Background:
Last year VGchartz ran a series of articles that ranked the top ten games for a number of modern systems including the 360, Wii, and PS3. The voting was handled by the staff and a small “reader’s choice” section was added with the reader’s opinions. A year has come and gone, and tastes change, so we decided to see what kind of games you guys wanted listed in a top ten this time, except we are handling things differently this time. Not only will the list be compiled entirely by you, the fans, but we will go through a large number of game systems all the way back to the 1970’s with the Atari 2600 to modern day. We hope to do this a few a weeks, so stay tunes for your favorite systems! Since our readers are a diverse group be prepared for some surprises!
Method:
Our voting was carried out on the forums, where we asked patrons to list their top 5 Nintendo Entertainment System games in order, and numerical values were placed on the places. After compiling all the totals, this is the list that we came up with.
While the Atari 2600 is the first system most folks remember, the Nintendo Entetainment System (NES) is the one that really hammered the industry into mainstream culture. At over 60 million sold, the NES was a true juggernaut in the entertainment industry. It's true, the system wasn't widely accepted at first--they had to keep 'video game' out of the title and bundle it with a robot to get stores to give it a chance after Atari caused the gaming crash of the '80s. It all worked out for the best, though, as besides making way for the amazing consoles we know today, the NES was home to some absolute timeless classics of game design. Please enjoy your picks for the top ten games to grace the Nintendo Entertainment System.
10 - The Guardian Legend
Now this is where you guys surprised us a little, as The Guardian Legend beat out favourites like Super Mario Bros. 2 in the race for the Top Ten NES titles. These days, a lot of games are described as ‘X game meets Y game’, like “Resident Evil 5 is Resident Evil 4 meets Gears of War.” But have you ever heard of a game that’s “Legend of Zelda meets Xevious meets Contra?” Because that’s pretty much The Guardian Legend in a nutshell. The instruction manual sums it up perfectly, stating that players control “...a highly sophisticated aerobot transformer,” in her quest to destroy a planet-sized object that is hurtling toward Earth. The game combines space shooting with land shooting and exploration-based segments in a manner no other has done before or since. For its creative mish-mash of several disparate genres, The Guardian Legend has earned its place as your choice for tenth best NES game of all time.
9 - Ninja Gaiden
Lightning-fast action and slick anime-style cutscenes assured the original Ninja Gaiden a place in the NES hall of fame. Ryu Hayabusa could climb walls, sure, but he couldn’t run two feet without running into the business end of a sword or random shuriken. This game is right up there with Contra in the list of most infuriating-yet-awesome games of all time. It was also one of the first games to tell a story via stylish animated cutscenes. But really, all we needed to know is “You’re a ninja, OMG THERE’RE SOME BAD GUYS GO GET THEM!”
8 - Dragon Warrior III
Dragon Warrior, Dragon Quest... whatever you choose to call this series, many deem its third instalment to be one of the strongest role-playing titles on the NES. Taking on the role of the child of a legendary warrior, the player recruits a party and goes on a quest to stop the wicked Baramos from destroying the world. It’s one of the first RPGs to implement a class system, by which players could assign certain roles in battle to certain party members--a genre staple ever since. Like the recent Dragon Quest IX, the game forwent giving you party members that were involved with the story. Instead, you simply went and picked up whoever you liked at the bar--kinda like I do in real life!
7 - Final Fantasy
“Final” indeed. This roleplaying epic was so revolutionary at its release that it singlehandedly reshaped the RPG genre and saved Squaresoft from bankruptcy. It’s got all the genre cliches (warriors of light, kingdom in darkness, level grinding, treasure chests, classes, yadayadayada), but this is the game that made them cliches. If you enjoy any modern RPG, from Mass Effect to Kingdom Hearts, you’ve got Final Fantasy to thank.
6 - Zelda 2
It’s a shame that some people call this the weak link (see what I did there?) of the Zelda series. Its’ side-scrolling RPG-style gameplay diverged from the original’s open world, but it was a fun game that brought some new ideas to the table. Set sometime after the first game, this new adventure introduces a fairly involved system of parrying and attacking, as well as basic platforming elements. Most companies are afraid to try anything radically new with their big franchises. So all you who downplay the game just because it’s different? You are error.
5 - Metroid
Like the Zelda games, Metroid places gamers in a large open world filled with monsters and new equipment to collect. Unlike Zelda, Metroid places gamers in the shoes of a bad-ass sci-fi bounty hunter with missiles, bombs, and the ability to roll up into a ball to reach new areas. On top of the fantastic gameplay, Metroid achieved a level of atmosphere previously unheard of in gaming. This is the game that showed the world video games didn’t need high-pitched musical beats highlighting every encounter, and the dark environment of Planet Zebes really made you feel a sense of isolation. Oh, and to top it all off--SAMUS IS A GIRL!!
4 - Mega Man 2
With sales of the original Mega Man disappointing, Capcom was hesitant to greenlight a sequel. Lucky for gamers that they gave it a shot, as it ended up kickstarting one of the company’s most lucrative franchises. As in the original, Mega Man traverses eight stages in non-linear fashion, taking weapons off defeated bosses and using them on others. The only Mega Man title to spawn its own novelization , MM2 features some of the series’ most iconic adversaries, such as Air Man, Crash Man, and Heat Man.
3 - Super Mario Brothers
The game that singlehandedly brought gaming to the mainstream and showed the world the possibilities for adventure this medium provides. Super Mario Bros. introduced many new concepts to gaming, such as hardware sidescrolling and hidden paths. Everything about this game is just perfect--bright, happy visuals, music that every gamer knows, precise controls, and a perfectly-honed difficulty level. Is it any wonder that, until very recently, this was the best-selling video game of all time?
2 - The Legend of Zelda
Grand Theft Auto? Pfft... Longtime gamers know that Zelda is where games with large, open worlds really took off. With a massive kingdom full of enemies, puzzles, and hidden caves, it was absolutely necessary to make use of the map included in the box in order to complete the adventure. In short: “It’s the Legend of Zelda and its really rad. Those creatures from Ganon are pretty bad! Octoroks and Tektites, Leavers too. But with your help our hero pulls through!”
1 - Super Mario Brothers 3
In other news, the sun came up this morning and pie tastes great. Super Mario Bros. 3 is your choice for best game on the NES, accruing more than double the votes that Zelda got. After being burned by the release of a gimped version of Super Mario Bros 2 in North America, gamers in the West rejoiced after catching a glimpse of SMB3 in the movie-cum-two-hour-Nintendo-commercial The Wizard. For many, this game is the pinnacle of the NES library, and for good reason. It improves on the original’s genre-defining side-scrolling gameplay, adding higher-resolution graphics, twice as many levels, and an overworld map system that’s found its way into every subsequent 2D Mario. Not to mention the powerups! Yeah, there’s still the mushroom and Fire Flower, and yeah, the Raccoon tail is cool because it lets you fly, but the Frog Suit. Oh, the Frog Suit! Those dern Hammer Bros never saw my fifty-foot jump coming!
Want more Top Tens? Check out our Reader's Choice awards for Best Atari 2600 awards!
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10/18/85
05/15/87
09/13/85
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