20 best NES games: the greatest Nintendo classics
The 20 Greatest NES Games We Ever Played
Choosing the best NES games was always going to be a difficult task, but that shows just how good the console was.
The Nintendo Entertainment System - we all called it the NES, mind - was the world's first truly great games console. Why? Well, because it was home to some absolute classic games - the sorts of titles that now, some 30 years since the machine was first released, we still enjoy playing.
Thanks to the Nintendo Switch, and the Nintendo Classic Mini you can now play many of these classics again (simply head over to our best Nintendo Switch games list)- and, frankly, you can stick your Fallouts where the sun don't shine, we'd rather load up a bit of Duck Hunt and get a-shooting.
So with that spirit of nostalgia in mind, here's 20 of the best games on the NES...
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20. Maniac Mansion
An early point-and-click adventure game, Maniac Mansion was the precursor to the likes of the Secret of Monkey Island. Oddly, it actually worked really well on the NES pad. Oh, and you could microwave a hamster in it. Obviously.
19. River City Ransom
There are plenty of interesting facts and memories around why River City Ransom was awesome but the best one is clearly the English translation of the Japanese title for the game, roughly: Downtown Hot-Blooded Story. And that pretty much sums up everything you need to know.
18. Kirby's Adventure
By 1993 most people were done with the NES - but not Nintendo. The Japanese company still had time to give one of its now-classic characters a run out, this time with the excellent adventure of the greedy pink lump.
17. Bubble Bobble
Try and play through a few levels of Bubble Bobble without getting the theme music hopelessly stuck in your head. It's impossible. And you'll inevitably end up playing more than a few levels, because it's a brilliant game.
16. Kid Icarus
An action-platformer game with some actual depth to it, Kid Icarus is one of those games you go back to play and realise 'hang on, games were actually really good back then'. Oh, and hard. Mustn't forget the hard bit.