Hello to all the old school gamers out there! Today is a happy day for all in North America, its the 30th Anniversary of the Nintendo Entertainment System!!
On October 18, 1985, the NES and its initial library of 18 games were released in the New York City test market with an initial shipment of 100,000 systems. Each set included a console, two gamepads, a R.O.B., a Zapper, and the Game Paks Gyromite and Duck Hunt.
For its complete North American release, the Nintendo Entertainment System was progressively released over the ensuing years in four different bundles: the Deluxe Set, the Control Deck, the Action Set and the Power Set.
There are 713 licensed titles in the NES library in the US and PAL regions, and there are 113 unlicensed games in the NES library. This makes a grand total of 826 titles in the NES library.
And out of all of them I’ve put together a list of 5 that you should play to show some love to this well made, loved, and collected system the will live on for many years to come.
5) Duck Hunt October 18, 1985 Nintendo
Now Zapper games were so much fun back in the day and this is one of the first to get me shooting at my TV and yelling at that mean dog.
Duck Hunt has three different game modes to choose from. In “Game A” and “Game B”, the targets are flying ducks in a woodland area, and in “Game C” the targets are clay pigeons that are fired away from the player’s perspective into the distance. In “Game A”, one duck will appear on the screen at a time while in “Game B” two ducks will appear at a time. “Game A” allows a second player to control the movement of the flying ducks by using a normal NES controller.
4) Ghosts’n Goblins November 1986 Capcom
This was a ton of fun and frustration for me with its well-timed jumps and fast attacks it a challenge even today.
Ghosts ‘n Goblins was rated the 129th best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Power’s Top 200 Games list. It was also a best seller for the NES, selling 1.64 million units. Ghosts ‘n Goblins is often cited as an example of one of the hardest games of all time to beat, due to its high level of difficulty and the fact the player must play through the game twice in order to achieve the ‘good’ ending.
3) Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!/Punch-Out October 1987/ August 1990 Nintendo
This is one of my all time favorite games still to this day and I play it almost every day when I have some downtime on my PS Vita.
Punch-Out!! features a boxer known as Little Mac working his way up the professional boxing circuits, facing a series of colorful, fictional boxers, leading to a final fight with real life boxer, the then-World Heavyweight Champion, which is Mike Tyson in the original version and Mr. Dream in the later version.
Little Mac has a limited repertoire compared to most of his opponents. His punches are limited to left and right jabs, left and right body blows, and a powerful uppercut. The uppercut can only be used once the player earns a star, which is typically accomplished by counter-punching the opponent directly before or after certain attacks are launched. The player can acquire up to three stars. To perform the uppercut, the player needs to press the start button once a star is earned. To defend, Mac can dodge left or right, duck, and block punches by putting up his guard.
After Nintendo’s license to use Mike Tyson as a special Punch-Out!! character expired (Nintendo decided against renewing it due to his recent defeat by James “Buster” Douglas), Nintendo replaced Tyson with a fictional character called Mr. Dream and re-released the game as simply Punch-Out!! in limited quantities in North America in August 1990.
2) The Legend of Zelda August 22, 1987 Nintendo
To this day this is why I will still play a Zelda game hoping to relive the joy I felt in playing this game with its Gold cart and engrossing game play it will stay with me forever.
The Legend of Zelda incorporates elements of action, adventure, and role-playing games. The player controls Link from a flip-screen overhead perspective as he travels in the over world, a large outdoor map with varied environments. Link begins the game armed only with a small shield, but a sword becomes available to Link after he ventures into a cave that is accessible from the game’s first map screen. Throughout the game, merchants, townspeople, and others guide Link with cryptic clues. These people are scattered across the over world and hidden in caves, shrubbery, or behind walls or waterfalls.
1) Super Mario Bros. 3 February 12, 1990 Nintendo
The first time i saw this game was in the movie The Wizard 1989 and it just blew me and me friends away, we also found how to get the warp whistle and that was the first time i can think of were a game secret was shown in a movie.
Super Mario Bros. 3 is a two-dimensional, side-scrolling platform game in which the player controls the on-screen protagonist: either Mario or Luigi. The game shares similar gameplay mechanics with previous titles in the series—Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, and Super Mario Bros. 2—but introduces several new elements. In addition to the running and jumping moves found in past games, the player can slide down slopes, pick up and throw special blocks, and freely climb up and down vines. In addition, with power-ups, Mario can fly and float. Each kingdom serves as a game world that is divided into levels, and an eighth region is included as the final world, Dark Land. The eight worlds feature distinct visual themes; for example, the second world, “Desert Land”, contains sand-covered levels with pyramids, while the levels in the fourth world, “Giant Land”, are populated with obstacles and enemies twice as tall and twice as wide as those in the other worlds.
Well, I hope you have enjoyed this little stroll down the road of one of the best video game systems ever the Nintendo Entertainment System!!
As always thanks for reading and keep doing it for the love of the game.