nesdev.org

So yeah, I nearly cried when I opened the package in the mail from RetroZone and held the Powerpak in my hands for the first time. It was so awesome, and I couldn't believe it was happening. Haha, just kidding, but seriously, I am so pumped to have it finally!

Anyways, I'm looking to play some new (well, old) games with it. It's pretty ironic that I just got it and recently almost all of my NES game collection was stolen, so thankfully despite that I can still play most of those games. I'm pissed that I don't have Castlevania 3 anymore, because I imagine the PowerPak doesn't emulate the MMC5 well enough for it to work. My collection wasn't that big, but I had some obvious classics like the Castlevania trilogy, Zelda 1 and 2, Mario Bros., Final Fantasy (still have the japanese versions, probably because you wouldn't get much for pawning those), Metroid, Battletoads (the original)... I think that about covers the really good ones that I had.

So besides those, I'd like to hear from you guys about what games I should load on. I haven't played -that- many NES games, so it's likely you guys know about way more games than I do. All suggestions are welcome!

I found Pirates! to be a lot of fun. Sure it exists for many platforms (and several PC remakes), but the NES one (coded by Rare) plays really good. Be sure to grab a map online. My friend had scored as high as 1 or 2 points below the maximum "Pirate Points".

If you like River City Ransom (and who doesn't?), try out all of the english-translated games by Technos that were never released for NES.

Try out Krazy Kreatures published by AVE (unlicensed), that could possibly be my favorite NES game. AVE published some pretty cool stuff. If you want to see a lightgun game Nintendo never would have allowed, try out Chiller (it also supports 2 guns!).

Definitely put Monopoly on there. The NES version of Monopoly puts every other videogame version of it absolutely to shame. But if there are any computer players, set the option to "hurry up". The AI players are really interesting too (Maude is usually the one that pisses everyone off).

I like platformers and would recommend River City Ransom, Castlevania, Contra, Kirby's Adventure and the Mega Man series

loopy has an early version of mmc5 on his site..........it works with cv3 but has some glitches in other games.

Duck Tales
Rush 'n Attack
Shadow of The Ninja
Mr Gimmick
Journey to Silius
Batman
Trojan
Rygar
Ninja Gaiden 1,2,3
Robo Warrior
Super C
Little Nemo
TMNT 2
Shatterhand
Wizards & Warriors 1,2,3
Power Blade
Gumshoe
Shadowgate
Deja Vu

I second Shatterhand. Really fun Megaman style game with punching instead of bullets, cool robot partners that join you and a great soundtrack.

The NES is full of space shooters but I think the most technically impressive and well balanced one is Gun-NAC. It's got all kinds of cool upgrades and it's just really cool.

Now it's your chance to play some japanese game then:

- [FDS] Arumana no Kiseki
- Bananan Ouji no Dai Bouken
- Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa
- Bio Senshi Dan - Increaser tono Tatakai
- Crisis force
- Final Mission (SCAT but very, very hard)
- Gimmick!
- Gradius II
- Hebereke
- Holy Diver
- Hi no Tori - Houou Hen - Gaou no Bouken
- Hitler no Fukkatsu - Top Secret
- Mitsume ga Tooru
- New Ghostbusters 2
- Over Horizon
- Radia Senki - Reimei Hen
- Star Wars (Namco)
- Solomon no Kagi 2 - Coolmin Tou Kyuushutsu Sakusen
- Spartan X 2
- Splatterhouse - Wanpaku Graffiti
- Summer Carnival '92 - Recca
- Wai Wai World
- Wai Wai World 2 - SOS!! Paseri Jou
- Youkai Club (Not great but interesting to play)

And many more

Nothing to add apart from to say "Great thread!"

UncleSporky wrote:I second Shatterhand.

Play the japanese version instead, which is based on the tokusatsu show Solbrain. Here in Brazil we got Solbrain on TV, so to me this version was more enjoyable than some random dude with fists of steel, but it may not make such a big difference for you (although you seem to like japanese stuff in general).

Well when I got my powepack I was very exited - but when I figured it didn't work with my 16MB flashcard it break everyting. Now that I have another flashcard I still use much more emulators because most games adapt poorly on the PAL NES (even PAL ROMs) and there is a buzzing noise absent with most other games.
I got the Japanese version of Castlevania III working, with sound, but the graphics are glitched because of my PAL NES.

When it comes to what good games I'd recommand I'd really say Megaman series, Contra series, Castlevania 1 and 3, Final Fantasy 1 and 3, Double Dragon 1 and 2, Battletoads, SMB 3 (you already know those I think).
About less popular "unknown gems", Batman - Return of the Joker is prety good, Solar Jetman, Solstice, and I think a decent english translation of Fire Emblem Gaiden was released recently.
Conquest of the Crystal Palace is great too (but might get terribly hard without savestates) if you like ancient China.
Power Blades is a cool game with great music.
Just Breed is IMO one of the best RPG for the system (second to FF3) but it uses the MMC5.
EDIT : Also I forgot to Mention Mighty Final Fight. It's a fun beat-em-up.

Some games I would recommend checking out. Splatterhouse (famicom) is a fun and nice looking platformer you should check out. It's simple but very enjoyable. Shadow of the Ninja is a platformer sometimes compared to Ninja Gaiden, it's fun but challenging. Ninja Gaiden the whole series ofcourse you could check out. Metal Storm is another excellent but tough platforming shooter to check out. Batman is another excellent game to check out platforming action, and Batman Returns is a beat em up sort of like TMNT 2. An awesome shoot em up game is Crisis Force (Konami VRC4) which I highly recommend. These are few a few I thought of that I don't think were mentioned yet.

I am planning on getting one as soon as I have the money available to get it

I will want to play some good hacks of games.

I rarely use my PowerPak for playing. I guess I should do it more, and seize the opportunity, since there are so many suggestions here.

I took it over to a friend's house and played today. We were reminiscing earlier so I figured we should just play some.

Twin Eagles is one of the many shooters on NES except that it is two player - though it is rather unremarkable.

We played lots of two player games, Ivan Stewart's Super Offroad, Super Sprint, Nintendo World Cup Soccer, Ikari Warriors series, Smash TV, Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, beat 'em ups like Ninja Turtles...shooters like the Contra series...

One of my friends showed us a little bit of Solstice, which I had never tried, it's a cool little isometric puzzle/maze thing like The Immortal.

Another thing we've been playing lately is Dr. Mario on Wii, so we tried the NES one and it is actually a bit tougher, feels faster.

Trying to stay off super commonly named games for NES/famicom.

Adventures of Lolo series. (Probably Commonly mentioned)

Balloon Fight (Common, but I decided to mention it)

Earthbound Zero/Mother

Gimmick! (Mentioned already)

I Love Softball (Impossible AI. But I actually have a lot of fun with it when I have someone to play with. It's actually a solid sports title, even if it's girly. I like it better than any of the other NES/famicom baseball games)

MC Kids

Panic Restaurant (Basic gameplay, but I enjoyed it. A nice soundtrack too)

Plasma Ball (Just a NEAT game. Lots of japanese setup in the beginning, but once you get to the gameplay, it's cool. It's... kinda like dodgeball meets pong. Great graphics as well.)

Quest of Ki (If you enjoy puzzle/platformers. This game is long.)

Rad Racer (common, mentioning anyway)

Solstice (Mentioned before.)

Videomation (A paint program KINDA like Mario Paint. Neat to try at least once)

Wario's Woods (Commonly mentioned? I dunno. A neat puzzle game.)

I'd list some other random games that are fun to at least try like Videomation, but then the list would get really long. If you're interested in stuff like, "It's worth it to try Bad Dudes, just so you can laugh at its 'plot'.", let me know and I can try to think of other random interesting games worth at least trying.