Nadia Oxford:
It was hard to avoid Dragon Warrior, seeing as how Nintendo force-fed it to every American NES owner. They were smart to try it; Dragon Warrior was so huge, it literally shaped at least a small aspect of Japanese culture. Instead of jumping on a monster's head or swinging a sword directly into its eye, battles were fought through a menu system and you could choose to fight, use magic, parry, or run like hell. It was an engaging process to build your warrior up from an armorless wiener with a stick to a fully-armed dragon-butcher, but it was also painfully slow. Most American players were put off at the idea of fighting slimes for hours just so they could buy a sword. They were content to name the level-1 descendent of the hero Erdrick "PEEPEE", giggle about the prospect of finding the "Balls of Light," and see how far they could travel on the map screen before a werewolf utterly destroyed them.

Jess Ragan:
Challenging and intense, yet lighthearted and easy to play, Duck Hunt was a treat for the entire family... even those members who had reservations about holding the sleek grey light gun included with the NES. The game bore some resemblence to the sport of duck hunting, but only as much as the average Warner Bros. cartoon. Your hunting partner, a wildly expressive hound, jumped into the tall grass to flush out the waterfowl hiding inside it. As the ducks scattered, you picked them off with the Nintendo zapper. Duck Hunt wasn't an accurate simulation of the sport... in addition to the complete lack of blood, it's fair to say that no hunter has ever had to suffer the ridicule of their dog after missing an easy shot. However, it's hard to think of a video game that's as inviting as this one. It's the kind of game that just about anyone could play... and back in the Nintendo-obsessed 1980's, just about everyone did!

Ray Barnholt:
Teenage Seattleite Mike Jones' tropical adventure to save his uncle was more or less Nintendo's answer for not having a third Zelda to go along with the third Mario. Mixing an RPG overworld with underground action levels, the game quickly became a hit in North America (the only place it was released) and helped make 1990 a banner year for the NES. I loved StarTropics and its tropical seafaring story (which quickly turned to sci-fi), even though it got awfully challenging awfully quick. All the hopping and yo-yo slinging in those action levels became tiresome after a while, on top of the devious respawning enemies. At least the sequel added diagonal movement, but coming at the very end of the life of the NES what wasn't much. It may not have been a "Zelda killer," but it was a refreshing change of pace from it and the then-recent Dragon Warrior.

The good news, though, is that BC's sublime gameplay didn't change a bit in translation. Though loosely based on a mediocre arcade game by the same name, the NES version added more flexible controls, a simple level-up system, wickedly challenging level design, and a free-form sense of progress through the adventure. But the best part was the unconventional game mechanics; BC came around at a time when everyone was aping Super Mario Bros. Here Capcom told gamers, "So you think jumping is what it takes to make a great game? Here, try a hero who can't jump." And it was great anyway.

Jonathan Drabicki:
This stands out for its interesting side-scrolling battles. I also really liked the way you gained levels in it instead of just fighting for no reason like in the first NES Zelda. It confirmed my love of the Zelda series.