Retro Gaming Collection

[Regan Valdis]

I've recently begun a long-term venture of mine, with the aim of amassing a very proud collection of retro gaming consoles and an assortment of games for each.

Alas - if only I'd kept hold of the great 16-bit consoles when I first got them. But as new hardware with higher capabilities became available, the proverbial grass was always greener on the other side. Only now do I really appreciate the fantastic gameplay and fun to be had on these old gems.

So far I've got myself a Sega Master System 2 (boxed) with Alex the Kidd in Miracle World built into it, with the leads and a controller. And I'm waiting on a large bundle of games that I got for an insanely low price on Ebay. There are some duplicate game sin it so I'll be selling them on to recover some of the cash I've spent so far.

I managed to get a Sega Mega Drive (Genesis) from my girlfriends brother, so that saved me some money on ebay - it's boxed too. And I'm now waiting on several games to arrive in the post. So far I've got Sonic the Hedgehog 1 and 2.

I doubt I'll go any further back than the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Sega Master System since they're the first one's I ever played on. But I've got plenty to look forward to such as getting a SNES, Mega-CD, Atari Jaguar and perhaps even an original Gameboy.

I was wondering what people would consider essential games for these systems since I want to build up an impressive collection of some great quality games.

I'm in this for the long haul. I'll need to pace myself so that I don't spend all of my money on this stuff right away. But it doesn't hurt to think ahead and speculate on all the greatness I can look forward to playing.

[Kale]

My brother and I still have our original NES and SNES, and we still play them every now and then. Heck, last summer I bought Final Fantasy III (VI in Japan) over Ebay to play it on SNES for the first time. It was a blast - I can't imagine having any more fun playing the newer FF games.

When we were growing up, my parents would take my brothers and me to a corner drugstore that had a collection of games for rent in the basement, and each of us would pick a game out for the weekend. We encountered some little-known favorites that we've since been able to find in used game retailers or on Ebay. From my experience as a Nintendo player, here are a couple recommendations:

NES:
Super Mario Brothers (obvious)
The Legend of Zelda (equally obvious)
Super Mario Brothers 2 - Weird, but charming
Super Mario Brothers 3 - THE definitive game for the platform.
Metroid - if you want it for historical completeness. It's included as an unlockable feature in Metroid Prime for GC and Metroid Zero Mission for GBA, and you don't lose anything by playing it in one of those incarnations. You actually gain something by not having to write down the 20-character passwords.
Final Fantasy - If I were any kind of RPG fan, I wouldn't admit to not having this one... But I'd actually look into II and III and before deciding which one to buy.

Less essential games that are still lots of fun:
Contra - The co-op shooter that owns Halo.
River City Ransom - A free-roaming beat-em-up with co-op and a great sense of humor.
Tengen Tetris - Sort of a holy grail for NES collectors; Tengen made a handful of unlicensed games with oddly-shaped cartridges which were quickly yanked off the shelves at Nintendo's orders. Tengen Tetris is, in my opinion, far superior to Nintendo's first-party version - better music, great art style, and little Russian dancers who congratulate you for clearing a level. I've seen copies in original packaging going for $250-$300 on Ebay. But we wanted to play the game, so we got a used cartridge for $40.
Mega Man - Such a good game, Capcom gave it to us six times. And we bought all six. The first two are probably the most impressive to be able to find. The third is the most impressive to be able to BEAT.
Super Dodge Ball - You cannot play this game without cracking up.
Marble Madness - Now we're getting more obscure. An arcade classic with impressive isometric graphics and maddeningly addictive gameplay. Very short, unfortunately.
Snake Rattle 'n' Roll - An early and obscure gem by Rare with a great balance of cooperative and competitive two-player gameplay. It's a deceptively deep isometric platformer that should have made a much bigger splash than it did.

SNES:
Super Mario World - Everything a flagship title for a console should be.
Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past - Best game of the franchise.
Super Metroid - My favorite game of all time. The atmosphere is wholly engrossing. THIS IS A MUST.
Final Fantasy III (or VI) - A beautiful, beautiful game. Worth playing for the music alone.
Super Mario Kart - The prototypical character racing game, I think it's still the best of the genre and is just fiendishly fun.
Super Castlevania IV - Stunning graphics and music and surprisingly fun gameplay for a fairly simple, linear hack-and-slash. Er - whip-and-swing.
Mega Man X - If you liked Mega Man, definitely give this one a shot. X2 and X3 are also good, but the first is far and away the best.
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island - A very creative platformer with lots of replay value. It is available on GBA now.
Donkey Kong Country - If you haven't had your fill of great platformers, pick up 1 and 2. I haven't played 3.
Kirby Super Star - The definitive game of the franchise.

So, I know you did say essential. I tried to group the most important games (in my opinion) toward the top. I hope this helps!

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I would also recommend the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game for NES, and F-Zero for SNES :)

[Travis North]

Definitely recommend these titles for the SNES

Shadowrun
Legend of the Mystical Ninja - Best game on the SNES, ever.
Battletoads/Double Dragon

[Regan Valdis]

Was TMNT on the NES the one where you could walk around at street level and enter different manholes to access different sections of the sewers? if so - I loved that one! I remember playing it round at my mums friend's who had a son the same age as me.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

There were two TMNT titles that I remember for NES; one was like River City Ransom, where more than one person could play.

The other was a single-player sidescroller beat-em-up type where you could choose what turtle you wanted to be.

[Regan Valdis]

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e330/Toad64/1up%20Blog/NES.jpghttp://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e330/Toad64/1up%20Blog/NES2.jpg

That's the TMNT on the NES that I played. As far as I remember, it was a single-player game.

[Dae Jinn]

I'll have to check out my sisters' nes/snes collection and make a post. :) We have TONS of games. We're still looking for "Boy and His Blob" though.

[Karl Valten]

Final Fantasy 1 through 3

Best. Franchise. Ever.

[Jeseth Cloak]

Castlevania, in all of it's incarnations!

And Pokemon Red and Blue for the original GameBoy is quite fun, but only if you have people you can duel with.