IGNs Top 100 NES Games [Archive] - Retrogaming Roundtable

vivaeljason

10-15-2009, 06:55 AM

I can't believe that TMNT would be anywhere near a Top 100 list for anything. I love that the list is basically derailed three entries in.

That said, despite the inclusion of that awful game, this doesn't appear to be too bad a list otherwise. I'll be checking back daily since I am something of a list fanatic. Plus Willow made the cut!

GuyinGA

10-15-2009, 06:59 AM

I like the first TMNT game, but I agree it shouldn't even be in the top 100. Maybe 101, but not even close.

I don't get how Kid Niki: Radical Ninja is so high on the list. I didn't really like it when I played it. The only cool thing about it is....it has a pink cartridge!

And there are too many Mega Man games so far....after 3, the series lost it for me on the NES.

And it's good to see Fester's Quest get some love...maybe Castlevania II: Simon's Quest will as well. If Castlevania III is not in the top 20, then this list doesn't make any sense.

vivaeljason

10-15-2009, 07:13 AM

I have noticed that there's an abundance of the Blue Bomber. I love Mega Man, but let's be honest, MM5 and MM6 are both chores to play.

mrmark0673

10-15-2009, 07:34 AM

Little Samson: 93
Fester's Quest: 45

Yeah, nice list...

I know no one is going to put a list together that everyone can agree with, but I mean, really? Some things just can't be justified.

s1lence

10-15-2009, 09:22 AM

Meh, IGN articles are SOooo high quality.

Oobgarm

10-15-2009, 10:01 AM

Meh, glad to see they're giving props to titles like Shadowgate, though.

portnoyd

10-15-2009, 10:14 AM

Jesus christ. Did they throw every not outright terrible NES game into a hat and pick them to do the order?

Oobgarm

10-15-2009, 11:38 AM

I wonder if Magic Darts will be on the list.

Ruudos

10-15-2009, 12:51 PM

TMNT is in my top 100 too, only the water level is far from insane.

RASK1904

10-15-2009, 01:05 PM

I've been watching the list. I saw some I couldn't remember. So I pulled them out. Astyanax, Guardian Legend, Metal Storm etc. Just some I didn't recall. A bunch of the list I do not need to play I know that game by heart. But yeah. It's been fun.

I also think the order is very off. And some stuff just shouldn't bee on there or so high at all. I think Rad Racer is higher than Dragon Warrior III. Really?

I also think they inteltually make it like this so people like use will talk about it. Kinda stupid.

Metal Storm is pretty bad ass.

ryborg

10-15-2009, 01:19 PM

Fester's Quest ahead of Dr. Mario???? Shameful....

kupomogli

10-15-2009, 01:22 PM

Why are people complaining about Ninja Turtles and Fester's Quest? There are some really bad games on the list with Ninja Turtles being really good and should be on the list while Fester's Quest not being that bad and if it did make it on one of my lists, it'd be near 100. I'd say quite a few games they've listed on here might not even be on the top 200 for me.

Now I used to like Wizards and Warriors as well as Ironsword back in the day, mostly because when you're a kid you only get one game every so often. But those two games are fairly high up on the list(64 and 56.) Why? There's no way that they belong there. Infact, playing them today having played all the other games I've played these two aren't good.

There's also Double Dragon 3 at 55. Double Dragon 2 is on the list but only at 83 and there's definitely something wrong with this as it's the far superior game.

Astyanax and Dragon Warrior 3 are 97 and 96, both deserve to be much higher on the list.

--

I think we all should make our own top 100 listings. Can't be any worse than IGN's unless you actually tried.

Lemmi_Is_God

10-15-2009, 06:01 PM

i have 240 nes games and so far out of the 41 to 100 listed ive played 10 of them
i guess my tastes are very different then whoever made this list so far

guitargary75

10-15-2009, 07:20 PM

Fester's Quest was ranked above Metal Storm. WTF!!!

GuyinGA

10-15-2009, 09:29 PM

I'll make the argument why TMNT and Fester's Quest aren't very good (and I love those games).

TMNT felt like an incomplete game when you finished it. The side scrolling and overhead parts felt just mashed together and towards the end of the game, there weren't as much exploration as in previous levels/worlds. If TMNT was a full-fledged action/RPG (a la Zelda) it would be pretty cool.

Fester's Quest is similar but the first-person dungeons were very bad and didn't fit in the game at all. The overhead levels were fun and the best part but you had to go through non-descript bland dungeons (for lack of better term) to advance. The boss fights were great and made the game better, but I wouldn't know about 45 of all time better.

I think if you expand the criteria and included games from Europe & Japan then games like King Kong 2, New Ghostbusters 2, The Goonies 1, and others would find a way on the list.

joedick

10-16-2009, 01:10 AM

vivaeljason

10-16-2009, 07:04 AM

I was going to say that the updates of the last two days (including Adventure Island II and Batman) were awesome, but then I saw Castlevania II and Metal Gear are 25 and 26.

Castlevania II is ridiculous, plain and simple. Metal Gear is great...if you're playing it on something other than an NES.

Eric Dude

10-16-2009, 10:10 AM

Ahhh, IGN. Is there anything you can't ruin with a list?

AB Positive

10-16-2009, 10:34 AM

Count me in on the Fester's Quest/TMNT hate bandwagon. I owned both as a kid - hated them as a child. Replayed them as an adult... hated them still. They shouldn't be anywhere near any Top 100.

That being said I have two nits to pick with KupoMowgli.

1) Wizards and Warriors/Ironsword are both fun, awesome games and I'm surprised you dislike them so much. I'd rank them ahead of Fester's Quest any day of the week.

2) Top 100 lists need to be burned to the ground, IGN's, DP's, all of 'em. Or - at least - I'm not running any top 100 list that gets attempted again. You want an aggregated list, you do the work.

(Hell I didn't even do the math work and it was a pain, I think it was Flack's wife who had the mad Excel skills there)

Gentlegamer

10-16-2009, 10:42 AM

BetaWolf47

10-16-2009, 11:05 AM

I've never understood why people get worked up about lists like these. I love seeing them cause they may shine a light on games I may have missed. In fact, if I agreed 100% with the list, it would probably be pretty boring.

Like when sites write up lists of the top 10 NES games, a list that short is just going to have the 'obvious' selections. *yawn* We know Mario 3 is great, what else ya got?

That's the thing with this list. Even with the titles which don't make other lists are still 'obvious' titles. TMNT1? Skate or Die 2? Mario Bros. arcade? Mickey Mousecapade? Ice Climber? Heck, they even put that horrid Ikari Warriors port in there! These games aren't really that great or obscure.

They do get props for naming some great obscure titles though, like Journey to Silius, Little Samson, Gargoyle's Quest 2, Metal Storm, and a few other obscure hits that nary make lists though.

Lady Jaye

10-16-2009, 11:08 AM

Jesus christ. Did they throw every not outright terrible NES game into a hat and pick them to do the order?

That was exactly what I thought after seeing Chip n Dale Rescue Rangers so low on the list. While it's definitely not a top-10 game, at least it belongs in the top 50 list, not at position 71. And that's just one WTF example...

Kevincal

10-16-2009, 11:14 AM

BetaWolf47

10-16-2009, 11:19 AM

The only accurate way to make a top 100 NES game list is to poll actual gamers like us. ;) I think I may just cook up something in a bit. ;) If you remember I did the "your favorite classic games" mega list.

A GameFAQs user actually did one in the previous months. The NES board is one of the few good ones on that site, and the user who did it put in a lot of effort. The result is a very well-done user-made list.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=916386&topic=51440644

<EDIT> Wait, "actual gamers"? IGN editors are "actual gamers" too...

Ryaan1234

10-16-2009, 12:12 PM

Castlevania II and Metal Gear are 25 and 26.

I was more shocked with Kirby's Adventure and Metal Gear at 27 and 26. Kirby's Adventure is MUCH better than either Metal Gear or Castlevania II. WTF.

7th lutz

10-16-2009, 01:35 PM

Dragon Warrior 3 being 96 is to low and should be a big gap between dragon Warrior 3 & 4 in ranking.

I can't comment on Ring King, since I played it. The only thing I know about the game is what the corner man does during intermission.

I don't know if Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles should be on the list. I own the game and played way before the Angry Video Game Nerd reviewed it.

Double Dragon 3 isn't supposed be ranked higher than Double Dragon 2. I own the whole Nes Double Series over 16 years. I considerDouble Dragon 3 the worst of the 3 games and Double Dragon 3 isn't a top 100 Nes game. Double Dragon 3 is too high at Number 55.

Fester's Quest isn't as bad as the Angry Video Game Nerd made it, but it is a not 45 game. It should be around 90th at best.

I used to own Metal Gear for the Nes. Metal Gear has no business being 26. I don't think it should be on the top 100 list for the Nes. I heard the MSX version is way better even I read the creator the series admitted it.

vivaeljason

10-16-2009, 04:59 PM

I was more shocked with Kirby's Adventure and Metal Gear at 27 and 26. Kirby's Adventure is MUCH better than either Metal Gear or Castlevania II. WTF.

That is true...Kirby's Adventure is a blast, and I was happy to see it on the list. I just felt like pointing out the crapola that's making this list.

Balloon Fight

10-16-2009, 05:59 PM

Basically if Little Samson isn't in the top 10, the list is poor imo. Kirbys Adventure should easily make top 20 as well. Also Festers Quest being on the list at all is a joke.

Aussie2B

10-16-2009, 06:45 PM

Wow, that is a really haphazard list. I'll second the sentiment that it feels like they made the order by pulling them out of a hat, short of the top few games which are entirely predictable. I mean, I love Stinger more than practically anybody, but is it actually a better game than all of the ones below it? Even I can't justify that placement.

TMNT, Castlevania II, Metal Gear, and all of the Mega Mans are legitimately good games that belong on the list; Fester's Quest, not so much.

GuyinGA

10-16-2009, 08:39 PM

I don't really know if Metal Gear really has a place on the list -- it felt like a bad game, even if you never played the MSX version. I don't really understand the Castlevania II hatred other than its confusing and badly translated. So I concur that Castlevania II & Metal Gear shouldn't be at #25 & #26.

The top 10 is perfectly fine with me, even though I would personally swap out Duck Tales with Contra.

And Jackal is not #36 of all time, it's barely OK. Heavy Barrel is better than that game IMO.

GarrettCRW

10-16-2009, 10:38 PM

That list is a shitload of fuck. I use AVGN terminology because their staff makes multiple jabs at the AVGN, calling him the "Nintendo Nerd". This is particularly astonishing in regards to Castlevania II, which Rolfe has admitted as being a good game once you get past its severe localization flaws.

vivaeljason

10-17-2009, 12:30 AM

Not that it should be any different, but the problem with lists like this (as has been noted) is that the top picks are totally predictable. Even before the top 25 was announced, I figured out 12 of the top 15, missing only Castlevania III, R.C. Pro-Am (brain fart there) and DuckTales (I had the first Castlevania, Kid Icarus, and Ninja Gaiden up there instead). The only surprise was in the order, which wasn't all that surprising when it was down to the top 3. When it's this predictable, why even bother doing it?

EDIT: Also, unless I missed it, Gyruss wasn't on the top 100, and that's a damn shame.

Sonicwolf

10-17-2009, 01:57 AM

I don't really know if Metal Gear really has a place on the list

Personally, I loath that game. I dont understand what the hell was so great about it... enough to spawn an impressive franchise and reach this list. ugh.

GarrettCRW

10-17-2009, 04:09 AM

Personally, I loath that game. I dont understand what the hell was so great about it... enough to spawn an impressive franchise and reach this list. ugh.

The NES version didn't spawn the franchise-the MSX version did.

vivaeljason

10-17-2009, 07:20 AM

The NES version didn't spawn the franchise-the MSX version did.

While the MSX version did spawn the franchise, I think Sonicwolf was arguing that the NES version popularized it and allowed for sequels to be made, which actually may not be true. I'm sure the popularity of the games in Japan on the MSX are what convinced Kojima to make more, otherwise we would have gotten SUPER METAL GEAR on the SNES.

The 1 2 P

10-18-2009, 01:43 AM

-dustburn-

10-18-2009, 02:26 AM

Where is...
-Solar Jetman?
-Kabuki: Quantum Fighter?
-S.C.A.T.?
-Nightshade?
COME ON...

-dustburn-

10-18-2009, 02:35 AM

-Shatterhand?
-Strider?
-Q-Bert (Prolly not, but I'm partial)

Aussie2B

10-18-2009, 03:43 AM

Yeah, Shatterhand and Strider in particular really should be on there over some of those inexplicable choices.

pseudonym

10-18-2009, 03:44 AM

I like how they throw hidden gems in the list and then a bunch of average ones that are higher rated... Little Samson at #95, and Ring King at #78? Haha.

Baloo

10-18-2009, 11:20 AM

I can see LOZ and SMB3 getting props for the top spots but SMB at 3 doesn't work for me. That game is so overrated. Sure it was fun as hell back when we were kids but now it seems so uninspiring compared to SMB2 and SMB3. As for the TMNT arguement, I loved that game and would have definitly placed it in the top 20, if not the top 10.

Super Mario Bros. is revolutionary. The Lost Levels is the one that's uninspiring.

Fester's Quest and Metal Gear I have some problems with. TMNT is eh, it's not horrible but I don't think it should be in the top 100.

And where's Ducktales 2? That game is better than the original, and the original was a fantastic game in it's own right.

I would have liked to have seen Double Dare in the top 100 if TMNT, Metal Gear and Fester's Quest made it in.

Eightbit Allstar

10-18-2009, 03:28 PM

I never believe in to those Top lists from some GAEMIGN WE85IT3Z. The problem is that they do not rate how they think, they rate how the game turned out to be (in terms of financial sucess or sometimes cult followings). So I'm not going to rant about this list, I just don't want to see it, as it is just another predictible list.

Btw. is Shatterhand on the list? If not then IGN should be ashamed.:bad-words:

lol

timewarpgamer

10-18-2009, 06:00 PM

Limiting the list to only US-released games? In this day of eBay and emulation and Wii Virtual Console?

Other things that annoyed me...

--All Six Mega Mans??? Couldn't they have stopped after III?
--Double Dragon II and III but no love for the original?
--Adeventure Island II cracking the top 30? Haha, you've got to be kidding.

In general, the top 50 is fairly normal (if unsurprising), but when you look at #51 to #100 you'll end up scratching your head to the point of going bald.

j_factor

10-18-2009, 06:28 PM

Wow, I'm not even a huge NES fan, and they excluded a lot of my favorite NES games. Where the hell are Shatterhand, Whomp 'Em, Codename Viper, Pool of Radiance, and Clash at Demonhead?

EricRyan34

10-18-2009, 06:56 PM

I dont think the list is to bad. It doesnt matter who does the list, you will still find someone to bitch about it.

BetaWolf47

10-18-2009, 07:20 PM

Wow, I'm not even a huge NES fan, and they excluded a lot of my favorite NES games. Where the hell are Shatterhand, Whomp 'Em, Codename Viper, Pool of Radiance, and Clash at Demonhead?

The best games that they missed were still Magic of Scheherazade and Battle of Olympus.

GuyinGA

10-18-2009, 09:05 PM

I agree on Magic of Scheherazade and Battle of Olympus as well as Kabuki Quantum Fighter being good NES games that were missed.

Double Dragon's music would drive me crazy and prevent me from voting for it in good faith, especially the jungle level's music. SMS version is better IMO.

I also think Legacy of the Wizard and Solomon's Key should have a place on the list for simply being some of the hardest NES games ever.

And where is Gremlins 2??? And Bucky O'Hare???

j_factor

10-18-2009, 10:43 PM

While the MSX version did spawn the franchise, I think Sonicwolf was arguing that the NES version popularized it and allowed for sequels to be made, which actually may not be true. I'm sure the popularity of the games in Japan on the MSX are what convinced Kojima to make more, otherwise we would have gotten SUPER METAL GEAR on the SNES.

Actually, the first Metal Gear sequel to be made was Snake's Revenge. Originally, Metal Gear was intended to be a single game, with no plans for a sequel. Snake's Revenge was created specifically for the West (and wasn't released at all in Japan), so I would assume its creation must have been driven by the popularity of the NES version of Metal Gear in the West. Supposedly, Konami made Snake's Revenge without even notifying Kojima at first, and when he found out about it, it incited him to make Metal Gear 2. So the NES version was responsible for sequels being made, albeit in a roundabout way.

skyhawk_fan

10-18-2009, 11:41 PM

Gradius ranked higher than Life Force? What the heck? Just because Gradius came first doesn't make it better. In fact, it's the worst shoot 'em-up I've played on the NES (unless you count Top Gun.) Life Force, on the other hand, is a game I would put in the top three, along with SMB3 and *gasp* MM6.

Still, kudos to IGN for putting The Guardian Legend in the list. Easily one of the finest games on the NES, despite being, at times, infuriatingly difficult.

vivaeljason

10-19-2009, 01:44 AM

Actually, the first Metal Gear sequel to be made was Snake's Revenge. Originally, Metal Gear was intended to be a single game, with no plans for a sequel. Snake's Revenge was created specifically for the West (and wasn't released at all in Japan), so I would assume its creation must have been driven by the popularity of the NES version of Metal Gear in the West. Supposedly, Konami made Snake's Revenge without even notifying Kojima at first, and when he found out about it, it incited him to make Metal Gear 2. So the NES version was responsible for sequels being made, albeit in a roundabout way.

For whatever reason, I completely forgot about Snake's Revenge (probably because I hate it) and had no idea it was west only. Thanks for clearing that up -- I guess the NES version did spawn the rest of the series, though I imagine that the ball got rolling because of spite about Snake's Revenge.

j_factor

10-19-2009, 02:01 AM

For whatever reason, I completely forgot about Snake's Revenge

I certainly can't blame you for that. :p

guitargary75

10-21-2009, 08:06 PM

There is no way that DUCK TALES is a better game than Contra!!!!! W f'n Bullstuff!!!

vivaeljason

10-21-2009, 08:20 PM

There is no way that DUCK TALES is a better game than Contra!!!!! W f'n Bullstuff!!!

Dude, have you ever played Duck Tales? The game is phenomenal. Contra is one of my all-time favorite games because it too is great (AND is lots of fun), but Duck Tales is an overlooked classic. I was pleasantly surprised to see it as high up as it was.

Baloo

10-21-2009, 08:36 PM

Ducktales is way better than Contra.

But I want to know where Double Dare is. That is the best multiplayer game on the NES hands down.

Gradius ranked higher than Life Force? What the heck? Just because Gradius came first doesn't make it better. In fact, it's the worst shoot 'em-up I've played on the NES (unless you count Top Gun.) Life Force, on the other hand, is a game I would put in the top three, along with SMB3 and *gasp* MM6.

Top Gun is more like a flight simulator than a shoot-em-up.