The summer heat has sent me into the cool dark basement where I've been rekindling my NES passion which has fueled a week long e-bay spending spree. I've been concentrating on picking up high quality oldies, especially those that are unlikely to be brought to the virtual console. I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of Stinger, Maniac Mansion, Micro Machines, Baseball Stars, Shadow Gate, Shingen the Ruler, and a few dozen others games.

One of my all time favorite NES games is Solar Jetman, a game I feel is seriously under-appreciated. Some other odd balls that I like include Clash at Demon Head, Cobra Triangle, Bucky O'Hare, Rolling Thunder, and the Magic of Scheherazade, to name a few.

Without naming the marios, zeldas, castlevanias, megamans, and so forth what are your favorite second tier NES games?

Bokutte Upa is a whole lot of fun. And since you didn't say I couldn't name them, the Dragon Quests! But they are fairly well known

Kickle Cubicle
Werewolf
Gun Nac
Hatris
Metal Storm
Seicross
Pin-Bot

I'm dying for Kickle Cubicle to come out on the VC. I wonder why it hasn't. I used to love that game.

Kid Niki is great fun.

Mendels Palace was cool. How about Baby Boomer? Anyone play that one?

The game based on Kyatto Ninden Teyandee (aka Samurai Pizza Cats) is pretty fun (wish I could understand it...).

Kabuki Quantum Fighter. Awesome Ninja Gaiden clone, and the best NES game you've never heard of.

Street Fighter 3 and The Flintsones. Nither of which i think are real NES games.

I had that one, and also the more popular one like it, Deja Vu, and the more obscure one like it, Uninvited. It's a close race between Shadowgate and Uninvited which of those was my favorite. One that I would hope to see on VC one day is the sequel to Shadowgate that was on N64. I got a chance to play it once but I didn't get far into it.

A couple other weird ones I played that don't seem to come up often were Nightshade and Pinball Quest. Nightshade is a wannabe superhero trying to defeat the villain Sutekh after the city's resident superhero Vortex goes missing. It's sort of a point and click adventure that cuts to a fighting game kind of gameplay for enemy encounters. And Pinball Quest is a generic RPG in pinball form. The princess is captured and it's your job to save her, and to do that you must navigate through a series of pinball tables full of hazards and enemies with a boss battle at the end before you can exit to the next table. Between tables there's a shop where you can buy upgrades like bumpers and stronger paddles.

Maniac Mansion, Micro Machines

Pin-Bot

I had those as well. Maniac Mansion isn't obscure though. (Or is it, with the newer generation of gamers today?)

Summer Festival '92: Recca. Great shump and also one of the most technically advanced games on the platform:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8_wtFQDU1w

Puts most "manic" shooters to shame.

Ya some that I listed are not all that obscure, but outside of the tier one games. Thanks for the suggestions, I scored Kid Nikki for 99 cents and pinbot for a penny. I'm keeping my eyes open for more.

Crystalis
Metal Mech

Air Fortress

Is Faxandu considered obscure?

Rolling Thunder
Lunar Pool
Lode Runner
Hogan's Alley

That's all that I can think of for now.

Kings Knight is well, I'd rather have a Buffalo... you know the rest.

Faxandu is awesome as is Crystalis. I keep getting outbid on copies of Air Fortress, but I'll land one sooner or later. Many copies of Metal Mech out there for niney-nine cents so I'll check it out.

Some one else likes Rolling Thunder AND Lunar Pool? I've felt so alone all until now.