Top 5 Games on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) 

The Guardian Legend is my favorite NES title! I'm happy to finally see another person who loves this one, or has even played it for that matter!

It makes me so happy to see an ACTUAL original list from someone!

The Guardian Legend was the second NES game I ever owned. Great memories.

I somehow ended up with Guardian Legend in my possession as a kid. Easily the most underrated Nintendo (NES) game. I was not a heavy gamer and neither was my best friend but we sat and played through that entire game on one of his visits. It was just a great and rewarding game. I was surprised when Pam said she preferred the flight battle parts as I preferred the adventuring. It just shows how well balanced it is and how the variety can keep you engaged. I struggle to fully convince others how it's a really good title that's genuinely worth the time.

Guardian Legend! Nice dark horse pick, that's a great game.

SMB3: what memories I have of that one! I had a tonsillectomy during the summer of 1989, and I received the game as a get well present. I even had a plush raccoon that I named Tanooki, and he turned thirty this month. I’ve already gushed my love for TGL, and I also agree on StarTropics simply because of the music. The dungeon theme still rests comfortably at the forefront of my mind.

Good choice on Star Tropics! Very underrated.

The whole reason I used warp whistles in SMB3 was because the game had no battery backup or password feature. What was Nintendo thinking making a game that huge and having no way to save it?

Nice story about you and Felix the Cat :) And a game I still love today and think was ahead of it's time, is "Snake Rattle n Roll".

Thank you for giving so much love to Guardian Legend. It was a game I owned that no one wanted to play.

So glad to hear some praise for The Guardian Legend, such a classic. The music, just what you played here in your video makes me so nostalgic for my childhood. I have to go play it again. Thx Pam!

Blaster Master was my favorite. The cool vehicle, excellent controls and variety of gameplay made it memorable.

I never had a NES, as I'm from Ireland Sega were the name here, I used to swap my Master System for my friend's NES, I remember pulling a sickie to play SMB3, I was blown away by it. I've taken note of the other games in your list to try out too :)

I saw a copy of Guardian Legend at my local retro store. I’ll have to pick up a copy. Also, love Star Tropics.

This video brought back a lot of memories. Had you not put the sound/music from The Guardian Legend, I wouldn't have remembered it. But the sounds of the bullets going through the enemies brought me back to my childhood. Thanks!

TGL is definitely one of my favs. Glad to see others enjoyed it too!

great list, so glad its not the usual mainstream games so many have some are my favorites, especially guardian legend. which once you beat you get an extra mode adventure.

Such fond memories of renting The Guardian Legend for a long weekend and completing it with my brother. We were so determined. I don't know how we did it. I played it recently and it's pretty tough even with save states.

You have great taste for classic NES games. I'm especially glad you mention Guardian Legend!!!! On a side note, I'm still holding out nearly 30 years later since first playing Guardian Legend, a sequel/made into up-to-date graphics.

awesome - I love lists like this with personal favs, as I get more ideas to add to my "must buy" list!

Good to see Guardian Legend get some love, along with StarTropics - such fond memories. My top 5 would have to be (in no particular order) Guardian Legend, Crystalis, Journey to Silius (more so for the soundtrack I think), Final Fantasy, Mega Man 3.

A woman who can turn into a spaceship is definitely what I want to be when I grow up too! :D

What a fun, off-beat list. 90% of my favs have a similar background, rented them forever and they have that neat nostalgic appeal. Happy memories of Friday night game/movie rentals from a simpler time and whatnot.

Great list, I remember doing the water dip invisible ink thing with Star Tropics, what a great feature for a kid!

subbed for that US Saturn collection. Well played madame

NES games were so hard to get where I lived. Mario 3 was one of four games I actually owned when I got the NES in the first place. But I can't think of any NES games I played that I was particularly fond of other than the Mario games. The Disney games (Ducktales, The Little Mermaid, Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers) had difficulty all over the place, but were the ones that I enjoyed playing when they were rented. This is perhaps why I found some appeal in the Kingdom Hearts games. Also the Ducktales game got a remake recently.

Great list! I actually did own Gun-Nac as a kid. My aunt randomly got it for me for Christmas, and I'd never heard of it before that. I loved it then and still love it now. I'm really glad I held onto it, because now it sells for over $200.

Felix the Cat is wonderful! Excellent choice, one of my favorites as well.

When you said that your mother bought you Felix The Cat and that it was finally yours, that was heartwarming. :) Very similarly, I got my own copy of Sonic The Hedgehog after repeatedly renting it. I was a happy little scrub.

one of my favorite games back then was faxanadu. it is a side scrolling rpg game similar to zelda 2, but not as popular. I remember that I was desperately struggling to get through the cryptic game solving all riddles only bit by bit. I basically never knew what to do and where to go, which was the real challenge in this game. in retrospective, zelda 2 might have been an overall better gaming experience. however, as you already mentionend at 5:25 , what we like most depends on the games we had access to. still dont wanna miss the memories with faxanadu though. same thing with startropics!

I wasn't sure about this list, until you mentioned Numbers 3 and 1. Really like the variate of game genres you took for your list.

The Guardian Legend is one of my favorites too. I had never heard it before until my friend suggested it for me and when I saw it first time as a kid, I had to start collecting money for it right away.

Nicely done. Always great to see some love for Compile. Every play the Famicom version of Gun Nac? It has a different story and there are some enemies that were changed for the international release. As far as top 5 favorite NES games go, let me think... 5. Bionic Commando 4. Jackal 3. Life Force 2. Contra 1. Castlevania

Great video! This is the first time I've seen one of your videos and I had to subscribe immediately. Looking forward to going through your back catalog of videos! Mario 3 and Startropics are childhood favorites of mine. But I recently played Gun-Nac for the first time on my channel and fell in love with that game. I had never heard of it. It is such a fun game! I'm looking forward to playing The Guardian Legend and Felix the Cat for the first time on my show!

Very solid list! Great picks!

I love your reviews and videos! You always have something of value to share. I've been gaming as long as you have (judging by your stories) but i always get to learn new things about old games. Keep up the good work!!

blades of steel,battle toads, dd2, mike Tyson's punch out, tecmo super bowl.

These are all perfect choices. I'm a Sega Genesis man but I can appreciate the Nintendo & Super Nintendo.

One Up for StarTropics! In my top 5 as well. Had it as a kid and fell in love

That game collection in the background is insane!

Top 5 is tough. Mario 3, Batman, Cryatalis, Zelda 2, ninja gaiden 2... There's so many more though.

In no particular order: 1. The Legend of Zelda 2 Links Adventure 2. Mike Tysons Punch Out 3. Metroid 4. Donkey Kong 5. Mega Man 3

I love your top 5 list. It's refreshing to see some games on here that I wouldn't have expected to see. I respect that you tie your favorite choices into nostalgia as well as your personal enjoyment of the game and not just plunking the "usual suspects' down like many I've seen. I recently got Felix the Cat and I've got to say that this game is wonderful! Probably one of the best uses of a license in the lbrary. I would really to get my hands on a copy of Gun Nac as you make that one sound very interesting too. Thanks for sharing your list with us! Keep up the great work!

Very refreshing to see someone with such a unique list. Overall great video content and presented very well. Keep the videos coming!

I agree, Felix the Cat is a fantastic game. It really is one of the best titles on NES, as I heard from someone who knows a lot about games and I think it's true.

A new Guardian Legend would be great. I’m still surprised Nintendo hasn’t brought back StarTropics in recent years. My NES favorites are pretty common. Mega Man 2 Castlevania III Blaster Master Bionic Commando Legend of Zelda Some days might have me swap a couple out for Final Fantasy, SMB3, or Contra.

Found this channel trough RetroWare, cool list i barly knew any of those titels who are now having my interest. Thank you.

Forgot Felix was your favorite! Probably one of the first videos i watched from you. Congrats on one year with RU-vid!

Super Mario Bros (the first one),... i still remember the first day Ive got my Nintendo... It was my 6th birthday and my parents told me that they would give me my birthday present after my friends were gone :p I did enjoyed the party with my friends (a little ansious though) but when my friends went away BOOOM Nintendo entertiment system! we pluged it in and my parents allowed me to play untill late in the night, it was really awsome. Super Mario was my first game for the system, I also played a tone of chip n dale with a friend, as well as TNMT. Gun nac its also on my top 5 together with Tetris which I still play a tone of it untill today :D.

A top 5 is incredibly difficult for me but I'd say: Legacy of the Wizard, Guardian Legend, Ironsword, Zelda, and Metroid.

Also I loved this video. I love hearing people's fond nostalgic memories of their favorite NES games.

That startropics music is insanely catchy Gun Nac too. It’s probably the best shmup on the nes. That and crisis force are my faves

I can't make a top 5 in order but a few of the many games I really enjoyed were Track & Field II, Bionic Commando, Blaster Master, Little Nemo, & Gremlins. There are a hell of a lot more but that's because the NES was and still is awesome.

1.Mario 2. River City Ransom 3. Mike Tyson's punch out 4. Double Dragon 5. Tmnt Arcade version

Really awesome list you got there. Not really surprising if you go through the videos you have put out in the past, but still really enjoyed the video. Great stuff. :D

Good list! I love StarTropics and Gunnac

Good list ...Ninja Gaiden for me ...The music, cutscenes and controls

Excellent choices. I am still looking for Felix The Cat in my collection. Subbed!

Nice to see a top 5 list that has games that usually aren’t mentioned. My top 5 are : Mega Man 2, Blaster Master, Castlevania, Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, and TMNT (the first one).

My top NES games; Crystalis and Maniac Mansion are my two favorite NES game of all time. Got them both as a 12 year old during an extremely difficult time in my life when my brother moved back to Iowa to live with our Dad, I lived in Washington with my mom. And they'd been divorced since I was 6. At the end of that summer I returned to Washington from Iowa to a new small house in rural Washington in a different school district. I was ONE depressed kid. Very tough time for me. Those games saved me. I played them over and over again and what better two games with great replay value than those 2? Then in no particular order, tie between Bionic Commando, Metroid, Faxanadu, Castlevania 3, Blaster Master, Shadowgate, Mega Man 2.

You can absolutely be a spaceship when you grow up.

I just bought The Guardian Legend and love it!

You have exceptional taste! You had me at Guardian Legend and Star Tropics I have very much the same sentiment about the music of Star Tropics. In fact, I beat the game once a year just to hear that epic ending music! I also have a great memory of renting Felix from Blockbuster haha. It was actually a pretty decent game!

Thank you for sharing your Top 5 list! I love viewing videos like this because we all have different video game experiences and it's just fun to see how a fellow gamer feels about certain games. It's great to see some love for Felix the Cat because I too was one of those diehard NES fans who rented NES games well into the Super NES era. Like you said, Felix the Cat isn't a very difficult game but sometimes, it's nice to enjoy a fun, relaxing sort of game and not stress too much (like with, say...Battletoads...lol). I always enjoyed the music in Felix the Cat and it's just a super fun platformer. I have played the other games on your list as well and all of them are quite fun. I never was a big Guardian Legend fan but I understand why you love that game. Maybe the LONG password system frustrated me...ha, ha. And Gun Nac IS underrated. I totally agree on that point. My favorite shoot 'em up is still Life Force (I love Stinger too!) but Gun Nac is a solid one without a doubt. My personal Top 5 list would include Mega Man 2 & 3, Blaster Master, possibly SMB3, and then the #5 spot is a real toss 'em up. I'll just say Tecmo Super Bowl for the heck of it (subject to change of course).

Felix is awesome. You should try vice project doom if you haven't. I never played VPD as a kid but it quickly became my favorite NES title.

The woman in Guardian Legends preceded Michael Jackson turning into a ship by several years.

In case you don't know, you can play The Guardian Legend in shmup mode by entering the password TGL. You collect weapons and power ups by accumulating points. My top 5 nes games in terms of how much fun I have playing them are mostly games no one talks about. Minus one exception. Gun. Smoke, Palamedes, Sweet Home, Eliminator Boat Duel and The Guardian Legend.

Hey! I just found your channel and I'm really enjoying it so far. Keep up the great uploads! As for my list: 5. Mega Man 1 4. Startropics 3. Mother 2. Sweet Home 1. Mr. Gimmick!

Hands down my number 1 game is The Guardian Legend. Then i would have to say mario 3 would be 2nd. Rygar is also on there... but damn talk about a game thats a "don't turn your nes off or start over and burn out your system". Shadowsgate is another one i greatly enjoyed. Those are the ones i can think of right now. I still need to play Gun Nac since i am a guardian legend fan i've seen it and heard of it but never played it myself. Also since you are a Guardian Legend fan. Have you played around with the "Lost frontier". Where someone figured out how to crack the password system. You can put in a password and spawn in part of the game that are off the map or in the black areas of the map. A lot of glitchly rooms, monsters, weapons and such.

Mario 3 :) now you're talking my language! One of the best games ever. Period

Some really good games on show there. Nice review

5:33 im glad you cleared up the confusion by telling us that guy wasn't you. i was totally thinking it was!

I remember when Startropics came out. It looked cool but I never picked it up. Then about five years ago, I scored one complete in box (with the letter) at Half Price Books on the cheap, so I played it through. Great game, awesome music and the right amount of challenge. Nice selection.

1. Tecmo bowl 2. Castlevania 3. Double Dragon 4. 1942 5. Blades of Steel

Felix, Kirby, Star Tropics and Little Nemo were later NES games that made the system worth hanging onto

Great list, Pam! Star tropics and Super Mario 3 are some of my favorites as well. I've yet to play the other 3.

Yep, you had me at The Guardian Legend. One of my all time favorites for the NES; or any console. Beauty as well as good taste. There is such a thing as the perfect girl.

Oh, Yeah, Felix the Cat. Played and completed so many times. My friends and I used to compete with each other who will collect the most lives without dying in one playthrough. My record was 74) As for this top - great selection of games, love all of them except Startropics... Tried to play it several times, but just get bored really quickly. Though, it has nice music) My top 5 will probably be like this: 1 - Guardian legend 2 - Kyatto ninden teyandee (Famicom exclusive, based on anime series, outside of Japan its called Samurai pizza cats) 3 - Felix the Cat 4 - Ninja gaiden 3 5 - Rocking Kats

Great list. I knew one of the games here, and the rest look quite interesting. More games to try to find and play, always an adventure. I grew up on all the mario games, bubble bobble, snow bros, double dragons, marble madness, and dragon warrior 3. Of all the games I got to play at the time, those were the ones that stood out to me the most. A good competitive game can be nice, but I love coop games so much more. Solid video, thumbs up.

I didn't know you were a RU-vidr for so long. I really didn't look at your list of uploads till now. Some of these games I've never heard of before which is nice since a lot of lists seem to be about the same games over and over again.

My Top 5 from my childhood: TMNT: The Arcade Game Punch-out!! The Legend of Zelda Mega Man 2 Blaster Master :)

Castlevania Legend of Zelda Metroid Baseball stars Goonies 2 These could also easily be in my top 5 Mike Tyson’s punch out Rygar Contra Kung fu Blades of steel

I have never heard of gun noc or Felix the cat, but after this video I’m very excited to try them out. I love this channel, always offering nostalgia plus “new” experiences :).

guardian legend

Little nemo the dream master. Mega man 2 and Zelda 2 are high on my list

No particular order: Crystalis, Mario 3, Tiny Toons Adventures, Flintstones: Rescue of Dino and Hoppy, Double Dragon

Really good list. Guardian Legend has been in my top slot since 1994. The play is fun, but it is the mysterious world/atmosphere that still captures my imagination.

For the longest time, I'd wondered what it was about Mario 3 that people loved so much. Why not Super Mario World? I eventually realized something I'd never considered before: it was the warp whistles. Back in the day, you weren't going to finish Mario 3 in one sitting; you'd probably get somewhere around World 3 before you had to stop for one reason or another. The warp whistles gave you a way to see new worlds. Strange worlds. You'd wind up somewhere like 5-2, where you were trying to take the upper path, completely ate it, fell through what could best be described as plumbing purgatory, swam to the bottom of a pitch black pool, and fell out of a bright waterfall into an underground garden of equally bright green grass, blocks of rainbow ice, and weird beetle creatures that threw them at you. You'd pick a world, and because of the semi-nonlinear nature of the overworld map, you never really knew where you were going to end up; that sense of questioning whether that bizarre stage you discovered that one night was even real made the game feel absolutely huge, even endless. THAT is why the warp whistles were cool, though I do agree that eventually, it's best to see it all.

controversial opinion: 'Guardian Legend' was the strongest game on the nes.

5. Dragon Warrior 3 4. Castlevania 3 3. Zelda 2 2. Megaman 2 1. Final Fantasy

My top 5 NES games are: Final Mission, which was the first game I ever played. Dungeon Magic, for which I had a notebook full of symbol combinations for spells. Totally Rad, which is a silly concep that still makes me chuckle. Ninja Gaiden, which gave a great feeling of pride when I finally beat it. And Jackal, a game about four dudes on a Jeep that shoots rockets. Oh, the memories... :D And that poster behind you is so cool!

Great video, wow Guardian Legend mentioned in this clip. It’s a fun game and unfortunately it’s one I never finished. My games besides this one was Double Dragon II, Super Dodge Ball and Star Wars.

“Plus who doesn’t like to dress up like a tanooki” PETA

MIKE JOOONES!!

I agree totally about the 3 first games. Felix is on my to do list and Gunnac should probably be too. Heart good things about it lately

great list did not discover star tropics until recently after watching your review bought it and loved it want to get number 2 now but not sure 100% on it yet as they moved the 4 way axis

5. Dragon Spirit - The New Legend 4. Power Blade 3. Mega Man 3 2. Probotector 2 1. Shadowgate

Interesting list 👍🏼 Tecmo bowl, excite bike, rad racer, Metroid, and double dragon are my top 5

Just discovered your content from AVGN, amazing top 5 list! You sound Canadien btw & your commentary voice is greatly soothing. Keep up the sweet work!!!