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September 17th, 2018 
Carl Williams 
Call us nostalgic, but we think the 80s and 90s gave us some of the best video games ever! Yes, in those halcyon gaming days gone by, we would spend hours devoted to our consoles, developing RSI and carpal tunnel syndrome before we could even pronounce them. And who could forget the rivalry for our affections between the two Japanese gaming giants SEGA and Nintendo? Even though SEGA and its flagship character Sonic the Hedgehog will always have a place in our hearts, Nintendo gets our vote for the best gaming manufacturer of the 80s and 90s. And the following original Nintendo games are 10 reasons why!
- Blaster Master
Despite possessing one of the most bizarre narratives — the lead character, Jason, discovers a subterranean world through which he must pilot an armored tank called Sophia and battle with radioactive mutants to save his pet frog — this 1988 original featured some superb gameplay. One of several games on our list featuring a particularly noteworthy soundtrack, Blaster Master was a challenging shooter game that harkened back to Nintendo’s arcade days.
- Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!
This 1987 NES-only title was Nintendo’s console alternative to the Punch-Out!! arcade game and featured Tyson himself as the game boss. Why is it on our list? Put it this way, imagine that you’re 10-years-old and you get to tell your school friends that you beat up Mike Tyson last night!
- Casino Kid
In 2018, we have an array of casino-based platforms and games to amuse ourselves, and some even accept Bitcoin! But in the 80s, Casino Kid on the NES was the game to play to get your poker fix. Unlike other gambling games of the era, Casino Kid featured interactions between the titular character and patrons and dealers of the Golden Crumb, making it quite the pioneer back then.
- DuckTales
Who doesn’t remember being glued to the adventures of Donald Duck, Huey, Dewey, Louie and the fantastically rich Uncle Scrooge McDuck in the late 80s? NES’s 1989 Duck Tales brought our favorite characters to video gaming in the form of a well-made platformer, which also featured one of the most iconic music soundtracks of the 8-bit generation.
- Top Gun
First released in 1987 on the NES, Top Gun was a flight simulator based on one of the coolest movies of the decade that you could play on your home console. Enough said!
- Mega Man 2
Despite the first Mega Man game’s lack of success, Capcom still went ahead and developed a follow-up. And thank the gaming gods that they did! Indeed, 1989’s Mega Man 2 was the superhero platformer that we all needed, with its souped-up game mechanics, graphics and audio. It even featured a password system so that we could virtually save our progress — talk about ahead of its time!
- Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse
Despite being the third installment in the series and a prequel, 1990’s Dracula’s Curse felt more like a follow-up to the original than Castlevania II. This time around, players could choose between going through the game as vampire hunter Trevor Belmont (an ancestor of Castlevania’s Simon) or switching for one of the other supporting characters, including Alucard, the half-vamp son of Dracula. Interestingly, a movie inspired by Dracula’s Curse has been in and out of production since 2005.
3. Final Fantasy
This RPG did pave the way for an entire genre back in 1990. However, it was designer Hironobu Sakaguchi’s last chance to create a commercial success — hence the name. Ramping up the design mechanics displayed in the NES Dragon Warrior series, Final Fantasy featured a superior storyline and created a franchise that continues to dominate the gaming world almost three decades later.
- Super Mario Bros.
Released in 1985, this platformer…oh, come one! Do we need to point out to you why this beauty is on our list? Even though it hasn’t quite made it to number one (for reasons we’ll explain), Super Mario Bros. is one of the most revolutionary video games ever.
First included with the Nintendo Entertainment System, from the offset, players couldn’t resist its invigorating take on side scrollers. Technically a follow-up to the original platform game Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. was nothing like its predecessor. It was the first game of its kind to appeal to everybody. It’s simple game mechanics made it accessible to every generation of game player, but it was challenging enough to keep you hooked as you raced through those eight levels to overcome the evil Bowser and rescue the Princess Toadstool!
- The Legend of Zelda
In 1987, the Legend of Zelda was the first game cartridge to come with batteries for storing save data. Fascinating, no? But that’s not why Zelda topped our list. It was the first NES game we played that fully captured our imaginations and kept us engaged time and time again.
Played in a top-down view, Zelda follows the story of Link, an unsuspecting hero who was charged with freeing the titular Princess from the clutches of the Demon King Ganon. To defeat the Gerudo Demon, Link needs to find all the pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom, a sacred relic that was shattered and hidden in dungeons across the mythical land of Hyrule.
Even today, its gameplay and screen design — as you moved out of each screen the game would pause and slide the next screen into view — still stands against the test of time. However, what makes Zelda such a brilliant game is that players are encouraged to explore the full world — pushing rocks, burning down bushes, blasting through walls with bombs, etc. — and it’s full of little discoveries.
This level of engagement with the game was a key goal of designer Shigeru Miyamoto. When designing The Legend of Zelda, he wanted to ignite that childhood sense of wonder he felt exploring Kyoto in Japan. As a result, he created one of our favorite console games and quite possibly, the best original game that Nintendo released during its glory days.
So, there you have it, 10 of the best Nintendo originals released back in the 80s and 90s. We had a hard time narrowing them down, but each of our choices represents the best of its genre as well as the creators behind them.
Feature image credit – Photo by Unknown / Public Domain
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