Lesser known (good) NES(/Famicom) games

[Snark]

I've been revisiting NES as of late, so wonder what more obscur games I might have missed.

Lesser known means: no Super Mario, Zelda, Castlevania, Metroid... etc. Anything else is ok, even stuff like Rygar etc which are pretty well known still but might be unknown for some.

I'll start.

Journey to Silius
Just discovered this one. By Sunsoft. If you like Batman and Blaster Master (both by the same company) you should enjoy this game. If you listen it even has some of the same sound effects as Blaster Master (and the lesser known "Feister's Quest). That was pretty common on the Nes for games made by a given company to share sfx actually.

edit: wtf the text doesnt appear in the thread but shows in the edit
edit2 fixed...weird thing happens when you don't format the text-in-link correctly apparently...

[Joe Camacho]

ASTYANAX !!!

[darkbenny]

Mother 1

[adventure_of_link]

Mother 1

more like earthbound zero amirite?

that being said, would kirby's adventure count? if not, I can suggest Flipull.

[grinvader]

Gargoyle's Quest 2...
Kabuki Quantum Fighter...
Ys 1&2...

[Gil_Hamilton]

... Blaster Master ...

Thread over.
Metroid with a tank. Life doesn't get better than this.


Also noteworthy: Crystalis, by SNK(before the NeoGeo and a bajillion fighting games). Top-down action-RPG.
Do not play the GBColor remake. It is a blasphemy.

(Side note for flame wars: If Zelda was an RPG, this is what it would be. Well, or Adventure of Link, but we don't talk about that. ).





Metal Storm, by irem. Platform shooter.

Someone built a Death Star out of Pluto to defend humanity from potential alien invaders. You know, being proactive before Gradius/RType/WTFEver happens. Unfortunately, it broke, and the computer's blowing up every planet in the solar system now. You have to run your gravity-controlling power suit through the base to get to the core and destroy the computer before it shoots down Earth.

Aside from being able to control gravity(up+jump reverses gravity, a move that rapidly becomes second nature), it's also a technically impressive game, featuring multiple background layers and highly-animated sprites. It also has some sweet music. And most importantly, it's damn fun to play.



Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight.
The title alone is good for a few laughs, but it's actually a fun platformer.

[Francis64]

Little Samson (platformer)
8 Eyes (Castlevania lookalike)
Gun Nac (shoot'em up - very similar to Space Megaforce / Super Aleste)

[diminish]

Battletoads And Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team - a boss is a boss

Simply the best beat'em up on NES, but not only. It really deserves a TAS.



The Fantastic Adventures Of Dizzy - look at that cute eggy face :3

Platform/adventure. It has great music and atmosphere, exploring game's world is really fun, minigames are rewarding.



Super Robin Hood - treasures'n'stuffs

Fancy and a bit humorous platformer. Also has a complex world with many secrets to find out; good animation.

[gllt]

wow thats an acceptably drawn robin hood
i am impressed

[Gil_Hamilton]

Gun Nac (shoot'em up - very similar to Space Megaforce / Super Aleste)

And anything else by Compile.

Notably The Guardian Legend. Half shooter, half Legend of Zelda with a gun and a robochick.


And Zanac. One of the few games with adaptive difficulty(and probably the only one to include it in the plot).
The game adjusts enemy waves based on your current secondary weapon and a difficulty variable based on gameplay(in general, the better you're doing, the harder it gets, and when you die the difficulty drops back down).

Lemme tell you. The traditional scrolling shooter swarms are a LOT more fun when the difficulty floats.
It's just so immensely satisfying to build up to solid walls of enemies, mow through them like so much wet tissue, and imagine the game shouting "Bullshit! There's no way that missed! This player is cheating!!!!!"



The game hands out 1-ups like popcorn. But you can burn through them pretty fast when things get hectic.

Also, your prototype, top-of-the-line, titular ship-of-last-resort OFFICIALLY carries the model number AFX-6502.





While totally off-topic, there's also a PS1 version titled Zanac X Zanac.
In addition to ports of the multiple NES versions of the game, there's a sequel, Zanac Neo.
Sadly, this was not released in America, though the game content is almost pure english.

It also adds three more ships, the AFX-80586, -3000A, and -68030.
And a modified version of the original ship, the AFX-6502FC.




(I refuse to explain if someone doesn't get the ship's model numbers.)

[Rashidi]

i would propose: Gumshoe, a Zapper-only game.

for some reason, emulating zapper via mouse make it even more harder than it supposed to be.

[franpa]

Notably The Guardian Legend. Half shooter, half Legend of Zelda with a gun and a robochick.

That game is freakin' ownage considering its a NES game.

[neoblaze]

NARC

Frickin' priceless.

[Neo Kaiser]

Holy Diver (Too bad that it dint came to the USA.)


http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/ ... eview.html

Clash at Demon Head (I don't know about it's popularity back then.)

Faxanadu (Popular or not?)

The Guardian Legend


Because Gil dint post screen shots.
and
Dream Master


BTW I used to own Journey to Silius back then until it was stolen.

[blackmyst]

Gremlins 2 is awesome.

Notably The Guardian Legend. Half shooter, half Legend of Zelda with a gun and a robochick.

I always wonder when people say a game is "like Zelda" or "like Metroid" if it actually has the complex nonlinear world and level designs with all the puzzles, or if they just say that cuz it looks like that if you play it for two minutes.

[Johan_H]

Kage/Shadow of the Ninja/Blue shadow

Best co-op ninja game ever, probably.

[Snark]

Good stuff, good stuff.

Kirby imo would probably fall within the well known series by now.

I can suggest Flipull.

Ah yes Flipull. Great overlooked puzzle game. Although, it's not technically an NES/Famicom game, more of an arcade port, still awesome. The game is extremely easy to play, yet very challenging in that it require much thinking in advance.

Good aspect of the game is that the "goal" for each level is not set in stone, but rather you have to pass a certain threshold after that you're rewarded bonus points if you go beyond the minimal goal's requirements: Good balance between rewarding better play and at the same time doesn't punish too much poor play.

Not to mention, I think it's the only game where the main character is a little nose booger.




Radia Senki: Reimeihen (man that wikipedia article is bad.. edit: changed to mobygames)

Famicom RPG never made it oversea. In advance of it's time in many regards. It's kind of a Star Ocean 8-bit seriously. The graphics alone are way beyond anything Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest NES. There's a scene at the beginning of the game where you are on the roof of a house and the game scrolls toward the sky, revealing multiple parralax. You don't even see that kind of effects in most Snes RPGs.

It's translated btw and even works on hardware.




And since nobody mentioned it: Bionic Commando. Extremely known but still deserve a mention because of it's sheer awesomeness.

[Joe Camacho]

Gremlins 2 is awesome.

Notably The Guardian Legend. Half shooter, half Legend of Zelda with a gun and a robochick.

I always wonder when people say a game is "like Zelda" or "like Metroid" if it actually has the complex nonlinear world and level designs with all the puzzles, or if they just say that cuz it looks like that if you play it for two minutes.

I think that "on those days" when something was "top-down" view, it was regarded as "Zelda type", I know I used that term.

No idea about "like metroid" though.

[badinsults]

Ha, I remember Clash at Demonhead. It was an interesting concept, but it was bloody impossible to figure out what to do.

Faxanadu is pretty freaking awesome too. The music is great in it.

[creaothceann]

Radia Senki: Reimeihen

Are shadows often used like that in NES RPGs, or is this unusual? I haven't seen that many.

[Neo Kaiser]

Ninja Boy (can't find screen shots.)

Bump 'N' Jump


Shadow of the Ninja


S.C.A.T


Shatterhand

[Snark]

Radia Senki: Reimeihen

Are shadows often used like that in NES RPGs, or is this unusual? I haven't seen that many.

Don't know but the game is definitely more graphically detailed in some parts then most NES RPGs. Some of the buildings in the town at the beginning for example.

Bump 'N' Jump

As a general rule, I don't often recommend direct arcade ports simply because they tend to be inferior to their arcade counter-parts. Had they been original games on their own, without any superior version to outshine them that would have been a different story.

Donkey Kong 3 for example (yes, I'm one of those people that actually likes the original arcade game) is a pretty solid port overall, but it simply doesn't match the arcade because of the much more limited numbers of enemies on-screen which make the game ultimately too easy. (Nintendo should have re-released the arcade version on Wii and not the inferior Nes one imo*. I assume they got the rights for both versions)

Games like Bionic Commando or Ninja Gaiden (or even Contra or Double Dragons) are more like free adaptations of the arcade games and actually have very little in common with the original, so I place them as original Nes games, whereas DK3, Miss Pac Man, Bump' N Jump etc are closer to "ports"...Not that they can't be enjoyed of course, specially if you never played the arcade version. Some ports are pretty excellent too. Konami Track & Field for example is an amazing port.



*edit: Then again, it's called Virtual console I guess so... :/

[Neo Kaiser]

They are different in many ways like the stages and the NES version is easier on the eyes.

[adventure_of_link]

Good stuff, good stuff.

Kirby imo would probably fall within the well known series by now.

Dammit

I can suggest Flipull.

Ah yes Flipull. Great overlooked puzzle game. Although, it's not technically an NES/Famicom game, more of an arcade port, still awesome. The game is extremely easy to play, yet very challenging in that it require much thinking in advance.

Good aspect of the game is that the "goal" for each level is not set in stone, but rather you have to pass a certain threshold after that you're rewarded bonus points if you go beyond the minimal goal's requirements: Good balance between rewarding better play and at the same time doesn't punish too much poor play.

Not to mention, I think it's the only game where the main character is a little nose booger.

oh good, you accepted my request of Flipull I didn't know it was an arcade game, actually!

that being said, how about Hatris?

[funkyass]

A good question about Faxanadu.

seriously that games needs a sequel.