Here are my top 10 Nintendo titles and characters.  Meaning just the original NES.

One game per series, and going by my own bizarre definition of best, here we go.

1)      Super Mario Brothers 3

2)      Metroid

3)      Megaman2

4)      Legend of Zelda II

5)      Ninja Gaiden

6)      River City Ransom

7)      Bionic Commando

      Kid Icarus

9)      Contra

10)    Final Fantasy

Top NES characters of all time.

1)      Samus Aran (Metroid)

2)      Megaman (Megaman)

3)      Radd Spencer (Bionic Commando)

4)      Ryu Hayabusa (Ninja Gaiden)

5)      Barry Sanders (Tecmo Super Bowl)

6)      Jason (Blaster Master)

7)      Strider Hiryu (Strider)

      Snake (Metal Gear)

9)      Simon Belmont (Castlevania)

10)    Little Nemo (The Dream Master)

Feel free to share your own list, or thoughts on mine!

Here we go

1.) Super Mario Bros. 3

2.) Metroid

3.) Metal Gear

4.) Snake's Revenge

5.) Super C

6.) Super Mario Bros.

7.) Contra

8.) Double Dragon 2

9.) Zanac

10.) Deja Vu

CHARACER?!?!?!? Okay I'll submit...

1.) Mario

2.) Samus Aran

3.) Solid Snake

4.) Pit

5.) Billy Lee/Jimmy Lee

6.) Bill Rizer (I think that's the guy from Contra's name)

7.) Radd Spencer

8.) Link

9.) Donkey Kong

10.) Bomberman

......... The NES has the greatest variety of Characters I've ever seen, original variety I mean.

Yeah I guess I should have specified "heroes", but I wanted to sneak in Barry Sanders.  That guy's just unstoppable in Tecmo Super Bowl.

Man, great lists.  Some great ones I forgot there! 

Interesting to note:  we both agree on Super Mario Brothers 3 being the #1 title. 

But as much as I enjoy some of the mario games, the character himself is kinda boring to me.

If you could only pick one game per series, how would that change your top 10 games list?

Well.... to narrow it down is kinda tough for me. I currently have over 100+ NES games, and I like most of them. Mario is a bit boring, but I put him up there because of his originality for his time.

So here it is narrowed!

1.) Super Mario Bros. 3

2.) Metroid

3.) Metal Gear

4.) Super C

5.) Double Dragon 2

6.) Zanac

7.) Deja Vu

8.) Shadowgate

9.) Bomberman

10.) Dick Tracy

On a side note, I think Solid Snake is the most well developed, well thought out character ever created. How often can you say you have two clones? That would be awesome.

Ok...here's mine:

1. Mega Man 2

2. Dragon Warrior

3. Shadowgate

4. Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link

5. Final Fantasy

6. Wizardry: Trials of the Mad Overlord

7. Ninja Gaiden 2: Dark Sword of Chaos

8. Double Dragon 2: The Revenge

9. Duck Hunt

10. Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest

As for characters...

1. Simon Belmont

2. The Hero from Dragon Warrior ( I call him The Man)

3. Proto Man

4. Samus Aran

5. The Black Belt from Final Fantasy

6. Jason Voorhees

7. Trevor Belmont

8. Solid Snake

9. Quaid from Total Recall

10. Ryu Hyabusa

There's my top ten for each! It's too hard to chose! @_@

My god, you got some hard games in your top 10 MAK, have you beaten all those?

I've beaten half of them. I got to the end on the others...well except for Duck Hunt. I don't think you can beat that one.

6. Wizardry: Trials of the Mad Overlord

--I could never beat this one...  But you're right, it's an amazing game.

I got whooped on by the final boss and stopped playing it. I did manage to beat the fifth one.

The old school Wizardry games are pretty much the ultimate rpg challenge for retro gamers.  So unforgiving and difficult, they were WAY ahead of their time for American made RPG's--customized characters, non linear gameplay...

And if you get too far off the path, it will spank you pretty bad.

Oh, trust me, That game wallopped me on numerous occasions. Like the time I had to fight my way out of the pits of hell.

I was reading through GameInformer this month and they did one of my favorite pieces.  They did the sacred cow roast.  For those who are unfamiliar with what this it let me explain.  GameIformer takes some of the most popular and beloved games and tells us what is wrong with them because most people are willing to over look the flaws because they love the games so much.

The reason I like this article so much is because it does point the things we over look in very popular games.  I also like seeing the backlash they get from people who just had their favorite game bashed.  People who get upset over this article need to take a step back and chill out.  GameInformer is just poking fun at some games.  It is ok to do, every game has some kind of flaw.

The other reason I like reading this is because they have hit on some games I really enjoy and I find myself thinking back to playing that game and going "Yeah, that part of the game made no sense what so ever."  If you can handle the joke that is intended they I suggest reading this article to see if one of your favorite games made the list.

As you will all see in the future, TonyB has a Retry cooking up for Kabuki Quatum Fighter on the NES, so I totally have to add the main character, Colonel Scott O' Conner, from that game to the list

Video Game Saga at October 22, 2010 at 1:06 AM

As you will all see in the future, TonyB has a Retry cooking up for Kabuki Quatum Fighter on the NES, so I totally have to add the main character, Colonel Scott O' Conner, from that game to the list

Ok Scott O'Connr is pretty memorable.

But for me, I think I may have to put a new guy in my top 10, also created bu Human Entertainment like Scotty.

Mark, the boy with the monster Bert inside him, from the game Monster Party.

Wow.  Just wow.  Been playing this game lately and I think it changed me.  I stared into the abyss, and somehow it stared back--other games are now no longer the same. 

DUDE!  Kabuki Quatum Fighter?  Talk about a difficult game.  Can't wait to see the Retry? to see how that went.  I can't imagine it went well for ya TonyB and for that I am sorry.  I think the furthest I ever got in that game was level 3.

PizzaNinja at October 22, 2010 at 11:45 AM

DUDE!  Kabuki Quatum Fighter?  Talk about a difficult game.  Can't wait to see the Retry? to see how that went.  I can't imagine it went well for ya TonyB and for that I am sorry.  I think the furthest I ever got in that game was level 3.

I beat level 3... but it did not go well.  To give you an idea, the ENTIRE FAIL VIDEO is JUST from level 3.

grinding gears.  flame jets.  ice patches. moving platforms.  random enemies.  no checkpoints.  no mercy.

Here is my top NES Games:

Excite Bike

Galaga

Zelda

Super Mario 3

Tetris

Life Force

Paper Boy

Wizards and Warriors