How Do We Discuss Retro Consoles in a Modern Context? (NES / Nintendo Entertainment System)
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
- PATREON ► / bigolewords
STREAMS ► Every Thursday 8:30PM EST here on RUclips
THE NES LIBRARY AS A WHOLE ► Hey look, it's my face talking away!
#retrogaming #nintendo #nes
► If you're looking to get into retro reviewing or streaming, here's some of the equipment I used for both or either. My current setup is what I love now, but honestly I'd say start out with the cheap stuff and get a feel for everything before throwing down a ton of cash on gear you may or may not need.
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After years of focusing on the best games for the NES, I decided to change gears and focus on lesser known cartridges that have, for one reason or another, generally escaped the public discussion and general nostalgia. This series highlights many of the relatively unknown, obscure, and unloved titles in the Nintendo Entertainment System's library. Some of these games are at best mediocre. Many are painfully bad, some of the worst NES games around. Most are hilarious for all the wrong reasons! Occasionally, OCCASIONALLY, a handful of them are actually good, borderline hidden gems.
While you won't find any of these on the NES Classic, some of these titles have managed to make their way onto the Nintendo Switch, so if you don't have an original Nintendo console or ROMs escape you ethically or technologically, there are several ways to play them.
Want more? Me too! Until then, lots of other articles where the pictures don't move and words have to be read can be found on my website: top100nesgames.com
/ bigolewords
/ bigolewords
nes, nintendo, retro gaming, retro games, gaming, video games,
nes games, 8-bit, old school, nintendo entertainment system, famicom, family computer, 8-bit games, nintendo games, Nintendo gamer, 8-bit gaming, 8 bit, 8-bit gamer, 8-bit music, chiptune, chiptunes, retro gamer, 80s, 90s, 80s video games, 90s video games, game collecting, game collection, retro game collecting, retro game collection, game room tour, gaming tour, NES Hidden Gems, Bad NES Games, Funny NES Games, Nintendo Hidden gems, game boy, nintendo switch, super nintendo world, pat nes punk, avgn, nintendo direct, nintendo high, nintendo life, nintendo 64, nintendo land, dk oldies, angry video game nerd, godzilla nes creepypasta, nes godzilla creepy pasta, lego nes, power pad, tiny toon adventures, miracle piano, karaoke
I'm early Gen Z (born mid-1997), so I have little nostalgia for the NES outside of some Final Fantasy roms my father introduced to me (alongside 8-bit theater) and the games from the 3DS eshop (starting from the ambassador program to creating my own boss rush out of Mega Man save states). Nowadays, the NES is by far my favorite console. It has the best combination of limitations and freedom that inspires creativity and experimentation with sprite/game creation. I am eager to create games for (even if I don't expect a financial return nor make a career out of), to the point where my college capstone was an NES game (I even got to fill my own room up with my own merchandise and designs) that I am still working on. When I professionally act as a video game historian, I naturally keep things to the "official" games within the context of their given markets. When acting as a gamer, whatever's on the table plays! I do my best to buy official rereleases (even lots of Switch ports) and support any official way to acquire the titles (even the unpopular NSO service); roms are a last resort. NESMaker has plenty of potential to start-up an 8-bit re-NES-sance. Some great ideas have already been emerging from their regular "Byte-Off" competitions (one of which just finished up yesterday).
You're a gaming historian?
Very cool! Is your game available anywhere?
@@SECONDQUEST Yes, I am! Specifically, I currently specialize in pixel art (I present the history of pixel art to freshman at a local college) and studying the industry in my doctorate (video game history will play a major role in my dissertation, regardless of the specific topic). I am planning on turning my work and studies into a RUclips channel later this year.
@@BigOleWords No, not as of yet. Programming has been a major weakness of mine, I am still learning music, and the design has changed drastically since lockdowns (it has gone from a simple Mega Man clone to a complex Metroidvania). Progress has been very slow as I am doing things completely solo, also in a doctoral program, and wanting to take the system to its absolute limit (admittedly trying out every graphics trick in the book). So it might take a few years to finish up. NESMaker and some specific textbooks I found have been very helpful thus far, so progress is moving along.
@@BigOleWords Yeah seriously, let's beta test this thing! I play hacks and homebrews all the time.
Can you imagine the one kid that had a Nintendo in some sea side town in Ireland getting Holy Diver for his birthday , It would have got him into metal, then when he is older he forms a Death Metal band.
What could have been!
keep it personal brother! your perspective is what makes your channel enjoyable to watch as you are sharing things from your own viewpoint and experience! its great hearing about your childhood as well as your NES journey into adulthood and broadening your library and exposure to how the history and game genres from all over! its your journey we are just here along for the fantastic ride!❤
Hey thanks! I had to add a bit because I didn’t mention that I’d be discussing this from my own history and realized that wasn’t really the point of the video. This has been a tough one to make.
there is so much content possible with the NES category that breaks down into different subcategories. i think you can always expand into other things that pique your interest! i feel like the NES library is large enough to keep going back to the bottomless well. there are so many games i havent played due to being young and poor but now being older i can buy all of the games i want and with emulation and homebrews i always find something to try out across all platforms! when i watch your videos you share things i never knew existed and points of view and inside info i couldnt even imagine! i appreciate you sharing with us your vast knowledge! you are much more informative and entertaining than just googling the info on my own! after all i dont know what i dont know! keep on doing great videos and i will always click on my notifications of your new releases! do what you like brother!
@@adamkaneshiroThanks for saying that bud :)
I think the channel would be a lot better if he had no personality, summed up the game by rewording the Wikipedia entry, exaggerates how good or bad the game is, made a funny face on the thumbnail, recommended me some waterproof shoes or a soy based drink and had a charity. Oh ! and also clips up his videos and pastes them as shorts.
@@YTKeepsDeletingAllMyCommentsNever say never!
This was great - much more "actual criticism" than the game reviews that make up 99% of YT retro gaming content. Subbed.
Please do more!
Hey thanks! I’ll definitely do more stuff in this vein :)
What !? You're telling me you don't like surface based Wikipedia knowledge, regurgitating opinions and "GAME BAD" based content ? I'll have you know that game is indeed bad even though I haven't experienced it for myself.
Seriously though I would say there's tons of great retro content on RUclips but finding it is a problem. RUclips seemed to make an actual change that I liked last year (among a bunch of awful changes) when it started showing me RUclipsrs who are much smaller and underrated. Glad it recommended this channel and others like Sean Seanson (if you like PS1 centric stuff), Burst Error (covers a wide gamut of 'retro games') and Grimbeard (mostly covers PC games with a horror theme but not always).
I think you referenced Simon's Quest Redacted shortly in the video. I love these kinds of hacks. I tried to play Simon's Quest when I was younger and it was too obtuse to get through. I played Redacted last year and finally beat the game after 30+ years, and enjoyed it too! Great content, would love to see your take on your favorite NES games.
Yep that’s the one!
Castlevania Chronicles 2: Simon's Quest for the PC is my preference.
Such good original renditions of the classic tunes, built in map, slide move, and correct NPC hints.
Yup. Some hacks have basically replaced the base game for me.
Try the LoZ 2 port for the PC. Played it earlier in the year. Its epic.
I don’t remember the specific name of the hack, but this hack not only fixed translation and localization problems, but also added and intro scene and put available a map that was in the original rom but unused. You can bring the map anytime and even if it’s not a big deal, for me just having the option increased the adventure feeling of the game. For me that’s the best experience you can have with castlevania 2.
This is more my philosophy when it comes to retro gaming, not just with the NES, but I believe that if anyone finds a game interesting then it's worth giving their two cents. You never know when someone else might find a new favorite thanks to those two cents. That's how I found The Guardian Legend!
That’s how I found it as well!
Dipping in before watching to help add words so the RUclips Gods shine down upon your channel
🌞🌞🌞
As a philosopher and theologian, asking what something is is never a dumb question. It is one of the most important questions you can ask.
I like it, especially from one so aptly named!
If I may make a comment about the nes and my relation to it.
I'm 26 and was born in 1998. Growing up in the late 2000s I discovered AVGN. His content opened up the flood gates for my discovery of retro gaming.
Fastfoward a few years and I grabbed an NES console at a fleamarket and bummed enough cash from my parents to grab around ,20 games for the nes.
Some of what I had was all 3 Mario's, contra, Zelda, ice climbers, double dribble, Metroid, super dodgeball and a few other sports games and a hidden gem called VICE project doom.
A lot of the games I owned I didn't like as I had been playing modern games and in some cases (such as dodgeball or blades of steel) they had better modern equivalents or were t good enough to hold my attention.
For a long time I ignored the NES overall thinking most of the games werent good and only keeping a small handful of carts. That changed recently thanks to the switch online having a great selection of titles that have aged very well.
A lot of gamers who grew up with the console have to remember that a lot of the games on the NES don't hold up and will cause many younger gamers to lose interest.
Recommending the best titles is key to keeping the machine relevant and fun for gamers who have modern tastes.
Exactly, thank you! We tend to think that our perspectives are universal especially with something that was popular in our formative years, but it’s not, it’s shifts as time goes on and new generations interact with it using new technology.
I feel really old right now.
@@childofcascadiaJust right now? ;)
I was born in 84, and I still remember how much of a banger Jackal was, plus it reminded me when my dad would come over and we would watch like Rambo or Commando/ predator. For me though peak nostalgia would be the genesis/ps1 era for me.
Jackal is a banger and an amazing 2-player title
I've got a strange relationship with the NES. Born in 84, NES was our first console. We, my older brother and I, owned Goonies 2, Metroid, Castlevania 2, and Mario 3. We played them for hours on end. Then once the Genesis came out we almost never touched the NES. That relic was old news! *Sarcasm*
However in the late 90s, towards the end of the N64 and PS1 era, i was a teen working with my dad, I found the jackpot: a box full of NES and SNES games as well as NES and SNES consoles! Totally blew my mind. I played games like Vice: Project Doom and Crash and thr Boys street Challenge. Never heard of them! Gamestop and EB Games were still selling 2D games so you bet it reignited our love of games and continued building our collection. It was at this time too that i actually got good at these games and were able to beat them, something six-year-old me couldn't fathom.
Since then I've become a Dad to twin girls who also appreciate retro gaming. I return to the old consoles every so often but mostly through emulation or modern consoles.
Nice! I think that's what happened for a lot of us, we stopped playing it until we became nostalgic and then suddenly NES games were super cheap so why not?
Great video. I grew up with the NES. Had a shoebox off carts, even trough all the generations since, the NES has stayed more or less hooked up, but also ROMs, hacks, new games and all of the above have intressed me over the years. Sure, I have my biases and nostaligic tendencies but over the years, the exploration have been the most rewarding. Also, I love the retro revival, all the new games, independent of platforms, that in more ways than one remind me of NES - SNES era, like Curse of the Moon and such.
All and all, I´m here for where ever you take this channel, but I would love to see you explore as much as possible with in all that would be the “NES” regardless of era, location or format.
Here´s to you and have a good one
Same dude
@@DeusVults-1523 Yeah dude
@@mazze84 For me, the hacks and homebrews are the main reason I keep coming back.
Sure, the classics will always be there and the hidden gems, both native and abroad are cool, but the well that hopefully will keep on giving
I mean the ever expanding fan creations really keep this console more than alive but thriving. It’s really cool to see!
@@BigOleWords It really is! It’s wonderful to have both the memories from way back when and the fondness that comes with that but also enjoying all the redescovery from other parts of the world and all the really cool new stuff! Long live the NES
Come to think of it, as much as I love NES, I can't think of many (any?) games I discovered as an adult that make me as excited as the games I played as a kid.
I can think of plenty.
Crisis force, holy diver, or games I always wanted to play as a kid but never had the chance, like the final fantasy and dragon quest games.
@@dieinfire920 Right I get it, there are some great ones that I played as an adult. But as far as ones that really hit with the same excitement as being like 9, I guess maybe I would say Dragon Warrior 2 (started playing at 22), or some of the great rom hacks (like Zelda: Amida's Curse) that I've played recently.
Love the content! I’m 31 and love the Nes like yourself I’ll still be watching videos on the nes when I’m 60! Keep it up 👍🏻
29 more years, let’s go!
Absolute respect on this. It's refreshing to see similar playthroughs in the NES Collecting Scene. I've been digging the Releases Limited Run Games have been doing. It was killer to finally see that FF7 8bit title. Im gonna go play Defenders of the Crown now.
Now that’s a game I cannot get into! What am I missing?
I can only discuss it through the lens of someone who was there and experiencing Nintendo conquering the living room in real time, a lot of the younger folks might not be able to understand just how tight of a grip they had on our attention as kids and their growing influence on pop culture at the time. They had a deal with Ralston to sell cereal branded with "Nintendo Cereal System" for Pete's sake, they had us by the balls! But I loved every moment of it, we had a blast.
The existence of the Wizard as a feature length commercial is crazy to think about today.
Great video! This was always a fascinating topic to me, even with other retro systems I enjoy playing.
I feel like I'm generally involved in more niche enthusiast spaces, so it can be refreshing to look back on these consoles from a more "casual" standpoint, like what games would've been the most accessible back then. I think some genres tend to get overlooked entirely by enthusiasts, regardless of how well they sold at the time (sports games, for example)
Great point, and a lot of those sports titles were not only the most popular but actually are better than most deep cut adventure titles.
5:47 the hardest NES/Famicom game ever!!!
I can always tell when somebody else regularly rented from independent video stores like I did because unlicensed games (particularly Tengen ones) get included in their games-I-had-access-to-as-a-kid list. Retailers like Toys R Us tended to stick closely to the seal of quality, so it made sense that those without it pushed into the rental market aggressively. If you look at the list of NES games I played, you can probably deduce exactly when chains like Blockbuster took over from the mom and pop rental shops in my area.
We got someone Tengen copy of Gauntlet and never gave it back, but otherwise I never saw unlicensed NES games til years later. Crazy how many people played a lot of those, including the Bible games.
I’m blown away that you had not played some superior title until you were older!
I grew up very, very modestly. Single parent with an entry level job, and six kids. We had a Nintendo. Any money I ever got either went to gijoes, candy, or NES rentals. I was able to play almost all games because of this.
Good vid either way! Keep ‘em pumpin
I think the good games we’re always checked out at Blockbuster so mostly it was at other kids houses that I played the more popular titles. My sister and I had kinda odd games no one really wants to play!
Your content is so unique!
I'm sure that isn't just me that don't care at all about reviews but love to know other people's experiences with games!
You need to dig into Famicom library BTW!
Kickle Cubicle definitely WAS one of my favorite titles from back in the day. Love that game.
It’s super fun
I like to play with my nieces and nephews, and the NES is easy to jump into, and the games play great while we are all piled on the couch.
Agreed, very little to explain in terms of controls or gameplay.
Some interesting points in this video. I've certainly read a lot about NES games outside of North America (like in some of the video game books I review on my channel), so I know they exist, but in my projects and discussions I usually keep on focusing on or prioritizing "official North American retail-released games". That might be unfair to other 8-bit Nintendo experiences.
That is for sure the simplest, especially when it comes to collecting
This is an awesome topic! I listened while walking Rygar, so now I'll have to watch it again! Thanks, James! Oh, and I always love hearing some TGL backing tracks. Edit: And now I have Metalstorm music in my head!
You got it! Tried to include all the jams :)
Great video, man! And well thought out!
Hey thanks so much!
While I like the idea of using an original console (I have the Game Boy Pocket for example), for my daily spur-of-the-moment entertainment, emulation (with something like the Anbernic devices) is pretty much my go-to choice. No cable setup rituals, no verisimilitude (NES on a handheld? HEATHEN!!), and no regard for a game's historical impact - the only impact that counts, for me, is the impact ON me. So really, anything, old, new, popular, obscure, as long as I get to kill time and have fun, anything should be fair game.
I do appreciate the Jeremy Parish school of historical game design philosophy research, but it arguably benefits game DEVELOPERS than the average players, because if you make a new game for the old consoles, you DO have the need to cater to players who play your retro games differently, either via composite video on a new TV or via modded RGB output to a PVM, or with an emulator. So I suggest that if you review a new game on the NES, it won't hurt to try to see if the play experience is badly degraded on "suboptimal" playstyles compared to original hardware + CRT.
Yeah that is interesting. I’ve never been to concerned about optimal video performance, but in some cases it can really affect things.
I have a retrobat thumb drive and NES USB controllers. Anything that'll play with 2 buttons, and is worth playing, goes on that drive. 8 bit games will basically play on a potato, so i can take that drive anywhere and play. I play all the time with my nieces and nephews. It's easy for them, just the 2 buttons. They also have modern consoles, but there is something about the pick up and play and co-op nature of the games they like.
Even if a game isn't co-op, like Dragon Warrior, one kid can do the controls, while the other kid has the maps and navigates.
I, of course, use the romhack to give double XP and gold on Dragon Warrior, as there isn't a kid nowadays that's going to spend hours grinding like we did back in the day. Lol.
So, yeah, that's the NES to me. I own a hundred carts or so, but mostly it's that Retrobat drive we play on. It's just way easier to get it going.
That does sound like a way more fun way to play DW
As a collector, it's important to narrow things down. I am more a player, and avid emulator, so I collect all the romhacks, translations, and homebrews the NES has spawned over the years.
I guess my personal line is carts. I collect and play the cart era. There are a few CD games I might check out, but I prefer the tight immediacy and collectability of carts.
Yeah I gave up on discs a long time ago. Too many ways it won’t work
nice haircut. good choice!
yeah this variety of perspectives is what's been keeping it fresh for me. nothing in particular to add at the moment.
have some hardware and software preservation projects of my own, but nothing beyond ideas yet, so don't want to deflate the itch to eventually complete them by talking about them before they're underway.
That’s something I live by, don’t talk about what you want to do more than once or twice. After that you’re feeding off the idea instead of working to create it.
14:00 I think region is also a factor. I live in the UK where Nintendo didn't really have a presence. I knew people with an NES and/or a SNES. Off the top of my head I can think of two times I saw an NES when hanging out with a childhood friend - once when I was around 6/7/8 and again when I was in my early to mid teens. Likewise, I remember an older cousin having a SNES. Otherwise, I was more likely to have friends who played on a Mega Drive (aka Genesis), a Saturn or PC gaming, at least prior to the Playstation really taking off here.
Likewise, a lot of iconic games never got released here. I'm big into JRPGs ever since I played FFVII back in the day, but even if I had a NES or SNES when I was a kid, games in like Earthbound, Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy that were released on them never made it over here. I didn't get to play the US versions of FF 1 - 3 until they got ported to the PS1 and GBA.
Grew up with the NES/SNES. Discovered Emulation in the early 00's (remember NESticle and SNES9X?).
Hung on to all my games and systems, and in the late 90s/early 00s, bought games for pennies; if you werent there- you could buy a grocery bag full of carts for $10-20 bucks. Buy the 2010s, NES/SNEs collecting got too rich for my blood.
I do enjoy firing up orginal hardware or emulators from time to time for a memory trip for a couple hours. Cant beat the classics you grew up, or gems you found along the way.
Started playing Shatterhand last month or so- would of loved it as kid.
I see your letter style improving 🤙
Is it? I feel like it leveled out 10 years ago :)
I'm a late Gen-Xer whose first memories of video games were the Atari VCS and the omnipresent arcade cabinets. It was a treat getting a few quarters for the machines at Chuck E. Cheese's, Pizza Hut, or while my mom checked out at the supermarket. When it came time to choose which system I really wanted for Christmas in the late-'80s, the Sears catalog and the in-store displays at both Sears and Montgomery Ward had me in a dilemma. Like many '80s kids, I chose the NES over the SMS or 7800.
Truth be told, though, I always kind of sucked at action and adventure games. I loved Bases Loaded, but otherwise, Final Fantasy became my go-to. It wasn't until FFVII that we got the revelation that there were three unreleased FF games, and it took me years to acknowledge FFIV and VI as opposed to the FFII I'd rented so often and FFIII I'd preordered and picked up on release day.
Video games, like most other hobbies and pastimes, are probably best taken in the context of their time. Is Adventure as good as The Legend of Zelda? In 1986 terms, no, but you can say the same for almost every generation of games and game consoles when it comes to their predecessors. Taking it more modern, I found GTA III to be decent (having already owned and played the earlier top-down GTA games on the PS), GTA: VC to be much better, and GTA: SA to be the pinnacle of that series, before playing GTA V and finding its mission system (in particular, remember, I suck at games that require anything other than choosing a spell or swinging a bat) to make the previous games seem severely antiquated.
Before I ramble too much, I'll close with this: playing original games can be fun, regardless of whether or not original hardware is used. Newer games designed for (or at least to invoke memories of) older consoles can be fun--my recent thing has been playing independent pixel art games, some of which have JRPG vibes. My primary hobbies these days are tools and guns, so I'll make this weird comparison. I have some of my dad's old, corded tools from the '60s and '70s. They're fun to use on occasion, and while they don't match the power or modern usability of my cordless Milwaukee M18 Fuel tools, they invoke memories of simpler times. Similarly, my Winchester 1892 carbine and 1897 Riot gun are obsolete compared to my scary black rifles or modern riot guns, but they represent a bygone era and are still perfectly functional. We don't necessarily have to put the past in a "modern context", per se, but we need to acknowledge that even while progress is being made, the old can still be appreciated.
I find my favorite NES games today are rarely the ones I played as a kid. Gargoyle's Quest II is likely my favorite game now, but I was bored of the genre in 1992 and didn't grab it. As an adult, I can easily play and find my personal favorites without the issues I had at the time, i.e., money and availability.
p.s. It's been years since a Gargoyle's Quest II retrospective has been made. Would love to hear your thoughts on it.
I streamed it recently. It’s a very cool design and story style but I found it super frustrating.
@@BigOleWords Oh no! Parts of it are archaic, like how sometimes you have to use a tool while other times you can just talk to someone and it does the same thing. I didn't know about the stream. I'll have to go back and see if I can find it.
@@mrdrofficerI remember there was a part where you had to beat two or three sections in order to save which was not so fun.
It's crazy watching RUclips videos where 20 year old kids talk about the NES. They'll often get some minor thing wrong, and I feel like an old man for noticing
For all of you who loves homebrews,do a favor to yourselves and play JIM POWER on NES,it's good AF!
I'm definitely a "type 2" in your description of old school gamers. I'm too young to have played NES stuff when it was coming out, my first gaming system was when my family got a SNES from my Aunt in 1994. So I played some SNES, & maybe in 1998 or so I got an N64 for Christmas. My parent's had a family friend who had an NES for their kids (about my age), & two cousins had a NES (they were like 12 years older than me), so I had some experience playing NES.
The specific titles they had are nostalgic for me, but that was like 6~8 games between both those households, so I don't have much nostalgia towards the system. At some point I realized I like the simplicity & the "get right into" gameplay that older games provided, so after about the Wii/Wii U era I went back to playing lots of old games & got an emulator w/ a USB SNES controller & is has NES, Atari 2600, SNES, Turbographx-16, etc, etc (like 20 old systems). So starting around 2019 I have a goal to at least try every North American licensed NES & SNES game. I'm taking my time & now in 2024 I've tried around 575/709 NES games (trying in chronological release order). I play the occasional SNES game outside of chronological order because I get impatient (I'm not waiting to get through 1985~1994 NES + 1991~1995 SNES to try Chrono Trigger for example) so I've tried maybe 10 extra SNES games, but mostly just been playing NES.
I give each game a rating out of 10, write out how far I got in it, don't use save states (only for Phantasy Star on Sega Master System so far as the save feature was bugged in the emulator for that game). Most games work, I think 30~40 out of the 575 didn't work, the only notable title afaik being Mega Man 3.
I'm unsure how I feel about NES games coming out today, haven't really tried any. One thing that I'm guessing they don't emulate perfectly is the limitations of size, but I could be wrong. Someone could make like a 10MB massive homebrew NES game that is incredible compared to most NES games, but when people programmed for the NES back in the day depending on the year they were stuck with like 48~512KB? If homebrew actually follows those limitations that's really cool, but I'm not sure they do. Maybe after my 709 NES, 800+ SNES game journey I'll expand into Famicon, Super Famicon & finally homebrew, but I got so many games to play for now there isn't a need. I could also try more Sega Mastery System, Sega Genesis, NEO GEO, etc, etc games that I really already have a lifetimes worth of games at my fingertips if I want it to last that long.
I still like newer games, just generally not as much & when i do like newer games they're more often indie games that play like old games. F-Zero 99 is a great game, it's a big improvement over F-Zero for SNES & F-Zero for SNES is a very good game. I also like Celeste, & Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.
Impressive your playing through all of them. Even I haven’t played them all!
@@BigOleWords
the prices of most nes games are ridiculous these days if they were priced far more reasonable id probably start up a collection myself
That’s a good point I didn’t address as it definitely affects accessibility and choice.
I bet this video will crack the 150k mark
Some hacks replace the base game for me. Super Mario Brothers Co-Op is one. There's no change to single player, but if you choose 2 players it's co-op. It's badass. I probably wouldn't play the original Metroid again without the save + map hack.
Lol, for Rad Racer, which I could never beat, I combined the Beetle sprite hack with an Easy Mode hack. So now I've beat it, but not really. 🙂
That’s really interesting, like once you’ve seen the best version why go back?
@@BigOleWords Yeah. I'm not so driven by nostalgia that I can't favor a latter day hack. I like to play, and the 8 bit game style is sweet.
Well said!
Great video!
Thanks mane!
Any chance you've got the name of the metroid romhack at 7:43? Always love your channel, would love to see romhack reviews from you, there are so many out there and I'd trust you for recs
Rogue Dawn! And yeah one day I will. Lately I’ve been expanding my topics more and more…
I love this idea for a video. It's wild how difficult it is to find and an Excel spreadsheet of each game. You'd think someone would be logging this kind of data, so we can do this type of analysis
What kind of data do you mean exactly?
@BigOleWords it'd be nice to have a usable database that had definitive information for titles, release dates in regions, and maybe some extra details like genre or developer.
I guess you can get a lot of this info off the Wikipedia table you referenced, but I'm lazy!
Well Final Fantasy 3 IS the best 8-bit RPG out there, for reals. And I'd dare say Bucky O'Hare is one of the best NES games period. As far as cartoon-based games go, I much prefer it to DuckTales.
And OOOOOOH Rainbow Brite for NES! Was that any good?
No its awful. It’s like weird port of a shitty commodore version. No idea why it exists
As a kid I only owned about 5 NES games. But I rented them all the time, and I don't ever remember disliking a game that I rented. I thought they were all good. My knowledge of what games existed was limited to whatever was on the rental display, and I don't think I ever once thought to myself that there might be more games out there that I don't know about. What became surprising to me later in life was learning that certain games that I loved as a kid (for example, Bart vs. the Space Mutants which I must have rented 4 or 5 times) are otherwise considered bad games by most other people, or that games that I didn't have all that much trouble beating (like Battletoads) are now considered notoriously difficult.
That’s awesome and I’d guess a pretty common feeling. I remember liking games more than others but spent tons of time on “bad” games and never thought they weee bad at all.
Super great conversation here. Very enjoyable and a fun listen and watch. Really had me thinking about how I look at the games and why I chose to collect them. Great video and work man!
Thanks so much for saying that!
2D visuals and chiptune music (+ savestates) is what I consider to be the ideal gaming experience. Nothing more complicated than that.
The Snes and Nes are my favorite systems by far. I have about 300 games in my digital/physical library for each. I've only beaten about 90 games for each, but I'm not really stressing out about that. Writing guides is my number 1 priority. Beyond that, I'll play whatever I happen to feel like playing.
Nice to see some Battle Kid. I'll likely never touch Mega Man 9 or 10 again (much less 11), but I keep going back to Battle Kid. If you have the skill set required, it's a great time.
Nice! Yeah I've only messed with Battle Kid a little, but it's definitely what I think of when the word Homebrew comes up.
I was lucky to have an awesome NES rental shop in my town very early and they would import games from Japan along with the adapters with the ribbon.
I vividly recall playing Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Ninja Hattori Kun, and a cartidge of SMB2 (the FDS version) which must have been some kind of bootleg.
I think for collecting purposes you just have to kind of "draw the line somewhere" so to speak, amd try to build an interesting collection that represents you and tells your story in some way.
Whoa cool! If I might ask, where did you grow up?
This is an excellent... video essay? Yeah. It's a good synopsis of approaches to the subject, from the general to the minutiae.
AND- perhaps sharing your own interests and enthusiasm for/ joy in, playing old carts/roms/etc might be the best way to encourage interest in the subject, which helps people find their own way.
Cheers!
Hey thanks man!
At one point I had a decent collection, but events in my life I ended up loosing what I originally had. So in the last few years I have been slowly getting back a whole new collection. It definitely is a quite different environment these days. People actually want the physical copies so the price is a lot higher. This makes obtaining them a lot harder with a limited budget. Strangely this has made me look around a bit more for titles I’ve never heard of but picked up because they were in the $15-$25 price range. On top of that I have found channels like this one that open up a whole new set I might not even been aware of. This I find awesome as trying to collect can be daunting!
Right now my goal is to have 100 licensed NA titles before trying to rate them. It doesn’t mean I’ll be stopping. Eventually I want to see how many I need to get before I get 100 I consider worthwhile. Now this doesn’t mean I’m not getting unlicensed, imports or bootlegs. I just set a goal for myself. Sure it’s seems a bit OCD to do it this way, but it has been interesting to start over again and seeing the differences from then and now!
Anyways, alway love seeing your collection! Your show is a treat for us NES enthusiasts 😊
Honestly more than 100 starts to give me “what should I play syndrome” where I browse a lot but never play anything
Interesting type of video. I think most people look back on retro consoles with nostalgia which means only the good games will ever be talked about however it's important to talk about the bad games as well. Most top 10 list are of that. Someone's top 10 favorite games on that system. Rarely do I see a top 10 list talking about the most important and influential games. Whether they be good or bad.
To me, the entire NES library are games released from 1985 to 1995 in NA. This includes the unlicensed games as well. Games were made after that and are still being made today which is fine but I don't consider them part of the library. To me it's more like "Oh hey, that would have been a cool game back then".
If you think about it, all homebrew NES games are technically unlicensed. None of them have been approved by Nintendo. Since they are unlicensed, do you include them with the others that were released between 85-95? It's a debate within a debate.
That’s true, they are unlicensed! And yeah I think if you could buy it in stores during the NES heyday that fits.
As someone that's going for a complete North American PS2 collection, I've also limited myself to official releases in my region. Why? Because while I love the PS2 as my childhood console and having one of the longest official support (fifa 14 legacy edition, last official release that was made alongside 2 generations later), no one is making PS2 demakes and home brew (at least not on the quality of NES games), and I don't want to go through the process of moding a console to make it region free or able to play home brew. Plus, it's also like the largest libraries already so I'll be busy for quite a while.
That’s a big library! And yeah, at least that console is constrained to official titles from various regions. I wonder if home brews will ever be made for the later systems…
The NES may have been my first game system(used) however I have a mixed views
My brother told my that super Mario 2 was a reskin of Doki Doki Panic back when I was in high school (early 2000's)
Ahead of the curve!
Well said, James! Long live the Nintendo Entertainment System, and everyone who's grown up playing video games! We're all part of the same family, the same team. I really like how this channel brings people together, and brings out the best in us.
🕹️ 📺 🎮
Love that it’s all positive!
A very balanced and well thought out take on this subject. You have helped me understand my own turbulent views of the issue. As a certified Nintendo Kid (born '77), I definitely have had to look at this part of my life through many different lenses. Thank you.
Thanks! If you’re like me it’s jarring to see all the people wearing 80s and 90s metal band shirts who’ve never heard their music. The present is wild and the future who knows!
So, I myself have,or so I like to think, an interesting relationship with retro games. I grew up in the early 2000’s, so the GameCube was my childhood console. But as long as I can remember I’ve always been interested in the generations past. I own an NES as well, and have collected games for it where I can find a good deal. I too like to find the weird and obscure since I have no nostalgia for the system and not necessarily influenced by those who grew up with it. I just think it’s more exciting to explore its library for the unknown, and sometimes find the unusual.
That’s awesome and exactly why I started this channel, to explore the neglected titles.
I'm someone who was into videogames all my life, but the existence of the _RPG genre_ was a secret to me until around the time Pokemon took off. Within a year of that, Dragon Quest and Paper Mario became two of my favorite videogame franchises even if the latter only has two and a half good entries. Sometimes you do get into something "a little late" and my opinions on the genre would probably have been vastly different if I started with the clunky NES versions of Dragon Warrior rather than the streamlined and expanded Game Boy ports, or if I'd seen/heard of them even once before mastering the written language. Great genre for ten year olds and teens, don't think it'd have been as fun for a four or five year old.
I have strong and complicated opinions on almost every prominent turn-based RPG of the 8 and 16 bit generations, and usually slightly more mixed or indifferent opinions on action-RPGs or action games that incorporated one or two RPG elements. This is also the genre I've been developing as a hobby since roughly 2002, and developer insight gives me a lot of appreciation for what things I can learn, what mistakes I can avoid, and an insider look at the thought processes that can lead to both very good or very bad design choices.
Yeah that’s a tough genre for me. My first was FF7, so going back later to play FF1 on NES was a real chore.
What kind of game are you working on?
I'm in your first nostalgia category. But I think it's important to consider the year of the game's development and release. Otherwise, it really isn't fair to the Black Box series to compared them what could be done in the 90s and beyond without at least a little leeway.
There's technology, tools and techniques that just didn't exist or weren't feasible. Not to mention the refinement of what is and isn't fun in video games in those years and decades. Not to mention the mountains of games since then for creators to crib ideas to go back to the NES.
So, I'm always going to weigh the older stuff a little more. I do the same with films, too. I don't it's fair to hold Logan's Run to the same visual spectacle as Star Wars.
That said, Bionic Commando is the best NES game. Yup, even better than that one.😉
Great points and totally agree about films, like comparing Metropolis with Avengers needs a ton of context.
Not sure if you’ve seen it but the video I made on the 3 eras of the NES relates to your points. Comparing the Black Box with the 1993 Konami titles again requires a ton of context: ruclips.net/video/CmVFTubjRBs/видео.htmlsi=SgKzOEIM_WSu_zQH
I started playing video games on the Atari 2600 in the the mid 80s and then moved on to the NES around 87. The closest thing I could compare it to would be if you started listening to rock and roll with Elvis and as you grew up, rock grew up with you.
That is a good comparison!
@@BigOleWords That would of course make the SNES the Beatles to the Sega Genesis Rolling Stones!
@@jasonking3182Those are actually pretty solid parallels!
There isn’t just one way to consider what makes up the NES library. In my collection I combine the official and non-official releases of the period because I played them both as a kid. I keep the home brews separate because they come after the NES period. I’ve been considering adding the few home brews I have into the main collection display but I’m just not there yet.
Haha I share the same bias about homebrews
there will be some material about these compilations, here in Poland there were no such cartridges resembling nes, more famicom ones, I have never seen these, I recommend watching the Dendy Chronicles series or reading the book Family Bits
I’ll check em out, thanks!
I think there's genuinely a variety of ways to discuss retro consoles since everybody has their own experiences but there's room for all voices, I think. Some people come at it from a more technical angle, some people come at it from a more nostalgia perspective. What matters in that conversation is how YOU discuss this stuff. We don't come here because we want to hear you discuss technical aspects of ROM chips - that is to say, unless it's something you're interested in. Everybody has a different voice and we come to you because you're an unruly bastard. Also, because I have friends in Atlanta I want you to book at your bar but that's beside the point. The fact is that you gotta approach it in a way that feels authentic to you, no matter how it comes out.
I don’t think anyone has ever described me as an unruly bastard. I love it! And sadly the bar closed in 2020 with Covid, but I can for sure recommend venues
10:37 considering I played kickle cubical all the time on my hand me down NES, and can beat the first world without any challenge (but kind of stopped there because my turn would always be over by then and my brother only ever wanted to play teenage mutant ninja Turtles), that's definitely one of my top games
Lucky! Kickle rules!
Really enjoyed listening to your Opinions Opinions on this, What you were saying made a lot of sense to me, We certainly do like to label and categorise things, I can tell you spent a lot of time over the years really thinking about this , As I was listening to speak I thought to myself F me This video must have taken forever To write 😂 You're definitely a much smarter Guy then I am , Great job mate
Dude I probably rewrote and abandon this 20 times since I started this channel. Even now I’m not sure if I really got my point across as clearly as I wanted. Fun times!
Where in the world you are also ends up being very important. For example, collecting retro video games is considerably more difficult in several Latin American countries. There are no specialty stores, no conventions; nor a very dynamic retro scene. Finally, you end up depending a lot on emulation, and when you emulate the games and ignore physical formats, it is easier to open up to famicom or home-made games.
Exactly! I'm always fascinated when people from other parts of the world comment about how obscure games for me were actually super common for them, like Power Blade 2 for some reason :)
as a younger person here (22) i find discussing things in context to be pretty important, but some people get a bit too hung up on that. "the best they could do for the time" isn't really a meaningful phrase when the games are more than fun enough to be played tens of years from now and still be just as great
good games stay good, you just need the right perspective to enjoy them
That is a wise perspective to have!
I love to see that the best gaming system that ever existed and the one that gave me the most happiness is still alive and strong even today thanks to the efforts from the community (and occasionally from Nintendo itself). I experienced the three perspectives with different games, sometimes even at the same time, so I can definitely welcome all games into the discussion. Long live the NES!
That’s awesome
6:13 what's the baby platformer game? I think i used to know but i also think my memory is garbled garbage. Sweet drawing! 😊
Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa :)
As somebody who has dozens of homebrews for various Atari systems, I find myself playing and talking about the original retail releases more.
Interesting…
Whoah this is like a manifesto or a dissertation. Is it a treatise?🤔🤷🏻♂️
It's my PHD defense
@@BigOleWords board certified Dr. B.O. Words. 👨🏻⚕️👾🎮
I totally respect your approach on how you take the conversation and the way you choose games for your videos. However I do think that SOME unlicensed games could be included, with “some” I refer to the games that were available in the market when you (and me) were young, like Tengen games and even those terrible wisdom tree games.
Maybe even some multicarts.
When I was young (I’m 44) I used to rent some of those games like rolling Thunder.
I understand we all have had different experiences, in my case as someone from Latin America (I’m from Chile, currently in Japan) I had a clone nes that included many games in memory, most of them were Japan only, so for me is genuine nostalgia when I talk about some famicom games like devil world, karateka twin bee etc because I had them back in the day. Even some pirate games like Master Fighter I owned at the time I owned little Samson.
A topic I didn’t mention, and it’s about collecting:
I don’t see any value on collecting translated roms into cartridges, for me it’s like to have an mp3 or digital only release converted into vinyl or cassette. It’s a pandora box and if you go the hack roms into cartridges, then you’ll never finish collecting.
I respect the people collecting though, of course :)
I sometimes get English translations out on cartridges just for streaming, but yeah what’s the point of collecting those?
I’m really curious about Latin and South American NES enthusiasts as it seems like y’all got a mix of official and bootleg carts thetr depending on what country your from.
@@BigOleWords in the case of Chile the primary market was same like in the US with official nes console and games, but for the price of one jWall Street Kid or TMNT official nes cartridge you could get three bootleg cartridges with ninja gaiden 3, little Samson and mighty final fight to put an example, many kids went that route and got those in secondary market on small flea markets or more underground shopping districts that also carried lot of those multi games cartridges.
Same with the consoles. Buying a NES with SMB/duck hunt compared to a knockoff console that additionally to those two also included contra, Goonies,karateka, ninja kid, adventure island, bomberman, legend of Kage, ice climber, lunar ball, all the nes zapper games, and countless early nes/famicom titles in an internal memory… well, for some the choice was clear :)
@@BigOleWords about English translations I hope you can stream adventure island 4 one day. But specially I hope you give 3 a try too.
Other cool games for streaming could be battle of Olympus or some Kid game like low G man.
wow, an essay! Plase make more
You got it!
Starting off with a proper use of the word "comprise"; this is going to be a good video.
Don’t worry, someone will be along soon enough to point out how I misused another word ;)
@BigOleWords
You pronounced crystalis wrong, dude. 😆
But then you said banal and pronounced it right so I forgive you.
@@childofcascadiahahaha
Q: How do we discuss the NES in a modern context?
A: As the greatest console of all time.
Done and done!
Anyone know the name of the shmup briefly shown at 11:54? And the other one shown at 13:32? Thanks
Crisis Force which I haven’t reviewed yet and Recca: Summer Carnival ‘92 which I talked about a few weeks ago :)
First couple links in the description aren't there. Like the NES Playlist.
Sorry, which links?
Fantastic video
Hey thanks so much!
Excellent video essay. I find myself switching between similar modes of thinking: the contemporaneous library, the extended library of Famicom exclusives, and the modern library (with a heavy bias for homebrews rather than hacks and mods).
For example, I tend to give an old, flawed game a pass when it "doesn't age well" according to current gameplay standards. It was a product of its era and should be judged accordingly.
Very cool. I tend to give homebrews a lot of leeway because of the effort and dedication put in
@@BigOleWords exactly! Especially when you consider that a homebrew is usually made by one or two people, and rarely a team. It harkens back to an earlier time in when a whole game would be developed by just one person.
Great video man. Quick question: I recognized the music from Blaster Master and The Guardian Legend; I thought I heard a bit of Batman? And I'm not quite pinpointing the rest. (Except Adventure Island.) What games did I miss? It's driving me nuts man. 😂
You got it! In order:
Blaster Master
Ufouria
Bucky O'Hare
Guardian Legend
Adventure Island
Double Dragon II
Kid Icarus
Metal Storm
Shadow of the Ninja
Mighty Final Fight
Kirby's Adventure
@@BigOleWords Nice. Thanks man! Not gonna lie; I'm slightly salty that I failed to recognize Metal Storm, I fckn love that game.
How about a 4th perspective of the nes,like being amezed why the nes was sooo successful? There’re lot’s of reasons for wich i think that it was actually amezing why the nes did became so successful,that’s because what 99,99% of people just don’t know is that for instance early nintendo games did came out on other systems including the atari 7800 and intelevision etc,,,
The nes was not in every way per se more advanced then it’s competitor’s systems,
Supermariobros turns out to be not the first side scrolling platformer because that medal belongs to pac land,
Zelda was not the first rpg game,that may belongs to hydlide,
Metroid was not the first exploring adventure shooting game,that may belongs to thexder etc,,,,
What i want to say by this is that the nes along with it’s games weren’t so unique and/or original as most people might think ,yes 20 years ago i didn’t knew any better because i tout for a long time that nintendo took it over from atari because of their outdated atari 2600 system along with it’s outdated looking games ,i tout nintendo revolutionized gaming but that was not the case because atari had their powerful 5200 system and nintendo evolutionized gaming by inspiring their games from other existing ones,am mean once i discovered all those things, it became a huge wake up call to me to realize all of this,so no matter how much i still do love my nes and how much fond memories i do got with it,but once i discovered the atari 7800 with it’s cool library of games including nintendo games,i have a totally different perspective about the nes.
Yeah I wouldn’t say Nintendo invented any of the genres you mentioned, but I do think their games were way better designed in every way possible
@@BigOleWordsyeah nintendo may have reinveted the wheel to became more famous with their nes ,gameboy and it’s games but it would be still interesting to dig back before 1984 to remind everyone about those things because they formed an important role what would coming,it’s sad that those things appeared into obscurity,being forgotten and obsolete,
Since ihave gathered information about this things since the late 2010’s & 2020’s, i look very different at the nes then i did back in the 90’s & 00’s,
What i do found innovative wich nobody ever did before was coming up with a robot for their game console,because till this day nobody did that.
Son I think I'm 10yrs older than you, maybe 15, I'm 48, you?
Haha I guess I could’ve also counted the other direction and those perspectives would change as well! 41 ;)
Spoiler: ATLANTIS NO NAZO is better than Super Mario Bros!
Hot take!
This was an excellent vid on the subject! I hadn't really considered all the possible breakdown points & what one might consider NES & not.
Hey thanks for saying that!
@@BigOleWords very welcome! Your channel has become my favorite retro gaming channel. I very much appreciate your laid back style (no yelling at the camera is good)
Feels like chilling out with a friend rather than watching a vid
All valid perspectives on The NES are contained within the now classic film 8-bit Christmas. So sayeth St. Neil Patrick Harris.
Still haven’t seen it!
@@BigOleWords It's alright. Hasn't dethroned The Wizard for classic NES nostalgia films.
Excellent video, well presented and good to open the discussion 👍🏼
Hey thanks for saying that!
Great restropective - those socks are truly inspirational.. 🧦
Haha thanks, they chose me!
Its absolutely crazy the comments in here and I was a legal adult when these people were born. I thought only us olds were into this stuff.
Heres fun. Growing up with a famicom and NES in the US in the 80s.
Wait, you had both?!?
Yeah. My aunt lived in Japan for half the year working at a foreign exchange student company from the early 80s till she retired in the early 2010s. I had access to a *lot* of Japanese shit in the days before the internet, including games and media. I had a famicom (no FDS tho) and a bunch of games. In the mid 80s. Still have it actually. It sucks tho cuz my parents didnt let us have a NES until 1991 cuz why did we need that because famicom. Except for Im really into RPGs and reading hiragana is hard. (I can read both hiragana and katakana. I used to do it with my Japanese to English dictionary for words I didnt know. As a kid. Fun. Taught me some Japanese tho.)
Where I grew up, it wasnt hard to get Japanese stuff. There was Famicom games at import shops even back then. Although it was way cheaper if my aunt bought them for us over there and brought them back, but as that only happened once a year, I usually had to pay import price if I wanted more than one new game a year. I pretty much mostly switched to NES once I had one.
@@childofcascadiaThat's really cool! You were one of the few I was describing and probably had no idea at the time how rare that was.
I grew up with the nes and have always treated it as a 'if I can put it in the machine and play it for real on my TV, it counts" guy
That’s how I’ve always been as well, but then I bought a Famicom converter for my NES and the floodgates have opened
@@BigOleWords Haha, see, already my communication didn't convey what I mean, something else that happens in discussions as well...because I literally meant if I can get it into my system and running, it counts. This includes everdrive, I have a converter and a bunch of fami games, modern fami games and homebrew (I hate that term...btw, but it's what we use I guess) NES games. I'm interested in what the machine can express in graphics sound and gameplay because it's the one thing all developers must do: tame the machine.
I do agree, though. When I started collecting in late 99, prices were obviously very agreeable, but around 2011, I was pretty angry at pricing and noticed fami games were still reasonable even if you bought them in box with manual, so I switched over after buying about 10 cheap blackbox games looking for the converter. I think the only fami game I paid more than I would like to admit to paying is Gryzor, but that's just because Contra is one of my favorite games and buying Gryzor felt like a Critereon collection directors cut of it. I had to have it. :)
When my brother and I got an nes for Christmas, I also was given Paperboy. It has always been one of my favorites...are you suggesting that is possibly just the nostalgia speaking?
Possibly! I mean it’s not BAD but I’d personally rather play 400 other NES games first.
@@BigOleWords Well, it allowed me to retire in glory at age 10, so it can't be THAT bad!
@@Jim_S.hahaha
This video is great. It maybe be the best video I've ever seen. But if I had to choose between getting these videos and getting my mail, I'm gonna have to choose my mail.
Goodbye mailbox.
Hahahaha. I just remembered my State cameo I added at the end!
@@BigOleWords I'm glad you got it and didn't just think a bot wrote you a random message...in a Tuxedo!
@@itsmerickvhaha at first that is what I thought!
Well said. I’m gonna guess you and I are about the same age. So I liked how you mention media in how and when you experienced it. Let’s compare Metallica and I don’t know, Super Mario. Guys like us can admit 72 Seasons and Super Mario Wonder are great, but we’re still gonna romanticize how good And Justice For All and Super Mario Bros 3 were. How they may have “changed our lives”. Younger people may or may not get it like we do
Oh that band from Stranger Things! JK ;). Also Wonder is boring, I don’t get it.
@@BigOleWords I kinda get that in a way. I’m one hand, Super Mario never really fails, but this one did feel like ‘more of the same’ I suppose
@@Metal-JoshI just played it last weekend with my Aunt. I guess it felt exactly like all the recent 2D Marios. I had some issues with Odyssey but that game was way more interesting than Wonder.
I love this conversation. We shall discuss it as big ole nerds!
That’s the only way to do it!
This makes me think of Monopoly the board game. Super influential and important in board game history (possibly the MOST important), but it isn't very fun by modern standards.
Really enjoy these reflective/academic type videos analyzing how people engage with the NES library!
Hey thanks so much, glad you liked it :)
There are no rules for how to discuss your favorite things.
Even no rules is a rule in itself ;)
Great video, Bimmy!
I love your open-minded philosophy to the community. If we could tackle all discussions on the internet in the way you've framed discussing the NES, I think it would be a far more civil place.
Although, I would miss a few meltdowns happening from time to time. I'd probably also be out of a mod career!
P.S. Congrats on the hair cut. :)
That’s me, always keeping it civilized!
It is absolutely incredible to be able to discover SO MANY hidden gems thanks to English translation of these many many games that never left Japan when initially released. Thanks to places like Romhacking and CdRomance, we're now, over 40 years later, still discovering incredible games!
And thanks to youtubers like you and Metal Jesus Rocks (one of the first) of course! Keep up the good work, incredible analysis on this one, which we don't often see on RUclips apart maybe from Retro Bird, he's doing similar content and that's also brilliant so I'm happy his channel is finally taking off a bit. Wish the same for you too!
Actually, there's a much simpler way to view it: as the savior of video games. The industry was nearly kaput after the infamous video game crash*. The NES revived it. That said, accept that some will have unpopular favorites. And that's fine. Freedom of speech and besides, unpopularity is not necessarily wrong.
*Partly really was the shock over Atari for ET (which made the news), partly because of the arcade crash that the early 1980's recession caused.
Everyone is welcome to the party, for sure; but for me, it's all about nostalgia -- you've got it backwards though! -- Hot take: back in the day, new games were coming out every month for the NES -- it wasn't some "finite" set of games. It had an infinite future with who knows what will come out next month. Yeah, the games you own right now might not be the best ones on the system, but what about the new games coming out? -- Your birthday or xmas might have been coming up and you might get a new game that you'd never heard of and it would be amazing... -- from that point of view: I get my nostalgia fix from all the modern releases that are constantly coming out (especially the ones that are being made available on cartridge). -- I feel nostalgic knowing that new games are constantly coming out for the system, with no end in sight. The game guides will never be complete. -- Just like back when I was a kid. 🤘