10 Best Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) Games

The 80’s kids will surely remember that their best part of life started with the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The NES is iconic. Nintendo's first Entertainment System provided joy, laughs, frustration, and anger for millions of kids and adults alike. This amazing console, reinvigorated the videogame market with classic, genre-defining games such as Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. This console gave us an incredible experience from the time, when games were more about fun and challenge than big budgets and flashy graphics. These were classics. Here we have listed the ten best classic games of Nintendo Entertainment System.

#1 Super Mario Bros. 3

Undoubtedly, the best game in the NES history is Super Mario Bros. 3. The original Super Mario Bros. might be the game that the world associates with the Nintendo Entertainment System, it defined the platformer genre but didn’t perfect it. Then came Super Mario Bros. 3, which took everything you loved about 2D side-scrollers and expanded it with new abilities, stages, and genre conventions that developers still use today.

Super Mario Bros. 3 is unequivocally the greatest NES game of all time.

#2 The Legend of Zelda

The Legend of Zelda, the inaugural game of Legend of Zelda series, was a best seller for Nintendo, selling over 6.5 millions copies worldwide. Its mix of complexity, open-world design, and timeless graphics make it an adventure for the ages. Zelda introduced players to a world bigger than many thought possible on the system.

This game is considered a spiritual forerunner of the role-playing video game and considered among the greatest and most influential games of all time. The game centers on a boy named Link, the protagonist, who aims to collect the eight fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom in order to rescue Princess Zelda from the antagonist, Ganon.

#3 Mega Man 2

Third on the list is the Mega Man 2, the pinnacle of those 8-bit years. There is no doubt the Mega Man franchise hasn’t shined brighter and better, than it did on the NES. That’s mainly because, in the game every boss design is amazing, the challenge is right, and Mega Man has just enough weapons without cluttering the experience, on the whole a flawless game.

This game has been re-released on several consoles and mobile phones, and if you have to play one Mega Man game to familiarize yourself with the series, better choose Mega Man 2.

#4 Tetris

Tetris was the highly successful and most popular game in 1989. The classic tile-matching puzzle video game was initially designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov and was released in the year 1984. The game is still available for every video game console as well as in mobile phones, PDA’s and much more.

The objective of the game is to manipulate the Tetriminos, which falls down the field, by moving each one sideways and rotating it by 90 degree units, with the aim of creating a horizontal line of ten blocks without gaps. It was announced in 2010, that Tetris had sold more than 170 million copies worldwide making it highest paid downloaded game of all time.

#5 Metroid

Metroid was co-developed by Nintendo's Research and Development 1 division and Intelligent Systems, and was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987. Introducing Samus, one of the few female leads in gaming, as she attempts to retrieve the parasitic Metroid organisms that were stolen by Space Pirates, who plan to replicate the Metroids by exposing them to beta rays and then use them as biological weapons to destroy who opposes them.

The game's style, focusing on exploration and the search for power-ups, influenced many video games. Metroid was lauded for being one of the first video games to feature a female protagonist.

#6 Punch-Out!!

Punch Out!!, also known as Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! is a boxing video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) developed and published by Nintendo in 1987. Nintendo has never been synonymous with sports games but the publisher certainly made its mark on boxing with this series by disguising a brilliant puzzle game as a sports game.

The game focusses on a boxer known as Little Mac working his way up the boxing’s elite, facing a series of colorful, fictional boxers, leading to a final fight with real-life boxer, the then-World Heavyweight Champion, Mike Tyson in the original version and Mr. Dream in the later version.

#7 Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos

Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos is the second installment in the Ninja Gaiden trilogy for the NES. This second Ninja Gaiden game improved over the original in every way, while managing to maintain the same dark vibe the first conveyed, with better graphics, sound and stronger controls. Even more important aspect was the improved gameplay, Ryu could clone himself to fight larger battles, and more easily climb objects than he could in the past.

The events in Ninja Gaiden II take place one year after the events in the first game. It is about an evil emperor named Ashtar who, after hearing of Jaquio's defeat, devises a plan to take over the world and engulf it in darkness through an evil sword called the Dark Sword of Chaos.

#8 Bionic Commando

Bionic Commando, is based on an arcade game of the same name. A side-scroller game with an interesting hook, the game is more about exploration and combat than running left to right. As Ladd Spencer, a member of the FF Battalion the player has to explore each stage and obtain the necessary equipment to progress.

Ladd is equipped with a mechanical arm featuring a grappling gun, allowing him to pull himself forward or swing from the ceiling. The main objective of the player is to rescue Super Joe and to uncover the mystery behind the Albatros project.

#9 Ghosts \'n Goblins

Ghosts 'n Goblins is a side scroller platforming game developed by Capcom. The player controls a knight, named Sir Arthur, who must defeat zombies, ogres cyclops, dragons and other monsters in order to rescue Princess Prin Prin, who has been kidnapped by Satan, king of Demon World.

The NES version of Ghosts 'n Goblins was rated the 129th best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Power's Top 200 Games list. It was also a best seller for the NES, selling 1.64 million units.

The game is often considered very difficult by arcade standards and is commonly regarded as one of the most difficult games ever released.

#10 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game is a side-scrolling arcade game released by Konami in 1989. This game was ported to the NES in 1990. The player chooses from one of the four Ninja Turtles: Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael. After Shredder kidnaps the Turtles' friend April O'Neil and their mentor Splinter, they must give chase, save their comrades, and defeat the evil Shredder.

This classic beat-’em-up featured crisp visuals, a radical soundtrack, and combat that even holds up to this day. Fighting through popular locations and taking down classic enemies like Bebop and Rocksteady made it a must-own for any TMNT fan.