I honestly feel gremlins 2 the new batch should have been an honorable mention. The sprite detail and level design and in between level cutscenes all looked very good for an nes game.
@@Fortefyre it must have been hard to narrow down to 10. Sunsoft always made really good looking nes games. -Journey to silius -Batman -Batman: rotj -Blaster master -Gremlins 2 the new batch -Festers quest lol yes, i know the last one is a bad game, it still looked good though and was slightly innovative with the 1st person buiding explorations. Good job with the list.👍
Suggestion...play the NES music in original Mono. Doesnt sound good in Stereo, but other than that awesome video. And check out some repros if u want to get some of those games. I brought MetalStorm, and Little Samson that way and it was a good price.
I agree with #1. Though honestly, I think this vid's script could have stood some improvement. For some of the entries you spent more time talking about how a game pissed you off with its difficulty than about how good said game actually looked. This wasn't a video about difficulty - it was a video about aesthetics and for some of the entries you barely talked about the aesthetics at all.
I'll try to do better in the future:) to be fair, and this isn't an excuse, I wrote this when I was sick and doped up on excessive amounts of vitamin C lol.
Star Tropics and Faxanadu are two of my all-time favourite NES games that also look fantastic. Each was about as atmospheric to their worlds as one could get at the time. Ultima: Quest of the Avatar was up there as well.
@@Fortefyre the finale has some 16 bit quality graphics .... a great game. Oh and since no one has manuals anymore just let me help you: 747 ..... you'll know when you need it.
Batman levels are great, it is more like a steampunk theme, played this in 90s in a black and white tv what a great memories, still have this famicom, batman and smb3, still working to this day, glad u hev this on your list.
I thought Super C, Shatterhand, and Double Dragon 2 had great graphics for the system as well. As they learned the system more and was able to take more advantage of mappers and larger cartridge sizes, the games got more and more impressive.
That Batman Rerurn of the Joker I think was the closest you could get to looking like an SNES game... the only thing i never liked about that game is that Batman always used a weapon... if they would have added at least a jumping drop kick that would have made a huge difference. With batman you want to be able to punch. 😂
Mega Man 6 is cheaper simply because it's less rare. It's published by Nintendo instead of Capcom, they apparently produced more copies of their games than third party companies. Especially in 1993/1994.
@@Fortefyre Back in 1989 my family took a Griswald cross-country trip. Lots of memories. Listening to Metallica "Garage Days Re-revisited" in the back seat. Every hotel had a few arcade cabs in the fun room. But the memory that stands out was when we got to Vegas. The casinos wanted parents to gamble but didn't allow anyone under 21 on the casino floor. How they dealt with this is by having _ungodly awesome arcades._ My parents dropped me & my sister off at Circus Circus's arcade with $20 each. 300+ arcade machines! My local mall at one point had not just one but _two_ arcades & there were more around. Circus Circus's arcade put all of them to absolute shame. I never saw another arcade like that in my lifetime.
Damn, another great release! C’mon people, let’s get this channel to 4K. My only pushback here would be Ninja Gaiden III and MegaMan 6, as honestly, while they might be a tiny bit better than say, Ninja Gaiden or MegaMan, I don’t feel they look THAT much different. So I’d give the first Ninja Gaiden the honors, as that team was pushing the NES’ boundaries even earlier. Same with MegaMan. (Granted, MegaMan had more abilities in that one, so I guess we could give him credit there.) And no calling out Nemo for wearing his jammies. Of course he was, he’s Nemo. A little French(?) boy who goes to dream worlds in his sleep. His comic is nearly as groundbreaking.
Thank you! I mean to be fair, I rock the jammies everyday bumming it out to pick up my girls from the school bus, I guess I could cut him some slack :P
My cousin had a NES whilst i had a C64...so many great experiences...there were great games for both of them, but i was always a lil' bit jealous, as you got a closer ARCADE feeling from the NES games, just alone by having a two button pad...we played SM3 alot and we were able to beat it back then 😊 i have to check Vice: Project Doom...oh, Battletoads for NES was hard as f**k and the SNES version was a pain in the ass, too... 😉
I wonder how the C64 would have fared during that time if they had made multiple button controllers standard on the computer instead of just one. It really hampered the system as games either had to use a keyboard key for the second button or the second controller port's button; making two player not an option. It's also the Amiga's achilles heel. I know a lot of ports done to both the systems were usually better on the NES, but that was also because not as much effort was done on the C64 and usually developed by mediocre developers like Tiertex. The C64 was actually quite a capable system, and Mayhem in Monster Land is a good example of it.
@@chriswheatley3146 for sure 😉 it's absolutely impressive seeing games that are made nowadays for the 64, which raises the question: what were they doing back then?!? Some games would've been so much better, if one had a 2nd button for jump instead of pushing up. This led to unnecessary difficulty in so many games making alot of them barely playable, yet enjoyable. On the other hand, i've also seen some less impressive ports for the NES, but that counts for every single console or computer out there... 😋
My brother made most of the decisions as what games we would get for the NES. He was really into giant mecha combat, and still is. So we had Metal Storm when it came out. And I agree it was, and still is an awesome game. I'll also say I'm a sucker for great RPGs, so Final Fantasy would be on my list.
When it comes time for the SNES and Sega Genesis; Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island very much deserves a spot for the SNES. Star Fox 2; while it took many years for it to see official release, it's really impressive on a technical standpoint for the SNES. Super Metroid is the first Metroid game to truly feel alien thanks to the major improvement in graphics from Metroid 2 (also the music). Dragon Ball Z: Hyper Dimension almost looks like an early Sega Saturn game. On the Super Famicom side of things; Romancing SaGa 3 rivals Final Fantasy 6 in looks. Rock Man and Forte still looks darn good. Beyond Oasis looks spectacular for Sega Genesis standards. Aladdin on Sega Genesis is a triumph over the SNES port thanks to Disney actually animating the sprites. The Sega Genesis really pulled its weight with Panorama Cotton. Sonic 3 & Knuckles to this day looks really good. On the Mega Drive side of things; it's a surprise that Monster World 4 was even made for that system. If we can include the 32X; Knuckles' Chaotix looks so beautiful. As for Virtua Racing Deluxe; it looks notably better than the Genesis release.
This was an incredible list; honorable mentions included! I found a few I didn't know about but most of what I thought should be here were on it. How close was Gun-Nac to making the list? I always thought it was the most impressive shmup on the system, and looks like an early TG-16 game.
I've been a huge fan of Sunsoft as a kid and still am. They made crowning achievements on gameplay, graphics, music and fun factor. Somehow this is the first time even hearing about Mr. Gimmick. Gonna try it!
Funny to hear you mention Golgo 13 during the Vice segment and Blaster Master during the second Batman segment; I was expecting to see both of those on this list. My picks for this category would also include Bionic Commando, Rygar, Zelda II and Metal Gear.
Oh wait, it was a subsidiary of Irem that eventually merged with Irem. Either way, I love vids like this. So many amazing looking NES games. Have you tried the famicom version of Ninja Gaiden 3? It’s way more balanced.
Battletoads isn't almost impossible to beat with two players. It's FACTUALLY impossible. At least in the US version. When you get to the Hypno Orb level, the second unicycle thing is glitched and the second player just can't get on it. He will get annihilated by the Orb until he runs out of lives. There's no way to circumvent this aside from letting the first player beat the level alone and have the second player join back in the final level. This means Rare absolutely knew the game was hard as balls to play with two players, and didn't even bother playtesting it all the way through.
Good list. I own every game that you have on this except for Metal Storm (because I honestly think it is visually ugly) and Batman Revenge of the Joker (because I just haven't yet gotten around to buying it). I don't think that you left any games off of the list that I would put there, except for Blaster Master. And I would have put Batman at the top of the list. Your order is a bit off, to me, but the list is solid. Oh, except I would exchange Mega Man 5 for Mega Man 6, because I think 5 is the more visually strong game.
Crisis Force (1991) and Recca (1992) would have been the best looking bullet hell vertical shooters on the NES but they were only released on the Famicom and didn't get ported internationally.
Metal Storm should have been #1 on the list. How they did such gorgeous, detailed, and large sprites on the NES is beyond me. But, what's more amazing is the paralax scrolling. I've played and beaten a lot of NES games and I've never seen that level of paralax scrolling in any other NES game. Again, it's beyond me how they did that. And Mega Man 2 is better looking than Mega Man 6. I think Mega Man 2 is the best looking game in the series.
It was exceptionally hard to rack and stack these lol. I feel like if we included Famicom titles it would have been an even more interesting list, but for NES stuff I try to limit it to the applicable market.
For the NES the use of enhancement chips were the biggest factor in the later games looking so advance compared to the earliest ones. I find the best looking NES games are ones like Vice Project Doom, Little Samson and Batman that use embellish dark areas to give a great sense of depth.
One game that I always LOVED that I don't really hear mentioned is Gyruss. I think it's from Ultra. I always thought it looked good and was somewhat unique.
As a kid a friend traded me their copy of Metal Storm for my copy of Dragon Warrior. Current price of a loose copy of Metal Storm is around $113. Current price of a loose copy of Dragon Warrior is around $8. Seems like I made a good trade. I still have all my old retro games.
I would love to see a list like this for SNES as well. The late stage era games were wild. They looked so great compared to all those awful 1st gen 3D titles that overtook gaming for the following 5 years.
Contra 2 should be somewhere on the list and at least an honorable mention for DD2, Adventure Island 2, Bionic Commando, and blades of steel (to date the best hockey game ever on any system fight me).
Here's an apparently impossible challenge: talk about all-time classic amazing games without whining like an idiot about how hard the game is. Streaming "career" hahahahahahshshah. 👍
Would you rather say me say my 11 year career in the military that was cut short by a crippling freak injury that affected my ability to perform my job, where I got out and worked with autistic kids, and are currently studying to complete a 2nd Masters to help my local veteran community with mental health?
Might not have been the best looking game on NES but I remember being impressed with The Immortal. It was at least one of the most unique and felt like what I imagine playing D&D in a game would be.
I really agree with that list id only consider mighty final fight. Also return of joker and kirby are like inversed as kirby has incredible art style but technically pretty low key where return of joker has horrible art style but is technically at the top
I'm surprised you didn't show the pseudo-3D rotating towers in Kirby's Adventure. Those shocked me when I saw them as a kid, and they still look impressive given the hardware. Kirby is definitely my pick for the best looking NES game. Unsurprisingly, it was also the largest official NES game released, at a whopping 6 megabits!
I can't remember the name, but there is some obscure early 90's NES game that opens with a near FMV animated cutscene. Life Force also had some of the most impressive visuals on NES. The fire level looked amazing for it's time.
These are some good looking games for sure. I LOVE Battletoads and I have no idea why, that game is ridiculously hard and started several fights between my brother and I. Awww...good ole days. Lol. :)
metal storm was a blast! ninja gaiden 3 and all 3 games were beast lvl hard... battle toads, was also a blast! lol games like castlevania 3 had to be harder back then.
I'll bookmark this comment, so I can shoot you a follow-up if I work the video, I'm working on a few "every game ever" videos for the first 30 NES games and the last 30 NES games right now.
When it comes time for the Game Boy, GBC, and Sega Game Gear; Race Drivin' somehow runs notably better on Game Boy than on the SNES. Super Mario Land 2 was a large improvement from the original and that especially goes for the sprites. Mega Man IV has impressive looking cut scenes and Mega Man V is the best looking overall. Pinball: Revenge of the 'Gator surprisingly doesn't look bad for an old pinball game. Gargoyles's Quest 2 almost looks like a WonderSwan game. Kid Dracula on Game Boy still remains clean looking. Parodius still manages to look really good on Game Boy. The amount of detail packed in with TMNT: Fall of the Foot Clan is impressive. With the GBC; Pokemon Crystal manages to still be pretty in its own right. Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble looks better than previous Kirby games on Game Boy. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Ages still have much charm to their art style. Wario Land 2 GBC has the benefit of the already really good looking sprites from the GB version; but now with actual color. Wario Land 3 too has impressive sprites. Pokemon Pinball is not bad looking for the GBC. Dragon Quest 3 on GBC arguably surpasses the NES release regarding looks. Mega Man Xtreme 2 does it job of translating the MMX games into a more classic esq art style. Bomberman Max manages to look appealing in GBC form. Yu-Gi-Oh Dark Duel Stories has rather good looking character close-ups and decently strong effort of turning card artwork into sprite artwork. Top Gear Pocket 2 is a racing game that's a sight to behold for an ole handheld like this... Tomb Raider: Curse of the Sword has some generally interesting looking environments. R-Type DX manages to stay true to the style of the arcade. Mario Tennis manages to maintain that tennis court viewpoint of the home installments. Lufia: The Legend Returns may not be Lufia 2, but it's no slouch with the sprite work. Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite captures the spirit of the Hamtaro anime. Believe it or not, Hamtaro used to air on Toonami. Classic Bubble Bobble is even more vibrant than many other GBC titles. If we can include unofficial color patches; Kirby's Dream Land 2 DX looks even nicer in color than Kirby's Adventure. Sonic Triple Trouble in the Game Gear may not push the hardware as far as Sonic Blast does, but I much prefer how Triple Trouble looks. The culmination of what Sega learned was visually possible via the previous Sonic Game Gear games. Sonic Drift 2 may not be good, but its art style still holds up well. Wonder Boy 3: Dragon's Trap is kinda an impressive conversion visually. Power Strike 2 has rather good boss sprites. Marble Madness looks plenty like its original arcade counterpart. Rastan Saga looks quite true to the arcade original. Double Dragon has better detailing than the original on Master System. Dynamite Headdy is not far away art style wise from the Genesis version. Godzilla: Kaijuu no Daishingeki has really good backgrounds and decent monster sprites. James Pond 3: Operation Starfish is very vibrant. Fantasy Zone may not be as vibrant as arcade, but the art style still looks rather good. Ms Pac-Man the game looks quite clean on Game Gear. Ristar still has visual appeal on the Game Gear.
From this list I had: SMB3 Batman RotJ Kirby Battletoads I adored SMB3 and Kirby (still do) and loved the art involved in both Battletoads and RotJ. I always sucked hard at RotJ and did a bit better with Battletoads but never made it past the ice level. Kirby and SMB3 just offer a well tuned, innovative and fun gameplay experience with excellent music and astonishing (for the time) graphics. They even hold their own today if you can view them for what they are/were. I spend more time with my big ole chunky CRT and NES than I do my PS5 or Switch. Lots of charm there.
Great video! BTW, I'm pretty sure the reason Mega Man 6 is cheaper than Mega Man 5 is because Nintendo published it in the US, and they made more copies of it to be a part of the Top Loader NES campaign.
I have always thought about what if a company like peak Konami or even Nintendo spent the last 30 years focusing on just 8/16 bit and how advanced those games would be now.
@@Fortefyre I remember the longest marathon play where I almost beat the revolution, my legs were asleep, my eyes burned and my brain felt like it was melting. I couldn't get a proper night's sleep for over a week 😂.
Monster in My Pocket...the last NES game I got as a kid before the SNES came into my life.
Nice!
Wasn't my last but it was my most memorable game I received. It came with a little monster action figure. Great game
Batman return of the joker is #1 imo
There we go! Hahaha
Absolutely looks like a Genesis/SNES game
Same. Kirby is more unique but batman had was aiming for realistic atmosphere, which to say slightly, is quite a stretch in the NES.
I honestly feel gremlins 2 the new batch should have been an honorable mention.
The sprite detail and level design and in between level cutscenes all looked very good for an nes game.
That was definitely a close one!
@@Fortefyre it must have been hard to narrow down to 10.
Sunsoft always made really good looking nes games.
-Journey to silius
-Batman
-Batman: rotj
-Blaster master
-Gremlins 2 the new batch
-Festers quest
lol yes, i know the last one is a bad game, it still looked good though and was slightly innovative with the 1st person buiding explorations.
Good job with the list.👍
We're talking about racking and stacking over 50 incredible looking games, it was HARD. Lol.
The visuals on that game blew my mind when I was a kid. Such an awesome game
Track & Field ll has always been on my top graphics list, but your selections are great.
I thought Track and Field II looked gorgeous!
Good list. Those games not only look good, but they're also fantastic to play. Sure, some are challenging, but hey, what can you do.
Oh absolutely, it's interesting to check them out nowadays too.
Suggestion...play the NES music in original Mono. Doesnt sound good in Stereo, but other than that awesome video. And check out some repros if u want to get some of those games. I brought MetalStorm, and Little Samson that way and it was a good price.
Part of me enjoys the stereo, but I could see where it isn't for everyone.
@@Fortefyre I agree with you.
I agree with #1.
Though honestly, I think this vid's script could have stood some improvement. For some of the entries you spent more time talking about how a game pissed you off with its difficulty than about how good said game actually looked. This wasn't a video about difficulty - it was a video about aesthetics and for some of the entries you barely talked about the aesthetics at all.
I'll try to do better in the future:) to be fair, and this isn't an excuse, I wrote this when I was sick and doped up on excessive amounts of vitamin C lol.
Check out Power Blade 2, if you haven't already.
Absolutely.
Section Z looks awesome as well
It does!
Metal Storm - back when Pluto was a planet 😁
It will always be in my heart!
Star Tropics and Faxanadu are two of my all-time favourite NES games that also look fantastic. Each was about as atmospheric to their worlds as one could get at the time. Ultima: Quest of the Avatar was up there as well.
I really need to play Star Tropics, it's been on my shelf for a while.
@@Fortefyre the finale has some 16 bit quality graphics .... a great game. Oh and since no one has manuals anymore just let me help you: 747 ..... you'll know when you need it.
Haha, I do have the original manual, but I don't want to soak it, so I learned the code lol.
faxanadu forever
Fun(?) fact: The release of Mega Man 3 was the start of an annual release corporate mandate on behalf of Capcom.
Indeed!
The Sunsoft Batman games were beautiful and good, cant wait to see you play them
I'm excited!
Batman levels are great, it is more like a steampunk theme, played this in 90s in a black and white tv what a great memories, still have this famicom, batman and smb3, still working to this day, glad u hev this on your list.
I thought Super C, Shatterhand, and Double Dragon 2 had great graphics for the system as well.
As they learned the system more and was able to take more advantage of mappers and larger cartridge sizes, the games got more and more impressive.
No doubt! Those are all great choices! Super C almost got an honorable mention!
Just my opinion, but I thought Mega Man 4 had the best graphics of the series (especially the mini bosses like the robotic snail, whale, and hippo).
It is really hard to choose just one! Lol
That Batman Rerurn of the Joker I think was the closest you could get to looking like an SNES game... the only thing i never liked about that game is that Batman always used a weapon... if they would have added at least a jumping drop kick that would have made a huge difference. With batman you want to be able to punch. 😂
I was dumbfounded when I saw how good it looked.
Yeah man those late NES games they were getting close to SNES/Genesis graphics. Pretty impressive
Oh absolutely!
I remember not understanding how they did the Super Mario2 win screen. I left Mario there snoring for days. :)
Great vid!
Thank you :)
Chip and Dale, Duck Tales 1 & 2, Crystalis, so many good looking games. Nice job whittling down the list to just 10.
Tried my best :)
Mega Man 6 is cheaper simply because it's less rare.
It's published by Nintendo instead of Capcom, they apparently produced more copies of their games than third party companies.
Especially in 1993/1994.
That's what I figured. I didn't want to assume.
To me the NES was a simple but fun time killer till I drove to the arcade in town.
I wish I was alive in the true arcade era, the era I grew up in, the games weren't nearly as fun, and the token economy was hell.
@@Fortefyre Back in 1989 my family took a Griswald cross-country trip. Lots of memories. Listening to Metallica "Garage Days Re-revisited" in the back seat. Every hotel had a few arcade cabs in the fun room.
But the memory that stands out was when we got to Vegas. The casinos wanted parents to gamble but didn't allow anyone under 21 on the casino floor. How they dealt with this is by having _ungodly awesome arcades._ My parents dropped me & my sister off at Circus Circus's arcade with $20 each. 300+ arcade machines!
My local mall at one point had not just one but _two_ arcades & there were more around. Circus Circus's arcade put all of them to absolute shame. I never saw another arcade like that in my lifetime.
Batman NES would have to be in top 5 of best games of all time alongside with Ducktales and Super Mario 3
Great choices!
Damn, another great release! C’mon people, let’s get this channel to 4K.
My only pushback here would be Ninja Gaiden III and MegaMan 6, as honestly, while they might be a tiny bit better than say, Ninja Gaiden or MegaMan, I don’t feel they look THAT much different. So I’d give the first Ninja Gaiden the honors, as that team was pushing the NES’ boundaries even earlier. Same with MegaMan. (Granted, MegaMan had more abilities in that one, so I guess we could give him credit there.)
And no calling out Nemo for wearing his jammies. Of course he was, he’s Nemo. A little French(?) boy who goes to dream worlds in his sleep. His comic is nearly as groundbreaking.
Thank you! I mean to be fair, I rock the jammies everyday bumming it out to pick up my girls from the school bus, I guess I could cut him some slack :P
#1 is an excellent choice.
What I love about lists like these as a theologian is that it points to how beauty is real and objective.
I take a VERY cognitive approach to how I play games :)
NES Open Tournament Golf is a game I would recommend to everone. Great graphics, gameplay, everything is so satisfying.
Absolutely!
I absolute loved Little Nemo... music, graphics, difficult... everything was well balanced and nearly perfect!
It kicked my butt lol.
It was the best thing ever experienced in my 13th year on Earth.
Gremlins 2 had some nice graphics. Especially the final boss gremlin.
It did!
My cousin had a NES whilst i had a C64...so many great experiences...there were great games for both of them, but i was always a lil' bit jealous, as you got a closer ARCADE feeling from the NES games, just alone by having a two button pad...we played SM3 alot and we were able to beat it back then 😊 i have to check Vice: Project Doom...oh, Battletoads for NES was hard as f**k and the SNES version was a pain in the ass, too... 😉
C64 has some gems though! No doubt!
I wonder how the C64 would have fared during that time if they had made multiple button controllers standard on the computer instead of just one. It really hampered the system as games either had to use a keyboard key for the second button or the second controller port's button; making two player not an option. It's also the Amiga's achilles heel.
I know a lot of ports done to both the systems were usually better on the NES, but that was also because not as much effort was done on the C64 and usually developed by mediocre developers like Tiertex. The C64 was actually quite a capable system, and Mayhem in Monster Land is a good example of it.
@@chriswheatley3146 for sure 😉 it's absolutely impressive seeing games that are made nowadays for the 64, which raises the question: what were they doing back then?!?
Some games would've been so much better, if one had a 2nd button for jump instead of pushing up. This led to unnecessary difficulty in so many games making alot of them barely playable, yet enjoyable.
On the other hand, i've also seen some less impressive ports for the NES, but that counts for every single console or computer out there... 😋
I always thought Battle of Olympus looked great. Not as flashy as Sunsoft perhaps but the character sprites all look very good.
I need to give that one a crack, I've heard good things about it.
I really liked that game as a kid. It seems to have largely fallen into obscurity.
My brother made most of the decisions as what games we would get for the NES. He was really into giant mecha combat, and still is. So we had Metal Storm when it came out. And I agree it was, and still is an awesome game.
I'll also say I'm a sucker for great RPGs, so Final Fantasy would be on my list.
Final Fantasy did look great, but the sprites in the 16-bit era is what really captivated me!
Do you add a bunch of reverb to these tracks? Cause damn, that was intense.
They are tracks my friend makes where he creates a stereo sound :)
I’m gonna guess The return of Joker is gonna make the list. Let’s see if I’m correct.
;)
When it comes time for the SNES and Sega Genesis;
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island very much deserves a spot for the SNES. Star Fox 2; while it took many years for it to see official release, it's really impressive on a technical standpoint for the SNES. Super Metroid is the first Metroid game to truly feel alien thanks to the major improvement in graphics from Metroid 2 (also the music). Dragon Ball Z: Hyper Dimension almost looks like an early Sega Saturn game.
On the Super Famicom side of things; Romancing SaGa 3 rivals Final Fantasy 6 in looks. Rock Man and Forte still looks darn good.
Beyond Oasis looks spectacular for Sega Genesis standards. Aladdin on Sega Genesis is a triumph over the SNES port thanks to Disney actually animating the sprites. The Sega Genesis really pulled its weight with Panorama Cotton. Sonic 3 & Knuckles to this day looks really good.
On the Mega Drive side of things; it's a surprise that Monster World 4 was even made for that system.
If we can include the 32X; Knuckles' Chaotix looks so beautiful. As for Virtua Racing Deluxe; it looks notably better than the Genesis release.
Knuckles Chaotix makes having a 32X kind of worth it lol
This was an incredible list; honorable mentions included! I found a few I didn't know about but most of what I thought should be here were on it. How close was Gun-Nac to making the list? I always thought it was the most impressive shmup on the system, and looks like an early TG-16 game.
Extremely lol
The only one I disagree with is Little Nemo.
I can think of probably 20 or 30 games with better graphics.
Yeah I can see that lmao
I've been a huge fan of Sunsoft as a kid and still am. They made crowning achievements on gameplay, graphics, music and fun factor. Somehow this is the first time even hearing about Mr. Gimmick. Gonna try it!
Mr gimmick was a Japanese famicom and European NES exclusive, so I promise you aren't behind the times lol
Funny to hear you mention Golgo 13 during the Vice segment and Blaster Master during the second Batman segment; I was expecting to see both of those on this list. My picks for this category would also include Bionic Commando, Rygar, Zelda II and Metal Gear.
Those are all fantastic games that look wonderful as well!
I never would have considered the project doom game to be a good game. But now I gotta add it to my wish list thanks lol. 😁
You bet! :)
Metal Storm wasn’t developed by Irem?? Dang, now I know that lol
Oh wait, it was a subsidiary of Irem that eventually merged with Irem. Either way, I love vids like this. So many amazing looking NES games. Have you tried the famicom version of Ninja Gaiden 3? It’s way more balanced.
It was published by Irem :)
Battletoads isn't almost impossible to beat with two players. It's FACTUALLY impossible. At least in the US version. When you get to the Hypno Orb level, the second unicycle thing is glitched and the second player just can't get on it. He will get annihilated by the Orb until he runs out of lives.
There's no way to circumvent this aside from letting the first player beat the level alone and have the second player join back in the final level.
This means Rare absolutely knew the game was hard as balls to play with two players, and didn't even bother playtesting it all the way through.
That's what I thought, but I didn't want to assume. Thanks for clarifying it!
Good list. I own every game that you have on this except for Metal Storm (because I honestly think it is visually ugly) and Batman Revenge of the Joker (because I just haven't yet gotten around to buying it). I don't think that you left any games off of the list that I would put there, except for Blaster Master. And I would have put Batman at the top of the list. Your order is a bit off, to me, but the list is solid. Oh, except I would exchange Mega Man 5 for Mega Man 6, because I think 5 is the more visually strong game.
That's a great take. Some people do enjoy Metal Storm, some don't, I do like the sprite work to some capacity.
Crisis Force (1991) and Recca (1992) would have been the best looking bullet hell vertical shooters on the NES but they were only released on the Famicom and didn't get ported internationally.
Oh absolutely, Recca is a blast!
Metal Storm should have been #1 on the list. How they did such gorgeous, detailed, and large sprites on the NES is beyond me. But, what's more amazing is the paralax scrolling. I've played and beaten a lot of NES games and I've never seen that level of paralax scrolling in any other NES game. Again, it's beyond me how they did that. And Mega Man 2 is better looking than Mega Man 6. I think Mega Man 2 is the best looking game in the series.
It was exceptionally hard to rack and stack these lol. I feel like if we included Famicom titles it would have been an even more interesting list, but for NES stuff I try to limit it to the applicable market.
I had never heard of Gimmick, but it looks cool. Just looked for it on eBay. Holy crap! 😳
Gimmick is dope!
For the NES the use of enhancement chips were the biggest factor in the later games looking so advance compared to the earliest ones. I find the best looking NES games are ones like Vice Project Doom, Little Samson and Batman that use embellish dark areas to give a great sense of depth.
Amazing sense of depth!
Your list was good I definitely liked Battletoads and SMB3 on there. I missed out on Kirby man I stopped playing NES when SNES came out
Yeah, the next gen kind of always pushed it to the side.
One game that I always LOVED that I don't really hear mentioned is Gyruss. I think it's from Ultra. I always thought it looked good and was somewhat unique.
I LOVE Gyruss, it's been on a few of my earlier NES lists for a reason!
As a kid a friend traded me their copy of Metal Storm for my copy of Dragon Warrior. Current price of a loose copy of Metal Storm is around $113. Current price of a loose copy of Dragon Warrior is around $8. Seems like I made a good trade. I still have all my old retro games.
Making money moves :P
I would love to see a list like this for SNES as well. The late stage era games were wild. They looked so great compared to all those awful 1st gen 3D titles that overtook gaming for the following 5 years.
Absolutely! I'll make sure it comes out soon.
Contra 2 should be somewhere on the list and at least an honorable mention for DD2, Adventure Island 2, Bionic Commando, and blades of steel (to date the best hockey game ever on any system fight me).
*presses a repeatedly*
Here's an apparently impossible challenge: talk about all-time classic amazing games without whining like an idiot about how hard the game is.
Streaming "career" hahahahahahshshah. 👍
Would you rather say me say my 11 year career in the military that was cut short by a crippling freak injury that affected my ability to perform my job, where I got out and worked with autistic kids, and are currently studying to complete a 2nd Masters to help my local veteran community with mental health?
Might not have been the best looking game on NES but I remember being impressed with The Immortal. It was at least one of the most unique and felt like what I imagine playing D&D in a game would be.
Absolutely!
Subbed. Appreciate the content, brother.
Thank you! Welcome to the channel!
Great list! I remember PowerBlade really impressing in my youth.
It's an awesome game!
I really agree with that list id only consider mighty final fight. Also return of joker and kirby are like inversed as kirby has incredible art style but technically pretty low key where return of joker has horrible art style but is technically at the top
I personally feel that Return of Joker is INSANELY pretty lol. But I get where you're coming from.
Its a shame how the very last game released for the famicom (Adventure island IV) doesn't really look as good as it could have been looking.
Absolutely!
The lack of love for Wrath Of The Black Manta in a lot of your NES videos is appalling. Come on, now.
I haven't played it yet lol.
I'm surprised you didn't show the pseudo-3D rotating towers in Kirby's Adventure. Those shocked me when I saw them as a kid, and they still look impressive given the hardware. Kirby is definitely my pick for the best looking NES game. Unsurprisingly, it was also the largest official NES game released, at a whopping 6 megabits!
NOW YOU'RE PLAYING WITH POWER
I can't remember the name, but there is some obscure early 90's NES game that opens with a near FMV animated cutscene. Life Force also had some of the most impressive visuals on NES. The fire level looked amazing for it's time.
Do you know anything else about this game? The genre or the game play?
Yeah I'm curious as well!
@@Fortefyre I'm pretty sure John Riggs made a video about it.
@@MattyIcecubes I don't tend to watch people in the same industry as me, it causes me depression lol. But I have seen a few of his videos.
Non licensed final fight 3 is good
I should play more unlicensed games!
I think Return of the Joker beats Kirby, simply due to the parallax scrolling.
That's a good point!
These are some good looking games for sure. I LOVE Battletoads and I have no idea why, that game is ridiculously hard and started several fights between my brother and I. Awww...good ole days. Lol. :)
They aren't TOO far away, memories are much more closer than you think!
A shame that StarTropics II: Zoda’s Revenge wasn’t on this list…love that game!
It almost made the list!
Little Sampson is a wonderful, beautiful and lots of fun that is a must play...in MUTE.
Uh oh, is the music bad?
metal storm was a blast! ninja gaiden 3 and all 3 games were beast lvl hard... battle toads, was also a blast! lol games like castlevania 3 had to be harder back then.
Nintendo hard 101 it seems!
I always thought marble madness look really good, and the graphics were top notch.
Every version I've seen has been wonderful!
This is a good list! Had all the ones I wanted to see.
Wonderful! :)
I remember playing Batman as a kid and recognizing even then that the game was gorgeous.
Absolutely! It caught me off guard lol.
Street Fighter 2010 (?) .... dumb, hard game that pretty much had nothing to do with Street Fighter but graphics-wise, could have been a 16 bit game.
I did think it looked good!
That game was fun! It was Bionic Commando with a jump button!
Gargoyle's Quest 2--easily one of my Top 3 NES games of all time
I haven't messed with any of them yet.
1, Gunsmoke. 2, qix. 3 gauntlet 2. 4, Tetris. there the best games on the nes
All great choices!
Dude, where the heck is Blaster Master or Shadowgate? Maybe do a follow up. I agree there are many forgotten classics here.
That's a good idea!
Please please let me know.
I'll bookmark this comment, so I can shoot you a follow-up if I work the video, I'm working on a few "every game ever" videos for the first 30 NES games and the last 30 NES games right now.
@@Fortefyre thx. I know it's not easy editing everything.
It's day and night for me now after all these years lol. It's just a matter of what I have lined up vs what I want to line up for continuity sake.
Tecmo Cup Soccer game had one of the best graphics for NES and incredible music too🔥🔥
You know I've never played it.
So happy to see Kirby Adventure given the number 1 spot. Was my favorite game when I was very young. Always thought it was gorgeous.
Absolutely! It's a beautiful game:)
G i Joe: a real american hero, by Taxaan could have made the list, imo.
I could see that.
TMNT Manhattan project
So good!
I think TMNT the Manhattan Project should be on this list.
It's definitely up there!
Secret ties has good graphics. It plays like golgo 13 though.
Oh god lmao
I think Track and Field II should have been considered. I remember being blown away by the giant sprites
It was very close to being mentioned.
When it comes time for the Game Boy, GBC, and Sega Game Gear;
Race Drivin' somehow runs notably better on Game Boy than on the SNES. Super Mario Land 2 was a large improvement from the original and that especially goes for the sprites. Mega Man IV has impressive looking cut scenes and Mega Man V is the best looking overall. Pinball: Revenge of the 'Gator surprisingly doesn't look bad for an old pinball game. Gargoyles's Quest 2 almost looks like a WonderSwan game. Kid Dracula on Game Boy still remains clean looking. Parodius still manages to look really good on Game Boy. The amount of detail packed in with TMNT: Fall of the Foot Clan is impressive.
With the GBC; Pokemon Crystal manages to still be pretty in its own right. Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble looks better than previous Kirby games on Game Boy. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Ages still have much charm to their art style. Wario Land 2 GBC has the benefit of the already really good looking sprites from the GB version; but now with actual color. Wario Land 3 too has impressive sprites. Pokemon Pinball is not bad looking for the GBC. Dragon Quest 3 on GBC arguably surpasses the NES release regarding looks. Mega Man Xtreme 2 does it job of translating the MMX games into a more classic esq art style. Bomberman Max manages to look appealing in GBC form. Yu-Gi-Oh Dark Duel Stories has rather good looking character close-ups and decently strong effort of turning card artwork into sprite artwork. Top Gear Pocket 2 is a racing game that's a sight to behold for an ole handheld like this...
Tomb Raider: Curse of the Sword has some generally interesting looking environments. R-Type DX manages to stay true to the style of the arcade. Mario Tennis manages to maintain that tennis court viewpoint of the home installments. Lufia: The Legend Returns may not be Lufia 2, but it's no slouch with the sprite work. Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite captures the spirit of the Hamtaro anime. Believe it or not, Hamtaro used to air on Toonami. Classic Bubble Bobble is even more vibrant than many other GBC titles.
If we can include unofficial color patches; Kirby's Dream Land 2 DX looks even nicer in color than Kirby's Adventure.
Sonic Triple Trouble in the Game Gear may not push the hardware as far as Sonic Blast does, but I much prefer how Triple Trouble looks. The culmination of what Sega learned was visually possible via the previous Sonic Game Gear games. Sonic Drift 2 may not be good, but its art style still holds up well. Wonder Boy 3: Dragon's Trap is kinda an impressive conversion visually. Power Strike 2 has rather good boss sprites. Marble Madness looks plenty like its original arcade counterpart. Rastan Saga looks quite true to the arcade original. Double Dragon has better detailing than the original on Master System. Dynamite Headdy is not far away art style wise from the Genesis version. Godzilla: Kaijuu no Daishingeki has really good backgrounds and decent monster sprites. James Pond 3: Operation Starfish is very vibrant. Fantasy Zone may not be as vibrant as arcade, but the art style still looks rather good. Ms Pac-Man the game looks quite clean on Game Gear. Ristar still has visual appeal on the Game Gear.
Parallax scrolling on an 8-bit game is impressive.
It truly is!
Journey to Silius is my #1
Great choice!
Where is the Flintstones peak of the dinosaurs 🦖 bro 🤔 from hana Barbera it's the best graphics NES & also super fun
It almost made the list!
Tnx
You bet!
Blue Shadows to me is the best looking Nes game.
I don't think I've heard of it!
Super Mario 3 is my favorite game of all time!
I'm up there too!
7:15 $700? I bought my copy for $1,800
It's gone down in price loose, I remember a time where people wanted damn near 2K for it.
Brought Little Nemo in like a BOSS! Subscribed!
;) welcome to the community!
Welcome to the community :)
Conway Twitty and Mel Gibson! ☠☠☠
;)
I thought Silver Surfer had nice looking graphics.
I didn't have time to look at them while I was dying haha
@@Fortefyre I never thought that game was that hard, although I keep reading otherwise. Maybe I was just so into it, that I didn't mind the effort.
I always found Castlevania 3 the easiest
save some women for the rest of us :P
the love child of conway twitty and mel gibson lmfao!!!!
Tell me I'm wrong LMAO
@@Fortefyre youre so not! you put words to what it was that i saw when i saw that hair lololol legit love conway twitty too
Tmnt 2 the arcade game…and tiny toons
Those do look great as well!
From this list I had:
SMB3
Batman RotJ
Kirby
Battletoads
I adored SMB3 and Kirby (still do) and loved the art involved in both Battletoads and RotJ. I always sucked hard at RotJ and did a bit better with Battletoads but never made it past the ice level.
Kirby and SMB3 just offer a well tuned, innovative and fun gameplay experience with excellent music and astonishing (for the time) graphics. They even hold their own today if you can view them for what they are/were. I spend more time with my big ole chunky CRT and NES than I do my PS5 or Switch. Lots of charm there.
Definitely!
Faxanadu ❤️
Faxanadu almost made it!
Btw what’s the name of the game you have in the intro? The one with zelda 2 looking combat, haven’t seen that before i don’t think
@@IhadaCaposword master
@@tayislegend101 thanks!
Great video! BTW, I'm pretty sure the reason Mega Man 6 is cheaper than Mega Man 5 is because Nintendo published it in the US, and they made more copies of it to be a part of the Top Loader NES campaign.
That would make sense!
I have always thought about what if a company like peak Konami or even Nintendo spent the last 30 years focusing on just 8/16 bit and how advanced those games would be now.
Oh absolutely! Even if it was a callback.
Never made it past the revolution level in battletoads
I've struggled with the turbo tunnels lol
@@Fortefyre I remember the longest marathon play where I almost beat the revolution, my legs were asleep, my eyes burned and my brain felt like it was melting. I couldn't get a proper night's sleep for over a week 😂.
Zen: Intergalactic Ninja was the best looking nes games I've ever played...plus it was a really good game. It never gets mentioned
I did mention it for the best soundtracks! It was #10 on that one.
Little Samson surprised me. I've never seen it before. Looks more like a Genesis game, wow. Thanks for the documentary.
It definitely looks great!
You forgot Dragon's Lair
It does look good!