Scott’s Top7 NES games

It helps to be autistic.

I got my NES for Christmas when I was 6, and I kept playing it (fairly consistently) until I was sixteen–when the system finally gave out after 10 years of reliable service.  Yes, there were days when a game would freeze up on me just as I made it to the final boss battle..and yes, there were the times that I threw a game cartridge across the room in frustration…and yes, there were days entirely punctuated with my brother’s mantra, “stop talking to me!  You’re making me die!”  But, even with all of these petty frustrations, I am typing this blog not six feet away from a (somewhat) functional NES, and I can’t help but be happy to have it in my life.  Here are the 7 greatest games from my youth, although there were many, many more.

7. RBI Baseball - I get no enjoyment out of playing sports. I couldn’t care less when the Red Sox won the World Series, but RBI baseball was seriously fun, and it had the best replay-value out of any of the games in my library.  On my Genesis, it was Mutant League Hockey, and on my NES, it was RBI Baseball.

Short, fat, generic baseball gods.

6. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: The Manhattan Project – Everyone chooses the 2nd in the series because of the famous arcade version, and I have to admit, I spent many-a-quarter on that damn game, but TMNT3 was the one I had in my own personal library, and despite being strikingly similar to the 2nd, this one had cool special moves for every turtle.

5. Battletoads – Even though I rarely made it past the hovercraft level, I loved  the sense of power I got from a well-placed punch combo.

4. River City Ransom - This was the closest I ever got to playing an “open world” game on my NES.  You could just run around beating the hell out of people and taking their money, then spending it on rice balls and brass knuckles at the local candy shop (don’t ask why candy shops sold rice balls).

3. Super Mario Brothers 3 - Most would argue that this was the best game for the NES, and if it wasn’t so easy, I’d have to agree with them, but the fact of the matter is that most people just got the magic flutes and jumped straight to the end, which is too bad because the levels in the middle were wicked awesome.

2. The Legend of Zelda – This game got me through my childhood and led me down the path of geekdom more completely than any other game in my library.  It was (and still is) 100 percent compulsively playable.

1. Mega Man 2 – From the completely dope intro (Mega Man warping off of a windy rooftop w/ seriously cinematic style) to the depths of Dr. Wiley’s castle, Mega Man 2 was an exercise in skill.  Mega Man games are famously tight, but this one was downright elegant.  Every level of this classic side-scroller was perfectly designed and completely enjoyable.  Thank you, Capcom, for ensuring that I’d be awkward around girls for the next ten years (and beyond).