Top 111 NES Games, #60-51

60. Ufouria: the Saga (Sunsoft, 1991 in Japan, 1992 in Europe/Australia)

A Sunsoft-developed game, which of course means it has a high degree of polish to it and some fantastic visuals and music.  Ufouria also has a pretty distinct visual style, with simple yet expressive character designs and some stretch-and-squash animation reminiscent of western cartoons.  It's also just a well-made Metroid-esque game, starring four characters with distinct abilities - Bop-Louie is a relatively fast walker and can climb walls once a certain items is found; Freeon-Leon can swim through water and tread on ice without slipping; Shades jumps high and glides slowly downward which can allow him to cross long gaps; and Gil can dive beneath the water to reach new areas and blow open certain walls with bombs.  While overall rather short and easy compared to others on the platform (and especially most Sunsoft games), the charming presentation and quirky humor it presents have made it into a cult classic for the system.

59. Gradius II: Gofer no Yabou (Konami, 1988 in Japan)

Another great homeport of a kickass Konami arcade game never got released elsewhere.  But at least I have an answer for why it didn't in this case; on the Famicom, this game's cartridge utilized a custom memory mapper, and it would be a lot of effort to covert it over to NES hardware, and since the original game wasn't especially popular overseas they decided it wasn't worth the effort.  Those who got to play it were in for a treat, though, as it was another great game in the series.  Now employing vertical scrolling as well as horizontal, as well as plenty of crazy stages where you're travelling between suns battling giant dragons and other crazy eye-popping sights.  As per series norm, it is also an exceptionally tough experience, requiring much practice and impeccable power-up usage if you want any hope of seeing your way to the end.

58. Super C (Konami, 1990)

The strangely-titled sequel to Contra (so named because Konami didn't want to associate themselves with the Iran-Contra scandal of the time), Super C wasn't quite as memorable as the original game, but still a very worthwhile run-and-gun title in itself.  Several of the less-prestigious weapons of the original were powered up - the Flamethrower in particular now fires an exploding shot and can be charged to deal more damage, for example.  The over-the-shoulder view levels were also replaced with top-down shooting segments, and levels became more dynamic in general, with segments like an elevator and a falling ceiling that can severely hamper your movement.   Konami were masters of making home ports of arcade games that somehow surpassed the originals in quality, and Super C is another fine example of that.

57. Summer Carnival '92: Recca (Naxatsoft, 1992)

Recca is a game known for three things: Giving the Genesis's Blast Processing a run for its money with the fluidity in its gameplay and animations, being extremely rare (only seeing limited release as part of a Japanese competition) and its monstrous difficulty.   From beginning to end this game's action is utterly relentless, with constant swarms of enemy ships and bullets flooding the screen amongst a plethora of flashy visual effects and intense, pulse-pounding music, and it all blazes along at speeds the hardware doesn't even seem like it should be capable of at all!  If you want a game that will push your reflexes and shoot-em-up skills to their limits (and if you can find a copy), look no further than Recca, because it is truly one-of-a-kind.

56. Mega Man 6 (Capcom, 1993)

Considered one of the weaker entries on the platform by a lot of fans, Mega Man 6 certainly showed signs of being rushed.  It came out late in the system's life and Nintendo, in the role of producing this title, was clearly banking on it being a send-off game for the soon-to-be-retired NES; the level quality and challenge definitely suffered as a result.  However, it did also have some unique quirks to set it apart.  Instead of calling in Rush, you now morph with him into two forms - Rush Power (which can smash through walls and deal damage with short-ranged punches) and Rush Jet (serving as a jetpack that allows flight for short distances).  It also had some great music as per series norm, proving that if nothing else, Capcom was striving to make it memorable if not one of the best.  It's a ton of fun to play in spite of its faults, and hey, classic Mega Man at his weakest is still better than most game franchises at their best.

55. Crisis Force (Konami, 1991 in Japan)

The Konami shmup legacy continues, and Crisis Force is arguably one of the best they've ever done.  It's a unique one too in terms of design, with a technological ancient Egyptian theme and some huge, detailed sprites every step of the way.  Your ship could also transform into three different configurations - one that fires multiple guns forward, one that fires forward and backward and one that fires in three directions simultaneously, allowing you to adapt to your challenges, and one could even collect parts that would combine both players' ships into one large and very powerful one for a short period.  Really fun stuff, though it does tend to get laggy when the action gets intense (especially in two-player mode).  Unfortunately, being released so late in the system's life also ensured that not too many people played it even in Japan, making it a rare and spendy title nowadays.

54. Moon Crystal  (Hect, 1992 in Japan)

A rare and expensive title from a relatively unknown developer, but that doesn't mean it's not a good game.  Moon Crystal might just have the most impressive presentation of any game on the platform, with some really good music tracks, large and fluidly-animated character sprites, cutscenes between stages reminiscent of Ninja Gaiden, and even some impressive effects like parallax backgrounds and multi-plane scrolling.  Moon Crystal feels a bit like Prince of Persia gameplay-wise, with the player able to grab onto ledges and pull themselves up and a somewhat more methodical approach to action and platforming - your smooth animation comes at the cost of having a substantial delay in things like ducking, turning and jumping, so planning and executing moves to avoid obstacles, dodge enemy attacks and land hits is a challenge in itself.  You do get some help in the form of powerups that increase your attack range, boost your health bar for the rest of the stage or enable double-jumping, though, which does help prevent things from getting too frustrating.

53. Blaster Master (Sunsoft, 1988)

Sunsoft was another big name to many NES gamers, creating quite a few high-quality games in their time (including more than a few licensed tie-ins of surprising quality).  Blaster Master is one that's fondly remembered by many; known as much for its solid gameplay and design as its silly localization.  The Japanese version was a tale about an alien invasion in a distant world while the US version was reworked to be about a kid searching for his pet frog, mutated into giant form by radiation.  Either way, though, the game is a solid one, having you control both the protagonist in top-down shooter sections and the tank in side-scrolling ones, defeating bosses and finding numerous upgrades in order to progress.  From jet thrusters to driving up walls to upgrading your tank's artillery, it's a game with quite a lot to experience.  The only downside was a lack of any kind of save or password feature, so it was a game you had to not only get good at, but beat in one long session!

52. Life Force (Konami, 1988)

Known as "Salamander" in Japan, Life Force is a spinoff of the Gradius franchise, featuring both side-scrolling and top-down scrolling gameplay and a similar power-up system.  It definitely plays up the horror influence too, taking place in the body of a giant alien and having appropriately creepy, fleshy environments and bosses to square off against.  The NES version, in addition to being heavily reworked from the arcade, was also notable at the time for featuring two-player simultaneous co-op, and surprisingly it shows little slowdown during it even when the action really heats up.  But of course, Konami pulls no punches with the difficulty either - if you don't memorize the ins-and-outs of every battle and plan your movements carefully, you're not going to be able to finish this one.

51. Mr. Gimmick! (Sunsoft, 1992 in Japan, 1993 in Europe)

Another very overlooked game, though I can't blame people for that because the game only saw an extremely limited release in exactly two regions - Japan and Scandinavia - in the twilight days of the system. It's a real shame it didn't get a wider release, too, as this may just be the most impressive game on the system on a technical level. Not only were the sights and sounds top notch, but the programming here is superb - objects actually actually slide down slopes and ricochet off objects realistically and enemies show a modicum of artificial intelligence, backstepping to evade your attacks and attempting to trap you in tight spaces when given half a chance. It's also surprisingly tough for such a cutesy-looking game, requiring you to master the finer points of the physics and your bouncing star weapon (which can also double as a platform when jumped upon) in order to collect all the hidden treasures and reach the best ending. Oh, and did I mention you can't use any continues either? ...Yeah, if you want that ending, you're going to WORK for it!

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