Gaming is a huge part of my life. I have been playing games since I can remember. From playing Maze Craze on the Atari 2600 with my father after he got home from work to playing the Sega Dreamcast for the first time - gaming has been in my blood for decades. I have even turned gaming into a bit of a job so to speak as I run two websites Gravis Ludus and Retro Gaming Magazine. One system that has a deep set placement in my heart is the Nintendo Entertainment System. I can still remember the day that Super Mario Bros 3 hit. My friend @JerryPerkinsII called me, I believe, and told me he saw it at Thrifty or was it Safeway? Anyhow, I remember calling around trying to find a store that had a copy available and begging my mom to take me to Payless (in Fort Bragg Payless was a lot like K-Mart - they sold more than shoes). That was just one adventure I got to go on thanks to the NES. Here are five of my favorite, underappreciated, NES games. Tell me yours in the comments and let's compare!
Deja Vu and UnInvited
The Nintendo NES was not known for blood and guts type games. Nintendo had a strict policy against that type of thing - even though Monster Party was able slip by with pretty much corner to corner red pixels and such. That is why games like Deja Vu and UnInvited appealed to me. For one, I was a big mystery/film noir style fan though I had no idea that is what it would later become known as. I was also a huge horror movie fan. When I saw Deja Vu and UnInvited at the local Thrifty (think K-Mart) I had a conundrum to face - which one to get. They had a similar look to them graphically so it came down to solving a mystery or fending off ghouls and things that go bump in the night. I picked the detective game and later got UnInvited. Let me tell you, I was too young for Deja Vu. lol It took me years to finally grow into that one as it required note taking, basic medicine understanding and of course, remembering some basic game choices that effected you later. Both great games and worth your time to play through, with or without a guide though it will help immensely.
Robowarrior
I get a lot of flack for including this one in just about any discussion I possibly can. Just ask @ModernZorker how many ways I can bring up this game. For those that don't know, Robowarrior is a spin-off of the Bomberman series, a bastard child or black sheep of the family. You walk around the levels and drop bombs to clear paths, or kill stronger enemies. You have a blaster and you are slowly dying so you constantly have to power up your batteries (you are a cyborg after all in the North American version). This brings tension to an action game and it can be downright scary as you are frantically searching for health and have only one bar left and it is blinking. Play it and tell me that is not scary.
Renegade
The poor mans Double Dragon or Final Fight. Some hate this game but I thoroughly enjoyed it (I also enjoyed playing arcade games like Crime Fighters and seeing how far a few quarters could get me). If you are a fighting fan then at least check out Renegade on the NES. Not guaranteeing you will like it but it is fairly cheap at game stores so why not?
Blaster Master
You can get ouf of your vehicle?!? Really!?? I know, a lot of you are reading this thinking Blaster Master was not underappreciated. It was. I lived it. While it picked up popularity later in the life of the NES, early on this game was under rated badly. Take a plunge into the netherworld and save your frog. They just did a new Blaster Master for the Nintendo Switch that has me thinking I need that console now. Great game on the NES and not one you will beat the first time playing. Plenty of replay value here.
Castlevania II
I know you have probably heard how bad Castlevania II: Simon's Quest is. Forget this is a Castlevania game and just enjoy the adventure that awaits you. I loved this game, spent months trying to beat it and decrypt those clues. Just a fun romp around a medieval world with ghouls and evil things to kill. Worth your time to play, definitely.
Blaster Master and Robowarrior are two great games that I lost many hours of my life to. I would happily lose some more.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Finally, someone else that understands how good Robowarrior is. I remember searching my local town, every store that even looked like they carried games searching out Blaster Master. I finally caved and got a copy through the mail (I think from Funcoland or something). That was the longest two to three weeks of my life, waiting for BM to arrive.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I even played the Sega Genesis sequel, and read the novelette.
I always found bomberman rather simplistic compared to robowarrior
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I agree with you about Bomberman. I didn't have any friends interested in playing it often so it was kind of "meh" to me. I would just go back to playing Robowarrior (especially since it was single player).
Wasn't the novelette a Choose Your Own Adventure book?
I loved the sequel on Genesis. Almost as much as the NES original. If only Sunsoft had released a remake of the NES game on the Super Nintendo - I would have been there with pre-order status on that one.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
You know, I think it was.
I'll have to dig it out someday soon and check that. Might even write a review.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
If you do find it and write a review I will definitely check it out, vote it up and resteem it. Why? Because I am a nut for Choose Your Own Adventure books. Recently picked up Transformers: The Invisibility Factor from Goodwill for $0.50.
I have been eying a tone of these books on Ebay and those bookswap websites for years - just haven't pulled the trigger on them yet (though some are quite tempting).
I have also played with the idea of doing a CYOA here on Steemit, a short one. Just to gauge interest.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Video game wise Life is Strange is rather like a CYOA.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I will have to check that one out. Thanks for the recommendation.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Having owned all but two NES games back when I collected, there are quite a few. This is probably my #1 for unappreciated...
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Good God, this is a fabulous game. Easily in my Top 10, maybe even my Top 5, for the NES. The soundtrack alone is worth the price of admission, but the gameplay mechanics combining shooter and RPG are just insane with how well they work together. Excellent choice.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
This game makes a lot of lists for unappreciated NES games, and for good reason. It is a great game for sure.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
How to tell if @triverse is really who he says he is: ask him about Robo Warrior. If he expresses confusion or talks about it for a minute or two and then shuts up, you know the real Triverse has been compromised, and it's time to call in the special ops team for retrieval.
Seriously, the man's lust for this cart knows no boundaries. Wouldn't surprise me if he tried to get his fiancee to change her name to 'Robo Warrior' after they tie the knot, because he could finally tell people who ask him, "If you love Robo Warrior so much, why don't you marry it?!" that he did. ;)
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I know Ultimate Warrior changed his legal last name to Warrior, do you think their son was name "Robo"?
Seriously though, Robowarrior is the bee's knee's. It has action (it moves, it dies), drama (scary boss creature comprised of multiples sprites that took my lunch money, you are going down), horror (I am about to die, no energy in sight, must survive to tell future generations of my heroics), death defying moves (my hover board is blinking and I am in water over my head - must diagonally run to the solid ground that is just out of reach) and finally, it is a romance (the cyborg is saving the WHOLE planet, not just one damsel in distress but them all).
What more can you ask for in a game?
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
One of my favorites to play with my cousin when I would go over his house was "Bump N' Jump"
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I need to give this one a run through some time. I have heard mixed things about it, mostly positive.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I always remember it fondly!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
There are a lot of unknown games that they are worth it on NES: Shatterhand, Vice Project Doom, Samurai Zombie Nation, Metal Storm, Super Spy Hunter, Guardian Legend...
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I'll argue for Castlevania II to my grave. It's got a lot of problems, but it also has an amazing soundtrack and I'd argue it has the best color palette on the NES, rivaled only by Batman.
As a game collector, NES will always be my favorite system. I have so much nostalgia for it and it has a huge library to explore. Here's my top 5 favorite underappreciated games:
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Do you think Journey to Silius would have been better if Sunsoft had gotten the Terminator license?
Shatterhand was one of those games I really wanted but never got to play.
Gotta agree with you on Gumshoe, surprise hit for me as a kid.
I am still trying to get into the whole River City Ransom series though I admit, I don't give it a lot of time when I am gaming - something I need to fix.
Life Force was one of those games I sucked at and kept trying to get better at - I was more of an overhead shooter fan as they seemed easier for me.
Great to hear from another Castlevania II fan and know that I am not alone here in liking it. Batman made awesome use of shading and pixels. Really added depth and detail - too bad it was not ripped off more by other developers.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
uninvited was nightmarish, i shouldn't have played that when i was a little kid. :( The only one on your list I haven't played is robowarrior, didn't even know about it and i am a bomberman fan. good list. :) -Joe
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I don't think Jaleco was allowed to mention Bomberman when advertising Robowarrior so that may have been why so many BM fans missed it.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I just played only need for speed 2 for 5 years after 5 years i moved on to need for speed underground because on that time i have only a pentium 4 so i have to play these games i enjoyed a lot but now i m not playing games anymore
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Why did you stop playing games? Computer just not up to the challenge? There are plenty of games that will run fine on your computer.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Dear i just stopped because i want to develop them now :P
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
This post has received a 3.30 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @triverse.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit