Wednesday, August 29, 2007

True School

I started thinking about how fresh o.g Nintendo game covers were from back in the day. I can only speak for myself of course, but Nintendo pretty much ran the block growing up in the 80's. I can vividly remember wasting away summer days inside my house with my friends drinking soda and eating otter pops all while trying to beat Contra without using the "30 Lives" cheat = up, down, up, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Select, Start.

How in God's name do I remember that? It's probably fair to say that almost every guy ages 20 - 35 remember that code too. I compiled some covers of games that I remembered off the top of my head and came across a few that I had forgotten about.

This isn't anywhere near a "Top Ten" because that would be some serious shit. I couldn't just throw out a couple of covers and say it was a "Top Ten." A post like that would take some serious deliberation.

Some honorable mentions that aren't pictured below would be:

- Super Dodgeball
- Kid Nikki *sort of obscure
- Super Spike Volleyball
- RC Pro Am
- Super Mario 3 *don't act like you didn't shit your pants when that game dropped
- Tecmo Bowl
- Zelda
- Skate or Die 2 * only the half pipe mini game though
- RBI Baseball



T&C Wood and Water Race

I could "son" anyone on the skate part, but my surfing skills were pretty weak. Remember Thrilla Gorilla? Classic



In many ways River City Ransom was like a pioneer to Grand Theft Auto. I mean you ran around stomping people out that were in different gangs using chains, brass knuckles, bats, knives, and pretty much terrorized the entire city until you got your hiena back. Am I wrong here?




O.G Triple O.G Ninja shit. We played this joint for hours and never got bored. It was one player for f*ck's sake and you were totally content watching your buddy play while you waited although deep down you know you were hoping that he was going to fall into a spike pit on his last life.




Ducktales? The game? I watched the cartoon and played the hell out of this game. Scrooge McDuck, Launch Pad McQuack, Huey, Dooey, and Louie, and don't forget Ms. Beasley. My brain is like a bear trap right now.




Along the same lines as RCR, but Double Dragon was more on some martial arts I secretly could run away from home and train to be a karate badass type deal. It also had one of the first player vs. player fighting mini games ever too.




Castlevania was a staple to any decent gamer's collection. How many games could post an "invisible" stair case, flame bombs, giant bats, and allow you to fight Frankenstein and Igor all in one?



California Games caused a lot of ruckus in my neighborhood. It was made up of mini games like skate half pipe, frisbee, hackey sack, roller-skating, surfing, and bmx. The only good games were bmx and surfing. Sometimes I'd f*ck with the hackey sack, but only when I was really bored.




I liked "Ice Hockey" too, but Blades of Steel was more realistic. Why don't more people like hockey I wonder? Baseball is the lamest shit ever, but somehow a sport that is played on ICE where you're allowed to FIGHT someone and everyone is riding on sharpened BLADES is somehow overlooked.




This wasn't a super popular game, but you had a hand cannon and a bionic grappling hook arm. I will repeat that a bionic grappling hook arm. That is all you need to know about BC.




I didn't play this much, but how good is that cover? Back in the 80's things were a lot more in your face and no one gave a $hit about being "pc." I mean they could've made games like "Reggie's Fried Chicken Frenzy" or "Chin's Crazy Driver" and nobody would have batted an eye.




Battle Toads was pretty decent. Nothing special.




I am surprised no one has made this into some lame "street wear" tee yet. This game actually sucked if my memory serves me right and it was basically killed by the hype and anticipation of being able to play a Simpsons game and when you finally got it home it was just a big mess. Cool cover though.




This one was a Double Dragon rip-off and it played like such.




And last but not least 720. Now this game was pretty epic as far as o.g skate games were concerned. It was better in the arcade, but anything skate back then was pretty off the hook.

Leave comments of some of your favorite NES games if you'd like.

2 comments:

  1. I would have to add excite bike to the list. and dont forget about the greatest accessory for the NES, game genie. & and i am still waiting to see your street fighter 2 skills

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