My favorite way to watch these NES streams, is to go in blind. And not look at the game list or anything. So I'm surprised every time you pull up a new game. It's made for some very fun moments, coming as someone who grew up with the nes.
Totally 100% agree. This stream every week has been such a comfort especially as for me rough times. Thanks Jeff. I hope one day it isn't to much for this two times a week but a list for another platform. Like Master system or Genesis. I know you won't touch Snes till the NES science data is comete and fully published for all Scientists can admire the research data and reference. Regardless thx for doing it Mr Gerstmann.
I never thought I’d question the scientific method, but I have no idea how Urban Champion made it that far up the list, I legit dropped my phone twice on my face falling asleep from watching that game. 😂
I want to go to Shady Jeff's underground dirty Urban Champion tournament. Everyone is wearing sunglasses and even though no one is smoking the room is always filled with cigarette smoke.
I don't mean to argue with the science, because that would be silly, but the entire time Jeff was playing G I Joe I felt like he must be talking about a different game than the one that was on screen. I think it looks pretty good, plays decently, and the music slaps. It's at worst a pretty mediocre and standard nes shooter.
David Wise worked on a lot of games with a wide variety of quality at Rare, and that spectrum has been has been shown already on this list. Solar Jetman, and especially its soundtrack, is a banger.
Is it just me or is the funniest Jeff has been in a minute? Not that the other content has been unfunny, just that this shit is kinda next level. Maybe it's the night stream.
Gradius, and specifically its music, is the most emotionally resonant video game for me. I was saving up my allowance to buy some other game, I don't remembe what, when my dad told me he'd read (I have no idea where) that Gradius was a great port and offered to pay half the cost. Money was not tight for him so this was kind of a cheap move for him to get a game he wanted to play (he was an occasional gamer) but it sounded like a great deal to my 6-year-old ears and we went for it. In the end I really loved how it looked, sounded, and played but could never get anywhere in it. I think I made it to the third level a couple times. My dad couldn't get anywhere either. We both tried many, many, times however. No sounds bring me back to that feeling of being a young kid like Gradius music does. It's a pretty bittersweet feeling but it's very intense. I played other games like Mario and Zelda with my dad but for some reason the Gradius music is what stuck. I never learned where he read about it. I guess he must have leafed through a magazine at a newsstand or something. The mid 80s were not a time when a professional adult would casually encounter video game reviews, but as I said he was an occasional gamer so I could see him furtively scanning reviews in the back of a shop before picking up a copy of an adult approved publication. A very different era.
Similar but my first experience was the port, Nemesis, on Gameboy. Took a long time for childhood me to make the connection and find Gradius. The Gameboy music is arguably even better!
Delighted to discover SQOON as a longtime In The Hunt fan! Super interesting, especially for 1986 Solar Jetman is undersung, it’s like what Metroid could have been if Asteroids or Gravitar remained the dominant mode instead of platformers. So many ideas in there deserving of revival, but I think it should be brought back as a strand game
I always thought Lifeforce was the superior game, and was just happy to see someone actually beat it, because I sure as hell couldn't when I'd rent it as a kid.
If this were not a game Jeff had fond childhood memories of, the science shows a high probability of quitting and rating it poorly after dying to the frustrating volcano miniboss.
The Bubble Bobble logic is that bubbles pop if they touch the orange spikes on your sprite. Bouncing on a bubble just requires holding jump. Personally I liked the C64 version's physics, it's not arcade accurate but it lets you move left and right while jumping through a ceiling which matters in some levels
I felt like the biggest idiot ever when, several decades into my life, I first learned that's how bubble popping works. It's so obvious in retrospect, yet it's also somehow seems too obvious to work?
Also lovvvvvvvvvved Solar Jetman as a kid, but the final level blows when the game changes to a side-scrolling shmup. A few notes: - the store inventory changes between levels - the item Jeff got stuck lifting on the second level is a more powerful booster to help counter-act the heavier gravity. It burns more fuel. You can lift it by using your own momentum though ... the tractor beam doesn't engage until you turn off the shield, so take a run at it and disable the shield as you're just passing - you have to hit select while paused to get to the map. The game is kinda mean that you can spend 1500 on it after the first level, but you can also just collect it in the second level. - using your shield also means you don't accidentally fall back into the warp gate
Whoever designed Werewolf: The Last Warrior was clearly into Chris Claremont era X-Men and didn't think anyone would notice how they blatently ripped off the character models for the Brood and the Hellfire Club soldiers. I bet there's more we'll never see, too.
I've only played Urban Champion a handful of times. Ever. In 1988. And I'll still go to my grave thinking it's pretty neat. *EDIT:* I definitely feel you on Bubble Bobble. I always walk away from that game liking it less than I thought I did.
Jeff commenting on that game. Really called a whambulance for himself. Treated it like it was an LJN level product. Hardly. At a time when licensed games were a nightmare result almost 100% of the time GI Joe was fun. Back then I had alot of fun with it. He's too hung up on the details of the show cause that was like the show for him. I get it but Jeff extra sour on that game today.
I heard the sequel is significantly worse. I am surprised about the first game's placement, though. It seems like a solidly built licensed action game. Then again, I've never put hands on it, so it could indeed feel awful to play.
solar jetman is an all-time classic to me, kinda like rygar for jeff, the planets (past the first one) really feel huge and give a big sense of exploration, going out and finding parts and getting upgrades gave a ton of satisfaction. I agree about the planet music + sound effects being a bit underwhelming, but in terms of gameplay it was basically unmatched. I remember spending so much time + effort going thru all... however many planets (8? 10? 12?) getting all the parts and getting the golden ship then failing at the final sequence. Never ended up doing it again, I think it was a rental game, but still, so amazing.
..."don't knock" has a real translation-error-feel to it, but it's also completely inscrutable as to what it could possibly mean. And yes, transforming into a blade-handed werewolf (and doing acrobatics) was very sick. Good music though.
I never really played later Gradius games like 4 & Gaiden so I don't know when this changed, but god I loved V for not wiping your options on death. That game needs a modern release so bad, or a sequel but ... Konami.
I never got a NES. My cousin had a fake bootleg NES we called "Intento" (tryhard, in spanish), it was 1991 and there were better machines out there already, but he friggin' loved it and showed me what it could do every time I went to grandpa's place. I'm having the time of my life watching these streams!
Still love Jeff even when he has wrong opinions about Bubble Bobble - tbh though the Master System version is wayyyy better than the NES version. Nothing but love though Jeff, enjoying the heck out of this series!
...was browsing wikipedia for NES releases, and there's a surprising amount of Disney games that were exclusive for PAL (so no US or JP releases). Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and Lion King, for example (along with profoundly euro-releases like Smurfs, Asterix, the ironically titled International Cricket, and meme:d releases like Noah's Ark, which, to my surprise, wasn't a bootleg game, but an actual euro-release). I am looking forward to when this series dives into the real struggle-bus releases, though. I have a feeling that the current bottom-list is a "you haven't seen anything yet" kind of deal.
Well, that was certainly an eclectic group of games. I'm indifferent towards Gradius since the one I played the most as a kid was Gradius III on the SNES. Urban Champion and Solar Jetman seem neat so I'll have to play those sometime, and I was gobsmacked with Sqoon. Never heard of that one before today. And Bubble Bobble is great for a while until the music and gameplay get stale. Onto the next episode!
Since you mentioned Japanese SMB2, I'm curious: will it be included in the rankings since it's technically received a US release (more than one if you count Switch Online) in more recent years, or are you sticking to games that were released in the US during the NES's active lifespan?
No, just going to stick to the basic original lifespan, otherwise I'd be playing all that weird aftermarket stuff that's been coming out in the years since, too.
I could handle your blatant disrespect of Wrecking Crew, but I cannot sanction your unscientific dismissal of Bubble Bobble. Hand in your scientific license now.
Urban Champion and Karate Champ, both from the same year but UC was first. I think all those "history of fighting games" articles need a bit of an edit.
dang i was just thinking about Werewolf the Last Warrior today, and wondering when we would be witnessing the Official Jeff Gerstmann Science on the subject. great work. keep at it.
Taxan did Low G Man as well, comparing it to Low G Man seems appropriate. GI Joe has sone neat graphical effects, I love the animated foliage in stage 1 and the parallax in stage 2 Portraits look cool too. The gameplay itself is mixed for me, it has elements that I actually like, and some that I find annoying. Cool music though. Only had it as a rental for a week. Never put much time into it. Yo Noid! is kind of the same! It has nice sprites and graphics, Capcom made it, so it does look good. That first stage was not a great start, making stage two ice doesn't help much either It's like they are putting in least popular stage tropes as the openers. I don't think this one plays bad as a platformer. Never played this one much either.
To this day, I don't get why Gradius never recognized the respawn thing as a problem. Instead they double down on it cause the later games are harder so it only gets more fucked. I don't understand...
I can't even imagine a more jeff gerstmann game than one where you punch a big ass plane to death in the jungle. Since when is fucking realism a criteria for the quality of nes sidescrollers? Did one of the developers of the game come to your house and slap you in the mouth? Why the super over the top sourpuss act? Just trying to keep things interesting? So weird.
My favorite way to watch these NES streams, is to go in blind. And not look at the game list or anything. So I'm surprised every time you pull up a new game. It's made for some very fun moments, coming as someone who grew up with the nes.
Same here lol
Totally 100% agree. This stream every week has been such a comfort especially as for me rough times. Thanks Jeff.
I hope one day it isn't to much for this two times a week but a list for another platform. Like Master system or Genesis. I know you won't touch Snes till the NES science data is comete and fully published for all Scientists can admire the research data and reference.
Regardless thx for doing it Mr Gerstmann.
It’s the best.
Dying to see professional gamer Jeff Gerstmann tackle both Golgo 13 games
I like how the GI Joe intro spells “alert” as both ALART and ARART.
Science needs to be peer reviewed for Bubble Bobble.
Jeff is drifting away from Science and letting his expectations get in the way. How could G.I. Joe rank lower than Dinowarz?
I never thought I’d question the scientific method, but I have no idea how Urban Champion made it that far up the list, I legit dropped my phone twice on my face falling asleep from watching that game. 😂
I want to go to Shady Jeff's underground dirty Urban Champion tournament. Everyone is wearing sunglasses and even though no one is smoking the room is always filled with cigarette smoke.
Fake open manhole stickers scattered on the floor
YEAH!
I don't mean to argue with the science, because that would be silly, but the entire time Jeff was playing G I Joe I felt like he must be talking about a different game than the one that was on screen. I think it looks pretty good, plays decently, and the music slaps. It's at worst a pretty mediocre and standard nes shooter.
SPONDEELOOS
The time has arrived to get the NES version of the Bubble Bobble Theme imprinted within your gray matter yet again. Prepare yourselves!
My secret is it's always there
"bite my fucking hot crank you piece of shit" at 1:37:42 is so fucking funny 😭
The volcano music from gradius sounds like a bonus round in an old slot machine or a bonanza event in a cowboy game
They used it wisely in the Parodius games as most levels in those games have a casino feel to them
1:33:21 Jeff covering his mouth in horror at the beginning of Yo! Noid? Priceless. Also Spondylous!
The GI Joe one looks like that because the sprites are accounting for crt blur.
It's a middling game all said but it looks quite nice.
the block has love for you, Jeff
I don't think I realized that Urban Champion was Nidhogg before Nidhogg was Nidhogg.
The world could use more Championlikes
Hot take Jeff. GI JOE is more fun than Commando.
I'm a old mid 40s curmudgeon as well. I was there maaaan.
David Wise worked on a lot of games with a wide variety of quality at Rare, and that spectrum has been has been shown already on this list. Solar Jetman, and especially its soundtrack, is a banger.
Is it just me or is the funniest Jeff has been in a minute? Not that the other content has been unfunny, just that this shit is kinda next level.
Maybe it's the night stream.
if he had never played gradius before he would have scored it lower than life force just for that first level volcano bullshit
Gradius, and specifically its music, is the most emotionally resonant video game for me.
I was saving up my allowance to buy some other game, I don't remembe what, when my dad told me he'd read (I have no idea where) that Gradius was a great port and offered to pay half the cost. Money was not tight for him so this was kind of a cheap move for him to get a game he wanted to play (he was an occasional gamer) but it sounded like a great deal to my 6-year-old ears and we went for it.
In the end I really loved how it looked, sounded, and played but could never get anywhere in it. I think I made it to the third level a couple times. My dad couldn't get anywhere either. We both tried many, many, times however.
No sounds bring me back to that feeling of being a young kid like Gradius music does. It's a pretty bittersweet feeling but it's very intense. I played other games like Mario and Zelda with my dad but for some reason the Gradius music is what stuck.
I never learned where he read about it. I guess he must have leafed through a magazine at a newsstand or something. The mid 80s were not a time when a professional adult would casually encounter video game reviews, but as I said he was an occasional gamer so I could see him furtively scanning reviews in the back of a shop before picking up a copy of an adult approved publication.
A very different era.
Similar but my first experience was the port, Nemesis, on Gameboy. Took a long time for childhood me to make the connection and find Gradius.
The Gameboy music is arguably even better!
Delighted to discover SQOON as a longtime In The Hunt fan! Super interesting, especially for 1986
Solar Jetman is undersung, it’s like what Metroid could have been if Asteroids or Gravitar remained the dominant mode instead of platformers. So many ideas in there deserving of revival, but I think it should be brought back as a strand game
You are a fantastic voice in a sea of chuckles. Keep doing you and your family.
Duke looks like Beetle Bailey and I can't unsee it.
The speed of that submarine underwater is impressive.
2:12:35 I understood that reference, am I a freak?
The bubbles in Bubble Bobble can be popped with the spikes so if you push with your face they just move around.
No better feeling than throwing haymakers out front of Barnes and Noble
It's weird, your science is telling you that Gradius is better than Life Force, yet the video evidence shows otherwise.
Agreed. Still love all this and will watch it over and over
I always thought Lifeforce was the superior game, and was just happy to see someone actually beat it, because I sure as hell couldn't when I'd rent it as a kid.
If this were not a game Jeff had fond childhood memories of, the science shows a high probability of quitting and rating it poorly after dying to the frustrating volcano miniboss.
We all know the Gerstmann Institute has been compromised by Big Gradius, follow the money
Why are they called options in Gradius?
The Bubble Bobble logic is that bubbles pop if they touch the orange spikes on your sprite. Bouncing on a bubble just requires holding jump. Personally I liked the C64 version's physics, it's not arcade accurate but it lets you move left and right while jumping through a ceiling which matters in some levels
I felt like the biggest idiot ever when, several decades into my life, I first learned that's how bubble popping works. It's so obvious in retrospect, yet it's also somehow seems too obvious to work?
I cant wait for Snake Rattle n Roll
Me too!
Also lovvvvvvvvvved Solar Jetman as a kid, but the final level blows when the game changes to a side-scrolling shmup.
A few notes:
- the store inventory changes between levels
- the item Jeff got stuck lifting on the second level is a more powerful booster to help counter-act the heavier gravity. It burns more fuel. You can lift it by using your own momentum though ... the tractor beam doesn't engage until you turn off the shield, so take a run at it and disable the shield as you're just passing
- you have to hit select while paused to get to the map. The game is kinda mean that you can spend 1500 on it after the first level, but you can also just collect it in the second level.
- using your shield also means you don't accidentally fall back into the warp gate
Whoever designed Werewolf: The Last Warrior was clearly into Chris Claremont era X-Men and didn't think anyone would notice how they blatently ripped off the character models for the Brood and the Hellfire Club soldiers. I bet there's more we'll never see, too.
I've only played Urban Champion a handful of times. Ever. In 1988. And I'll still go to my grave thinking it's pretty neat.
*EDIT:* I definitely feel you on Bubble Bobble. I always walk away from that game liking it less than I thought I did.
the follow up to that GI Joe game was a lot of fun from what i remember. hope we get to see that show up at some point
Jeff commenting on that game. Really called a whambulance for himself. Treated it like it was an LJN level product. Hardly. At a time when licensed games were a nightmare result almost 100% of the time GI Joe was fun. Back then I had alot of fun with it. He's too hung up on the details of the show cause that was like the show for him. I get it but Jeff extra sour on that game today.
I heard the sequel is significantly worse. I am surprised about the first game's placement, though. It seems like a solidly built licensed action game. Then again, I've never put hands on it, so it could indeed feel awful to play.
Gradius is really the Dark Souls of its day.
solar jetman is an all-time classic to me, kinda like rygar for jeff, the planets (past the first one) really feel huge and give a big sense of exploration, going out and finding parts and getting upgrades gave a ton of satisfaction. I agree about the planet music + sound effects being a bit underwhelming, but in terms of gameplay it was basically unmatched. I remember spending so much time + effort going thru all... however many planets (8? 10? 12?) getting all the parts and getting the golden ship then failing at the final sequence. Never ended up doing it again, I think it was a rental game, but still, so amazing.
Dude Jeff GI Joe is not that bad. Come on now.
Nesticles on blast rn
..."don't knock" has a real translation-error-feel to it, but it's also completely inscrutable as to what it could possibly mean. And yes, transforming into a blade-handed werewolf (and doing acrobatics) was very sick. Good music though.
I’ll always love Werewolf if only for the sickass hip hop loop that plays during the fights
Back when video games were VIDEO GAMES and men were VIDEO GAMES
I never really played later Gradius games like 4 & Gaiden so I don't know when this changed, but god I loved V for not wiping your options on death. That game needs a modern release so bad, or a sequel but ... Konami.
"I'm into the idea of a Noid game because I'm an idiot" Me too, Jeff.
Realized from watching gradius, that sound of your bullets hitting an armored object are nearly identical to contra. Both Konami of course.
I never got a NES. My cousin had a fake bootleg NES we called "Intento" (tryhard, in spanish), it was 1991 and there were better machines out there already, but he friggin' loved it and showed me what it could do every time I went to grandpa's place.
I'm having the time of my life watching these streams!
One more episode closer to Metalstorm
Oh man urban champions was so boring
yeah but he found the one move he could use repeatedly to win so that makes it better than bubble bobble and three quarters of donkey kong, sorry
There a TON of stuff missing from the NES version of Bubble Bobble. Luckily someone is making a 7800 version WITH all the missing items, and features.
Those pre-boss gauntlets in Gradius always ruin my day.
Still love Jeff even when he has wrong opinions about Bubble Bobble - tbh though the Master System version is wayyyy better than the NES version. Nothing but love though Jeff, enjoying the heck out of this series!
"The Amazon is gone and we are on the move! Now let's go blow up the Antarctic!"
-- G.I. Joe
Why call it Solar Jetman when they could have called it Solar J Man the Solar Jetman?
Never seen anyone dominate urban champion like that before. Also noid made me nauseous with that dang water.
...was browsing wikipedia for NES releases, and there's a surprising amount of Disney games that were exclusive for PAL (so no US or JP releases). Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and Lion King, for example (along with profoundly euro-releases like Smurfs, Asterix, the ironically titled International Cricket, and meme:d releases like Noah's Ark, which, to my surprise, wasn't a bootleg game, but an actual euro-release).
I am looking forward to when this series dives into the real struggle-bus releases, though. I have a feeling that the current bottom-list is a "you haven't seen anything yet" kind of deal.
Well, that was certainly an eclectic group of games. I'm indifferent towards Gradius since the one I played the most as a kid was Gradius III on the SNES. Urban Champion and Solar Jetman seem neat so I'll have to play those sometime, and I was gobsmacked with Sqoon. Never heard of that one before today. And Bubble Bobble is great for a while until the music and gameplay get stale.
Onto the next episode!
sqoon is a huge palate cleanser after that run of games
Can we get this list posted to the Patreon for lunatics who want to play along at home? Asking for a friend...
So, Jeff, would you say that people should... Avoid Yo Noid?
I've always considered myself a sqoon magnet.
Also when you said Mad Dog 20/20 I got nauseous for a moment
Since you mentioned Japanese SMB2, I'm curious: will it be included in the rankings since it's technically received a US release (more than one if you count Switch Online) in more recent years, or are you sticking to games that were released in the US during the NES's active lifespan?
No, just going to stick to the basic original lifespan, otherwise I'd be playing all that weird aftermarket stuff that's been coming out in the years since, too.
@@JeffGerstmannShowIt wouldn’t be fair anyway , Japanese Super Mario Bros 2 is just too good.
There's a Solar Jetman AND a Low Gravity Man?!
Be sure you're sitting down when he gets to Mega Man 5.
Love it! Thanks Jeff.
Wow that volcano is a massive FU lol
I could handle your blatant disrespect of Wrecking Crew, but I cannot sanction your unscientific dismissal of Bubble Bobble. Hand in your scientific license now.
I may have missed the comment, but did John Cena sample that GI Joe song for his intro theme?
Urban Champion and Karate Champ, both from the same year but UC was first. I think all those "history of fighting games" articles need a bit of an edit.
dang i was just thinking about Werewolf the Last Warrior today, and wondering when we would be witnessing the Official Jeff Gerstmann Science on the subject.
great work. keep at it.
Someone should make a romhack crossover of Urban Champion and Trojan
Taxan did Low G Man as well, comparing it to Low G Man seems appropriate. GI Joe has sone neat graphical effects, I love the animated foliage in stage 1 and the parallax in stage 2 Portraits look cool too. The gameplay itself is mixed for me, it has elements that I actually like, and some that I find annoying. Cool music though. Only had it as a rental for a week. Never put much time into it.
Yo Noid! is kind of the same! It has nice sprites and graphics, Capcom made it, so it does look good. That first stage was not a great start, making stage two ice doesn't help much either It's like they are putting in least popular stage tropes as the openers. I don't think this one plays bad as a platformer. Never played this one much either.
love it jeff
in Yo Noid the top part of the platform sprite looks way too similar to the part you're actually supposed to be stepping on. messed up
To this day, I don't get why Gradius never recognized the respawn thing as a problem. Instead they double down on it cause the later games are harder so it only gets more fucked. I don't understand...
Happy days
aid bid & end doe games
DON'T
2:08:16 M E T H O D man
You should’ve worn your long johns!! 😂
And knowing is half the battle.
I can't even imagine a more jeff gerstmann game than one where you punch a big ass plane to death in the jungle. Since when is fucking realism a criteria for the quality of nes sidescrollers? Did one of the developers of the game come to your house and slap you in the mouth? Why the super over the top sourpuss act? Just trying to keep things interesting? So weird.
N E S
I always found parts of the music dropping in Super Mario Bros when a sound effect happens to be very jarring as well
Calling it the nes from now own. Don't tread on me