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Japanese Fans Vote On Top 30 NES Games
Thanks to 1UP for their report on a Japanese poll rating the top 30 Famicom (NES) games of all time, as conducted for an upcoming Tokyo museum exhibition. The report comments that this poll is "an interesting look at the titles that were big in the early days of Japanese gaming, as well as what's held up in retrospect", and the Dragon Quest series (Dragon Warrior in the U.S.) is particularly well-represented, since "...all four Famicom games in the series made the top 10, compared to only one Final Fantasy." Also pointed out: "It's also interesting to see what's ahead of Super Mario Brothers 3, the most popular NES game in the United States. In Japan, they'd rather play Ice Climber and Balloon Fight."
Japanese and American game tastes are not that different. Consider:
Super Mario Brothers - 2
Mario Brothers - 3
The Legend of Zelda - 4
Final Fantasy III - 7
I've never owned a Nintendo yet have played all these. Definitely deserving of their placement in the top 10.
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
I'm a pretty avid NES collector. I don't play any systems more advanced and so my view of 'goodness of games' is basically relative to other NES games.
I think certain franchines (such as Final Fantasy) have gone on to do wonderful things, but all things considered, I feel that "NES Dragon Warrior IV" is probably a better game than "NES Final Fantasy".
I wonder how much of this list is influenced by how these games were further developed on other platforms. Surprisingly, it doesn't seem terribly bias in that catergory. However, I believe it was done in the US, we'd have exactly that problem.
I'm surprised 'Destiny of an Emperor' didn't make the list, because that was a really solid title. Also, there are several sports titles (like the excellent Famicom-only Soccer games) which aren't listed. I would also expect a historical strategy game like 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms' or some other Koei title.
I'm exceptionally surprised that 'Goonies II' made the list because that's a real random footnote in the history of NES games.
indeed..
**Action**
/Uninvited - Really cool games.
SMB I (Spent countless hours exploring secrets), II (At the time it was very weird and III (Pinnacle),
MegaMan 1 (challenging),2 (most popular) & 3 (pinnacle) (The rest are just fillers)
Castlevania 1 (Challenging), 2 (What's up with those weird clues?) 3 (Pinnacle),
Ninja Gaiden I (Cinema Displays!!!!), II(Great Music, action, etc), III (Hmmm.. Paralax scrolling and a Strider-type sword.. kool)
Shadow of the Ninja and S.C.A.T (Great games from Natsume)
Journey To Silius (Sunsoft's masterpiece, after Blaster Master, Fester and Batman - Not counting Return of the Joker
Contra (WOOWWWWW...), Super C (Double Wooow...)
**Adventure**
Zelda I (Dodongo.. what kind of name is that) II (Very challenging, great graphics.. masterpiece)
Metroid & Kid Icarus (VERY Unique games!!)
Crystalis (Much better and Refined than Zelda)
The Inmortal (Wow, american companies can make games!!)
Bionic Commando (Hitler?!?!?!?)
Goonies - Really cool...
**Beat'em up**
Double Dragon I (challenging), II (Fun!! 2 Player action), II (What happened here??)
River City Ramsom (Who can't forget fighting the final stage while listening to the Double Dragon BGM)
Battletoads - Hard and Weird!!!
**Shooters (Not the like of Doom/Quake we're talking THE original shooters)**
Zanac (Wow that's intense!!!)/Guardian Legend (Intensity with great graphics and RPG/Adventure)
Gradius (Hard) / Lifeforce (Cool.. 30 lives, I guess they're making up for the first one)
Gyruss (Really cool)
**Sports**
Baseball Stars (Greatest baseball game on 8 bit.. first to create your own players)
Tecmo Bowl (Just plain fun - Hide your controller from your oponent)
Baseball - Just fun.
Track n'Field - 1st to do In game adverstisement???, Game within a game (gradius).
Excitebike... (track editor??)
Mike Tyson's Punch Out (Remember, dodge Mike for 1:30)
**RPG**
Dragon Warrior I (What's this weird game...), II (Hmmm.. I'm kinda liking this type of games).. III (Masterpiece)
Final Fantasy - (Wow.. cool RPG..with Graphics!)
ShadowGate / DejaVu
Ultima Quest of The Avatar - Really LOONG.
Startropics.. Fun in the islands.
I don't know who did the list, but they can't count. Super Mario Bros. 3 received 465 votes while Balloon Fight only got 461. Last I checked 465 > 461.
A computer without a Microsoft operating system is like a dog without a brick tied to its head.
Dude, when those games came out Excitebike(1986), Goonies II (87/88) they broke a lot of ground.
Excitebike had its own track editor and the animation was off the hook. I remember people crashing on purpose just to laugh at the animation
The Goonies was MASSIVE (It was one of the first games that made you keep track of your location with your own map -I made my own goonies map-). Of course, if you think about newer games (16 bit Super Metroid, PSX Simphony of the Night and the GBA Castlevanias), this game is not long at all.
I don't know your age, but usually situating yourself in that year, and comparing it with what you had seen before does the job to make a good assessment of the impact of the game in its time.
I'm pretty sure that in 2018 people will make comments like this about the innovative games of today, but hey... C'est la vie.
I really enjoyed digging up my old system right before leaving for college. It'd been lost for years despite frantic searches, but I managed to locate it in the dark depths of my basement.
Funny story: I went to FuncoLand to pick up some games that I always wanted but never had. I mentioned my old console and the kid behind the counter rolled his eyes, "It's not worth a lot." I informed him that I would sooner cut out my liver than sell my NES and he perked right up and told me all about his top NES picks, which I immediately purchased as well.
My picks for action RPG:
Faxanadu
Wizards and Warriors