Sumez

Well that's a take I've never seen before. I'd love to hear your thoughts on what makes the original Ninja Warriors better, let alone the PCE port. The two games are barely comparable, but I always found the original crude and repetitive, so I'd love to hear a different approach.

SkyBlazer is a good game IMO, but comparing it to SOR2 and GnG is unfair. SkyBlazer has always been more of a "hidden gem" type game. I often see the former is commonly namedropped as "the best beat'em up ever", which is high praise, while the latter is a port of what is one of my favourite arcade games of all times (it's really a tight squeeze between GnG, Rainbow Islands, and TGM2). I'm kind of in the same boat. Very few beat'em ups ever grab me, but when I play one I like, I really like it. The SNES sequel to The Ninja Warriors (simply Ninja Warriors in the west, The Ninja Warriors Again in Japan, or Ninja Saviors in its recent remake for Switch, PS4, etc) however is probably the one that clicked the most to me. It's very good. Very very very good, and another contender for one of the best (or THE best) in the genre. It's single plane which is unique, but something I really like, since it forces to to approach every enemy head on, and always gives you perfect feedback on what you're dealing with. Every enemy type is very unique, so you constantly need to react to what you are facing. There are three playable characters. Ninja and Kunoichi are definitely the way to go if you want complex mechanics (the third character makes it very easy to just cheese through the game). Ninja is huge, heavy, and based on crowd control and throws which IMO is the most fun way to play the game. Kunoichi is the agile character who jumps around and can essentially bounce back and forth on enemies without even touching the ground. Also the game looks like a million, one of the most beautiful things on the SNES. If possible, get the Japanese version as the western releases completely cut out one enemy type. Or just get the remake, which adds a lot to the game. Mighty Final Fight is a great "my first beat'em up" too. For an NES game, it's incredibly good at recreating the tight controls of the original arcade game, and though there's sadly no two-player options, you can actually play as all three characters unlike the original SNES port. Of course, this is not a port, but entirely its own game. Like Ninja Warriors Again, it's focused a lot on grabbing and throwing enemies, and reacting to what constellation enemy types you are facing at any time. There are only ever two enemies on screen at time, but they are randomly picked, and even have a random health bar that you need to consider also. Very entertaining game. Capcom's two Dungeons & Dragons games are also a great choice if you think beat'em ups suffer a lot from repetition. These constantly throw new enemies at you, and you rarely have to move very far forward before you're facing another boss fight. Though very playable single player, it's designed very much with co-op in mind, with different characters having very clear advantages and weaknesses. Despite being action games, they are designed with the Dungeons & Dragons rules in mind, in terms of what each character can do, and even the best strategies for several boss fights. The game is very based on resource management and tactics, as well as fighting-game like movesets and blocking.

Skyrim could learn a lot from Morrowind...

Jesus, I just bought Arcade Edition. Capcom promised they wouldn't do this thing this time around, but of course they did it anyway

The US Rainbow Islands is the Taito version, similar to the Japanese version (but with different music). The European release is the Ocean port, which IMO surprisingly both looks and plays better. It's more similar to the original arcade version (though it lacks the last three "hidden" islands), while the Taito one changes up a lot of stuff, and has completely different stages, enemies and boss fights. It's almost like a "sequel". Unfortunately Ocean's NES port isn't anywhere near as spot on as their Amiga one though. They must have had a different guy working on it or something.

I've beaten one loop, never two.

1. Ideally you want to beat them before they start moving, this is only doable for some of the arremers that start out sitting on the ground (such as the one on stage 1). You need to jump and land a certain distance from them, not too far away, and then spam your attack at them (ideally the dagger, but lance works) before they get to take off. This will partially stunlock them, getting in enough attacks to kill them before they get out. To spam attacks faster, constantly switch between tapping the attack button and moving forward to cancel the attack "cooldown". The last part is useful for several bosses, too, as well as the ogres/pig men. 2. If you do get into a fight with them, don't try to go aggressive on them. You can attack them to force them away from you, but you probably won't connect. Instead wait for them to land on the ground and walk back and forth a few times. After a while they'll rush straight at you, which is where you want to spam attacks at them, since they won't ever dodge while doing this. This is very similar to how you deal with them in Super Ghouls n Ghosts. In general each arremer in the game is different due to their placement, and practice usually finds a way to consistently deal with each of them. The one at the halfway point of stage 3 took me a while to grasp. Basically I always start by walking right under him as he flies in.

Arremers are kinda the newbie bridge of GnG. There's a trick to beating them, in fact there are a few tricks. But yeah, if you don't know them, I can see them being aggravating.

Oh cool. Now I know about Bishojo Control

Disclaimer: The Messenger is 0% like Ninja Gaiden unless you consider having a ninja as the protagonist enough to qualify, in which case it's 1% like Ninja Gaiden. It's been riding a lot on the NG comparisons since seeing stills from the game makes it very easy to assume that, but if you pick up The Messenger expecting a modern Ninja Gaiden, you'll be severely disappointed. To be honest, I really don't think it's like any of those three games. It's primarily centered around in-air movement tech (which is occasionally clumsy due to dumb button configurations), exploration and basic puzzle solving. Hell, it's probably closer to Celeste. It's a pretty cool game IMO, but don't expect anything outside of the typical modern indie platformer semi-metroidvania. We stil have yet to see any new 2d action game take up the Ninja Gaiden mantle.

They're great. So are hammer brothers, lakitu, and angry suns. What, do you want enemies in video games to not try to kill you?

I think there are a few misunderstandings in your writeup, but the essence of it is correct: There are different standards which causes the games to run at different speeds depending on which console is running it. Since it's not the intended topic of this thread, and since several people asked about my list, I'll start a new one outlining the important difference between PAL/NTSC consoles and releases.

That's great news, really! I'm glad I managed to snatch a boxed copy before the price hike, but I'd prefer if other people get the chance to own a copy, too. I wonder if the re-release of Metal Storm will have a similar effect.

You just plug it in via an adapter same as any other Famicom cartridge. You need a mod to get the expansion audio though, same as Gimmick, Akumajou Densetsu, etc. That's how I played FDS games initially before getting my AV Famicom I'm sure there are people who have made it work on a front loader too, but you'd need quite a unique adapter.

I thought that was the 90s design. Oh my god, the original 90s one is even worse than I remembered.

Crash fucking Bandicoot. Everything about him is terrible. It's like they intentionally designed him just to be annoying. Why does he have fans? Does he have any fans that weren't kids when the first games came out?

Even Sylvando?

I'm assuming you're talking a 2-loop playthrough, since the GnG series historically always requires two loops to count as a "clear" (something people tend to whine about, but it's one of my favourite aspects). EDIT: Oh duh, you straight up state this. Yeah, expect the difficulty to ramp up for the second loop if you're on practice. Essentially, the second loop on a "practice mode" playthrough is the same as the first loop on "professional", and the second loop isn't too different from the first there, same as on arcade. So if you can 2-all practice mode, I think you're close to 2-all'ing professional too. Furthermore, this is an incredibly accurate port to the point where I think most of that skill is directly transferable to the arcade version. The arcade one is harder, but the differences are vague. If it's a possibility for you, definitely give it a go, it's probably in my top 3 arcade games ever. And yeah - Ghouls n Ghosts is definitely one of the easiest games in the series, and especially for an arcade game it doesn't really deserve its reputation. That said, Super Ghouls n Ghosts is still an easier game. It did take me about a week of casual play to get a 2-ALL 1CC on the (japanese) arcade version of GnG. SGnG I got on my fourth session, and that was with a ton of extra lives to spare.

A lot of these games are still cheap (or at least available cheap with some patience - don't rely on eBay's buy-it-now prices), but yeah that are some crazy ones among them. I've found that Taito is really only truly bad on the US market, supposedly because a lot of their late era releases were only released as rentals or Blockbuster exclusives or something like that? I have a couple of European copies of Taito games like Little Samson and Flintstones 2, and none of them were that expensive, at least compared to their going prices for US versions. Recca, Gimmick, and Adventure Island 4 are probably the big ones here. And Holy Diver, Moon Crystal and Robocco Wars are starting to climb, but I think they can still be found for human money with some patience.

Hopefully someone who'd open a sealed NES game to play it.

Part 2: Recca - If you're into shooting games, you probably know of Yagawa, most famous for Battle Garegga and how it's a complete oddball in terms of weird underlying mechanics, yet often considered one of the finest games in the entire genre. If you're not, well then Recca is still interesting just for being one of the most unique shooters of its generation. This was Yagawa's first shooter, and he goes all in with a ton of stuff that's rarely seen on the NES. Lots of sprites on screen at a time, weird wavy scanline effects, huge lasers and mechanical robot limbs. And the soundtrack is... well, it's like nothing else on the NES. Crisis Force - Konami shares its take on the compile-style vertical shooter. It's in the easy end for the genre, but is a lot of fun. It's also incredibly good looking, one of the prettiest games on the platform. Holy Diver - Sort of Castlevania-esque platformer with a strange magic system and a lot of unique quirks and unfortunate movement-related bugs. Famous for being difficult. Like, incredibly difficult. Makes Ninja Gaiden 3 feel like a walk in the park. New Ghostbusters II - An enjoyable overhead action game. People are maybe overplaying how great it is, but it's notable for being one of the few actually good Ghostbusters games. Meikyuu Jiin Dababa - One more FDS game. I'm one of those people who's a huge fan of Startropics' unique tile based movement adding a strategic layer to what appears like an action game. If you ever wondered where Nintendo got that from, here it is! This game works exactly the same way, but never utilizes it in as fun puzzle-solving and trap-escaping ways as Startropics does. Still worth playing though, IMO. Moon Crystal - I love this game, but I can see it being hard to approach for a lot of people. Imagine if Castlevania had a more fluidly animated movement set, similar to Prince of Persia. The two don't really mesh well, but for some reason I think this game justifies it. It's a very unique action game where every movement has to be planned. It's also very good looking in motion, even though it looks a bit dull on still frames. Robocco Wars - A weird fast paced run-n-gun/platformer where you're a robot train running on tracks. It's hard to really explain this game, but there's a lot to see here. Adventure Island 4 - The first "Adventure Island" game to approach the metroidvania concept rather than the hardcore arcade platformer. It's notable for that, and it's well made, but IMO it's not really worth the price of admission if that matters to you (I have a full CIB copy and I'm not sure I can justify that). Hebereke is cheaper, and a much better game. But this one is at least very interesting, if nothing else for being the last game officially released on the Famicom. Cocoron - A weird Mega Man'esque action game where your character is a combination of abilities that you pick before the start of each stage, which also completely changes the way it looks. The result is that every stage needs to be designed to work with any possible skill set (which includes flying), and obviously some configurations are vastly superior to others. It's a little broken, but makes for interesting challenge runs. It's kind of the predecessor to Little Samson (made by the same company), and it feels very much like it. Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Grafiti - A chibi parody of Splatterhouse, with a lot of the same elements from the original arcade game, except presented in a more humorous way. I honestly prefer this game to the original Splatterhouse! Time Zone - Very similar to Panic Restaurant (made by the same team). A fast paced, colorful platformer with very large jumps. It's an easy game, but you feel kind of pushed to try and dash through the stages as fast as possible, not unlike the first SMB. Imo this aspect alone makes it way more fun than Panic Restaurant (which is just easy and dull). It's also way cheaper. Yume Penguin Monogatari - Not really a great game, but fun in how weird and unique it is. You're a fat penguin who needs to slim down in order to keep his girlfriend who will otherwise leave him for an evil mustache-wielding top hat-wearing penguin antagonist. Has a really ridiculous plot twist in the end. Pick up diet drinks and avoid rice cakes to change weight. Being slim makes you faster, but being fatter gives you access to more devastating attacks. By the end of each stage you'll call your girlfriend, and if you didn't slim down enough you need to replay the stage.

Well, off the top of my head, here's my immediate list. I'm probably gonna split this into a couple of posts. Gimmick! (or Mr. Gimmick! in Europe). This should be #1 priority for anyone, as it IMO is among at least the top 3 titles available on the NES. It's an incredibly good game. Akumajou Special Boku Dracula Kun (aka "Kid Dracula"). Looks like a Castlevania spinoff, but plays more like a Mega Man game. It's a really fun action game with a bit of everything thrown in there, not unlike Bucky O'Hare. One of my fav Jap-exclusives on the system. You'll need a translation guide for a quiz section mid-game, but the rest is perfectly playable in Japanese. Mitsume Ga Tooru - Strangely overlooked for a Natsume game, considering they are one of the console's more prolific developers. Crazy well polished game with pretty sprites, impressive bank switching parallax effects, and a great soundtrack. Nazo No Murasamejou - It's kind of a stretch if this qualifies as "NES" when it's a disk game, but the FDS attaches to a top loading NES without issues, so I'd allow it. Basically imagine if Zelda 1 was a crazy challenging ninja action game with a more linear approach. Murasamejou requires you to keep moving and quickly reflect shurikens thrown at you to keep afloat. Super rewarding game, and one of the few original Nintendo-developed titles to never make it outside Japan (until its 3DS eShop release) Ufouria/Hebereke - More enjoyable with English text, but it's perfectly beatable in Japanese. This one was altered for the PAL release both in terms of gameplay timing and graphics, so you might want to do some research to figure out which you want. I think it stands out for feeling like a metroidvania design very similar to what you see in a lot of indie games today. Kind of ahead of its time, despite the genre being quite prevalent on NES/FC. Ai Senshi Nicol - Another FDS game, but worth checking out. One of the few top-down action games with 8-way movement that really works on the NES. Mixes exploration and combat, and kind of feels like a series of Zelda dungeons. A bit on the easy side, but very well made. Don Doko Don 2 - Nothing like the first Don Doko Don. Another Natsume platformer, which probably due to how late it was released feels a lot like a 16-bit generation game, with large stages and unique setpieces. Very overlooked, so should be possible to pick up cheap. I doubt it'll stay that way

Yeah when talking PAL/NTSC in terms of NES, it's not so much a question of release regions, but the retarded difference in how the games actually play. On a PAL NES most game will run slower, but occasionally the music will still be faster, meaning there's no way to get the "genuine" experience. Although @peg is correct about a majority of "PAL" releases, you can't really generalize. A lot of NES games released in Europe were actually mostly untouched, and play absolutely fine if you run them on an NTSC NES/Famicom. One curious example would be Probotector, the famous robot version of Contra, which despite all of its changes actually runs at the original, correct speed on an NTSC system. I've made a list of all major European releases and research about how timing was changed for each of them, which is a handy reference. Maybe worthy of another thread in the future.

Denmark, but I'm fairly sure it's a generic European thing.