Final Fantasy

Review Date: March 19, 2021 Release Date: December 18, 1987 (Japanese date used to keep the games in release order) Platform: NES Developer: Squaresoft Genre: Role Playing Anecdotes: My brother was a huge fan of Dungeons and Dragons. He found a game he felt was similar, so we had the Final Fantasy cartridge. However, I… Continue reading Final Fantasy

Wizards and Warriors

Review Date: March 18, 2021 Release Date: December 1, 1987 Platform: NES Developer: Rare Genre: Linear Platformer Anecdotes: The winter of 1988 was just miserable for me. The creepiest classroom I had to ever experience was then. The pipes were loose on the heaters, the teacher liked the lights dim and the shade down, and… Continue reading Wizards and Warriors

Mega Man

Review Date: March 17, 2021 Release Date: December 1, 1987 Platform: NES Genre: Linear Platformer Anecdotes: In 1986, Capcom had just started making games for home consoles. Their first NES release was 1942. Capcom had a few other releases, including Ghosts ‘N Goblins, which was absurdly difficult, but had a big enough following to get… Continue reading Mega Man

Side Pocket

Review Date: March 16, 2021 Release Date: November 30, 1987 Platform: NES Publisher: Data East Genre: Sports Anecdotes: The NES had an amazing variety of games. There were games for just about any taste out there. They had plenty of genres covered, too. A lot of the games also have an arcade version, which could… Continue reading Side Pocket

Kid Niki

Review Date: March 15, 2021 Release Date: November 1, 1987 Platform: NES Publisher: Data East and/or Irem Genre: Linear Platformer Anecdotes: By 1987, going over to the cousins’ house to play video games was happening much less often. There was no need; we had the biggest library. We would still go for other reasons, of… Continue reading Kid Niki

Goonies II

Review Date: March 14, 2021 Release Date: November 1, 1987 Platform: NES Genre: Nonlinear Platformer Anecdotes: In 1987, Konami released Goonies II for the NES. No mention was ever made to explain why there was a II at the end of the title. I had always assumed that the movie was I and the video… Continue reading Goonies II

Super Pitfall

Review Date: March 13, 2021 Release Date: November 1, 1987 Platform: NES Genre: Nonlinear Platformer Anecdotes: This flawless masterpiece was a childhood favorite in my house. We loved trying to shoot frogs and always missing. We loved jumping into random birds to enter a dungeon. We loved getting lost in that dungeon until we quit.… Continue reading Super Pitfall

Jaws

Review Date: March 12, 2021 Release Date: November 1, 1987 Platform: NES Genre: ? Anecdotes: I remember going into my brothers’ room and watching them play this game in there. I would hover around like a shark, but the game never really hooked me in. They didn’t know what they were doing, so I thought… Continue reading Jaws

Rad Racer

Review Date: March 11, 2021 Release Date: October 1, 1987 Platform: NES Publisher: Square (or maybe Nintendo, but Square developed it, so I’m going with them) Genre: Racing Anecdotes: By the end of 1987, the NES had become more popular than anyone ever imagined. I was ten and completely enamored with it. I was just… Continue reading Rad Racer

Deadly Towers

Review Date: March 10, 2021 Release Date: September 1, 1987 Platform: NES Publishers: Irem, Broderbund Genre: Adventure Anecdotes: After my brother returned Kid Icarus, he chose this game to replace it. By this point, we were used to NES games being completely unfair, ridiculously hard, and full of cheap traps. Deadly Towers did a nice… Continue reading Deadly Towers