And here I sit, with my breakfast coffee, preparing for a day full of meetings. But with videos like this in the background, I'll easily survive. Thanks Kim, for your amazingly entertaining videos!
Thank you for doing something that not too many people who voiceover do: be quiet for a few seconds and let everyone enjoy the sounds of the game! Good job! And I love how you showcase some of the less popular games out there on the NES.
It was the first game I let me three year old son play this year. He adores it - as intuitive now as it ever was. He loves Road Rash on the Mega Drive too haha
Really enjoyed your take. I'm one of those uncommon Europeans whose first home gaming system was the NES. We bought it of my mom's colleague with 40 games, back in the days, and I'm very familiar with a great part of its library.
@@Halbared Yes, it was crazy. We went from not having a TV at home to getting all of this and my grandmom's old TV to play it on. I did very bad at school the rest of the year lol
I’ve always loved the NES. My all time favorite will always be Sunsoft’s Blaster Master. It did so many things that we take for granted in modern Metroidvania’s. The game is also perfectly paced and visually beautiful. It’s so fun for me because it’s one of the few games that looks as amazing as it plays. The beautiful animation on the mecha tank somehow makes controlling it feel even better
OMG what happened to everyone's proportions in double dribble? I'm hardly man's truest eidolon myself, but the legs are longer than the tiny head and torso combined. It's the opposite of the 32X NBA Jam where everyone has a too-big head. Although now that i look at the cheerleaders, i see their waist is thinner than one of their legs, so, apparently someone had a dysmorphic thing going on. I don't feel so bad about my peanut-head anymore
It's hard for me to make a 'top' because it's all contextual. If friends are coming over, that's a different list. To play with the kids is a different list, nostalgia is another list, by myself today is yet another.
Great list thanks. I was a C64 kid at the time but my mate had a NES and I was super envious of Castlevania (great pick for no 1) and the first Mario. There was nothing on the old bread bin that came close. When he got SM3 in the summer of 92, it was jaw dropping. I can safely say that was the day micro computers died for me, European programmed games weren’t a patch on Japanese ones - I wanted a console from that point on and a year later got the SNES. I’ve got back into NES in the last year and it’s still as great now as it was back then.
In the beginning of Bionic Commando the jumping controls are real frustrating but with the cable you get used to it and you actually end up having fun with the game. Not only the game play, but the music was also great. I remember beating that game when I was a kid and I still have that NES game in my collection.
Loved this Kim! Ahh Casatle Vania, the first game I ever played on a nes in 1986 age 10. It was in the new Toy-R-us in Birmingham that opened on Dale end. That Christmas I got the deluxe nes box set with duck hunt and Robi, and a copy of Castle vania! Still my best christmas ever and one I will never forget, although getting the dye cast 80s Optimus Prime for christmas is a very close second.
Great list Kim! 1943 with the rapid fire hack is one of my all time favourite shooters! Also agree with you on Darkwing Duck vs Ducktales! I’m absolutely miserable at the latter!
Love that intro clip on Kim's vids. Just getting into the NES on my handheld, just 30 years late. Me and my mates were Sega kids but my cousins all seemed to have a NES. So I've got some good memories of family associated with NES. The sound is so distinctive and different to the master system. Great video again
My general nostalgia list would look like this 50. Solar Jetman 49. RC Pro AM 48. McDonald Land ( McKids ) 47. Double Dragon 2 46. Burai Fighter 45. Wizards and Warriors 44. Nintendo World Cup 43. Mike Tysons Punch Out 42. Mega Man 41. Faxanadu 40. Contra ( Probotector ) 39. Duck Tales 38. Metroid 37. Snake Rattle and Roll 36. WWF Wrestlemania Challenge 35. Adventure Island 34. Bubble Bobble 33. Maniac Mansion 32. Skate or Die 31. Duck Hunt 30. Chip n Dale Rescue Rangers 29. Super Mario Bros 28. Boulder Dash 27. Gradius 26. Tiny Toons 25. Terminator 2 Judgement Day 24. Marble Madness 23. Solstice 22. Flintstones Rescue of Dino and Hoppy 21. Bart VS the Space Mutants 20. Castlevania 19. Lemmings 18. Paperboy 17. Batman 16. Monster in my Pocket 15. Micro Machines 14. Blaster Master 13. Legend of Zelda 12. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 11. Super Mario Bros 2 USA 10. Castlevania 2 Simon's Quest 9. Kirby's Adventure 8.Gremlins 2 7. Mega Man 2 6.Zelda 2 Adventure of Link 5.Castlevania 3 Draculas Curse 4. Bionic Commando 3. TMNT 2 Arcade Game 2. Mega Man 3 1. Super Mario Bros 3
It's sad that no one mentions the dope ass turn-based strategy games that made this system the best ever: Ghengis Khan, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, L'Empereur, Bandit Kings of Ancient China, etc.
@@bobbydazzler329 yeah, most people never even heard of them. They aged well cuz being a slow paced strat game, shitty 8 bit graphics doesn't mean anything to it. Btw Mario 3 is prolly my number 1 too. In fact it's my fav Mario out of all of them. Paperboy was a dope game too. U ever played renegade?
@Steve Fitz Some of those games might be considered bad but these are the ones I have the most fond memories of either that I owned or played over friends houses and I loved
A jump in the original Gaiden stumped me back in the day. Love the game and almost 30 years later, I will keep trying again. Love the game. Great list.
I've seen quite a few top NES games and this includes practically all my favs in there too. I'm not the biggest fan of the console but the choice of games here is outstanding. I will say this is the best top NES list on youtube.
Smashing list, absolutely crackin, cheers! All kidding aside your picks are very surprising to me, knowing your tastes and having followed you since the early days of your channel. The sports games were no real surprise except for their placement. I was expecting a lot more arcadey games on this list, especially since you did include at least one Famicom-only game. I will say BRAVO for putting Nuts N' Milk on the list, but if you included that why not Door Door or Binary Land? Once again though, brilliant list. So happy that many of your favorites are mine as well.
I'm always surprised to hear the NES didn't do well in the UK because my memory is it was literally everywhere. I bought mine from an electricity supplier's shop (I don't know why they had a physical store). All the toy shops I went to had large NES sections, Dixon's had the demo unit with multiple games and I saw a few of the 10 Choice Machines in pubs. This was around 1990/91 though.
Yeah, 1990/1991 was when the NES did start to do well pretty much everywhere in Europe -- Nintendo took back distribution of the system in 1990 from Mattel, which had a lot to do with it. Generally that's when people started to want consoles more than they wanted the 8-bit micros for gaming on.
@@Kim_Justice I didn't know that about the distribution. I aware of the Mattel branded NES and that mine wasn't one, but not why. Btw, this list has inspired me to check out a few games I never got around to.
@@Kim_Justice I have a pet theory that the Game Boy really kicked the door down for Nintendo in Europe, and consoles in general, by being the only sensible portable option. I have no evidence whatsoever.
As Kim says, the Nes (consoles in general) took off when the 16 bit era had already begun, so the majority of 8-bit consoles were sold in the 90's, plus they were more expensive (in the UK market at least). So the Nes and others did do well, but compared to the US market, it was small potatoes because of the array of different machines. Over 90% of Master and Nes sold after 1990.
Great job as always... Looking forward to a SNES compilation at some point, down the line (although, given the intro, it seems unlikely we'll ever see the N64 instalment!) :D
Kim liked it when she played it for the first time on Twitch a month or two back, but not enough to crack the top 50 it seems. I think it's Sunsoft's best NES effort, myself.
I enjoy that game well enough, and it’s certainly very polished especially for a liscensed title but what truly shocked me was no Guardian Legend. It’s a truly masterful combination of space shooter and Zelda-esque dungeon segments, everything about the game is top notch visually and the space segments are filled with so many enemies, it’s amazing, and the game is shockingly a rather *early* NES game making it even more incredible. The developers Compile are my heroes, I love them almost as much as I love Sunsoft (cause they also rock)
Great point, easily in the Top 5. Also, no Dragon Quest 3, Final Fantasy, Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers, or Adventure Island 1/2 kind of annihilated my happiness with this video.
@Star Wolf 128 I wouldn't disagree that later on it was outdone but at the time of release it was a revelation. You would have had to been there I guess.
Great list! So many games are so great that almost identical games in everything can be like 20 or 30 spots apart, just because they're all so fun! In the end, it only matters what's fun for you! Personality, my Top 5, in terms of time playing and fun: 1. The Legend of Zelda 2. Mike Tyson's Punch Out!!! 3. Super Mario Bros 2 4. Super Mario Bros 5. Super Dodge Ball
What I like about this list is unlike the master system list it's not just filled up with games that existed in better forms on the 16bit consoles. I'd actually consider buying a nes and collecting abit for it
I’m a little disappointed Code Name: Viper, Conquest of the Crystal Palace, StarTropics, Monster in My Pocket, Clash at Demonhead, and The Magic of Scheherazade didn’t make the list! Some really great titles.
I always thought of Die Hard on the NES as like an action movie "real time" version of Gain Ground. I don't know if that makes sense, but I enjoyed it for it's almost tactical take on the shoot 'em up genre.
Super dodge ball is soo underrated glade it made your list. It made my top 100 of best games of all time. And im sure many a people would disagree with me but it has a chatm to it that never leaves if you played it back in the 90s.
Shatterhand in my country was named robocop for some reason and the guy had a kind of super sentai armor. The OST is on my top o all time for videogames.
C64 was my gaming mecha till i got the nes. And im from America c64 was kind of a rarity. But the mess of pirated games i had for it kept me playing it till about 92.
@@willeysingleton3057 ‘c64 was kind of a rarity’ No it wasn’t, 1/6 of all c64s were sold In the us alone, it was dominant until cheap ibm clones took over
@@Zellio2011 in 1986 i was one of the only kids in school playing and. Collecting C64. It might not have been Lil sampson rare. But i never found anyone to talk C64 with or many who knew what it was. I know in Europe it was huge. But over here most people had an Atari , or a Nintendo, Apple 2's were more common, my Cousin did have a Vectrex. And I've only seen about 4 of those systems out in the wild. But i do need to get out more.
Funny you mention Ninja Gaiden III being butchered in the West because of rentals, because the exact same thing happened to Castlevania III. While still unlimited continues, they turned the difficulty up, and even gimped Grant when compared to the Famicom version.
@Tom Ffrench Hits start taking more damage even at the start, and as mentioned, Grant was hugely gimped. You can tell Konami was desperate not to have people beat the game on a rental.
I'm really glad to see Blades of Steel so high up on the list. It's a win when you are able to make a sports game that's not only realistic enough for Fans & purists , but is also ton of fun & well enough made to engross those who aren't really big fans of or understand the sport. Blades if Steel did that for the casual players by adding the ability to fight. With that quick mini-game , a zoom in on the two players and you pound away on your opponents face until one of you drops. The fighting , even tho it happens so quickly . was a huge selling point back then. Great game. Alota fun. Just to throw this out there , Ice Hockey, a pretty early NES sports game that I also thought was a well made game and a lot of fun. It plays alot faster and is less detailed then Blades of Steel but its still a blast IMO.
The thing is, FC in Japan had tons of RPGs (just like Super Famicom), and talking to my friends from Japan, that's what they mostly remember about it (except for the obvious stuff, like Zelda, Mario etc.) I could easily make a 100 list myself, haha. Still play some of them from time to time, and knowing how to read Japanese helps with the other stuff, though it's such a popular platform that many decent fan-translations are also available. Overall, I think I love the music + the action games/some RPGs for it the most. Thanks for the list, well done!
@Tom Ffrench That's more or less true, though it's worth mentioning that FF 3 sold more than 1 million copies on the Famicom, for example, and it wasn't localized, just like FF 2. You are right about FF 1 and Dragon Quest though, I remember reading something about that as well. Another huge series is - maybe a bit surprisingly - Wizardry, they had heaps of locally made spin-offs belonging to that series. When it comes to NES, Duck Tales for example was the biggest Capcom game in the West (it apparently sold better than Mega Man 2), but I doubt it sold that well in Japan. Another divide - TMNT 1 sold really well in the West, whereas in Japan the best-selling Konami games were in the Goemon series. Overall, they wouldn't localize RPGs/adventure games nearly as often; lots of text and lower interest at the time, I guess.
Double Dragon is actually one of the few games I prefer graphically above its Master System counterpart. BTW, this list is missing the best NES game of them all: StarTropics.
Fun memories of when the Wii Virtual Console was starting to become a thing, even the EU Nintendo branch just put up the US Ninja Gaiden ROM instead of the PAL Shadow Warrior one. And this was in the days all the overpriced emulated releases in Europe were the 50hz PAL ones just as people into emulation, who were usually the ones more into those old games to begin with in those days, were starting to get more accustomed to the natural speeds of these titles. Also here in the Netherlands NES was definitely the big system. As was the SNES after. I've only met maybe three kids who had the Sega systems, and they were usually the richer ones who just had both. One of them even had a CD-I. Apparently there was a big MSX boom in my country, even causing some of the first fantranslations from Japanese to English in those days, but I never really noticed much of it. Shame because looking back on it now, I would've absolutely been into something like Xak.
MSX was a thing in the Netherlands (and Flanders) because Philips was part of the MSX consortium. It also had a limited success in French-speaking Belgium and consequently some parts of neighboring France.
great to see some love for rad racer! one of the few third party NES games we owned when i was a kid, i have so much nostalgia for it. also, if you want a modern take on river city ransom try "the friends of ringo ishikawa". it has a more serious tone but the concept is the same and the beat'em up action is good.
Count on Kim to give the NES's more obscure gems some much deserved attention. My personal favourite on the system is DuckTales 2 and My favoriter Mega Drive game is QuackShot, guess I have a weak spot for duck games. Battletoads would also make my top 10. That game gets a bad rap for its difficulty but I honestly think it's way more fair than many beloved games like Mega Man for instance, also it might have the most perfectly responsive controls in video game history
"That game gets a bad rap for its difficulty" Deservingly so, in what universe is Mega Man somehow harder than Battletoads when those games have passwords and E tanks?
@@zenksren8206 well, yes. Mega Man is easier in the sense that you have unlimited continues so you can keep trying over and over until you beat it. But if you got the same amount of lives to beat both of them Battletoads would, at least to me, be the "easier" game. Not saying that it doesn't have its fair share of cheap deaths but compared to the cruel enemy placement, insane boss patterns and very limiting controls of Mega Man I think Battletoads is way more manageable if you give it a fair shot. Don't get me wrong, I still like Mega Man a lot. I just find it incredibly frustrating at times.
@@jaethemanchild I found SR&R so intersting when i read about in C+VG back then, but when i tried it......most likely on emu, it never clicked with me. Have tried a few times since and will def try again.....but what about Solar Jetman? That would easily make my top5, possibly 3!
I remember having a couple of knock-off NES clones as a little kid, while I'm glad I eventually got a PS1, I still have some nice memories. Most of the games were damn hard but I had fun. I think my favorites were Contra: Super C, Kage (Shadow of the Ninja) and Circus Charlie.
"...even those who don't know anything about American Football, probably know who Bo Jackson is" Tecmo Bo is a videogame menace on the level of Lu Bu in the Musou series.
Great list. Here are my top 10. Metroid Bandit Kings of Ancient China Destiny of an Emperor Romance of the Three Kingdoms II Dragon Warrior IV L'Empereur Genghis Khan The Legend of Zelda River City Ransom Final Fantasy
In the 80s I remember only one person having a shoebox Nintendo. One of my dad's work colleagues. All of my friends had Spectrum's, Commodores or Ataris. One may have had an Amstrad.
I agree, Sports games are fun and Hockey sports games are especially good. Blades of Steel was great as was it on the GBA too. I'd say my favorite hockey game would be NHL Hitz 2003 actually. That was just mayhem lol.
There are 2 GI Joe games on the NES one publish by Capcom and the other by Taxan. The better of the two is the Taxan version Real American Hero. That game should be a top 10 game maybe even a top 5. Such and under rated game that no one knows about. I would have like to seen Duck Tales, Metal Storm, Guardian Legend,TMNT 2 and 3 and Bucky O Hare on your list. I love watches your top game list, thanks for sharing it.
My entire top ten list is missing! Crystalis, final fantasy, faxanadu, dq3&4, xexyz, metroid, zelda 2, mother, sweethome Still enjoyed the video though :)
I have to own the shame that my favourite NES Super Mario game is number 2... Bionic Commando is my favourite NES game, so I'm pleased to see it feature, even if a lot lower than I would place it.
I just I'm only about 9 minutes in, but Kim you might like Cobra Triangle if you like RC Pro Am. It's a boating game that controls similarly and there's a lot of variety in the types of stages that it offers. It's definitely challenging, and I like some stages more than others, but it's a pretty fun Rare game on NES and it's usually cheap when I see it in the local shops.
Someone just recommended your channel to me and I subbed immediately! What a catalog of videos you have that I can peruse lol. I have an affinity for the obscure games as well, so I can't wait to see what you cover! 😁👍👍
Great. Do you think there is any mileage in you doing a modern metroidvania roundup/review? Having loved Ori and Hollow Knight, would be interested in your take on things.
If you could just do a few hundred of these videos for all the major consoles, that would be great. Hell, you could do top 50s of the best games people complain about not being on your lists, that would be brilliant
And here I sit, with my breakfast coffee, preparing for a day full of meetings. But with videos like this in the background, I'll easily survive. Thanks Kim, for your amazingly entertaining videos!
Thank you for doing something that not too many people who voiceover do: be quiet for a few seconds and let everyone enjoy the sounds of the game! Good job! And I love how you showcase some of the less popular games out there on the NES.
Very underrated aspect love this type of video
True dat❤
The timelessness of SMB1 is eternal: my sister hadn't played it for probably 30 years and I fired up the NES and she plowed through t with no delay.
It was the first game I let me three year old son play this year. He adores it - as intuitive now as it ever was.
He loves Road Rash on the Mega Drive too haha
@@tubey84 My nephew picked it up in the same way and loves it, after cutting his teeth on Halo and other games like that
I am really, really digging this list. A lot of amazing and unexpected games
3 years later and I’m still enjoying your list videos Kim. Thank you!
Really enjoyed your take. I'm one of those uncommon Europeans whose first home gaming system was the NES. We bought it of my mom's colleague with 40 games, back in the days, and I'm very familiar with a great part of its library.
Me too. I got it because it had the Ultra Games Turtles game on it, and I was really into Turtles at the time.
@@jaethemanchild Nice!
I think youtube screws perception sometimes, but the Nes was the best selling 8-bit system in Europe. 40 games, you must have had loads of fun.
@@Halbared Yes, it was crazy. We went from not having a TV at home to getting all of this and my grandmom's old TV to play it on. I did very bad at school the rest of the year lol
I’ve always loved the NES. My all time favorite will always be Sunsoft’s Blaster Master. It did so many things that we take for granted in modern Metroidvania’s. The game is also perfectly paced and visually beautiful. It’s so fun for me because it’s one of the few games that looks as amazing as it plays. The beautiful animation on the mecha tank somehow makes controlling it feel even better
Same, same, same why is not on this list is confusing. I still play it to this day.
Great game, wish it had had a proper sequel.
That tank the"Sofia" was AWESOME!
I had (have) Master laster, it ws one of my faves, Sunsoft did good work.
Just the title screen got me to sub. Love it!
Also great content. I'm a big fan.
Absolutely love your intro Kim!! It’s definitely making top 50 TH-camr intros in my books - top 10 actually
A delightful compilation of NES awesomeness, thank you again Kim.
OMG what happened to everyone's proportions in double dribble? I'm hardly man's truest eidolon myself, but the legs are longer than the tiny head and torso combined. It's the opposite of the 32X NBA Jam where everyone has a too-big head. Although now that i look at the cheerleaders, i see their waist is thinner than one of their legs, so, apparently someone had a dysmorphic thing going on. I don't feel so bad about my peanut-head anymore
Thank God there are more people who prefer Super Mario Bros to Super Mario Bros 3!
It's hard for me to make a 'top' because it's all contextual. If friends are coming over, that's a different list. To play with the kids is a different list, nostalgia is another list, by myself today is yet another.
Great list thanks. I was a C64 kid at the time but my mate had a NES and I was super envious of Castlevania (great pick for no 1) and the first Mario. There was nothing on the old bread bin that came close. When he got SM3 in the summer of 92, it was jaw dropping. I can safely say that was the day micro computers died for me, European programmed games weren’t a patch on Japanese ones - I wanted a console from that point on and a year later got the SNES. I’ve got back into NES in the last year and it’s still as great now as it was back then.
That's great, I had a 64 then a Nes. Super mario bros 3 was ace.
In the beginning of Bionic Commando the jumping controls are real frustrating but with the cable you get used to it and you actually end up having fun with the game. Not only the game play, but the music was also great. I remember beating that game when I was a kid and I still have that NES game in my collection.
I appreciate your perspective on these games, thanks for making this video.
Batman Returns, the movie. Thank you. Excuse me while I pick a fight over a random aside in an almost hour-long video.
What is this game: 1:23 ?
Loved this Kim!
Ahh Casatle Vania, the first game I ever played on a nes in 1986 age 10. It was in the new Toy-R-us in Birmingham that opened on Dale end. That Christmas I got the deluxe nes box set with duck hunt and Robi, and a copy of Castle vania! Still my best christmas ever and one I will never forget, although getting the dye cast 80s Optimus Prime for christmas is a very close second.
Gotta love a wide eyed old school Christmas.
Used to love that Toys R Us! Used to drool over the Console games in there. My C64 always felt less fun when I returned home.
This mirrors my Nes experience, I got the deluxe box with Robbie and Gyromite at the same time, was a NIntendo fan ever since.
Yes Kim, more of these lists if you can please! PS1 list down the line?
Yes please 🙏.
Yes!!! yes!! yes !!
Yes pleaaase
Still waiting
Great list Kim!
1943 with the rapid fire hack is one of my all time favourite shooters!
Also agree with you on Darkwing Duck vs Ducktales! I’m absolutely miserable at the latter!
I have Guardians legend, The Magic of Scheherazade, Wizard and warriors, legacy of the wizard, Final fantasy, Mighty Final Fight in my top 50.
Most excellent voice over work and Awesome presentation!
I had a C64 and a NES. Was then very lucky to get an Amiga. Will enjoy watching this list.
Same!
Oh good. I am a UK Nes owner from 1987. Nice to see this.
Kim, you absolute retro legend! Keep up the great work you ruddy nostalgia stirring games master!
I never realised until now how much Darkwing Duck is a reskin of MegaMan
It's literally a modified MM5 engine
i've been falling asleep to kim justice for the last 2 months, love your content so much.
Love that intro clip on Kim's vids. Just getting into the NES on my handheld, just 30 years late. Me and my mates were Sega kids but my cousins all seemed to have a NES. So I've got some good memories of family associated with NES. The sound is so distinctive and different to the master system. Great video again
wonderful, I love this type of video from you! Some surprises and reminders of old favourites, thanks so much!
Love your list homie, good games that most wouldn't have in their top 50. Missing games you might expect. Perfect.
My general nostalgia list would look like this
50. Solar Jetman
49. RC Pro AM
48. McDonald Land ( McKids )
47. Double Dragon 2
46. Burai Fighter
45. Wizards and Warriors
44. Nintendo World Cup
43. Mike Tysons Punch Out
42. Mega Man
41. Faxanadu
40. Contra ( Probotector )
39. Duck Tales
38. Metroid
37. Snake Rattle and Roll
36. WWF Wrestlemania Challenge
35. Adventure Island
34. Bubble Bobble
33. Maniac Mansion
32. Skate or Die
31. Duck Hunt
30. Chip n Dale Rescue Rangers
29. Super Mario Bros
28. Boulder Dash
27. Gradius
26. Tiny Toons
25. Terminator 2 Judgement Day
24. Marble Madness
23. Solstice
22. Flintstones Rescue of Dino and Hoppy
21. Bart VS the Space Mutants
20. Castlevania
19. Lemmings
18. Paperboy
17. Batman
16. Monster in my Pocket
15. Micro Machines
14. Blaster Master
13. Legend of Zelda
12. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
11. Super Mario Bros 2 USA
10. Castlevania 2 Simon's Quest
9. Kirby's Adventure
8.Gremlins 2
7. Mega Man 2
6.Zelda 2 Adventure of Link
5.Castlevania 3 Draculas Curse
4. Bionic Commando
3. TMNT 2 Arcade Game
2. Mega Man 3
1. Super Mario Bros 3
It's sad that no one mentions the dope ass turn-based strategy games that made this system the best ever: Ghengis Khan, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, L'Empereur, Bandit Kings of Ancient China, etc.
@@bsgnine I never played them growing up so I cant have them on my personal list
@@bobbydazzler329 yeah, most people never even heard of them. They aged well cuz being a slow paced strat game, shitty 8 bit graphics doesn't mean anything to it. Btw Mario 3 is prolly my number 1 too. In fact it's my fav Mario out of all of them. Paperboy was a dope game too. U ever played renegade?
@@bsgnine No I never played that , do you recommend?
@Steve Fitz Some of those games might be considered bad but these are the ones I have the most fond memories of either that I owned or played over friends houses and I loved
Im so glad I found this channel thanks for your hard work!!!
A jump in the original Gaiden stumped me back in the day. Love the game and almost 30 years later, I will keep trying again. Love the game. Great list.
I've seen quite a few top NES games and this includes practically all my favs in there too. I'm not the biggest fan of the console but the choice of games here is outstanding. I will say this is the best top NES list on youtube.
Smashing list, absolutely crackin, cheers!
All kidding aside your picks are very surprising to me, knowing your tastes and having followed you since the early days of your channel. The sports games were no real surprise except for their placement. I was expecting a lot more arcadey games on this list, especially since you did include at least one Famicom-only game. I will say BRAVO for putting Nuts N' Milk on the list, but if you included that why not Door Door or Binary Land? Once again though, brilliant list. So happy that many of your favorites are mine as well.
River city ransom is a really underrated game. I played through it like a dozen times as a kid. Also in my top 10.
I'm always surprised to hear the NES didn't do well in the UK because my memory is it was literally everywhere. I bought mine from an electricity supplier's shop (I don't know why they had a physical store). All the toy shops I went to had large NES sections, Dixon's had the demo unit with multiple games and I saw a few of the 10 Choice Machines in pubs. This was around 1990/91 though.
Yeah, 1990/1991 was when the NES did start to do well pretty much everywhere in Europe -- Nintendo took back distribution of the system in 1990 from Mattel, which had a lot to do with it. Generally that's when people started to want consoles more than they wanted the 8-bit micros for gaming on.
@@Kim_Justice I didn't know that about the distribution. I aware of the Mattel branded NES and that mine wasn't one, but not why. Btw, this list has inspired me to check out a few games I never got around to.
@@Kim_Justice I have a pet theory that the Game Boy really kicked the door down for Nintendo in Europe, and consoles in general, by being the only sensible portable option. I have no evidence whatsoever.
As Kim says, the Nes (consoles in general) took off when the 16 bit era had already begun, so the majority of 8-bit consoles were sold in the 90's, plus they were more expensive (in the UK market at least). So the Nes and others did do well, but compared to the US market, it was small potatoes because of the array of different machines. Over 90% of Master and Nes sold after 1990.
Great job as always... Looking forward to a SNES compilation at some point, down the line (although, given the intro, it seems unlikely we'll ever see the N64 instalment!) :D
Mega surprised to not see Kid Icarus anywhere on here! Have you played it before Kim?
Fantastic video! Thanks Kim
I am shocked that Gradius is not on this list!
I'm surprised New Ghostbusters II wasn't on the list!
Kim liked it when she played it for the first time on Twitch a month or two back, but not enough to crack the top 50 it seems. I think it's Sunsoft's best NES effort, myself.
@@jaethemanchild *HAL Labs
@@zenksren8206 uh oh!
Hello, you!
I enjoy that game well enough, and it’s certainly very polished especially for a liscensed title but what truly shocked me was no Guardian Legend. It’s a truly masterful combination of space shooter and Zelda-esque dungeon segments, everything about the game is top notch visually and the space segments are filled with so many enemies, it’s amazing, and the game is shockingly a rather *early* NES game making it even more incredible. The developers Compile are my heroes, I love them almost as much as I love Sunsoft (cause they also rock)
Great list but did I miss something? Metroid?
Great point, easily in the Top 5. Also, no Dragon Quest 3, Final Fantasy, Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers, or Adventure Island 1/2 kind of annihilated my happiness with this video.
Herakets well, you know how lists are. Can’t make everyone feel good
RC Pro AM should be a top 10 pick also.
Couldn’t agree more kushviper
@Star Wolf 128 I wouldn't disagree that later on it was outdone but at the time of release it was a revelation. You would have had to been there I guess.
Great list! So many games are so great that almost identical games in everything can be like 20 or 30 spots apart, just because they're all so fun! In the end, it only matters what's fun for you!
Personality, my Top 5, in terms of time playing and fun:
1. The Legend of Zelda
2. Mike Tyson's Punch Out!!!
3. Super Mario Bros 2
4. Super Mario Bros
5. Super Dodge Ball
Great l and list. If your ever in the Nes mood I'd suggest Crystalis by snk.
If you like zelda then Crystalis is worth a play.
@@willeysingleton3057 It's a Zelda type game? I think Crystalis is on the Switch online thing.
This is a fun video! I'm glad you made is unique and subjective, thanks!
I'm glad some of the classics were missing, all lists don't have to be the same!
no Battletoads :( Love those games!
I loved what were called Dragon Warrior games there in America (Dragon Quest elsewhete), I've actually only played the NES games in the series
What I like about this list is unlike the master system list it's not just filled up with games that existed in better forms on the 16bit consoles. I'd actually consider buying a nes and collecting abit for it
Good list but no Defender II, a great arcade conversion. Got into it a lot recently, very rewarding when mastered. Top Score about 150K.
That game sucks
I’m a little disappointed Code Name: Viper, Conquest of the Crystal Palace, StarTropics, Monster in My Pocket, Clash at Demonhead, and The Magic of Scheherazade didn’t make the list! Some really great titles.
I think Startropics was only released in the US. That was favorite game as a kid.
I always thought of Die Hard on the NES as like an action movie "real time" version of Gain Ground. I don't know if that makes sense, but I enjoyed it for it's almost tactical take on the shoot 'em up genre.
WONDERFUL AS ALWAYS!
Super dodge ball is soo underrated glade it made your list. It made my top 100 of best games of all time.
And im sure many a people would disagree with me but it has a chatm to it that never leaves if you played it back in the 90s.
Shatterhand in my country was named robocop for some reason and the guy had a kind of super sentai armor. The OST is on my top o all time for videogames.
i really love your work- thank you so much for all the entertainment over the years. xoxoxoxo (from across da pond)
Im amased that Darkwing Duck was on the list! One of my fav nes games. But im confused why TMNT II The Arcade was not..
Mr Gimmick looks AMAZING!!! Hilarious name. Excitebike missing for me,,,maybe 51?
Never owned a NES either (I had a C= 64 instead), but still like the platform.
C64 was my gaming mecha till i got the nes. And im from America c64 was kind of a rarity. But the mess of pirated games i had for it kept me playing it till about 92.
@@willeysingleton3057 ‘c64 was kind of a rarity’
No it wasn’t, 1/6 of all c64s were sold In the us alone, it was dominant until cheap ibm clones took over
@@Zellio2011 in 1986 i was one of the only kids in school playing and. Collecting C64. It might not have been Lil sampson rare. But i never found anyone to talk C64 with or many who knew what it was.
I know in Europe it was huge. But over here most people had an Atari , or a Nintendo, Apple 2's were more common, my Cousin did have a Vectrex. And I've only seen about 4 of those systems out in the wild. But i do need to get out more.
Awesome choice of intro (and ending) music!! :D
Funny you mention Ninja Gaiden III being butchered in the West because of rentals, because the exact same thing happened to Castlevania III. While still unlimited continues, they turned the difficulty up, and even gimped Grant when compared to the Famicom version.
@Tom Ffrench Hits start taking more damage even at the start, and as mentioned, Grant was hugely gimped. You can tell Konami was desperate not to have people beat the game on a rental.
Brilliant video Kim!
Do you know that you can blow the ghost away in Spelunker?
Fun fact: Gauntlet was based on the Atari 8 bit game Dandy.
I'm really glad to see Blades of Steel so high up on the list.
It's a win when you are able to make a sports game that's not only realistic enough for Fans & purists , but is also ton of fun & well enough made to engross those who aren't really big fans of or understand the sport. Blades if Steel did that for the casual players by adding the ability to fight. With that quick mini-game , a zoom in on the two players and you pound away on your opponents face until one of you drops.
The fighting , even tho it happens so quickly . was a huge selling point back then. Great game. Alota fun.
Just to throw this out there ,
Ice Hockey, a pretty early NES sports game that I also thought was a well made game and a lot of fun.
It plays alot faster and is less detailed then Blades of Steel but its still a blast IMO.
Why is Faxanadu not in here or even the top 5?? Have you played it? I’m guessing not so I suggest you do
Guerilla War is epic. I think it deserves a much higher rating. But, to each their own. Totally underated game imo.
The thing is, FC in Japan had tons of RPGs (just like Super Famicom), and talking to my friends from Japan, that's what they mostly remember about it (except for the obvious stuff, like Zelda, Mario etc.) I could easily make a 100 list myself, haha. Still play some of them from time to time, and knowing how to read Japanese helps with the other stuff, though it's such a popular platform that many decent fan-translations are also available. Overall, I think I love the music + the action games/some RPGs for it the most. Thanks for the list, well done!
@Tom Ffrench That's more or less true, though it's worth mentioning that FF 3 sold more than 1 million copies on the Famicom, for example, and it wasn't localized, just like FF 2. You are right about FF 1 and Dragon Quest though, I remember reading something about that as well. Another huge series is - maybe a bit surprisingly - Wizardry, they had heaps of locally made spin-offs belonging to that series. When it comes to NES, Duck Tales for example was the biggest Capcom game in the West (it apparently sold better than Mega Man 2), but I doubt it sold that well in Japan. Another divide - TMNT 1 sold really well in the West, whereas in Japan the best-selling Konami games were in the Goemon series. Overall, they wouldn't localize RPGs/adventure games nearly as often; lots of text and lower interest at the time, I guess.
Double Dragon is actually one of the few games I prefer graphically above its Master System counterpart.
BTW, this list is missing the best NES game of them all: StarTropics.
It's a tossup between Startropics and Dragon Quest 3 imo!
@@herakets3259 those arw both bad. ET wins
What was StarTropics like?
Fun memories of when the Wii Virtual Console was starting to become a thing, even the EU Nintendo branch just put up the US Ninja Gaiden ROM instead of the PAL Shadow Warrior one. And this was in the days all the overpriced emulated releases in Europe were the 50hz PAL ones just as people into emulation, who were usually the ones more into those old games to begin with in those days, were starting to get more accustomed to the natural speeds of these titles.
Also here in the Netherlands NES was definitely the big system. As was the SNES after. I've only met maybe three kids who had the Sega systems, and they were usually the richer ones who just had both. One of them even had a CD-I. Apparently there was a big MSX boom in my country, even causing some of the first fantranslations from Japanese to English in those days, but I never really noticed much of it. Shame because looking back on it now, I would've absolutely been into something like Xak.
MSX was a thing in the Netherlands (and Flanders) because Philips was part of the MSX consortium. It also had a limited success in French-speaking Belgium and consequently some parts of neighboring France.
The Nes was fairly big in the UK too, from 1991 onwards when the market turned away from the computers.
Yes castlevania is a masterpiece
I do think Kung Fu should be up there as well as Mappy and Sky Kid
great to see some love for rad racer! one of the few third party NES games we owned when i was a kid, i have so much nostalgia for it. also, if you want a modern take on river city ransom try "the friends of ringo ishikawa". it has a more serious tone but the concept is the same and the beat'em up action is good.
glad to see someone else found the enjoyment to be had in Die Hard. feels like a great grand daddy of modern cover shooters
7:55 I love Snake Rattle and Roll! :)
Count on Kim to give the NES's more obscure gems some much deserved attention. My personal favourite on the system is DuckTales 2 and My favoriter Mega Drive game is QuackShot, guess I have a weak spot for duck games. Battletoads would also make my top 10. That game gets a bad rap for its difficulty but I honestly think it's way more fair than many beloved games like Mega Man for instance, also it might have the most perfectly responsive controls in video game history
"That game gets a bad rap for its difficulty" Deservingly so, in what universe is Mega Man somehow harder than Battletoads when those games have passwords and E tanks?
@@zenksren8206 well, yes. Mega Man is easier in the sense that you have unlimited continues so you can keep trying over and over until you beat it. But if you got the same amount of lives to beat both of them Battletoads would, at least to me, be the "easier" game. Not saying that it doesn't have its fair share of cheap deaths but compared to the cruel enemy placement, insane boss patterns and very limiting controls of Mega Man I think Battletoads is way more manageable if you give it a fair shot. Don't get me wrong, I still like Mega Man a lot. I just find it incredibly frustrating at times.
Pfft, Snake, Rattle & Roll for life. Though it's better on the Mega Drive.
Everythings better on the Mega Drive 😉
Yeah, interesting list. Don’t agree with lack of SR&R, and I also find sports games incredibly dull, but that’s the subjective nature of life.
SR&R fo' LIFE!!!!!!! :-)
I love Snake R&R but it sure doesnt like me! A bastard hard game!
@@jaethemanchild I found SR&R so intersting when i read about in C+VG back then, but when i tried it......most likely on emu, it never clicked with me. Have tried a few times since and will def try again.....but what about Solar Jetman? That would easily make my top5, possibly 3!
I remember having a couple of knock-off NES clones as a little kid, while I'm glad I eventually got a PS1, I still have some nice memories. Most of the games were damn hard but I had fun.
I think my favorites were Contra: Super C, Kage (Shadow of the Ninja) and Circus Charlie.
Great video. I got to know, what emulator are you using to capture the video? I ask cause the video looks great
No adventure island, clash at demonhead or vice project doom?
Did I miss Zelda 2?
TMNT? Metroid? Tecmo World Wrestling?
Honestly Zelda 2 was pretty boring especially compared to the original, but I completely agree with Metroid, TMNT, and Tecmo.
Metroid maybe
Tecmo World Wrestling, the best wrestling game!
"...even those who don't know anything about American Football, probably know who Bo Jackson is" Tecmo Bo is a videogame menace on the level of Lu Bu in the Musou series.
Great list. Here are my top 10.
Metroid
Bandit Kings of Ancient China
Destiny of an Emperor
Romance of the Three Kingdoms II
Dragon Warrior IV
L'Empereur
Genghis Khan
The Legend of Zelda
River City Ransom
Final Fantasy
In the 80s I remember only one person having a shoebox Nintendo. One of my dad's work colleagues. All of my friends had Spectrum's, Commodores or Ataris. One may have had an Amstrad.
I agree, Sports games are fun and Hockey sports games are especially good.
Blades of Steel was great as was it on the GBA too. I'd say my favorite hockey game would be NHL Hitz 2003 actually. That was just mayhem lol.
"I've got to play with it a bit more before sticking it in here"
- Kim Justice
Bionic commando 👍🏼, great game and music, nice to see it in your list
"Contrarian" about Contra--good one!
There are 2 GI Joe games on the NES one publish by Capcom and the other by Taxan. The better of the two is the Taxan version Real American Hero. That game should be a top 10 game maybe even a top 5. Such and under rated game that no one knows about. I would have like to seen Duck Tales, Metal Storm, Guardian Legend,TMNT 2 and 3 and Bucky O Hare on your list. I love watches your top game list, thanks for sharing it.
Great to see so much Sunsoft love here. IMO they were really the developer to follow for the NES cognoscenti.
Sunsoft and Rare were my faves.
Hudson and taito were also trustable
Not enough Sunsoft love IMO. Blaster Master isn't even on the list!!!
“Best hockey game ever made”
YES. thank you.
I adore NHL 94 but this edges it out imho
Am I the only one who liked Ice Hockey better than Blades of Steel??
I think double dragon 2 might have the most nostalgic music ever...I hope Burai Fighter, Solomons Key and Lolo are coming up!
love your intro logo, old BBC Video logo tune.
My entire top ten list is missing!
Crystalis, final fantasy, faxanadu, dq3&4, xexyz, metroid, zelda 2, mother, sweethome
Still enjoyed the video though :)
I have to own the shame that my favourite NES Super Mario game is number 2... Bionic Commando is my favourite NES game, so I'm pleased to see it feature, even if a lot lower than I would place it.
I just I'm only about 9 minutes in, but Kim you might like Cobra Triangle if you like RC Pro Am. It's a boating game that controls similarly and there's a lot of variety in the types of stages that it offers. It's definitely challenging, and I like some stages more than others, but it's a pretty fun Rare game on NES and it's usually cheap when I see it in the local shops.
Loved the video, but wow! What a zany list.
By the end, I was expecting T&C Surf Designs and Yo! Noid to finish #1 and #2.
Someone just recommended your channel to me and I subbed immediately! What a catalog of videos you have that I can peruse lol. I have an affinity for the obscure games as well, so I can't wait to see what you cover! 😁👍👍
Great. Do you think there is any mileage in you doing a modern metroidvania roundup/review? Having loved Ori and Hollow Knight, would be interested in your take on things.
If you could just do a few hundred of these videos for all the major consoles, that would be great. Hell, you could do top 50s of the best games people complain about not being on your lists, that would be brilliant