35th Anniversary of the NES's North American release

[Mario_Friend1982 | 173]

I'm with Super Mario Bros. It's the first game I've beaten.

Edited October 18, 2020 by Mario_Friend1982

[Tanooki | 4,930]

I got mine for Christmas in 1985.  Beyond the two pack-ins, thankfully Hogan's Alley and Super Mario Bros were picked up too.  I enjoyed them all, but Mario got exponentially more effort and time put into it.  Up until then, it was just simple arcade games when I'd get out to places with them in it (dinner etc.)  I never could have foreseen a game where an entire world would unfold in front of you, more and more, section by section, secrets to mini locations in pipes and more.  Evolving locations and evolving creatures, variations, new ones, it kept coming.  It got to where you'd dream of such things as a kid at night.  Yet come Christmas, 35 years later, I still don't tire of the game and enjoy it, and I can say the same of the others, though only Gyromite I can't touch, as the others I can with the NES LCD mod more or less (cans and clay pigeons don't work yet in that hack.)

[Deadeye | 1,595]

For the record, I am voting for SMB.  Unfortunately, no way to correct my mistakenly casted vote for Exitebike.

[au | 15]

I'm sorry, but genuinely, even ignoring the fact that Mario is a behemoth franchise out of all of these, it's also the best game out of the launch titles. Have to vote for SMB.

[OptOut | 8,881]

I don't think I've ever seen a more one sided fight!

I mean, I like plenty of those other black box games, especially the likes of Ice Climber, Kung Fu, Wrecking Crew and of course, Duck Hunt. But yeah, against the KING? Not a chance!

Also @Deadeye and Excite bike sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!!! 

[fcgamer | 4,719]

Super Mario Bros.

I'd vote one of the light gun games if I had a modern TV

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,104]

I have to go with SMB, but Excitebike and Kung Fu would be my next two favorites.

[a3quit4s | 4,092]

I was only born in February 1985 so I wouldn’t get the NES for another 2-3 years but I would have voted for SMB I’m sure. I wish I had discovered Balloon Fight when I was kid but props to my parents for getting me what they could with what they had. 
 

Dad would totally vote for ExciteBike lol

[Jono1874 | 144]

I was born with an NES in my house and I will probably die an old man with several NES' in my house.

The reason why is Super Mario Bros.

[timfsu2k | 19]

I can't argue against the superiority of SMB as a game, but for nostalgic reasons Baseball will be my favorite.  My Dad and I spent many an hour playing that game, along with some neighborhood friends.  Great memories that I will cherish forever.  

[Littlemacstrainer | 34]

I voted for SMB but Kung Fu is right up there as well.

[Hammerfestus | 3,820]

Pfft.  Bunch of Sheeple.  Ice Climber 4 Eva.

[Sumer | 221]

On 10/18/2020 at 12:51 AM, Tanooki said:

I got mine for Christmas in 1985.  Beyond the two pack-ins, thankfully Hogan's Alley and Super Mario Bros were picked up too.  I enjoyed them all, but Mario got exponentially more effort and time put into it.  Up until then, it was just simple arcade games when I'd get out to places with them in it (dinner etc.)  I never could have foreseen a game where an entire world would unfold in front of you, more and more, section by section, secrets to mini locations in pipes and more.  Evolving locations and evolving creatures, variations, new ones, it kept coming.  It got to where you'd dream of such things as a kid at night.  Yet come Christmas, 35 years later, I still don't tire of the game and enjoy it, and I can say the same of the others, though only Gyromite I can't touch, as the others I can with the NES LCD mod more or less (cans and clay pigeons don't work yet in that hack.)

So awesome you got it the year it came out!  I got my the Xmas of 1987.  And, to this day, it is still the best Christmas of my lifetime (even including the SNES Xmas of 1991).  I had a Coleco Gemini (Not Colecovision, but the Gemini.  Atari 2600 knockoff...how the hell did Coleco get away with that one?) and a ton of 2600 games to play on it, but something with the NES...

I got the NES right when my parents were divorcing, so the console quite literally saved my childhood and took my mind off of what was happening.  Don't get me wrong, I love playing 2600 games still, but the Gemini couldn't do what the NES did for my childhood.  Super Mario Bros was a revelation first in that arcade (Vs. SMB), and then bringing it home that Xmas...boy, that Xmas sticks with me.  

Besides SMB being the pack-in (we got the action set...sans ROB or Duck Hunt), we also got the Legend of Zelda (oi!), Legend of Kage, Kung-Fu, and Rush 'n' Attack.  I mean, when you have a Christmas with both SMB and LOZ for the first time, its gotta be good.  My uncle lived with us at the time, and I remember him making hand drawn maps for us of the dungeons...this was before we got the Fun Club sent to our house!  

EDIT: Oh, by the way, I voted for SMB.  I mean, the game literally blew me away as a kid when I played it on a Vs. cab in a crappy Mexican restaurant that we would occasionally go to and I fell instantly in love.

Edited October 23, 2020 by Sumer
Added my vote

[Tulpa | 3,488]

3 minutes ago, Sumer said:

(Not Colecovision, but the Gemini.  Atari 2600 knockoff...how the hell did Coleco get away with that one?)

 

Atari used off-the-shelf parts that they didn't own all the patents on, and Coleco swooped in and used the same parts. They ended up settling out of court, but Coleco could keep making them. There was also one branded for Columbia House that Coleco made. 

Edited October 23, 2020 by Tulpa

[Sumer | 221]

Just now, Tulpa said:

Atari used off-the-shelf parts that they didn't own patents on, and Coleco swooped in and used the same parts. There was also one branded for Columbia House that Coleco made. 

Yeah, I sorta knew the history to that, but still...Coleco getting away with that is still amazing in my mind.    I had the Gemini-branded one, not the Columbia House one.  I asked my dad recently where he got it at, and he can't remember even purchasing it!

[Tulpa | 3,488]

Well, if you're going to build a console, make sure everything's proprietary.

[NESfiend | 1,514]

Yeah, realistically, it has to be smb. As a kid I probably would have said kung fu. I didnt have it and was convinced it was the greatest game ever. I dont think id even played it, had just seen it on the pack in posters. Turns out I was right though. Awesome game. In my top 3 black box along with excitebike. I got that one as a gift with my nes. SMB and excitebike were the only games I had for a long while. I remember my parents had paid 80 bucks for it in 1990 money. They were appalled at the price

Edited October 23, 2020 by NESfiend

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

A poll like this is like putting 16 ants against a bulldozer....some of the ants might be slightly bigger than the others, but the bulldozer wins by default.

Excluding Mario, the choice for me is down to Duck Hunt, Wrecking Crew, Pinball, Kung Fu, and Excitebike.........so I pick Kung Fu.

[Tanooki | 4,930]

6 hours ago, Sumer said:

So awesome you got it the year it came out!  I got my the Xmas of 1987.  And, to this day, it is still the best Christmas of my lifetime (even including the SNES Xmas of 1991).  I had a Coleco Gemini (Not Colecovision, but the Gemini.  Atari 2600 knockoff...how the hell did Coleco get away with that one?) and a ton of 2600 games to play on it, but something with the NES...

I got the NES right when my parents were divorcing, so the console quite literally saved my childhood and took my mind off of what was happening.  Don't get me wrong, I love playing 2600 games still, but the Gemini couldn't do what the NES did for my childhood.  Super Mario Bros was a revelation first in that arcade (Vs. SMB), and then bringing it home that Xmas...boy, that Xmas sticks with me.  

Besides SMB being the pack-in (we got the action set...sans ROB or Duck Hunt), we also got the Legend of Zelda (oi!), Legend of Kage, Kung-Fu, and Rush 'n' Attack.  I mean, when you have a Christmas with both SMB and LOZ for the first time, its gotta be good.  My uncle lived with us at the time, and I remember him making hand drawn maps for us of the dungeons...this was before we got the Fun Club sent to our house!  

EDIT: Oh, by the way, I voted for SMB.  I mean, the game literally blew me away as a kid when I played it on a Vs. cab in a crappy Mexican restaurant that we would occasionally go to and I fell instantly in love.

I always felt as much.  I didn't even realize until years later it was part of a limited thing, no clue at all what a test launch was either.  At times I had questioned myself like, did I really have it that year, but then I recall one solidifying moment on why it was so.  Gradius.  That came out December 1986.  It was the only christmas, birthday, anything ever, my grandma on my fathers side ever bought me a video game before or since as she was one of those educational only types.  I recall wanting it seeing stuff in print somewhere, and kids talk, vidpro cards, etc.  The fact she got that confused and blew me away and all these years I still have it.  I was surprised it happened and that I got not just a new game, but a new one that just hit the stores.  Like the Christmas before it, that game go the crap played out of it the entire time off school for break.

Funny that you mention some of the other early stuff.  I can actually remember my next few games that came along too in 1986 to a point, not so much the order but given when they arrived probably so.  Kung Fu, Balloon Fight, Donkey Kong 3 and Mario Bros and Popeye.  I don't recall when I got it but I did get 1942 also Ghosts N Goblins, the one time my dad did something cool and bought that new sealed at a swap meet table where I got to pick it out, guess he liked the box art.  I still have all those games too, manuals as well more or less.  1987 got me Zelda, Kid Icarus, Metroid, Raid on Bungling Bay, Spy Hunter, and Goonies II.

I'm using the wikipedia by year to refresh my memory and I just realized 1988 was a dry year mostly for me so some of those 1987 pick ups surely were there.  1988 was nothing until SMB2 in October and also Blaster Master.  By then my brother had his own, I know he got Mickey Mousecapade and Rampage, and late that year got me Zelda II and Castlevania II so yeah I think I did better.   He ultimately semi-shelved his NES like a console wars traitor buying into the hype and smokebomb of non-truth sega peddled for the Genesis.  Ultimately he had maybe 10-15 NES games or so (Silver Surfer, we co-owned Duck Tales and Rescue Rangers, Burger Time, etc.)  I could go on, it would get nuts, but I could tally it all up.  We weren't rental people, I saved anything I could slave to get games, parents/family got me 1-2 per birthday and christmas so I had like 40+ by the time the SNES came out.

[T-Pac | 7,513]

On 10/20/2020 at 9:46 PM, Hammerfestus said:

Pfft.  Bunch of Sheeple.  Ice Climber 4 Eva.

Heck yeah! I genuinely had a ton of fun with Ice Climber once I got used to the bizarre jump-mechanics.

-CasualCart

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,104]

I can't believe that no one has said 10 Yard Fight. You all must hate fun.

[MegaMan52 | 2,440]

I played the Special Battle mode in Super Mario Bros. 35 on October 18th to celebrate the 35th Anniversary of my favorite Console and launch game:

 

Edited October 27, 2020 by MegaMan52

[Mario_Friend1982 | 173]

13 minutes ago, MegaMan52 said:

I played the Special Battle mode in Super Mario Bros. 35 on October 18th to celebrate the 35th Anniversary of my favorite Console and launch game:

 

Nice job!