Like so many of us here on RetroDaze, a great many hours of my youth was spent playing Nintendo. Saturday afternoon, after school, most of the night on Friday nights....you know, anytime available was spent with that gray and black controller in my hand.
Of course, not all games live up to the hype we place on them in our minds, and some games far exceed the level of enjoyment we thought we were going to get from them. Some games we played only a handful of times, and some games we kept going back to time and time again.
This is the third part of a four part series of articles I'm doing on MY favorite games for the Nintendo Entertainment System. This is by no means a ranking of the 'greatest' or 'best' games. It's simply my top 20 favorite games to play, in no particular order, along with some of my memories of each one. I hope you enjoy, and I hope you check out the other three parts of this series as well!
Super Mario Brothers 3
Released in 1990 by Nintendo
The Nintendo system I received did not come with Super Mario Brothers. I played it at friend's houses, but was never really that impressed. Super Mario Brothers 2 came along and I just shrugged my shoulders. I think I may have played it once. Then when #3 took the world by storm, I gave it a shot and fell in love immediately. Maybe it was the fact that by that time, they had several years to upgrade the concept. Whatever it was, Super Mario Brothers 3 was a masterpiece. With all the various worlds and levels, and all the cool new power ups, I could play this game for hours on end and have a blast.
It got an incredible boost before it even hit the stands due to it's inclusion in the Fred Savage movie, The Wizard. The movie played more like a commercial for the game than it did as a movie in it's own right. We got great previews of the game when it was played in the final round of the Nintendo Championships in the movie. People were so excited for it's release, that it went on to become the 3rd best selling video game of all time, and the #1 best selling game not bundled with a console. It left a lasting impression on the video game market, and in my childhood memories as well.
Ivan Stewart's Super Off Road
Released in 1991 by Tradewest
This game was my favorite racing game for the original NES. With so many different tracks to race on, it felt fresh every time I picked it up to play. You earned money based on your race finishes, and then used that money to upgrade different parts of your truck. Before long, you could be dominating all the races and earning more money than you thought even existed. I can't put my finger on what exactly made this game so re-playable, but more times than not I found myself playing this game at the end of every NES session for a half hour or so.
The Goonies 2
Released in 1987 by Konami
I guess after the success the movie had, a video game was inevitable. But playing this game didn't feel very much like watching the movie. You had Mikey, the hero of course, traveling through caves and various other locations slinging his yo-yo at the bad guys to dispose of them. But the focus of the game was on collecting different objects to help you get farther along. It was a constant maze of entering different rooms and trying to find secret doorways to get some place else. It was quite the brain bender, and I spent many hours on this puppy on Saturday afternoons.
RollerGames
Released in 1990 by Konami
Being a huge fan of the tv show by the same name, I was pumped to get this. Then I got it and found out that I was not going to be on the figure 8 track in a sporting event, but out on the streets fighting thugs. Huh? Anyway, i got over my disappointment because the game was actually enjoyable in the form it was presented. You had your choice of 3 playable characters. One from the Rockers, the Hot Flash, and the T-Birds. Now, the dude from the T-Birds was obese, even by video game standards, and couldn't quite make all the jumps necessary in the game. The Hot Flash player was a female, and lacked the "punch" to put away the bad guys all the time. That really left only one choice. But that character from The Rockers could do it all. It was a small game that only took about an hour and a half to beat when you figured everything out.
Pro Wrestling
Released in 1986 by Nintendo
Growing up a wrestling fan, when I got the Nintendo, this was the first game that I got with it. How could you not love this game if you were a fan of wrestling? It had great colorful characters in King Slender, Giant Panther, Starman, Amazon, and several others. My friends and I would sit for hours and play this game to no end. It is still my favorite wrestling game for any console.
I've mentioned before that my cousin/neighbor Tim got a Nintendo a couple of months before I did, and I would spend hours at his house playing. He too was a big wrestling fan, and he owned this game. We would create tournament brackets and play all the way through to the finals in one sitting. I can't tell you how my overall record was against him, but I'd say it was pretty even. Our best and favorite matchups were me using King Slender, and him using Giant Panther. I was a huge Ric Flair fan, while he was a big Lex Luger fan. We played out that rivalry vicariously through the game and those two characters.
I think a lot of my nostalgic love for this game comes from those good times spent battling it out with him. I could actually attribute good times with a lot of these games to having him to share the fun with.
That wraps up the third part of this series, and next week I'll be back with the conclusion and the final five games. Check it out for memories of games like Top Gun, Rad Racer, and Mike Tyson's Pinch Out!
Mickey Yarber is a freelance writer and lover of all things fun from our childhoods. He has a blog where he shares childhood memories of tv shows, toys, movies, games, cartoons, food, school days, and a host of other things. Stop by and check him out at:and be sure to follow me on twitter at @yesterdayville
