Hidden NES Gems

[Master Chu]

My two ""i love it, but no one else has ever heard of it"" games are Gun*Nac & Galaxy 5000.

Gun*Nac is the best space shooter on the system...

[calthaer]

GI Joe was an excellent sidescroller you should check out. (The one made by Taxan not Capcom).

I would actually say that Capcom's G.I.Joe is better than Taxan's - but not obviously so. There is a lot of depth to *Atlantis Factor* that the original just never had. The ability to pick routes, call in support Joes, revive fallen Joes, and equip different weapons...it just had so much more. It never forced you to use any particular Joe on a mission, either. And some weapons were better with certain Joes - but it never told you that. There were also loads of hand-to-hand combat moves, but the manuals never tell you about how to perform them.

The bad thing about it, though, was that you kind of needed to know what was coming up in a level to choose, say, Wet-Suit if there were underwater parts. I made a walkthrough for the game at some point, but it's not in tip-top shape (the images don't work):

http://www.calthaer.com/gijoeaf_wthru.htm

And the chart showing which weapons were most effective with which character isn't completely filled-out. I should go back and re-play that game again sometime and complete that walkthrough.

Atlantis Factor is really cool, IMO.

EDIT: Fixed the image problem on my walkthrough...now just need to fix the weapons charts and add the last level and I guess it should be pretty done.

[RJ]

Well, I bought Gumshoe (NES) yesterday on someone's suggestion here, & it's quite different & innovative.

I was ready to return it, seemed too hard/impossible to be any fun, but now I call it challenging. It also keeps me playing, trying over & over again, which is one of the aspects of a good game.

Last night, I thought I'd never beat the high score I got when I quit, & on my 1st try today I bested it. 15,600 so far.

& something tells me the game is HUGE.

[courtesi96]

Were the gauntlet games any good?

[Ruudos]

Adventures of Rad Gravity. A very funny and also challenging game with some unique twists in it. It sure has one of the coolest game characters in it of all time.

Nigel Mansell's World Championship. One of the better racing games on the NES is this F1 game. Clean graphics, good challenge and enough tracks.

Low G Man. I've become to appreciate this game more and more.

Burai Fighter. Acutally I kinda hate this game because I suck in it. I guess it's a hidden gem though.

Section Z. Same story as Burai Fighter, although I learned to play and beat this one.

Solstice. Great music in a unique game. Very easy to die in this game, so very hard. Tip: mapping.

Trojan. An early NES title from Capcom. Very solid and challening game.

[Three-P]

Were the gauntlet games any good?

The first one was pathetic, but the second was a lot like the arcade. Especially when played with up to 3 other people.

[theshizzle3000]

My vote goes to Trog! thats a very good game that does not get talked about at all.

[Graham Mitchell]

Well, I bought Gumshoe (NES) yesterday on someone's suggestion here, & it's quite different & innovative.

I was ready to return it, seemed too hard/impossible to be any fun, but now I call it challenging. It also keeps me playing, trying over & over again, which is one of the aspects of a good game.

Last night, I thought I'd never beat the high score I got when I quit, & on my 1st try today I bested it. 15,600 so far.

& something tells me the game is HUGE.

Hey, that was me! Isn't it great? Once you beat it, it goes through a second loop that's much harder, and has new enemies and objects that weren't present in the first loop. Also, I don't know how it works, but the game is not the same every time you play it. Sometimes you can get into a sort of "bonus area", where tons of lucky birds come out of the sky to give you potions (or chickens ) Every level's got one, but I don't know how to access them. I get it in level 1 pretty much every time, but it's just blind luck with the other ones. There are no FAQ's or explanations of this that I can find on the net, and I don't remember there being any explanation of it in the manual (which, quite honestly, I'm not sure I've ever layed eyes on in the first place).

So, there's a lot to do with Gumshoe. Enjoy it, you'll never see anything like it again.

@courtesi96:
Yes, both Gauntlet games were good in their own way. The Tengen-published Gauntlet 1 plays like the arcade game, but is more of an adventure game. You can power up your character and save with passwords. The levels themselves are gigantic puzzles, and often rooms will repeat and repeat until you find the proper hidden exit, which is both cool and frustrating. To do the game right, you have to find hidden rooms, and then find a hidden item in said hidden rooms within a certain period of time. If you fail to do this, the game will let you keep going, but will announce that you have failed and will never see the true ending. I've never been able to do it. You have to basically cheat and know where everything is ahead of time, because you only get one shot at each hidden room.

Gauntlet II, published by mindscape, is essentially the arcade version of Gauntlet II. It's 4-player compatible, and has most of the great voice samples from the arcade version. However, it never ends, and runs in an endless loop, so playing by yourself is kind of pointless after awhile.

[Penguin]

Bugs Bunny's Birthday Blowout is a fun game, not too well known either. Its kind of a mario type side scroller except you have a hammer to hit things with. hooray for ACME!

[NinjaJoey23]

Metal Storm def. gets a fifteenth or however many times it's been said...

Archon = Amazing 2 player action.
Dusty Diamond = Best sports on the system IMHO

Gun*Nac is the best space shooter on the system...

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I heart you.

[Graham Mitchell]

Bugs Bunny's Birthday Blowout is a fun game, not too well known either. Its kind of a mario type side scroller except you have a hammer to hit things with. hooray for ACME!

I actually really like Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle, as well. It has pretty cool music. Ending sucks, though.

[PentiumMMX]

The Startropics series if you like Zelda clones. I liked it a lot more then the first 2 Zelda games.

Also, Tiny Toon Adventures and MC Kids are both fun-yet-underrated platform games.

[GrandAmChandler]

Robowarrior. The single player mode is better than either of the NES Bombermans.

Yeah. I said it.

Plays almost identical to Bomberman, but with more powerups, secret rooms, tunnels, giant bosses and more. Great game, can be found cheap.

Also released as "Blaster Master Boy" for Game Boy.

[bust3dstr8]

I've always been a fan of the Technos Nekketsu games.
Nes got two of the best, River City Ransom and Dodgeball.
Dodgeball is one of the great 2p games for the NES, if not the best.

The NES Bonk is a good game if you don't own a TG16/PCE.

Arkanoid w/ the Vaus is a great port if you can find a good condition controller.


Gargoyle's Quest II lets you play the gargoyle from Ghost N Goblins.

Chiller?

[DefaultGen]

.....

[BetaWolf47]

Sorry to bump such an old thread, but this thread suffers from a severe lack of the following games:

-The Battle of Olympus: Best 8-bit Metroid style game ever. Some people think that Super Metroid was the first exceptional title of this style but this game beat it to the punch.

-The Magic of Scheherazade: Very similar to Crystalis and every bit as good. It may very well be my favorite game on the system.

[ButtonMasher123]

G.I. Joe:A Real American Hero is a game I love to death for the NES. It has an amazing amount of variety for an old school game. I personally feel its the best run and gun game on the system.

[Ryaan1234]

Hmmmm.... Let me throw in Kiwi Kraze, Archon, Ninja Crusaders, Jackie Chan's Action Kung-Fu, and Panic Restaurant.

Kiwi Kraze is part of the Bubble Bobble/Rainbow Islands grouping of games by Taito. It's a solid, cute, fun platformer game.

Archon is a neat chess type games where you battle.

Ninja Crusaders, by Sammy, is obviously a Ninja Gaidan knockoff, but it gives you the ability to transform into different animals. Cool!

Jackie Chan's Action Kung-Fu is a pretty solid platformer, with nice graphics and pretty good gameplay.

Panic Restaurant is also by Taito. It's a quirky food based platformer. Too bad it's so expensive.

[BetaWolf47]

Kiwi Kraze is part of the Bubble Bobble/Rainbow Islands grouping of games by Taito. It's a solid, cute, fun platformer game.

Not to mention a pretty good home port of The New Zealand Story.

[StakeRaiser]

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

Best game EVA!!!