My Top 5 Favorite NES Games of all Time
I first started playing my Nintendo (NES) when I was seven years old and it was the first video game system that I owned or played. I received the NES as a gift from my parents for Christmas in 1988. I had actually asked them for an Apple computer for Christmas but for some reason they bought me a Nintendo instead.
Recently @smooms made a post of his top 5 favorite NES games. I decided to make a list of my top 5 favorite NES games as well. Let’s get started with the list starting at #5.
5: R.C . Pro-Am
R.C. Pro AM was the first race game I ever played and the second game I ever owned. In the game you always raced against the same 3 cars. They each had their own tendencies and personalities just like the 4 ghosts chasing you in Pac-Man did. I remember the cover of the game said that it had 32 tracks so I figured that once I beat the 32nd level I would beat the game. But when I finally beat the 32nd level, the game did not end and the 33rd level was the level 1 track with just higher difficulty. My friends and I figured that the game must never end.
4: Gradius
Gradius provided great side-scrolling space shooting action with gorgeous outer space graphics. The most unique aspect of game was being able to power up your ship with additional weapons and shields. It had really good, catchy music despite being only an 8 bit game. The game also featured some memorable bosses.
3: Super Mario Bros.
This was the first game I ever played and still one of my favorites. At first I was really uncoordinated and it was an awkward experience. I would literally swing and move my arms around as I played. I still remember the time I discovered a warp zone by accident. I was fascinated by the amount of choice in this game because by using warp zones you could choose a short or long path to finish the game as opposed to always having to complete every single level.
2: Contra
Contra had great side-scrolling shooting action. This was the first cooperative multiplayer game I ever played. It was cool being able to play with another player and fight together on the same side. The graphics and gameplay were well ahead of its time. Compared to Super Mario Bros. your character moved and jumped in a much more fluid acrobatic motion and the graphics were better and more realistic.
1: The Legend of Zelda
The Legend of Zelda had riddles, mazes and dungeons. What’s not to like. I still remember buying this game at a closing out sale at a drug store for $9.99 which was super cheap compared to the other games I had. The cartridge was a distinctive gold color instead of the usual grey and it was the first game I played that could save your progress. I really enjoyed the sense of exploration and I actually loved the simplicity of the overhead grid view. In fact I still prefer the 2D Zelda games to the newer more complex 3D Zelda games.
An NES instead of an Apple Computer? Your mom is the real MVP here. :-D
And thanks for the mention my friend.
Yeah for sure. The reason I wanted an Apple computer was because my school had Apple computers and I played games on them and I wanted to be able to play the games at home. But an NES was better for me in the long run.
I saw someone's top 5 NES games recently and they DIDN'T include Contra! How can you not have Contra in a top 5?
My top 5 NES games:
Contra (duh!)
Super Mario Bros. 3
Championship Bowling (yes, seriously)
Arkanoid
Donkey Kong
Yeah I agree any top top 5 NES list should have Contra and even if it doesn’t have Contra it should at least have one Konami game. I’ve never heard of Championship Bowling or Arkanoid. I never owned Donkey Kong or SMB3 but my cousins did so I played those quite a bit. Donkey Kong was just ok and the problem I eventually had with SMB3 is that it had a similar feel to Super Mario World for the SNES with the overhead map, similar upgrades, etc. So whenever I played SMB3 I felt like I would rather be playing Super Mario World.
Could have been mine. But I have Castlevania in my Top 5.