SM's Top 100 NES/Famicom games

[FoxNtd]

It's been 90 titles over quite some time.. I forgot what some of them are already. For example I just looked at #10 to see Kirby and forgot that that was #10 which wasn't that long ago, haha. I do see FF3 was listed, I had forgotten this as well.

As for Metroid Prime I thought the first game was better than the second but it had nothing to do with Prime 1 being the first to put Samus into first-person, etc. I just liked the classic weapons system and environments in the world better than what MP2 had.

I remembered that there was one note I wanted to make but didn't get around to it. The entry to "Little Samson" made no reference to its real name.

Wiki Entry (JP)

I must go through the 100 when the list is done and write down the interesting things I see that I don't have yet.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Here is the full list as it appears so far.

100. Duck Hunt
99. Battle City
98. Xexyz
97. Popeye
96. StarTropics
95. Abadox
94. Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode
93. Bio Force Ape (unreleased)
92. Dr. Mario
91. Heavy Barrel
90. The Guardian Legend
89. Princess Tomato in Salad Kingdom
88. Boulder Dash
87. Yoshi’s Cookie
86. Return Mario Bros.
85. Tecmo Super Bowl
84. Ms. Pac-Man
83. Kickle Cubicle
82. Balloon Fight
81. The Little Mermaid
80. Mendel Palace
79. Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll
78. Golgo 13: Mafat Conspiracy
77. Bonk’s Adventure
76. Super Mario World (Chinese pirate)
75. Bionic Commando
74. Dig Dug
73. Mechanized Attack
72. Air Fortress
71. Bomberman II
70. Journey to Silius
69. Star Trek: The Next Generation
68. Hi no Tori – Houou Hen – Gaou no Bouken
67. The Clash at Demonhead
66. Holy Diver
65. Bucky O’Hare
64. Metal Storm
63. Panic Restaurant
62. Magical Doropie
61. Jackal
60. Megaman
59. Ganbare Goemon 2
58. Double Dragon
57. Super Mario Bros. 2 (aka Lost Levels)
56. Kabuki Quantum Fighter
55. Adventure Island 4
54. Shadow the Ninja
53. Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril
52. Batman
51. Megaman 4
50. Lifeforce
49. Getsu Fūma Den
48. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
47. Super Mario Bros. 2 USA (aka Doki Doki Panic)
46. Konami Wai Wai World and Wai Wai World 2: S.O.S from Parsley
45. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project
44. Blaster Master
43. Crystalis
42. Bubble Bobble
41. Vice: Project Doom
40. Megaman 6
39. Moon Crystal
38. Sweet Home
37. Lei Dian Huang Bi Ka Qiu Chuan Shuo (Chinese Pokemon Yellow pirate)
36. Joy Mech Fight
35. Little Nemo: The Dream Master
34. Akumajou Special
33. Shatterhand
32. Guerilla War
31. Gun-Nac
30. Gargoyle’s Quest II
29. Micro Machines
28. River City Ransom
27. Castlevania/Akumajou Dracula
26. Rod Land
25. Contra
24. DuckTales
23. Earthbound (unreleased)/MOTHER
22. Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos
21. Super Spy Hunter
20. Gradius II
19. Legacy of the Wizard
18. Final Fantasy III
17. Famicom Wars
16. Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse/Akumajou Densetsu
15. Super Mario Bros.
14. Crisis Force
13. Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!
12. Power Blade
11. Megaman 3
10. Kirby’s Adventure
9. Little Samson
8. Megaman 5
7. Tetris (Tengen version)
6. Final Fantasy
5. will be revealed 3/7/12
4. will be revealed 3/8/12
3. will be revealed 3/9/12
2. will be revealed 3/10/12
1. will be revealed 3/11/12

[Satoshi_Matrix]

#5. I really, really love this game.
http://satoshimatrix.wordpress.com/2...-games-list-5/

[FoxNtd]

#5. I really, really love this game.
http://satoshimatrix.wordpress.com/2...-games-list-5/

Nice! One mistake in the text, heh. "treated to a bazaar scene" sounds like it should be written as, "treated to a bizarre scene". Nice bonus content and clarifying what the FDS disk provides (the musical difference made buying the original worth it, I loved it.)

For the laughs, maybe you can add that the NES version incorrectly romanized the planet's name as "Zebeth" ? When I saw the prologue screen on the NES version and saw that word I thought it was hilarious.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Yeah, it was pretty hard to avoid Engrish in those early days.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Entry #4

http://satoshimatrix.wordpress.com/2...-games-list-4/

[o.pwuaioc]

Here is the full list as it appears so far.
[--snip--]

Lookin' good.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Sorry it's a little late. Here's #3.

http://satoshimatrix.wordpress.com/2...-games-list-3/

[Satoshi_Matrix]

annnnnnnnnnd #2.

http://satoshimatrix.wordpress.com/2...-games-list-2/

[treismac]

annnnnnnnnnd #2.

http://satoshimatrix.wordpress.com/2...-games-list-2/

I should have guessed with you being such a fan of the Blue Bomber.

Mega Man 2 is a phenomenal game, and I think it not robbery to award it the #2 slot on your list.

[o.pwuaioc]

No, probably not. The game's rarity isn't the primary reason I like it so much; I like it because of the multiplayer, especially the co-op mode with the computer. If Tengen Tetris was missing these options, it wouldn't be any better or worse than the Nintendo release. It's a moot point though - with all the options in Tengen's build, it is the clearly superior version of Tetris, at least in my opinion. The only other version that comes close to it is Tetris DS.

Random blocks (= Tengen) > Non-random block (= Nintendo). With all things being equal, Tengen's is the superior one.

[Drixxel]

Impressive Mega Man representation, all six of the NES games have placed on your top 100. No real disagreements there as they're all quality platformers, and I suppose it is a silly thing to limit consideration of titles because of a common franchise they belong to. That being said, I personally would draw the line at 2, 3 and either 4 or 5 for placement in my own personal top 100, that way the spectrum of major Mega Man innovation is captured without too much redundancy.

[Richie]

Did I miss the Snow Brothers or RC Pro-Am entries? Couldn't find them on the list.

[ShinobiMan]

Nice! I thought for sure MM 2 was going to be your number 1! Now I'm really excited to see what game holds that spot.

Thanks for featuring the childhood home movie of me receiving the game as a gift. I was happy to supply it and hope more get to relive the memory of receiving such a great game and memory.

Your write ups are top notch man! I will always be looking out for whatever you have to write about.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

I should have guessed with you being such a fan of the Blue Bomber.

Mega Man 2 is a phenomenal game, and I think it not robbery to award it the #2 slot on your list.

yeah, really. I don't think I shocked anyone who knows me that I placed a megaman two megaman games in the top 10. Both 5 and 2 are really top notch.

Impressive Mega Man representation, all six of the NES games have placed on your top 100. No real disagreements there as they're all quality platformers, and I suppose it is a silly thing to limit consideration of titles because of a common franchise they belong to. That being said, I personally would draw the line at 2, 3 and either 4 or 5 for placement in my own personal top 100, that way the spectrum of major Mega Man innovation is captured without too much redundancy.

Well, I make no attempt to hide the fact that I consider all six of the NES Megaman games to be among the best on the system. It was just a matter of which would place where. I originally had Megaman 2, 3 and 5 all penciled in the top 10, but decided that 3 wasn't quite polished enough for that, and moved it to #11.

Did I miss the Snow Brothers or RC Pro-Am entries? Couldn't find them on the list.

You didn't miss them; they're not there. I don't personally like either game. Snow Bros. seems like a bad clone of Bubble Bobble, and I can't think of a single NES racing game that I'm fond of. The only game that really gets the isometic racer genre to work is Rock 'n Roll Racing on the SNES. They're both honorable mentions though, just ones that I don't like myself.

Nice! I thought for sure MM 2 was going to be your number 1! Now I'm really excited to see what game holds that spot.

Thanks for featuring the childhood home movie of me receiving the game as a gift. I was happy to supply it and hope more get to relive the memory of receiving such a great game and memory.

Your write ups are top notch man! I will always be looking out for whatever you have to write about.

Really, I thank you and your dad for the video. I hope that everyone who reads my article clicks on your video and watches the special memories. Do you happen to know if that was for your birthday, or christmas or what?



Oh and before you guys start asking, the #1 entry will not be published for a few days. I'm planning on doing a huge writeup and kind of have writer's fatigue at the moment.

One thing I'd like to do before the #1 is make up a visual aid for the 99 games leading up to #1. Basically, I'm thinking of a large png that has each game's titlescreens as well as a screenshot from the game. I can make this up myself, but my photoshop skills are somewhat lacking when it comes to creating a visually pleasing typeface for it. Would anyone be willing to help me out with that? All I really need help with is adding text in a visually pleasing manner to a giant image.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Well, I spendt a few hours on this and winged it as best I could - Here's a visual guide to the top 100 NES/Famicom games 100-2.

http://satoshimatrix.files.wordpress...-50percent.png

[charles__99]

Well, I spendt a few hours on this and winged it as best I could - Here's a visual guide to the top 100 NES/Famicom games 100-2.

http://satoshimatrix.files.wordpress...-50percent.png

Awesome job,
I got excited when I saw that you posted, thinking it was your number 1 pick, but this is great as well!

[Sparkster]

Cripes... I step away from DP after getting to #30, and go through the rest of the list only to find that #1 isn't there yet?

Ah well, looking forward to finding out what it is.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Hey guys, sorry about the delay - I'm finally done! Here's the last entry in my top 100 NES/Famicom games list!

Here is what I consider to be unquestionably the best game on the hardware. Thanks for everyone who has supported me through this! Rest assured, I will be doing top ## lists for other systems in the future, just probably not right away.

Anyway for now, enjoy!

http://satoshimatrix.wordpress.com/2...-games-list-1/

[FoxNtd]

HAHAHAHAHA such a complete asshole for an introduction for the final post. I knew it was some sort of April Fool's joke so scrolling down revealed the truth. Nice joke though.

The game you chose is an interesting choice. (I'm omitting the name to avoid spoiling it for anyone who hasn't seen the article yet.) It's definitely one of the treasures I'd like to snag one day.

Now that the list is complete, my friend and I brainstormed some titles that make us ask, how the hell did these fail to make the list? So here are some titles we were shocked to see go unnamed!

Spartan X
Challenger
Ai Senshi Nicol
Arumana no Kiseki
Zanac
Recca
Dragon Quest
Fire Emblem
Just Breed
Esper Dream
Lagrange Point
Cocoron
Green Beret
Rollergames
Gyruss
Datsugoku
Madura no Tsubasa

Out of all of those, I have to pick Dragon Quest as the biggest surprise for failing to make the list. Also, it was neat to see Famicom Wars appear on the list but no FE or JB?

Did any of those get overlooked? Which ones were considered but still omitted? Would be interesting to see what went into the decision process.

I always felt that Zanac is underrated because it is a technological marvel. The game size is tiny and fits on only one side of an FDS disk. The screen can be filled with projectiles and you will rarely encounter any kind of slowdown, and combined with the unique adaptive artificial intelligence, it's an amazing piece of programming. Oh yeah, it's also a really good game.