Growing up in the ’80s, our video games were not always the best. But we managed to still have fun playing these classics.
#5 – Tecmo Bowl
Way before Madden entered the scene, there was this dinosaur. You get a wide selection of 2 running plays and 2 passing plays throughout the entirety of the game. Most rushing plays result in either a loss of downs, or like a 2-yard gain. And a majority of the passing plays result in an instant touchdown. Nowadays, it’s fun for all but about five minutes, but back in the day, it was the only way to get your football fix, without actually going outside and doing anything. The only thing cool about it now, is the roster. You can play as Joe Montana and Jerry Rice, or that Bernie Kosar loser from the Browns.
#4 – Super Pitfall
This game pretty much sucked… you literally die like every 10 seconds from crawling spiders that are somewhat difficult to jump over, or swooping bats that always time it just right to kill you, but I liked it because I found this hidden “Hell” level, where evil creatures fly around. The only way this game was ever really fun for me, was with the Game Genie, but I was too broke to buy one myself, and my cousin hardly ever let me use his. Still however a classic.
#3 – Friday the 13th
In this game, you basically walk around Crystal Lake, and attempt to rescue kids, while Jason randomly appears and beats the hell out of you. Oh yeah, devil dogs chase you, and for some reason or another, mummies come out of the ground. Having watched basically all of the Friday the 13th movies, I’m still not quite sure why they had evil dogs or mummies, but what do you expect from a NES adaptation of a movie. However, you have to love the sweet soundtrack to the game.
#2 – Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles
I don’t know why it was called “Hero” turtles, and not “ninja”… my only guess would be some copyright issue or something, but in this game, you choose a “hero” turtle, and fight foot soldiers and other evil characters from the series. When a character dies, you choose to continue the mission as another turtle. I don’t quite remember any of the turtles ever dying in the series, but I guess for this game, the premise somehow works. The trick was to choose the right turtles for the right situations. Raphael with his Chinese stars dealt very little damage, as you had to direct hit your target, whereas Leonardo with his sword could just slash around and kill everything in sight. Perhaps the worst character was Michelangelo, with his limited reaching nun-chucks. The most frustrating portion of the game would have had to have been the underwater levels. Every time you bump seaweed, for some reason or another you are shocked, and lose a life bar. I can remember throwing at least a dozen tantrums in those levels, and inevitably getting spanked. Thanks Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. All in all though, still a fun game, and a good time.
#1 – Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out
Okay, this game was pretty much the greatest thing ever made in the 80’s. You’re little Mac, and you fight random people, climbing your way up the ranks, eventually leading to a match with Iron Mike Tyson. Yeah, this game was made before he was an ear-biting joke. The trick to the game was finding each boxer’s weakness. Don Flamenco, for example, would take continuous blows to the head, as long as you did a right punch, left punch pattern repeatedly. And when King Hippo would open his mouth, if you punched him in the face, his pants would drop, and you could keep punching him in his stomach. Anyways, by the time you reach Tyson, you realize he’s like, invincible, and he knocks you down with one punch, so the end was always sort of a bummer, but it was getting there that made this game so much fun, and puts it on the top of my list.
