Thexder (NES / Famicom)

It's always interesting to look back at the early days of Squaresoft when Final Fantasy wasn't even a twinkle in its creators' eyes, and the company was making all sorts of different games.  One of these early works was Thexder on the NES.  Players took control of a robot that could transform into a plane, navigating from one level to the next, blowing up whatever stood in their way.  It was simple fun with a bit of exploration tossed in.

Soccer (NES / Famicom)

I remember looking at some of those early NES games where the art on the cartridge was just some pixels from the game itself.  Very simple, and it came far before pixel art ever became popular.  It was pretty neat, and Soccer was one of those simple games.  And boy was it simple.  Looking at it now, players moved painfully slow, it was a miracle to pass or shoot the ball, and actually scoring took some serious work.

Vice - Project Doom (NES / Famicom)

While Bayou Billy may get the most attention for combining a bunch of different genres in a single game on the NES, there were other titles that also did this.  One of my favorite of the bunch was Vice: Project Doom where you played some mysterious guy fighting a mysterious enemy.  The game had driving, shooting, and side-scrolling action.  Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Konami.

Adventures of Lolo (NES / Famicom)

The Lolo series are probably some of the most charming puzzle games that I've ever played.  You play as a spherical dragon dude trying to save his girlfriend by unlocking one room after the next in a massive castle.  With a cute aesthetic, interesting puzzles, and a catchy theme song, it's hard not to like the Adventures of Lolo.  In a time where puzzle games are dominated by cold, sterile colors and shapes, it makes me wish there were more Lolo games today.

Blades of Steel (NES / Famicom)

Back in the NES days there was only one choice when looking for a hockey game for the system, and, amazingly, it wasn't by EA.  The game was Blades of Steel, and it was fantastic.  Fast play, solid controls, looked pretty good, and had a really snazzing penalty shot system.  I think my friends and I tried to go to shoot outs whenever possible just to do that little bit.  A really great game when Konami was trying their hand at some hockey.

The Adventures of Bayou Billy (NES / Famicom)

Sometimes I wonder how I even managed to play some of the games of my youth.  When I was a kid, I played the hell out of Bayou Billy, and even managed to finish the game.  However, coming back to the game as an adult I realize that it's actually really tough.  Even the first level is handing my backside to me on a regular basis.  It's games like these that really show me how challenging games on the upper end of the difficulty scale can be.

Super Spike V'Ball (NES / Famicom)

This game became quite the thing with my group of friends as a kid, though the huge push it was getting from Nintendo Power at the time may have helped with that. :p  It was quite a good game, though.  Very nice visuals for the time, responsive, simple controls, and it was actually pretty long.  Certainly one of the more popular NES sports games of its time that it would seem a lot of people today have forgotten about.