Sega's 3D Classics: making old games stand out

by JC Fletcher

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I never really thought much about Space Harrier. I like vintage Sega just fine, I just never spent much time with that particular game for whatever reason. Then I read this interview with M2, who ported it and the rest of the Sega 3D Classics line to 3DS, and I resolved to buy 3D Space Harrier as soon as it was released.

M2's obsessive love of Space Harrier, evident in the overwhelming, comical level of detail applied to the port, was the most ringing endorsement possible. The care put into the port made me care more about the game, showing the persuasive power of a truly bespoke adaptation. And by giving me cause to reevaluate Space Harrier, Sega's 3D Classics line allowed me to see just how well it holds up. 

Space Harrier is vibrant in that classic Sega arcade way. Your character moves around the screen at insane speeds, while rocks, fireballs, moai heads, and serpentine dragons fly straight at him (and at you). The way enemies enter the screen in dance-like patterns suggests a classic shooter like Galaxian or Galaga, but with the speed turned way up and the perspective shifted, lending it the intensity of a modern shmup. Bright colors and fun, quirky text ("Many more battle scenes will soon be available!" the game says when you die) add to the idiosyncratic appeal.

M2's presentation takes a game that could only have been made by 1980s Sega and makes it feel modern in all the best ways. There's nothing retro about a 60FPS shooter on a handheld, especially one that displays in 3D. Optional settings go even further to make the 3DS version unique, with always-on (yet totally optional) touch controls, screen size settings to emulate arcade monitors or enable more modern widescreen, and even a mode that tilts the whole display to simulate the motion of a motorized arcade machine ... complete with motor and button noises recorded from a real Space Harrier cabinet.

Read full article :Joystiq

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Battlefield 4 review: Corralling chaos

Battlefield 4 drops players into a sandbox and unhooks all tethers, loosing scores of soldiers to squad up and take down the opposition however they choose. The series' trademark, free-form multiplayer is reinforced with some smart albeit incremental upgrades, giving players even more incentive to work together. That in itself isn't terribly surprising; multiplayer has always been Battlefield's bread and butter.

What is surprising is that developer DICE has crafted a competent campaign to go along with it.


Battlefield 3's campaign highlighted rote shooting and a generic story punctuated by soldiers whose zest for combat was equaled only by their lust for profanity. Battlefield 4's campaign attempts to present a more relatable story of a squad perpetually stuck between a brilliantly-rendered rock and a slow-motion explosion. The campaign centers around Admiral Chang, an absentee villain in the midst of inciting a civil war in China. Chang convinces the military that Jin Jie, a local politician advocating peace and free speech, was killed by the United States. Chang enlists Russia's aid in his coup and the makings of a modern military drama are born.

Call of Duty's influence on Battlefield 4's campaign is palpable. The campaign is a string of fantastic scenarios from one moment to the next. The five-hour jaunt sees you narrowly escaping death while falling through a collapsing building, surviving an EMP blast in downtown Shanghai, downing enemy fighter planes in a vicious dogfight and hitching a ride on a plane via a skyhook. There's even one especially explosion-fueled moment when you climb a massive dam, lace it with C4 and bring the whole thing crumbling down.

The campaign never languishes and offers a few surprises. While it's odd that you never come face-to-face with Chang or have a big climactic showdown, the majority of the campaign's scenarios and narrative provide a thoroughly enthusiastic adventure that makes up for Battlefield 3's lackluster single-player.

As dizzying and volatile as Battlefield 4's campaign is, there are a few rough edges. The constant waves of enemy AI flushed into the various sandbox encounters are entirely scripted, and their ability to avoid your crosshairs leaves a lot to be desired. Thankfully the addition of a light tactical layer, which allows you to order your squad to suppress and engage individual targets, opens up flanking opportunities and provides just enoughvariety to these scripted sequences. Unfortunately, the distance between checkpoints in some of the larger skirmishes can become a problem in later levels full of enemy vehicles.

Even with these flaws, Battlefield 4's campaign manages to be far more entertaining thanBattlefield 3's bland military affair, and it's clear that DICE learned has learned a lesson or two since 2011.

Multiplayer, unsurprisingly, remains the main draw, presenting a new iteration of DICE's large-scale combat anchored by incremental improvements focused on better squad play. Players assume one of four classes and battle across ten maps, each tailoring itself to the specific mode being played. For example, Hainan Resort, a map composed of a series of tropical islands, will only open up a portion of itself for matches of Squad Deathmatch or Domination, but all of its many islands are utilized when playing Conquest and its 64-player PC variant, Conquest Large.

One of the more obvious changes is that squads can now accommodate five members instead of four. More important to fostering team tactics is the new Field Upgrade system. Each class has a handful of Field Upgrades they can choose from. During any given match, as you perform actions within the squad – things like giving your buddies ammo or reviving fallen squadmates – you'll climb the Field Upgrade ladder and unlock four different skills catering to a certain play style.

For example, as a match progresses and more squad actions are completed, the Engineer's Anti-Tank tier will unlock additional mines and rockets while reducing explosive damage taken. The Combat Medic upgrade path increases sprint speed, decreases Defibrilator charge time and even unlocks a skill that allows friendly vehicles to heal nearby comrades. It's not a revolutionary system, but it's enough to emphasize teamwork and add a new wrinkle to an already strong multiplayer suite.

The many multiplayer modes of Battlefield 4, which include returning favorites like the flag-capturing Conquest and asymmetrical attack mode Rush, are headlined by Obliteration. This new mode has two teams duke it out over a bomb and attempt to deliver it to one of a handful of objectives. Once the enemy team's objectives have all been destroyed, victory is achieved.

Obliteration feels like an intense tug-of war. The bomb is dropped into the middle of the map and only through concerted and coordinated effort can its explosive payload be delivered. The downside is that one of my many matches resulted in a forty-minute stalemate, with both teams pushing the bomb toward each others' base only to have it repelled right back. At launch, it's impossible to impose a time restriction on Obliteration. Still, when playing with a coordinated team, Obliteration offers an intense ebb and flow that's fresh to the series.

Battlefield 4 also marks the return of Commander mode, a top-down RTS-light variant, where players who have reached the rank of 10 can aid their team through weapon and vehicle drops, EMP blasts that disrupt enemy radar and cruise missile strikes that will level anything caught in the blast zone. Commander mode has been absent in recent Battlefield games, and it's a welcomed addition here. Commanders can put in work either throughBattlefield 4 proper or via a tablet app – the latter being an especially intuitive way to order squads toward attack points thanks to a simple touch-and-drag control setup.

The final leg of multiplayer is EA's cringe-worthy buzzword, Levelution. Put simply, all maps have some kind of interesting and exploitable environmental hazard. In Siege of Shanghai, a skyscraper can be toppled; in Paracel Storm, a chain of tropical islands, a storm rolls in and a large military ship crashes onto the shore. Flood Zone features a levee that, once destroyed, floods the entire war zone and pushes infantry toward the rooftops of the sprawling downtown locale.

Levelution often feels more like window dressing than an impactful mechanic, and it works better in some levels than it does in others. The events in Flood Zone and Siege of Shanghai, for example dramatically affect the dynamics of play. When Flood Zone's levee breaks and drowns the city, soldiers are forced to swim on the ground level, making them vulnerable to fire from the rooftops. Bringing down the skyscraper in Siege of Shanghai hampers visibility with a thick coating of dust in the air. Meanwhile, there are weaker interactive elements like scattered IEDs players can trigger in Golmud Railway, or a semi-collapsible hotel in Hainan Resort. It's impressive to watch the US destroyer slam into the shore in Paracel Storm, but it doesn't really do much to change gameplay.

Levelution aside, each of Battlefield 4's ten levels feel massive - especially on PC. Not only are these maps truly beautiful – Battlefield 4 has some of the best lighting I've ever seen – but they're also far more destructible than the war zones of Battlefield 3. Taking part in a 64-player match across the sprawling Hainan Resort, watching jets strafe and battle in the skies while boats assault beaches and tanks level condos is awe-inspiring.

Sadly, the same can't be said for the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, which limit maps to 24 players each. Playing a match of Conquest often feels like a traipse through a ghost town in search of the next guy to shoot. The current-generation console versions of Battlefield 4 are also hampered by short draw distance, texture pop-in and a 30 frames-per-second presentation. Between the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, the latter suffered from a much more sluggish frame rate and even some animations like reloading were inconsistent. The game would recognize I reloaded by placing a new clip in my gun but my soldier didn't go through the motions. The Xbox 360 and PS3 offerings maintain the solid core gameplay of Battlefield 4, but the gap between PC and current-gen consoles is definitely starting to show.

Ultimately, Battlefield 4 successfully piles more content onto its excellent multiplayer while adding just a hint of innovation through Commander mode and Field Upgrades. The single-player campaign, while suffering from a dearth of checkpoints in some missions, does a good job of entertaining throughout its brief conflict, trading in the abysmal dreck that was Battlefield 3's story for high-energy spectacle.

The main draw for the Battlefield series has always been the chaotic camaraderie of its multiplayer, and that's no different here. But the sum of Battlefield 4's parts shows that DICE is capable of more. Not only has the developer iterated on and progressed its marquee multiplayer, it's provided a tight and cohesive campaign that is everything a military shooter needs to be.

via Joystiq

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Sonic: Lost World review: An unfortunate discovery (3DS)

Anticipating a Sonic game is like playing an inverted version of Russian Roulette. The encouraging trailer serves as the single vacant chamber, while the memories of Sonic's most disappointing outings haunt those that remain. 2010's Sonic Colors was a surprise victory, managing to marry some enjoyable new mechanics with Sonic's speedy heritage.

Initially, the 3DS version of Sonic: Lost World felt like another impending miracle, but it seems that Sonic's recent success has come to its end. Lost World follows Sonic's venture through seven themed areas in an effort to stop Robotnik and The Deadly Six from draining the energy from the world. Clearing levels requires you to successfully navigate platforms, grind-rails and twisting tunnels, all while smashing robots with Sonic's spindash attacks and collecting as many rings as possible.




Lost World mixes classic with vivid and inspired landscapes, upholding each world's themed direction well enough to keep the scenery interesting. Sky Road's sunny opening fades into casino-themed trails of nightlife, and the botanically oriented opening to Silent Forest concludes with a moonlit evasion of spotlights. The frame rate is generally up to the action, but getting hit while carrying anything more than 30 rings drops it to something resembling a flip book with a few pages missing. The cutscenes also seem pixelated and blurry, even without the 3D effect turned on.

Both 3D and 2D levels exist in Lost World and encompass the majority of the series' notable modern mechanics, including spindash attacks, running across walls and bumpers that propel Sonic onto new paths. It also grants an encore to the Wisp creatures that were introduced in Colors. Wisps can be collected from capsules and deployed as a sort of powerup - the Asteroid Wisp collects enemies and platforms into an asteroid belt and grants a floaty second jump, for example.

Although its bag of tricks is gradually implemented and occasionally interesting, many of them feel like speed traps rather than satisfying additions. I have never wished to see complex, multi-chamber switch puzzles or blockades requiring specific bodycounts to proceed in a Sonic game, and Lost World has ensured that I never will.

What's conceptually sound isn't always reliable, either. The established lock-on system used to dash into enemies with homing attacks often dropped me right in front of a monster without actually dealing damage, typically resulting in an injured Sonic and an explosion of rings. Larger foes call for a charged homing attack, which boils down to dodging other obstacles while waiting for the reticle to triple-target enemies that often block Sonic's progress through a level. The same attack can be used for targeting chains of lesser foes, too, but its choice of subjects is often astounding. I burnt many lives trying to kill a single enemy in front of me and instead rocketing after something behind the camera or sailing over a chasm toward something I had no intention of targeting.

After consecutive failed attempts, Lost World spawns a capsule containing an RC unit meant to assist with clearing a difficult section, sort of like Nintendo's Super guide. Barreling down on a pack of monsters with a toy plane in tow that's furiously coating everything in sight with missiles is immensely gratifying, but it often feels more like a solution to the broken attack mechanics than an optional aide to frustrated players. Additional RC units, along with boost items like 1-ups and auras for Sonic that act like shields or magnets for rings, can be built in Tails' workshop using elemental resources that are awarded with the completion of each level.

The series' fondness for weaving alternate paths for players to explore in future plays is present in Lost World, but the pathways merge sloppily and result in confusing mazes. I frequently backtracked through passages that I thought were ultimately leading me to a level's conclusion, only to find a bumper or speed strip encouraging progress in the direction I had just come from. Aside from the detours, the main paths suffer from the unfortunately established tradition of punishing Sonic's speed with spikes and enemies that can't be anticipated, and can only be avoided after an initial failure. Worst of all, the sections that require Sonic to smash all of its resident baddies are unavoidable, reducing portions of stages into tired button mashing until everything is dead.

There are reasons to return to previously completed levels - each stage contains five hidden red star rings, many of which are fairly difficult to find. Wisp capsules also appear in levels preceding their introduction in the game, encouraging fresh attempts in an effort to see areas that weren't immediately accessible. There are even hidden stages, which thankfully are not limited to the special world that's entirely comprised of gyro-controlled Chaos Emerald levels in space. These gyro levels fail to captivate, but the hidden levels that offer alternate, resource-stripped versions of the game's main levels offer an additional challenge. However, the fatigue inspired by persevering over the main game's downfalls doesn't leave much of a desire for more.

The most frustrating thing about Lost World is that it's not consistently miserable. There are brief sections that feel competent and structured around the game's mechanics - Sparsely placed lines of enemies that immediately work with the homing attack and serve as bridges to platforms, or stretches of ramps and rails that encourage you to run as fast as possible without hiding a "gotcha" enemy at the end to knock the rings out of you. However, these are abruptly and frequently interrupted by grating mechanics or an unwarranted "strike" from an idling enemy. Every fresh realization of an impending puzzle inspired a sigh, and I laughed in disbelief at sudden threats that the immediate surroundings encouraged me to run blindly towards.

I'm tired of resorting to the one-ring trick to survive the broken mechanics and blind hazards of a Sonic game. I want to feel satisfaction from besting a stage full of thought-out pathways and platforming opportunities, or at least survive a level without an event that makes me question its structural integrity. Unfortunately, Lost World tries to pack in so many mechanics that it suffocates the rapid-fire platforming segments, which are breathless when all the mechanics are suited to Sonic.

Via Joystiq

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Top 10 Worst Video Game Transitions to the 3D World

When video games went from two-dimensional sprites to three-dimensional polygons, the potential for unique experiences increased exponentially. But not every classic franchise successfully made the jump to the third dimension. Perhaps the amount of creativity needed to completely re-envision a world may have been too much for some development teams, or perhaps the companies didn't want to bother investing the time and money necessary for the great polygonal leap. For every Super Mario 64 or Final Fantasy VII, we got plenty of three-dimensional flops like these...

10. Street Fighter EX (Arcade / PS1)

Street Fighter fared much better than Final Fight in the jump to 3D, but its transition wouldn't be quick or painless. After Street Fighter 2 and its various iterations, we saw two more 2D generations of the series —Alpha and Street Fighter 3— and the 3D spin-off, EX. While the Street Fighter EX games weren't bad, they fell short of the standards set by their 2D predecessors / competition. The graphics and gameplay didn't feel as fast or fluid as the sprites of Street Fighter Alpha, and the new characters would all be fated to fade into obscurity. It wouldn't be until Street Fighter IV that we'd see the original world warrior tournament fighter adapted successfully to 3D, when the technology was available to capture the franchise's pace with detailed, fluidly animated 3D models.

9. Castlevania 64 (N64)

Castlevania has always had a hard time moving to 3D, and this is severely exacerbated by the superb 2DSymphony of the Night. All Castlevania games since have failed to get out from under that title's shadow, but some of the 3D attempts have been better than others. The others, of course, are the N64 titles, which were marred by floaty controls and a frustrating camera. The games weren't terrible, but the discrepancy between the decent 3D versions and the absolutely stellar progression of the 2D series kept them from being more than footnotes in video game history.

8. Dawn of Mana (PS2)

Like Castlevania, Square Enix's Mana series (a.k.a. Seiken Densetsu in Japanese markets) has spent most of its existence in one game's shadow, in this case Secret of Mana for the Super Nintendo. While there were plenty of good Castlevania games released before and since that PS1 classic, almost all of the otherMana games have received mixed reviews at best. A particularly bad example is Dawn of Mana, released near the end of the PS2's life cycle. Though the graphics were beautiful and stylish, the game itself turned out to be a tedious trek through awkward camera angles and frustrating controls. The Action-RPG approach of previous titles was removed, and the game instead played like a mediocre platformer. As the PS2 was already on its way out by that point, one must wonder why Square Enix even bothered with Dawn of Mana.

7. Mega Man X7 (PS2)

When Sony wanted a 3D Mega Man game for the original PlayStation, Capcom gave them Mega Man Legends. It was a fun, colorful action-adventure gem that impressed critics; however, it was a Mega Mangame by name alone, with a completely new universe and cast. Capcom tried to remedy this with Mega Man X7 for the PS2; however, "tried" is about as charitable a term as one can give this game. Not only was Mega Man X7 a hot mess of bad camera angles, finicky controls, and thoroughly pathetic bosses ("Tornado Tonion"? Really?), but it again kept fans from playing as Mega Man X, as he had to be unlocked via rescuing enough hostages. Players instead had to start by controlling second banana Zero and new character Axl, an obnoxious little punk who immediately drew fans' ire. All of this led to Mega Man X8 going back to a classic 2D side-scrolling approach, but by then the series lost all of its momentum.

6. C: The Contra Adventure (PS1)

For fans of hardcore 2D action, there are few better choices than Contra, the first name in absurdly difficult side-scrolling shooters. The series hit its peak with Contra 3: The Alien Wars for the Super Nintendo, but that peak turned out to be a jump over a shark. The PS1 Contra games were almost universally reviled due to their glitchy, clunky controls and uninspired level design. Contra may have been difficult, but that difficulty was due to the deftly programmed challenge level, not a staggering amount of unfair glitches. C: The Contra Adventure (and Contra: Legacy of War before it) was only so hard because it was frustrating and unfun.

5. Golden Axe: Beast Rider (PS3 / Xbox 360)

SEGA's beloved Genesis beat-em-up took a long time to see a next-gen release, and despite the obvious attempts at sex appeal with Amazonian protagonist Tyris Flare, the result wasn't pretty. Golden Axe: Beast Rider was a mediocre copy of God of War, with production values well below the industry standard. Worse yet, the game was single-player only, stripping it of the co-op multiplayer that made the original games so memorable. Without the ability to play with a friend, the brainlessness of the game was exposed for players to see, and no amount of nostalgia could keep players interested in this over the many other fantasy beat-em-up God of War clones on the market (including, of course, God of Waritself).

4. Earthworm Jim 3D (N64 / PC)

This title is an example of how extended development cycles can ruin video games. Earthworm Jim 3Dstarted development in 1996, but its progress was stalled when the original developer was swallowed up by Interplay. During that time, several of the staff got reassigned to other projects, the direction of the new Jim game changed repeatedly, and creator Doug TenNapel was inexplicably dismissed from the project. By the time Earthworm Jim 3D finally saw release, it was three years later, and the final product still felt sloppy and incomplete. The franchise went back to 2D in its next installment, but the charm instilled by the original team was gone, and Earthworm Jim remains, well, worm food.

3. Sonic the Hedgehog - 2006 (PS3 / Xbox 360)

Sonic is widely regarded as the poster boy for bad 3D translations, but up until the 2006 HD game, none of the 3D Sonics were universally loathed. The Sonic Adventure titles may not have aged well, but they were strongly regarded when they released. The same cannot be said for Sonic 2006. The rampant glitches, frustrating difficulty, and amateurishly long load times could potentially be forgiven. The awful and overwrought story, complete with a disturbing romance between the cartoon hedgehog and a realistic-looking girl, cannot. Sonic 2006 remains infamous as one of the most embarrassing and half-assed releases from a respectable video game company.

2. Final Fight: Streetwise (PS2 / Xbox)

Final Fight was never one of the greatest games ever made, but it at least offered some brainless beat-em-up fun. However, all of the endearing qualities of the old arcade game were sucked out of this console remake. The story took itself far too seriously for a franchise about beating up drag queens, 80s wrestlers, and other hoodlums, while the attempts at a robust upgrade system did nothing to alleviate the repetitiveness. Final Fight: Streetwise's programming was fundamentally broken and buried the Final Fight franchise in a sinkhole of adolescent swearing and gloomy "next-gen" brown tones.

1. Bubsy 3D (PlayStation)

The 16-bit Bubsy games may have been forgotten amidst the surge of other mascot-with-attitude platform games, but they were hardly bad games. With their humorous design and intense level of challenge, Accolade's bobcat games didn't deserve their premature death. However, Bubsy 3D killed the franchise like a wild animal run over by a speeding truck. With its clunky controls and crude visuals, Bubsy 3D became one of the worst reviewed games in industry history, and it retroactively tainted the poor anthropomorphic bobcat's legacy.

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Best Sports Video Games, EVER

#15 EA Skate

Without a doubt, EA's "Skate" revolutionized skateboarding video games because it added unchartered levels of realism and made gamers use the joystick. With a roster full of indie skaters, an outstanding soundtrack and numerous custom options, it quickly killed off the once heralded "Tony Hawk" franchise.

#14 Gran Turismo III

If you and your friends didn't jump with glee with the release of "Gran Turismo III", your childhood may have been mediocre. The new installment was the most anticipated Sony Playstation game at the time and with unbelievable graphics and originality, it delivered and blew everyone away. It goes without saying, this game ushered in gaming's "cool" era. Which of course was much trendier than its dorky-parents-basement-era.

#13 Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr.

Not only was it one of the best N64 games ever made, it was one of the best baseball games ever created. The video game title all started with the Nintendo release and then ballooned into the most popular MLB video game of our generation. Needless to say the graphics got a boost as well.

                        

#12 Mario Tennis 64

Well equipped with power-ups and all the popular characters from the "Mario Kart" series, N64's "Mario Tennis" was the first game that saw the beloved Nintendo icons jump to sports. It wasn't short on challenges such as unlocking characters and courts, to this day it still remains one of the most difficult games ever.

#11 NHL 94

Ask any NHL fan and they'll tell you - "NHL 94" set the standard for nearly two decades of hockey from Electronic Arts. Though minimalist in design, the hockey title thrived on fast and furious gameplay which more than made up for the "humble" graphic quality. It's was one of the first games that let you beat up on opposing players, outside of battle games of course.

#10 Fight Night Round 3

Boxing always had a tough time making a serious impact on the video game industry but luckily Microsoft decided to pair its latest venture - the Xbox 360 - with "Fight Night Round 3". That changed everything with joystick controls, authentic animations and EA's coveted GameFace feature. Good job Microsoft, you changed the game, literally.

#9 Backyard Sports Series

While it notoriously difficult for sports games to acquire licenses of professional leagues, the "Backyard Sports" series went with its own fictional characters while including youthful impersonations of all-star athletes. For most kids, it reinvented the sand lot. For the rest of us, it was a bit creepy. Don't they sorta look like Arnold?

#8 NBA Jam

Ever wondered where you got the phrase "Boomshakalaka!" from? "NBA Jam" of course! The arcade-style sports game spawned numerous sequels and cross-overs after its original release and all because it featured the kind of gravity-defying jumps and fireball dunks most of us only see during the dunk contest.

#7 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2

The original title made the world of skateboarding a little challenging with multiple tasks, but the sequel introduced a career mode and the "Create-A-Skater" and "Create-A-Park" features. It also boasted a massive soundtrack with Bad Religion, Rage Against The Machine and Naughty By Nature.

#6 MVP Baseball 2005

"MVP Baseball 2005" had everything. It had Manny Ramirez on the cover, it presented a more in-depth minor league system and even gave its "Owner Mode" a little shimmer and shine. Arguably, it was the best (and last) baseball game EA Sports ever made.

#5 Madden 2006

"Madden 2004" gets some credit for being revolutionary but the 06 take was an illustrious depiction of football. Along with introducing the "Truck Stick", the title brought forward "Superstar Mode", which allowed gamers to create their own prospect and guide them through a realistic career. From high school recruit to draft day.

#4 Tecmo Super Bowl

The difference between it and "Madden 2013" is actually tremendous but that hasn't stopped the 1991 title from letting gamers engage with a realistic season schedule. It's become so addicting that a "Tecmo Super Bowl 2012" mod showed up on the Internet last year. We sense another cult favorite in the making.

#3 NBA 2K11

Believe it or not, NBA 2K11 sold more than 5.5 million units in its first year thanks to critic and user reviews that cemented it as the best basketball game ever created. Improved graphics, mechanical gameplay and a cover featuring "His Airness" Michael Jordan was a trifecta in itself.

#2 Punch-Out!!!

It may not have been a very realistic interpretation of boxing, but "Punch-Out!!!" delivered hooks and body blows with a unique blend of characters. But most importantly, the Nintendo classic also increased Mike Tyson's cultural influence and became a cult favourite in the 1990s'. Oh Mike. . .

#1 FIFA 10

After more than a decade, the FIFA series took an unbelievable jump with FIFA 10 in 2009, improving gameplay and updating "Virtual Pro" and "Manager Mode". Focusing on realistic enhancements, the installment helped push the series to what it is now, the most realistic sports game on the planet.

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Best NES Video Games Of All Time

#15 Duck Hunt (1984)

The orange gun. The flying ducks. The annoying dog that was terrible at hunting and always laughed at you when you had a bad day. All of these features made Duck Hunt an unforgettable game and a timeless childhood classic that most of us will never forget.

#14 Punch-Out!! (1987)

While it moved on to be a successful spin-off (see Mike Tyson's version) and a sequel on the Super Nintendo platform, this classic game was an introduction to fighting platforms that also introduced memorable characters and bosses that seemed almost impossible to defeat.

#13 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time (1991)

Also known as an arcade hit, this installment involving the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is one of the best side-scrolling action games to date as the difficulty was adaptable and the gameplay was phenomonal for it's time. Plus it made us say "cowabunga" a lot.

#12 Ninja Gaiden 2: The Dark Sword Of Chaos (1990)

If you were into ninjas and throwing stars as a young kid, chances are you were into Ninja Gaiden. The series took off as soon as it was released but the most memorable installment was the second game in the franchise featured slicker controls and graphics which made Ryu's hacking and slashing way more fun.

#11 Tecmo Super Bowl (1991)

NFL games always had a hard time being enjoyable before the Madden series arrived but Tecmo Super Bowl was an instant hit the moment it shipped out to homes across North America. The only real drawback were the uniforms, like which team actually wore pink and white in the 90s'?

#10 Dr. Mario (1990)

Along with Tetris, Dr. Mario was one of the first original puzzle games that everyone knew and loved. The only problem was, most kids didn't know how to play it and were left frustrated by it's difficulty for years, and years, and years.

#9 Contra (1987)

Though Contra never really lived up to it's name after it's third version on the Super Nintendo, the original for NES set the bar for side-scrolling shooters. Collecting lives and different weapons became important and it took a unique level of skill (and a high amount of sugar) to beat levels without dying.

#8 Excitebike (1985)

Compare it to it's Nintendo 64 brother and the original 8-bit version of Excitebike wins by a landslide. The game was intuitive and addicting as it was always a competition to beat a friend's score. That is until the scores were magically erased.

#7 Double Dragon (1987)

Billy and Jimmy spawned numerous sequels and cross-overs throughout the 1990s' but nothing was more memorable than the duo's first installment for the NES that was a lengthy classic in itself. Instead of simple one-punch/kick action moves, combos were also made and those made the minds of 8-year-olds literally explode.

#6 Final Fantasy (1987)

The first edition of Final Fantasy was the game that made nerds. It created and defined the RPG genre which later led into dozens of spin-offs and other platform action puzzles like Pokemon, Kingdom Hearts and even Super Mario RPG that added a spin to the Nintendo world.

#5 Nintendo World Cup (1990)

Again, sports games were rather difficult in the NES days as graphics weren't as smooth and controls were clunky but Nintendo's first take on soccer was fantastic. Right down to the icy fields and concrete playgrounds to the players "dying" after taking too many tackles, Nintendo World Cup was addicting.

#4 Mega Man 2 (1988)

A tiny teenager with in a blue costume/helmet who could shoot lasers? WHAT? Add in simple controls, great NES music and innovative levels and Mega Man 2 still holds up as one of the best classic games out there for the Nintendo console.

#3 Battletoads (1991)

Though the Ninja Turtles were cool, Battletoads were a lot more rad. The characters - frogs and toads that wore spikes and grew giant hands and feet to destroy enemies - were way too cool to begin with but it didn't eliminate the fact that the game was ridiculously hard. Most will agree, not many made it past the second level.

#2 The Legend Of Zelda (1986)

It's hard to imagine a game like Ocarina Of Time could derive from an 8-bit NES cartridge but the first game in the series had everyone and their parents hooked on Link and his mission to rescue Zelda. It was fantasy/RPG at it's finest (no one to this day knows what those orange creatures are).

#1 Super Mario Bros. (1985)

It was the game that started it all. Looking back, the graphics weren't impressive but the idea of touching flowers and throwing fireballs at enemies was enough to keep kids hooked. Plus all of the secret passages to get to tunnels to skip levels was helpful but mostly really cool. It also spawned Super Mario Bros. 2 and 3 where both sequels topped each other with several innovations.

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