Hidden NES Gems

[Simply Dave]

Power Blade 1 & 2

[Graham Mitchell]

I'll second Zanac. I'm surprised I don't see it mentioned in more "best shmup" threads. I think I could play through Zanac once a month for the rest of my life without getting bored of it.

Zanac is so goddamn good. But if I had pick a definitive Compile game, I'd pick Guardic Gaiden/the Guardian Legend. It's got all the amazing shooter elements of the 'Nac games, plus the continunous, exploration-driven overhead adventure of Golvellius.

[InsaneDavid]

Barker Bill's Trick Shooting, it's pretty much the unofficial sequel to Duck Hunt and is a superb lightgun game, my favorite lightgun game of all time in fact. (beating out even Elemental Gearbolt on the PlayStation) It's been said but A Boy and His Blob is another great game with interesting gameplay and some unique challenges. If you're looking for a really fun action puzzler, Palamedes is a blast. Basically dice move down from the top of the screen and you collect them trying to make poker hands, the higher rank the hand the more rows of dice are removed. Nightshade is kind of a comedic corny adventure game along the lines of some of the early Lucasfilm SCUMM titles. And don't forget Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom which is another adventure game, from a first person tree inventory perspective. It's a lot of fun and a really enjoyable time.

Just for the record, my top five NES games...

5. A Boy and His Blob
4. Barker Bill’s Trick Shooting
3. Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos
2. Palamedes
1. StarTropics

[DigitalSpace]

A Nightmare On Elm Street
Air Fortress
Batman (best Batman video game ever imo)
The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout
Dragon Spirit: The New Legend (vertical shmup, kind of reminds me of Phelios)
Formula One: Built To Win (like Rad Racer, only better)
The Goonies II (some consider this a "metroidvania" title)
Iron Tank
Jackal
Little Nemo: Dream Master
Mappy-Land
Pin Bot
Rock 'n' Ball (nice pinball game with ice hockey and soccer tables, and some fun multiplayer tables)
Sqoon
Tiger-Heli
Willow
XEXYZ

[theshizzle3000]

Add Trog! to that list I love that game. It was the first game I went and got when I re-bought my NES.

[Hardcore]

I second Gemfire! While I wasn't able to play the NES version on my NES(I thoroughly enjoyed the Genny version), I still recommend this game if you are a fan of civ sims and turn-based strategy.

[Graham Mitchell]

Barker Bill's Trick Shooting is great, but I think my favorite light gun game is Gumshoe, actually. There's never been another light gun game like it. The only thing I've ever seen that really compares is Yoshi's Touch and Go. It's a platformer where your character moves to the right automatically, and you shoot him to jump. Though it makes your arm sore, it's fantastically original, and very well-executed.

[sniperCCJVQ]

RC Pro Am
Balloon Fight
Cobra Triangle
Space Shuttle Project (well done space "sim", more action actually)
Gun Nac

[Quickclaw]

Side Pocket
City Connection
The Ultimate Stuntman

[Classicgamesdepot]

some great mentions here and I would agree with a lot of em'. Although quite expensive, rare, and way too short, Little Samson is a great Mega Man style game with switchable characters. Unfortunately it can be beaten in a few hours.

[Imstarryeyed]

Try out The Guardian Legend by Broderbund.. I loved that game..

[diskoboy]

I'll add a few more.

Blaster Master (but that may fall into the common catagory)
Lolo 1 or 2.

[soundwave]

I still love Super Dodge Ball. It's one of my all time favorite games. Another fun game is Caveman Games.

[fergojisan]

Galaxy 5000
To The Earth

[RJ]

Not sure it's so "hidden" but I dont think many people played Ultra's "BaseWars". It's a futuristic spin on baseball w/ the players as robots, you can buy/upgrade parts/weapons & close plays result in 1 on 1 battles.

If you have ANY interest in baseball/sports, I highly recommend it.

Also Wrecking Crew & Gyromite, which is a somewhat simplistic puzzler but CAN be played w/out R.O.B.

[dcescott]

All right my favs:
RC Pro Am, hours of fun
Star Wars, esp the beginning sequence, that took some work, very cool
Side Pocket, play that and Lunar Pool

Blades of Steel, hockey with fighting, get the controls down, the scores end up to be like football scores

Rainbow Islands/Bubble Bobble, chicks dig em
Metal Storm
Track and Field
Pinball, simple and fun.
Paperboy
Battleship
Punch Out
Since there's over 700, when I go out I always try to pick up title I have never heard or played. There's always something new to play.

[Jorpho]

Magician is quite a nice RPG, I'm told. Rockin' Kats also has fans, despite being uncommon.

[dcescott]

Rockin Cats, oh yeah, fun game.

[djsquarewave]

Another vote on Metal Storm here. Also Shatterhand. Also Little Samson.

Shadow of the Ninja, maybe? Natsume seemed to have a knack for cranking out NES games that at least had a lot of style.

[The Great Dane]

Im going to have to say some that others have mentioned:

Karnov - This is an awesome game. It is pretty challenging, but very fun.

Rygar

Wizards and Warriors

Bandit Kings of Ancient China - This is from Koei and is very similar to the Romance of the Three Kingdom games, but better, in my opinion.

Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle

Batman - Awesome platformer. In my opinion it is the best Batman made and one of the best platformers on the NES

Vegas Dreams - A very unique gambling game with some RPG-type of elements thrown in

Cowboy Kid