Got opinions on some NES titles I'm unfamiliar with?

[The Adventurer]

I'm trying to put together a grocery list of NES games I want to prioritize picking up to round out my NES collection. I'm pretty aware of most of the NES library (having been playing since '89, combined with 10 years of Nintendo Power) and the sort of games I like. But as I was going down the master list of games, these ones called out to me. But I'm not very familiar with any of them and can't judge their quality

Cybernoid: The Fighting Machine
Flying Dragon: The Secret Scroll
Mappy-Land
Metal Mech
Monster in my Pocket
Power Blade
Robo Warrior
Rockin' Kats
Section Z
Shadow of the Ninja
Trojan
Vice: Project Doom
Wizards and Warriors

Wow, that list is a bit longer then I expected. A lot them are rather affordable, but instead of buying them blind I thought I'd find out what others might think about them. It doesn't matter if their not 'A-List' titles. But I am trying to ballpark around 'B-List'.

[Edmond Dantes]

I remember Shadow of the Ninja being pretty good and Wizards and Warriors being okay.

Happy Nerd did a review of Monster in my Pocket (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIViLXGzuxM).

[wiggyx]

Section Z and W&W are good fun. I've played most of the other titles, but not in the last decade or more, so I'm not sure which of them I liked or not :/

[BeaglePuss]

Of the games listed Power Blade, Rockin' Kats, and MIMP (to a lesser extent) are all pretty sweet platformers and games that shouldn't be overlooked.

Mappy-land did not age well, and all the Flying Dragon titles for the NES and Famicom are pretty horrendous if you ask me. At the very least, I would avoid those two.

[sparf]

I
Power Blade
Rockin' Kats
Vice: Project Doom
Wizards and Warriors
.

I own all of these. I have to say that Power Blade and Vice are both excellent examples of a hybrid platform/run-and-gun. It's like they're something of a combination between Mega Man and Contra. Vice has Ninja Gaiden style cinematics and a really interesting story, as NES games go.

Rockin' Kats is a cartoony platformer. I find it really fun and very underrated.

Wizards and Warriors....well, I NEVER got very far in this game, as a kid or now, because I've never been really sure where to go or what to do. The graphics and sound are great and I'm not going to argue that it's a classic. :)

[goldenband]

Cybernoid - Very difficult flipscreen shooter ported from the ZX Spectrum. I kind of enjoyed it but it's buggy, unforgiving, and certainly not for all tastes. I'm not sure how real-world playable it really is, especially on harder levels -- I think I beat it in the days when I shamelessly used NES Advantage slowdown, and also took advantage of multiple power-up secrets.

Robowarrior - I have fond memories of this one, and it's got a good soundtrack and design concept, but realistically speaking it's not very good. It's basically an action-adventure version of Bomberman, but the problem is that most of the challenge comes from (a) not blowing yourself up, (b) not knowing where anything is, or (c) not running out of bombs because of (b). Otherwise it's long and repetitive and there's not much to it, especially if you play with a walkthrough.

Section Z - Shooter with multiple, branching paths that basically require you to make a map to keep track of it all. Many people dislike it, but I found it to be a very pleasant surprise back when I beat it in the early 1990s.

Trojan - Port of an arcade game, this sidescrolling action title seemed to show up everywhere when I was a kid. It's a bit rough around the edges in that early Famicom/NES title sort of way, but I seem to remember that it was sort of addictive (though short) and plays reasonably well once you get used to the controls and quirks.

Wizards and Warriors - As I recall this was far better than its first sequel (I don't know the third one). If memory serves it had nice graphics, slightly shaky controls, and a combination of action platforming and item collecting/puzzle solving. Early on there's a well-known warp that basically breaks the game, and I can't remember whether I beat the game without it.

[davidbrit2]

Vice Project Doom is a must-have. It's like Ninja Gaiden without the preposterous difficulty.

[SparTonberry]

Cybernoid - Very difficult flipscreen shooter ported from the ZX Spectrum.

I thought it was Commodore 64. That one looked better.
I should've expected as much out of Acclaim. :P

[Aussie2B]

I enjoyed Mappy-Land when I played through it several years ago. It doesn't have great graphics or a lot of depth, but I think it's worth a play for a Mappy fan. It's a pretty easy game, I'm pretty sure I beat the entire game the first time I sat down to seriously play through it.

[bb_hood]

Cybernoid: The Fighting Machine
Flying Dragon: The Secret Scroll
Mappy-Land
Metal Mech
Monster in my Pocket
Power Blade
Robo Warrior
Rockin' Kats
Section Z
Shadow of the Ninja
Trojan
Vice: Project Doom
Wizards and Warriors



Vice project doom is probably the best game on the list. Power blade, monster in my pocket and Shadow of the Ninja are also good. Monster in my pocket is kinda simple and a fairly short game, but it plays well.

Flying Dragon and Trojan = junk. The are not very good at all.

[Doommaster1994]

Pool of Radiance is my favorite game of all time. It's an RPG and I normally hate RPGs (Yes, even Final Fantasy, even though I have that on NES). I know lots of people bash it for its graphics, but it's really a good game. The game's first person so there's not going to be good graphics anyway (I can't think of any other First Person NES games that looked better). The graphics were also done by one guy. My only other complaint about the game is that the combat system is a little slow, but if you can ignore these flaws, the game tends to be very well done. I remember some of the monster portraits literally gave me nightmares (the Fire and Hill Giants come to mind). It's also the only port (besides the PC-98 and (kind of) the Amiga version) to have background music. Very catchy background music, too. I believe the game goes for around $20 on eBay but trust me, it's worth every penny!

Speaking of Cybernoid, I'm wondering who worked on the music. That game was not by Acclaim. It was Gremlin Graphics. The programmer told me Ben Daglish did the music but when I asked Ben he said no, he never did any NES stuff. Then the artist said it was Mark Cooksey, but Mark said it wasn't him and I don't think he ever worked for Gremlin Graphics.

[sparf]

Pool of Radiance is my favorite game of all time. It's an RPG and I normally hate RPGs (Yes, even Final Fantasy, even though I have that on NES). I know lots of people bash it for its graphics, but it's really a good game. The game's first person so there's not going to be good graphics anyway (I can't think of any other First Person NES games that looked better). The graphics were also done by one guy. My only other complaint about the game is that the combat system is a little slow, but if you can ignore these flaws, the game tends to be very well done. I remember some of the monster portraits literally gave me nightmares (the Fire and Hill Giants come to mind). It's also the only port (besides the PC-98 and (kind of) the Amiga version) to have background music. Very catchy background music, too. I believe the game goes for around $20 on eBay but trust me, it's worth every penny!


Pool of Radiance was adapted pretty damn well, given the system limitations, from the gold-box PC title. I had it for a while though I didn't care for it much because I had no manual and no understanding of how to play it. Now, though, looking back, it stands as one of the finest PC RPG ports on the NES, in my opinion. :)

[kupomogli]

Power Blade and Shadow of the Ninja are good.

[Gunstar Hero]

Mappy Land plays a lot like arcade Mappy and I remember having a lot of fun with it. I am a big Mappy fan though so that's part of it

[spman]

Rockin Kats is fun, but the controls are somewhat unresponsive, which in a platform game that requires very precise movements to avoid dying, can get very frustrating. Monsters in my Pocket is fun, especially with two players, but it's not very challenging. A lot of people love the Wizards and Warriors series, especially the second one, but I always found them to be crap.

[Gameguy]

Power Blade is probably the best game on that list. The others I've either haven't played yet, found them to be mediocre, or found them to be easily forgettable.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Flying Dragon is an interesting mixture between a side-scrolling fighter like Kung Fu and a passable fighting engine in some levels, which resembles Karate Champ just a tad. You have to hit specific targets (or block attacks) when indicators on the enemy or yourself appear by pressing pad and button combinations. The game actually teaches this to you as the game goes on.

Many people who didn't like the game don't click with the fighting engine. It's rough, but for the NES? It was better than anything available up until that point.

[Darkwing]

Wizards and Warriors is fun, but Monster In My Pocket....it's awesome! I highly recommend it. Love that vampire.

[retroman]

Power Blade, Vice Project Doom, Shadow of the Ninja and Wizards and Warriors are not B-list. Put them on the A-list. If you can track down Power Blade 2 at a reasonable price get it. The Wizards and Warriors other 2 games are not bad either. Though Iron Sword is my favorite.

[Doommaster1994]

I own the Japanese version of Rockin' Kats and I gotta say, it's hella fun! I didn't really have a problem with the controls besides the parts where you have to use the boxing glove to grapple onto higher platforms. I've beaten the game many times (besides the bonus level when you beat the game. That's impossible for me.)

Coincidentally, Atlus also published my other favorite NES sidescroller Widget. That was developed by Graphic Research (they made the unreleased NES game Secret Ties, and unfortunately, this was the only game they developed for the NES that made it to the USA.) The game's really hard but I've beaten it once. The final level is actually pretty easy once you know what to do. It's got good graphics, controls, level designs, and music, and that's enough for me. I'd check it out!

Also, I got Hiryuu no Ken III for the Famicom last weekend but I haven't played it yet. I'm not saying it's good or bad, but I'm just hoping I didn't pay for a crappy game. It's got one of my favorite soundtracks on the NES.

[The Adventurer]

Widget is on my short list of games I want to get. Thanks for all the help guys. It's really helped me get my purchases priorities straight.

[Doommaster1994]

Widget is on my short list of games I want to get. Thanks for all the help guys. It's really helped me get my purchases priorities straight.

Yeah it's a good game, though I wouldn't get it if you have a short temper like me because it's very difficult. It was my first eBay purchase. :)

[Tron 2.0]

Shadow of the Ninja,think ninja gaiden but with 2ps.Funny how it's engine was used for the gb ninja gaiden.

[treismac]

Mappy-Land is a fun sequel to a pretty awesome Namco arcade classic.

Power Blade is a decent enough platformer, but it just never wowed me enough to keep at it.

Robo Warrior would have been a good addition to Hudson's (they developed it, Jaleco just published it) Bomberman 8-bit family, but the game is just too hard for my taste.

Section Z is an early NES Capcom shoot 'em up that never struck me.

Shadow of the Ninja rocks. Simultaneous two-player ninja platforming action on the NES makes this a good one to add to the collection.

[goldenband]

Robo Warrior would have been a good addition to Hudson's (they developed it, Jaleco just published it) Bomberman 8-bit family, but the game is just too hard for my taste.

If you can get past the first few stages, the game actually becomes pretty easy. Your character becomes more powerful in proportion with your score, and once that gets high enough, you take very little damage from most things.

[BlastProcessing402]

About the only thing I know about Monster In My Pocket is that it's the reason a little game for the Gameboy called Pocket Monsters had to change its name when it got localized. I forget what they renamed it, though. Maybe it was Poggeymans or something like that?

[SparTonberry]

Yes, it was a toy line. Then Konami could make a good game from almost any license (except poor Astro Boy. :P )

[Captain_N77]

I'm most familiar with Vice:PD on that list. I had never played it until this year and was actually blown away by the experience. I was happy to discover a (what I consider to be)great game, but also a little sad that I had missed it the first time around.

Vice is dripping with personality and atmosphere. It has tight controls and I personally loved the graphics in the game. As someone here already said, it really is a lot like Ninja Gaiden without the brutal difficulty.

http://captainn77.blogspot.com/2013/07/given-fact-that-i-havent-been-able-to.html

There is my review of it if you wanna check it out. Vice is definitely not on my B-list though.