A limited playbook that allowed for only a handful of run and pass options also contributed to the absurd abilities of legends like Joe Montana, Dan Marino, and, most famously, Bo Jackson. Trying to stop the Raiders’ legend in the open 8-bit field almost never ended well.
11. Excitebike
It wasn’t easy to pick the best racing game on the NES, but Excitebike comes out on top by just a smidgen. Not many racing games use motorcycles as their vehicle of choice, and most games of this era regardless of genre certainly weren’t bold enough to offer something as expansive and incredible as this title’s course creator.
Excitebike was even designed by an emerging Shigeru Miyamoto: the legendary creator of Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and most of our best childhood gaming memories. The game’s sharp controls reportedly even helped inspire the movement mechanics in the original Super Mario Bros.
10. Dr. Mario
If you take Tetris’s block puzzle-solving and add some Mario images and medical flair, you get the cult favorite that is Dr. Mario. The game substitutes Tetris‘ blocks for viruses and squeezes Mario into a lab coat to add a little personality to a fundamentally solid gameplay experience.
The Dr. Mario character was added to Super Smash Bros. Melee as a nod to the versatility of Mario’s occupational choices, and the game itself has been replayable on several of Nintendo’s later consoles. Regardless of when or where you play it, this puzzle game’s tight mechanics ensure its longevity.
9. Adventure Island II
While there were three Adventure Island games released for the NES, the middle entry in the trilogy is the most complete package in terms of refinement and entertainment value. The platforming is crisp and the new inventory system adds a welcome amount of depth to the overall experience. There are even four dinosaur buddies that can accompany the player in each level, which is a nice forebearer to what we’d later see in games like Donkey Kong Country.
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