Who made the best 3rd party NES games?

[digitalpress]

Did you prefer the tight action of Konami's games? The memorable characters that Capcom delivered? Perhaps the arcade translations from Tengen were your thing.

Thinking about the games not produced by Nintendo, who do you think did the best job on this system, and why?

[Crush Crawfish]

Capcom, of course. Six brilliant Megaman games, along with other classics like mighty final fight and Chip 'n Dale rescue rangers. Easily the best 3rd party developer for NES.

[Drexel923]

Capcom, of course. Six brilliant Megaman games, along with other classics like mighty final fight and Chip 'n Dale rescue rangers. Easily the best 3rd party developer for NES.

It was a tough choice, but I have to agree. Add in some more of the Disney titles (Ducktales 1-2, Darkwing Duck), Bionic Commando, 1942-3, Gunsmoke, Ghosts and Goblins, etc to the list above and it's nothing but amazing.

[Gamereviewgod]

Ditto on both accounts for the reasons mentioned.

Konmai probably comes in a close second based on the first two Contras alone (we shall forever forget Contra Force).

[Lady Jaye]

Capcom is tops in my book (see Drexel's post). :D

[Kilik Kurosawa]

Ilike Capcom in the arcades, but I'd say Konami. Reasons: Castlevania I, II, III Blades of Steel Tiny Toons Top Gun Contra Double Dribble and Rush 'n Attack. A close second would be Camerica...J/k

[Jagasian]

I am going to go with Tengen, just because they weren't a licensed 3rd party. Oh and they had a better version of Tetris than Nintendo's official version :)

Konami
But seriously though, if it comes down purely to the quality of games, it would most certainly be Konami, which also published games under the psuedonym "Ultra" because Nintendo limited the number of games an official 3rd party could release per year. Konami has the Castlevania series, as well as the Metal Gear series, Blades of Steel, Life Force, Gradius, etc.

Konami's worst games were at least average compared to the entire NES/Famicom game library. Their best games are classics. Check out this link for a listing of other great Konami NES games:
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/board/archive/index.php/t-33715.html

Technos
Since I already cheated and claimed two 3rd parties to be the best, let me add another 3rd party with several classic games... a 3rd party that sadly faded into obscurity shortly after the Famicom/NES gave way to the SNES. Who am I talking about? Technos of course!

They made a series of games involving super deformed characters: River City Ransom (try it Co-op with a friend), Super Dodgeball, World Cup Soccer, and many more some of which were only released in Japan. They also made the Double Dragon series, Renegade, etc. Here is a good list of their games for every system, even the arcade:
http://pit.condemned.com/technos.html

[classicb]

Its tough to beat Capcoms Nes lineup but I'm going to go with Tecmo.

Ninja Gaiden I-III
Rygar
Salamons Key
Fire N Ice
Mighty Bomb Jack
Tecmo Cup Soccer
Bad News Baseball
Tecmo Bowl and Super Bowl

[Cirrus]

Ditto on Technos. I really wish more of their games would have hit in the States.

[NESaholic]

Taito,Capcom,Konami most favourites.

[NeoZeedeater]

Konami made more good games than any other third party. They covered pretty much every genre with something great, so they're my overall pick. The Ninja Gaiden games are my favourite third-party NES games though but overall Tecmo's quantity isn't up there with Konami or Capcom.

[Kroogah]

Technos Technos Technos.

All the Kunio beat-em-ups, Nekketsu Kakutou Densetsu (the fighting game), Double Dragon games, Super Dodge Ball, Nekketsu Hockey, Nekketsu Dunk Heroes, Nintendo World Cup....

[gamergary]

*looks at his avatar* Technos all the way.

[Sotenga]

KONAMI, hands down over here. For spawning Castlevania in our Western culture, Konami is teh win on this category.

[xaer0knight]

Tho, Many hours of my childhood was wasted on Rygar(Tecmo), Ninja Gaiden(Tecmo), and River City Ransom(Technos). My favorite has to be Capcom for the Mega Man Series.

[DDCecil]

I'm going to have to give Capcom the nod, though Konami and Tecmo would be next.

[MegaDrive20XX]

Konami and Capcom hands down...Arcade ports...Originals...changing everything we knew about games and moving the industry into a great direction

[Kepone]

I'd say that both Technos and Konami/Ultra had excellent NES games.

River City Ransom is one of my favorites for the NES.

[Nesmaster]

too hard to pick one. taito, capcom, and konami all made great games. it would hurt too much to pick one of those over the others :(

[retroman]

capcom, or konami

[Dr. Morbis]

I'd say Konami just edges Capcom based on the breadth of their releases. You could almost bank on both company's games being good, but Capcom is slightly more one dimensional. Most of their releases are either MegaMans (6 of them!) or Disney licenses. Capcom had one incredible series (MegaMan), while Konami had two (Castlevania and Contra).

So Konami wins but it was a photo finish.

[ArnoldRimmer83]

My favorite is without a doubt Konami. Capcom and Sunsoft follow right after them. Technos deserves an honorable mention as well. Namco (Or Namcot) was also pretty good during the Famicom era, but most of their library didn't reach US shores, and when they finally started publishing games themselves all they gave us was Pacman and Ms Pacman.

[imanerd0011]

I gotta go with Capcom. I LOVED Megaman 2 as a kid, and Ducktales and Chip n Dales as well! Some of my best memories are of playing these games with my friends all day.
Konami comes in at a close 2nd though. They had a ton of amazing games. Who didn't love Contra, Castlevania, and Double Dribble?

[eightbitonline]

Capcom for me too.

to name a few:

bionic commando
megaman 1-6
gunsmoke
section z
ducktales
darkwing duck
codename viper
strider
chip n' dale
legendary wings
little nemo

this list goes on...

as for everyone else, i didn't appreciate most other companies at the time. SNK top-downs were especially tough to appreciate as a 9-year old. but it's hard not to recognize many of the companies that developed for NES

konami/ultra (contra, TMNT, jackal, metal gear)
technos (super dodgeball, crash n' the boys)
SNK (geurilla warrior)
irem (metalstorm, imagefight)

the NES is my favourite system because there were so many companies building such great games on that system.

[Emily]

For me...its Capcom, or camerica.
Its a Tie.

[pseudonym]

i would say capcom and then konami. a lot of capcom's games were pretty easy and so you could just jump into them easier.

[Proclus]

I have to agree with the mentions of Konami, Capcom, Sunsoft, Tecmo et al, but I'm surprised no one has mentioned Rare. Their best games are masterpieces, and are some of the most "artistic" games in the entire NES library -- Battletoads, Solar Jetman, Snake Rattle 'n' Roll, a smooth port of Marble Madness, etc.

[Dire 51]

Konami, followed by Capcom and Tecmo, in that order.

[EnemyZero]

can't go wrong with anything by capcom or konami

[Naouruki]

Konami (including their games under the ULTRA lbel) !!!!

[shawnbo42]

I have to agree with the Konami/Ultra vote....spent many hours pulling hair out over CV1&2 and Metal Gear, also Blades Of Steel was, in my opinion, best hockey on the system (it was the full voice clip on the title screen that did it...haha)

[shawnbo42]

I have to agree with the Konami/Ultra vote....spent many hours pulling hair out over CV1&2 and Metal Gear, also Blades Of Steel was, in my opinion, best hockey on the system (it was the full voice clip on the title screen that did it...haha)

[shawnbo42]

Ok, computer sucks this evening...double posts?! Anyways, I am not saying that Capcom, Sunsoft, Tecmo, and Taito didn't have good/great games as well, buy I think Konami covered a wide variety of games, and, as was previously stated, even their average games were good, for the most part. (except Contra Force).

[Damon Plus]

There´s a lot of great ones, but I have to go with Technos. They are very underrated as developers, and their Kunio saga has about 80% of great games.

[Jumpman Jr.]

Panesian
8-bit boobies :-P