What is the best thing about the NES?

I just though I'd see what everyone likes the most about the NES. I had an epiphony of sorts today, and I realized what it is I like so much. Since there are 800+ games out thee, theres no way you have played them all. Since all of the games were definitely not all prize winners, since they are now so cheap, its ok to get some bad games from time to time. Case in point.. I am a Homestarrunner fan, and when I found out that Strong Bad was in Tag Team Wrestling, I immediately went out and bought it for a couple bucks. Now, had this been 1989, and I paid 30 or 40 bucks for this abomination, I would have been pissed. I would have probably smashed it with a hammer within a day. Now, I can at least smile and add it to my collection. On the other hand, there are other excellent games out there I would have never even had a chance to play. I paid one dollar for Eliminator Boat Duel, which I found to be pretty cool with its different racing views, as well as the "We want a photo finish" screen when a race was too close to call. Also, I also got Totally Rad and Shatterhand for a buck a piece, and I love both of them! Maybe its because I only paid a dollar a piece, but thats the beauty of the NES!

Comments

  • I think it's because the NES was all I had until around 1998 or so. I go on stints with other systems, but I keep coming back to my old toaster. I remember renting games that are incredibly rare now, simply because nobody else was renting them out. Everyone had ditched for the SNES, but it wasn't until the N64 was released that I even got one of those! I remember renting Bucky O'Hare, Bonk's Adventure, Kick Master, TMNT 3, Joe and Mac, Rocky and Bullwinkle, WWF King of the Ring (which I subsequently picked up when the video store sold off it's inventory...too bad it's in such rough shape, I haven't been able to replace it yet)...the list goes on. I also don't think there were any truly bad games for the NES. Sure, some of them were bad, but all of them have some tiny bit of fun to be found somewhere in the depths of the cartridge (yes, even Action 52).
  • The NES Was the system I grew up with, I remember getting it for Christmas one year and playing duck hunt with my dad and standing right by the t.v. with the gun right at the screen, good times. image One of my fondest memories was when Super Mario Bros. 3 came out, I had saved up my allowance for the $52.00 to buy it and I remember going to Wal-mart and purchasing it, the best $52 I had ever spent. There were so many great games for the NES and really during its time it was a pop culture icon and nothing like anyone had ever seen before. My uncle even owned a Video store at the time so he used to let me play all the games, I remember getting Flintstones 2, The Jetsons, Wacky Races he even had the Panesian games which I was not allowed to play, if only I knew what they were worth then he probably would have given me many of the games when he sold his video store, *sigh* but still all in all very good memories of my childhood, thanks Nintendo!
  • It's classic arcade style nature and easy controls.  It's so simple yet the GREATEST system ever made.  Plus it had some of the most unique games for any system.  True classics...Bubble Bobble for PC is actually way better, but it is still a great game.  Contra, Super C, Snow Brothers, Super Mario 1, 2, 3, Caveman Games, you name it.  It is all there.  Games I recently discovered as fun (and by recently I mean within the past four years include Little Samson and Archon). 
  • NES hit just at the right time. You pretty much had to go to the arcades to play any of the good games. Atari came out with the 2600 but compared to the arcades the graphics were terrible. the intellivision and colecovision improved a little but when the nes came out it kind of brought home gaming to a new level.
  • I think the best was the game play. The game designers got the most out of every bit of technology they had. The great NES games from twenty years ago still hold thier weight today. Great two player games, great music, first wave of console RPG's, games with endings. Many many reasons the NES was and still is the best. I know they rented Atari games, but I think the rental factor of the NES was huge in it's popularity. Everybody was gonig to the video store already to get VHS tapes, so all you had to do was talk your parents into renting you a game. You didn't have to be a rich kid to play a lot of differnt games. I was 12 when I got my NES in 89, so I saw the explosion\invasion of Nintendo first hand image
  • Perhaps my post would be more suited in a thread about NES memories, but this is what the NES means to me.

    One of my first thoughts were about the cartridges being so huge, since my only comparison at the time were the much smaller Atari cartridges.  I was so excited to play SMB at home, since I had seen this popular game at the arcade, but didn't dare to try it with an audience watching.  That weekend, I was allowed to get a second game.  It was a friend of the family that went to the mall, and my mother gave him money to get me a game.  Looking at the original poster, I picked out a 1st choice and a 2nd choice simply based on a screenshot.  The store didn't have either one, so I ended up with Golf.  I know that wouldn't have been a 3rd or even 4th choice, but I grew to love it, and having 2 games was great.

    In more recent years, through emulation, I was able to try out every game that I had to pass on the first time but had wanted to play.  After sampling a few hundred games, I went and bought the great ones, and even went on a mission to finally conquer all of my conquerable games, including the tough ones that seemed unbeatable at one time.  It was quite a challenge, as my collection contains Battletoads, Cobra Triangle, Gradius, Blaster Master, GunSmoke.  My collection is quite a bit smaller than most, with 80 games, but they are all great ones in my opinion.

    To keep this post from getting too long, I'll just list some other various memories:
    Seeing new games behind store counters and asking to see the boxes
    Renting games from a nearby gas station from their very limited stock
    Discovering ahead of time that one of my wrapped Xmas presents was 6 games wrapped together
    Playing a couple dozen 2 player games for hours upon hours with a childhood friend
    Reading Nintendo Power cover to cover and awaiting each monthly issue
    And of course attending the NWC in 1990
  • I also grew up with the NES, plenty of Digger T.Rock and TMNT back in the good old days.
    In my opinion the NES may not have the great multiplayer games the N64 had or the brilliant RPG's the SNES had but theres something more special about that little box. I particulary like the quirkiness of the accessories, like ROB & the power glove. They may have been hard to control & not sold well but what other consoles have these type of accessories and history?
    The NES laid many of the foundations that are being exploited with the next gen consoles like the Wii.
    All's we need now is WiiROB.
  • You mean ROBii?
  • You mean ROBii?




    LMAO- someone needs to call Nintendo with that idea

    They can reissue a classic remake of StackUp or Gyromite 2K7
  • I got the nintendo a year or two after it came out. I loved it and played it all the time. Even though we had plenty of money when I was growing up my parents would never buy me games. It was a pain in the ass to get them to let me rent one. Now that I am grown I am re living my childhood being able to buy games for it when I want. So for me it isn't exactly that I adore the NES it's being able to buy these old games I remember wanting play and didn't get to when I was younger.
  • Definitely the d-pad. The closest thing to this I believe was Colecovision's dial-pad. The d-pad is still used to this day, and the two-thumb controls were innovative. It would seem like after having played nothing but arcade games and my 2600 for 5 years as a kid, the change would be too revolutionary, but it just made so much sense it was easy to pick up. Part of me, being right-handed, also appreciated being able to use my right thumb to shoot instead of left thumb like with the VCS joystick.
  • Nothing can compare to the games for the NES. They are so diverse. Now days everyone sticks to a certain formula for every game they make. Nintendo was so creative with the NES games. It's like they just didn't care. They weren't scared to fail. They just went for it and they ended up with over 700 very different games. Sure, they had a few sequels to different games like Tecmo Bowl, Mario, Castlevania, etc, but so many of the games were completely unique. I just don't think any other system can compare in this respect.
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