NES Top 9
The Nintendo Entertainment system was, above all other systems, a trend setter. It established so many classic characters and franchises that we have all come to love. So today we honor the NES with a top 9.
#9 Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. is top to bottom one of the greatest games ever. Everything about it is near perfect, from the ingenious enemy designs, to the meticulously crafted level designs, and the unbelievably infectious music. It pretty much set the standard for every 2-D game to come after it and built the empire that is now Nintendo. This would definitely have been higher but we didn’t want to overrun the countdown with Mario games.
#8 Mega Man 2
Whoever came up with the box art sucks, everyone else involved is awesome. The blue bombers second NES outing featured an even more outlandish cast of characters just waiting to get their powers stolen. The bosses in this game are some of the best in the entire series, and that’s saying a lot given the amount of Mega Man games there are now. I particularly like Metal Man, Flash Man, and Air Man. Mega Man 2’s improvements, however, were not simply in the bosses. The controls were tightened and the music was seriously upgraded. Capcom FTW.
#7 Contra
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start, put it in, grab a friend, and pray to the gods for victory. Contra is truly one of the hardest games around, but yet that’s part of the fun. It took the regular side-scrolling format, added a lot a bullets and some awesome co-op play. There isn’t too much to say about Contra in general, you’re Rambo (or Arnold based off the boxart), you grab ridiculously awesome powerups, blast aliens, and watch your 30 lives get drained, really quickly.
#6 Metroid
No matter how you put it, Metroid was a great a game. It was the first 2D game to introduce an adventure element and create a world rather than individual levels. It was also one of the first games to have a woman as the hero. That’s fine by me because she kicks some major ass. Combine that with some great graphics and awesome music, instant classic.
#5 Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
The Castlevania franchise is alive and kicking to this day. Yet as far as I’m concerned Castlevania 3 is still the best one around, except for Symphony of the Night of course. It innovated over the previous iterations by introducing several playable characters including Alucard, Grant, and Sylph. Each one played differently and followed a different path giving the game high replay value. The graphics were astounding for the time and the music as addictive as ever. If you don’t like it there’s something seriously wrong with you.
#4 Mike Tyson's Punch-Out
Before that loser Mr. Dream and before the infamous ear bite Mike Tyson was the baddest mofo on the planet. In that regard Punch Out was like a dream for all underdogs. Scrawny little Mac climbs the ladder defeating each racially stereotyped character he encounters, Vodka Drunkinski(only in Japan) was too funny, only to be unceremoniously annihilated by Iron Mike. Now to this day I have yet to defeat Tyson but I still try, and probably will continue to until the end of time.
#3 Ninja Gaiden 2
One of these games had to go on here so we chose the most difficult one, and by proxy the one we played the most. As can be seen on the boxart, Ninja Gaiden 2 will kick your ass over and over again. Almost everything about it was perfect. Awesome cut scenes that display a nonsensical storyline, some of the best 8-bit music ever, the tightest controls a side scroller has ever seen, and an extremely diverse cast of foes. Oh and by diverse I mean it, during your quest you’ll square off against football players, marines, witch things, spider throwing guys, robots, and the ultimate evil… birds. All this culminates with the inevitable showdown with Jaquio. This mother fucker didn’t have enough in the first game so he had to revive himself for a second ass kicking. Basically this took everything great about the original and improved on it.
#2 The Legend of Zelda
It’s the Legend of Zelda and it’s really rad,
Those creatures from Ganon are really bad,
Octorok’s and Tektite’s and Leever’s too,
With your help our hero will pull through.
#1 Super Mario Bros. 3
Tanooki suit, Kuribo’s Shoe, Hammer Bros Suit, Frog Suit, and P Wings, Super Mario 3 is eight worlds of badass. With a new world map format as well a plethora of new items and an organizer to store those items, Mario 3 improved on the Mario formula so much that’s its almost unrecognizable, in a good way. On the familiar side, our hero is once again tasked with rescuing Princess Peach, only this time Bowser brought his kids along to make sure you don’t get the job done. Which begs the question, did Bowser bone Peach, I’m just asking where he got the kids from?
Now that we’ve listed our top 9, if anyone else is reading this, feel free to leave any comments or post your personal top 9.
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