Gadgetory

the year is 1988 a Nintendo is still the king of gaming at the moment beating out arcades and other home consoles but a new challenger appears in Japan not long before the end of the year the Sega Megadrive known better in the States as the Sega Genesis the second console to be released and considered part of the fourth generation of home gaming systems despite this fact though this year consisted of some of the best games ever to grace the NES and here are 5 of the best first off is the original Ninja Gaiden don't you mean Ninja Gaiden now what's a little confusing about this game is that in 1988 two different games called Ninja Gaiden were released in the States by the same company the actual Ninja Gaiden released on NES and an arcade game known in other countries as shadow warriors despite the similar name the arcade game was a traditional single-player side-scrolling beat'em up while the NES game is an action platformer that's not only super challenging but a ton of fun the game's difficulty stemmed from relentless enemies time stages and a lot of platforming that's made more interesting by being able to hang on to walls and scale things vertically what's most impressive about this game though is that for its time they packed a lot of plot into it most action games were very simple there's a bad guy he did a thing go kill a bunch of his mooks then go kill the final boss Ninja Gaiden on the other hand packed a whole freakin movie into the game featuring 8-bit style cutscenes between every level that detailed a whole story complete with all the important bits like vengeance intrigue and a love interest this game spawned a whole trilogy and eventually led to a series reboot on the Xbox in 2004 second up is Dragon Quest 3 following the success of the first two Dragon Quest 3 pushed the mechanics of the series even further featuring a day and night cycle an open nonlinear world to explore and the ability to change up your party with varying classes while it forms a trilogy with the first two games it actually takes place first and works as a prequel to the original game allowing players to experience an adventure that has now legend in the first game it's also one of the top-selling NES games in Japan of all time having sold over a million copies on its first day eventually hitting 3.8 million it sold so well on its first day that there were actual records for arrests of how many students were truant to go grab the game and play it instead of going to school sadly though it didn't have nearly as strong of an impact in the States mainly because it was released four years later arriving at a time when the game's visuals sound and mechanics all felt extremely outdated especially since the Super Nintendo had already been out for a whole year the third on the list is contra on the NES now yes contra did originally come out in arcades in 1987 but the NES version despite having simplified graphics and mechanics has become the most recognizable version of the game following the footsteps of Double Dragon contra made for one of the most memorable experiences of local multiplayer allowing two friends to work together and shoot down waves of enemies all while carefully dodging attacks thrown at them as a single hit meant certain death this is also a great example of how games started to flourish on home console over arcade instead of having to pour tons of quarters into a machine to even have a chance of finishing the game players just have to keep trying with a limited set of lives making it not only a lot cheaper in the end but also a much more attainable goal for the average gamer also while it wasn't the first game in the u.s. to use it it is the game responsible for popularizing the Konami code where players could hit up up down down left right left right BA on the title screen to start the game with 30 lives rather than just three next up is one of my personal favorites and that's Mega Man 2 well the first Mega Man had its strengths it wasn't quite a fully formed experience just yet and the changes to made to the formula led to it not only becoming the most popular Mega Man game but to this day is still the best-selling one of the original series this was all thanks to an overall improvement individuals one of the most memorable game soundtracks to date and a balanced sense of difficulty that was way better than the original game featuring a handful of challenging puzzles as opposed to one or two insanely annoying platforming segments it also added the password system giving players a way to continue their progress rather than have to restart the game every time they boot it up and give you a way to heal yourself on command with etanks whether than relying on pure blind luck or grinding enemies for health this game alone rocketed the series into success leading to eight more core games and a ton of spin-offs and reboots like a Megaman X and Mega Man Battle Network with Mega Man to this day still being one of the most iconic video game characters of all time last but not least is a game that should honestly surprise no one and is to this day still argued by many to be the best game of all time and that's Super Mario Brothers 3 honestly I don't think I even need to try and sing this game's praises the first Mario game was a big deal by itself but Super Mario 3 made all the right moves to redo the core formula in an extraordinarily addictive way ditching the purely linear approach Mario Brothers 3 was the first game in the series to make use of a world map allowing players to tackle levels in any order they want and also introducing levels that were completely optional for upping your score or grabbing useful items it also had a ton of incredible power-ups like the hammer Brothers suit frog suit fire flower and of course the Tanooki suit allowing Mario to take flight and discover all kinds of Secrets that would otherwise forever elude players this game was also a perfect balance of difficulty challenging first-time players but also allowing for insane playthroughs by people that knew what they were doing and had hidden little secrets everywhere for players to discover the original Super Mario Brothers may have started the Plummers fame but it was game that truly solidified him as Nintendo's mascot and launched the series into its current fame so those are the best games of 1988 if you enjoyed the video hit that thumbs up button to let me know as well subscribe so you don't miss out on any future videos like the best of 1989 as always guys thank you so much for watching and I'll see you later