The Nintendo Entertainment System brought the video game industry out of the doldrums of the early ’80s, bringing many great games directly into players’ homes. One genre that was especially popular on the NES was the run-and-gun. Hardware wasn’t anywhere near the standards of first-person shooter games we’re used to today, but these classic run-and-gun games can still be a blast for modern fans. Some of these are ports from fan-favorite arcade cabinets, but a few were created from the ground up for the NES.
Here are five great run-and-gun NES games that still hold up today.
5) G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero is a mostly average run-and-gun game from KID. It’s not doing anything too innovative with combat, so you can’t say that it stands out from the crowd in that respect. However, it did have one key aspect that earns it this spot on the list.
As you can see in the screenshot above, you get to play as three Joes, who you can switch between. All of them have their own abilities, which means you’ll need to pick the right hero for the job. It goes a bit further than that, though. G.I. Joe actually has five characters to pick from, so you get to put together your own team of three each time you start a run. That forced choice at the start adds tons of replayability to the mix, making this colorful run-and-gun game a must-try.
4) Blaster Master
Courtesy of Sunsoft
Master Blaster takes classic run-and-gun combat and adds its own twist. See, Master Blaster has two different gameplay modes. In one, you control a character named Jason in a 2D platformer. You can also hop into his tank to heal up and take down the mutants that are attacking.
The other mode is closer to the run-and-gun games you know and love. Jason moves into the top-down perspective and has to explore labyrinths filled with monsters. You’ll earn new weapons as pick-ups, making those challenging bosses just a bit easier. Master Blaster isn’t your typical run-and-gun game, but it’s one everyone should at least try to get an idea of the innovative ideas developers were toying with at the time.
3) Gun.Smoke
The period in Gun.Smoke is very important. The developers at Capcom wouldn’t want to risk being sued by the creators of the incredibly popular television series. Gun.Smoke has no connection to the show, but it does feature a bounty hunter in the Wild West taking out bandits.
The NES version is based on the arcade cabinet. It has a brand-new story and new music, but is still largely the same on the gameplay front. As the screen scrolls upward, players need to shoot enemies while watching out for obstacles. The screen does scroll relatively slowly, but if it moved much faster, you wouldn’t be able to deal with all the baddies it constantly throws at you.
2) Heavy Barrel
Heavy Barrel was originally an arcade game that Data East published in 1987. Three years later, the publisher decided to bring it to the Nintendo Entertainment System. Players are brought in to stop terrorists who have taken over an underground nuclear missile site. It’s a pretty standard run-and-gun game throughout most of the action, but it does have a neat twist.
As you fight your way through Heavy Barrel‘s horde of enemies, you’ll come across pieces to a new gun. If you’re able to track down all six pieces, you’ll unlock an energy cannon that can take out nearly everything in a single shot. Unfortunately, it only lasts for 30 seconds, so you’ll want to save it for boss fights. That said, you can build it three times during a successful run, and those 90 seconds will be a riot.
1) Contra
It couldn’t be anything else. Well, I suppose it could be Super Contra, the sequel that’s arguably better, but Contra had to top this list, in one way or another. Konami’s all-time classic was first an arcade game, but it didn’t lose much when the developers brought it over to the NES.
In fact, there were a few changes that some players thought made the NES version the better one. The most notable is the use of the Konami Code, which gives players 30 lives when the game starts instead of the usual three. Because Konami wasn’t trying to force players to give away their quarters in an arcade with this release, they could afford to be a little nicer.
Don’t think that means Contra isn’t still tough-as-nails. It’s the same, difficult gameplay. Yes, there were a few stages that had reworks to make them slightly easier, but the NES version of Contra is still a challenge to get through.
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