10: Baseball Stars (SNK/1989) This
is clearly the best baseball game I ever played on my NES. From naming your
own team and players (and saving it, too!) to great graphics, it's all here.
What fun!
9: Metal Gear (Ultra/1988) This
is a Rambo-type game where you must infiltrate a few buildings, shoot just
about anything that moves, and take orders from your commander via a
transceiver. Real cool, but a little easy.
8: Castlevania II (Konami/1988) You
have been cursed and the only way to be cured is to find pieces of the
deceased Count's body and put it back together. Eww! This time it's a
password game, you talk to towns-people, and get many different weapons.
7: Mega Man (Capcom/1987) Great
"fun-type" game. You're a good android who must defeat comical robots created
by the evil Dr. Wily. After you beat each robot boss, you take their weapons!
6: Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (Nintendo/1987) This
is a game so great I actually got up extra early (as a freshman in high
school) just so I could play before school. While the NES didn't have the
hardware to make the player transparent like the arcade game (instead, it
made you a 17 year old midget named Little Mac), words cannot describe how
much fun I had with this game. Afterall, who could forget such comical
characters such as Bald Bull, Super Macho Man, and (my personal favorite)
King Hippo?
5: Castlevania (Konami/1987) Great
game in which you must hunt down and destroy legendary monsters like Medusa,
The Grim Reaper, and most of all, Count Dracula. This game has perhaps the
hardest last boss in video game history (Dracula and his ghost).
4: The Goonies II (Konami/1987) I
love the movie and I love the game, which is the sequel to the original
Goonies that never made it to the US (Konami, you've been bad!). I think it's
highly under-rated, and don't understand why it's not loved and adored by
all. This password/adventure game is awesome.
3: Rygar (Tecmo/1987) This
game isn't even remotely like the 1986 Tecmo arcade game, but that's just
fine, since in my opinion it's far better (except in graphics). You're a
warrior with an effective weapon that looks like a punching balloon. Slightly
too easy, but this adventure game is a masterpiece. Awesome music too.
2: Metroid (Nintendo/1987) How
much more awesome can you get? You must single-handedly destroy all the weird
space creatures and save the universe. All you're wearing is a spacesuit, and
you get great weapons (perhaps the best in video game history). Beat the game
real quick and it'll reveal your true identity. I just wish you could have
saved the game instead of writing down the long password, but even that gave
me many memories with my friends.
1: The Legend Of Zelda (Nintendo/1987) Superb
game which made Nintendo a major force in the video gaming industry. This is
an overhead action/RPG (though not a true RPG) game where you fight with a
sword (and other weapons) outdoors and in creepy labyrinths. It was also the
first NES game to sell 1 million + copies. Simply magnificent.