🎮 The 12 best NES games
This is our pick of the NES essentials: the games that have aged best and are worth coming back to the console for. For each one we explain what makes it special, with a couple of tips, and every one of them plays right now in your browser — no downloads, with keyboard, gamepad or touch controls.
#1Super Mario Bros. 3
1988 · Platformer
Mario's third NES outing spreads across eight themed worlds, each laid out on an overworld map where you pick your route, collect items and hold on to them for when they're needed most. Levels are short and packed with secrets: hidden blocks, pipes and the odd bonus room. The Super Leaf turns Mario into a raccoon who can fly after building up speed, while the Tanooki, Frog and Hammer suits each change how a stage plays. Every world ends aboard a Koopaling's airship, crowded with cannons and bolts. Its variety, precise controls and steady stream of small surprises are why so many players still see it as the high point of 2D Mario.
Tip: Don't spend strong items like the Tanooki Suit or P-Wing right away; save them for tough stages and the airships.
▶ Play Super Mario Bros. 3
#2The Legend of Zelda
1986 · Adventure · RPG
You start in a clearing with no sword and no directions, and the first cave you enter hands you one. From there The Legend of Zelda lets you roam Hyrule freely, fighting monsters, collecting rupees and hunting for eight dungeons, each guarding a piece of the Triforce of Wisdom and usually a new item such as the boomerang or the raft. Secrets hide behind walls you can bomb and bushes you can burn, and the old men's hints are cryptic at best. Made at Nintendo by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka, it was among the first console games to save your progress, and beating it unlocks a harder second quest.
Tip: Step into the cave on the very first screen to get your sword before wandering off.
▶ Play The Legend of Zelda
#3Super Mario Bros.
1985 · Platformer
Mario runs and jumps from left to right across eight worlds of four stages each, stomping Goombas, kicking Koopa shells and breaking bricks on his way to rescuing the princess from Bowser. A mushroom makes him bigger and lets him survive one hit, a fire flower lets him throw fireballs, and a star makes him briefly untouchable. The real pleasure is in the movement: Mario builds speed, skids when he turns and can steer in midair, so every gap and staircase becomes a small test of timing. Nintendo's game set the template for side-scrolling platformers, and its hidden blocks, secret vines and warp pipes still reward curious players.
Tip: Hold the run button most of the time: many wide gaps need a running start, and speed helps you grab the flagpole higher up.
▶ Play Super Mario Bros.
#4Castlevania
1986 · Platformer · Action
Konami's Castlevania sends Simon Belmont, armed with a leather whip, through Dracula's castle one stage at a time. He climbs stairs, crosses crumbling ledges and cracks candles open for hearts, which power sub-weapons such as the axe, holy water and a cross that returns like a boomerang. Jumps are locked in once he leaves the ground, and every hit knocks him backwards, often into a pit, so each room turns into a small puzzle of timing and footing. Bosses borrowed from horror films, including Medusa, the mummies, Frankenstein's monster and Death, guard the way to the Count himself. Its gothic music and deliberate, punishing rhythm set the template for a long-running series.
Tip: Whip walls and odd-looking blocks; some hide pot roasts that restore health, others hold useful items.
▶ Play Castlevania
#5Contra
1988 · Run & Gun · Action
Contra is Konami's run and gun in which two commandos, Bill and Lance, shoot their way across a jungle island overrun by an alien threat. You run, jump and fire in eight directions while soldiers, turrets and increasingly strange creatures pour in from every side. A single hit costs a life, so each stretch rewards memory as much as reflexes. Side-scrolling stages are broken up by a vertical waterfall climb and behind-the-back base assaults. It is remembered for its simultaneous two-player co-op and for the famous Konami Code, which grants thirty lives in this version.
Tip: Grab the Spread Gun, marked S: its fan of bullets clears crowded screens and makes most bosses far easier.
▶ Play Contra
#6Kirby's Adventure
1993 · Platformer
Kirby floats, inhales enemies and, for the first time in the series, copies their powers: swallow a fiery foe and you breathe flames, swallow a swordsman and you get a blade, with more than twenty abilities to find. The story begins when King Dedede steals the Star Rod from the Fountain of Dreams and breaks it into pieces. Kirby's Adventure has gentle, colorful stages full of hidden doors, mini-games and varied bosses. Arriving late in the NES's life, it looks remarkably polished for the hardware, saves your progress and hides plenty of secrets for completionists.
Tip: Experiment with abilities: some, like Sword or Hammer, make certain bosses much easier and let you reach hidden switches.
▶ Play Kirby's Adventure
#7Mega Man 2
1988 · Platformer · Action
Mega Man 2 is Capcom's sequel in which the blue robot takes on eight Robot Masters built by Dr. Wily, each guarding a themed stage, from Bubble Man's underwater halls to Quick Man's laser-filled shafts. Stages can be tackled in any order, and every defeated boss hands over a weapon that is often another boss's weakness. Working out that order, while learning tricky jumps and enemy patterns through repeated attempts, is the heart of the game. It is remembered for its catchy soundtrack, its password system, the series' first Energy Tanks and a long final climb through Wily's fortress.
Tip: Start with Air Man, Bubble Man or Metal Man; the Metal Blade costs little energy, fires in eight directions and handles most enemies.
▶ Play Mega Man 2
#8DuckTales
1989 · Platformer
In this Capcom platformer you guide Scrooge McDuck after five treasures hidden across the Amazon, Transylvania, the African Mines, the Himalayas and the Moon, tackling them in whatever order you like. His cane works as a pogo stick for bouncing on enemies and spikes, and as a golf club for knocking rocks into foes and cracking open chests. Every stage hides secret paths and diamonds, and the money you collect shapes the ending. DuckTales is remembered for its tight controls, its well-judged length and the Moon stage music that players still hum decades later.
Tip: Pogo across spike floors: as long as you keep bouncing on the cane, the spikes cannot hurt you.
▶ Play DuckTales
#9Metroid
1986 · Adventure · Action
Metroid drops Samus Aran, a bounty hunter, onto the planet Zebes to stop the Space Pirates and Mother Brain. There is no marked path: you wander maze-like corridors, hit doors and ledges you cannot reach yet, and backtrack once you find the Morph Ball, missiles or new beams that open routes that were closed before. That loop of getting lost, discovering something and returning stronger laid the groundwork for a whole genre. It is demanding, with no map, scarce energy and bosses like Kraid and Ridley that punish mistakes. Many also remember it for the surprise in its ending.
Tip: Shoot and bomb suspicious walls and floors; plenty of passages and upgrades hide behind blocks that look perfectly ordinary.
▶ Play Metroid
#10Ninja Gaiden
1989 · Platformer · Action
Ryu Hayabusa finds a letter from his father, killed in a duel, and travels to America to learn what lies behind it. That is how Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden begins, and it is remembered as much for its animated cutscenes between stages, which tell the story almost like a comic book, as for how hard it is. You slash your way forward, cling to walls and jump between them, and pick up ninpo arts such as the windmill star and the fire wheel. Enemies keep respawning, and the birds seem built to knock you into pits. It is demanding, but every stretch can be learned, and clearing it feels earned.
Tip: Enemies respawn as the screen scrolls; sometimes it is better to pause briefly or push forward quickly than fight everything.
▶ Play Ninja Gaiden
#11Battletoads
1991 · Beat 'em Up · Platformer
Battletoads is a Rare-developed beat 'em up starring Rash and Zitz, two brawling toads who head into the Dark Queen's territory to rescue their teammate Pimple and Princess Angelica. It opens as a straightforward brawler with oversized finishing blows, where a fist or boot balloons to cartoon size, but almost every stage switches the rules: rappelling down a shaft, racing speeder bikes, riding giant snakes, outrunning hazards against the clock. It is remembered for its lively, funny animation and above all for its difficulty, which demands learning each section by heart. In two-player mode, your hits can hurt your partner too.
Tip: In the speeder bike tunnel, memorize the wall pattern; it never changes, and reflexes alone will not get you through.
▶ Play Battletoads
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