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Should there have been more first person shooters for the NES?

Back in the 80’s and early 90’s 2D action-adventure platform games were very popular along with run and gun titles. One of the genres that was not nearly as popular as others during the 8-bit & 16-bit era of gaming were first person shooters. First person shooters did not become popular on a mainstream level until the 00’s and games such as Duck Hunt felt like it was way ahead of its time. There were 8-bit classics such Freedom Force, Laser Invasion, Hogan’s Alley along with Duck Hunt which made NES gameplay more interesting during the 80’s. Its a known fact that Sega’s Master System despite being more superior in graphics & gameplay was not quite as innovative as Nintendo was in relation to the NES or SNES for that matter. While the NES had its own customized zapper the SNES had features Mode 7 which added to the appeal of both consoles. If anything the SNES should of had more games that utilized the Super Scope zapper since the console had better graphics despite not selling as much as the NES did from ’83-’03.

As far as Nintendo based first person shooters are concerned Duck Hunt was probably one of the most high profile titles from genre making people wonder why a sequel was never made. As impressive as Duck Hunt looked for the NES at the time the game was not really a best seller for the 8-bit console despite how innovative it was. Also, first person games like Duck Hunt really did not have a plot and relied more on players complete a series of objectives which generally seemed uninteresting. Having more first person shooter games for the NES would not have made the 8-bit console anymore of an attraction than it was during the 80’s seeing how the Super Mario Bros & The Legend Of Zelda series blew up in popularity during that time period.

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Should Mother 1 have been remastered for the SNES between ‘91-‘93?

When we think about popular NES titles from the 80’s that eventually evolved into video game series going into the 90’s names such as Super Mario Bros, Metroid, The Legend Of Zelda, Donkey Kong and many others all come to mind. But one few video games that came out for the NES during the 80’s that evolved into a set that does not get talked about too much was Mother 1 which came out in July 1989. For those who do not know Mother 1 was also known as Earthbound Beginnings and was the prequel to the famous Mother 2/Earthbound game from 1994. While Mother 2 from ’94 is considered to be legendary and is critically acclaimed as one of the best 16-bit RPG’s of the 90’s the game did very poorly in sales within the United States. Despite, having a bizarre yet expensive marketing campaign for Mother 2 the game really did not become as popular as Nintendo wanted it to be in America during the mid 90’s. Some would argue that Earthbound for the SNES was not successful in America due to the popularity of emerging game systems within the mid 90’s such as the PS1 and Sega Saturn during that time period.

But at the same time its possible that Earthbound was not as popular in as it should of been because its prequel was a Japanese exclusive for the NES. Ever since ’89 Mother 1 has appeared on the NES and Game Boy Advance exclusively in Japan until ’15 when the game was finally released for the Wii-U worldwide. Some believe that having Mother 1 digitally remastered for the 16-bit SNES between ’91-’93 could have been more effective in making Mother 2 a huge success on the SNES. In fact, the plot for Earthbound took place a decade following the events from Mother 1 which was never officially released outside of Japan during the 90’s. Similar to how Nintendo re-released the first three Mario games for the NES on the Super NES as Super Mario All-Stars in ’93 the company could have done the same thing with the very first mother game at some point. While the plot for Mother 2 was very intriguing one of the biggest issues following its initial release was that the American audience was in the dark regarding the events that took place in the ’89 prequel for the NES. If Nintendo had released a SNES version of the first Mother game during the early 90’s its possible Mother 2 could have been more popular than it ended becoming shortly after its initial release in America.

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Is Tetris the best puzzle game of all-time?

As many people know the series Tetris has been around since the 80’s following the inception of its very first game back in 1984. The legendary tile matching puzzle game was developed by Russian software engineer Alexey Pajitnov and is a game that has been released for multiple game systems around the world such as the Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy and the SNES under the name Tetris & Dr Mario in ’91. Since its inception Tetris became a game that became easily accessible through iOS mobile devices throughout the 00’s and 10’s decade as more remastered versions of the game was released. While the 2D tile matching puzzle genre is not as popular today as it was back in the 80’s & ’90’s some of the most recently installments within the Tetris series would not even exist with the original game from ’84. Between late ’18-early ’19 we got to see the release Tetris Effect for the PlayStation VR and Tetris 99 for the Nintendo Switch. Both Tetris that were recently released gain mainstream attention and were praised for being innovative by fans and critics alike. While Tetris VR offered players a more atmospheric yet sensational experience pertaining to gameplay Tetris 99 introduced a multiplayer Battle Royale mode which was addictive.

It should also be noted that at least one Tetris game has appeared on just about every major game console that ultimately became successful in terms of sales for over the past 30 years. There have been a few Tetris games that has involved iconic cartoon or video game characters such as Mickie Mouse and Super Mario mainly during the 90’s. Also, puzzle games such as Puyo Puyo, Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, Kirby’s Avalanche and Super Puzzle Fighter II: Turbo were all titles inspired by Tetris following their respective releases between ’91-’96. However, the Tetris series had always remained a top attraction within the puzzle genre of gaming as it continued to appear on younger generation game systems while still appealing to gamers from 80’s & ’90’s. It was reported back in 2018 that Tetris was one of the best selling games ever with at least 170 million copies sold since its ’84 release. Without the original Tetris game where would the puzzle genre of gaming be today in terms of popularity? Tetris pretty much put the puzzle genre of gaming on the map and is quite possibly more of an attraction today then it was during the 80’s and 90’s.

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Was Donkey Kong a better boss than Bowser?

When we look back one first major titles that Mario appeared in during the 80’s the Donkey Kong arcade game instantly comes to mind. As many people know the original Donkey Kong game is considered to be legendary and sees Mario as the main protagonist as he attempts to reduce his then girlfriend Pauline after being captured by D.K. While Donkey Kong is mainly considered to be more of a heroic figure in gaming nowadays back in the early 80’s he was Mario’s main rival. Similar to Wario who made his debut in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins for Game Boy in ’92 Donkey Kong started off as a villain before becoming popular enough to become a heroic figure. Both Donkey Kong and Wario had their own video game series with difference being Donkey King becoming more mainstream and successful than Wario did. As a villain Donkey Kong seemed pretty generic since all he did was toss barrels at Mario to prevent his Rome rescuing Pauline. Bowser who made his debut in Super Mario Bros in ’85 has remained the main villain in the Mario series for over 30 years.

Despite, the never-changing damsel in distress formula that Nintendo uses in Mario games involving Princess Peach various games in the series had different gimmicks or settings which kept player emotional invested in them. Its hard to see Mario being around for over 30 years with Donkey King as the main villain since he ended upcoming a charismatic character within the gaming world. While Donkey Kong may not have been a better villain than Bowser he definitely popular enough to earn Nintendo millions of dollars over the past couple of decades. In fact, if Mario had not become Nintendo’s main mascot it quite possible that Donkey Kong could have ended up being the face of Nintendo. Just about every Donkey Kong game that we have seen since the 80’s has either become very popular or successful in terms of console sales.

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Retro Gaming 80’s- Donkey Kong Jr. (1982)

As far as Nintendo based arcade classics are concerned one of the few titles that retro gamers think about in relation to the 80’s is Donkey King Jr from 1982. Donkey King Jr was the highly anticipated sequel to its 1981 predecessor that was also popular in arcade centers which placed emphasis on Mario being the main villain of the game. In fact, Donkey Kong Jr was probably the only game where Mario played the role of a villain as he captured Donkey Kong for revenge in relation to what happened in the original Donkey Kong game. In the 1981 Donkey Kong game DK was the main villain because he captured Mario’s ex-girlfriend Pauline and made him go through various obstacles & stages in order to get her back. Some would argue that Mario was justified for his actions in this game especially since he ended up presented as hero in just about every other game that Nintendo has developed since 1982. In this game Donkey Kong’s son has to rescue him after he is captured by Mario and as he makes his way through each stage in this vertical platformer. The stages become more challenging as players progress throughout the game requiring them to be more strategic then they would in side-scrolling platform games.

Since its arcade release Donkey Kong Jr was ported for the NES and release in various different countries throughout the 80’s. Donkey Kong Jr. also appeared on other consoles such Atari 2600 and Atari 7800 and is a platform classic that is still somewhat popular to this day. As a platformer some might argue that Donkey Kong Jr was more difficult than most Mario and Donkey Kong games from the 80’s and early 90’s. While the plot for Donkey Kong Jr. was very basic the fact that Mario was casted as a villain opposed to that of a hero will always be considered one of the most aspects about this game in particular.

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Retro Gaming 80’s- Metroid: (1986)

As far as classics for the NES compare concerned one of the most popular 8-bit games to have come out of the 80’s was the original Metroid title which was initially released in Japan during August 1986. Sometimes its hard to believe that the Metroid series has been around for over 30 years now especially considering the fact that nobody knew how popular the original game was going be following its release. The original Metroid title was where the adventure began regarding the Galactic Federation and where Samus Aran made her video game debut. In Metroid Samus had to destroy Mother Brain after landing on Zebes where she also does battle with Ridley and Kraid who are two other key antagonists of this game both affiliated with the Space Pirates. One of the few things that added to the overall replay value of the original Metroid title was the fact that it had multiple endings which made people want to play through it more than once.

The original Metroid game was considered to be so legendary to a point where a genre was named after it. The metroidvania genre of gaming had remained popular throughout the 90’s and has still been somewhat of an attraction throughout the 10’s decade. As popular as the original Metroid game was for the NES Super Metroid for the Super NES was considered to more popular following its release in 1993. As far as Metroid II: Return Of Samus is concerned it was a game that could have been a bigger attraction on the NES than it was for Game Boy in 1991. The original Metroid game for the NES that deserved a 16-bit port for the SNES during the early 90’s but it was something Nintendo never had any plans on doing back then. Either way, the original Metroid game is still one of the best non Mario games of the 8-bit era.

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Ducktales (1989) vs Darkwing Duck (1992) which NES game was better?

As far as classic non-Mario platform games are concerned we got to see several cool titles for the NES during the 80’s and early 90’s. As far as games that stand out both Ducktales and Darkwing Duck both stand out mainly because of the popularity that both television series had back then. While NES platform games are well known for their notorious levels difficultly there were still many people who enjoy both Ducktales and Darkwing Duck on the 8-bit NES console. The Ducktales television series was popular among children after it started back in 1987. Scrooge McDuck who was the main character in Ducktales was known to be very wealthy and normally took part in numerous adventures to further increase his monetary status while serving as a caretaker of his three nephews. While the NES Ducktales is based off of the television series there are many people who would argue that the game is just as good if not better. The stages in Ducktales were challenging and the soundtracks were decent especially the “Moon” theme which is considered to be legendary.

Despite, how popular Darkwing Duck was after the series first premiered in Fall 1991 was a game that was not released for the Super NES which came out in 1990. By the early 90’s the NES console was starting to become old and more people began turning to 16-bit gaming on consoles such as the Super Nintendo along with the Sega Genesis. Darkwing Duck for the NES was cool especially considering the Mega Man vibes it give off allowing players to choose what stages they wanted complete first. Also, the ability to unlock various weapons throughout the game made Darkwing Duck somewhat similar the NES MegaMan games which made players really got into. Even though, the NES Darkwing Duck game May have had better visuals many would probably argue that the Ducktales title from ’89 was more popular overall due to the success of the series between the late 80’s-early 90’s. While Darkwing Duck is also considered to be an iconic kids show that was just as big as Ducktales the game itself is generally overlooked due to the growing popularity of more advanced game systems of the early 90’s.