Tag Archives: NES/Famicom

Nightshade, NES

NOT the infamous 1985 Ultimate game, but an obscure action/adventure classic from Aussie developer Beam Software, first released on the NES in 1992.

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Excitebike, NES

Nintendo‘s fun motocross racing game on the NES, Excitebike, was designed by legendary Nintendo game designer Shigeru Miyamoto.

Excitebike was a launch title for both the Japanese and American release of the Nintendo Entertainment System video game console, in 1984 and 1985 respectively.

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Adventures of Lolo 3, NES

HAL Laboratory‘s Adventures of Lolo 3 is a fantastic, cute and extremely playable puzzle game, first released for the Nintendo Famicom in Japan in 1991 (actually December 26th 1990, but we’ll say 1991).

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EarthBound Zero, NES

This classic NES game was initially released in Japan in 1989 under the title of Mother.

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Crystalis, NES

Crystalis was SNK‘s response to Nintendo‘s Zelda games back in 1990, it being an action adventure with real-time combat, just like Zelda. But Crystalis is definitely something more than simply a Zelda clone – it is one of the best games on the system and a great game in its own right.

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Mr. Gimmick, NES/Famicom

Known as Gimmick! in Japan and Mr. Gimmick everywhere else, this 1992 release was an attempt by Sunsoft to push the graphical powers of the Nintendo Entertainment System further than they’d ever been pushed before (in order to compete with the Super Nintendo, which was relatively new on the market).

In order to do this, Sunsoft used all kinds of clever programming techniques using graphical tilesets and colours, and the end result is very striking. But it wasn’t enough to compete with the newer consoles of the time and Mr. Gimmick sank without a trace, into relative obscurity.

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Metroid, NES

This first Metroid, for the Nintendo Entertainment System, was initially released in 1986 and remains the toughest episode in the whole series to date.

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Final Fantasy, NES

The very first ever Final Fantasy game was in Japanese only, released for the MSX in 1987. This 1990, NES remake of Final Fantasy was when Squaresoft really made the rest of the world first sit up and take notice.

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