The best NES games of all time

Fans of Castlevania games made post-Symphony of the Night may find the series’ original outing a bit barebones. Unlike in later games, Castlevania does not feature large, interconnected areas to explore, nor an expansive variety of abilities and items to customize your style of play. What Castlevania classic does offer is one of the best platforming experiences on the NES. Players control Simon Belmont and explore Dracula’s Castle in hopes of vanquishing the dark lord. Along the way, Simon must fight through several enemies, such as mummies and Frankenstein’s monster; unlike later Castlevania games, which adopted a more baroque style, the original draws on old Universal monster movies for influence. Simon can find some items such as throwing knives and holy water to help him, but his primary weapon is his trusty whip, a series mainstay. It’s a simple game by the franchise’s standards, but so much of the core gameplay is present that it barely matters. Castlevania is on the NES Classic and its remake Super Castlevania IV is available on the SNES Classic.

There is probably no video game character more iconic than Mario; the plucky plumber has been the face of Nintendo for more than 30 years. Mario games are the best-selling video game franchise of all time. Platformers, RPGs, sports games, board games: There is seemingly no genre Nintendo won’t plug Mario into. The sun never sets on the Mario empire, and it all goes back to those early platformers, of which Super Mario Bros. 3 is arguably the greatest. The first Super Mario Bros. is a great game in itself, but after 3 it almost seems skeletal. SMB3 adds a number of small features that transform its predecessors’ formula into something truly spectacular. Rather than a linear progression through levels, SMB3 introduced an overworld map where players can move around and select levels, as well as mini-games and obstacles to overcome. While the first Super Mario Bros. had a few power-ups, they were fairly limited in terms of effects. SMB3 added a plethora of new items for Mario to use, including the iconic Tanooki suit, which allowed Mario to fly and find secrets hidden off the beaten path and sometimes even off-screen. Moreover, the game introduced the ability to hold on to items and use them whenever the player felt like it. The Super Mario trilogy on the NES is one of the foundational pillars of the video game industry. It ushered in a new wave of interest in games after the market crash of 1983 and solidified Nintendo’s place as a power player in the industry, a role they’ve maintained to this very day. Of that trilogy, Super Mario Bros. 3 is the pinnacle, showing off some of the most clever design and pleasant graphics on the system. Super Mario Bros. 3 is available on the NES Classic and Nintendo Switch Online.

No, not that Final Fantasy II. American audiences in the ’90s missed out on the actual second and third installments in the long-running Final Fantasy games franchise, which is a shame. Although not as fondly remembered as the original or IV (which represented a gigantic technological leap for the series) Final Fantasy II embodied the spirit of innovation that Square was known for back in the late ’80s. The first notable change from the first Final Fantasy is the increased prominence of plot and character development. Gone are the mute ciphers of the first game; the party members in II all have distinct personalities and character arcs. The story’s premise of a small kingdom bravely standing against an aggressive empire may be a bit rote today, but at the time it was a huge improvement on the first game’s story of “collect these four crystals and … something happens.” Final Fantasy II’s gameplay also marked a radical shift from its predecessor. While the player still navigates combat through a series of menus, II jettisoned the experience-based leveling system of Final Fantasy, replacing it with a system in which characters improve based on what they do in battle. A character hits an enemy with a sword, and their strength increases. If a character takes a lot of hits, their maximum health will increase. And so on. The system proved to be very exploitable, and Square did away with it for future installments. However, it was a singular concept in those days, and an ancestor to the types of skill-based leveling that games such as the Elder Scrolls franchise would come to experiment with. Today, Final Fantasy II may be more valuable as an intellectual curiosity than as a game one would actually want to play. Still, given how much of the NES’s library is marred by primitive mechanics and sloppy design, a flawed gem shines all the brighter.

Mike Tyson had already made history as the undisputed world champion of boxing and was one of the world’s toughest men. When he stole the show in the Hangover movies with Zach Galifianakis and bit off a portion of Evander Holyfield’s ear during the WBA Heavyweight Championship, he practically became a legend. Hardcore fans and gamers alike will also remember that Tyson appeared in the 1987 adaption of the classic arcade game Punch-Out!! The game is initially pretty straight-forward: You play as Little Mac, a boxer, and compete in different levels of boxing circuits. Punch-Out!! might seem like a basic boxing game, but the quirky opponents, like King Hippo, Soda Popinski, and Glass Joe, make the game something special. In the final round, players get to fight against Tyson himself. Eventually, Nintendo removed Tyson’s name from the in-game content due to his legal troubles. Newer versions of the game have other characters taking Tyson’s place. Now you have to defeat a new boss named “Mr. Dream” instead. Mr. Dream is a fictional character with a similar fighting style to Tyson, but you might find that beating him is even more challenging. Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream is on NES Classic.