The Top 10 Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) Games Ranked

Steve

Everyone remembers their first experience with the Nintendo Entertainment System. As a child, I used to pester my neighbors to play with theirs, only for my parents to surprise me with my own on Christmas. The day I unboxed the NES, my love of video games ascended to a new level. Our Atari 2600 remained upstairs, while the basement TV became the new home of Super Mario, Duck Hunt, and Track & Field. From that day forward, I was obsessed. I played every game I could get my paws on. Whether we owned, rented, or borrowed a new title, I couldn’t stop. There was something truly special about the NES, and I’m confident that pulling together a Top 10 list of the system’s best games will be fun, agonizing, and bold. Everyone’s list is different, but I’d like to see how many will agree, meet me in the middle, or revoke my gamer card after I share the following collection of games. Let’s press Start and get into this.

Honorable Mention: Super Mario Bros.

Before we get to the Top 10, I want to give a shout-out to the game that started my love affair with the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Mario Bros. Nintendo-brand video games don’t get any more iconic than this 1985 masterpiece. The tight controls, the brilliant and surprising level design, the music! I could play the entire soundtrack in my head from start to finish with impeccable recall. From World 1-1 to the Underground level, the flagpole and fireworks victory fanfare, and the hypnotic bloops of the Underwater level; it’s all so timeless and unforgettable. Everyone remembers the first time they sent Bowser to the fiery depths, or found out the princess was in another castle. Super Mario Bros. was a revelation, an awakening, and set the bar for action platformers for generations to come.

10) DuckTales

Before Capcom was getting spooky with its Resident Evil franchise, publishing the polar opposite of a “Sad Dad Game” with Pragmata, or even searching for the next World Warrior with Street Fighter 2, the studio proudly donned a pair of Mickey Mouse ears for DuckTales. Produced by key players from the Mega Man series, and based on Disney’s beloved after-school cartoon series, DuckTales lets players take control of Scrooge McDuck as he pogo-jumps through a series of outrageous environments, from African Mines to the Amazon, the Himalayas, Transylvania, and the Moon!

Using his trusty cane, Scrooge McDuck swings, jumps, bounces, and carves his way through a wide variety of enemies, from dancing snakes to Beagle Boys, and run-ins with classic villains like Flintheart Glomgold and Magica DeSpell. Capcom’s DuckTales recreates the magic of the cartoon series with high-energy hijinks and a respectable level of difficulty to keep players feeling challenged and nostalgic. Like they’re adventuring alongside one of Disney’s most iconic misers. If you’ve not played DuckTales, this is one worth saving your Lucky Pennies to own.

9) Double Dragon

If you’re a fan of beat ’em games like Streets of Rage, Final Fight, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, you owe a debt to Double Dragon, the simple but satisfying street brawler starring Billy Lee and Jimmy Lee, two brothers protecting their city after Billy’s girlfriend, Marian, is kidnapped by a gang of muscle-bound toughs. Using an uncomplicated combat system, Billy and Jimmy fight their way through the rundown neighborhoods, warehouses, woods, and hideouts that make up Metro City.

Simple in its execution, Double Dragon provides hours of couch co-op fun, and even a versus mode where you can assume the identities of enemy characters like Abobo, Willy, Linda, and more. In addition to using your fists, Double Dragon scatters weapons around the city, such as bats (my favorite), oil drums, whips, rocks, tonfas, and nunchucks. The game offers a challenging experience while keeping the action coming with hordes of enemy characters to dispatch, while keeping the streets safe for anyone brave enough to explore an 8-bit metropolis where it feels like the Gramercy Riffs, The Lizzies, the Baseball Buries, or the Punks from The Warriors could emerge from a steam-choked alleyway at any moment.

8) Contra

Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Start! Now we’re ready to take on Konami’s 1987 run-and-gun game that never lets up, Contra! Hailed as one of the best action games ever made, Contra is a non-stop action adventure with multiple perspectives, inspired weapon variety (for the time), and larger-than-life bosses that set the bar for the genre for generations to come.

While making your way through jungles, Technodrome-like bases, snowy fields, hangars, and an insidious alien lair, Contra demands all of your attention as enemies try to kill you from every angle. It’s one of the most engaging shooters on the NES, especially as you search for that special power-up that changes the game, like the Spread Gun, the Laser Rifle, or the Flame Thrower. No matter how aware you are of your surroundings, enemy fire in Contra can always surprise you, taking you off the board without warning, making you glad you entered the code to give yourself 30 lives. You’re going to need them!

7) Mega Man II

Despite poor sales for the 1987 original, Capcom greenlit Mega Man II, a sequel that would help launch an expansive franchise with more spin-offs, remakes, and stand-alone adventures than I can track. Still, of all the entries to grace the Nintendo Entertainment System, Mega Man II was the ultimate adventure for the iconic Blue Bomber, with robot bosses like Metal Man, Air Man, Bubble Man, Quick Man, Crash Man, Flash Man, Heat Man, and Wood Man aiding Dr. Wily in his pursuit to prove his intellectual superiority to his nemesis, Dr. Light.

Using precision jumps, energy tanks, gadgets, and a little help from his friends, Mega Man II finds the title character honing his side-scrolling skills for an incredibly challenging mission that tests players’ abilities, reaction times, pattern recognition, and patience. Beyond the game’s pulse-pounding action and intrepid lead character, the soundtrack for Mega Man II, composed by Takashi Tateishi, is a definitive example of chiptune perfection. Mega Man walked so Mega Man II could run headlong into certain doom, establishing a blueprint for side-scrolling action platformers to follow until this day. I’m certain I invented a few new curse words while playing Mega Man II back in the day, but damn, I had fun.

6) Metroid

While not Nintendo’s most popular franchise, Metroid’s genius and influence are impossible to ignore. This 1988 gem introduced players (and gooners) to Samus Aran, a mysterious adventurer searching for the predatory Metroid organisms stolen by Space Pirates. As a silent, helmeted protagonist, Samus’ identity remained a secret until the end of the game. When Nintendo revealed that Samus is female, it gave insecure dudes a near-heart attack and female gamers an Ellen Ripley-like character to cheer for. This princess (of our hearts) was not in another castle; she was in the shit, blasting aliens in the face and solving intricate environmental puzzles. Be still, my heart.

Metroid started as a quiet crowd-pleaser but eventually helped pave the way for the Metroidvania genre, a type of game in which progress is limited until players find specific items, abilities, or power-ups to help them advance. Without the internet to act as a compass, Metroid tested players’ ability to navigate a strange alien world while vaporizing enemies, uncovering secrets, and solving maze-like puzzles with limitless potential. The gaming community owes so much to Metroid, and I can’t imagine the next several decades of gaming without it.

5) Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse

In 1987, Konami introduced NES players to Simon Belmont, a whip-cracking vampire slayer with a one-way ticket to Dracula’s Castle. In 1988, Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest would become one of the most frustrating games ever made. Then, in 1990, Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse perfected the Castlevania formula, resulting in one of the best entries in the long-running side-scrolling action adventure series.

What makes Castlevania III stand out is the game’s introduction of branching paths and multiple playable characters. The game was simultaneously a return to form and an evolution of the series, setting the series’ tone and gameplay loop for generations to come. Featuring Trevor Belmont, Sypha Belnades, Grant Danasty, and the fan-favorite character, Alucard, Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse changes its ending depending on who Trevor chooses to team up with. The game offers an incredible amount of variety for the time, giving players alternate ways to interact with an atmospheric, Gothic world. Dracula’s Curse might not be Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, but it’s one of the strongest pillars of a timeless franchise that stands the test of time.

4) Tetris

Released on the NES in 1989, Tetris is the ultimate high-tension puzzle game for individuals who enjoy strategic, clever, and frantic gameplay. Inspired by Alexey Pajitnov’s 1985 game, Tetris challenges players to test their reflexes as puzzle pieces fall into a confined space. When positioned correctly, the pieces form a line; those lines then fade away, making room for more. The more lines you make, the faster the game gets, building toward an onslaught of shapes that threaten the flow and integrity of the puzzle board.

Much like Super Mario Bros., the music in Tetris is as iconic as it comes. Anyone who’s played the game can sing its hypnotic earworms for hours. As the gameplay speeds up, so does the tempo of these unforgettable tunes, creating an urgency unrivaled by most puzzle games. Tetris is another series with countless sequels that introduce new game mechanics, but there’s nothing like the original.

3) Punch-Out!!

Originally titled Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!, this relentlessly entertaining sports title brings the sweaty stick-and-move thrills of the 1987 arcade game home, with the former undisputed heavyweight champion, Mike Tyson, as the final boss. Considered by many to be one of the greatest video games of all time, Punch-Out!! follows an up-and-coming boxer named Little Mac through the ranks of the World Video Boxing Association. While plenty of conversation revolves around the game’s unflinching stereotypes of boxers from across the globe, Punch-Out!! remains a digital endurance test of skill, reaction time, pattern recognition, and memorization.

Little Mac, who is constantly at a disadvantage compared to his opponents, is the ultimate underdog with a burning desire to prove his worth as he floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee against fighters like Glass Joe, Von Kaiser, Piston Honda, Don Flamingo, King Hippo, Great Tiger, Bald Bull, Soda Popinski, Mr. Sandman, Macho Man, and Mike Tyson. While each fighter has a tell, Tyson could send Little Mac to the mats with one punch, making Tyson a formidable opponent and then some. If you’re savvy, you’ll press the Select button between rounds to give yourself a boost from your dedicated trainer, Doc Louis. Like many NES games, Punch-Out!! includes a banging soundtrack. It doesn’t get any better than Little Mac’s training music or the fight theme that welcomes every match. Punch-Out!! is fun to play, but it’s even more fun to master, making it one of the best NES titles bar none.

2) The Legend of Zelda

With a film adaptation from director Wes Ball due to arrive in 2027, The Legend of Zelda is quintessential gaming alongside any Super Mario title. The first entry in this legendary series is still one of its best, by encouraging players to explore a vast overworld map and dungeons in ways that make trial-and-error a part of the fun. Anyone who plays The Legend of Zelda will never forget the first time they burned a bush to find a hidden staircase underneath, or when a seemingly random bomb revealed a path to game-changing secrets or special equipment.

Since The Legend of Zelda‘s release, there have been 21 games in the core franchise, with countless spin-offs expanding the series, including musou fighting games, open-world epics, and a rhythm-based game called Cadence of Hyrule from the makers of Crypt of the Necrodancer. Still, few NES experiences compare to the feeling of navigating the Lost Woods, finding the Master Sword, or discovering a much-needed fairy sanctuary when your final heart is about to break. The Legend of Zelda franchise has grown by leaps and bounds in the decades since, but you never forget your first.

1) Super Mario Bros. 3

If you were a child of the ’80s, it’s impossible to forget the first time you saw Super Mario Bros. 3 debut in Todd Holland’s 1989 road trip comedy The Wizard. Kids begged their parents to take them to the cinema, frothing at the mouth to catch a glimpse of Mario’s latest adventure, and the game did not disappoint. I still recall playing Super Mario Bros. 3 early, when I rented a Japanese import of the game from a shady video store in Long Island, New York. The cartridge was powder blue with a thick gold ribbon hanging from its edge. I rented that puppy without question and felt like I was the most powerful child in the world, playing it before anyone else after seeing The Wizard in theaters. It was a magical time. Shout out to shady video rental stores!

While Super Mario Bros. remains iconic, Super Mario Bros. 3 was magical, taking the franchise to new heights with new abilities, unbelievable new worlds, a deceptive challenge curve, and an overworld map that demanded exploration. The secrets were limitless, as Mario uncovered mushroom houses where you could acquire power-ups, played warp whistles that would whisk him to parts unknown, and ducking behind objects would make you fall through the level, revealing alternate paths to victory.

Super Mario Bros. 3 is the ultimate Mario game on the NES, and the best game on the system overall. When the game came out, talk of its genius was relentless, and controllers were passed around like hot potatoes so everyone at the party could get a taste. The game still bangs to this day, and remains a flawless example of the Nintendo Entertainment System at peak greatness.

What do you think about our Top 10 Nintendo Entertainment System Games list? What’s your Top 10 list look like? Leave a comment below and let us know what your favorite games for the NES are!