Genre: Shooter

Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Year: 1988

Basic Idea: Gradius, with better graphics and less dying.

Review:  My favorite shooter of all-time, Life Force is basically perfect.  It can be played alone or with a friend.  The power-ups kick ass.  The backgrounds are creative and visually stunning.  The music fits the mood.  The boss battles, while relatively easy, are great fun.  And the final level, frantically trying to escape the alien your plane has just destroyed, is really intense.

Granted, I’ve never won this game without the Konami Code.  But I have gotten pretty far without it, and there’s only a couple times where the game feels unfair at all.  If you only play one shooter on the NES, it has to be Life Force.

Genre: Platformer

Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Year: 1990

Basic Idea: Kill Dracula again with Simon Belmont’s grandfather and some bad dudes you recruit.

Review:  This game often makes top ten lists, and it certainly retains the awesomeness of the original game and adds some great features.  Unfortunately, it also retained the incredibly awkward jumping with cheap falling deaths.  It’s not any less annoying in this game.  The final level has an awesome section that has you jumping across pendulums.  Did I say awesome?  I mean maddening as hell because bats keep sending you to hell.

The added features that help this game include alternate paths and recruiting bosses you defeat to come along side you to help you navigate through certain levels.  You don’t need to retain their services, but with their special abilities (e.g. wall-climbing) it can make things easier if you do.  The level designs are also immensely more creative. It’s impossible to get bored while playing.  The music and graphics are still mind-blowing.

If it weren’t for all the stupid ways to die, I would probably worship this game.

Genre: Arcade

Developer: Taito
Publisher: Taito
Year: 1987

Basic Idea: Breakout on steroids.

Review:  I always had an affinity for games in this vein, and Arkanoid is near-perfection.  More than just your standard paddle-destroy-blocks game, many blocks drop super powers for your paddle. Power-ups include increased length, sticky paddle, multiple balls, free balls, lasers, and even a warp zone.  Some levels require increased strategy to complete, as enemies fly around and gold bricks are not destroyable.

There are two minor annoyances.  The balls can sometimes end up at breakneck speeds.  This is generally not an issue if you have the Arkanoid controller (we did) as you can move from one side of the screen to the other instantaneously.  But the paddles moves at a rather leisurely pace while using the regular NES controller.  So when those balls are going fast, kiss your life goodbye.

The colors are amazing.  The game is really a joy to watch.  And, if you can make it to the 36th and final level, there’s a pretty sweet boss battle.  I also recommend the sequel for the SNES which is even better.

Genre: Action

Developer: Square
Publisher: Acclaim
Year: 1987

Basic Idea: I’m guessing the inspiration for Forrest Gump.

Review:  A truly unique game, this is a must play by pretty much anyone, at least once.  The game is in third-person perspective and you run away from the screen.  You have no choice really, as the dude runs no matter what you do.  You can speed him up or slow him down,move left or right, and you can jump.  Avoiding enemies and chasms is pretty much all there is besides some perfunctory boss battles.  It sounds simple, but each level brings increasingly difficult challenges and is quite addicting.

The graphics are fairly drab, but well-detailed enough that there’s little confusion.  And, like Rad Racer (released a month later), the game has a 3-D mode that works if you have the glasses.  I never had a chance to do this (as it doesn’t work on emulators), but if it’s anything like the 3-D in Rad Racer, I hardly doubt it makes the game more enjoyable.  Unlike Rad Racer, this game doesn’t suck.

In fact, this is the only game Square made that I’m aware of in the non-RPG division that hasn’t sucked (King’s Knight — shudders).  It’s well known that Final Fantasy saved the company and I certainly can’t argue with the company’s direction.  But I wonder if they gave up on other genres too quickly.

Genre: Puzzle

Developer: HAL
Publisher: HAL
Year: 1990,1991

Basic Idea: Add hand-eye coordination to your crazy difficult puzzles.

Review: It’s impossible to review these games without also reviewing the first or revealing that the first game will rank higher on the list.  So, there you go.  If you haven’t played any of these games, the basic idea is as such: collect all the hearts in a room to open up the treasure chest which has a button that will open the door.  Rinse and repeat.  On each level there will be various enemies that get in your way.  Some just literally stand in your way.  Some will breath fireballs that you have to dodge. Some kill you instantly if you walk within their line of sight.  There are others as well, but you get the idea.

So why are these two games ranked lower?  Their graphics are somewhat better than the first game, and the third game adds some boss battles.  The third game even has an overworld map and a partner who has the exact same abilities and is only there for…well, I don’t know.  Thing is, these are just frills that were added.  The main issue I take with the final two games is that so many more puzzles involve agility.  There’s nothing more annoying that knowing exactly how to escape a room but not being able to do it because you can’t move fast enough.  And since the play control isn’t that fantastic, it just makes some levels needlessly frustrating.

Both games are still fun and definitely worth playing if you enjoyed the first game.  If you don’t enjoy the first game, however,  there’s nothing to see here that will change your mind.

Genre: Platformer

Developer: HAL
Publisher: Nintendo
Year: 1993

Basic Idea: Sucking and blowing at its most fun!

Review:  There’s little argument that this was one of the best games made in the Super Nintendo era.  As Kirby, a pink ball with a big mouth, you traverse through stages much like in Super Mario 3.  However, instead of jumping on enemies, your goal is to swallow them and spit them out.  Certain enemies have special abilities (swordfighting, laser shooting, flying) that you can inherit when you swallow them, so there’s a definite strategy to what you suck.  There are also some fun mini-games between levels to try to learn abilities or get extra lives.

There’s not much to criticize.  The game has an excellent learning curve, and may even be a bit too easy (though not insultingly so).  It’s incredibly responsive.  I guess the main reason it’s not ranked higher is that there’s nothing especially memorable about the game.  The graphics are incredibly dull with a god awful color palette.  The boss battles are decent, but nothing to write home about.  And the levels can get a bit samey.  But if you’re looking for an old-school platformer that’s worth playing today, this is a good bet.

Genre: Baseball

Developer: Tose
Publisher: Brøderbund
Year: 1990

Basic Idea: Avenge those memories of being picked last for kickball.

Review:  A quirky game I never gave enough time to until I had some friends insist the game was awesome.  I wound up playing in an on-line league for this game a few years ago.  It was a blast.  I’ve played several baseball games over the years that advertised themselves as sandlot games, but this is the only one that truly feels like a bunch of guys getting together for some exhibitions at their local hangouts.

The basic idea is that there are no teams, and for each game you draft your team from a lot of sixty players.  Every single player available has a different skill set.  But the game doesn’t just limit the player abilities to power, contact, speed, and arm strength.  A few have the ability to climb fences, fly at night, or swim in water.  Yeah, a few fields have puddles in addition to the occasional tree trunk or rock.  One guy even has the ability to avoid being tagged out (occasionally).

There are options to play fast or slow-pitch. In one-player mode, you can play a tournament to earn the right of playing a team of Amazonian female softballers who are hefty challenge.  The play control isn’t always as tight as I would like, but it’s just so damn fun that it’s hard to care.

Genre: Platformer

Developer: Chunsoft
Publisher: Enix
Year: 1990

Basic Idea: Play the prize lottery in towns and a lottery with your lives in the dungeons.

Review: In 1990, America was still behind on the RPG front as this game took three years to get here from Japan.  Final Fantasy took the same amount of the time to cross the pond and was released a few months before this game.  That game probably hurt any momentum Enix hoped to gain with the Dragon Warrior series, especially since graphically Enix seemed to be way behind. Still, this is a solid, if not always memorable game.

Like its predecessor, you begin the game as the lone party member.  However, as the game progresses, you gain two additional party members that enhance the story line and add variety to the battles.  I think the most memorable part of this game for me is the towns you visit.  There are many hidden passageways and genuinely interesting puzzles to solve when you’re not mindlessly building up levels.  The overall story is not terribly compelling, but there are individual highlights that make up for it.

Where the game falters the most is near the end, where some level-building is required, and the final cave has mazes that not only are pointless but hard to figure out.  They are zero clues how to navigate them, and the enemies steal magic points and are brutal.

If you love old-school RPGs, this isn’t a must-play by any means, but you probably wouldn’t be disappointed either.  It certainly is less frustrating than the original game and makes some positive steps, but Enix still hadn’t come into their own.

Genre: Platformer

Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Year: 1987

Basic Idea: Defeat Dracula just like Jonathan Harker did: with a whip!

Review: It’s hard to believe I have thirty-four games listed above this one, but there it is.  From the title screen to the opening music, it’s hard not to be in the mood as soon you begin.  The music is appropriately haunting, and the background visuals are terrific.  Unlike most platformers on the NES, the enemies actually fit the theme of the game.  It never feels like you’re not in Transylvania.  The difficulty gradually increases on each level and the boss battles are intense but not impossible.  The special weapons are a blast to use.  Planning which weapons to use against which boss was also a great idea.

My only real criticism of the game is that there are many cheap falling deaths.  Simon Belmont can barely jump as it is, and oftentimes bats or eagles will come flying out of nowhere (especially after you’ve already begun jumping), sending you flying backwards and often into chasms.  It’s certainly not the only titles on the NES to be guilty of this, but considering how little agility Simon has, having another strike against him makes the game seem impossible at times.  And with limited lives and continues, it makes the game a beast to finish.  The farthest I’ve made it without a game genie is the Grim Reaper.

It’s easily been surpassed by future incarnations in the series,  Nevertheless, the game is a fantastic experience that is still a blast to play.

Genre: Wrestling

Developer: TRY
Publisher: Nintendo
Year: 1987

Basic Idea: Wrestle like the pros do.  Button mash!

Review: We had four cartridges the first day we got our Nintendo.  All four games made the list, and Pro Wrestling is ranked the highest.  Considering it’s little more than a button-mashing game, the ranking may be generous.  But pretty much everything else about the game is perfect.  You have seven distinct wrestlers with distinct special moves (my favorite has always been Fighter Hyabusa, though I’m not sure why).  The controls are very easy to learn.  The graphics are bland but well-detailed; it’s easy to tell what moves are being performed in all their-bone crushing glory.  There is actual tension, especially when you are close to being pinned or when you’re out of the ring and trying to beat the 20 second rule.  And I love the long trek to try and defeat the Great Puma and win the game.  To this day, I’ve only done it once.  

The game if played for any length of time will surely make your fingers tired and calloused.  Still it’s worth it to know that a winner is you!