Let's Rank Milton Bradley games (Time Lord, baby!) th-cam.com/video/b0IM9XGuacs/w-d-xo.html Let's Rank OCEAN NES games th-cam.com/video/8fwUymaZTSI/w-d-xo.html
Double Dragon 2 is an easy S. Good moveset, good graphics, a badass soundtrack, more levels, faster gameplay than the arcade version, and I always found the controls very easy to use. I also liked the added platforming as I am not a fan of beat em ups that are nothing but WALK>FIGHT>WALK>FIGHT>WALK>FIGHT.
The platform jumping at the end is impossible without game genie. But it doesn't matter DD2 is still one of the best games for the NES. It help set the standard fir beat em ups.
@@jaybee9679 As a kid I remember being stuck at the haunted mansion for a while. Now I can do that part in my sleep. I never found the trap zone platforming very difficult (and I'm no platforming ace).
Honestly, these NES rankings by publisher have re-invigorated my thirst for retro gaming videos on YT. I was actually concerned with channels that cover retro games (or mostly retro) as there is major retro gaming saturation (along with burnout on my end) with reviews, playthrough's, etc. Something as simple as these ranking videos are oddly a breath of fresh air, and I very much look forward to them.
Thanks! I want to think so. Gotta show the good with the bad. Everyone can do Mega Man but gotta show my homies Wizards and Warriors and more some love.
Hi, new to the channel but I've been liking what I see. The nostalgic vibes you conjure are amazing. I'm surprised I haven't seen anybody post about The Power Team. The cartoon from the 90s that came on during the show video Power. It featured characters from games that were licensed by Acclaim. Almost all of which I think we're mentioned in this video. Side note. Did nobody think that maybe they could have listed Honky Tonk Man's name differently in the WWF game?? Just having his name as Honky is kind of hilarious.
These videos are consistently excellent. This channel has become my favorite for retro games, hands down. Over all the other MJR crew folks as well. Keep up the great work!! Retro is where it's at!
@@matthewlane518 at least they had their own Captain N rip off show: THE POWER TEAM! Starting: Bigfoot, guy from Arch Rivals, NARC guy, and Wizards&Warriors guy
You haven't done Taito yet have you, John? I would LOVE to see that one done next! Or if you feel like taking on something light (after dealing with Acclaim's beefy library) a Vic Tokai video would be fun.
Thanks for yet another fun-filled video, John! I thoroughly enjoyed it as always and the only games we seem to disagree on are the "3's" of the group. I personally love both Double Dragon III and Wizards and Warriors III and I think the reason why so many don't like them (you actually like DD3 more than most...thanks for at least giving it a C!) is that both games have a learning curve and in the case of WW3, the game feels and plays a lot different. With DD3, it's actually quite fun with two players and there are several "hidden" moves like where you jump and grab a foe by the hair and throw them that are really fun to execute. Double-tapping and running and doing a jump kick actually causes slightly more damage I believe and Chin is a BEAST at simply punching enemies and wiping them out quickly. I learned a lot of little nuances playing that game so much as a kid. :) Also, I loved the whole "stealth" element of WW3 and how you wanted to be a knight/thief/wizard at certain times and how you were essentially trying to sneak into the castle to face an old foe. The underground/underworld area was pretty sweet too (I still remember the battle against the dragon very late in the game.) In any case, I would hang in there with those two games, John. They are hidden gems but it takes some real time playing both games to really see them in that light. I agree with you on everything else though. Double Dragon 2 is fantastic and Smash TV is solid as well. I felt the SAME way playing Cybernoid btw. Just a strange game (feels like a Commodore 64 title for some reason). Keep up the great work man! Your videos rock!
I think Smash TV is one of the coolest experiences on the NES when you use the four-player adapter. Two-player simultaneous with twin stick shooters (two nes controllers held vertically with D-pads at top). It makes the game so much better and bumps it up to S tier for me.
I’ve enjoyed every one of these so far thank you so much. It does really highlight how important development studio was. Akklaim always had a reputation for at best mediocrity as a kid, but I had no idea they were doing things like publishing the content of Rare and Technos.
Wizards and warriors was a s in my book. At the time I did not need a game genie I did not have to read a Nintendo power magazine for tips. I could set down and have fun and feel like I got something done while enjoying playing the game. Some times I really don’t understand how you rate these games but in my book it was a solid S.
My older sister had Wizards and Warriors and lent it to me a couple times. I could never make sense of what I was supposed to be doing. I also didn't get why a knight in full armor with a lance would be jumping across treetops.
100% agreed. It had inventive items and was fun to explore. You never knew what you'd be doing in a given level until you get there, and the whole game had a very late 80s arcade feel to it, especially the boss fights. Definite S-tier classic for me.
That WWF WrestleMania game is the main reason I was waiting for an Acclaim list on this channel. I think the music should bump it to a D, but everything else about it was mediocre. I think Andre and Ted DiBiase were the only ones to not get their actual theme songs translated into the game, but that could also be because at the time not EVERY wrestler had his own theme music and they slapped something into theme for the game. But dangit if that 8-bit version of "Real American" didn't get me pumped every time I played this game.
Andre never had theme music, and DiBiase didn't get his until later. Calling it mediocre is too kind, only a few of the 6 wrestlers had that ridiculous looking body slam, which was really hard to execute, as was a simple pin. It's unforgivable compared to Pro Wrestling from a year earlier.
I love these videos of yours!! I grew up with the SNES and although I've always loved older games, I ended up only playing the classics from the NES era -- Mario, Zelda, Mega Man, etc. Of course the extensive retro content on the internet is a great way to expand that, but even then it's usually more about "hidden gems", or maybe the very worst games for some laughs. (Which is great!) But going through each publisher like this is a very fun and bite-sized way of going much more in-depth into the NES library, and I'm really glad you've been making these. The newer ones on the SNES are great as well.
Destination Earthstar is a game I got early on the NES. If you think Bigfoot needs a manual then Destination Earthstar needs it even more so. It's a mix of spaceflight sim and shooter (once you destroy all the enemies in a sector the base will appear and then you enter the shooter mode).
I agree Double Dragon II: The Revenge is the best of the trilogy, in fact, is one of my top 3 NES games of all time, also, I love the Wizards & Warriors series, we will never know what happened to Kuros in the ending of the third installment since there was no 4th game, I wish there was a kickstarter with the original team who made the game to make a 4th game and complete Kuros destiny.
Double Dragon II & Super Double Dragon for the SNES are two of my all-time favorite beat em’ Ups outside of Streets of Rage 2, Final Fight, and those Konami Arcade four-player games.
You nailed the Simpsons rankings perfectly. While playable and a little fun, the terrible controls make them beyond frustrating. And I loved Swords and Serpents when I was a kid, I remember feeling like I was in the dungeon. Great game for its time.
I used to spend hours playing destination earthstar, its a game i still like. You have to defeat the enemy ships to unlock the hidden base planet and theres other planets to explore to get fuel and weapons upgrades.
George Foreman's KO boxing gets better if you figure it out and stick with it. It has some similarities to Punch Out as you figure out the patterns of the enemies.
That's a great point! It makes me kind of sad to think about John eventually getting to the end of this super fun video lineup. An SNES one would be really fun.
I had 3D World Runner and kind of loved it? There is more variety as it progresses. The 3D was neat every once in a while. I remember finding every NES Simpsons game to be agony. I had Bartman and those bouncing tires were so obnoxious.
The Wizards and Warriors games have a lot going for them, outside of the terrible combat that is. If only it had an actual attack that didn't involve just running into enemies with your sword. That said, I would have liked to see this one brought back in some fashion.
Agreed, these games have a bit of something special about them in spite of the wonky swordplay. The jump is a far more useful method of attack than the stab, which isn't intuitive at all given you're a heavily armoured knight. If only a part 4 had materialized during the 16-bit generation! Would absolutely love to see another action/exploration platformer done in the W&W style.
I liked this game as a kid, and I tried getting back into it recently but I can’t. I don’t remember the swordplay being so broken. I get killed by everything it seems impossible. Any tips or tricks for using the sword?
Hard foul on Double Dragon III. I get that you didn't connect with it, but damn as a kid that game was everything. Best in the series for me. So cool to get the Kung fu and Ninja guy to mix up the gameplay.
10:45 1985 Super Mario Bros had the run and action (fireball) functions mapped to the same button which is the template they should of implemented instead for of jump and run mapped to the same button. Also preferable to equipping an item each time you want to run as you're suggesting.
@@Wheels8504 My brother and I beat Double Dragon 2 so many times, we didn't need to cheat. It was just fun playing through the levels and laughing at some of the goofy stuff in the game.
@@XENOS_Indie_Game_Dev I was 4 or 5 years old when my parents bought my siblings and I the NES. So I had to use Game Genie since I was so young. I still use it today just for the fun of it and great memories.
We used to call the super knee in Double Dragon II the ULTRA KNEE. It's also the most devastating maneuver in all of sports entertainment when performed by Daniel Bryan.
Aklaim masters of the game! Lol ah the memories. I love the Airwolf game. I played that so much. It got hard after level 9. The back of the box said 20 missions. When I finally reached and beat level 20, it kept going. I made it to level 22. I think it just keeps going. It was difficult, it should be a B, but that's me. I was never much of a fan of wizards and warriors because the controls didn't do it justice. My cousins had it but never let me play it. I rented it and couldn't get into it. I bought a copy some years ago and I still can't get past the controls. That's just me. Nice video, I hadn't played most of those. Time I catch up on my retro gaming.
Im new to your channel and I gotta say, I love all of the Wizards & Warriors games. They all felt very individual, but the music was insanely cool (thanks Dave Wise), but as a kid, I just loved Kuros. My fave one is 3, because you get to turn into Thief, Wizard and Knight and then kind of level up. Super hard to finish though
Wrestlemania Challenge was light years ahead of Wrestlemania. I had WC as a kid and I must have spent endless hours playing it! Even after beating every mode, with every wrestler. Absolutely adored Wrestlemania Challenge!
I like this series of videos. They bring to light certain games I haven't thought about in a long time. I didn't even know there was a Wizards & Warriors III. I'd have given Wrestlemania a D purely out of nostalgia.
Another great vid for the series. I agree with you like 90% of the time but I would have given Wizards and Warriors 3 an A because I feel it's underrated and a great metroidvania style game. Thanks for these vids John!
Arch Rivals was originally made in the arcades by Midway, which Acclaim was actually a division of, believe it or not. Moreover, Arch Rivals made the NBA Jam, NFL Blitz/Blitz: the League, MLB Slugfest, and NHL Hitz franchises exist, as well as, ironically enough, hits for the company that would later buy the NBA Jam license in EA with their games of Mutant League Football and Mutant League Hockey, and it even influenced the early Madden titles as well.
I'm glad you at least gave Arch Rivals a B. Arch Rivals was one of my favorite games on the system. I admit i loved the sports games as a kid. I had a bunch of them and whenever i got a new game, it was generally a sports game, but Arch Rivals was my favorite. I played that all the time.
I've mentioned Culture Brain already. I think it's not mentioned much at all and a very short library but I'd love to see it done. Thanks for your content I really enjoy it!
Rambo is semi Metroidvania imo, because it does have that open exploration, but you don't really get items to progress, you can technically progress without getting them if you're good enough. That's a game that I had a love-hate relationship with. Lately I do enjoy it, though it's not as polished as similar games like Zelda 2 or Faxanadu, it's still very solid. Props to Acclaim for copying Zelda 2 and getting it out here fast enough to beat Zelda 2 here. 😂
Hurts my heart to see Tiger-Heli a 'D'. I loved this game and played it soooo much with my friends. I have never played the arcade version though, so not comparing it to that, just how much fun it was.
I worked for Sculptured Software when it was bought by Acclaim Entertainment. We did some good SNES stuff. I think that the reason Acclaim went out of business is that they tried to buy too many companies.
Nice video. Cyubernoid is really a puzzle game - I think people think they should shoot tehir way through (as seen in your video) but it really takes a methodical approach. It is a little loose in the controls so that can make it difficuly, but if you go into it with the puzzle game mindset you can make it further.
I'm not sure if my request for Acclaim led to this video...but thanks for making it! I really wanted to see this :) How about doing American Sammy or Vic Tokai next?
AFAIK Cybernoid was originally designed for the microcomputers that were popular in Europe at the time (Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, etc). Even its NES incarnation has definitely got a very Euro-microcomputer feel to it which is probably why it comes across as an early NES homebrew.
I'm trying to remember now, wasn't there a Captain N knockoff cartoon once, that was sponsored by Acclaim, so all the characters in it were from their games? I swear I remember it having Kuros fighting crime with Kwirk the tomato.
Akklaim had a little bit of everything for a little bit of everyone. They had movie licensing. They had TV show licensing, they had shooters, they had platformers, they had arcade ports, they had a lot of a lot with Akklaim.
Anybody remember that show Video Power that came on in the early 90's. It had this cartoon called the Power Team that featured Acclaim characters as the "Power Team". It was absolutely horrific, lol.
Giving Tiger heli a "D", hurt my feelings. I never played the arcade, but as a nes game it's fun and enjoyable. Nothing ground breaking but a solid game
Yeah it's a fun game and has a great "Iron Maidenish" tune too. By the way, my second video I made on TH-cam was a Tiger Heli points trick video way back in 2008! :D
i love STAR VOYAGER and finished it. in order to get to your destination, you have to go on your map, calculate how many times your marker on the map will get to your destination, set that marker there, and when you speed up your ship, you have have your warp build up to that many times of your marker. for example, if you want to get to the planet or enemy, and it takes five moves to get to that destination, you have to wait till the upper right side of the screen builds up to that many times. be carful, the diamond shape of the dots is the black hole and the square shape of the dots are the astroid belts. also, the x's are the enemy,u have to go to each planet to find your upgrade for your lasers and for your shield barrier. also, somewhere in space is an object, if you shoot it close enough, you'll get a bomb too. it takes at least 3 speed machs to land on the planet or port at a space station. be careful though because the enemies are heading toward your main blue base, and once that's destroyed, you lose
Is there a way I can make NES cart work on a Family Computer, some of these I want to play. What do you call that converter thing that let's you insert a bigger cart on a Family Computer? I've seen a Famicom cart to a NES but not the other way around.
I was figuring it would get a C. It's a hard game because of how bart controls.... but not a horrible game. Bart vs the world I though was better, thinking it deserved at least a C if not a B.
@@stephens9772 I had both bart vs the space mutants and bart vs the the world. Played vs the world a lot more. I barely ever got past the second level of space mutants. But at that point in time, Simpsons episodes were great.. so the games were just a natural must have. I dont remember how I got em, but played vs the world quite a bit!
Let's Rank Milton Bradley games (Time Lord, baby!) th-cam.com/video/b0IM9XGuacs/w-d-xo.html
Let's Rank OCEAN NES games th-cam.com/video/8fwUymaZTSI/w-d-xo.html
Your lucky your not local..I would make you my buddy😁
JohnRiggs code master games please :) . Huge fan
@JohnRiggs Your *LET'S RANK PLAYLIST* has unrelated videos from other channels.
IMO JohnRiggs has reinvented the retro review genre. I can’t stop watching his videos. Love his honest review style.
Wiz and warrior was great, tiger heli should have been ranked higher.
Double Dragon 2 is an easy S. Good moveset, good graphics, a badass soundtrack, more levels, faster gameplay than the arcade version, and I always found the controls very easy to use. I also liked the added platforming as I am not a fan of beat em ups that are nothing but WALK>FIGHT>WALK>FIGHT>WALK>FIGHT.
The platform jumping at the end is impossible without game genie. But it doesn't matter DD2 is still one of the best games for the NES. It help set the standard fir beat em ups.
@@jaybee9679 As a kid I remember being stuck at the haunted mansion for a while. Now I can do that part in my sleep. I never found the trap zone platforming very difficult (and I'm no platforming ace).
@@jaybee9679it is far from impossible, just need some moderate level of skill
@tbewin1z143 whatever you say man.
@@jaybee9679 I literally beat it tons of times as a kid. You are most likely one of these younger gamers used to save states and easy difficulty.
I'll never get tired of watching these ranking videos.
Love that scene in total recall when he has to fight past that wall of gloryholes.
😄😁😆😅🤣😂
Honestly, these NES rankings by publisher have re-invigorated my thirst for retro gaming videos on YT. I was actually concerned with channels that cover retro games (or mostly retro) as there is major retro gaming saturation (along with burnout on my end) with reviews, playthrough's, etc. Something as simple as these ranking videos are oddly a breath of fresh air, and I very much look forward to them.
Thanks! I want to think so. Gotta show the good with the bad. Everyone can do Mega Man but gotta show my homies Wizards and Warriors and more some love.
It's actually got me interested in picking up some of the bad games, just to see what they're all about. Lol
John, you think you'll ever do a ranking series like this on SNES games? That would be amazing!
Eventually, for sure. Sooner than later.
@@JohnRiggs WTF? So... Total Recall has a gloryhole! LOL
Wizards and Warriors is an A for me. Some of my favorite NES music. Great list again.
At least an A. I don't really see a reason it's not S tier. It's up there with games like Zelda and punch out.
Hi, new to the channel but I've been liking what I see. The nostalgic vibes you conjure are amazing. I'm surprised I haven't seen anybody post about The Power Team. The cartoon from the 90s that came on during the show video Power. It featured characters from games that were licensed by Acclaim. Almost all of which I think we're mentioned in this video.
Side note. Did nobody think that maybe they could have listed Honky Tonk Man's name differently in the WWF game?? Just having his name as Honky is kind of hilarious.
These videos are consistently excellent. This channel has become my favorite for retro games, hands down. Over all the other MJR crew folks as well. Keep up the great work!! Retro is where it's at!
I always thought "Ack! Lame!" When it came to Acclaim. Especially towards the end
Lol that is funny, and about right😆 but there were some good games, but yeah toward the end that would be correct
@@matthewlane518 at least they had their own Captain N rip off show: THE POWER TEAM! Starting: Bigfoot, guy from Arch Rivals, NARC guy, and Wizards&Warriors guy
@@MCastleberry1980 lol
You haven't done Taito yet have you, John? I would LOVE to see that one done next! Or if you feel like taking on something light (after dealing with Acclaim's beefy library) a Vic Tokai video would be fun.
I haven't done either, yet. I did just finish recording footage for the Vic Tokai video so that will be soon.
Airwolf music is pretty rad, it was close to the TV show music
The famicom version is very different and based on the arcade
These ranking videos are amazing Mr. Riggs.
I remember renting Simpson games from the grocery store. And being so mad at them for being hard. Even krusty I didn't know what to do.
Love these uploads! I remember staying at a hotel as a kid, the Game Room had Xenophobia and Arch Rivals
Thanks for yet another fun-filled video, John! I thoroughly enjoyed it as always and the only games we seem to disagree on are the "3's" of the group. I personally love both Double Dragon III and Wizards and Warriors III and I think the reason why so many don't like them (you actually like DD3 more than most...thanks for at least giving it a C!) is that both games have a learning curve and in the case of WW3, the game feels and plays a lot different. With DD3, it's actually quite fun with two players and there are several "hidden" moves like where you jump and grab a foe by the hair and throw them that are really fun to execute. Double-tapping and running and doing a jump kick actually causes slightly more damage I believe and Chin is a BEAST at simply punching enemies and wiping them out quickly. I learned a lot of little nuances playing that game so much as a kid. :) Also, I loved the whole "stealth" element of WW3 and how you wanted to be a knight/thief/wizard at certain times and how you were essentially trying to sneak into the castle to face an old foe. The underground/underworld area was pretty sweet too (I still remember the battle against the dragon very late in the game.) In any case, I would hang in there with those two games, John. They are hidden gems but it takes some real time playing both games to really see them in that light. I agree with you on everything else though. Double Dragon 2 is fantastic and Smash TV is solid as well. I felt the SAME way playing Cybernoid btw. Just a strange game (feels like a Commodore 64 title for some reason). Keep up the great work man! Your videos rock!
I think Smash TV is one of the coolest experiences on the NES when you use the four-player adapter. Two-player simultaneous with twin stick shooters (two nes controllers held vertically with D-pads at top). It makes the game so much better and bumps it up to S tier for me.
4:27 That's definitely a Lambda class Imperial shuttle.
I’ve enjoyed every one of these so far thank you so much.
It does really highlight how important development studio was. Akklaim always had a reputation for at best mediocrity as a kid, but I had no idea they were doing things like publishing the content of Rare and Technos.
Wizards and warriors was a s in my book. At the time I did not need a game genie I did not have to read a Nintendo power magazine for tips. I could set down and have fun and feel like I got something done while enjoying playing the game. Some times I really don’t understand how you rate these games but in my book it was a solid S.
How many game overs did you get? Be honest.
My older sister had Wizards and Warriors and lent it to me a couple times. I could never make sense of what I was supposed to be doing. I also didn't get why a knight in full armor with a lance would be jumping across treetops.
100% agreed. It had inventive items and was fun to explore. You never knew what you'd be doing in a given level until you get there, and the whole game had a very late 80s arcade feel to it, especially the boss fights. Definite S-tier classic for me.
W&W is top-tier for me too, it was the closest i got to finishing an NES game as a kid. really good music too.
Yeah. it is an early NES, classic RARE (developed) game that doesn't belong among the other Acclaim games. S here too.
That WWF WrestleMania game is the main reason I was waiting for an Acclaim list on this channel. I think the music should bump it to a D, but everything else about it was mediocre. I think Andre and Ted DiBiase were the only ones to not get their actual theme songs translated into the game, but that could also be because at the time not EVERY wrestler had his own theme music and they slapped something into theme for the game. But dangit if that 8-bit version of "Real American" didn't get me pumped every time I played this game.
Andre never had theme music, and DiBiase didn't get his until later. Calling it mediocre is too kind, only a few of the 6 wrestlers had that ridiculous looking body slam, which was really hard to execute, as was a simple pin. It's unforgivable compared to Pro Wrestling from a year earlier.
One of the wrestlers (DiBiase I think? Maybe Bigelow) had the Strike Force theme song which was always off-putting to me.
15:20 I like the sound of landing in the snow lol. I remember that sound. "....tfft"
Thou Hast Discovered Gems! Man, i love me some Wizards & Warriors.
I love these videos of yours!! I grew up with the SNES and although I've always loved older games, I ended up only playing the classics from the NES era -- Mario, Zelda, Mega Man, etc. Of course the extensive retro content on the internet is a great way to expand that, but even then it's usually more about "hidden gems", or maybe the very worst games for some laughs. (Which is great!) But going through each publisher like this is a very fun and bite-sized way of going much more in-depth into the NES library, and I'm really glad you've been making these. The newer ones on the SNES are great as well.
Destination Earthstar is a game I got early on the NES. If you think Bigfoot needs a manual then Destination Earthstar needs it even more so. It's a mix of spaceflight sim and shooter (once you destroy all the enemies in a sector the base will appear and then you enter the shooter mode).
You're becoming one of my favorite channels bro. Good stuff
I agree Double Dragon II: The Revenge is the best of the trilogy, in fact, is one of my top 3 NES games of all time, also, I love the Wizards & Warriors series, we will never know what happened to Kuros in the ending of the third installment since there was no 4th game, I wish there was a kickstarter with the original team who made the game to make a 4th game and complete Kuros destiny.
Double Dragon II & Super Double Dragon for the SNES are two of my all-time favorite beat em’ Ups outside of Streets of Rage 2, Final Fight, and those Konami Arcade four-player games.
You nailed the Simpsons rankings perfectly. While playable and a little fun, the terrible controls make them beyond frustrating. And I loved Swords and Serpents when I was a kid, I remember feeling like I was in the dungeon. Great game for its time.
i have been watching watching your videos for a few years now i love your positive attitude . its like im watching a friend...keep up the good work
I used to spend hours playing destination earthstar, its a game i still like. You have to defeat the enemy ships to unlock the hidden base planet and theres other planets to explore to get fuel and weapons upgrades.
George Foreman's KO boxing gets better if you figure it out and stick with it. It has some similarities to Punch Out as you figure out the patterns of the enemies.
My dad use to LOVE Tiger Heli. He would play for hours. That and Duck Hunt
Arch Rivals. Forgot about that one. Spent hours playing that one as a kid.
14:58 "Now I know what we're all thinking of..."
"..."
"Glory holes! Alright?!"
I think they're supposed to be fists. I love the fact that he said that the Total Recall game did not feature the lady.
Was looking in the comments for that.
i would consider rambo one of those "proto-metroidvanias" kinda like simon's quest and rygar
"Its worth looking at just to see"
We've all been there
“I love this game. It’s excellent....B” 🤣
Really like your videos... very down to earth and relatable dude. Thanks for the entertaining content!
Thanks buddy.
I love these episodes.. When your done with the nes, maybe it will become SNES time
I need to do SNES and Genesis sooner than later.
You always have my thumbs up.👍🏽
That's a great point! It makes me kind of sad to think about John eventually getting to the end of this super fun video lineup. An SNES one would be really fun.
Wizards and Warriors is BY FAR the best of the list. The music is so good. I especially love the little ditty when you're close to death.
I love these rating videos. Thanks Mr. Riggs. Looking forward to your top 10 all time NES games. 😉😉 Keep these coming too, bro.
I really should do one sometime.
@@JohnRiggsabsolutely! I know you and I have a very high opinion of Blaster Master so I'd like to see where that one would rank. ;)
Princess Tomato is #1 I bet. Contra? Not even on the list. Cope.
I had 3D World Runner and kind of loved it? There is more variety as it progresses. The 3D was neat every once in a while.
I remember finding every NES Simpsons game to be agony. I had Bartman and those bouncing tires were so obnoxious.
I forgot all about Ferrari Grand Prix Challenge! Loved the little white reflections on the wheels as you sped up.
The Wizards and Warriors games have a lot going for them, outside of the terrible combat that is. If only it had an actual attack that didn't involve just running into enemies with your sword. That said, I would have liked to see this one brought back in some fashion.
HELL YEAH! AN Ironsword re-make.
Agreed, these games have a bit of something special about them in spite of the wonky swordplay. The jump is a far more useful method of attack than the stab, which isn't intuitive at all given you're a heavily armoured knight. If only a part 4 had materialized during the 16-bit generation! Would absolutely love to see another action/exploration platformer done in the W&W style.
RARE
I liked this game as a kid, and I tried getting back into it recently but I can’t. I don’t remember the swordplay being so broken. I get killed by everything it seems impossible. Any tips or tricks for using the sword?
Yeah, I jump into enemies more than use my sword - until I get the throwing items.
Hard foul on Double Dragon III. I get that you didn't connect with it, but damn as a kid that game was everything. Best in the series for me. So cool to get the Kung fu and Ninja guy to mix up the gameplay.
Wow, I gotta check out Swords & Serpents someday. That game is right up my alley. Still finding out about new games all these years later, lol.
I forgot to mention, but it's also four-player if you have the 4-player tap.
Love this series of videos
10:45 1985 Super Mario Bros had the run and action (fireball) functions mapped to the same button which is the template they should of implemented instead for of jump and run mapped to the same button. Also preferable to equipping an item each time you want to run as you're suggesting.
I hate it when people don't realize you DO have a gun to shoot things in World Runner 3D.
Cybernoid is an 8-bit microcomputer game, ported to the NES. It plays like the tunnel shmups of the time.
I think Double Dragon II is the best game ever published by Acclaim.
I played that game to death back in the day. Mashing the A+B buttons really hurt your thumbs, lol.
@@XENOS_Indie_Game_Dev It's one of my most played games and always used Game Genie no matter what game I played that wasn't sports.
@@Wheels8504 My brother and I beat Double Dragon 2 so many times, we didn't need to cheat. It was just fun playing through the levels and laughing at some of the goofy stuff in the game.
@@XENOS_Indie_Game_Dev I was 4 or 5 years old when my parents bought my siblings and I the NES. So I had to use Game Genie since I was so young. I still use it today just for the fun of it and great memories.
We used to call the super knee in Double Dragon II the ULTRA KNEE. It's also the most devastating maneuver in all of sports entertainment when performed by Daniel Bryan.
Need to do games by “Rare” John. Snake rattle n roll
He's going by publisher, not developer. Nintendo published that.
He could do a "compilation" episode like that where he splices in clips from other episodes like that, that's some easy viewage.
Double Dragon 2 is actually my favorite NES game of all time😅
Awesome series of videos.
@2:05 just noticed the ad poster for BK's ! Did anyone else have a pair of these growing up ?
Aklaim masters of the game! Lol ah the memories.
I love the Airwolf game. I played that so much. It got hard after level 9. The back of the box said 20 missions. When I finally reached and beat level 20, it kept going. I made it to level 22. I think it just keeps going. It was difficult, it should be a B, but that's me.
I was never much of a fan of wizards and warriors because the controls didn't do it justice. My cousins had it but never let me play it. I rented it and couldn't get into it.
I bought a copy some years ago and I still can't get past the controls. That's just me.
Nice video, I hadn't played most of those. Time I catch up on my retro gaming.
Bigfoot was so popular, the truck had its own cartoon. "Bigfoot and the Muscle Machines"
Cybernoid was made for the ZX Spectrum but had a later port for the C64 which has killer music. The second game was more of the same.
Nice to see Double Dragon 2 ranked as A. Definitely a fantastic sequel! I’ve never heard of the Bartman and Radioactive Man. Thanks Riggs!
I'm confused why TROG never made it in the video? Didn't Acclaim release it in 1991? Or is it more of a Midway release?
Im new to your channel and I gotta say, I love all of the Wizards & Warriors games. They all felt very individual, but the music was insanely cool (thanks Dave Wise), but as a kid, I just loved Kuros. My fave one is 3, because you get to turn into Thief, Wizard and Knight and then kind of level up. Super hard to finish though
I had so much fun playing Arch Rivals with my cousins growing up. I'm not big on sports games, but the punching is fun.
Wrestlemania Challenge was light years ahead of Wrestlemania. I had WC as a kid and I must have spent endless hours playing it! Even after beating every mode, with every wrestler. Absolutely adored Wrestlemania Challenge!
I like this series of videos. They bring to light certain games I haven't thought about in a long time. I didn't even know there was a Wizards & Warriors III. I'd have given Wrestlemania a D purely out of nostalgia.
Another great vid for the series. I agree with you like 90% of the time but I would have given Wizards and Warriors 3 an A because I feel it's underrated and a great metroidvania style game. Thanks for these vids John!
Arch Rivals was originally made in the arcades by Midway, which Acclaim was actually a division of, believe it or not. Moreover, Arch Rivals made the NBA Jam, NFL Blitz/Blitz: the League, MLB Slugfest, and NHL Hitz franchises exist, as well as, ironically enough, hits for the company that would later buy the NBA Jam license in EA with their games of Mutant League Football and Mutant League Hockey, and it even influenced the early Madden titles as well.
It looks like Knight Rider plays sort of like Road Blasters. You do realize that the title screen to Tiger-Heli says it’s by Taito.
I'm glad you at least gave Arch Rivals a B. Arch Rivals was one of my favorite games on the system. I admit i loved the sports games as a kid. I had a bunch of them and whenever i got a new game, it was generally a sports game, but Arch Rivals was my favorite. I played that all the time.
Remember playing the narc arcade machine back in the day at Wal-Mart, goodtimes, keep these vids coming riggs
I've mentioned Culture Brain already. I think it's not mentioned much at all and a very short library but I'd love to see it done. Thanks for your content I really enjoy it!
Rambo is semi Metroidvania imo, because it does have that open exploration, but you don't really get items to progress, you can technically progress without getting them if you're good enough. That's a game that I had a love-hate relationship with. Lately I do enjoy it, though it's not as polished as similar games like Zelda 2 or Faxanadu, it's still very solid. Props to Acclaim for copying Zelda 2 and getting it out here fast enough to beat Zelda 2 here. 😂
What a Riggs-orously researched ranking
Hurts my heart to see Tiger-Heli a 'D'. I loved this game and played it soooo much with my friends. I have never played the arcade version though, so not comparing it to that, just how much fun it was.
I worked for Sculptured Software when it was bought by Acclaim Entertainment. We did some good SNES stuff. I think that the reason Acclaim went out of business is that they tried to buy too many companies.
Bart’s Nightmare for SNES was a great game
@@TrainmasterCurt I agree.
Thank you, J.R.
Those were the days ❤
I would've given WWF WrestleMania a G. That game is nightmare fuel.
The music was the only decent thing.
One of my fondest NES memories is playing Swords and Serpents with a group of four eating and drinking one Halloween night with Rock music playing
Have you done the Nintendo black box games yet?
Yes he has ranked those
Cybernoid is probably rough cause it's a port of an old ZX Spectrum computer game.
Wizards and Warriors the original, at least, belongs in A tier if not S. Soooo GOOD! Thanks John, love the content.
Nice video. Cyubernoid is really a puzzle game - I think people think they should shoot tehir way through (as seen in your video) but it really takes a methodical approach. It is a little loose in the controls so that can make it difficuly, but if you go into it with the puzzle game mindset you can make it further.
Unlimited Continues in Wizards & Warriors? Man I would´ve wished for that in the Game Boy Game!
I would have wished for that in Ironsword!
I'm not sure if my request for Acclaim led to this video...but thanks for making it! I really wanted to see this :)
How about doing American Sammy or Vic Tokai next?
I'm sure it helped. Vic Tokai IS next. Have more in the future. SNK, Taito and whatever else (and genesis and snes and more later, too)
AFAIK Cybernoid was originally designed for the microcomputers that were popular in Europe at the time (Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, etc). Even its NES incarnation has definitely got a very Euro-microcomputer feel to it which is probably why it comes across as an early NES homebrew.
I'm trying to remember now, wasn't there a Captain N knockoff cartoon once, that was sponsored by Acclaim, so all the characters in it were from their games? I swear I remember it having Kuros fighting crime with Kwirk the tomato.
Othello is awesome, my Mom loved this game to no end , we played it all the time, its nowhere near an F, come on man.
Man, I remember playing NARC as a kid on new years eve stating up until midnight. Man that was good fun!
3D world runner did have a weapon, but you had to run into the pillars in the beginning and pick up the rocket powerup icon to get an attack
I enjoyed Tiger Heli on the NES quite a bit. I even had a joystick shaped like a helicopter control.
Akklaim had a little bit of everything for a little bit of everyone. They had movie licensing. They had TV show licensing, they had shooters, they had platformers, they had arcade ports, they had a lot of a lot with Akklaim.
Double Dragon II: The Revenge is my favorite NES game (except level 7. **** level 7 with the gears, and the conveyor belts).
Anybody remember that show Video Power that came on in the early 90's. It had this cartoon called the Power Team that featured Acclaim characters as the "Power Team". It was absolutely horrific, lol.
Giving Tiger heli a "D", hurt my feelings. I never played the arcade, but as a nes game it's fun and enjoyable. Nothing ground breaking but a solid game
Yeah it's a fun game and has a great "Iron Maidenish" tune too. By the way, my second video I made on TH-cam was a Tiger Heli points trick video way back in 2008! :D
I love Tiger Heli too
Me too. Very fun with a turbo controller.
i love STAR VOYAGER and finished it. in order to get to your destination, you have to go on your map, calculate how many times your marker on the map will get to your destination, set that marker there, and when you speed up your ship, you have have your warp build up to that many times of your marker. for example, if you want to get to the planet or enemy, and it takes five moves to get to that destination, you have to wait till the upper right side of the screen builds up to that many times. be carful, the diamond shape of the dots is the black hole and the square shape of the dots are the astroid belts. also, the x's are the enemy,u have to go to each planet to find your upgrade for your lasers and for your shield barrier. also, somewhere in space is an object, if you shoot it close enough, you'll get a bomb too. it takes at least 3 speed machs to land on the planet or port at a space station. be careful though because the enemies are heading toward your main blue base, and once that's destroyed, you lose
I love this series, it’s so good. Did you ever consider doing the SNES library the same way? Would love to see that
I will.
@@JohnRiggs awesome!!!!!
Is there a way I can make NES cart work on a Family Computer, some of these I want to play. What do you call that converter thing that let's you insert a bigger cart on a Family Computer? I've seen a Famicom cart to a NES but not the other way around.
Another perfect grading from you john riggs..A+ for you
I had Destination Earthstar since new and only recently sold it. Only NES game I had zero regrets getting rid of.
Man, I loved the simpsons vs the aliens game, I was thinking nostalgic was making me say an A but that you would give it a B lol
I was figuring it would get a C. It's a hard game because of how bart controls.... but not a horrible game.
Bart vs the world I though was better, thinking it deserved at least a C if not a B.
@@brandonkick to be fair, I have not played it since I was a kid and rented it from blockbuster a couple times. I always wanted to but never got it.
@@stephens9772 I had both bart vs the space mutants and bart vs the the world. Played vs the world a lot more. I barely ever got past the second level of space mutants. But at that point in time, Simpsons episodes were great.. so the games were just a natural must have.
I dont remember how I got em, but played vs the world quite a bit!
for me that game is a solid A. I had that game. but it's not for everybody.