The best NES games of all time

Sometimes greatness is less about actually being good than about being bold. That’s certainly the case for Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest, which built upon the platforming adventure gameplay of the first Castlevania and added RPG elements, such as a world map and experience system. The game adopted the nonlinear exploration of Metroid, which made for much more open gameplay, however many of the items needed to finish the game are hidden in extremely esoteric locations, requiring the player to decipher cryptic clues given by NPCs or otherwise simply stumble upon the items in question. As such, Simon’s Quest has developed a reputation for notoriously fiendish difficulty, being nigh impossible to complete without a guide. While Simon’s Quest may not be the most fun or well-designed game on the NES, it did introduce a number of mechanics to the series and video games in general; starting with Symphony of the Night, RPG elements would become a staple part of the franchise, and Simon’s Quest was also one of the first video games to include a day/night cycle, in which the game would become significantly harder during the night time. People may not enjoy playing Castlevania II, but being great isn’t always about being liked. Castlevania II is on NES Classic.

Kid Icarus was developed and released alongside Metroid, and while the latter became a megawatt hit spurring a plethora of great sequels, Kid Icarus quietly fell into the cult-classic category. The platformer was ridiculously difficult thanks to the perpetually scrolling screen that moved up as you ascended, rendering any poorly timed jumps or precarious footing a catastrophe waiting to happen. Also, it didn’t help that most of the floating platforms were incredibly narrow and difficult to navigate even without the whole scrolling facet. Icarus might have flown too close to the sun and tumbled in the sea, but that was a cakewalk compared to this game. The latest entry in the series, and, sadly, possibly the last, Kid Icarus Uprising modernized the mechanics introduced in the original for 3DS. Kid Icarus is on both NES Classic and Nintendo Switch Online.

River City Ransom was a bit like Super Mario Bros. meets West Side Story, featuring two high school protagonists that were much like Mario and Luigi, had they been born on the wrong side of Mushroom Kingdom. Dubbed Alex and Ryan, the characters set forth on a quest to rescue Ryan’s girlfriend Cyndi from their nemesis Slick, while bashing nine gangs a la Double Dragon in the game’s non-linear open world. Players gained new fighting techniques along the way, such as Grand Slam and Stone Hands, and a password system ensured characters’ stats, skills, possessions, and money always remained intact. Seeped with humor and iconic animation, it became an instant cult classic. A sequel to River City Ransom, River City: Tokyo Rumble, launched in 2016. River City Ransom is on Nintendo Switch Online.

No, not that Final Fantasy II. American audiences in the ’90s missed out on the actual second and third installments in the long-running Final Fantasy games franchise, which is a shame. Although not as fondly remembered as the original or IV (which represented a gigantic technological leap for the series) Final Fantasy II embodied the spirit of innovation that Square was known for back in the late ’80s. The first notable change from the first Final Fantasy is the increased prominence of plot and character development. Gone are the mute ciphers of the first game; the party members in II all have distinct personalities and character arcs. The story’s premise of a small kingdom bravely standing against an aggressive empire may be a bit rote today, but at the time it was a huge improvement on the first game’s story of “collect these four crystals and … something happens.” Final Fantasy II’s gameplay also marked a radical shift from its predecessor. While the player still navigates combat through a series of menus, II jettisoned the experience-based leveling system of Final Fantasy, replacing it with a system in which characters improve based on what they do in battle. A character hits an enemy with a sword, and their strength increases. If a character takes a lot of hits, their maximum health will increase. And so on. The system proved to be very exploitable, and Square did away with it for future installments. However, it was a singular concept in those days, and an ancestor to the types of skill-based leveling that games such as the Elder Scrolls franchise would come to experiment with. Today, Final Fantasy II may be more valuable as an intellectual curiosity than as a one of the best Final Fantasy games one would actually want to play. Still, given how much of the NES’s library is marred by primitive mechanics and sloppy design, a flawed gem shines all the brighter.