NES Games That Hold Up Brilliantly

You don’t need me to repeat how the NES changed gaming. So many classic games shaped the very way we enjoy our little digital men and sometimes goblins. But unlike most SNL special guests from the 00s, a lot of NES games just do not age.

 

Blaster Master

According to our last NES specific video, not including Blaster Master was a bit of a faux pas. There was surprise, shock, and even the implication of criminal charges from one passionate commenter. The only crime we’re guilty of is cramming in pointless references like Leon does pointless backflips. Watch that beautiful fringe soar.

A platformer/run and gun shooter that launched on the NES in 1988, Blaster Master is actually the localised version of a Japanese game called Chō Wakusei Senki Metafight, though it translates into English as “Super Planetary War Chronicle: Metafight” which is absolutely beautiful. Its success would create a series that’s still going to this day.

While the story for the original Japanese release and the rest of the world would differ, Blaster Master follows a young lad by the name of Jason who follows his pet frog down a massive hole in his back garden. Once he’s tumbled down this froghole, Jason’s version of Wonderland includes an armoured tank called Sophia The 3rd, and a horde of violent radioactive mutants who live underground. Time to hop in the tank, shoot the crap out of some muties and find your lost frog. Essentially, you’ve got a game that’s equal parts Fury, The Toxic Avenger and Big The Cat’s levels from Sonic Adventure. With a mix like that, no wonder the comments were ready for a battle.

 

The Battle Of Olympus

Before Orpheus was perhaps best known as being that singing guy in Supergiant’s Hades, or for ruining the idea of facial hair, the mythical bard was given a lead role in his own video, The Battle Of Olympus on the NES.

Set in a version of Ancient Greece that’s basically being ravaged by the lord of the Underworld, the game opens with Hades himself kidnapping Orpheus’ lover. Ditching the lute for a wooden club, Orpheus declares that girlfriend abduction just isn’t cricket actually old chap, and resolves to explore Ancient Greece in order to gather the strength, tools and favour needed to make the journey into the bowels of Tarturus.

Heavily inspired by Nintendo’s own Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link, like most side scrolling RPGs on the NES, you’ll move through various screens, killing monsters and upgrading your weapons and skills as you complete the various side quests to find. Admittedly, the combat isn’t quite as diverse as Zelda’s, with Orpheus lacking abilities such as the downward stab when in midair, but the scale on offer here, and the lusciousness of the game’s backgrounds really highlight the best of what the NES was capable of. Besides, who doesn’t love a quick dive into Greek mythology every now and again? Nothing’s more zen than ripping a few heads off.

 

Zen: Intergalactic Ninja

If you were to just glance at the gameplay of Zen: Intergalactic Ninja, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it’s yet another hardcore ninja platformer in the same vein as the original Ninja Gaiden games or Shinobi. That’s not entirely wrong, as you’re slashing your way through various levels while literally everything is trying to kill you, but Zen: Intergalactic Ninja’s graphics make it one of the best examples of its genre. From the colourful characters, different perspectives used during the game or the intricate backgrounds across the many levels, Zen is a real looker on the NES.

What some might not know about Zen: Intergalactic Ninja is actually based on a lesser known series of comic books that launched in 1987. The result of a genetic experiment, Zen becomes a highly trained martial artist and galactic mercenary for hire, with the game in particular seeing Zen take on a villain known as Lord Contaminous, who’s insisting on contaminating the Earth’s environment via pollution.

If you want a slice of hardcore action platforming on the NES, Zen is the perfect game to play thanks to its diverse gameplay, lovel visuals, and surprising variety of effects, but that’s not a gimmick. This is.

 

Gimmick!

Not to be confused with a manga release from the mid-2000s, Gimmick! Or Gimmick! If we’re being literal, is an NES platformer that launched in 1992 that featured the most adorable green critter this side of Bubble Bobble. Anyone who’s up on their console release dates will already know that 1992 was pretty late for an NES release, as the Super Famicom already launched in Japan in 1990, before being renamed as the SNES for the West in 1991 and 1992. Sunsoft developing a NES game that late into the console cycle seemed foolish, especially one that reportedly required a large development team, but all of that time and effort paid off as the game was met with…abject apathy when the game launched. Ah. In fact, the only Western release that Gimmick! received was in Scandinavia specifically as Mr Gimmick.

Gimmick! itself though is a wonderful yet difficult 2D platformer that utilised the best knowledge and technology the NES could handle to create advanced graphics and sounds. You play as a green creature called Yumetaro, who becomes a young girl’s new favourite toy, much to jealousy of all of her existing toys. One dimension-hopping kidnapping later, you’re tasked with the rescue. The developers implemented advanced tileset algorithms to free up the NES’ computing power and create better looking graphics, while the cartridge shipped with an enhanced sound chip for better quality music.

If you feel like seeing the game for yourself, you don’t need to hoist sail for this one, as Gimmick: Special Edition is available on every modern platform, and there’s even a sequel if you’re feeling bold. Er. Dash. Is next.

 

Boulder Dash

By the time that the NES released, Boulder Dash had been around the block and back again already, having launched on Atari’s 8-bit computers back in 1984. It’d take six years before the NES would see its own version, with Boulder Dash getting releases on the likes of the Apple 2, Amiga, Commodore 64 and the Spectrum, along with some arcade releases to boot. Who would have a frustrating puzzle platform about dodging rocks would make for a good quarter muncher, eh? Still, despite the various versions and even sequels, Boulder Dash’s release on the NES was something special.

Compared to the drab, dreary and somewhat lifeless colours and sprites that other consoles had to offer, the NES in comparison feels   like a rainbow explosion shooting straight out of the TV. The core gameplay remains the same, with you controlling Rockford in a bid to grab as many diamonds as you can from underground, while trying to avoid the ever present threat of falling boulders. As far as gameplay design goes, Boulder Dash is practically timeless, inspiring the likes of Mr Driller in the process, but those graphic upgrades really helped distinguish the NES version from its contemporaries. A nice boxed copy of this won’t cost you an…am and a leg either.

 

RC Pro Am

The NES might not have been known for its racing games, but those it did have were either top down racers, like Micro Machines or Road Fighter, or the standard “behind the car” racers that have become the gaming standard. Days of Thunder, Turbo Racing and Rad Racer are some prominent examples here. Of course Nintendo themselves decided to do things differently with Excite Bike, blending racing with side-scrolling, somehow, but beyond that, few tried to break the mold or make a racing game different from anything else, which is why RC Pro Am deserves recognition among the best NES games that hold up.

As the name implies, RC Pro Am is all about racing remote controlled cars as fast as possible, but the racing is done from an isometric perspective. That might sound a bit confusing, but the controls and gameplay are actually easy to pick up and play. However, it’s the graphics on show here that offer some of the best that the racing game genre on the NES has, thanks in large part to its bright colours and easy to understand sprites and backgrounds. No wonder the game’s developers, Rare, would work closely with Nintendo for a long time after RC Pro Am.

 

Clash At Demonhead

If the name sounds familiar, Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley got the name for the band from this as it was the first NES game he ever played. However, Clash At Demonhead, the game, doesn’t get the respect it deserves for being an open-ended platformer in an era of linear, “move left to right and just stomp on someone’s head” platformers. In fact, you could argue that Clash At Demonhead also helped usher in the Metroidvania genre, though I’m not sure how the genre would be titled if Clash At Demonhead was crowbarred in there. Demonoid? Best answers in the comments.

Playing as a hero inexplicably named Billy “Big Bang” Blitz, which is a hall of fame pick for best character names in gaming, you’re trying to stop a doomsday device from blowing up the entire world, gathering the six medallions needed to do so from the various governors that rule over the region of Demonhead. Because the first word is Clash though, you’re primarily doing this via running, jumping and shooting, but the beauty of Demonhead is that players can explore the world however they like, choosing the levels (known as routes) in any order. Naturally, skills and weapons you unlock, along with the characters you meet, will reveal new paths and secrets in other routes. If any NES game could do with a modern port, Demonhead is it.

 

Zoda’s Revenge: StarTropics 2

Okay, so if you thought Gimmick launching in 1992 was a bit later for a NES release, Zoda’s Revenge: StarTropics 2 is a whole other story. While Gimmick was created by another company, Nintendo actually developed and published StarTropics 2 for a release on the NES in…1994. This makes it one of the last games on the NES, and the last developed with specifically the NES in mind. With four years of added time since the upgrade to the SNES though, Zoda’s Revenge: StarTropics 2 manages to be one of the most impressive games on the entire console.

Continuing on from where the first game left off, which is a whipper of its own too by the way, Zoda’s Revenge: StarTropics 2 sees protagonist Mike Jones now travelling across time in a bid to defeat his mortal nemesis, the alien Zoda. The graphics and imagination on show in StarTropics 2 are fantastic, while the gameplay builds on the original’s formula with new weapons, locations and enemies. Despite the four year gap between the SNES’ release and the launch of StarTropics 2 on the NES, Nintendo managed to prove that if the game is good, it doesn’t matter what hardware it launches on, build it, and the people willow come.

 

Willow

All together now: licensed games can often be bad! But they can also be: confusing! Depending on the platform, you’d often get a completely different game entirely, and Willow was no exception. Despite the fact that both games are developed by Capcom, the arcade release and NES release are completely different. The arcade version plays like a side scrolling platformer similar to Ghouls ‘N’ Ghosts, while the NES version is a top-down RPG similar to Zelda. There was a Commodore version too that analysts call “pure shite”

Somewhat following the events of the film, Willow for the NES sees players controlling the titular character, played by the iconic Warwick Davis, as they travel across the land in a bid to defeat evil. Along the way, you’ll level up, unlock new weapons and skills, and encounter other characters in your quest. In terms of gameplay, there’s no question that Willow is a touch derivative of Zelda’s work, but in terms of graphical capabilities, Willow is among the best that the console has. And that’s even with Warwick Davis looking like he’s holding 200 sweets in his mouth on the game’s cover.

 

Bionic Commando

Finishing off with less of a hidden gem and more of a bona fide whipper, Bionic Commando is proof that video games about killing Nazis are always fun. The game’s ending was even famous for showing a few frames of Hitler’s exploding, but a lot of that was lost when Bionic Commando for the Famicom was ported from Japan to the rest of the world for the NES. We also lost the amazing name of Hitler’s Resurrection: Top Secret.

Bionic Commando generally though, is an incredibly well-made platformer/run and gun shooter, which is especially baffling considering that the game removes one of the core features of those games: jumping. Instead of relying on the contractions of your leg muscles to get upwards, you use a grappling hook that replaces one of your arms, which makes getting around the game’s various levels a lot more challenging than usual platforming games.

Throw in the game’s lovely graphics, large levels and the ability to choose which levels to tackle, and there’s a reason why this is a classic that stands the test of time. I think it’s time we all admit that arm wives are not that silly and definitely good game design actually.

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