Amazing NES Titles We Wish Were On The NES Classic Edition
It's not clear why Nintendo decided to release only 30 games on their newly-released NES Classic Edition. If they chose to, they could've put every single NES game on the system without compromising much memory, but they settled on only 30. They chose some amazing games, but the list seems to be lacking — where are the amazing titles that should have been included? Where is ...
Contra
Contra was one of the most popular side-scroller titles for the NES, and even people who never played it know of the famous Konami Code, which granted 30 additional lives when entered during the opening title screen. And yet, where is it? To be fair, the Classic does have the sequel, Super C, but when you compare the popularity between the titles, there's no contest.
You can't even use the Konami Code, though there's a different code that accomplishes the same thing. Still, it's just not as good a title as Contra, which ranks much higher on GameFAQ's list of the top 100 NES games of all time (Contra ranks sixth, Super C doesn't rank at all). That isn't to say Super C isn't a good game — it is. It just doesn't stand up to its predecessor, which should really have taken its place on the NES Classic.
DuckTales
It's possible the developers of the Classic decided to keep this amazing game off their console because the cartoon hasn't been on the air in a long time. If that's their reason, they should have consulted with Disney, since they're currently working on a reboot starring David Tennant, Kate Micucci, and Ben Schwartz, set to hit the airwaves in 2017.
Whether or not the content's topical, the gameplay of DuckTales was amazing, and not just for the time it was released — the game is still a lot of fun to play. It became Capcom's best-selling title for the NES, as did its GameBoy port. The gameplay was non-linear and told a coherent story throughout play. Players would take control of Scrooge McDuck and travel across the globe on a mission to collect treasure, while outwitting the main antagonist, Flinthart Glomgold.
Development for the game was handled by many of the people responsible for Mega Man, which certainly helped to increase Ducktales' playability. While PS3 players got a more-than-acceptable updated version for their system, it's unfortunate that the original wasn't also included on the Classic, as a new generation of non-Sony gamers should definitely have the opportunity to tackle this amazing title.
A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia
A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia was one of the NES's most innovative puzzle platformers, revolving around a young, unnamed boy and his — you guessed it — blob. When he feeds different jelly beans to the blob, it reshapes itself into different tools to help the player cross obstacles and traverse puzzles. The gameplay was incredibly innovative for the time, and created an immersive world.
There were 14 jelly beans the player could feed his blob — the developers clearly had fun naming them, so young players could remember which bean did what. The bean that turned Blobert (Yes, that was the blob's actual name) into a hole was called the Hole Punch, while the bean that helps Blobert catch up to the player was flavored after ketchup. Get it? Catch up? Ketchup? Yeah? YEAH? OK, '90's puns may not have been the best, but they did make it easier to navigate the game, especially for the younger audience.
This was definitely one of those games that you either loved or hated. Most players who would pick up the NES Classic would likely find the nostalgia of playing A Boy and his Blob a great deal of fun, but it might not encourage young players like it did in 1990 when it was released. The game isn't as innovative as they once were — it was ahead of its time, and now time has caught up — so the folks who might enjoy this game probably already liked it back in the day. Of course, that would be perfect, since the NES Classic is all about nostalgia.
Mega Man 3
The NES Classic does feature a port of Mega Man 2 on the console, but has left off Mega Man and Mega Man 3. This makes little sense because Mega Man 3, moreso than its predecessors, truly revolutionized the series.
The most important aspect of Mega Man 3, more than awesome robots like Snake Man, was its development of a canonical world not found on its predecessors. In many ways, Mega Man 3 established the core storyline that subsequent games, comics, and even television shows built from. With everything the game offered over its predecessors, it's surprising to find it missing from the new console. It would have been even better to find it alongside Mega Man 2 so the two games could be played side-by-side, but for now, we'll just have to be satisfied with the one sequel.
River City Ransom
River City Ransom has all the elements of a great game you still find in modern gaming: an immersive storyline, character development, leveling, and progression, an inventory system, and an ability to purchase upgrades. It was one of the first open-world action games, and has had an incredible legacy on other consoles, which makes its absence from the NES Classic Edition a true head-scratcher.
On the surface, it may look like any other side-scrolling beat-em-up, but it's far more interesting than that. The player takes control of one of two brothers on a mission to save the girl who has been taken by a rival gang all the way to the other side of River City. While it was somewhat limited, due to the hardware at the time, the story was nonlinear, which allowed the player to explore the open world in a sandbox-style of gameplay. You could venture back to levels you had already beaten, and hold off on progression to level up for as long as you wanted.
Since the game was such a success in the Japanese and Western markets, it has since been ported to just about every other console since. Most recently, a port was released on the Nintendo 3DS, and has done very well, but for now, if you want to play it on the NES, you have to take your chances with a dusty old cartridge at your local used game shop.
Maniac Mansion
Early role playing games were often little more than text-based scenarios asking for specific instructions on where to go and what to do. That all changed with the development of Maniac Mansion, a point-and-click interface with an immersive graphical world. It was the first self-published project from Lucasfilm Games, and was a big hit on the NES when it was released in the United States in 1990.
The game was fun and non-linear, which has been a theme in this article. Depending on the player's choices throughout gameplay, the game would evolve and could be completed in different ways. This was a new concept for the time and made for an immersive experience, which helped add to replayability. The game featured amazing graphics and fun cutscenes, which helped to create a comedic atmosphere, something many game makers of the time either couldn't or wouldn't pull off.
Most importantly, Maniac Mansion was a trendsetting game — nothing like it existed at the time, and it helped create an entirely new genre of gaming. Some of the games it inspired include Sam and Max Hit the Road, Day of the Tentacle, and The Secret of Monkey Island. An inclusion into the Pantheon of NES classics would've been a well-deserved honor.
Battletoads
Battletoads was developed for the NES back in 1991 in response to the popularity of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. If turtles could make it big, why not toads? The bet paid off, and the game was very positively received at the time. It also consistently lists as one of top NES games ever, so its absence from the NES Classic doesn't make much sense.
They may have left it off due to its difficulty — Battletoads is also consistently named one of the most difficult NES titles ever. The game allows for two players, but also has friendly-fire enabled, which essentially means most people would accidentally kill their friends ... a lot. At times, this can be a lot of fun (what better way to get back at your kid brother for eating all the cookies before you could?), but it mainly just made the game frustratingly hard to beat. And that's before you get to the hoverbike level!
Battletoads has been ported to numerous consoles, including modern ones like the XBox One. So why not another run on the NES too? Many gamers enjoy a good challenge, though their busted controllers might disagree.
Metal Gear
The Metal Gear franchise is one of the best-selling game franchises of all time. As of March 2015, more than 41 million copies of its various games have been sold worldwide, which makes the absence of the first title in the franchise a complete mystery.
In Metal Gear, players — from an overhead view — moved the main character, Solid Snake, through the levels while trying to avoid obstacles and detection. The gameplay has consistently remained in the stealth genre since its inception, and it was all due to the success of Metal Gear.
Metal Gear was a fun and difficult adventure many players recall fondly. It's very challenging, and should definitely have been included on the NES Classic. Somebody feeled asleep at the wheel when neglecting to include it.
Tetris
Of all the games to forget about ... why in the world did Nintendo not include Tetris on the NES Classic Edition? It's only only one of the greatest and most recognizable games ever made after all, selling over eight million copies worldwide (and 1.8 million in Japan). That's all.
True, you can pick up just about any electronic device these days and fire up some form of Tetris, but that's true of a lot of NES Classic games. The joy and nostalgia of playing these games comes from picking up an actual NES controller and firing up the games. The NES port of Tetris is so popular, it's still used as the primary game for the Classic Tetris World Championships, which is an actual thing. Players play on original NES consoles attached to old-school CRT televisions with original game cartridges, and presumably win giant bowls of Cap'n Crunch and Cocoa Puffs.
Without Tetris, this otherwise-great console seems ... incomplete. We got Pac-Man, but not what works best? With any luck, future NES Classics will leave Pac-Man to the arcade emulators, and let everyone enjoy the best thing to come out of Russia since vodka.