Kent and the Top Ten NES Games of Youth

I once toyed with, at least, the notion of trying to look back at my childhood and, from memory, rebuild my list of favorite NES games.

*There are some iconic games (Mario, Mega Man) who make the list more than once. There are SOME icons (Double Dragon, Battle Toads, Donkey Kong, Pac Man, Mike Tyson, etc.) that MISS the list as I'm going from my own memory of what I enjoyed.

Also, there are PLENTY of games that I enjoyed in my youth that, looking back now, weren't quite as enjoyable as I remembered.

THE BACKSTORY

Almost every gamer has an anecdote or backstory that sets them on the path to renting games for the weekend or playing games from their own collection.

That story, obviously, begins with the first console.

I want to say that it was Christmas Eve of '88 when I unwrapped not only the Real Ghostbusters Firehouse Playset but the NES and "Super Mario Brothers/Duck Hunt" as well. (Bear in mind that this was Christmas EVE of that year, sitting on my late Grandmother's living room floor as a lad of four. I can't even begin to forge a recollection of what waited for me under the tree Christmas DAY that year).

Anyway, my parents handed a four year old boy a gaming controller and let him take the reins of a pixelated Italian plumber; when I wasn't handling the Nintendo Zapper, missing the ducks ON PURPOSE, and BLASTING the snickering dog if only to not only imagine putting its snickering to rest but to be treated with the Easter Egg of doggie's pixelated x-ray form (Even at four, I knew the difference between how I was to treat a videogame character vs. how to treat a living thing).

Like so many of my peers, I was hooked. I kept the NES until I upgraded to the N64 and, going full circle, started THAT collection with Mario as well. (Nevertheless, I knew which neighborhood kids had upgraded to the Sega or SNES, so I knew whose house to sneak to to partake of Sonic or Super Mario World, respectively).

That was the build up. Here I am with the list; MY list (that I can guarantee you very few people, if ANYONE, will agree with for the same reasons cited. As always, DEBATE can be healthy; insulting vitriol is not).

10. BUGS BUNNY's BIRTHDAY BLOWOUT (Kemco).

Kemco released TWO Bugs Bunny games for NES almost simultaneously.

They were "Crazy Castle" and "Birthday Blowout"

My love of "Super Mario" taught me to appreciate a good side-scrolling level with lots of backdrop. Therefore, I found myself PREFERRING "Birthday Blowout" over the far more popular "Crazy Castle;" a predecessor that I felt repeated the exact same level, with some of the same ENEMIES, a ghastly amount of times.

Anyway, Bugs would navigate through a landscape and have to contend with a boss battle in the form of one of his fellow Looney Tunes stars who was a little upset with Bugs throwing a birthday party and "accidentally" not inviting them (Ain't he a stinker?).

Okay, if this is the case, I'm with the Looney Tunes on this one; with "friends" like Bugs, who needs enemies?

9. BUCKY O'HARE (Konami)

First off, if not for my watching Bucky O'Hare on Saturday Mornings (he came on before Toxic Crusaders; I'd watch the former and find something better to do for the latter) and collecting the action figures (okay; the Toxic Crusader action figure line took the prize between the two), I most likely would have never rented "Bucky O' Hare" the first time, that led to the second, that led to...anyhoo.

Bucky's crewmates of the Righteous Indignation have been captured by the Toad armada. It's time for the "funky-fresh rabbit who can take care of it" to get down to some serious bad-wart busting business!

Bucky's battle is split up across four planets. Clear a planet, beat up a boss, and gain back an ally in Dead-Eye Duck, Willy DeWitt, AFC Blinky, or the minx-like cat, the gorgeous Jenny. Each member of the team has their own weapon/ability and, upon freeing them, they join you as an option for future fights. Certain planets are more easily cleared with certain abilities, so there is a method to the order in which to clear the worlds that I never quite picked up on.

Simple right? Clear four worlds and four bosses to free four crewmates and their unique abilities.

I see that some of you aren't familiar with the Mega Man franchise.

The first four "acts" are the APPETIZER for what's to come when the crew has to board the Toad Air Marshall's ship and traverse THAT across several levels. Oh; and the crew is abducted AGAIN and, this time, brainwashed into forcing Bucky's paw into mini-"boss" fights to snap their senses back together again.

Not only was "Bucky..." a Saturday morning-mainstay in the '91 season, his video game reminded SO much of Capcom's awesome Mega Man franchise that it made it MUST play.

By the way, if you've hung on to your NES and old games, AND manage to have THIS one in working order, I'm getting the impression that it was something of a rarity; because its asking price is always REALLY steep...

8. WHOMP'EM (JALECO)

A game called "Whomp 'Em;" about a tiny Native American warrior-type.

...Before you "cancel" ME over this, I just innocently played another "Mega Man-lite-knockoff" game; as a child who didn't yet know what "wampum" entailed.

Okay, the title itself was WRONG then; it's wrong today.

Little Whomp 'Em traversed several stages and beat off bad guys.

I equate him to Mega Man instead of Mario because he may or may not have acquired different weapons/talents for clearing different stages.

7. TINY TOONS (KONAMI)

If you grew up in the early 90s, and had access to a local Fox affiliate, you know who the Tiny Toons are.

Onto the video game.

You chose between Plucky Duck, Dizzy Devil, or Furball Cat as the "side" hero.

Each level BEGAN with Buster Bunny.

Therefore, Buster's hopping ability could be complemented by Plucky's flight, Dizzy's powerful tornado attacks, or Furball's ability to climb walls.

Choose wisely; then use sparingly as NEITHER ability seemed to last long.

It seemed like Buster could only take one or two hits before being forced out to be replaced by his partner; or vice versa. That meant A LOT of dodging of enemies, let alone avoiding the pitfalls.

Oh; and Elmyra was always waiting for you at the ends of the first half of each level. Providing that you knew HOW, she was easy to avoid...

6. G.I. JOE: A REAL AMERICAN HERO (KID)

"YOHHHH, JOHHHHHHHHH!"

As an avid collector/viewer of Masters of the Universe AND G.I. Joe, I found it hard to imagine ANYONE avoiding EITHER franchise throughout the 80s.

G.I. Joe's FIRST fore into the NES was split into five main missions, of three parts each, for Duke, Snake-Eyes, Rock & Roll, Cap. Gridiron, and Blizzard (a 'Joe from the 88/maybe-89 season of figures that was NEVER on screen).

As this game was released in 1991, Cap. Gridiron was included as playable and Snake Eyes and Rock & Roll matched their subsequent latest character models at the time.

You built a team of three Joes for each mission; a leader that the game picked for you, and you picked the next two. (Duke led for Mission 1, Snake-Eyes for 2, Rock & Roll [I think] was the third mission, and so on).

That meant that you couldn't even avoid the weakest of heroes forever.

As always, each Joe member had their strengths and weaknesses across (shooting) range, jumping, hand-to-hand combat, and stamina.

The good news was that each member of your team had their own health bar, so if one got in trouble, you could sub in the alternate and begin anew. The BAD news was that switching teammates did NOT refill the former's health bar for you. Also, keep an eye on your ammo, as the ranged weapons were, obviously, far better for beating back Cobra than fisticuffs were...

5. DUCK TALES (CAPCOM)

Duck Tales. Talespin. Rescue Rangers. Darkwing Duck.

There was a while there where, if "Disney Afternoon" was going to make a cartoon, Capcom would be RIGHT THERE to make a game out of it.

These eventually affectionately became the "Disney Afternoon Collection" for the subsequent repackaging and rerelease on Playstation/XBox.

Mostly thanks to the source materials, these Capcom games were GREAT (and, in the case of Duck Tales or Rescue Rangers, they warranted SEQUELS!) I'm going to pick ONE...

and "Duck Tales," the one that STARTED it all, is helped along by a great soundtrack and solid gameplay.

Scrooge McDuck is navigated across many parts of the world to beat the clock in treasure-seeking against his old adversary and rival, Flintheart Glomgold.

Magica De'Spell plays a role somewhere as well.

Also, keep your eyes peeled for hints from Scrooge's nephews, inventions/upgrades from Gyro Gearloose, or for Launchpad to give you a lift home/respite mid mission.

4. MEGA MAN 2 (CAPCOM)

For there to be a Mega Man 2, there HAS to have been a Mega Man ONE somewhere.

Mega Man 2 revamped and overhauled the franchise by giving the "Blue Bomber" eight robot masters to contend with rather than the original six.

Any following Mega Man game would consider 8 Robot Masters leading up to the final battle with Dr. Wily to be the unlucky number.

I loved "...2" for its Robot Masters and their respective theme music. At the time of playing it in childhood, I didn't even REALIZE yet that completing the levels in a certain order made things far easier on the player. (I still remember trying to navigate the beam traps in Quick Man's stage WITHOUT Flash Man's Time Stopper).

Anyway, it was a fun ride with catchy music and easily got me hooked on the franchise far better than the first installment did.

3. MEGA MAN 3 (CAPCOM)

More robot masters and subsequent weapon upgrades; and even MORE catchy music to accompany the oncoming stages.

Once again, knowing what I know NOW about which order to beat the stages in to acquire the appropriate weapon for the NEXT boss makes these far easier now playing the "Mega Man Collection" on PS4. But I will always have the MEMORIES of the frustrations of yesteryear...

2. SUPER MARIO BROTHERS (NINTENDO)

The "face" of the Nintendo franchise across MULTIPLE consoles now has never changed.

If you had an NES (SNES/N64...) you know who Mario is (If you had a SEGA, you STILL know who Mario IS, you just PREFERRED Sonic, the Hedgehog).

My NES experience probably syncs up with 90% of users and it began with "Super Mario."

Stomping on Koopas and Goombas. Mushrooms for growth (magic mushrooms. hmmm...) Anyway, Flowers for firepower. The warp tubes. The warp dungeon's THEME music. Dodging Bowser/King Koopa to drop the bridge out from under him only for him to come BACK. Oh; and the "congratulatory" message from Toad that "oh, btw, the Princess is in ANOTHER castle."

I was four at the time so the debate whether Toad was offering us a "thumbs-up" or "the middle finger" (thankfully) couldn't occur to me yet. However, "good job; thumbs-up" and "oh yeah; try ANOTHER castle..." seem to be conflicting.

"Thumbs-up," or something like that, to you too, Toad...

1. SUPER MARIO 3 (NINTENDO)

I blame the animal suits offering likewise powers. Or maybe the map of definitely DISTINCT levels (NOT background stage/The Castle; same background stage with a different enemy or two/Castle; background stage...)

For everything that Super Mario Brothers made ALMOST great, Super Mario 3 PERFECTED it!

I do lament that "Super Mario World," exclusively SUPER Nintendo, could not make the list; because I remember it well from my buddy's house and would have definitely made the race for the TOP position on THIS list a lot more interesting.

I thank you for journeying with me down the rabbit hole of youthful video game memories. Ten slots didn't leave a lot of room for great NES games and "Yo Noid," "Little Nemo: the Dream Master," "Blaster Master," "Dark Man," and "Bionic Commando" all just made the honorable mentions list.

At the time, I would have also included "Adventures in the Magic Kingdom" or "Mickey Mousecapade;" today, definitely not...

What were some of YOUR favorite NES games; and do you think that nostalgia would hold up today?

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