DENT's Favorite N.E.S Games from The 80's #TBT

In today's high speed, high tech, 3D, high def. gaming system's, many kid's forgot or are too young to remember the good old days of the original N.E.S. gamesystem. A time when you played your games so many times, you'd have to blow into the cartridge for the game to play again. Secret passwords and key strokes to obtain extra lives or unlocked special game levels. Man, my cousins and I would stay up late nights playing, playing games. Kid's these days don't know about that life!! I felt super old as of recently,when I was with my son and we stumbled across a original N.E.S. system! Awwwww man, it brought me back to 1987, Christmas time and I got my first N.E.S. It had Super Mario Bother's, Duck Hunt, and Metroid. I thought iI was the coolest kid on my block, even cooler then my neighbor who had a ATARI500. No More Dig-Dug for me, it was time for me to step up to the future of video-gaming!!

Lets take a trip back to 1987 and lets take a look at my TOP 10 Freshest Games of that era!

10. Maniac Mansion

By Jaleco | Released: 1990

The point-and-click adventure genre seems to be in the midst of something of a renaissance, as developers like Telltale Games are working tirelessly to bring series like Sam & Max, Monkey Island and Strongbad's Cool Game for Attractive People to modern platforms. But back on the NES, there was no besting LucasArts' Maniac Mansion for deep, involved and genuinely funny pointing and clicking action. Though a bit cumbersome to control with just an NES D-Pad and menu bar of potential actions to take, this tale of seven diverse high school kids exploring a kooky manor populated with wacky, blue-skinned mad scientists and alien tentacles was nevertheless addictive, thanks in large part to the great variety of ways to win. You could take several different paths through the house, discover tons of interactions between characters and objects, and replay the game again and again with a completely different trio of the seven potential playable characters (each with unique skill-sets and abilities). Strongbad may be cool today, but LucasArts' SCUMM adventure ported to the NES set the bar over 20 years ago.

9. Kung Fu

By Nintendo | Released: 1985

Kung Fu is an enigma. A dumbed-down port of a superior arcade title by Irem, Kung Fu holds accolades simply for being one of the first third-party games released on the NES. Aside from its special place in history, however, Kung Fu is also a rewarding example of early "beat-'em-up" videogames in all of its 2D glory. Made up of only five stages and a few types of enemies, a skilled gamer can get through Kung Fu in its entirety in less than ten minutes. What makes the game so special, then? Apart from its fun gameplay and difficult boss battles, Kung Fu had inherent replay value simply because the game started over once you beat it with a higher difficulty level. This made it a prime game for high score hunting, with certain parts of the experience that were of the make and break variety. Could you get past the bee-throwing enemy on stage four without losing a life? It was integral if you wanted a high score. And who could forget Mr. X's maniacal laughter each time he defeated Thomas, keeping his kidnapped girlfriend for his own.

8. Ikari Warriors

By SNK | Released: 1987

An arcade-inspired action run and gun starring sweaty shirtless men charging through tropical jungles and blasting everything in sight with an overhead, birds-eye perspective, Ikari Warriors was the definitive videogaming outlet for bottled-up aggression. This game was macho, manly destructive fun with its simultaneous two-player action, but also ended up playing an important historic role in the industry – it put SNK on the map. The company got its start with Ikari as its first major hit, and the success of this game fueled the studio to go on and ultimately create classic fighting franchises such as Fatal Fury and King of Fighters on the Neo-Geo, as well as the timeless Metal Slug series. The heroes of Ikari Warriors, Ralf and Clark, even went on to cameo in several of those later games, you can play as them in several King of Fighters sequels, as well as the most recent Metal Slug installments. Not too bad for a couple of sweaty, shirtless Rambo clones.

7. Double Dragon II: The Revenge

By Acclaim Entertainment | Released: 1990

The first Double Dragon for the NES was a capable and compelling coin-op conversion, but this sequel was superior to that original in many ways, primarily because it kept a core feature of the franchise, co-op play, intact on the home system. Brawling brothers Billy and Jimmy Lee were once again playable in both single-player mode, but for the first time on the 8-bit Nintendo you and a friend could team up to punch, kick and hair-pull your foes to death simultaneously through an all-new set of side-scrolling beat-'em-up stages. The game also offered the sibling heroes an upgrade to their fighting repertoires, with several impressive new skills like the unforgettable Cyclone Spin Kick, and some iconic new set pieces in which to do battle, like a stage that took place aboard a helicopter in-flight thousands of feet above the ocean. There really is nothing quite like punching a guy in the gut, jump-kicking him in the face and watching him fall backwards out of a chopper's open side-door, then imagining his terror as he plummets to a watery death in the waves below. Bye-bye, Abobo.

6. Super C

By Konami | Released: 1990

Super C, the somewhat unfortunately-titled sequel to Contra, features the same co-op shooter action of the first without toying with the formula too much. If you are wondering, that formula is one part Aliens, two parts First Blood, and perhaps a dash of Predator to keep things exotic. A port of a graphically superior arcade version, Konami gave Super C lots of love to help it make a successful transition, including the addition of several unique levels. The pseudo-3D levels that broke up the side-scrolling action in Contra are replaced with vertical-scrolling levels, but the graphical style, gameplay and even the guns all remain identical to the original. Super C, like Contra, is a nearly perfect cooperative experience, and is best enjoyed with a buddy to high five as the iconic level finish tune plays. A different Konami Code can be used to get 10 lives in Super C, making it only 1/3 as awesome as the original Konami Code.

5. Rad Racer

By Nintendo | Released: 1987

One of the NES's premier racing games may have a peculiar title, but we pose this question: would a racer by any other name be quite as rad? Admittedly, the exhilaration of burning past the beach-going VW beetles in your red Ferrari 328 (the F1 was significantly less radical) is indeed worthy of such high self praise. Rad Racer doesn't disguise its arcade origins; in fact, it unabashedly rips off SEGA's arcade contemporary, Out Run. Nonetheless, the game remains an iconic entry in the NES catalog due to its simple race-or-die gameplay. And if racing in two dimensions isn't your cup of tea, grab your Power Glove, pop on a pair of 3D glasses, and experience Rad Racer in red and blue stereoscopic bliss. Note: the Power Glove will not enhance gameplay, but you'll look pretty darn rad, we promise.

4. Excitebike

By Nintendo | Released: 1985

If you've played and enjoyed ExciteTruck or ExciteBots: Trick Racing on your Wii, this is the original you have to thank for them. Excitebike was one of the 18 launch titles for the NES here in America, and distanced itself from the pack by offering truly addictive motocross gameplay. You sped through a scrolling track, weaving up and down into and out of four parallel lanes filled with obstacles, traps and humongous hills. You'd leap off the peaks in your path and go flying through the air, and have to adjust the angle of your descent in order to maintain your momentum and keep from crashing – and you'd also have to keep an eye on your engine's temperature gauge all the while, as overheating would cause lengthy cool-down delays that would likely keep you from claiming first place. Excitebike was also the first game to offer a user-created content feature, through its track editor – for a game that hit on October 18, 1985, that was way ahead of its time.

3. Tecmo Super Bowl

By Tecmo | Released: 1991

Remember what it was like playing sports games on the NES? At times, it was no easy feat. There were far more duds in the genre than games worth your time, and then, there was Tecmo Super Bowl, the follow-up to the tremendously popular Tecmo Bowl. Tecmo Super Bowl unequivocally provided gamers with the finest football experience found on the console, and it also was one of the first games to start what ended up being perhaps the most important trend in sports games to this day – it had the official NFL license. What did that mean? It meant the same thing to Tecmo that the NFL license means to Electronic Arts today. Instead of playing as fictional teams and characters, real teams and real characters from the NFL were at gamers' disposal. This step forward, when combined with Tecmo Super Bowl's ability to call complex plays, revolutionized what was already a tight gameplay experience in the original Tecmo Bowl.

2. Metroid

By Nintendo | Released: 1987

Another epically popular franchise to this day, Nintendo's Metroid came to the United States in 1987 and immediately floored gamers not only with its slick presentation, interesting protagonist and open world, but from the fact that it was non-linear in nature. Developed on the same engine as Kid Icarus, and released around the same time, Metroid toned down the action-platforming found in Icarus and focused on exploration. And explore you did. Metroid proved to be one of the biggest and most daunting games early in the NES' lifecycle. Metroid was unique for so many reasons, among them the ability to explore at your own pace. All of the terrain was interconnected into one big map, an idea later expanded upon and matured by the SNES's Super Metroid. In fact, ideas in Metroid have been replicated time and time again, and its collection-based themes and upgrade-encouraged RPG motif can be found in a vast range of games since, from the PlayStation's Castlevania: Symphony of the Night to the more recent Xbox Live title, Shadow Complex.

1. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!

By Nintendo | Released: 1987

Perhaps the one NES classic most on the minds of gamers in 2009 thanks to the recent release of its incredible Wii sequel/remake, Punch-Out!! is the original masterpiece boxing game that isn't really about boxing at all. The game simply used the convenient foundation of the sport to construct a deceptively deep, endlessly addictive gameplay design that's all about pattern recognition, fast reaction times and comically over-the-top cartoon personalities. Punch-Out!! put you in the rookie shoes of underweight title contender Little Mac and challenged you to duck, dodge, jab, hook and uppercut your way to success against one of the greatest rogues' galleries of ridiculous opponents ever assembled for any videogame, ever. The cast was so memorable and the experience so well defined that many elements were kept completely intact for the recent Wii re-imagining of the game – there's no improving on the perfection of King Hippo, Great Tiger or Glass Joe. Punch-Out!! shipped in two forms on the NES, one featuring Mike Tyson as the final boss and the other with him removed. Tyson's name recognition was never needed, though. Punch-Out!! was a knock-out even without his celebrity status.