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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
@@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.
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." :)
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.
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 😌
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.
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
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 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 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.
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 :)
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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 ^_^
Up until a couple years ago I had no idea what the ending was, let alone a potential alternate Japanese one. You can literally bob and weave around your girlfriend once she's free and after a bit she takes the hint and leaves you all alone
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)
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.
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.
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.
lol I was in the sweet spot for Simon's Quest, I was playing it before I learned how to read. I am sure I would have been annoyed at the dialog if I could have read it. NES passwords did help me get my alphabet down way early though!
I kept asking for zelda and was given zelda 2, so I feel you. I did love Simon's quest though, but not until I got one of those "how to win at Nintendo games" books that gave some hints. Once I knew wtf to do it was awesome.
Konami probably thought Bayou Billy was too easy, so they made it harder. Games back then were not very big, so developers felt that they had to do something to prevent players from beating the game in one sitting. Making a game difficult was the most popular way to do that. For RPG's, they also liked to make us grind levels for an hour or two each time we got to a new area. It was an extremely effective way to artificially lengthen those games, but it also made them age horribly. Thankfully, most remakes of really old RPG's these days fix that issue by simply doubling or tripling the exp. gained from each enemy, thus eliminating the need for grinding.
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!
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 😓
There was a store in my rinky dink town growing up called "99". I think it stood for 99 Cent Store, Store 99, something like that. (Coincidentally, few things were $0.99 in the store and I even realized that as a kid. Not sure how that strike of Marketing genius didn't survive the store into the new millennia. *insert eye roll*) I digress... At any rate, the first game we EVER rented as kids was Alien Syndrome, by Tengen!! Got that puppy home and knew it was going to blow our minds. Mind you, we received the SMB/Duck Hunt/WCTM multi cart system + Bad Dudes (BEST GAME EVER simply for the voice over at the end of each level) at the same time. How our parents got it that right is beyond me. We figured Alien Syndrome would fit in nicely with our other games we'd played to date. It was cool and all, but we'd typically only play one, MAYBE two levels, then quit because it was too redundant/boring or too hard. I ended up buying it years later to reminisce over the fond memories I had as a kid with this game, only to then play a few levels and turn the system off. Alien Syndrome was neat but never lived up to the self-hype I had somehow created for it. Call it renter's remorse possibly!
The redaction kicks ass. I managed to snag a real copy on a cart. Best thing ever. U wanna borrow it for a playthrough let me know....hope twins r well
I feel your pain. Gaming was a brave new market, and adults were clueless. Just like today, great 1st party titles were expensive, while shovelware was cheap, in every sense of the word. The funniest example i can offer is when we had moved on from NES to SNES, but my aunt didnt get the memo. She got us TMNT NES while we were groovin’ on DKC titles! No longer owning the previous console, my brothers and i just laughed.
For the first few months of the pandemic, Dr Mario was my wife and I's go to game. But you are absolutely correct, the game has nothing to do with Mario at all. Sega did the same thing with with Dr Robotniks Mean Green Machine
I seem to be unique in that I never had a problem with Castlevania 2 growing up. I eventually could beat it in one sitting. Never found the graveyard duck though.
Rip grandma and grandpa my grandpa use to do the qtip with rubbing alcohol and the cartridge on top of the other to get the games to work for me.....and grandma would school me in super Mario bros.....man I miss those days
You rented games from a small store in a midwestern town and I rented from a store in Downtown Los Angeles but the similarities are the same. Mine had a donut shop,a pizza place and liquor store next door. Cheap snacks and game rentals dam I miss the 80s
Dr. Mario was originally called Virus and there are actually some Playchoice 10 boards with this original version before it was changed. I believe this is a Gunpei Yokoi game and I actually like it a lot, moreso than Tetris. But I could see why getting this instead of Zelda or something would be disappointing.
Twig-chan was suckered into buying Deadly Towers at such store called KB Toys once. Box show pretty gameplay. Twig-chan insert thing into console, and Dante's 7th circle of hell appeared in Twig-chans house.
I had no idea about the Japanese version of Bayou Billy. I really wish they would’ve just kept it the same. The US version is more tolerable if you use game genie on it but it’s still feels unfulfilling to beat.
I remember for Christmas our parents got me and my brother wcw mayhem for n64 and we were upset because we thought they messed up cause we only had a playstation... Then they told us well keep opening and then we look at each other and started tearing open everything
I remember renting NES games back in the day and just like you, I'd rent it based off box art lol. I'd think to myself "I KNOW this game HAS to get better at some point!! The box art is too cool!!" But the game would never get any better lol. The oddest game I remember frequently renting (and I'll never know why) was "Ice Hockey" and I didn't even have the first clue about anything hockey lol. I think I just liked the physics of it or something and the skating around and hitting the puck, but if the Mega Man, Ninja Gaiden, or any of the cool games like those were rented out, there was always a 99.9% chance Ice Hockey would be on the shelf lol.
i feel so bad for parents and grandparents who tried so hard but just missed the mark... my parents still do it to their grandchildren... but they were very good with me as a kid.
Astounded that Dr Mario is on here. Your story helped me make sense of it, but it's one of my favorite puzzle games ever so I can't comprehend NOT loving this cart.
It's not a terrible game at all - but if you could only pick one game that you were gonna be stuck with for six months until the next big Gettin' a New Game Little Kid Holiday ... is this the one you'd want? And my family never would have bought that game for me if Mario wasn't slapped on the cover. And so, I became a little more bitter and jaded toward big corporations and their shady marketing tactics that day lol...
I freaking love Bayou Billy! Probably because I was disappointed by Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Bill and Ted's Excellent Video Game Adventure, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Rocket Ranger prior to it in my small convenience store in my small town of 300😑
time for a story : i got my nes like everyone else, a gift, with the mario and duck hunt, that was all swell, but time went by and we had no stores in my country that sold nes games, so i relied on my uncles from good old texas to send me game, and after maybe a year or so, they finally sent me 2 games...i was so excited, i was dreaming of zelda, smb2 and ninja gaiden and tmnt... but... i got 2 games, operation wolf and to the earth, both zapper games and u have no idea how dissapointed i was with those 2 games, i was dreaming of conquering hyrule , defeating ninjas and doing quests, but all i got was things to shoot with my zapper. those 2 were the worst games i ever played.... thankfully, after a long time, my uncles sent me 5 new games.... smb2 and 3 , dr mario, wrath of the black mantha and snake's revenge...now those were awesome games.
I couldn't get far in Bayou, but you could preview the other stages in something like a Practice Mode feature. The surfing part of T&C Surf Design was hard. Star Voyager is hard, but has a really cool intro. Goonies II was confusing. TMNT was pretty hard.
I absolutely hated the surf levels in T&C, but the music and sound effects were really cool. That was one I'd randomly rent too and probably should have been included in this video lol.
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.
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.
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
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.
You were a sweet grandkid to your grandparents. Thankful even when it wasn't what you really wanted.
I loved Castlevania II and Dr. Mario. Great music in Castlevania.
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
"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.
Well time to try top gun again because I think I only ever landed once and never even tried to refuel
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.
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.
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.
Hilarious story about forgetting you had already rented Simons Quest 4-5 times! It really is amazing box art
Finally finishing The Adventures Of Bayou Billy was one of my Favorite achievements as a kid.
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 :-)
I think this is the first list I've ever liked 100% haha. Nice work!
You got my business when you send to your grand parents “ I really miss you guys”.....
Man I remember crashing top gun every time. Really wish I knew the trick as a kid.
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.
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.
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.
Bayou Billy is fun because it is hard. Bwahaha. When I beat it I felt like I accomplished something.
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." :)
😂
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
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.
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'm glad you said Bayou Billy correctly, so many newer gamers pronounce Bayou wrong lol.
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...
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.
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
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 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 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.
😂
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 :)
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.
4:38 holy shit. Game changer. Thank you.
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.
Spelunker pissed me off as a child. The fact that you could die by falling so short a distance traumatized me.
Nice to see more NES stuff from you!
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.
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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.
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!
Simons quest was the first (2nd actually) Nintendo power magazine. Crazy controversial cover of the magazine too
Deadly Towers was my first NES game
Man...I remember getting all excited because we got an Atari pong game for Christmas,....and yes, I'm from the cro- magnon era....
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.
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 ^_^
Up until a couple years ago I had no idea what the ending was, let alone a potential alternate Japanese one. You can literally bob and weave around your girlfriend once she's free and after a bit she takes the hint and leaves you all alone
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)
And I like how unlicensed marios solution is to just throw pills at the problem
My parents and sisters loved Dr Mario. I would put it as the second best puzzle game behind Tetris, but I’m not much for puzzle games.
Well at least you were one of the few people that actually landed the plane in the 80s
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.
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
You're literally the first person I've ever seen who ever hated Dr. Mario.
Make me the 2nd😁
@@buickgnx3800 You're both stupid and insane. Dr. Mario is a classic and one of the greatest puzzle games ever, just below Tetris.
I also think it's boring as hell.
I hate Tetris and Dr Mario. Not because they're bad, but because my parents played both ad nauseum to the point where I started to resent the games.
Nice. You summed up a very real experience when renting games. This was your weekend. It really sets the tone.
14:09 Did she just let herself out of that locked prison cell?!?!
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!
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.
lol I was in the sweet spot for Simon's Quest, I was playing it before I learned how to read. I am sure I would have been annoyed at the dialog if I could have read it. NES passwords did help me get my alphabet down way early though!
Amazing as always ❤️❤️❤️
The Adventures Of Bayou Billy has an ending? It's usually at the first 00:30 mark lmao! Seriously? They expected a fucking TEN YEAR OLD to beat that?
I kept asking for zelda and was given zelda 2, so I feel you. I did love Simon's quest though, but not until I got one of those "how to win at Nintendo games" books that gave some hints. Once I knew wtf to do it was awesome.
Konami probably thought Bayou Billy was too easy, so they made it harder. Games back then were not very big, so developers felt that they had to do something to prevent players from beating the game in one sitting. Making a game difficult was the most popular way to do that. For RPG's, they also liked to make us grind levels for an hour or two each time we got to a new area. It was an extremely effective way to artificially lengthen those games, but it also made them age horribly. Thankfully, most remakes of really old RPG's these days fix that issue by simply doubling or tripling the exp. gained from each enemy, thus eliminating the need for grinding.
I didn't rent it, my cousin did, but he brought it over. 'Mappy Land'
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!
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 😓
There was a store in my rinky dink town growing up called "99". I think it stood for 99 Cent Store, Store 99, something like that. (Coincidentally, few things were $0.99 in the store and I even realized that as a kid. Not sure how that strike of Marketing genius didn't survive the store into the new millennia. *insert eye roll*) I digress...
At any rate, the first game we EVER rented as kids was Alien Syndrome, by Tengen!! Got that puppy home and knew it was going to blow our minds. Mind you, we received the SMB/Duck Hunt/WCTM multi cart system + Bad Dudes (BEST GAME EVER simply for the voice over at the end of each level) at the same time. How our parents got it that right is beyond me. We figured Alien Syndrome would fit in nicely with our other games we'd played to date. It was cool and all, but we'd typically only play one, MAYBE two levels, then quit because it was too redundant/boring or too hard.
I ended up buying it years later to reminisce over the fond memories I had as a kid with this game, only to then play a few levels and turn the system off. Alien Syndrome was neat but never lived up to the self-hype I had somehow created for it. Call it renter's remorse possibly!
lol that sounds about right... but when you rented it and you were on your way home, the anticipation was awesome :D
The redaction kicks ass. I managed to snag a real copy on a cart. Best thing ever. U wanna borrow it for a playthrough let me know....hope twins r well
I feel your pain. Gaming was a brave new market, and adults were clueless. Just like today, great 1st party titles were expensive, while shovelware was cheap, in every sense of the word.
The funniest example i can offer is when we had moved on from NES to SNES, but my aunt didnt get the memo. She got us TMNT NES while we were groovin’ on DKC titles! No longer owning the previous console, my brothers and i just laughed.
14:15
Y así Bayou Billy nos demostró que lo más importante es el amor... el amor heterosexual.
For the first few months of the pandemic, Dr Mario was my wife and I's go to game. But you are absolutely correct, the game has nothing to do with Mario at all. Sega did the same thing with with Dr Robotniks Mean Green Machine
I remember playing Simon's Quest for hours without ever knowing what to do. Same as ET, lol.. Back then u just played what u have
Thanks for the advertisment! Totally subscribed
I'm 38 and have yet to land a jet in Top Gun. Tried a couple years ago as well.
I seem to be unique in that I never had a problem with Castlevania 2 growing up. I eventually could beat it in one sitting. Never found the graveyard duck though.
Rip grandma and grandpa my grandpa use to do the qtip with rubbing alcohol and the cartridge on top of the other to get the games to work for me.....and grandma would school me in super Mario bros.....man I miss those days
6:17 Yeah, no. I'mma hafta stop you right there. You cannot get away with shitting on Dr. Mario!
(Continues to watch video...)
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You rented games from a small store in a midwestern town and I rented from a store in Downtown Los Angeles but the similarities are the same. Mine had a donut shop,a pizza place and liquor store next door. Cheap snacks and game rentals dam I miss the 80s
Dr. Mario was originally called Virus and there are actually some Playchoice 10 boards with this original version before it was changed. I believe this is a Gunpei Yokoi game and I actually like it a lot, moreso than Tetris. But I could see why getting this instead of Zelda or something would be disappointing.
Interesting... I'll have to see if I can find that version. Thank you for sharing.
Volume two of NP covered Simons Quest. How did you miss that?
My subscription of Nintendo Power started at Issue 21 and there wasn't really a way to order back issues then.
Twig-chan was suckered into buying Deadly Towers at such store called KB Toys once. Box show pretty gameplay. Twig-chan insert thing into console, and Dante's 7th circle of hell appeared in Twig-chans house.
I had no idea about the Japanese version of Bayou Billy. I really wish they would’ve just kept it the same. The US version is more tolerable if you use game genie on it but it’s still feels unfulfilling to beat.
Byou bill was one of my favorites as a kid ....
The *exact* same thing happened to me. I wanted Adventures of Link SO bad... my dad got me Yoshi's Cookie. Bless him... he tried lol
you're back! awesome vid!
Wow, a NES game with a satisfying ending. Those came few and far between.
I remember for Christmas our parents got me and my brother wcw mayhem for n64 and we were upset because we thought they messed up cause we only had a playstation... Then they told us well keep opening and then we look at each other and started tearing open everything
Top Gun is an incredible game. I've almost beaten it once. The soundtrack to the game sounded beyond the nes.
You know I wish they actually remade of deadly towers it'd be awesome if we had a badass video to the box art of that game
I remember renting NES games back in the day and just like you, I'd rent it based off box art lol. I'd think to myself "I KNOW this game HAS to get better at some point!! The box art is too cool!!" But the game would never get any better lol. The oddest game I remember frequently renting (and I'll never know why) was "Ice Hockey" and I didn't even have the first clue about anything hockey lol. I think I just liked the physics of it or something and the skating around and hitting the puck, but if the Mega Man, Ninja Gaiden, or any of the cool games like those were rented out, there was always a 99.9% chance Ice Hockey would be on the shelf lol.
i feel so bad for parents and grandparents who tried so hard but just missed the mark... my parents still do it to their grandchildren... but they were very good with me as a kid.
Man NES games would really hook you with the cover art work the best games had ordinary art work lol
Astounded that Dr Mario is on here. Your story helped me make sense of it, but it's one of my favorite puzzle games ever so I can't comprehend NOT loving this cart.
It's not a terrible game at all - but if you could only pick one game that you were gonna be stuck with for six months until the next big Gettin' a New Game Little Kid Holiday ... is this the one you'd want? And my family never would have bought that game for me if Mario wasn't slapped on the cover. And so, I became a little more bitter and jaded toward big corporations and their shady marketing tactics that day lol...
I freaking love Bayou Billy! Probably because I was disappointed by Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Bill and Ted's Excellent Video Game Adventure, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Rocket Ranger prior to it in my small convenience store in my small town of 300😑
time for a story :
i got my nes like everyone else, a gift, with the mario and duck hunt, that was all swell, but time went by and we had no stores in my country that sold nes games, so i relied on my uncles from good old texas to send me game, and after maybe a year or so, they finally sent me 2 games...i was so excited, i was dreaming of zelda, smb2 and ninja gaiden and tmnt...
but...
i got 2 games, operation wolf and to the earth, both zapper games and u have no idea how dissapointed i was with those 2 games, i was dreaming of conquering hyrule , defeating ninjas and doing quests, but all i got was things to shoot with my zapper.
those 2 were the worst games i ever played....
thankfully, after a long time, my uncles sent me 5 new games....
smb2 and 3 , dr mario, wrath of the black mantha and snake's revenge...now those were awesome games.
I couldn't get far in Bayou, but you could preview the other stages in something like a Practice Mode feature. The surfing part of T&C Surf Design was hard. Star Voyager is hard, but has a really cool intro. Goonies II was confusing. TMNT was pretty hard.
I absolutely hated the surf levels in T&C, but the music and sound effects were really cool. That was one I'd randomly rent too and probably should have been included in this video lol.
I miss grandma and grandpa too man.
Castlevania Simons Quest was one of my favorite games
We had the Nutmeg Pantry here...same thing...different state