What are the Shortest/Easiest Games to Beat on the NES?

[Neb]

Yeah, I know this sounds kind of strange, but what are the shortest and/or easiest games for the NES? I have about 350 NES games right now, and when I think about it, I've only finished around 10 of them :o ! I don't know how the number can be SO low, as I've been playing NES for so long. I want to, at least, double that number by the end of this week. Can anyone help me out?

[Quintracker]

most every Disney game, Duck Tales, Rescue Rangers, etc.
double dragon
lifeforce
shadowgate and deja vu if you know what you're doing
kirby's adventure
river city ransom
wizards & warriors (unlimited continues)
the super mario bros. trilogy
tiny toon adventures

to name a few 8-)

[Arqueologia_Digital]

Hey Quintracker, SMB 3 is not very short...
Other short games...

Contra
Ducktales 2
Othello :roll:
Tetris ;)

[portnoyd]

Felix the Cat & Bugs Bunny's Birthday Blowout come ot mind. Good games, but easy and somewhat short.

dave

[simonbelmont7]

super marios bros with the warps, obviously, and Kung Fu comes to mind...

[Quintracker]

Arqueologia_Digital: Warp 3 times in SMB3 and it won't take you that long 8-) LOL

[BIGMIKE]

about 15 minutes for Karate Kid

[Kid Fenris]

If you've got the original Power Blade and any skill with NES action games, you should be able to beat it in two hours. It's no shorter than, say, Mega Man 2, but the whole thing's astoundingly easy. I think it's the only game I've ever played in which I took down every boss on my first try.

[YoshiM]

Strider
Breakthru
Legend of Kage
Rygar
Heavy Barrel

[Postermen]

Karnov only took me about an hour to beat my first time.

[Dobie]

Taboo: The Sixth Sense takes maybe three minutes. Its not a fun or entertaining three minutes by any means. It also requires no skill. Can it even be called a "game?" But if you need notches on your "games played through" belt, this one's a winner.

[hades]

Guerrilla war. You can continue right where you left off and have unlimited continues...

Easy from what I remember ;-)

[badinsults]

Where's Waldo can be beat in well under 10 minutes if you have a good eye.

Of course, the game sucks, and the graphics are crap.

[Ruudos]

Felix the Cat is the easiest.
Also Adventures in the Magic Kingdom, Rescue Rangers, Duck tales, Legendary Wings (it seems hard at first, but it's easy), Super Mario Bros. 2.

[Goblin]

If you use the 20 lives cheat, POW doesn't take that long.

[rbudrick]

Strider
Breakthru
Legend of Kage
Rygar
Heavy Barrel

WTF? Never played Breakthru, but RYgar takes about 5 friggin hours! Strider too. Heavy Barrel isn't really that short or easy, and Legend of Kage is a bitch to get the final ending.

ANyway, someone beat me to Guerilla War...great game...and strangely based on the Cuban Revolution....I guess you play as Fidel Castro and his brother...so weird.

-Rob

[ehall]

I had a real easy time with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 (The arcade game). Think it took about 1.5 - 2 hrs.

[Aswald]

Star Voyager.

This game is so bad, you won't play it for very long...

[WiseSalesman]

Little Nemo.

And Air Fortress isn't too hard either, although I may well be the only person who likes that game...

[CrazyImpmon]

for the shortest RPG: Final Fantasy. First time I played it it lasted 2 days. Also Legend of Zelda, you could probably finish this in one sitting.

[WiseSalesman]

Also Legend of Zelda, you could probably finish this in one sitting.

Been there, done it.

[Darth Vader]

Definitely contra. Beat it a few times without losing a life. It is an easy game, but damn I still love it!

Danny

[dave2236]

Darth Vader you liie, you never beat it with 3 guys. :)

NOW I have beat it with 3 guys . WOo Hoo for me

Also Darth next time I come over I wanna see you beat it. Maybe I'll join the dark side and we will defeat the Sith.......wait..... Jedi.......wait.......Aliens.....

[Darth Vader]

Darth Vader you liie, you never beat it with 3 guys. :)

NOW I have beat it with 3 guys . WOo Hoo for me

Also Darth next time I come over I wanna see you beat it. Maybe I'll join the dark side and we will defeat the Sith.......wait..... Jedi.......wait.......Aliens.....

Not with 3, with 1. The patterns for the levels don't change, but so what, it is one of my favorite NES titles.

[nesman85]

captain skyhawk is one of the easiest nes games i've played. its pretty short and easy, but there are one hit kills, so you might have to play it enough to know where the enemys and stuff are. this was the only game i owned at one time (besides smb/dh which i had played to death), so i mastered it. :)

[tynstar]

I beat Breakthru in 45 minures. What a waste of money.

[bargora]

Try Archon. Yeah, it's not a "beat 900 henchmen and 5 bosses" game, but it's a cool chess-style game with action sequences to determine who ends up with the challenged square. You will be able to defeat the computer within a day.

For a bit more challenge, play Tiger Heli to the end end end...

[hydr0x]

SMB,
Nintendo World Class Soccer
Off-Road
Duck Tales

[tynstar]

Breakthru

[tynstar]

Oops!! :duh:

[nate1749]

Anyone know if Talespin is a short game... It's disney and I just started it, kind of hoping it's short, not really great or anything, but I want to beat it =)

[King Neptune]

Contra
SMB
SMB 2 (with warps; heck, even without warps)
Chip N Dale
Felix the Cat

....to name a few.....

....that of course have already been mentioned.....

[boatofcar]

Anyone know if Talespin is a short game... It's disney and I just started it, kind of hoping it's short, not really great or anything, but I want to beat it =)

Actually, I've heard that's one of the harder NES games...sorry! :)

Ducktales was really hard for me for a couple days, but once I figured out how to beat the Translvania level, everything was pretty easy.

Rescue Rangers is very easy to beat.

SMB 1, of course.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Double Dragon II is one I have no trouble beating, and I still love it. I hadn't played it for at least 10 years until I got a copy last month... on the second try I beat it.

[Barbarianoutkast85]

Felix the Cat I think is pretty easy.

[jwm2]

Mappyland was super easy to beat. Also SMB 1 and 2 if you use the warps.

[DigitalSpace]

Puss N Boots: Pero's Great Adventure. Despite the short length, I think it's a pretty decent platformer.

[jb143]

After not playing SMB in years I decided to see how long it would take me to beat it. It took 8 minutes. I havn't been able to do it since though.

But does that make it a short game? I'd beatten it countless times years earlier. Some of the games that people have listed I wouldn't consider short. My brother can beat Zelda in about 45 minutes but he has it memorized. The first time it took weeks to beat.

But yeah...I do remember Karate Kid being pretty short

[FlufflePuff]

Any of the Donkey Kongs. I realize the point is to get a high score, but you can get the end screen in 15 minutes.

[BakaTanuki]

Duck Tales NES. Its extremely easy. I beat it at least once every week, since I'm wanting to speedrun it. I haven't tried timing myself yet, but I'm pretty sure I still need to shave off a couple minutes to beat the current record.

Despite being so short and easy, I still enjoy playing it.

[8bitgamer]

Jaws doesn't take long to beat once you get good at it.

[Superman]

Two games that I can think of that are relatively short are:

1. Punchout games - take about 1/2 hour if you play straight through or a couple of minutes if you use the code.

2. Dragon spirit - takes less than 20 minutes if you die a couple times or less

[DigitalSpace]

I just beat BreakThru today. Took me about an hour.

It's a short game but I wouldn't call it one of the easiest. It depends on how you are with memorization and patience. I was watching a friend play it a few months ago, and he gave up in the first part of the city level. I sent him a message on his MySpace after beating the game, maybe it'll motivate him to play through the whole thing.

[Dreamc@sting]

I'm throwing my votes to most Disney games, Dusktales was very short...and double dragon was one of the first games I ever owned on NES and I beat it the first day..back then I was like w00t..and replayed it constantly but I busted it out the other week and was like...uhh..wow...lol

[vintagegamecrazy]

I just beat Double Dragon and it wasnt easy although it's short. One game that comes to mind as being extremely easy and short is Challenge of the Dragon. It probably could be beaten in 15 minutes or so.

[RadiantSvgun]

Contra, Chip and Dale, Adventures in the Magic Kingdom, mega man 2

[Ryaan1234]

I recently beat Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu. I beat it in about an hour or two. This is coming from someone who sucks at NES games. I can't even beat the first level of Ducktales. So, I think Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu would take an hour or less for someone who plays a lot of NES games.

[The 1 2 P]

Bad Dudes can be beat in under an hour if you use the 63 life code. Paperboy, Excite Bike and Rad Racer are all pretty short too.

[Dukert27]

Super mario bros 1 and 3 are by far the easiest and shortest games i have ever played lol but the are very fun. but those were said several times already.

try the bible adventures and king of kings VERY EASY and Short

[strassy]

Cabal
Commando (frustrating, but with diligence I beat it in two hours)
Kid Klown
Kid Niki (same as Commando...give yourself a few hours and you'll be good)
Kung Fu
Mighty Bomb Jack
Mighty Final Fight
Popeye
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves...a bit time consuming but very easy
Toki
Wall Street Kid (just read the "HOT STOCKS BULLETIN" every day, sell whatever stocks you owned, by the top "HOT STOCK", and repeat every day until you have a yacht, a castle, and a money grubbing tramp of a wife)
Wizards and Warriors

[Smashed Brother]

Rescue Rangers definitely gets my vote. I remember my mom taking me to Toys 'R Us, paying over $50 for the game and then beating it my very first time playing it. I kinda felt bad for my mom spending so much on such a short game :(

With practice, I was good enough at Contra to beat it on one life. I wouldn't say that it was short or easy, though. Now, the arcade version is another story. That could be beaten in about 20 minutes.

Most of the early SNK games on the NES were incredibly easy. My buddy bought Iron Tank and we beat it in about an hour on our first time through (the fact that the game gave you unlimited continues off the bat didn't hurt!)

[namzep]

Ones that I've always found easy to beat are:

Super Mario Bros.
Bubble Bobble
Dr. Mario
Deja Vu (probably my all-time favorite game on the NES)

I'm sure there are others that I'm just not thinking of now.

[Ruudos]

Super mario bros 1 and 3 are by far the easiest and shortest games i have ever played lol but the are very fun. but those were said several times already.

try the bible adventures and king of kings VERY EASY and Short

I don't think Super Mario Bros. 3 is short. Especially if you don't use warps.

Ok, another nomination for an easy game:
Dynowarz

[Zora Mystery]

Tecmo bowl doesn't take very long if you play through the season. It has a little over 10 teams on it and every game is 6 minutes long.

[Nophix]

Ducktales, Air Fortress, Kabuki Quantum Fighter, and Megaman 2 and 3, and Shadowgate are some of my favs.

[DigitalSpace]

I'm throwing in Super Dodge Ball, at least on the easiest difficulty, which I got through pretty quickly.

[Zap!]

Breakthru?

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

Little Nemo.

And Air Fortress isn't too hard either, although I may well be the only person who likes that game...

I actually really enjoy Air Fortress, also. Kirby's Adventure is one I'd recommend tho. Put that at the top of ur list if u haven't finished it.

Monopoly isn't too hard either. I oddly became super addicted to this game for awhile. I beat all 12 opponents at once in one game, which is simple if u can acquire Boardwalk and Park Place. U just keep sucking up everything at that point.

The trick is to go to auction as much as u can when u land on a property, and mortgage things until u have enough cash to out-bid ur opponent. The computer will never mortgage things to add cash for the auction ever. So u can wind up getting Boardwalk for $6.

[Niku-Sama]

Taboo The Sixth Sense (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taboo:_The_Sixth_Sense)

[recorderdude]

Shortest?

Marble Madness.

Easiest?

Hahahahano.

The entire game can be beaten in literally under 5 minutes but you'll likely spend several ours memorizing the levels to beat it before you run out of time.

Not so much for EA's genesis port on easy mode though.

[Casati]

Heroes of the Lance can be completed in around 12 minutes.

Hydlide can be finished within a few hours with some RPG level grinding involved.

The first Dragon Warrior is relatively easy and has a battery save so you should be able to finish that one.

Defender of the Crown is a strategy game that can be completed in 10 minutes after you've practiced the basic gameplay.

Conflict, Desert Commander, Dino Riki and Dragon Spirit are some other NES games with short playing times.

[Scissors]

Once you get the hang of it, North & South can be beaten in under 10 minutes.

[Manhattan Sports Club]

Mickey Mousecapade. I remember buying it as a youth and being VERY disappointed with how easy and short it was.

Likewise, I second most of the games cited in this thread.