The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) turns 25!

[fusoya]

October 18, 1985, the NES was first released in the United States. $249 got you the control deck, two standard controllers, a light gun zapper, a Robotic Operating Buddy (ROB -- I'm STILL not sure what it was supposed to be used for), and the games Gyromite and Duck Hunt. Contrary to popular belief, Super Mario Bros was NOT the first NES game - it would not get released until the following year. The system was initially launched with 15 additional games available (all of which came in those black, starry boxes), and by this time next year, there'd be over 100.

At the time of release, the United States was feeling really iffy about video games. Systems like the Atari and Colecovision were getting old and stale, and games (most of which, to be honest, were crap) were not selling. Nintendo chose a new strategy to ensure their success - have a license system, so that games could not be sold by third parties unless Nintendo themselves approved the game (and collected a licensing fee). Third party companies could also only release 5 games per year, to ensure that they actually focused on quality rather than quantity. Nintendo also made some new deals with electronic and toy stores to ensure that they would get the spotlight and be properly marketed.

It worked. The NES would go on to be the best selling video game system (only to be outdone by Nintendo's own Game Boy), and it seemed like every household in America had one sitting under their TV. Video gaming was back, and boy was it back. You never saw games like these before. Earlier generation games couldn't even begin to compare. Super Mario Bros. Zelda. Metroid. Castlevania. Mega Man. Final Fantasy. Dragon Warrior. All of these franchises got their start on the NES.

I actually didn't get an NES until my 8th birthday, in the Spring of 1988. My friend down the street already had one (the first NES game I ever played was Gunsmoke) and I was in love. Even my parents got in on the action (my dad was addicted to Double Dribble). For the next 10 years, I ate, breathed, and slept Nintendo (literally - I had Zelda pajamas and Nintendo Cereal System!). More games were all I wanted for my birthday and Christmas. We set up complex trading brackets among my classmates, as well as designating who would acquire which game next, to prevent overlapping (I got burned one time when I was drafted to get Double Dragon 3). Nintendo Power magazine was my Bible. Even when we went outside to play, we'd pretend we were in the middle of a Ghost & Goblins or Zelda game when running through the cemetery or woods.

Even today, 25 years later, the NES (and it's successor, the SNES) is one of my favorite systems ever. Some of you are probably familiar with my challenge to beat every single NES game - there were 757 of them! (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=422228). I'm sure there are many other dopers who have fond memories and stories to share about their NES experiences too!

My picks for the top 10 NES games ever:

10. Final Fantasy
9. Super Dodge Ball
8. Super Mario Bros 3
7. Bionic Commando
6. Metal Gear
5. Mike Tyson's Punchout
4. Dragon Warrior 4
3. The Legend of Zelda
2. Mega Man 2
1. Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse

[MindWanderer]

I remember playing Super Mario Bros 3 a lot. I don't remember the year we got the NES, but I think it was maybe 88 or 89? My mom still has a picture of me and my sister high-fiving the Christmas we got it.

SMB 1 was fun, but 3 was my favorite NES game ever, of course I've only played maybe 2 dozen of them. We had neighbors across the street that we would always go over and play their games, and sometimes trade games, and my cousin had some cool games too.

Some of my favorites, other than the mario games.

RC Pro Am
Ninja Gaiden (was very hard when I was a kid. My cousin had it, and I couldn't get
past the second level.)
The various Mega Man games.

In SMB 3, after the first few times I won using the warp whistles, I decided to start going through all the worlds. It's a lot more fun that way, if you have time to play it through. Worlds 5 and 6 were my favorites.

I never remember getting a ROB, but we did have the light gun. We rarely ever played Duck Hunt though. My cousin had one of those running pads for the Olympics game.

[Student Driver]

I got my NES in October of 1985; it was on or near Halloween, so I wasn't a launch-day owner. My mom and I had to travel out of state to buy it, as it didn't seem to show up in Indiana until 1986.

I got the Deluxe Set, so I had ROB... he was an interesting toy, but not an interesting gaming device. The two ROB games, Gyromite and Stack Up, had special attachments which would mount on ROB's base and hold a standard control pad. You aimed his "eyes" at the TV screen. When you played the game, you could issue commands to ROB, which would cause the screen to flash. As an example, Gyromite is a platform-type game, with red and blue pistons which move up and down at ROB's command. The pistons can be used as an elevator, to crush enemies against the ceiling or floor, or to block passageways. If you wanted to move the red pistons, you'd issue a command to ROB to swivel, grab a gyroscope, swivel to the gyro spinner, drop the gyro and let it spin up, pick up the gyro again, swivel back to the colored platforms, and drop the gyro on the red lever, which would push the button on ROB's control pad to then trigger the piston.

...or you could just hand the controller to a friend and play a lot more quickly.

My Commodore 128 ended up being my gaming platform of choice, and the NES ended up being put into storage by 1987 or so. I still have it, and thanks to FunCoLand sales over the years, I managed to collect about 400 of the existing titles.

[Airman Doors, USAF]

October 18, 1985, the NES was first released in the United States. $249 got you the control deck, two standard controllers, a light gun zapper, a Robotic Operating Buddy (ROB -- I'm STILL not sure what it was supposed to be used for), and the games Gyromite and Duck Hunt

My favorite theory is that R.O.B. was created to be a trojan horse (http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/july03/25smartest/index22.shtml).

That was the inspiration for the creation of one of the most reviled and vastly unappreciated gaming peripherals ever created. R.O.B., or Robotic Operating Buddy. R.O.B. was gray, one foot tall, spun on a little axis, and didn't do much else. He was ostensibly designed to work with two truly awful games: Gyromite and Stack-Up. That, however, wasn't R.O.B.'s true purpose. R.O.B. (along with a light gun that also came packaged with the system) was a product designed for one thing and one thing only -- to allow Nintendo's salespeople to approach big retailers like Toys R Us and say "Oh, no this isn't a video game. It's a toy."

Supposing that this was true, it was simply brilliant.

[KennerTheGreat]

I didn't get my NES until the summer of '90 (I had a Commodore 64 before then), but my best friend had one about a year or so before that, and we spent a ton of time playing, especially in the summers. I'd go down there at about 9 in the morning--he lived just around the corner--and stay there until 8 or 9 at night, only coming home for lunch and supper.

Baseball Stars was our favourite. If we were playing against the computer, I would hit and he would pitch/field.

[fusoya]

The funny thing about SMB3 is that if you play the game without warping, it makes Tank World SO MUCH easier, since you will have accumulated a ton of P-Wings and Cloud Charms and can literally hop, skip and fly through the final stages with no effort at all.

I got the Power Pad for my 9th birthday. It was fun for about 2 days, and then I figured out that you can run a lot faster by kneeling down and slapping the buttons with your hands. All of the other Power Pad games sucked. The Power Glove sucked even more. If there was one flaw with the NES, it's that most of their hardware add-ons never worked right.

[MindWanderer]

The funny thing about SMB3 is that if you play the game without warping, it makes Tank World SO MUCH easier, since you will have accumulated a ton of P-Wings and Cloud Charms and can literally hop, skip and fly through the final stages with no effort at all.

Yeah I always had a ton of gear to use in the hardest parts of world 7 and 8. Seven was usually where I started dieing a bit more. There's one side scrolling level in World 8, that would always bug me, so I'd use a P there almost every time. The one that goes really fast. I think 8-2 with the big jumps was another one.

I always saved my tanooki suits too, for just the right moment. I can still remember the songs on the various world 3 levels (that underwater theme), and level 8 scary level theme music. It was fun.

[Duke]

My stepdaughter L still plays the NES, and if our NES still worked consistently, it would be her favorite game system.

L is 10. The NES came out nearly 15 years before she was born. I think that says volumes about its staying power!

[Chronos]

My picks for the top 10 NES games ever:

10. Final Fantasy
9. Super Dodge Ball
8. Super Mario Bros 3
7. Bionic Commando
6. Metal Gear
5. Mike Tyson's Punchout
4. Dragon Warrior 4
3. The Legend of Zelda
2. Mega Man 2
1. Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse I never played any of the Castlevanias, DW4, Punchout, Metal Gear, Bionic Commando, or Super Dodgeball, but I'll heartily agree with SMB3, Final Fantasy, Mega Man 2, and Zelda. My Top Ten list would also include Blaster Master, Metroid, and Tetris (yes, I know Tetris wasn't exclusively Nintendo, but I think Nintendo deserves credit for popularizing it so widely). And on an objective basis, it wasn't nearly as great overall as Tetris, but I've always personally had a soft spot for Dr. Mario.

That still leaves two more for a Top Ten... Let me think about this some more.

[DocCathode]

I had to replace my NES a few years ago. My current one is having problems. The last game I played was Xenophobe.

The original Legend Of Zelda remains a great game.

I think SMB3 really pushed the limits of what the NES could do.

[OneChance]

I think we got our NES in 1986 or 1987, when I was in my mid-teens. I actually wasn't really into it until Zelda came out, then I couldn't put it down. I remember getting stuck and having to call the game counselors, and my sister stopped by Nintendo HQ in Redmond and got me the player's guide. Then in 1989 I was at a temp agency looking for a job and they said that Nintendo had some job openings. I took a test which consisted mostly of questions about Zelda, passed it, and became a game counselor myself, a job I ended up doing for over six years. One of the best and most stressful jobs I've ever had. Now when I want to play a game, even though I have things like Crysis and Left 4 Dead 2 at my disposal, I almost always reach for an NES game. I just finished Metroid and Strider, and now I might tackle Crystalis.

[fusoya]

Do tell. I've searched far and wide on the internet for stories of NES Game Counselors (especially for scans of those expert's guides that were shown in The Wizard), but have come up with nothing.

According to Nintendo Power, the most called in question was "where is level 7 in Zelda 1?"

It's where fairies don't live. Fairies live in lakes. Therefore, it's at the lake where fairies don't live. Blow the whistle there to drain the lake and find the entrance. I figured that one out on my own. The REAL evil hidden level was level 8 in the second quest

You have to bomb the side of the mountain, but stepping into a river with your ladder. The ONLY hint in the entire game to the location is "secret is below the arrow" ..... one screen above there, there's a formation of blocks that make an arrow, and by pushing one block, you could find a heart container. For the longest time, I thought the heart container was the clue it was talking about......

The only time I ever called the hotline was for Castlevania 2, when I had to ask where the hell to go in order to get to the second half of the game.

You have to equip the red crystal, and duck at the cliff for about 10 seconds. The only clue in the game to tell you this is a hidden book in one of the mansions

[BigT]

I used to dream of being able to play NES games on the go. When I got my Game Boy Advance flash card and a homebrew emulator, I googled for the 100 top NES games. I'm not going to make a post, but here's a link to the one I used:

http://www.sydlexia.com/top100nes.htm

ETA: And the graphics look awesome on that smaller screen, BTW. Much better than it looked on even CRTs.

[OneChance]

According to Nintendo Power, the most called in question was "where is level 7 in Zelda 1?"
The one question I got almost every single day was, "Got any codes for Tecmo Bowl?" In a typical 10-hour shift, we'd handle about 250 calls. I think my record was just over 300 one Saturday. I remember I had a groupie, this kid who was about 10 years old who'd call about once a month or so, ask for me, and just want to talk for as long as he could. The worst part of the job, I think, were adults calling in for help. We were instructed to give hints first to guide the caller a bit, then give detailed info if they wanted it. Adults normally just wanted the detailed info right off the bat, and they almost never asked nicely. But kids were awesome. You'd give them a hint and you could almost hear the light bulb appear above their heads, then they'd thank you and quickly hang up. Loved those calls.

A big problem were the game renters, who wanted to finish Lolo in two days because they had to return the game, and wanted you to walk them through every level until the game was finished. I did that for someone only one time, and only because it was really late at night and no calls were in queue. The worst game to give help on was, by far, Castlequest. Some of the levels took a lot of steps to get through, and oftentimes you'd tell the caller to write down your instructions, they said they would, then ten minutes later they'd say they just died. So they were trying to play instead of writing anything down, and you'd have to start over.

[fusoya]

Did Nintendo expect each counselor to know every game, or did they assign games to certain counselors who would take calls for that game? I can't imagine how much training they'd make you do if it was for more than a couple of games at a time....the Dragon Warriors and Ultimas must've been the worst, since they were so open-ended and there were SO MANY things you'd have to do in order to finish the game (some sequentially, others at any time).

[Omniscient]

Does the Nintendo Wii have a big catalog of NES games available for download? I gather not, because some of the old Sega games available on XBLA are frigging terrific.

[Munch]

Does the Nintendo Wii have a big catalog of NES games available for download? I gather not, because some of the old Sega games available on XBLA are frigging terrific.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Virtual_Console_games_%28North_America%29

[Omniscient]

Nice. Almost reason enough to buy a Wii.

[Chronos]

So this is interesting: I decided the other day to celebrate the anniversary by firing up Super Mario Bros. (the original) on an emulator (I gave away my actual console years ago). I start it up, and I'm on level 0-1. No, not the expected 1-1, not the storied negative level, but level zero. It's a water level, with no treasure blocks at all, and no monsters except a single easily-avoided piranha plant. About halfway through, it divides into three separate passages, and if you pick the wrong one, you get trapped in a dead-end by the lack of left-scrolling, and have to wait for time to run out. Pick the right one, and you can continue to the end of the level, where there's a bridge with an axe, like Bowser would stand on. Hit the axe, cut the bridge, tally points, and then the game freezes.

[OneChance]

Did Nintendo expect each counselor to know every game, or did they assign games to certain counselors who would take calls for that game? I can't imagine how much training they'd make you do if it was for more than a couple of games at a time....the Dragon Warriors and Ultimas must've been the worst, since they were so open-ended and there were SO MANY things you'd have to do in order to finish the game (some sequentially, others at any time).
At first we had big binders full of information and maps. Anyone who wanted to could make maps or gameplays and distribute them. In 1990 or so we started computerizing everything which made it much easier to help callers. We were still expected to play the games to at least become familiar with what they looked like, though. I stopped counting after finishing 200 games and played practically every single game to some degree. We mostly played while helping callers, and had every game available in sort of a library checkout system so we could play at home if we had to. We did have game-specific experts among us as well, so if we had trouble helping someone with a particularly hard level in, say, Castlequest, we could pass those callers off. The role-playing games, by the way, were actually pretty easy to help with back then because they were mostly linear, so you just had to ask someone if they had some key item or fought some key boss, and you'd know exactly what they had to do next.

[Chronos]

The role-playing games, by the way, were actually pretty easy to help with back then because they were mostly linear, so you just had to ask someone if they had some key item or fought some key boss, and you'd know exactly what they had to do next. Ah, yes, memories of the fetch-quest cascade after you got the Crown from the Marsh Cave in FF1. You brought the CROWN to the Northwest Castle, where you fought Astos (an easy fight, given that you could save right outside and keep re-loading until your MUTE spell worked), then took the CRYSTAL to Matoya, who gave you the HERB, which you took to Elfland to wake the prince and get the KEY, which you used to unlock the Coneria treasure room to get the TNT, which you brought to the dwarf cave so the engineer could finish the CANAL, so you could sail on to the rest of the world.

[fusoya]

The first half of Final Fantasy was pretty linear, but once you got the canoe, things opened up a bit (you had 3 choices - Castle Ordeals, Ice Cave or Volcano), and once you got the airship (which you only needed to complete the Ice Cave to obtain), the rest of the game, aside from the final dungeon, and fetch quests to open up certain dungeons, could be done in any order.

Dragon Warrior 2 and 3, on the other hand, once you got the pirate ship, which was generally pretty early in the game, you were on your own. Sail around and pick a town, because each of them had a quest waiting for you. Both games waited for you to complete most of these (some of them were mandatory, others were red herrings that only wasted your time) before you could proceed towards the end game sequence. I went absolutely INSANE playing through DW3 earlier this year because I was ONE quest short of proceeding and didn't know what to do next. Thank god for gamefaqs.....I suppose a game counselor would have to go down the list and ask the caller which quests they have and haven't completed yet.

So those binders DO exist. I would give my left nut to be able to read them. Especially the Castlequest one....I am NOT looking forward to trying to beat that game.

[Drain Bead]

No Earthbound on the Wii Virtual Console still? Shame. That may still be the single best RPG I've ever played.

[DKW]

[Disclaimer: I got my NES in my first year of high school. I was a kid then. I was not especially harcore. That would shape a lot of my opinoins.]

My favorite Super Maro Bros. was 2. There being no Internet at the time, I had no way of knowing that it was originally a different game and loathed by pretty much the rest of the world and wouldn't have cared if I did. It was great running around, throwing stuff at enemies, and finding all the secrets. (I found it weird at the time that nobody seemed to know all four warp locations.) My next favorite was the first. It was just tons of fun exploring all the places, and the difficulty was perfect for a timid 15-year-old. I only played 3 a few times and never was too fond of it. All those items and puzzles and micromanagement, just too rich for my blood (even now).

Only Castlevania I ever cleared without codes was 2. That one's my favorite, although not by much. Lots of fun trying to get through 1, even though I never beat that effin' Count clean. Only played 3 on emulator, and it's a monster, especially when you get to the castle. Don't like that one, even though the music is awesome.

Played the first 3 Mega Man games on cart. Really intense; stretched my meager teenage skills to the limit. 2 was my favorite (no, really); it was the only one I cleared without any cheats or tricks. Would've been better if there weren't so many instant-death pitfalls. Did the rest on emulator. Much better game with save states, rewind, codes, and GameFAQs on tap, I tell ya. Still don't care for them much; more pointless than anything.

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out is one of my favorite games of all time on any platform. What can I say; the perfect blend of challenge, action, achievement, and irreference. Shame my reflexes aren't what they used to be and I can't clear it at full speed anymore. Actually think Mr. Sandman is tougher than Super Macho Man.

Contra. Great game, quintessinal 80's action game. Poured a bazillion tokens into this at the arcades. Baffled that all anyone ever says about it now is "30 lives code", "Nintendo Hard", and "spread gun". It's not that hard, really. I actually thought the fire gun was underrated, as it was easier to hit moving targets with.

The Legend of Zelda did more for my socialization skills in high school than anything else. I swear at least 80% of the game was finding out where the hell things were. Again, no Internet, so the only way was to find people who'd played it and talk to them. I have no idea why, but most of them said that they had trouble remembering because they hadn't played it in ages. In 1988. Zelda 2 was freakin' hard; never got anywhere without my trusty Game Genie.

Owned Blaster Master; finished it completely clean (twice!). About 2-3 hours each time, and of course, no saves. Just gotta deal with it. Hardest part is keeping your gun energy up before getting to the final boss' room. You must keep your gun energy up if you're going to beat it.

Final Fantasy, unfortunately, was what turned me off to console RPGs. The final straw was an area (don't remember where, but it was well before anything resembling an ice cave) I had to get through that was full of monsters and no place to save or recover. I do not deal with life-or-death stress well, especially with results determined purely by blind chance.

Loved Metal Gear. Just the thrill of taking on and completing tasks one by one. Never understood how Solid Snake was supposed to be this invisible stealthy spy; I did just fine mowing down all the enemies in the room. (I completed the game at least three times without even knowing about the cover-blowing Transmitter.) Baretta was by far the weapon of choice; other weapons at most occasionally useful. Often the most viable strategy was just running like hell, knowledge that would serve me well in future games. Had no idea American kids in the late 80's cared deeply and passionately that this was a remake of a game on something called the "MSX", or that it made all the difference in the universe that Snake's Revenge didn't employ someone involved with Metal Gear, or any of the roughly 300 other gripes about Snake's Revenge. It sounds fun. I should try it sometime.

Never played Tecmo Bowl or any of the Dragon Warriors. Uh, yeah.

[BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed]

Your post reads like a list of my greatest hits, DKW. :)

You beat Blaster Master? It used to take me and my brother forever, and then we hit some glitch more than once in level 5 (or 7) where Jason got stuck in the floor in a place where there were no enemies, so reset was the only option. Why why why wasn't there a save feature in a game that long?

On the other hand, while I don't remember Zelda 2 being a walk in the park, it doesn't stick out as impossibly difficult. Definitely ran through that a couple times, a good solid game. No, the legendary "let's try to beat this stupid game one more time" but we never could was Double Dragon 3. Got to the last boss I can't tell you how many times, and never pulled it off. Frustrating, but finally beat it on emulator years later, and the ending was terrible. 2 was a much better game anyway.

I also share your enjoyment of SM2. Although I remember using the warps constantly, as the game kinda dragged in the middle. One of the ice levels was super fun though, and I loved playing the desert ones with Luigi, as he could jump over huge parts of the level. Mario 3 was also fun, especially using the boot and getting the tanuki suit (thanks for teaching me some Japanese at a young age, nintendo! I also know the word for pirate because of Final Fantasy).

Also loved Castlevania 2 (Simon's Quest, right?). Man, I think there was definitely some consultation of Nintendo Power magazine to figure out how to use that random-ass tornado warp with the red crystal.

Bases Loaded is one of the few sports games I liked. I don't really know why-- it's not great. It just worked for me. Plus the umpires were named YUK, DUM, BOO, and BUM. Blades of Steel also was a fun sports game, I think largely because you could get into fights on the ice.

And good god, was Metroid ever hard. I did love the SNES version, though.

After having owned the NES for awhile, one of the later games my brother and I got was Smash TV. Pretty repetitive shooter, but you could play with two controllers turned sideways. One controller direction pad would steer your character, and the other one would shoot. My brother would drive, and I would shoot. Good times.

Nintendo was a really big part of my childhood. I dunno if that's bad or good, but it definitely gives us players a wide cohort.

[Chronos]

Final Fantasy, unfortunately, was what turned me off to console RPGs. The final straw was an area (don't remember where, but it was well before anything resembling an ice cave) I had to get through that was full of monsters and no place to save or recover. I do not deal with life-or-death stress well, especially with results determined purely by blind chance.Most likely the Marsh Cave. The boss fight at the end with the Wizards guarding the CROWN is one of the hardest fights in the game, for the level you're at when you do it, and there's a chance of random encounters like Scorpions and Gargoyles on that level, too, which can really mess you up. If you ever feel like going back to it, a tip: Whenever you get a random encounter that includes Scums, just run: They're all but impossible to kill unless you're willing to waste Fir2 spells on them (hint: You're not willing to do that, since you'll need those spell slots for Lit2 vs. the Wizards). Oh, and stock up on a few dozen pure potions before you go in, too, because those Scums will poison you.

EDIT: BellRung, I certainly agree with you that Blaster Master needed saves or continuation codes. I did eventually beat it on an emulator, but it still took about 30 hours of gameplay. Back when I was using the actual console, I never even saw the water world.

[DKW]

BellRung - Wow, never expected such a positive response. (I should know better by now...)

Re. Blaster Master: Yes, I really had that little a life that I got all the way through twice (and I remember failing past the halfway point at least once). The most important thing to remember is that other than the lack of saves, it's no different from Metal Gear, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, or any of the other 8-bit action adventures. It's all about staying alive and doing things in the right order. There are no timers, so you can always backtrack to heal or replenish your weaponry. A guide definitely helps a lot, and being able to take a breather at any time with an emulator is a big help. Once you know where everything is, it shouldn't take you more than 3 hours to get from start to finish.

Castlevania 2 was indeed Simon's Quest. One of the reasons it wasn't well received was that a big part of the challenge was figuring out how to make things happen. (And of course, in today's Internet era, that's no challenge at all.) Also, if you were used to usual 8-bit RPG convention and assumed that random passerby's comments were inherently trustworthy, you were in for a cold, hard reality check. Meh...change of pace, says I.

Come to think of it, there's a virtually identical development pattern for Super Mario Bros. and Castlevania: Mundane arcade port, user-friendly console style "quest" game, really complicated arcade-style game where you need to be a good manager.

Am I the only one who realizes that YUK, DUM, BOO, and BUM are initials? Was it really that hard to figure out? (Heck, look at my username.)

[Uosdwis R. Dewoh]

I too loved Super Mario 2, though 3 is my favourite NES Mario game. Me and my brother did manage to beat Double Dragon 3. The secret is to use the super spin kick, stand in the same spot and do the spin kick at the same time.

[DocCathode]

The update of the original Addams theme song was great. The sounds and music in general were great.

I love the game except for two things-

Seemingly at random, sometimes a powerful monster or monsters not in the game booklet would show up and be hard or impossible to kill.

When you died, you kept all items and all the bosses you killed stayed dead BUT you restarted geographically back at the beginning of the game. As it could take an hour or more just to walk back to whatever point you were killed at, this sucked.

[Really Not All That Bright]

My top ten:
1. SMB3. Kind of obvious.
2. Zelda I.
3. Faxanadu. Borrowed it from a friend, would never have given it back if I didn’t have to.
4. Snake, Rattle & Roll. Should have been remade for one of the later consoles.
5. Duck Hunt. Hours of entertainment despite almost laughable simplicity.
6. SMB1, just for sentimental value.
7. Metroid.
8. RC Pro-Am.
9. Trog. Okay, this one was pretty awful as a game, but it was also hilarious.
10. Tetris. Not as good as the Game Boy version, and why the fuck was it single player only?

[Amblydoper]

Zelda - Argubly one of the best video games of all time. I had so much fun trying to find everything in this game. My brothers, sister and I worked together to finish the first quest, sharing our knowledge alng the way. We didn't have nintendo power, and our mother wouldn't let us call the help line, so we where on our own. There were only a few things that really stumped us, bothe in the second quest: the treasure in dungeon 4 and the location of dungeon 8. Both were cleverly hidden by new tricks that you don't expect that late in the game.

Little Nemo's Dreamland - What a fun game, with wonderful music. The difficulty scales up pretty well after the gameplay and music enslave your attention. Its not a long or in-depth game, but its entertaining, and thats what really counts.

Zelda II - This game was the black sheep of the franchise, but that didn't matter to me in my youth. This game empahasized action and sword skills more then the previous game, and every battle demanded your attention. I actually liked the mundane aspect of leveling-up and micromanaging my magic meter. I mastered the tactics of fighting each boss. And with the help of my sister, who still loves the zelda games to this day, we found our way through the final level. But just once, out of countless attempts, I beat dark link before finding out about the duck-n-stab trick. I felt accomplished for doing something that most zelda gamers couldn't do.

SMB 2 - The original was mundane and repetitive. Nintendo was right in thinking that Americans wouldn't buy a sequel of the exact same thing. Super Mario Brothers 2 was entertaining, addictive, frusterating at times, rewarding at others, and just alot of fun.

There were other great games, like Ice Hockey, Gradius, Castlevania, Metroid etc. I won't go into all of them, but The NES was a wonderful part of my childhood.