Gadgetory

the year is 1986 gone are the days of socializing at the arcade only to be replaced by nerds running to lock themselves in doors to the warming glow of their NES this is also the year that some of today's biggest gaming companies got their start like Bethesda and Ubisoft and while we didn't get a ton of NES games in America just yet some of the biggest franchises to come out of Japan saw their first entry this year so here's the best games of 1986 first off is the original Metroid on NES putting players in control of the space bounty hunter Samus Aran as you hunt down dangerous aliens and a parasite known as Metroid now this game was a big deal for two different reasons first off this is one of the first really big video games to feature a female protagonist even though it wasn't revealed until the very end of the game and second it was one of the first side-scrolling games to focus on a nonlinear form of exploration in fact it even forces you to do this at the very start well wait what the hell where am I supposed to go I can't get under this holy I can go to the left second up is Dragon Quest which was known in the States at the time as Dragon Warrior now this game gave players a very familiar quest of having to create their own self-titled hero going on a journey to save a princess from an evil dragon now admittedly this game was a bit rough around the edges for its time it definitely had some problems that needed fixing but it laid the groundwork for the entire Japanese RPG genre introducing a lot of concepts and ideas that either are loved now or were things that we just hated until we finally got rid of them such as grinding non-stop enemies finally I killed 600 slimes actually have enough money to buy a shield now next up is the only arcade game on this year's list and that's Bubble Bobble allowing up to two players to control a pair of brothers whose girlfriends were kidnapped by Baron von baba and transformed into Bubble dragons and then have to delve a hundred level deep cave to rescue them now I made this game cool is that it was one of those titles that really tried to do some kind of interesting new mechanic and it actually worked involving a two-step process in killing enemies capturing them in a bubble and then popping it afterwards which also made two-player a lot more interesting because you could assign each other roles now one of the downsides of this game is that it actually punishes you for not playing it in two-player by making you slave through a hundred levels only to get a straight-up bad ending I did it I'd be a hundred level but the number for getting back on the NES train is the first Castlevania in this game players control Simon Belmont a vampire hunter on his mission to kill the evil vampire Lord Dracula now not only did this game kick off the Castlevania franchise it was also a great game for its time thanks to an incredible soundtrack precise controls and a much more adult darker storyline compared to most games of its time not to mention it also introduced this asshole of a boss fight for the rest of the series also giving you the incredible revelation that the healing items you desperately need are hidden inside the game's walls wait this has been hiding in the wall this whole time this whole damn time I could've been getting food from the walls and last but not least we have to talk about one of Nintendo's biggest franchises that got its start this year The Legend of Zelda taking on the role of the now very iconic link players are tasked with the goal of collecting these magical triangles in order to rescue the princess zelda this game took real-time exploration to a whole new level giving players the ability to take their time tackling each of the game's dungeons and exploring its overworld area including things like finding hidden passages that you could blow open with bombs to get useful items or health upgrades it also introduces the ability to have a special range attack as long as you're at full health only to take it away and piss you off immensely the first time an enemy hits you this game set the foundation for a series that would later have some of the biggest games of their time including a Link to the Past on the SNES and Ocarina of Time on the n64 so those are my favorite games of 1986 if there's one you guys loved that you didn't hear mention make sure to let me know down in the comments as always if you enjoyed the video hit that thumbs up button to let me know as well as subscribe so you don't miss out on the next video talking about 1987 until then guys I'm Kevin Kenson and I'll see you later