Mine too! What's with all the hate? It holds up after all these years and I really miss that when I was a kid I didn't know the story or how to complete it. It had a mystery to it that no game then or since has had. Glad a few of us love it.
Renting games is a Friday ritual that is hard to describe to younger people. It was by far the best part of the week, the light at the end of the long week of tedious schoolwork.
Fun fact given the content of the video: due to Nintendo policy, games often had their difficulty dialed up when localized for the North American market. This was to "discourage" (we would say "troll" today) people from renting games. Nintendo actually sued Blockbuster for the practice but lost, so they decided to punish the consumer instead.
@@chucksucks8640 The idea was that it increases the learning curve. If you rent a game for a weekend and beat it in two hours, you've gotten everything from it and don't need to buy it. If you make the game insanely difficult, most people will have to spend more than a weekend practicing at the game to complete it. Barring that it's at least a passive/aggressive middle finger. There were other tricks like this employed to inflate game time or punish people for renting, like the infamous letter you dip in water for Star Tropics.
@@chucksucks8640 The idea was that then they couldn't finish the game within the time window of a rental. I think Disney, of all companies, used to have the same policy for their own videogames, which is why Disney kids' games often have an insane difficulty spike somewhere in them.
It seems like devs didn't understand how great renting was, people were paying just to try out their game, with the possibility of buying it if they liked it enough. Sure, it's possible that you could trick more people into buying a game they otherwise wouldn't if they were able to check it out first by renting it, but it wouldn't be worth the resulting industry-wide loss of games sales when people can't find any good games to buy so they give up.
@@pentelegomenon1175It's mostly just that Japan as a gaming industry is ironically so far behind on the times. Renting as a practice would've been genuinely beneficial for them but they didn't see the value in it and just thought it was people getting access to a game they don't own. We still see this behind on the times mindset with their copyright policies online.
Dr Mario was the only game I could get my parents into back then. I even caught them playing it a few times on their own. But basically every other game back then was completely lost on them. So for that reason alone Dr Mario will always hold a special place in my heart.
Ohh bro you moved a lot of thoughts and feelings. I miss my grandparents too. The best presents was for my grandparents, they all give me a lot toys and games for my birthdays and Christmas.
That thing you were talking about with Castlevania 2, where you kept on renting it, because you forgot you had already played it... same thing happened to me with Hydlide.
Gas station story: a friend of mine had a dad who had tried doing business with a gas station to rent out NES games. Unfortunately it didn't last long as the gas station never got people's proper info when they rented so they would pay the rental fee, take the game home, and, well you can guess the rest.
Yeah - how does that happen lol?! You see it there on the shelf and it's like, well I'll give this a try again and within a minute after you get home you realize how got hosed again.
I rented that one a lot too lol. I think I did it thinking I would get further in the game and it would somehow get better lol. I also rented Maniac Mansion a lot but didn't even really know how to play it (or really even read at the time lol because I was like 5) but now that I'm pushing 40 (oh God) it's actually pretty fun.
@@FridayNightArcade It must've been that our options were so limited. I remember seeing only a few rental games at the store in the small town I lived in. Nowadays we can simply download any game we want, so kinda spoiled for choice ;)
My grandpa was a beast at this game and this was before the internet. He played it all out. I later dubbed him an OG - Original Gamer. I’d sit and watch him play for hours.
It's too bad the US version of Bayou Billy was tweaked to be significantly harder. I feel like it could have been one of those Konami classics had they left it alone.
@@FridayNightArcade The US version of Bayou Billy had driving and shooting, which could also use the zapper, stages as well, If you completed them, in "practice mode" you got an extra life to use in the main game.
@@jyoder1 Congrats, that's a big achievement in my book. Everyone likes to complain about how hard G 'n G and Battletoads are but this game is definitely up there.
Deadly Towers. God I remember that first level. Same issue with Milon's Secret Castle - apparently there was a game there, and I had no idea how to play it.
That's how my friend beat it... The Tip Line! That wasn't that simple of a task either. Their line was always busy. So, he would hit redial for like an hour until he finally got through to somebody.
I suppose you've got a point about Dr. Mario, but I'll still vouch for the likes of Mario Kart and Mario Party, as those feature many more staples of the Mario series besides just Mario himself. On the other hand, though, Dr. Mario is undeniably the superior version of Mario in Super Smash Bros.
I'm in the minority because I love CV2. Was my birthday present when I was in kindergarten. Have fond memories of playing it before and after school. Really enjoyed it, and luckily I had the Nintendo Power issue that helped with the poor translation. It's a really fun speedrun to watch, especially Jay_Cee's world record. There's also a CV2 randomizer now.
You need the book. I seriously think it was meant to be sold as a set . the worlds of power book has all the hints in it. Its no Tolstoy novel but its as good as a goosbumps or robert asprin myth book. The manual too people forget these games actually had booklets you were supposed to read or look for clues too.
There was a game called dark rift for the N64 that I tried to return about an hour after renting it. The Blockbuster just gave us a $1 credit toward renting another game for bringing it back so early. Who's laughing now, blockbuster?
@@ZachuratedPhat They really aren't. My grandparents got me the game. But never got past the first month (could never make enough money in the stock market to buy the million dollar house).
@Turd Ferguson I don't know a single 11-year-old who cares about the stock market, honestly (I know I didn't when I was 11). But my father and grandfather were big into it (my dad still follows it, as he owns plenty of stock, but doesn't check it all the time). Still though, WSK was a really confusing game. Even if you understood the stock market.
The original NES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was the first game I bought with my own money. I thought I was getting a port of the arcade game...but that wouldn't come out until the following year. So I was pretty damned disappointed.
I had a Atari growing up. The worst purchase was Donkey Kong. I was so mad that I had been duped. I think that is when I was done with consoles. I rediscovered consoles about the time the SNES was released.
The gameplay in the 2600 Donkey Kong is actually not that bad (aside from only having two levels), but the graphics look terrible, like Mario's girlfriend has been captured by the Gingerbread Man. I remember abandoning it when I got my hands on the Atari 8-bit computer version, which looks much better. I pretty much stopped with consoles after the 2600 and stuck to computer games until the Wii came out! So I missed several whole generations of console gaming and there's this big hole in my videogame nostalgia.
Excellent job backing up Dr. Mario. You're 100% correct, and on the shoulders of Dr. Mario, the practice of slapping licenses onto generic puzzlers became a big moneymaker for Nintendo in years to come. Yoshi's Cookie, Pokemon Puzzle League and Kirby's Avalanche are some that jump to mind. Also, my rental store return was Captain Skyhawk. As you said, the box gameplay thumbnails blew my friend and I away with the shaded surfaces. Our BS excuse to return it was that it didn't have the instructions, and we "couldn't figure it out." :)
Hello there! I just stumbled across your channel and thank you very much for doing this video. I also grew up in a small down and have to go to small local video stores to rent games for my NES. I'll never forget the smell of Nancy's Videos. Anyway, as time went on, I started renting from a small gas station near my house. The selection was very limited but I was happy with whatever I could get my hands on. Our stories of renting games were part of a larger narrative that kids of our generation shared. I'm glad you had that experience and I'm glad I did too.
Finally a new episode. Thanks a lot. I'll see it at night, relaxed at my sofa with a glass of wine. I want to enjoy every minute of it. Thanks again 😊👍
I beat the European version of Bayou Billy three years ago, no trouble at all. You just need to jump kick all the time, at least in the first beat'em up stages, so that enemies won't have the time to hit you. In later stages you get a whip, which makes everything easier. The racing stages are certainly harder than the Japanese version, but still beatable with some practice. The shooting stages (I used the Zapper) are a joke, I never died once. Overall I think Bayou Billy is one of the most unique NES games and it deserves more love
I think Top Gun has a 30+ year learning curve for me! I have the same memory of Deadly Towers. After playing and LOVING The Guardian Legend I had tremendous expectations of this one. Turned out to be a clunky mishmash of everything that makes a perfectly *bad* game. Infiltrator is one that always conjures up disgust for me. It was packaged to sound like another Metal Gear but sorely missed the mark. Faria is another one that I thought would be another Zelda; again it seemed to take everything great about Zelda and tweak it just enough to be a bitter disappointment. It falls under my personal category of “If It Only Had a Map.” After playing and finishing Faria about a year ago I actually intend to revisit the other games as a challenge... But not today.
When I was 11 my Mom took me to Wal Mart to buy a new video game. I was one of those kids that didn't get new games very often, so whatever I got I was stuck with for the next few years. The selection at our Wal Mart was pitiful, and I remember picking Dr. Mario for N64 because it was the best looking title on face value. I took it home and was immediately disappointed when I found out it was a puzzle game... We actually took it back and refunded it. I ended up getting The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror for Game Boy Color, which was not a good game. But still much better than Dr. Mario 😓
Have to agree with you 100% on Deadly Towers. Looked so cool and played so bad! I guess I was a lucky kid, although I was older than you when Zelda came out, I got it for my birthday as soon as it hit the stores. That's one thing I've got to continually pat my mother on the back for. LOL!
I remember renting Total Recall for the NES from the local grocery store (I also grew up in a small town in the middle of the nowhere), got home, played it for literally 15 minutes and was already done with it. Played it many years later, still don't care for it.
I love the irony that you mention Nintendo's "shady" marketing in slappin' Mario on a puzzle game as the reason you hated the great game that is Dr. Mario (a game I still play daily) and then use Dr. Mario in the thumbnail for a video titled "NES Games I Hated" knowing people's love for Dr. Mario would get them to click on it. Well played sir. Well played.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I grew up watching old monster movies, and I LOVED anything and everything to do with them, so I rented this the moment I saw the cover. It was...disappointing to say the least. I was a little older when it actually came out (mid teens), so the hatred I had was more focused and less confused than when I was younger. Looking up a review of the game was what first introduced me to the AVGN. Oh, I also HATED Top Gun with a passion.
Thats kinda crazy, the 1st video store i ever went to as a little kid in the early 90's was called "Colonial Video". It wasn't a gas station type building but it was a tiny plaza. The walls, shelves, counter, door, just about everything was made of cedar. LOTS of vivid childhood memories because of that place. The good ol' days 😌
I have a confession. I only recently discovered the NES. I had an Atari, but was more into arcade games in my jr high/high school years. I didn't get back into consoles until I joined the military and bought a Sega Game gear during Tech School. I then got hooked and bought an SNES a year later. I only recently discovered NES games and am enjoying playing them.
Strangely, I LOVED Simons Quest. I remember at one point though, I had no idea what to do and then I read the directions-kneel at a lake with a pearl. Once I figured that out, I found myself flying through the game the next few days. There were so many hints and cryptic clues that I loved so much more than the traditional castlevania games
I remember asking for Dr Mario for my birthday because Mario as a doctor sounded interesting, my mom tried to explain that she pretty sure it wasn't what I thought it was, but I didn't care. I wanted it. I hated it. It was so bad and I only had myself to blame.
My grandmother bought me DuckTales on NES for Christmas. I didn't ask for it, and she knew nothing about videogames, but somehow she bought me one of the greatest NES games ever! Sometimes life is pretty great :)
That is a lot of held in angst for Konami games in this list. I'm glad you were finally able to let it out. A game of Virus Panic should be able to cheer you up.
My childhood friends' parents ran a convenience store that rented games, so we usually borrowed a different one each week and played them to death. Bayou Billy was one of them, and just like you, we initially thought it was crap, until we got the hang of things. I remember my buddy handing me the controller whenever a driving stage came up because I guess I was a natural at them. I keep meaning to fire it up in an emulator for old time's sake.
The only time I ever tried returning a rental game was when my brother and I had gotten all the fun we could find out of the SNES port of "King of the Monsters" in about an hour. We were regular enough customers I think they either believed us or took pity. Flip side of the coin: Years later I worked at an independent rental shop and the boss knew I had game systems, so when someone returned one, he had me take it home to test it. He didn't care what I did with the ones he couldn't put back out, so that's how I got one scratched-up copy of "WWF Smackdown" and a perfectly fine copy of "Kagero: Deception II" for PS1. I think that one just got returned on account of it being too weird, but I loved it.
Interesting since the ICEE is fact the first. Slurpee its cousin. Slush Puppies is more like a distant relative. The ICEE was invented by WWII veteran, Omar Knedlik in 1958 when he served semi frozen soda at his Dairy Queen franchise. He worked with a company to make the machines to slush the drinks to the correct consistency and created The ICEE Company. Mid-1960s, 7-11 got interested in purchasing machines from ICEE but under their own branding Slurpee as it said in their contract terms.
I had borrowed Top Gun from a friend and after a couple weeks of trying could only complete about 1 in 5 attempts at refueling and landing. I had no idea the game was so short since I could never string together enough landings and refueling to make it very far.
I must reject your "Simon's quest" notion that it's a bad game. I have rose-tinted glasses and loved RPG games so playing this game gave me an action-RPG that I really liked. and YES i figured out the kneeling part all on my own ^_^
Ironic as I watch this Christmas 1987 - my uncle came home from basic training and bought me and my brother our first NES. We got the one with World Class Track Meet as well. But for additional games, we got Xevius and Top Gun.
My grandparrents bought me 'back to the future' for NES the same Christmas that I got the NES from my parents. I beat it several times after learning how and never though it was horrible, but it wasn't a game I would go back to if I had something else to play like Gradius.
It was "You only get a new game if you beat the last one" back then so this little soldier was stuck with Deadly Towers for nearly a year. I took out my pen and some paper and said "It's time to end Deadly Towers". With grit, patience and all the courage my little heart could muster, I conquered that game and I am still proud of that achievement to this day.
I had a similar experience with Simon's Quest in not knowing what the hell to do, but I did the game forgiveness thing for other ones, that I don't remember right now. Remember learning that game renting was a thing, though? They must've started that in like 1986-87 where I lived. I remember being bummed out that games were so damned expensive -- after just before not having video games at all, keep in mind -- and then going to our video store and finding a section of NES games. Younger folks didn't have that.
Super Pitfall, X-Men, Bart Vs. The Space Mutants, Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom and Silver Surfer are all either janky ass messes or frustratingly difficult without a cheat code. Welcome back though.
Simon's Quest was one of the first adventure "rpg" games that I ever completed. I loved that game. (ps I know it's a platform game with rpg elements, but to me it was an awesome adventure, and I was in my 20's when it came out)
Can we have a moment of silence for Aaron's childhood cause that's rough. I do enjoy Simon's Quest however I understand where you're coming from. I gotta say that these were bad but no where near as bad as games like Ghosts and Goblins, Ghostbusters, Wayne's World, Rocky and Bullwinkle...omg I can continue on. We never had a rental place near by so my parents had to drive us there. So, whatever game I had I was stuck with for the week....thanks for the hard work on these videos Aaron. Always a pleasure coming to your channel and watch them.
MIKEcade_ Classic I can't believe Ghosts 'N Goblins gets as bad a rap as it does on the Nintendo. It was one of the first games I got when I got my Nintendo from my dad for Christmas. I thought it was awesome as far as comparing the gameplay and graphics to the arcade. Of course it was difficult, but even back in the day I beat the whole darned game including the second run through that you have to do to really win the game. It took me a long long time, but besides having to learn patterns, it was nowhere near one of my most-hated Nintendo games.
I loved Ghosts n Goblins. Super hard as hell! Took me so many tries just to get past the town part. Oh man that was brutal. The "Big Men" and the dumb birds constantly flying from the left..oh I hate hate HATED those stupid birds! Ghostbusters on the other hand..SUCKED. I also hated the game Operation Wolf. Played for 15 minutes and shut it off for good.
Mad City has an English patch in case you wanted to know what's being said, also there are 3 possible endings. The Adventures of Bayou Billy probably takes the cake for the most egregious of Konami's American difficulty hikes through Contra Hardcorps and Xmen are also up there too. That said it's hard to top forcing battle encounters with gators, making enemies hp significantly higher, taking out the life bar for driving stages so one-hit kills you on top of intentionally breaking the controls for driving sections so it is harder to control the jeep than it was in the Famicom game. Ironically their goal with this was to stop kids from doing exactly what you were doing by making it too difficult to beat as a rental XD.
Aww man, I got Dr. Mario as an un-asked-for gift as a kid too but I actually liked it! Well, maybe not as much as I'd have liked a new action/adventure but I did enjoy it, and I distinctly remember it being the one game my great uncle (who got it for me) loved watching me play for whatever reason. I was like, REALLY young though, any new game was a COOL game in my eyes at the time. And what's even better, and tells me I was a lucky kid, was probably my best christmas EVER when my grandma got me BOTH zelda 1 and 2, at once. We'd rented them and gotten a taste of how good they were but to OWN not one but BOTH of them, two of the biggest and best games on NES... no other Christmas was ever so surprising and exciting! The funny thing though about my ability to enjoy the Zeldas as a little kid, is also the reason that unlike you I was able to fully enjoy Castlevania 2 and never had any problems with it, and you brought up yourself -- my older brother's subscription to Nintendo Power! He had it from near the beginning, and what we DIDN'T have from the earlier NES days he had this... big mega-guide-book thing for, with maps and strategies. Again, I was lucky!
We had Nintendo Power, as well, which helped me get through a LOT of games when I was a younger kid. And it was mostly my Dad and Grandma buying video games for me (nobody else in the house could even figure out what, exactly, a video game was). Dad was savvy enough from the ATARI 2600 days to know what was going to be good and what was going to be crap and Grandma (the neighborhood's resident "Raiders of the Lost Ark" master, straight up) would just go by whatever list I gave her rather than trying to guess at it. The two of them together got me Castlevania II for my birthday one year and to date it's STILL my favorite Castlevania game. No lies.
One time my mom tried to console me (pun intended) with my needing glasses, by taking me into a KB Toys and buying me 2 NES games. I chose Back to the Future by LJN, and my mom surprised me with Castlequest. I still hate both of those games. And I switched to contact lenses.
Oh hell no! lol... I can NOT forget Castlequest. I remember seeing the previews for that in Nintendo Power and some other game magazine. I thought it looked and sounded so cool. I even called Nintendo's customer service a couple times asking when it would be out. When the game finally released and was available in the video store, I rented it... feeling so excited...........boy was I soooooo disappointed! All that hype for a shitty game (as AVGN would say lol). Luckily I never bought the dumb thing.
@@brucewrigleysgumchewz4667 CastleQuest was bad at first playthrough, and it only got worse when you progressed. Renting the game gives you zero clue about which keys, or what path you needed to take, to reach the princess at the center of the tower. Buying the game gave you a foldout map of the entire castle as well as a highly descriptive instructional manual clearly describing all the game mechanics. But the map was so tiny and pixelated, you needed a magnifying glass to see everything. Turns out, and I only found this out years later through the magic of TH-cam, that at least one of the intended paths - because there are actually several possible options - requires dying to reset the room, which is why they give you 50 lives to complete the game. Bad hitboxes? Check. No indication of enemy invulnerability before they kill you? Check. Mystery paths with infinite softlock possibilities? Check. Required deaths? Check. Oh boy.. that game.
Woo, Casey's! I worked at one for over three years... it's extremely common for them to move into small towns and basically take over. It's their strategy to become a cornerstone of the nearby area and bankrupt smaller businesses. Your story is pretty common. That being said, I have no ill will. The little places were usually shitty anyway.
Dr.Mario was so good, but if you were hoping for Zelda I definitely see the disappointment.
New games where $50 back then also lol.
Was? You mean is ;) Dr. Mario is the best versus falling puzzle game. The only game my wife can annihilate me lol. Ever try Dr. Luigi on Wii U?
I still prefer Dr. Mario over Tetris. The only problem I have with either game is there is better.
You had me onboard until "Castlevania II: Simon's Quest". It WAS and STILL my favorite "Castlevania" game in the series.
Agreed
Mine too! What's with all the hate? It holds up after all these years and I really miss that when I was a kid I didn't know the story or how to complete it. It had a mystery to it that no game then or since has had. Glad a few of us love it.
Renting games is a Friday ritual that is hard to describe to younger people. It was by far the best part of the week, the light at the end of the long week of tedious schoolwork.
You were a sweet grandkid to your grandparents. Thankful even when it wasn't what you really wanted.
Fun fact given the content of the video: due to Nintendo policy, games often had their difficulty dialed up when localized for the North American market. This was to "discourage" (we would say "troll" today) people from renting games. Nintendo actually sued Blockbuster for the practice but lost, so they decided to punish the consumer instead.
@@chucksucks8640 The idea was that it increases the learning curve. If you rent a game for a weekend and beat it in two hours, you've gotten everything from it and don't need to buy it. If you make the game insanely difficult, most people will have to spend more than a weekend practicing at the game to complete it. Barring that it's at least a passive/aggressive middle finger. There were other tricks like this employed to inflate game time or punish people for renting, like the infamous letter you dip in water for Star Tropics.
@@chucksucks8640 The idea was that then they couldn't finish the game within the time window of a rental.
I think Disney, of all companies, used to have the same policy for their own videogames, which is why Disney kids' games often have an insane difficulty spike somewhere in them.
It seems like devs didn't understand how great renting was, people were paying just to try out their game, with the possibility of buying it if they liked it enough. Sure, it's possible that you could trick more people into buying a game they otherwise wouldn't if they were able to check it out first by renting it, but it wouldn't be worth the resulting industry-wide loss of games sales when people can't find any good games to buy so they give up.
@@pentelegomenon1175It's mostly just that Japan as a gaming industry is ironically so far behind on the times. Renting as a practice would've been genuinely beneficial for them but they didn't see the value in it and just thought it was people getting access to a game they don't own.
We still see this behind on the times mindset with their copyright policies online.
Dr Mario was the only game I could get my parents into back then. I even caught them playing it a few times on their own. But basically every other game back then was completely lost on them. So for that reason alone Dr Mario will always hold a special place in my heart.
Ohh bro you moved a lot of thoughts and feelings.
I miss my grandparents too.
The best presents was for my grandparents, they all give me a lot toys and games for my birthdays and Christmas.
That thing you were talking about with Castlevania 2, where you kept on renting it, because you forgot you had already played it... same thing happened to me with Hydlide.
Gas station story: a friend of mine had a dad who had tried doing business with a gas station to rent out NES games. Unfortunately it didn't last long as the gas station never got people's proper info when they rented so they would pay the rental fee, take the game home, and, well you can guess the rest.
lol derp
For some reason I kept renting Festers Quest as a kid (maybe it was that awesome intro) and kept getting burned every time.
Yeah - how does that happen lol?! You see it there on the shelf and it's like, well I'll give this a try again and within a minute after you get home you realize how got hosed again.
I rented that one a lot too lol. I think I did it thinking I would get further in the game and it would somehow get better lol. I also rented Maniac Mansion a lot but didn't even really know how to play it (or really even read at the time lol because I was like 5) but now that I'm pushing 40 (oh God) it's actually pretty fun.
I rented it all the time. I died all the time
We had that one when I was a kid. I really enjoyed the music. I think that got me through wandering around and never getting anywhere.
@@FridayNightArcade It must've been that our options were so limited. I remember seeing only a few rental games at the store in the small town I lived in. Nowadays we can simply download any game we want, so kinda spoiled for choice ;)
My grandpa was a beast at this game and this was before the internet. He played it all out. I later dubbed him an OG - Original Gamer. I’d sit and watch him play for hours.
I loved Castlevania II and Dr. Mario. Great music in Castlevania.
Both my parents loved playing "Dr. Mario" after it came out, and it was also only one of a couple of NES games I ever owned when I was a kid as well.
It's too bad the US version of Bayou Billy was tweaked to be significantly harder. I feel like it could have been one of those Konami classics had they left it alone.
Agreed - the original version is fantastic.
@@FridayNightArcade The US version of Bayou Billy had driving and shooting, which could also use the zapper, stages as well, If you completed them, in "practice mode" you got an extra life to use in the main game.
I got that game in 6th grade. I actually beat it! Believe it or not.
@@jyoder1 Congrats, that's a big achievement in my book. Everyone likes to complain about how hard G 'n G and Battletoads are but this game is definitely up there.
@@GoodVibeCollecting no lie. It is hard. One of the tricks on the twins is to move in a figure 8
Holy crap! The adventures of byuou bill has an ending!? Who knew haha
The Adventures of Bayou Billy: every enemy has more health than you. Levels 2 through 9 available with Game Genie!
I recall I once made it to the last stage and died, and never bothered to play it again after. Brutal game.
Play the famicom version (mad city). The difficulty is well balanced than his NTSC/Pal one.
“Thank you Grandma and Grandpa, I really miss you guys” choked me up my friend, I feel you! Amazing channel! So glad I found it!!!
Well time to try top gun again because I think I only ever landed once and never even tried to refuel
I rented 8 Eyes and didn't have a clue what to do.
That game is hard as hell. The end is a literal puzzle too.
Deadly Towers. God I remember that first level. Same issue with Milon's Secret Castle - apparently there was a game there, and I had no idea how to play it.
I think we all were screwed over by the Deadly Towers box art. Thanks to Nintendo Tip Line... I was able to complete CV II.
Duke Togo how much was your phone bill and how many ass beating did you receive because of it
That's how my friend beat it... The Tip Line! That wasn't that simple of a task either. Their line was always busy. So, he would hit redial for like an hour until he finally got through to somebody.
I suppose you've got a point about Dr. Mario, but I'll still vouch for the likes of Mario Kart and Mario Party, as those feature many more staples of the Mario series besides just Mario himself.
On the other hand, though, Dr. Mario is undeniably the superior version of Mario in Super Smash Bros.
Man I remember crashing top gun every time. Really wish I knew the trick as a kid.
I'm in the minority because I love CV2. Was my birthday present when I was in kindergarten. Have fond memories of playing it before and after school. Really enjoyed it, and luckily I had the Nintendo Power issue that helped with the poor translation. It's a really fun speedrun to watch, especially Jay_Cee's world record. There's also a CV2 randomizer now.
I'm with you. I thought it was great. It's like a side scrolling RPG
We are in the unfortunate minority. CV2 was a beautiful game. Flawed like many NES games but the music and gameplay were amazing.
You need the book. I seriously think it was meant to be sold as a set . the worlds of power book has all the hints in it. Its no Tolstoy novel but its as good as a goosbumps or robert asprin myth book.
The manual too people forget these games actually had booklets you were supposed to read or look for clues too.
I remember renting Simons quest and getting so confused on where to go! I kept getting stuck on the first castle
"Podunk midwestern small town" hey man Casey's pizza and renting awful games was my childhood! So many bad games were rented, so many beat me instead.
My horrible one that I play in my childhood was Back to the future...
I think this is the first list I've ever liked 100% haha. Nice work!
Love how these are mostly Konami. Normally a good company but the missteps were just as memorable
The shooting and driving levels of Bayou Billy are on the US version, but the jacked difficulty make them rarely seen by players.
I beat the game but it took some effort. I first played it when I was nine but I revisted it when I was 17 and beat it.
There was a game called dark rift for the N64 that I tried to return about an hour after renting it. The Blockbuster just gave us a $1 credit toward renting another game for bringing it back so early. Who's laughing now, blockbuster?
😂
They went out of business just because of you $1 credit.
Castlevania 2 is the first nes game I beat with out help from my friends. I memorized all the game progression points from watching my friends play.
I once got Wall Street Kid for Christmas and I STILL DONT KNOW WHY 😭😭😂😂
Its reviews were quite good for the time. I will have to check it out.
@@silvervalleystudios2486 It really wasn't a bad game, I enjoyed it
@@ZachuratedPhat They really aren't. My grandparents got me the game. But never got past the first month (could never make enough money in the stock market to buy the million dollar house).
They just picked one. That is love right there.
@Turd Ferguson I don't know a single 11-year-old who cares about the stock market, honestly (I know I didn't when I was 11). But my father and grandfather were big into it (my dad still follows it, as he owns plenty of stock, but doesn't check it all the time). Still though, WSK was a really confusing game. Even if you understood the stock market.
Finally finishing The Adventures Of Bayou Billy was one of my Favorite achievements as a kid.
Dr. Mario was awesome, but I can understand how someone wouldn’t like it, as I LOATHE Yoshi’s Cookie and Wario’s Woods.
Bayou Billy is fun because it is hard. Bwahaha. When I beat it I felt like I accomplished something.
The original NES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was the first game I bought with my own money. I thought I was getting a port of the arcade game...but that wouldn't come out until the following year. So I was pretty damned disappointed.
I had a Atari growing up. The worst purchase was Donkey Kong. I was so mad that I had been duped. I think that is when I was done with consoles. I rediscovered consoles about the time the SNES was released.
donkey kong is my favorite game on the atari ):
To be fair, Donkey Kong on Atari is much better than Pac-Man on Atari, although it is certainly not a top 50 Atari game
The gameplay in the 2600 Donkey Kong is actually not that bad (aside from only having two levels), but the graphics look terrible, like Mario's girlfriend has been captured by the Gingerbread Man. I remember abandoning it when I got my hands on the Atari 8-bit computer version, which looks much better.
I pretty much stopped with consoles after the 2600 and stuck to computer games until the Wii came out! So I missed several whole generations of console gaming and there's this big hole in my videogame nostalgia.
@@MattMcIrvin yes that's the thing with the atari the graphics are left to your imagination however still easily my favorite console
@@MattMcIrvin Same as me, but I did have a ColecoVision after my Atari 2600 and before my c64 :-)
Excellent job backing up Dr. Mario. You're 100% correct, and on the shoulders of Dr. Mario, the practice of slapping licenses onto generic puzzlers became a big moneymaker for Nintendo in years to come. Yoshi's Cookie, Pokemon Puzzle League and Kirby's Avalanche are some that jump to mind.
Also, my rental store return was Captain Skyhawk. As you said, the box gameplay thumbnails blew my friend and I away with the shaded surfaces. Our BS excuse to return it was that it didn't have the instructions, and we "couldn't figure it out." :)
😂
Hilarious story about forgetting you had already rented Simons Quest 4-5 times! It really is amazing box art
Wow when did you get 18k subscribers? Nice man! well deserved... keep it up.
Hey thanks! ... yeah, it's been a big last few months...
The Legend of Zelda was the first game i got for the NES. I got it for my first communion. Still one of the best gifts EVER.
That's awesome!
@@FridayNightArcade u can by a bunch of nes game on ebay its easy
Just be glad you had Top Gun instead of Stealth! Shew lawd...that game. So hard.
You got my business when you send to your grand parents “ I really miss you guys”.....
Hello there! I just stumbled across your channel and thank you very much for doing this video. I also grew up in a small down and have to go to small local video stores to rent games for my NES. I'll never forget the smell of Nancy's Videos. Anyway, as time went on, I started renting from a small gas station near my house. The selection was very limited but I was happy with whatever I could get my hands on. Our stories of renting games were part of a larger narrative that kids of our generation shared. I'm glad you had that experience and I'm glad I did too.
It's weird to realize that only the 80's and 90's kids had that rental culture. Guess it was a special time, I still miss renting games and movies.
Finally a new episode. Thanks a lot.
I'll see it at night, relaxed at my sofa with a glass of wine. I want to enjoy every minute of it.
Thanks again 😊👍
I got Dr.Mario for Christmas. And loved it.
hah, my hometown still has KC's since, like, the 80's
I beat the European version of Bayou Billy three years ago, no trouble at all. You just need to jump kick all the time, at least in the first beat'em up stages, so that enemies won't have the time to hit you. In later stages you get a whip, which makes everything easier. The racing stages are certainly harder than the Japanese version, but still beatable with some practice. The shooting stages (I used the Zapper) are a joke, I never died once. Overall I think Bayou Billy is one of the most unique NES games and it deserves more love
I think Top Gun has a 30+ year learning curve for me!
I have the same memory of Deadly Towers. After playing and LOVING The Guardian Legend I had tremendous expectations of this one. Turned out to be a clunky mishmash of everything that makes a perfectly *bad* game.
Infiltrator is one that always conjures up disgust for me. It was packaged to sound like another Metal Gear but sorely missed the mark.
Faria is another one that I thought would be another Zelda; again it seemed to take everything great about Zelda and tweak it just enough to be a bitter disappointment. It falls under my personal category of “If It Only Had a Map.”
After playing and finishing Faria about a year ago I actually intend to revisit the other games as a challenge...
But not today.
Top Gun was a mystery until my friend’s dad figured it out. Once you get the hang of the landing and refueling, it’s a breeze.
When I was 11 my Mom took me to Wal Mart to buy a new video game. I was one of those kids that didn't get new games very often, so whatever I got I was stuck with for the next few years. The selection at our Wal Mart was pitiful, and I remember picking Dr. Mario for N64 because it was the best looking title on face value. I took it home and was immediately disappointed when I found out it was a puzzle game... We actually took it back and refunded it. I ended up getting The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror for Game Boy Color, which was not a good game. But still much better than Dr. Mario 😓
Have to agree with you 100% on Deadly Towers. Looked so cool and played so bad! I guess I was a lucky kid, although I was older than you when Zelda came out, I got it for my birthday as soon as it hit the stores. That's one thing I've got to continually pat my mother on the back for. LOL!
I remember renting Total Recall for the NES from the local grocery store (I also grew up in a small town in the middle of the nowhere), got home, played it for literally 15 minutes and was already done with it. Played it many years later, still don't care for it.
Play top gun with the power glove. Way easier to play.
Gawd DAYUMM!!!!
Yeah top gun was a bit of a stinker but at least you had super mario and duck hunt to play!!!
Top gun was easy
I love the irony that you mention Nintendo's "shady" marketing in slappin' Mario on a puzzle game as the reason you hated the great game that is Dr. Mario (a game I still play daily) and then use Dr. Mario in the thumbnail for a video titled "NES Games I Hated" knowing people's love for Dr. Mario would get them to click on it. Well played sir. Well played.
😂
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I grew up watching old monster movies, and I LOVED anything and everything to do with them, so I rented this the moment I saw the cover. It was...disappointing to say the least. I was a little older when it actually came out (mid teens), so the hatred I had was more focused and less confused than when I was younger. Looking up a review of the game was what first introduced me to the AVGN. Oh, I also HATED Top Gun with a passion.
Thats kinda crazy, the 1st video store i ever went to as a little kid in the early 90's was called "Colonial Video". It wasn't a gas station type building but it was a tiny plaza. The walls, shelves, counter, door, just about everything was made of cedar. LOTS of vivid childhood memories because of that place. The good ol' days 😌
I have a confession. I only recently discovered the NES. I had an Atari, but was more into arcade games in my jr high/high school years. I didn't get back into consoles until I joined the military and bought a Sega Game gear during Tech School. I then got hooked and bought an SNES a year later. I only recently discovered NES games and am enjoying playing them.
4:38 holy shit. Game changer. Thank you.
I had Deadly Towers, Top Gun and Bayou Billy way back when.
Strangely, I LOVED Simons Quest. I remember at one point though, I had no idea what to do and then I read the directions-kneel at a lake with a pearl. Once I figured that out, I found myself flying through the game the next few days. There were so many hints and cryptic clues that I loved so much more than the traditional castlevania games
I remember asking for Dr Mario for my birthday because Mario as a doctor sounded interesting, my mom tried to explain that she pretty sure it wasn't what I thought it was, but I didn't care. I wanted it. I hated it. It was so bad and I only had myself to blame.
Nice to see more NES stuff from you!
God I miss slush puppies.
I got big meat
Man...I remember getting all excited because we got an Atari pong game for Christmas,....and yes, I'm from the cro- magnon era....
My grandmother bought me DuckTales on NES for Christmas. I didn't ask for it, and she knew nothing about videogames, but somehow she bought me one of the greatest NES games ever! Sometimes life is pretty great :)
I am so sorry you got Dr. Mario for christmas
You shouldn't be. Dr. Mario is a fantastic game.
@@the-NightStar Agreed.
That is a lot of held in angst for Konami games in this list. I'm glad you were finally able to let it out. A game of Virus Panic should be able to cheer you up.
😀
My childhood friends' parents ran a convenience store that rented games, so we usually borrowed a different one each week and played them to death. Bayou Billy was one of them, and just like you, we initially thought it was crap, until we got the hang of things. I remember my buddy handing me the controller whenever a driving stage came up because I guess I was a natural at them. I keep meaning to fire it up in an emulator for old time's sake.
The only time I ever tried returning a rental game was when my brother and I had gotten all the fun we could find out of the SNES port of "King of the Monsters" in about an hour. We were regular enough customers I think they either believed us or took pity. Flip side of the coin: Years later I worked at an independent rental shop and the boss knew I had game systems, so when someone returned one, he had me take it home to test it. He didn't care what I did with the ones he couldn't put back out, so that's how I got one scratched-up copy of "WWF Smackdown" and a perfectly fine copy of "Kagero: Deception II" for PS1. I think that one just got returned on account of it being too weird, but I loved it.
I'm glad you said Bayou Billy correctly, so many newer gamers pronounce Bayou wrong lol.
Slush Puppies is a poor man's ICEE. ICEE is a poor man's Slurpee.
Interesting since the ICEE is fact the first. Slurpee its cousin. Slush Puppies is more like a distant relative.
The ICEE was invented by WWII veteran, Omar Knedlik in 1958 when he served semi frozen soda at his Dairy Queen franchise. He worked with a company to make the machines to slush the drinks to the correct consistency and created The ICEE Company.
Mid-1960s, 7-11 got interested in purchasing machines from ICEE but under their own branding Slurpee as it said in their contract terms.
I got Castlevania 2 and Bayou Billy together for Christmas one year. The pain was real.
wow almiost 20 k subs. wasnt it half that just a few months ago? glad to see you getting more subs. good channel
Thanks, Greg!
I had borrowed Top Gun from a friend and after a couple weeks of trying could only complete about 1 in 5 attempts at refueling and landing. I had no idea the game was so short since I could never string together enough landings and refueling to make it very far.
whoa whoa whoa - 6:58 shots fired at Mario's Cement Factory Tabletop ? That game was great !
14:15
Y así Bayou Billy nos demostró que lo más importante es el amor... el amor heterosexual.
Even European version of Bayou Billy has driving and shooting levels. You could also play those level separately.
The US version was the same. The shooting stages allowed the use of the zapper or controller.
I must reject your "Simon's quest" notion that it's a bad game.
I have rose-tinted glasses and loved RPG games so playing this game gave me an action-RPG that I really liked.
and YES i figured out the kneeling part all on my own ^_^
Ironic as I watch this Christmas 1987 - my uncle came home from basic training and bought me and my brother our first NES. We got the one with World Class Track Meet as well. But for additional games, we got Xevius and Top Gun.
100% agree on Dr. Mario and Top Gun gave me anxiety problems with the landing sequence! :-p
Also, big time win with the grandparent gifts!
My grandparrents bought me 'back to the future' for NES the same Christmas that I got the NES from my parents.
I beat it several times after learning how and never though it was horrible, but it wasn't a game I would go back to if I had something else to play like Gradius.
It was "You only get a new game if you beat the last one" back then so this little soldier was stuck with Deadly Towers for nearly a year. I took out my pen and some paper and said "It's time to end Deadly Towers". With grit, patience and all the courage my little heart could muster, I conquered that game and I am still proud of that achievement to this day.
That's the goods.
I totally relate to the Dr. Mario Christmas present. For me it was Bram Stoker's Dracula, and my parents (my mom) got me Super Adventure Island.
Nice. You summed up a very real experience when renting games. This was your weekend. It really sets the tone.
The cover for Deadly Towers is the most flagrant example of false advertising EVER
If it was dr. Nick i would play it until my eyes fell out! Friggin hilarious
I had a similar experience with Simon's Quest in not knowing what the hell to do, but I did the game forgiveness thing for other ones, that I don't remember right now. Remember learning that game renting was a thing, though? They must've started that in like 1986-87 where I lived. I remember being bummed out that games were so damned expensive -- after just before not having video games at all, keep in mind -- and then going to our video store and finding a section of NES games. Younger folks didn't have that.
Super Pitfall, X-Men, Bart Vs. The Space Mutants, Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom and Silver Surfer are all either janky ass messes or frustratingly difficult without a cheat code. Welcome back though.
Amazing as always ❤️❤️❤️
Thanks for the advertisment! Totally subscribed
Simon's Quest was one of the first adventure "rpg" games that I ever completed. I loved that game. (ps I know it's a platform game with rpg elements, but to me it was an awesome adventure, and I was in my 20's when it came out)
Can we have a moment of silence for Aaron's childhood cause that's rough. I do enjoy Simon's Quest however I understand where you're coming from. I gotta say that these were bad but no where near as bad as games like Ghosts and Goblins, Ghostbusters, Wayne's World, Rocky and Bullwinkle...omg I can continue on. We never had a rental place near by so my parents had to drive us there. So, whatever game I had I was stuck with for the week....thanks for the hard work on these videos Aaron. Always a pleasure coming to your channel and watch them.
MIKEcade_ Classic I can't believe Ghosts 'N Goblins gets as bad a rap as it does on the Nintendo. It was one of the first games I got when I got my Nintendo from my dad for Christmas. I thought it was awesome as far as comparing the gameplay and graphics to the arcade. Of course it was difficult, but even back in the day I beat the whole darned game including the second run through that you have to do to really win the game. It took me a long long time, but besides having to learn patterns, it was nowhere near one of my most-hated Nintendo games.
I loved Ghosts n Goblins. Super hard as hell! Took me so many tries just to get past the town part. Oh man that was brutal. The "Big Men" and the dumb birds constantly flying from the left..oh I hate hate HATED those stupid birds!
Ghostbusters on the other hand..SUCKED. I also hated the game Operation Wolf. Played for 15 minutes and shut it off for good.
Mad City has an English patch in case you wanted to know what's being said, also there are 3 possible endings. The Adventures of Bayou Billy probably takes the cake for the most egregious of Konami's American difficulty hikes through Contra Hardcorps and Xmen are also up there too. That said it's hard to top forcing battle encounters with gators, making enemies hp significantly higher, taking out the life bar for driving stages so one-hit kills you on top of intentionally breaking the controls for driving sections so it is harder to control the jeep than it was in the Famicom game. Ironically their goal with this was to stop kids from doing exactly what you were doing by making it too difficult to beat as a rental XD.
Aww man, I got Dr. Mario as an un-asked-for gift as a kid too but I actually liked it! Well, maybe not as much as I'd have liked a new action/adventure but I did enjoy it, and I distinctly remember it being the one game my great uncle (who got it for me) loved watching me play for whatever reason. I was like, REALLY young though, any new game was a COOL game in my eyes at the time. And what's even better, and tells me I was a lucky kid, was probably my best christmas EVER when my grandma got me BOTH zelda 1 and 2, at once. We'd rented them and gotten a taste of how good they were but to OWN not one but BOTH of them, two of the biggest and best games on NES... no other Christmas was ever so surprising and exciting!
The funny thing though about my ability to enjoy the Zeldas as a little kid, is also the reason that unlike you I was able to fully enjoy Castlevania 2 and never had any problems with it, and you brought up yourself -- my older brother's subscription to Nintendo Power! He had it from near the beginning, and what we DIDN'T have from the earlier NES days he had this... big mega-guide-book thing for, with maps and strategies. Again, I was lucky!
We had Nintendo Power, as well, which helped me get through a LOT of games when I was a younger kid. And it was mostly my Dad and Grandma buying video games for me (nobody else in the house could even figure out what, exactly, a video game was). Dad was savvy enough from the ATARI 2600 days to know what was going to be good and what was going to be crap and Grandma (the neighborhood's resident "Raiders of the Lost Ark" master, straight up) would just go by whatever list I gave her rather than trying to guess at it. The two of them together got me Castlevania II for my birthday one year and to date it's STILL my favorite Castlevania game. No lies.
Castlevania 3>1>2 IMO
One time my mom tried to console me (pun intended) with my needing glasses, by taking me into a KB Toys and buying me 2 NES games. I chose Back to the Future by LJN, and my mom surprised me with Castlequest.
I still hate both of those games. And I switched to contact lenses.
Oh hell no! lol... I can NOT forget Castlequest. I remember seeing the previews for that in Nintendo Power and some other game magazine. I thought it looked and sounded so cool. I even called Nintendo's customer service a couple times asking when it would be out. When the game finally released and was available in the video store, I rented it... feeling so excited...........boy was I soooooo disappointed! All that hype for a shitty game (as AVGN would say lol). Luckily I never bought the dumb thing.
@@brucewrigleysgumchewz4667 CastleQuest was bad at first playthrough, and it only got worse when you progressed. Renting the game gives you zero clue about which keys, or what path you needed to take, to reach the princess at the center of the tower. Buying the game gave you a foldout map of the entire castle as well as a highly descriptive instructional manual clearly describing all the game mechanics. But the map was so tiny and pixelated, you needed a magnifying glass to see everything.
Turns out, and I only found this out years later through the magic of TH-cam, that at least one of the intended paths - because there are actually several possible options - requires dying to reset the room, which is why they give you 50 lives to complete the game.
Bad hitboxes? Check.
No indication of enemy invulnerability before they kill you? Check.
Mystery paths with infinite softlock possibilities? Check.
Required deaths? Check.
Oh boy.. that game.
Woo, Casey's! I worked at one for over three years... it's extremely common for them to move into small towns and basically take over. It's their strategy to become a cornerstone of the nearby area and bankrupt smaller businesses. Your story is pretty common. That being said, I have no ill will. The little places were usually shitty anyway.
I do miss video stores and renting a movie and a game for the weekend... it was so exciting EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.!