NES Reviews - Page 3 of 7

G.O.O.D.

Although it's now of course primarily known for its Harvest Moon games, Natsume developed quite a few unique, entertaining little titles in the past. We've already had a few rereleased on Virtual Console, and rest assured, S.C.A.T. can easily stand with the rest of them. If you're a Sega or Capcom fan, taking a glance at the game's screenshots might ring a bell to you. Yes, you're right,..

Zelda II's spiritual successor

Not many people outside Japan are familiar with the Dragon Slayer series. Created by Nihon Falcom, the great minds behind Ys, the first game enjoyed a good deal of popularity and got many sequels, though unfortunately, almost all of them remained exclusive to Japan. The second Dragon Slayer game, Xanadu, actually branched off into a seperate series of its own and also..

What the macabre sixties sitcom were they thinking?

Uncle Fester of the Addams Family has to save the world from aliens in this cheap cash in on a beloved franchise. So, why is Fester's Quest so terrible? The reasons go on and on. This will remind you to go enjoy a nice day outside, play a board game or clean your kitchen. Any activity you could...

Woooo-ooh!

Isn't it great when a licensed game turns out to be awesome? We are too often fooled into wasting money on sloppy attempts to bring our favourite characters into the video game world. After being burned countless times, usually during childhood when you don't know any better, you may begin to avoid licensed games altogether. Anyone that played DuckTales back in the NES days, however,..

A super-sized side-scrolling McVenture

The time from 1990 to 1994 was the golden age of games as starring vehicles for junk food mascots. Few remember, but some will never forget, the convoluted, hyper-caloric brilliance of Yo! Noid, Chester Cheetah: Too Cool to Fool, and Cool Spot. Of the myriad snack-hocking titles, however, the super-sized, special sauce-soaked, Big Mac-Daddy of them all is..

Easy Mode Metroid

The original Metroid was a ground-breaking game for its time, but it feels incredibly dated to anyone playing it for the first time now. The lack of a map makes navigating the seemingly endless identical corridors way more annoying than it should be for newcomers, whereas those who know the game inside out can beat it within an hour. Ufouria takes heavy inspiration from the first..

Ninja master or a shadow of glory?

Ninjas suddenly gained popularity during the 1980s, what with their cool moves, cool clothes and unashamed ability to kick ass. It's murky as to why exactly this happened but the legacy left within the fields of media was huge, ranging from the American Ninja films, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Last Ninja series of games and a fistful of arcade coin-op..

A bit weak, but still a good game

With both Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3 ranking among the best NES games ever made, many people were quite excited when Capcom announced a fourth entry in the series back in 1991. After all, if they managed to make it even better, it would be pretty much near perfection! Sadly, it didn't quite turn out as people hoped...

A Virtual Console vegetable medley

After making several appearances on various Japanese personal computers and then being ported to the Famicom system, Hudson decided to bring the unique vegetable-themed text adventure Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom over to American NES gamers. The game was obviously quite a change of pace from the majority of...

Super Mario Bros. 2, minus the Super Mario Bros.

Depending on who you ask, you're likely to hear quite a few different variations on the story of how Yume Doujou Doki Doki Panic came to be. Some say it was originally intended to be a Super Mario Bros. game but ended up taking on a life all its own at the hands of video game developer extraordinaire Shigeru Miyamoto, while others claim it was always..

It's a blast!

We saw a lot of legendary titles come out of the 8-bit era of gaming, but probably none quite as ahead of its time as Blaster Master. The game combined so many different gameplay ideas into one amazing adventure that offered up more playability than probably any other title of its kind at that time. There was platforming, exploration,...

An innovative gameplay idea that's beginning to feel a bit dated.

There's no denying that the original NES release of A Boy and His Blob brought some fairly unique gameplay ideas to the table when it was released in 1989. David Crane, who'd already seen success with his Atari 2600 hit Pitfall, brought a few ideas from his classic and combined it...

The game that kicked off the most popular RPG series in existence.

Role-playing games began their climb to popularity during the early 80's on the many personal computers of the time period. These turn-based titles brought a more strategic element to gaming for those looking to use their minds more than their reflexes. Square obviously saw the...

It's River City Ransom with a side order of Track & Field.

What do you get when you combine the River City Ransom theme with Track and Field-style gameplay? You get Crash 'n the Boys: Street Challenge. The game takes the street gang theme and creates some fitting Olympic-style events to go along with it. Sounds like a mouth-watering proposition, but sadly while the unique urban competitions have a..

Smash Table Tennis delivers a backhand to your wallet.

Sometimes, you just have to wonder who at Nintendo is in charge of the Virtual Console game selection. Perhaps it's one of those people who, when unable to decide what to do, throws a dart at a dartboard with possible "options" on it in order to come to a decision. That almost has to be the case here, because we have no idea why else..

Is this monster mash worth all your quarters?

Today people might look at Midway as the financial disaster that they are and chuckle. In the better days of arcades, however, Midway developed a number of hit arcade games including their hit Mortal Kombat series of fighters. While MK is likely their most famous effort, they also had some respectable games prior to the seminal fighter, not the least of..

Use the force!

For those not in the know, Life Force started out life known as Salamander in Japan and was renamed for western audiences. The Salamander series is a spin off to Konami’s famous Gradius series of shooters, the main differences in Salamander are the introduction of a simultaneous 2 player mode, vertically scrolling stages in addition to the usual horizontal scrolling ones and a..

Take on the role of Mike Jones, intrepid hero of the StarTropics universe.

While the original StarTropics was a great game, it did have some nagging problems. In 1994, after the SNES was already out for 3 years in the US, Nintendo saw fit to finally make a sequel to one of the (sadly) most underrated games on the NES. But they didn't make it for the SNES - They actually made it for the NES as well!..

Good to be three

After two successful Mega Man releases on NES, Capcom decided to upgrade the series with a few new twists for Mega Man 3, adding a little more variety to an already amazing series. With eight brand new Robot Masters for players to take on, the game would prove to be a huge success and went on to become a fan favourite among gamers...