NES Masterpieces Every Gamer Should Experience, Ranked

The Nintendo Entertainment System‘s glory days ended a long time ago, but its legacy is beyond reproach. Despite running on arguably the most important console of all time, NES games tend to be overlooked in favor of SNES, Genesis, and PS1 releases. There is a reason most indie throwbacks target the 16-bit era and not its 8-bit predecessor: that generation gets way more love. Honestly, I get it, as not too many NES games stand the test of time; however, a few releases really should be played by most folks.

Why? Well, these NES games either created or popularized genres, or helped evolve the gaming industry in some form or another. While I would not necessarily say that they have all aged flawlessly, they are all still very playable, and some of them are as brilliant as they were 40 years ago.

7

Contra Is Pure Run-And-Gun Goodness

You Cannot Go Wrong With The Best

A rare example of a NES game surpassing the arcade version, Contra holds up incredibly well, and you could even argue that it perfected the run-and-gun formula right out of the gate. Simple as it might be, the gameplay shines due to its top-notch controls, pacing, and responsiveness, all of which are timeless and will always be easy to appreciate. The 3D tunnel stages were also quite cool for the era, even if they might not be all that impressive nowadays.

Nowadays, these types of games aren’t all that common, and newer releases don’t typically offer anything all that much better than the classics. Hell, Konami only seems to remember that Contra exists every 5 years or so, and the quality of the post-2000s releases is all over the place. You cannot go wrong with the original console version, though.

6

Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! Still Packs An Incredible Punch

The NES Still Lets You Feel Like A Champ

Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! has aged better than nearly any other NES game. Sure, the gameplay loop isn’t exactly complex, but it’s executed to pretty much perfection. While presented as a sports title, Punch-Out is really a rhythm game where you have to read your opponent’s movements and then execute a counter. Each new fighter introduces new routines and moves, and the challenge level increases very quickly.

More than anything, Punch-Out is still wildly unique. Nintendo almost never revisits the franchise, and these types of fights/rhythm games/whatever aren’t a thing in modern gaming. Even decades later, Punch-Out still feels one-of-a-kind, both as a game and a series.

5

Vice: Project Doom Is An Underrated NES Masterpiece

The Console Has More Than Just Mario, Zelda, And Mega Man

For the most part, I am focusing on landmark NES games that are just synonymous with the generation, but I wanted to include one title that didn’t garner that level of exposure. Project: Vice Doom came out late in the console’s lifespan, at a point when interest had already shifted to the Genesis and the SNES; consequently, not all that many people were interested in a release on outdated hardware by a developer with no real name value.

The thing is, Project: Vice Doom sits among the NES’ most impressive games, in terms of production value and even ambition. Aicom put together a campaign that cycles through three gameplay styles (shooting, driving, and side-scrolling), all of which play incredibly well and look pretty darn good. The B-movie story screams late ’80s and early ’90s, and I mean that in the best possible way.

If nothing else, Project: Vice Doom serves as a prime example that the NES had way more quality than just games that launched franchises.

4

The Legend Of Zelda Deserves Endless Respect And Love

Even If It Hasn’t Aged Perfectly

In the intro, I went on a whole spiel about some of these releases not necessarily aging flawlessly, and The Legend of Zelda is the game I was thinking about. Don’t get me wrong, Nintendo put together something truly special in 1986, delivering a level of freedom that was absolutely unheard of at the time.

LoZ‘s puzzles and dungeons are still easy enough to appreciate nowadays, although you need to sit through quite a few growing pains to really enjoy the overall experience. Still, LoZ is such a historically significant game that everybody should give it a try, just to see first-hand what Nintendo accomplished and how far gaming has come.

3

Mega Man 2 Is The Start Of One Heck Of A Hot Streak

The Blue Bomber’s Explosion

There are way too many Mega Man games on the NES, and they are all quite brilliant, except for the first entry. Although arguments could be made for all of its immediate sequels, Mega Man 2 is generally regarded as the franchise’s peak, especially since it laid the foundation for everything else that followed. It also saved the Blue Bomber after the first game failed to really hit the mark.

Capcom refuses to stop re-releasing these early Mega Man games, and for good reason: they are still as awesome as ever. Mega Man 2 is hard-as-hell but also mostly fair, and the non-linear boss design lets players map their route, even if certain orders are more logical than others.

Start with Mega Man 2 and just progress through the franchise’s NES games until you feel burned out. That’s what I did.

2

Kirby’s Adventure Is The Final NES Masterpiece

You Cannot Go Wrong With The Inhaler

Well, we cannot exactly ignore the NES’s swan song, can we? Kirby’s Adventure was released in 1993, when the console was basically already a relic. Nintendo and HAL Laboratory had no need to go all out on the NES by this point, but that’s exactly what they did with this colorful and experimental masterpiece.

Introducing the adorable Lovecraftian monster’s copy-ability system, which is still a fixture all these decades later, Kirby’s Adventure lets you take up more than 20 transformations. Combined with parallax scrolling, minigames, and a visual style that absolutely pops from the screen, this classic barely looks like a NES game. Very few 8-bit games rival their 16-bit counterparts in their presentation, but Kirby’s Adventure certainly achieves that.

1

Super Mario Bros. 3 Is What It Is

The Ultimate NES Game

It’s Super Mario Bros. 3; nobody needs to be told that they should play it. It’s ​​​​​​​Super Mario Bros. 3, the absolute peak of 8-bit platformers. Some might argue it is the greatest 2D Mario game, although Super Mario World certainly has something to say about that. The first Mario game is a must-play as well, but not quite to the same extent as the third.