While technically not the first console, the Nintendo Entertainment System really kick-started the gaming era, with its biggest games shaping the industry’s future. Obviously, we all know Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and Excitebike were influential and groundbreaking, but not every innovative NES game earned a legacy as long-lasting as those masterpieces. Many titles introduced important mechanics or showcased incredible technology, only to be written out of history and reduced to footnotes.
Because they age far worse than their 16-bit counterparts, NES games are less likely to be rediscovered long after the fact, since you really need to be a die-hard retro lover to even know the following names. Still, these releases were ingenious for their era, and they deserve to be remembered for how they pushed the industry forward.
Sweet Home Is The First Survival Horror Game
Capcom Created Survival Horror, But Not Through Resident Evil
- 1989 horror RPG hybrid that wrote Resident Evil‘s playbook.
When you think of influential horror games by Capcom, the discussion starts and ends with Resident Evil, and that’s by no means wrong. However, while RE caused the genre’s explosion in popularity, it wasn’t Capcom’s first attempt to scare the bejesus out of players. No, that would be 1989’s Sweet Home, which is basically the grandfather of survival horror.
Yes, one of gaming’s most enduring genres started with an obscure movie tie-in game that never left Japan, and Sweet Home even qualifies as a rare horror RPG. Rather than an action side-scroller, which would have been a weird fit for the source material, Capcom crafted a top-down RPG set entirely in a mansion. Playing it now, it is amazing how many elements Sweet Home sets up that the first Resident Evil expands on, including inventory management, the door transition screen, and progression tied to shortcuts.
Beyond just Capcom’s own work, Sweet Home features mechanics that later horror games would make great use of. You control 5 characters, each with a vital tool (like a med kit); however, permadeath is part of the equation and a consequence of failure. The game tells its story through environmental storytelling and diary entries, along with surprisingly explicit body horror scenes.
Clash at Demonhead Lets You Plot Your Route
More Than A Scott Pilgrim Joke
- 1989 Vic Tokai game that rejected linearity.
If you are really into horror, you might recognize Sweet Home, even if it is only as the answer to a trivia question. However, Clash at Demonhead is best known as the name of Envy Adams’ rock band in Scott Pilgrim, a reference that mostly reduced the original to a punchline.
NES platformers tended to be either very linear or open-ended mazes, structures that were defined by Super Mario Bros. and Metroid, respectively. Clash at Demonhead went down another route… or many routes, to be exact. Rather than just moving you from World 1-1 to 1-2, 1-3, and so on, Clash at Demonhead lets you pick between multiple nodes (or stages) at any given intersection.
If a stage seems too difficult or requires an item you don’t have, you can trace your steps back and check out the other routes. You don’t have to complete all 40 nodes, and some routes end in a dead end. Ultimately, your goal is to find the seven governors, and there is no set order. You even unlock items by buying them from shops, which was pretty unusual for the era.
Clash at Demonhead shares DNA with Metroidvanias, but it isn’t really part of that genre since it doesn’t feature one continuous map. However, plenty of SNES games (ahem, Super Mario World) adopted its “pick a stage” structure.
Captain Skyhawk Is Rare’s Forgotten Groundbreaking NES Game
3D On The NES
- A 1990 shmup with 3D backgrounds.
Despite producing some of the most recognizable games of both the NES and SNES generations, Rare was an absolute factory in its heyday, and dozens of the developer’s projects have been wiped from history. As primarily an isometric shooter, Captain Skyhawk‘s forgotten nature kind of makes sense, as it belongs to a genre that stopped being popular decades ago (and it doesn’t quite play like a conventional shmup).
Still, this 1990 game sits comfortably among Rare’s most impressive technical accomplishments. Rather than sticking to flat 2D scrolling backgrounds, Captain Skyhawk features pseudo-3D environments with valleys, mountains, and enemies, aping a style that was only viable in arcades at the time. These sections were innovative on their own, but Rare also added two completely different gameplay sections: 3D dogfights and a (way too hard) space station docking mini-game.
Unlike nearly every shmup of its era, Captain Skyhawk frames its missions around objectives and doesn’t rely on score chasing to keep players coming back for more. Honestly, this game is wildly impressive for the NES.
The Magic of Scheherazade Meshes Together So Many Genres And Mechanics
A NES RPG With One Thousand And One Ideas
- The Magic of Scheherazade would have been impressive for 1992, let alone 1987.
Nowadays, we are used to games that smash together every genre known to man, but this style of project was not common on the NES. Therefore, Culture Brain releasing an RPG adventure with real-time combat, turn-based battles, time travel, dynamic classes, and large-scale boss battles was absolutely unheard of. There’s a lot to unpack there, so let’s go through some of them.
Based on One Thousand and One Nights, The Magic of Scheherazade draws on Middle Eastern folklore to tell a story that spans different time periods while exploring deserts, palaces, and oases. While exploring the world, you can hack away at enemies using one of your swords; however, enemies can ambush you, triggering a first-person turn-based battle akin to Dragon Quest. You can also recruit companions and bring them into the turn-based encounters, allowing you to execute combo magic.
When you start a playthrough, you choose one of three classes (Fighter, Magician, and Fighter-Mage), but you aren’t locked into that choice. You can swap to something else by visiting mosques, creating a dynamic class system.
