Forum Overview :: Gamerasutra :: spinoff: NES games that still hold up today

[quote name="fabio"]<b>NES games that still hold up today</b> This one was tough. Roughly half of all the good SNES games are still fun to play to this day. The classic NES library has aged a lot worse, but there are a few. Archon - Fun 2 player game despite the balance being skewed toward the dark side. Battletoads - If you can imagine the game is just looping the first 2 levels over and over. The fact that they never tweaked this series to cut out all the bullshit or give unlimited continues proves that the creators hated children. If they had just changed the racing levels to a bonus round with unlimited lives and no redos and give you a bonus based on the number of times you died (or better yet, a competitive mode for 2 player that did the same and let you get your friend killed), this would have been remembered as the best 8 bit game of all time. Blaster Master - The playable Metroid Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse - The Mega Man 2 of Castlevania Clash at Demonhead - A fun open world sidescroller that you never really saw outside of Alex Kidd games for Master System. Contra - Still beats most sidescrolling shoot em ups released today. One of the only instances of the console port being better than the arcade version. Crystalis - Why is grinding glitchfest Secret of Mana remembered fondly while this has been forgotten? Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones - Why is overly simplistic grindfest River City Ransom considered the high point of brawlers while everyone shits on this, the closest Final Fight game we got for 8 bit? Elevator Action - One of the only black box games that aged well and is still fun to play. Rushing motherfuckers to jumpkick them in the face before they can shoot is still a blast. The Hotline Miami of its day? Kung-Fu - The other black box game that's still fun on the virtue of being a simple, fun, quick arcade sidescroller. The OTHER console port better than the arcade version. Mega Man 2 - The last Mega Man game to be fairly lenient in the boss order <b>and</b> not have the BULLSHIT charge shot. I must have replayed this one at least two dozen times trying to come up with more efficient and creative ways to kick its ass. Even with Mega Man X I was done after one playthrough. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!! - Another you keep playing to beat the shit out of as brutally as possible. The satisfaction of the punching still holds up. Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos - The Mega Man 2 of the series. They actually made it all about having fun abusing the ghost ninja mechanic rather than figuring out how to perfectly exploit enemy respawns to avoid getting knocked into pits by eagles. Super Mario Bros. 2 - Are we seeing a theme with sidescrollers open to kicking their ass in different ways? [/quote]