Your Three Most-Played NES Games

Takumaji

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SNK made three absolute bangers on the NES.

P.O.W.
Guerrilla War
Iron Tank

All three were surprisingly fun games that never made it big like Contra.
Yeah, been playing Guerilla War for two hours now, good stuff. It's nice to see the blue SNK logo popping up when you boot the cart.
 

Late

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Hmm, don't think I've played NES since 1990, but from what I remember:

-Gradius
-Faxanadu
-Metal Gear

Besides the obvious like Mario and Zelda.
 

Hattori Hanzo

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Dracula's Curse is the hardest of them. It's kind of strange that I prefer the first one on the NES. Love IV because it was the start to the series for me. 3 awesome games no matter which one you prefer.
 

LoneSage

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I remember talking to some guy on a message board like 18 years ago about Castlevania IV, which came out when he was like 13. And at that time it blew my mind that he said it was disappointing, because before then I had never heard criticism of it before.

His reasoning was he blew through it the same day he got it, and the Dracula fight was a huge disappointment coming after III's Dracula fight. He felt the game itself was a letdown after III, with its multiple characters and branching paths, something IV lacked.

That said, III is a good game but it never captivated me the same way IV did. And I prefer the first over the third as well. Sometimes less is more.
 

Ralfakick

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I remember talking to some guy on a message board like 18 years ago about Castlevania IV, which came out when he was like 13. And at that time it blew my mind that he said it was disappointing, because before then I had never heard criticism of it before.

His reasoning was he blew through it the same day he got it, and the Dracula fight was a huge disappointment coming after III's Dracula fight. He felt the game itself was a letdown after III, with its multiple characters and branching paths, something IV lacked.

That said, III is a good game but it never captivated me the same way IV did. And I prefer the first over the third as well. Sometimes less is more.
The whip mechanic in IV adds a new dimension to the game, which is enjoyable you can just do so much more, and the added SNES graphics and gimmicks are fun. It certainly is easier, but the pick up and play is fun with IV.

III took the bulk of my time between the three games to finish.

I felt like an accomplishment to finish with III but I think I enjoyed IV more, III does have so much packed into the cart tho.
 

Burning Fight!!

NIS America fan & Rent Free tenant
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Nowadays I kinda cycle through

Double Dragon 2
TMNT
Castlevania 1

when I actually sit down to play something.
 

Tron

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Dracula's Curse is the hardest of them. It's kind of strange that I prefer the first one on the NES. Love IV because it was the start to the series for me. 3 awesome games no matter which one you prefer.
Some times,i wonder the changes made for u.s cvIII were made to combat rentals.I was playing that version last month on the anniversary collection.First loop ok it wasn't that bad but by the second one i'll say this very frustrating with the flying skulls and crap.
 

AppleiDog

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Playing lots of NES games lately but basically I'm still a NESn00b so I'm sure that I'm missing the more obscure gems of the library. My personal favs at the moment are the usual suspects, you know, the Castlevanias, Megamans, Contras and Ninja Gaidens, so playable, so challenging, pure bliss.

So... list your three most-played NES games here, need some inspiration!
Mighty final fight, ghost busters 2 Euro and fire and ice (Solomon key)
 

ChoAniki

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Journey to Silius
Bucky o hare
Power Blade

Some not so much talked about games:
Dead Fox
Cocoron
Flipull
Getsu Fuuma Den
Holy Diver
Ninja Crusaders
Blue Shadow
Super Sprint (there is a PS1 compilation with the arcade port on it but the Famicom version is still very fun)
 

LoneSage

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It's funny Tak made this thread because within the last month I am playing NES games again for the first time in 10+ years. I used to have close to 200 NES games at one time, man. Sold nearly all of them to the guy here with the lightsaber/'did more for the world than Steve Jobs' for cheap af before moving to China. Now going back and playing them for the first time in my life without fear of the NES crapping out on me - and save states! - feels good, man.
 

prof

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I remember talking to some guy on a message board like 18 years ago about Castlevania IV, which came out when he was like 13. And at that time it blew my mind that he said it was disappointing, because before then I had never heard criticism of it before.

His reasoning was he blew through it the same day he got it, and the Dracula fight was a huge disappointment coming after III's Dracula fight. He felt the game itself was a letdown after III, with its multiple characters and branching paths, something IV lacked.

That said, III is a good game but it never captivated me the same way IV did. And I prefer the first over the third as well. Sometimes less is more.
I can understand that. Aside from the difficulty and replayability with branching paths, from a technical standpoint, III is one of the most advanced games on the NES. Lots of parallax and graphical tricks as well as a multi-channel soundtrack, it is an impressive game, and quite an undertaking to completely master. Whereas IV, while having revolutionary graphics for the time, lacks the same ambition when it comes to overall gameplay. It feels like a dumbed-down, simplified Castlevania experience when compared to its predecessor. And you could make the argument that Simon's Quest is also a more immersive and deep gaming experience than IV as well.

I suspect that your friend would have enjoyed Bloodlines on the Genesis at that time. It has a lot of impressive graphical flourishes and maintains a higher difficulty and replayability due to some branching paths and the ability to play as two different characters with different abilities. All of that said, I still enjoy IV and think it is a great game, but there's no doubt that in comparison to the 3 NES titles and Bloodlines, it is by far the easiest games.
 

prof

A Great Place to Store Your Dildo Collection
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Journey to Silius
Bucky o hare
Power Blade

Some not so much talked about games:
Dead Fox
Cocoron
Flipull
Getsu Fuuma Den
Holy Diver
Ninja Crusaders
Blue Shadow
Super Sprint (there is a PS1 compilation with the arcade port on it but the Famicom version is still very fun)
Cool list. I highlight Ninja Crusaders because within the past couple of days, one of my buddies was talking to me about it. I didn't even remember it at first, but when I looked it up, I do remember playing back in the day. Probably a rental or maybe one that a kid on my street had. What tipped me off was the ability to morph into different animals. I found an article about it on HG101, and kind of want to revisit it now. My buddy is really into it at the moment. He said he's playing it blind without the manual or any FAQs, and it's been fun figuring out the different creatures to morph into and their talents and such.

 

ggallegos1

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It's funny Tak made this thread because within the last month I am playing NES games again for the first time in 10+ years. I used to have close to 200 NES games at one time, man. Sold nearly all of them to the guy here with the lightsaber/'did more for the world than Steve Jobs' for cheap af before moving to China. Now going back and playing them for the first time in my life without fear of the NES crapping out on me - and save states! - feels good, man.
The save states are what do it for me. I appreciate NES games but don't have the time to sit there and play through the whole thing in one shot without remember arbitrary passwords or just getting good. I loved the RetroFreak because it had save states and it was awesome
 

SignOfGoob

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Super Mario Bros.
Ice Hockey
Excite Bike

I’m sort of not really into the NES. I do find I like earlier stuff better than the later stuff that flickers the fuck all over the place.
 

LoneSage

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As for Ninja Crusaders, funny enough I was going to list it as well so that makes three of us. It's a B-tier game but the fact we're all mentioning it says something. Just a simple, fun, no frills platformer where you can change your character into animals.
I appreciate NES games but don't have the time to sit there and play through the whole thing in one shot without remember arbitrary passwords or just getting good.
100%. Can not freaking believe I have just now started playing old games with save states starting a month ago. It was good letting the ego and purist inside me go.
 

Takumaji

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It's funny Tak made this thread because within the last month I am playing NES games again for the first time in 10+ years. I used to have close to 200 NES games at one time, man. Sold nearly all of them to the guy here with the lightsaber/'did more for the world than Steve Jobs' for cheap af before moving to China. Now going back and playing them for the first time in my life without fear of the NES crapping out on me - and save states! - feels good, man.
The Everdrive I bought for the NES I got recently supports save states so that area is covered. I never had a NES when it was new, just played some of the heavy hitters in one form or another (compilation, emu, etc.) over the years. My setup lets me play them and more on the og hardware and adds some advantages of emulation, it has become my fav way of playing classic games.

Really lovin' the games so far, feels like a gap in my personal vg history is slowly closing. :)
 

Burning Fight!!

NIS America fan & Rent Free tenant
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I know why people like save states but for me it doesn't make much sense unless you're playing some rusty ass NES RPG game or something. Personal preference really but for me the fun thing about old consoles is to play it in shorter bursts that are basically regulated by the game being short or pissing you off. You beat the game or lost at the second half of the game? Ok, power off, come back to it another day.

Actually this is what most appeals to me about arcade games, too. It doesn't overstay its welcome and it's short enough to master.

Now what does tickle my curiosity is -- how does the everdrive implement savestates? That's some sci-fi shit.
 

Takumaji

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I know why people like save states but for me it doesn't make much sense unless you're playing some rusty ass NES RPG game or something. Personal preference really but for me the fun thing about old consoles is to play it in shorter bursts that are basically regulated by the game being short or pissing you off. You beat the game or lost at the second half of the game? Ok, power off, come back to it another day.

Actually this is what most appeals to me about arcade games, too. It doesn't overstay its welcome and it's short enough to master.
n
Now what does tickle my curiosity is -- how does the everdrive implement savestates? That's some sci-fi shit.
Bought it from AliExpress, it creates an SRAM-copy of every game you play, once you reset the machine it dumps the contents and you can reload it later on or assign a custom button combo for saving and loading in the main menu.

By copying/renaming the SRAM dumps on PC you can circumvent the limit of the Everdrive N8 of just one savestate per game. The more expensive N8 Pro supports up to 99 saves per game.

Anyway, I also prefer loading a game and then playing it until I've beaten it or get bored. Sometimes an intense 20 minutes session in one game can be more satisfying than playing another one for 10 hours, even if you don't beat it.
 

NeoSneth

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TMNT
TMNT II
Contra

Most played doesnt mean favorite, but these games took a lot of my time. Contra I could 1CC no problem. TMNT 1 was just hard. That's why I put so many hours. TMNT Arcade was just an awesome game.
 
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