I would say Demon Sword was a surprisingly good game. Stumbled upon it by accident. Played it, and liked how freely the character moved, jumped, and attacked. Pretty challenging too. The protagonist has a sword that grows longer and more powerful each level, and he also gets new skills and such as he defeats enemies.
No one mentions my all time favorite (and I've yet to meet anyone who even knows what it is): Faxanadu. It's so good, the story is amazing and it is the game that made me love rpgs.
Emerald kat , i remember when Faxanadu came out, my older brother spent his entire paycheck on it ( $74.99, no joke ). i have fond memories of this game, we played it alot and i was only able to beat it with a turbo controller...😁.
Emerald kat , i was probably 10 or so years old at the time, and i couldn't button mash fast enough to defeat the bosses, ( and i didn't spend time to learn the magic).
I never heard of Crystalis until I was 24, very glad to be experiencing it now. If I had it back when I was a kid, I'm sure it would have been my favorite
Nice list, but here's an alternative 10 1. Journey to Silius 2. Bucky O'Hare 3. Lolo 3 (best puzzle game ever IMO) 4. Vice Project Doom (Ninja Gaiden clone) 5. Guardian Legend 6. Gargoyle's Quest II 7. Kickmaster 8. SCAT 9. Shadow of the Ninja or Conquest of the Crystal Palace 10. Micromachines (Had to put this on the list, love this game!)
Journey to Silius has a savage soundtrack. I think it was going to be Terminator, but they lost the license before release and renamed it. It is an overlooked gem.
Jackal was the first game that I bought for the NES (other than SMB/DH which it came with). I remember, I think it was Ames before they closed down, me as a kid going there with mom with a huge wad of $1 bills with a couple fives and the poor cashier counting them all out just so I could buy this game, and we played it hours and hours and hours, singleplayer, doubleplayer. I loved how it had two 2P modes, one where you had two jeeps on screen, and one where 1P is the driver and 2P is the gunner. I remember the memories of her getting mad at me because she'd drive up to a tank expecting me to use the grenade/missile and I'd instead shoot it with the machinegun and we'd die... lol
My #1 is Clash at Demonhead. It was a sidescroller mix of Metroid and Bionic Commando, and I thought it was actually more fun than both of those! Plus it actually had an ongoing plot! Adventures of Lolo- Best puzzle game on NES. Vice Project Doom- Better than vastly overrated Ninja Gaiden (a game that was only famous for popularizing cutscenes and would have been forgotten without them) Crystalis- better than Secret of Mana (fight me) Guardian Legend- Probably the most well known "obscure" NES game. Super Dodge Ball- What if River City Random was a dodge ball murder sim? Guerilla War- What if we took the promising premise of Ikari Warriors, but made it not suck?
Crystalis is my hidden gem. Found a cartridge with box and book for $5 in 2000. I was always into every Zelda and Castlevania but I rank Crystalis right up there with them in fun.
Vice project Doom. Made by some of the same people who made ninja garden. Great game play the main character looks like Mel Gibson’s lethal weapon character various styles of gameplay. A masterpiece Golgo 13 The Mafat conspisery. Sure this game has a bad 3 d room levels but the other game play and story line is top notch and has a great and bloody ending Any of the kunio games. These game have some translations to English as crash and the boys or crash but the games in Japan had a huge in dept storyline on some and were well made River city ransom was very popular
@@dorpth Bullshit. It has a remake, many covers, and on many top 100 nes lists. I would easily put it in the top 5% of well known nes games. It is way better known than Zanac, and even that has a fair sized fan base.
@@dorpth It is easily in the top 5% of well know nes games. Has a remake. Is on many well known personalities top 100 lists. Has numerous music covers. Is a sequel to Zanac which still has a fair sized fan base. I don't understand how it could be considered not well known.
Guerilla war(rank top 3,2-player games) could you imagine how it would be on PS4 or Xbox one & Indian great games!!! All this Technology and they fucked up two player couch games. I understand the online shit,it took me a long time to accept it. I also love how they make 2player split screen,again took a min for me to catch on,I use to REALLY hate them. They give you more freedom to navigate. I can go on a roof and cover you& etc. Thanks for reminding me if gorrila war. That's back when you go rent a couple games from Mom& pop rental stores they were all OVER.(fuck block busters
Not enough people talk about Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, though there's a glitch on the very last boss where he just won't show up. No time limit, so I had to restart the entire game and that's not exactly an easy game.
Finally someone mentioned Crystalis on a list. Its definitely one of my favorite games of all time. A couple of others that definitely need mentioning: Blaster Master Willow And the Kunio-Kun series
I remember renting The Krion Conquest when I was about 8 years old from the video rental shop at the local grocery store. Super tough for an 8 year old, but it was a weekend well-spent. BTW, I saw this video on my suggested page. Excellent stuff, man! Subscribed.
Sam Medley only one issue with it, if you get far and die, most of the time you are too disheartened to start over. it was basically mega man without continues.
Lord, I had that game and could never even remotely figure out what to do. I've watched playthroughs as an adult and was like 'how would anyone even think to do [whatever they did]?'
Oh god, fuuuuuuuck Legacy of the Wizard. The idea of a consistent dungeon exploration with Super Mario 2 style character selection should have been great. But it was IMPOSSIBLE. People point to Ninja Gaiden or Battletoads as the hardest NES game, but I can confidently say it was Legacy of the Wizard. Impossible to map out. Impossible to make boss runs even if you had a map in front of you! Even if you knew exactly where to go and which character you had to use, you still had to have the exact right item loadout AND play perfectly because you couldn't afford to waste any life or magic since restoration items took up precious slots that you needed. Legacy of the Wizard was so impossible, it the one game that Nintendo Game Counselors absolutely dreaded getting a call about. Go do a search on it. You'll find interviews with former counselors telling you what a nightmare it was trying to walk people through that game over the phone.
The interesting thing is that the Krion Conquest initially came out in 1990-1 year before Mega Man 4 introduced the chargeable gun to the Mega Man franchise. So, while KQ does borrow a lot from Mega Man, it was the first to introduce charge shots.
This video was suggested on my browser page and I'm so glad I clicked it. Great video dude! We seem to have very similar gaming interests and glad I found your channel! I never knew Toki was on the NES but my local movie theater had the arcade cabinet which was only 3 feet tall. It kind of weirded me out lol. I didn't understand the height choice. Crystals looks great too. Has a link to the past vibe. Strong work on the video!
OMG someone else who knows this game! It is THE game that made me love rpgs. It was my second one to play and I just adore the play and the whole story. Also, getting that one expensive spell from the first merchant after you leave the starting town was totally worth the grinding. I remember spending hours to get it.
Faxanadu is a rather famous game, being it was pictured on the original packaging of the NES during its first NA release in '85, so it was rather well-known and IIRC, it was even a launch title, or very close to it. This list is about more obscure games that hardly anybody pays attention to, though I would have to say that Crystalis isn't that obscure/underrated as nearly anybody who has played that game loves it for how much they managed to cram into it.
@@Dhalin maybe to some, but even those who, like myself and my brother got an NES at launch, they aren't known. Maybe it's just my experience in our small hometown, but to even get the game (Faxanadu), we had to travel to the nearest city. Nowadays, I know no one who knows the game, except a few I meet online. Everyone remembers the really popular games, but it's kinda in that realm for me of Harvester on PC. A lot of those old titles seem to have been lost to only a handful of people's beloved memories and a handful of copies that are well used (not counting ROMS/Steam of course).
That's kinda strange, though, for a launch title to become obscure, especially when it was one of the more unique games on the system. It did Side-Scrolling Action RPG before Zelda 2 came around (and IMO, better than Zelda 2), really don't get why it wasn't more popular than it was. I always thought it was a well known game, because most of my friends either had it or played it. Huh. Okay. I will also point out that I never knew that it was part of the Xanadu series of games which I had somewhat heard of in recent years, which is somewhat closely related to the Ys series which I have really begun to love in more recent days thanks to the top-down action RPG games like Oath in Felghana and Origin.
Great vid! I loved Crystalis as a kid; it’s a really solid game. To my surprise, I had only heard of three others so it’s cool to see there are undiscovered gems to check out. Thanks!
Hey bro I sorta just stumbled onto your vid and it's great! My favorite forgotten NES game is Crystalis. It's an action-rpg-ish game in the era of experimentation produced by snk of all people haha. The mix of cyberpunk and medieval story really captivated me back then and the soundtrack is just pure awesome and will burrow into your brain lol. Liked and subscribed, you're awesome man.
YOU'RE awesome dude. lol. Thanks for the feedback. Crystalis is fantastic! Like I said in my video, it really should have been rereleased with the NES Classic Edition. There's not really anything like it on the NES.
I agree that Crystalis should be on the NES Classic Edition. It is my favorite NES game and is, as you said, fantastic and unique. Personally, I also rank it as my favorite action-RPG and one of the greatest games of all time. Admittedly, I am more into older games than newer games, but a true classic like Crystalis deserves to be played by new generations of gamers. The elemental swords that are strong or weak against certain enemies, and the different power levels you can charge your sword to, to fire projectiles or even screen-filling attacks, still make a brilliantly engaging battle system. The elements are also useful for breaking or crossing barriers. Magic spells and special items acquired through the adventure also have a variety of types of effects, including helping traverse environments that are otherwise deadly or impassable. Crystalis' environments are varied and visually appealing, and its soundtrack is enchanting, conveying adventure, danger, peacefulness, and heroic triumph. And, to make the game even more worthwhile for its full duration, the story is interesting and top notch overall for an NES game; it's not overly complicated, but it is well developed and covers enough ground that I think it fares favorably when compared against the basic elements of more-well-known RPGs' stories.
I am so glad you mentioned Crystalis! It was, definitely, one of my favorite games of all time! But, have you played Battle of Olympus or Solstice? Those were really fun games!
It is tough to say which NES game is my favorite. Possibly, Crystalis. But, Battle of Olympus was so awesome! I don't know how many times I played through it, but I pretty much loved each time! It was like a cross between Alundra and Zelda 2.
Kabuki Quantum Fighter is one of the most badass games ever! It's still a part of my live and i love it! Even the Soundtrack (in every lvl.!) is awesone! Thank's that you choose this game on your list! :)
I would've given "Xexyz" a chance for the spotlight, it's another underappreciated game that holds a lot of charm and the music is very catchy, responsive controls and overall, it's worth getting your hands on. There are others I could suggest too.
Man! This list is absolutely coherent! Only knew two games mentioned and the number 1 really deserves it, such amazing artwork, look at the map 12:11, look at the sprite work, that magician spritework and frames 11:23 is brutal for the NES era, and that monster in 12:03 is a masterpiece and should be framed in a art gallery! Such colors!
Blaster Master and Faxanadu are such amazingly strong memories. Extremely original stories, extremely well made music and extremely beautiful 😃 great list by the way
Great list! However, I'd say that "Dragon Fighter" (Natsume/Sofel) is my favorite hidden gem on the NES that few, very few talk about it. I've played it in my youth and I still play it whenever I can, it's a really challenging game and innovative with its blend between side-scrolling action and shoot'em-up. Who doesn't want to be a warrior that occasionally turns into a dragon? Also, it has terrific graphics and AWESOME soundtrack. One of my big favorites on the system.
shaiter hand ,gun nac,power blade . I still love these games . just want to mention one more game. kage the shadow of ninja .the was truly a gem. you will definitely love it
Kage was fucking awesome. I think thats the 2nd one, with the first one being way clunkier and a little ugly. Shadow of the Ninja was incredible, just short. But like shatterhand i can play it over and over
It's really hard to compete with some of the more mainstream and popular channels on TH-cam but I think you may be on your way to the top. Awesome video about a bunch of games I have never heard of. 👍
I am impressed. There was two games on this list I hadn't heard of or played. Krion Conquest, and Kabuki fighter. The rest I have some exposure to. You definitely got some obscure picks with those.
So many sidescrolling platformers. You definitely have a type! :-) Thanks for the video. My list would include: Fantasy Zone, Super Dodge Ball, Adventures of LoLo, Othello, Ultimate Stuntman, Phantom Fighter, Totally Rad, The Battle of Olympus, Skate or Die & Legacy of the Wizard.
Two of my favorites as well. I just never tire of playing Shatterhand. Both games were by Natsume. They did some amazing work on the NES that was on the level of top developers of the time, and they followed it up with several great games on the SNES as well.
Honorable mention: River City Ransom. Like double dragon but with a small rpg character scaling addition, added moves learned through books and heath gain by eating food or drinking drinks from shops. At the end you have to fight "The Twins" from China to the double dragon 1 theme music before the final boss Slick. Some versions have swearing like when you die it says, "Alex got his ass kicked." Also when you die you keep all items, lose some stats and half your accumulated money and pick up from the last mall or marketplace you visited. It has a password system that saves your items money and progress, allowing you to return to it another day. The story sends you forward then back then forward again to beat all the gang bosses before letting you into the River City High School at the end of the game. It has weapons like double dragon but more of them like trash cans, baseballs, tires, brass knuckles and so on. You can even carry these from area to area. With the ability to increase stats like punch, kick, weapon, strength, agility and more, you have a grinding element that feels good. Simply eat lots of food or buy special items like Excalibur or Cowboy boots to max the stats at 63. This even allows for increasing the size of your health bar. An amazing game, really worth playing. I recently spent an afternoon and evening beating it single player with max stats, so it isn't even an overly time consuming grind in one go.
Shatter Hand and Metal Storm are freakin awesome. Beating Metal Storm is tough but so damn rewarding when you finally get through the insane boss rush at the end.
I actually liked "The Magic of Scheherezade" from the folks at Culture Brain. A mixture of action RPG and turn-based RPG with a reasonably forgiving password system.
I got too excited when you listed Crystalis. I love that game and I’ve completes it a handful of times. I tried playing the GBC version as an adult but barely got passed the first town. The music was changed, and the gameplay wasn’t as fluid. I still have the NES; I should bust it out. I haven’t heard of any of the others you mentioned, but each looks fun. I need to hop on eBay.
You know, I haven't played the GBC version but, yeah, I heard a lot of people weren't too happy with the port. But either way, its definitely a game worth playing. lol
Crystalis is great, and was known as one of the greats though... it's why they made ports. It's the jewel in the new SNK anniversary collection. A game not mentioned here or anywhere is Battle of Olympus, which is one of the best games ever made.
I remember enjoying Tecmo Wrestling and Tecmo NBA Basketball. Also, Breakthru was fun but freaking hard as nails and Mappy Land is a favorite. I also need to mention the super fun puzzler Kickle Cubicle.
Great list. Not having NES as a kid, now in 2022, playing NES on retro handheld I'm slowly creating my favourite games list, but honestly, most underrated / hidden-gems lists are pretty obvious. Yours is different :) Indeed there are some nice, not hyped, underrated games! :)
Man, it's like you read my mind. Shatter Hand and the Power Blade games are two that I found amazing but never see them get any love. Also great to see Crystalis included.
Good picks there!! Both Power Blade games are very good and Shatterhand is among my top games for the system. I never get tired of that one. All of those were by Natsume, so it's no surprise there's crossover appeal. Natsume's NES games rival the top-tier developers, and they continued with a few excellent SNES games as well that are among my favorites on that system.
Man, most of these games had you in the "future" - though some of those dates like 1997 are now the past :) One of my favorites was Xexyz also The Magic of Scheherazade
What about sweet home? It's an amazing game that only fame out in Japan maybe due to being a movie tie in but it utilises on the limited hardware for the nes and makes the game somewhat disturbing in some parts. You should definitely play it, and there is an English ROM out there
Nice list! Would love to try Little Samson, and it seems like Power Blade 2 was just a Contra-skinned TMNT almost. My favorite lesser-known NES title was Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu, though. Giant sprites, fluid action, and it was just plain fun. I agree with the guy who commented Guardian Legend, too.
That was a really solid list! Little Samson, Shatterhand and Power Blade were really good games that I fortunately got to play and still own SH and PB!
How about: Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Street Fighter 2010, Maniac Mansion, Battle of Olympis, Guerrillas Wars, the Rocketeer, and Low G Man The above are good games. Yet, many people have never heard of them. Btw, had to subscribe!
Dig deeper and you'll find: Adventures of Rad Gravity The Incredible Crash Dummies Super Spike V'Ball Destiny of an Emperor Dragon Fighter Dragon Spirit M.C. Kids/McDonaldland Mendel Palace Boulder Dash Kiwi Kraze/The NewZealand Story Those last two games are hits on other formats but the NES versions rarely get mentioned.
Dude! I love Rockin Kats and Kabuki Quantum Fighter! I’m gunna have to stream The Krion Conquest for October I think haha! I love Mega Man so a MM game where you play as a witch will suit the season!
In Brazil. Most underrated games was: Rygar Pow Shadow of the Ninja (Kage in Japan) Dragon fighter (wrost sales, but one of my favorite games on nes) Kid Dracula (akamajou Dracula Kun in Japan. Very funny and good game) Jackal (one of my favorite games) Contra 2 or super contra, some people don't know that there's 2 contra games for nes. The second is fantastic. Street fighter 2000 and something... Journey to silius (very hard and amazing game) Star wars (japan game that you control luke in a car, exploring caves and have one of most exciting spaceships stages of all time) If I remember others I post later.
In Shatterhand the flying little robots are not the only cool twist; you can also get a suit of robotic armor from hell. I always thought that was awesome.
I recently tried Shatterhand after reading some good reviews of it and being amused by the idea of a game where you just punch everything. It's not what I had hoped for from a game with a title like *Shatterhand*. I was hoping to wade through armies of enemies, massacring them with a variety of hooks, uppercuts, and over-the-top special attacks with names like "Demon fire annihilation death fist". Knocking down skyscrapers with a single punch. Instead you just have one type of punch, it barely has any range, and nearly every enemy takes multiple hits to go down. But the game's soundtrack is so damn good. Like Mega Man good.
Power blade is just really really underrated! Iove the graphics gameplay and the difficulty is a little off maybe add 3 difficultys but over all the story is cool too I love the upgrades for your boomerang
Chip-based weapons reminds me of Guardian Legend! It’s one of the greatest genre-busting games on any system. I agree with Crystalis and MetalStorm. Two solid games with lots of replay value and nostalgia.
Wrath of the black manta , rc pro am , captain skyhawk , Tiger heli , Solomon's key , load runner , star force , astyanax strider , little nemo the dream master and flying dragon
Good video man. I think the reason people don't talk about these games much is because of how expensive it is to get a physical copy these days. It's sad. I honestly haven't played most of these, and the ones I have I just played on emulation. Still solid games though.
![ประสบการณ์ จ้าง Developer ที่ผมจะไม่มีวันลืม [ภาค1]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/bzivN4KDg-k/mqdefault.jpg)
I would say Demon Sword was a surprisingly good game. Stumbled upon it by accident. Played it, and liked how freely the character moved, jumped, and attacked. Pretty challenging too. The protagonist has a sword that grows longer and more powerful each level, and he also gets new skills and such as he defeats enemies.
Hello 👋
No one mentions my all time favorite (and I've yet to meet anyone who even knows what it is): Faxanadu. It's so good, the story is amazing and it is the game that made me love rpgs.
I loved Faxanadu!
I have that one!
Emerald kat , i remember when Faxanadu came out, my older brother spent his entire paycheck on it ( $74.99, no joke ). i have fond memories of this game, we played it alot and i was only able to beat it with a turbo controller...😁.
Big Dog what did you need the turbo for?
Emerald kat , i was probably 10 or so years old at the time, and i couldn't button mash fast enough to defeat the bosses, ( and i didn't spend time to learn the magic).
I lost it when you did the "bang your head" pause. Thank you for that.
Seems like the Creators of Shantae took some Inspiration from that game
I never heard of Crystalis until I was 24, very glad to be experiencing it now. If I had it back when I was a kid, I'm sure it would have been my favorite
It must not have gotten much attention back in the day either because i mail ordered it from funcoland when it was pnly $29
Nice list, but here's an alternative 10
1. Journey to Silius
2. Bucky O'Hare
3. Lolo 3 (best puzzle game ever IMO)
4. Vice Project Doom (Ninja Gaiden clone)
5. Guardian Legend
6. Gargoyle's Quest II
7. Kickmaster
8. SCAT
9. Shadow of the Ninja or Conquest of the Crystal Palace
10. Micromachines (Had to put this on the list, love this game!)
The Eternal Champion right? I couldn't believe Guardian Legend didn't make this list!
Yeah, I agree. He didn't even put up Kage and Mitsume ga toru
I have to agree with Lolo 3, it's such a unique game, and my favourite puzzle game of all time!
Journey to Silius has a savage soundtrack. I think it was going to be Terminator, but they lost the license before release and renamed it. It is an overlooked gem.
I heard Pat once played SCAT together with Ian.
I played Jackal for the first time today (I'm 39)......Best NES game ever!
I couldn't agree more ! I'm 34 and I'm playing it now for the first time good times
Jackal was the first game that I bought for the NES (other than SMB/DH which it came with). I remember, I think it was Ames before they closed down, me as a kid going there with mom with a huge wad of $1 bills with a couple fives and the poor cashier counting them all out just so I could buy this game, and we played it hours and hours and hours, singleplayer, doubleplayer. I loved how it had two 2P modes, one where you had two jeeps on screen, and one where 1P is the driver and 2P is the gunner. I remember the memories of her getting mad at me because she'd drive up to a tank expecting me to use the grenade/missile and I'd instead shoot it with the machinegun and we'd die... lol
Damn straight
I agree. Jackal was under-rated.
Rockin' soundtrack. I want a heavy metal band to play it.
My #1 is Clash at Demonhead. It was a sidescroller mix of Metroid and Bionic Commando, and I thought it was actually more fun than both of those! Plus it actually had an ongoing plot!
Adventures of Lolo- Best puzzle game on NES.
Vice Project Doom- Better than vastly overrated Ninja Gaiden (a game that was only famous for popularizing cutscenes and would have been forgotten without them)
Crystalis- better than Secret of Mana (fight me)
Guardian Legend- Probably the most well known "obscure" NES game.
Super Dodge Ball- What if River City Random was a dodge ball murder sim?
Guerilla War- What if we took the promising premise of Ikari Warriors, but made it not suck?
I was super fortunate, Final Fantasy and Crystalis we're my first RPGs as a kid. Still LOVE these games, extremely fun.
awesome list bro i think you just forgot one game (River City Ransom) this game is so under rated on the nes.....!
I owned Kabuki Fighter. That game was Fun to play!😁
Excellent game!
Agreed the first game i legitimate beat without cheating with the game genie
"Owned"?
Did you trade your collection in for a Super Nintendo? I have heard that story quite often.
Crystalis is my hidden gem. Found a cartridge with box and book for $5 in 2000. I was always into every Zelda and Castlevania but I rank Crystalis right up there with them in fun.
Vice project Doom. Made by some of the same people who made ninja garden. Great game play the main character looks like Mel Gibson’s lethal weapon character various styles of gameplay. A masterpiece
Golgo 13 The Mafat conspisery. Sure this game has a bad 3 d room levels but the other game play and story line is top notch and has a great and bloody ending
Any of the kunio games. These game have some translations to English as crash and the boys or crash but the games in Japan had a huge in dept storyline on some and were well made River city ransom was very popular
Ufouria is like Gimmick (you should play in PAL mode)
And Guardian Legend is one of the most underrated NES games.
The Guardian Legend is underrated by who?
Ufourria is nothing like gimmick, other than Sunsoft used similar looking art style.
@@KCUFyoufordoxingme Guardian Legend certainly isn't a well known NES game.
@@dorpth Bullshit. It has a remake, many covers, and on many top 100 nes lists. I would easily put it in the top 5% of well known nes games. It is way better known than Zanac, and even that has a fair sized fan base.
@@dorpth It is easily in the top 5% of well know nes games. Has a remake. Is on many well known personalities top 100 lists. Has numerous music covers. Is a sequel to Zanac which still has a fair sized fan base. I don't understand how it could be considered not well known.
Just watched GenerationGap’s underrated 10 list & figured I’d check out this list to add to the emulator! Great content!
I’d add Journey to Silius,
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
Vice: Project Doom
Ufouria,
Willow
Guerilla War
Rygar
Guerilla war(rank top 3,2-player games) could you imagine how it would be on PS4 or Xbox one & Indian great games!!! All this Technology and they fucked up two player couch games. I understand the online shit,it took me a long time to accept it. I also love how they make 2player split screen,again took a min for me to catch on,I use to REALLY hate them. They give you more freedom to navigate. I can go on a roof and cover you& etc. Thanks for reminding me if gorrila war. That's back when you go rent a couple games from Mom& pop rental stores they were all OVER.(fuck block busters
Not enough people talk about Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, though there's a glitch on the very last boss where he just won't show up. No time limit, so I had to restart the entire game and that's not exactly an easy game.
Crystalis. No one I knew who played NES played that gem of a game ahead of it's time.
Finally someone mentioned Crystalis on a list. Its definitely one of my favorite games of all time.
A couple of others that definitely need mentioning:
Blaster Master
Willow
And the Kunio-Kun series
I didn't even know they made a Willow game, loved that movie as a kid.
I remember renting The Krion Conquest when I was about 8 years old from the video rental shop at the local grocery store. Super tough for an 8 year old, but it was a weekend well-spent.
BTW, I saw this video on my suggested page. Excellent stuff, man! Subscribed.
Sam Medley only one issue with it, if you get far and die, most of the time you are too disheartened to start over. it was basically mega man without continues.
I would have added Legacy of the Wizard because it was a great game and underrated. I haven't heard of a lot of these
Lord, I had that game and could never even remotely figure out what to do. I've watched playthroughs as an adult and was like 'how would anyone even think to do [whatever they did]?'
Oh god, fuuuuuuuck Legacy of the Wizard. The idea of a consistent dungeon exploration with Super Mario 2 style character selection should have been great. But it was IMPOSSIBLE. People point to Ninja Gaiden or Battletoads as the hardest NES game, but I can confidently say it was Legacy of the Wizard. Impossible to map out. Impossible to make boss runs even if you had a map in front of you! Even if you knew exactly where to go and which character you had to use, you still had to have the exact right item loadout AND play perfectly because you couldn't afford to waste any life or magic since restoration items took up precious slots that you needed.
Legacy of the Wizard was so impossible, it the one game that Nintendo Game Counselors absolutely dreaded getting a call about. Go do a search on it. You'll find interviews with former counselors telling you what a nightmare it was trying to walk people through that game over the phone.
The interesting thing is that the Krion Conquest initially came out in 1990-1 year before Mega Man 4 introduced the chargeable gun to the Mega Man franchise. So, while KQ does borrow a lot from Mega Man, it was the first to introduce charge shots.
This video was suggested on my browser page and I'm so glad I clicked it. Great video dude! We seem to have very similar gaming interests and glad I found your channel! I never knew Toki was on the NES but my local movie theater had the arcade cabinet which was only 3 feet tall. It kind of weirded me out lol. I didn't understand the height choice. Crystals looks great too. Has a link to the past vibe. Strong work on the video!
GenerationGapGaming GGG!!!! What's up!!
Faxanadu was an insane good game. I didn't see it on your list.
OMG someone else who knows this game! It is THE game that made me love rpgs. It was my second one to play and I just adore the play and the whole story. Also, getting that one expensive spell from the first merchant after you leave the starting town was totally worth the grinding. I remember spending hours to get it.
Faxanadu is a rather famous game, being it was pictured on the original packaging of the NES during its first NA release in '85, so it was rather well-known and IIRC, it was even a launch title, or very close to it. This list is about more obscure games that hardly anybody pays attention to, though I would have to say that Crystalis isn't that obscure/underrated as nearly anybody who has played that game loves it for how much they managed to cram into it.
@@Dhalin maybe to some, but even those who, like myself and my brother got an NES at launch, they aren't known. Maybe it's just my experience in our small hometown, but to even get the game (Faxanadu), we had to travel to the nearest city.
Nowadays, I know no one who knows the game, except a few I meet online. Everyone remembers the really popular games, but it's kinda in that realm for me of Harvester on PC. A lot of those old titles seem to have been lost to only a handful of people's beloved memories and a handful of copies that are well used (not counting ROMS/Steam of course).
That's kinda strange, though, for a launch title to become obscure, especially when it was one of the more unique games on the system. It did Side-Scrolling Action RPG before Zelda 2 came around (and IMO, better than Zelda 2), really don't get why it wasn't more popular than it was. I always thought it was a well known game, because most of my friends either had it or played it. Huh. Okay. I will also point out that I never knew that it was part of the Xanadu series of games which I had somewhat heard of in recent years, which is somewhat closely related to the Ys series which I have really begun to love in more recent days thanks to the top-down action RPG games like Oath in Felghana and Origin.
I had the main menu theme as my ringtone for a long time.
Great vid! I loved Crystalis as a kid; it’s a really solid game. To my surprise, I had only heard of three others so it’s cool to see there are undiscovered gems to check out. Thanks!
Shatterhand is very very good game and very good soundtrack very underrated game !!
Hey bro I sorta just stumbled onto your vid and it's great! My favorite forgotten NES game is Crystalis. It's an action-rpg-ish game in the era of experimentation produced by snk of all people haha. The mix of cyberpunk and medieval story really captivated me back then and the soundtrack is just pure awesome and will burrow into your brain lol. Liked and subscribed, you're awesome man.
YOU'RE awesome dude. lol. Thanks for the feedback. Crystalis is fantastic! Like I said in my video, it really should have been rereleased with the NES Classic Edition. There's not really anything like it on the NES.
I agree that Crystalis should be on the NES Classic Edition. It is my favorite NES game and is, as you said, fantastic and unique. Personally, I also rank it as my favorite action-RPG and one of the greatest games of all time. Admittedly, I am more into older games than newer games, but a true classic like Crystalis deserves to be played by new generations of gamers.
The elemental swords that are strong or weak against certain enemies, and the different power levels you can charge your sword to, to fire projectiles or even screen-filling attacks, still make a brilliantly engaging battle system. The elements are also useful for breaking or crossing barriers. Magic spells and special items acquired through the adventure also have a variety of types of effects, including helping traverse environments that are otherwise deadly or impassable.
Crystalis' environments are varied and visually appealing, and its soundtrack is enchanting, conveying adventure, danger, peacefulness, and heroic triumph. And, to make the game even more worthwhile for its full duration, the story is interesting and top notch overall for an NES game; it's not overly complicated, but it is well developed and covers enough ground that I think it fares favorably when compared against the basic elements of more-well-known RPGs' stories.
Great video and list there, Josh man. There really are some great NES games that deserves more attention!
Low G Man
I love that game. A little tough, but definitely worth it
I am so glad you mentioned Crystalis! It was, definitely, one of my favorite games of all time! But, have you played Battle of Olympus or Solstice? Those were really fun games!
Battle of Olympus will always be my number one NES game more people should play. I love it.
It is tough to say which NES game is my favorite. Possibly, Crystalis. But, Battle of Olympus was so awesome! I don't know how many times I played through it, but I pretty much loved each time! It was like a cross between Alundra and Zelda 2.
Solstice is one of my favorites on the system.
@@bfish89ryuhayabusa I wish they had more games like those on today's game systems.
Bucky O’Hare is awesome, it’s a licensed game but even the license is pretty obscure
Kabuki Quantum Fighter is one of the most badass games ever! It's still a part of my live and i love it! Even the Soundtrack (in every lvl.!) is awesone!
Thank's that you choose this game on your list! :)
I would've given "Xexyz" a chance for the spotlight, it's another underappreciated game that holds a lot of charm and the music is very catchy, responsive controls and overall, it's worth getting your hands on.
There are others I could suggest too.
Was my fav game as a kid!!!!
Xexyz i first played it at my cousins house. Played it all night long while everyone else was asleep. Really fun game
Fantastic game!
Wow. According to these games, our future is quite bleak!! Cool list!
Man! This list is absolutely coherent! Only knew two games mentioned and the number 1 really deserves it, such amazing artwork, look at the map 12:11, look at the sprite work, that magician spritework and frames 11:23 is brutal for the NES era, and that monster in 12:03 is a masterpiece and should be framed in a art gallery! Such colors!
Blaster Master and Faxanadu are such amazingly strong memories. Extremely original stories, extremely well made music and extremely beautiful 😃 great list by the way
Loved both of those games.
7:09 Crystalis! It is worthy! comming from somebody who is not familiar with the RPG games I enjoyed very much!
I am so freaking glad someone finally mentioned Metalstorm on one of these underrated vids.. by far one of the greatest NES classics of all times!
Gi-joe by taxan people hardly talk about that Amazing game.
Thank you! That is my number 5 game of all time and yet nobody talks about it. Oh wait, no, it's number 6 but it's still good.
I loved this game! It was great. Some of the best music on the system too. Only problem: no Baroness. 😟
Great list! However, I'd say that "Dragon Fighter" (Natsume/Sofel) is my favorite hidden gem on the NES that few, very few talk about it. I've played it in my youth and I still play it whenever I can, it's a really challenging game and innovative with its blend between side-scrolling action and shoot'em-up. Who doesn't want to be a warrior that occasionally turns into a dragon? Also, it has terrific graphics and AWESOME soundtrack. One of my big favorites on the system.
shaiter hand ,gun nac,power blade . I still love these games . just want to mention one more game. kage the shadow of ninja .the was truly a gem. you will definitely love it
Kage was fucking awesome. I think thats the 2nd one, with the first one being way clunkier and a little ugly. Shadow of the Ninja was incredible, just short. But like shatterhand i can play it over and over
It's really hard to compete with some of the more mainstream and popular channels on TH-cam but I think you may be on your way to the top. Awesome video about a bunch of games I have never heard of. 👍
I am impressed. There was two games on this list I hadn't heard of or played. Krion Conquest, and Kabuki fighter. The rest I have some exposure to. You definitely got some obscure picks with those.
So many sidescrolling platformers. You definitely have a type! :-) Thanks for the video.
My list would include: Fantasy Zone, Super Dodge Ball, Adventures of LoLo, Othello, Ultimate Stuntman, Phantom Fighter, Totally Rad, The Battle of Olympus, Skate or Die & Legacy of the Wizard.
I LOOOOOOOVE that you included both Power Blade AND Shatterhand. Especially Shatterhand. Both absolute gems, and two of my favorites. ❤
Two of my favorites as well. I just never tire of playing Shatterhand. Both games were by Natsume. They did some amazing work on the NES that was on the level of top developers of the time, and they followed it up with several great games on the SNES as well.
Honorable mention: River City Ransom.
Like double dragon but with a small rpg character scaling addition, added moves learned through books and heath gain by eating food or drinking drinks from shops. At the end you have to fight "The Twins" from China to the double dragon 1 theme music before the final boss Slick.
Some versions have swearing like when you die it says, "Alex got his ass kicked." Also when you die you keep all items, lose some stats and half your accumulated money and pick up from the last mall or marketplace you visited.
It has a password system that saves your items money and progress, allowing you to return to it another day. The story sends you forward then back then forward again to beat all the gang bosses before letting you into the River City High School at the end of the game.
It has weapons like double dragon but more of them like trash cans, baseballs, tires, brass knuckles and so on. You can even carry these from area to area.
With the ability to increase stats like punch, kick, weapon, strength, agility and more, you have a grinding element that feels good. Simply eat lots of food or buy special items like Excalibur or Cowboy boots to max the stats at 63. This even allows for increasing the size of your health bar.
An amazing game, really worth playing. I recently spent an afternoon and evening beating it single player with max stats, so it isn't even an overly time consuming grind in one go.
I knew of only 2 of the 10. Good job! Didn't expect that.
Very nice look at what the NES had to offer. I've never heard of any of these. Now I cannot wait to play it (perhaps acrom on the NES classic).
Panic Restaurant, 3x3 Eyes,, Kid Dracula, Faxanadu, Gargoyles Quest II, Konami Wai Wai World, Mighty Final Fight, Little Nemo, Whomp Em, Roller Games.
Panic Restaurant, Sweet Home, Mother, Mighty Final Fight
Guardian Legend!!!
I can’t help but notice how much of this happens in the future. I mean, 1997, who could image the distant future like that?
I had Crystalis back then. I remember it being a pretty neat game and this the first time Id seen it mentioned in a vid like this.
Shatter Hand and Metal Storm are freakin awesome. Beating Metal Storm is tough but so damn rewarding when you finally get through the insane boss rush at the end.
I actually liked "The Magic of Scheherezade" from the folks at Culture Brain. A mixture of action RPG and turn-based RPG with a reasonably forgiving password system.
A couple other titles I’d add would be Kickmaster, Low G Man, Bucky O’Hare, and Burai Fighter.
YES Burai Fighter is so good and I never see it mentioned
You seem to like games developed by KID.
Power Blade 2 for me was one of the most difficult, but addicting game ever! This and Hudson Adventure Island.
I got too excited when you listed Crystalis. I love that game and I’ve completes it a handful of times. I tried playing the GBC version as an adult but barely got passed the first town. The music was changed, and the gameplay wasn’t as fluid. I still have the NES; I should bust it out.
I haven’t heard of any of the others you mentioned, but each looks fun. I need to hop on eBay.
You know, I haven't played the GBC version but, yeah, I heard a lot of people weren't too happy with the port. But either way, its definitely a game worth playing. lol
Great game, going back to it recently, it felt like Secret of Mana a bit :P
Crystalis is great, and was known as one of the greats though... it's why they made ports. It's the jewel in the new SNK anniversary collection.
A game not mentioned here or anywhere is Battle of Olympus, which is one of the best games ever made.
Good news. They just recently added the NES Crystalis to the Nintendo Online library for the Switch.
(yes, the GBC version blows)
I remember enjoying Tecmo Wrestling and Tecmo NBA Basketball. Also, Breakthru was fun but freaking hard as nails and Mappy Land is a favorite. I also need to mention the super fun puzzler Kickle Cubicle.
Great list. Not having NES as a kid, now in 2022, playing NES on retro handheld I'm slowly creating my favourite games list, but honestly, most underrated / hidden-gems lists are pretty obvious. Yours is different :) Indeed there are some nice, not hyped, underrated games! :)
Some solid entries. But one glaring absence was from Clash at Demonhead.
Man, it's like you read my mind. Shatter Hand and the Power Blade games are two that I found amazing but never see them get any love. Also great to see Crystalis included.
Good picks there!! Both Power Blade games are very good and Shatterhand is among my top games for the system. I never get tired of that one. All of those were by Natsume, so it's no surprise there's crossover appeal. Natsume's NES games rival the top-tier developers, and they continued with a few excellent SNES games as well that are among my favorites on that system.
Man, most of these games had you in the "future" - though some of those dates like 1997 are now the past :) One of my favorites was Xexyz also The Magic of Scheherazade
Man o man, this brought up so many good memories ! thanks man nice vid!
What about sweet home? It's an amazing game that only fame out in Japan maybe due to being a movie tie in but it utilises on the limited hardware for the nes and makes the game somewhat disturbing in some parts. You should definitely play it, and there is an English ROM out there
I'd say sweet home is actually the best nes/famicom game I've ever played!
Wasn't Sweet Home the basis for Resident Evil too?
@@thegreathadoken6808 I heard that too.
Its been ages that i have been looking for the krion conquest as i didnt know the name back when i was young , thank you for this video
Great video man! I loved the list, I always love finding some semi-obscure stuff I never had a chance to play as a kid!
Whomp 'em and Snow Brothers are two of my favorites.
Nice list! Would love to try Little Samson, and it seems like Power Blade 2 was just a Contra-skinned TMNT almost. My favorite lesser-known NES title was Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu, though. Giant sprites, fluid action, and it was just plain fun. I agree with the guy who commented Guardian Legend, too.
Astyanax & Skate or Die. Two of my favorite as a kid. Wait, also, Alien Syndrome & River City Ransom.
I have played and loved Kabuki Quantum Fighter since I was a child. One of my favorites really.
That was a really solid list! Little Samson, Shatterhand and Power Blade were really good games that I fortunately got to play and still own SH and PB!
Really, really enjoyed the video! Had not heard of any of those games and they look great. Subbed
How about: Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Street Fighter 2010, Maniac Mansion, Battle of Olympis, Guerrillas Wars, the Rocketeer, and Low G Man
The above are good games. Yet, many people have never heard of them.
Btw, had to subscribe!
@iFort agreed
Dig deeper and you'll find:
Adventures of Rad Gravity
The Incredible Crash Dummies
Super Spike V'Ball
Destiny of an Emperor
Dragon Fighter
Dragon Spirit
M.C. Kids/McDonaldland
Mendel Palace
Boulder Dash
Kiwi Kraze/The NewZealand Story
Those last two games are hits on other formats but the NES versions rarely get mentioned.
Yooooooo Kabuki quantum fighter!!! That game kicks ass, u just brought back lots of memories, thanks!
Hey, does anyone else remember owning, renting/playing "Metal Mech" on NES? I loved that game & I never heard anyone speak of it, back then or now.
Have you played Metal Warriors? It's pretty much the improved SNES version of that.
Awesome list! Thank you for sharing!
Dude! I love Rockin Kats and Kabuki Quantum Fighter! I’m gunna have to stream The Krion Conquest for October I think haha! I love Mega Man so a MM game where you play as a witch will suit the season!
In Brazil. Most underrated games was:
Rygar
Pow
Shadow of the Ninja (Kage in Japan)
Dragon fighter (wrost sales, but one of my favorite games on nes)
Kid Dracula (akamajou Dracula Kun in Japan. Very funny and good game)
Jackal (one of my favorite games)
Contra 2 or super contra, some people don't know that there's 2 contra games for nes. The second is fantastic.
Street fighter 2000 and something...
Journey to silius (very hard and amazing game)
Star wars (japan game that you control luke in a car, exploring caves and have one of most exciting spaceships stages of all time)
If I remember others I post later.
In Shatterhand the flying little robots are not the only cool twist; you can also get a suit of robotic armor from hell. I always thought that was awesome.
Great list - I was familiar with most already, and have Mr. Gimmick on my flash cart, but it's cool to see more people exposed to these gems.
I recently tried Shatterhand after reading some good reviews of it and being amused by the idea of a game where you just punch everything. It's not what I had hoped for from a game with a title like *Shatterhand*. I was hoping to wade through armies of enemies, massacring them with a variety of hooks, uppercuts, and over-the-top special attacks with names like "Demon fire annihilation death fist". Knocking down skyscrapers with a single punch. Instead you just have one type of punch, it barely has any range, and nearly every enemy takes multiple hits to go down.
But the game's soundtrack is so damn good. Like Mega Man good.
Good list, two games I would add is Bucky O Hare (maybe not too unknown) and definately Holy Diver!
Street Fighter 2010 is missing!
Glad TH-cam recommended this to me! Definitely gonna try out Metalstorm, Mr. Gimmick, and Little Samson!
Really good list. Crystalis is one of my favorite games to this day.
Glad to see Shatterhand make the list. One of my favorites. I also enjoyed a puzzle/tile game called Mendel Palace.
Awesome list! I've played none of these, very compelling presentation too. Good work, thanks 👍
I absolutely love Shaterhand, its easily my no1 NES game.
Which aggravates me that it's so expensive as I don't have it in my collection lol
Base Wars is so worth playing. It’s the most fun version of baseball ever, and is good Vs a player 2 or the CPU
This is an amazing list. Well done
Jackal, Shadow of the Ninja, Roller games, Rygar very good games and very underrated games
Power blade is just really really underrated! Iove the graphics gameplay and the difficulty is a little off maybe add 3 difficultys but over all the story is cool too I love the upgrades for your boomerang
Unique list. Like it a lot. Different than most I've seen.
Chip-based weapons reminds me of Guardian Legend! It’s one of the greatest genre-busting games on any system.
I agree with Crystalis and MetalStorm. Two solid games with lots of replay value and nostalgia.
The same company made these games.
8 Eyes
Wrath of the black manta , rc pro am , captain skyhawk , Tiger heli , Solomon's key , load runner , star force , astyanax strider , little nemo the dream master and flying dragon
From my own little collection "Maniac Mansion" comes to mind! "Journey to Silius" too.. The arcade-style Mega Man (yes, I love both!).
Awesome list, I knew less than 5 of them, so will definitely check them out. Cheers!
Good video man. I think the reason people don't talk about these games much is because of how expensive it is to get a physical copy these days. It's sad. I honestly haven't played most of these, and the ones I have I just played on emulation. Still solid games though.
Except Crystalis, which is bad ass. I love that game. :D
I recall when many of these came out! Especially, metal storm and Kabuki.