Sam's video game collection essentials

Micro Machines is a brand of toy vehicles that debuted in the mid-1980s, and British video game developer Codemasters decided to make a video game based on these toys. You may notice this cartridge looks a little different than normal NES cartridges. That’s because this is an “unlicensed” game, meaning it was made without Nintendo’s consent or approval. After Atari failed in part because of saturating the market with too many lousy games, Nintendo developed a security chip for their games so that not just any old person could simply make and release an NES game without their knowledge, and that gave them quality control over the market. However, some companies learned how to bypass the chip and therefore bypass going through Nintendo for the release of their game, and Codemasters was one of the companies that took advantage of this. Luckily, just because a game is unlicensed doesn’t mean it’s bad, and Micro Machines certainly is not. As for the game itself, it is unsurprisingly a racin

While on the same level of popularity as series like Mario or Zelda, Metroid is a very significant and acclaimed series from Nintendo, and this hit NES game is the one that started it all. Metroid appears to be a normal side-scrolling action platformer, but upon spending even a short time with it, you’ll realize it’s quite different from those games. Most platformers use a level-based structure, where the game presents a series short and linear stage for you to get through. Metroid, on the other hand, is almost like one huge wide-open level (albeit divided into sections) that the player can explore freely. And littered throughout the world are many power-ups so the player will gradually grow stronger and gain more abilities as they explore. Upon acquiring certain abilities, the player will be able to access areas that they couldn’t before, creating an extra incentive to go back to revisit old areas and providing a thrill when the player is rewarded for doing so. This blueprint provided

They made SIX Mega Man games on one console?!? They sure did, and Mega Man 6 was one of the last significant NES releases in the console’s long lifespan. A neat thing about this game is that the robot master bosses were all designed by fans. During development, Capcom asked fans of the series to mail in their original creations, and eight of them were utilized for this game!  Mega Man 6 largely follows the same tried and true formula. The standard abilities of Rush the Dog have been changed though, as now Rush actually fuses with Mega Man to give him special new power-ups. Boss weapons were made more useful than they were in the past two games, which is a welcome change.  For me, Mega Man 6 is significant because it’s the game that I have the first clear memory of playing as a kid. I remember being at my friend Dan’s house one day and I think we rented it. I have a few specific memories from that time that for some reason always stuck out in my mind. For some reason we were never able

The Mega Man games just keep on coming. Mega Man 5 is another quality entry, though it doesn’t really do much that’s terribly new. The biggest thing it introduces is probably a recurring minor character named Beat, a little robot bird that helps out Mega Man. In this game, you have to collect a series of letters hidden throughout the stages to unlock the ability to use Beat, who you then are able to summon, and it flies nearby Mega Man ready to attack enemies until its ammo is depleted.  One could also fault Mega Man 5 for not correcting a flaw in 4, that being the lack of practical use of the boss weapons. And this game even buffed (improved) the power of the charge shot which Mega Man can use whenever he wants. Mega Man 5 is still a wonderful game, though, since the formula it sticks so close to is a good one. It has what might be my favorite level in the series, which is Gravity Man’s stage (pictured), where arrows in the background pointing up or down will indicate the direction of

When I beat the post-2 Mega Man NES games about a decade ago, I came away with the opinion that 4 was my favorite on the console by a slim margin. I felt it had the best combination of catchy music and quality gameplay. Although I’m not sure if I’d hold the same opinions after a second tour of Mega Man’s adventures which I do think I’ll be doing at some point. The big thing that Mega Man 4 introduces to the series is the “charge shot.” Your basic starting weapon has been upgraded. Now, you can hold down the shot button, and as Mega Man starts flashing and the charging sound effect reaches its peak, you can let go of it to unleash a stronger shot than normal. This makes the early part of the game a little easier when you don’t have other weapons to fall back on, and also is a good fallback when you don’t have the ammo that you need.  I’ve heard Mega Man 4 receive criticism for having boss weapons that aren’t nearly as useful as in other games, which is understandable since a lot of the

Mega Man 3 adds two very significant characters to the series. One of them is Mega Man’s robot dog named Rush, whom he can summon a limited number of times to help him get around in levels to serve as either a spring, hoverboard or submarine. Also new to this game is the mysterious Proto Man who at times challenges Mega Man to a fight. Gameplay-wise, Mega Man 3 only really adds one major thing, but it’s a pretty big deal. That thing is the “slide” maneuver, which sends Mega Man forward on the ground a short distance faster than he normally walks. To me, the slide is a fantastic addition. Mega Man’s slow walking speed sometimes makes dodging tricky business, but the slide gives the player a nice evasive tool to cover extra distance quickly when needed.  In terms of reputation, Mega Man 3 is the second-most-highly regarded game on the system behind Mega Man 2. In fact, Mega Man 2 vs. Mega Man 3 came to be a rather common debate amongst fans. I am squarely in the Mega Man 3 camp, though I

This is the game that really made a name for Mega Man. The first game wasn’t a huge success, and the higher-ups at Capcom concluded that a sequel wasn’t a priority, at least in the immediate future. But the developers themselves saw the potential to build on the concepts of the original game and very much wanted to make another one, so they managed to convince their superiors to allow it with the stipulation that it wouldn’t interfere with other unrelated projects they were already assigned to work on. Passion projects are often an ideal foundation for a quality piece of entertainment, so it shouldn’t be a big surprise that Mega Man 2 rose above the original in every way, including sales, and it would be the best-selling game in the series for nearly 30 years. There actually isn’t a whole lot new in Mega Man 2 in terms of changing the core gameplay features. The biggest new feature is “E tanks,” which are healing items you can find in the levels that you keep on hand for any moment you

Here’s Capcom again, now debuting one of their most well-known franchises.  Mega Man is a platformer where you control the eponymous robot boy who can swap out either of his hands for a gun arm. He works for his creator, Dr. Light, and in this game his mission is to defeat a series of Dr. Light’s other robot creations who have gone haywire thanks to the devious deeds of his old rival, Dr. Wily, and to then go after Wily himself. The structure of this game is brilliant and is what really helped this game to stand out. There are six levels to start out with, each represented on the level select menu by which robot master awaits at the end. You can tackle these levels in any order you choose. Upon defeating a robot master, you will acquire a new weapon from them, with each one giving out a distinct one based on their abilities. Not only does this give you the pleasure of slowly gaining more and more moves as you play the game, but each robot master is weak to a specific weapon dropped by

Oh hey, Mario’s back, and in a game’s title for the first time! I do want to quickly point out that this is not the “Mario Bros.” game that you maybe thought of at first glance. That game has an additional word in the title. This game here is Mario’s third appearance, after being the protagonist of “Donkey Kong” and the antagonist of “Donkey Kong Jr.” This game also marks the first ever appearance of Luigi, as Nintendo needed a second character for a second player to control in cooperative play. Mario wears red and Luigi wears green, and at this point that’s the only difference between them. This is the game that established Mario and Luigi’s occupation as plumbers. The premise of this game is that monsters have infested the sewers, and Mario (sometimes with Luigi’s help if a second player joins in) is trying to get rid of them all. There are no Kongs to be found this time around.  There are three tiers of floating platforms, and enemies come out of the pipes at the top of the screen a

One of the big ones. The Legend of Zelda is the most significant, iconic NES game that doesn’t feature a certain plumber with a mustache. Even if you know nothing about video games, there’s a really good chance you’ve at least heard of “Zelda” before. This is the game that started it all, which took the world by storm upon its release in 1986 (Japan) and 1987 (other regions). Zelda is an action-adventure game controlled from a top-down perspective. It wasn’t the first game of its kind, but it’s one that raised the bar so high that it still deserves “pioneer” status. The game features a very non-linear structure. You are thrown into a world with no obvious way to go from the start, with just a sword offered to you (which you don’t even have to take!). Your objective as Link is to clear the eight dungeons and defeat the evil Ganon, and the dungeons may be numbered but the player has a great deal of freedom in how they explore the world and in which order they tackle its challenges. Along

This was one of the last major releases on the NES, well into the lifespan of the following console generation. And it shows, because developer HAL had all the powers the NES was capable off at their disposable and knew how to use them, and the result is one of the best games on the system. Kirby’s Adventure is actually not the first Kirby game. This is another case of slight awkwardness with the way I’m doing this series, not chronologically by release date for various reasons, but by system, and Kirby debuted on a different one that I’ll be covering in the future. But honestly, the original Kirby game almost feels like a prototype, with this truly feeling like the legitimate first adventure for the little pink guy.  Kirby is a platformer series that differentiates itself quite a bit by that certain other series from Nintendo starring that mustachioed plumber. For one thing, Kirby is not chained down to the normal limits of gravity, as the puffball has the ability to fly! Although, wh

Oops I went slightly out of order, my bad! Anyways, look who it is again: Konami!! They were pretty good, huh?  Jackal is one of their less-talked-about games, and it didn’t spawn a series unlike some of those other ones. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t great! This one’s a port of an arcade game, with some tweaks to make it more at home on the NES. You’re a soldier driving a jeep that can drive freely in all directions, and you’re armed with two weapons: a gun that always shoots northward, and a grenade that shoots whatever direction the jeep is facing (which can be upgraded to a missile). In the original Japanese arcade release, the gun also shoots whatever direction you face, but that was changed for the North American release and the NES version, and it makes the game way better because trying to turn around just to shoot at someone is an awkward pain. There are POWs you can rescue, which will reward you with powering up your grenade/missile attack. Best of all, a friend can get in o

This is another early platformer from Nintendo, though this one did actually come after the one with the famous plumber. Kid Icarus isn’t quite a standard platformer though, as it mixes in a variety of styles into its levels. You start in a level where you’re constantly ascending upward (like one does in yesterday’s Ice Climber). There are also more-conventional side-scrolling stages too, as well as labyrinthian fortresses that you traverse from room to room looking for the boss. And at the end of the game is a genre switch, as you get to play a shoot ‘em up level. This is also one of the earliest platformers to have currency and shops to buy stuff. Kid Icarus is a rather iconic old NES game that a lot of people remember. Opinions on it are mixed though, it’s not usually considered one of the best of the system, and unfortunately I’m one that falls in the more negative portion of the “mixed.” I like a lot of the ideas in Kid Icarus, but the execution just leaves too much to be desired

Ice Climber is a platformer, and one that predates the big famous one with that Italian plumber, so it wasn’t influenced by that game. Most platformers have you going from left to right, but this one (as you may guess from the title) is exclusively about ascending upward. It’s also a high score-oriented game and not one that you’re meant to “beat,” in fact you can select any of the game’s 32 stages right from the main menu.  You play as a character wearing a parka named Popo, who comes equipped with a trusty hammer. Popo automatically swings the hammer upon jumping, and when standing still the player can press a button to swing the hammer in front of them to wack an enemy unfortunate enough to get in the way. Popo’s hammer is necessary to ascend, as he’ll often find himself needing to make a hold in a ceiling to jump through. Platforming can be really tricky, as Popo has to rely on fast-moving clouds…wait, you can stand on clouds in this universe?? The enemies aren’t too annoying in th

Oh hey look another light gun game. This is another one by Nintendo, and it’s my favorite one on the console! There are three modes to play, two of which are pretty similar, as they involve trying to shoot bad guys while NOT shooting good guys. I love the gameplay dynamic of trying to be a quick shot while also having to be careful that you don’t mistake a civilian for a bad guy. You’ll see a character come onto the screen facing sideways, and you won’t know until they turn around who they are. When trying to react in a split second, it can be easy to slip up! A fairly simple premise, but a very effective one.  The third mode is completely different. A series of cans will fly onto the screen from the right and slowly fall, and your goal is to get them to land on one of the platforms on the left. Shooting them makes them fly up a little more before descending again.  In the Super Smash Bros. series many years later, the character “Duck Hunt” is an amalgamation of three Nintendo light gu

  The robotic toy thing in the picture is named R.O.B., short for Robotic Operating Buddy. It only saw a brief, yet very crucial period of relevance in the history of Nintendo. As I previously discussed, when Nintendo wanted to release the NES in America, they had trouble getting retailers on board because the whole country was soured on console video games due to the failures of Atari. Nintendo’s solution to get their foot in the door was to use the Zapper light gun along with R.O.B. to market the system as a toy rather than a dedicated video game console. Long story short, it worked! Once the NES went mainstream, R.O.B.’s usefulness was pretty much used up and it quickly became rather irrelevant.  What does R.O.B. do and how does it work? It’s a battery-operated device. Its arms are designed to swivel around its body on command, and can be drawn in and out in order to grab and place things. In R.O.B.-compatible games, the player inputs a command to make R.O.B. do something, and the T

This is a Japanese cartridge shown in the photo, but this game did actually get an American release. But that version is rarer and obnoxiously expensive, so in that case sometimes people like me will just go with importing the cheaper Japanese version. Gun-Nac is a “shoot ‘em up”, or “shmup” for short. This type of game is directly descended from Space Invaders, where you control what is usually a ship or plane of some kind shooting a limitless amount of bullets to gun down enemies, while dodging said enemies and their attacks. The genre has come a long way since Space Invaders. Most shmups have a scrolling background now, and let the player move in all four directions rather than just left and right. As you can imagine, shmups were a very popular arcade game genre due to their pick-up-and-play nature. (Though Gun-Nac here is a console exclusive) You’re not going to see a lot of shmups among my NES essentials. This is largely because the console can have a bit of a hard time with them.

Hey, look, another light gun game from Nintendo! This one has a pretty creative premise. There’s a dude who’s walking to the right, and you don’t control him. You have to actually make him jump by shooting him with your Zapper gun. There are all kinds of enemies and obstacles that will thwart him if you don’t! Sometimes you have to shoot said enemies and obstacles to get rid of them rather than jumping over them (or both methods can be an option). Gumshoe is a bit notorious for its difficulty, and unfortunately that does prevent it from being a truly great classic. The game demands you to be a little too precise at times with your aim. However, there is a way to make the difficulty not so bad, and that is…holding your gun up much closer to the TV than you normally would! Gumshoe’s not the greatest light gun game in the world, but as a fan of the accessory, it’s one that I want to have.

This game is loosely based on the 1985 film “Gotcha!” which I have never seen. But the game doesn’t have a plot so familiarity with the movie really doesn’t matter anyway. I love the Zapper light gun accessory, and this game stands out as a worthy user of it. Not only do you use the Zapper, but you also have to use a controller to move around, which is not typical for a light gun game. It’s a “capture the flag” sort of deal where you’re pitted against an enemy team, and you have to move across the map to grab their flag and then go all the way back. You have to be careful not to be shot by enemies on your way, and you have limited ammo too so you have to be careful with your shots and grab ammo when you can. Also, the enemy is also trying to do the whole flag-grabbing thing, so sometimes you have to seek out and shoot the flag-carrying goonie when they’re trying to race from one side to the other.  The main issue with the game is that there’s not a lot of content. There are three level