header
     
Reviews Archive

The 100 Best NES Games

Welcome to our Top 100 Best NES games. Now, for anyone new to the site we follow a set of guidelines for all our lists. We aim to represent the best of all genre's, we try to limit the number of sequels included to allow more underrated games to shine, and also tend to avoid games that have been ported from earlier systems that don't use the hardware to its full potential. The best Import games are allowed, but only when they're import friendly and don't require an FAQ to play.

Thanks and enjoy the list!

         
 
100
Arkanoid II: Revenge of Doh   Arkanoid on NES
  As an update to the classic game Breakout Revenge of Doh has you bouncing a ball back and forth destroying bricks. Where it really shines is with all the great extras now added to the core game play, like the different level designs, types of bricks, and especially the new power-ups, such as some which give you the ability to fire, multiply the ball of make your bat larger.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
99
Legendary Wings   Legendary Wings
  A great scrolling shoot-em-up which has an excellent 2-player co-operative mode to its credit. Though one aspect the game certainly falls down in is originality as the basic game play whilst fun and polished is certainly nothing new of unique, which is why I dropped it places in this list.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
98
Track N' Field   Track N' Field on NES
  Multiplayer classic from the 80's that started the whole mash two buttons as fast as possible style game play. The fact that this mechanic has remained virtually unchanged in olympics games up to this day is a testament to it's greatness.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
97
Smash TV   Smash TV on NES
  Simple top down shooter, the basic premise is akin to "the Running Man" film where you play the poor bloke stuck in the game show who has to shoot anything that moves. It includes a cool duel controller option to replicate the arcade's multi-directional firing, which works pretty well.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
96
Power Blade   Power Blade
  A platform shooting affair similar to Mega Man, but with boomerangs and Contra's multi directional firing. Its actually a remade US version of a Japanese game called "Power Blazer" and must stand as one of the few occasions where the mucked about with version outdoes the original (another arguable one would be the Mega Drive's Decap Attack) this is due to Power Blade getting rid of many game play problems the original had.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
95
720 Degrees   720 degrees on NES
  One of the first extreme sports games and a timeless classic which must have been an inspiration for later games such as Tony Hawks Pro Skater. You have a bunch of different moves available and multiple excellent events to play.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
94
Klax   Klax on NES
  Popular puzzle game which is similar in game play to falling block games like Tetris and Columns, though as opposed to those games Klax incorporates a conveyer belt instead of the more regular enter from the top of the screen set-up. When you get three of the same colour vertically, horizontally or diagonally you get a "klax".
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
93
Lunar Jetman   Lunar Jetman
  Rare's spin on Thrust's game play style. Fly about shooting the enemies and collecting the things you need for your ship. Most of the difficulty was in making sure you didn't crash. Addictive and fun.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
92
Double Dragon II   Double Dragon II on NES
  The second game in the seminal Double Dragon series, a series that popularized the whole beat-em-up genre when originally released at the arcades. As an original game designed for the NES and not a true arcade sequel this was a pretty good game all things considered, with some nice graphics and great colour use throughout.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
91
Kid Icarus   Kid Icarus
  Every system out there has at least one wildly overrated game, and on the NES its Kid Icarus. Whilst a very good game with some interesting ideas and elements (the adventure game style weapons and health upgrades are very well implemented), as an overall experience its heavily brought down by some niggling issues which hold it back from the status of being the true classic that many people make it out to be (earlier levels are actually harder than later ones, imprecise controls, frustrations such as off screen deaths and enemies which randomly steal your money, lazy graphics obviously recycled from Metroid). Still certainly a very solid game though.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
         
 
3DO
Amiga
Amstrad
Atari ST
Atari VCS
Commodore 64
Dreamcast
Game Boy
Jaguar
Master System
Mega Drive
MSX
N64
NES
Neo Geo
PC Engine
Playstation
Saturn
SNES
ZX Spectrum