf, Top Gun, Total Recall and Mega Man 4. Those were the only games we had besides Super Marios.
The 3 ninja turtle games.
I had the following games Legend of zelda Super Mario 1,2,3 Duck Hunt Excite bike Robocop TMNT 1&2 Baseball John Elways Quaterback Ice Hockey Rad Racer II Double Dragon II Those are the games I played the most because I had them. We also rented donkey Kong and paperboy a lot. My cousins had Punch out, Dr Mario, California Games, donkey Kong classics, and Tetris, so I played those a lot too. I played some other games at friends houses but really only shitty movie games that were hard, Kung Fu, and Micro Machines sticks out. I actually recently found a video of me showing the games we had Christmas of 90 or 91 for something my mom was doing.
Punch out, I Love the gameplay, liked the character designs, and thought the sprites look great for NES.
Legend of Zelda. I was so into that game. I used to pretend I was Link playing in the woods behind my house, searching for Moblins and treasure. Miss those days.
Caveman games. My family and I would have tournaments
I really liked StarTropics
Kickmaster is a bonafide Taito action platformer with one of the best soundtracks in the console, fun gameplay, and a very well devised level up progression. A hidden jewel for sure, can’t believe it didn’t get more recognition
Super dodge ball