The RETRO Top 250 NES Homebrews

27 years after the last licensed release for the Nintendo Entertainment System, NES games still come out regularly. This ranking honors some of the best "homebrews."

Jan 20, 2022

Introduction

To call the retro video game “homebrew” market robust would be an understatement.

Of course, to even call it a “homebrew market” might be a misnomer, as these days so many new NES games are developed by teams of semi-professional artists rather than amateurs working day jobs that, as the author Jeffrey Wittenhagen (website) recently said, what we’re really talking about when we discuss “homebrew” NES games are just “aftermarket” NES video games: 8-bit games created after the lifespan of the original Nintendo Entertainment System ended. (For the record, the last licensed NES game, The Lion King, came out—and in Europe only, at that—almost 27 years ago, in 1995.)

The ever-widening trend of indie game developers producing new, aftermarket games for a console that hasn’t issued a licensed release for nearly three decades has been reported on, over the last few years, by the Washington Post (link), Wired (link), Digital Trends (link), Engadget (link), PC Magazine (link), The Gamer (link), Tech Radar (link) and many other industry and mainstream media outlets. What all these accounts gesture toward is a homebrew scene for the original Nintendo Entertainment System that has gotten so big that in ten years it may come to rival the original NES game library—not just in size, but in quality.

What we’re fast approaching is what we might call “NES 2”, “Nintendo 2” or “Second Gen Nintendo”: a situation in which gamers, critics, historians, collectors, and even journalists will have to studiously distinguish between two discrete universes of NES games that are equally worthy of widespread conversation, admiration, and critique. If this sounds preposterous to you, consider that the original NES game library from the 1980s and 1990s was—depending upon which games you choose to count—between 715 and 850 games strong, while the twenty-first century aftermarket NES game library (which includes remakes, demakes, hacks, reskins, localizations, clones, and original homebrews) boasts over 750 titles, with perhaps 100 or more emerging each year. The only question remaining is the degree to which these indie creations will—en masse—come to rival in quality the licensed and unlicensed 8-bit NES games from last century.

The first edition of RETRO’s Top 250 NES Homebrews tries to answer that question.

In reviewing literally hundreds of twenty-first century NES homebrews—431 of which are listed in this article, along with 52 others that are either on RETRO’s unreleased-game “watchlist,” to-be-reviewed “shortlist,” or never-released “wishlist”—I’ve found at least 200 homebrews that fall in the range of game quality we saw during the heydey of the NES, from games that would’ve been among the best on the original Nintendo to those not quite up to that mark but which could still hold their own against low- or mid-tier unlicensed NES titles from the mid- to late 1980s and first half of the 1990s.

That most of the homebrews in the former of these two groups were released in the last five years underlines that the pace of quality aftermarket NES game development is only increasing. It’s for this reason that I say we can expect a full-size, equivalent-in-quality second NES library to be available to gamers within the next decade, and why I’d say, too, that any gamer looking to find new NES games today has so many quality options to choose from already that it’d take more than a year to fully play them all.

While of course the NES homebrew scene isn’t new—it’s been around since the late 1990s—the size and scope of it has so exploded in the last five years that it’s difficult to compare what’s happening now to what was happening at the turn of the century.

With indie game developers now having taken it upon themselves, in large numbers, to revitalize one of the greatest video game consoles ever made, it’s time for critics and journalists to do their job and help gamers find superlative entry-points to this exciting ecosystem of retro gaming. This means offering existing retro gamers and—as importantly—prospective ones a bird’s-eye view of the homebrew scene, with a focus on which games are best for those looking to get a start in homebrew gaming.

Methodology

This is a dynamic ranking, meaning that it is regularly updated as RETRO plays and assesses new games, reevaluates previously assessed games, and reviews full versions of games previously released in demo form. Like all rankings, this research is finally subjective. My bona fides as a journalist, an academic, and a critic can be found here.

{Note: Localizations appear in a separate ranking. Hacks will be addressed in a future article.}

Please see the section following the ranking for selected gameplay videos and trailers, brief reviews of the Top 10 games, and a shortlist of games to be reviewed by RETRO in the future. RETRO subscribers ($5/month) are invited to comment below the article with corrections or suggestions, including on which games RETRO should play next.

Games are assessed via a multidimensional framework that includes controls, music, graphics, difficulty scaling, text, aesthetics, gameplay mechanics, concept, and more.

A ranking of anything is by definition subjective, if only because every ranking has a creator behind it who’s determined what will be measured and how. I’ve taught video games as a professor at a public research university; been a video game journalist for years; and been a professional cultural critic for a decade—but none of this ensures that you will agree with my judgments or that my judgments are “objectively” correct.

My hope is that this ranking will bring more attention to the NES homebrew scene and the creators who make it run. It’s meant to help start conversations—not end them.

Eligible Games

This ranking ranks twenty-first century NES homebrews, including demos of games in development. RETRO ranks unreleased NES games from the 1980s and 1990s here.

Studios or devs looking to send review copies to RETRO can arrange to do so here. If you have a link to your game you prefer over the one I’ve used below, let me know.

Games are ranked (🔰) by genre, with honorable mentions (🔘) following each ranking. Use “Ctrl+F” and the italicized phrases below to find the following ranking sections:

Action-Adventure Games (47 games)
- Action-Adventure Rankings
Adventure Games (16 games)
- Adventure Game Rankings
Arcade Games (38 games)
- Arcade Game Rankings
Card / Party Games (8 games)
- Card / Party Game Rankings
Fighting / Brawler Games (12 games)
- Fighting / Brawler Rankings
Music / Art Games (12 games)
- Music / Art Rankings
Platformer Games (29 games)
- Platformer Rankings
Puzzle Games (29 games)
- Puzzle Game Rankings
Role-Playing Games (14 games)
- RPG Rankings
Shooter / Run n’ Gun Games (25 games)
- Shooter / Run n’ Gun Rankings
Sports / Racing Games (14 games)
- Sports / Racing Game Rankings
Strategy Games (6 games)
- Strategy Game Rankings
Special Citations (1 game)
- Kubo 3
The Overall Top 10 (11 games)
- Reviews and Gameplay Videos
Additional Information
- Some Other Reviewed Games
- Games To Be Reviewed
The RETRO Homebrew Watchlist

Action-Adventure Rankings

🔰 #1t | Alfonzo’s Arctic Adventure, SBP (^)
🔰 #1t | Little Medusa, Mega Cat (^)
🔰 #3 | Alwa’s Awakening, Elden Pixels (^)
🔰 #4 | L’Abbaye des Morts, Parisoft (^)
🔰 #5 | Dungeons & Doomknights, Artix (^)
🔰 #6 | Nix: The Paradox Relic, Huddleston (^)
🔰 #7 | Jim Power: Lost Dimension, Piko (^)
🔰 #8 | Trophy, Gradual Games (^)
🔰 #9 | Battle Kid 2, RetroUSB (^)
🔰 #10 | Super Bat Puncher, Morphcat (^)
🔰 #11 | Wolfling, Lazy Cow (^)
🔰 #12 | Orebody, Vanderhoef (^)
🔰 #13 | Indivisible, Kasumi (^)°°
🔰 #14 | Cheril’s Nightmares, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #15 | Space Raft, Raftronaut (^)
🔰 #16 | Mark of the Beast, Red Moon (^)
🔰 #17 | Battle Kid, RetroUSB (^)
🔰 #18 | Spacegulls, Morphcat (^)
🔰 #19 | Nin Nin, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #20 | Cheril the Writer, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #21 | Glider, RetroUSB (^)
🔰 #22 | Cheril the Goddess, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #23 | Yun, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #24 | Center of the Alien, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #25 | Streemerz, Faux Games (^)
🔰 #26 | The Banketh, RetroNES Games (^)
🔰 #27 | Nova the Squirrel, Nova Squirrel (^)
🔰 #28 | Vigilante Ninja II, Fraker (^)
🔰 #29 | The Tower of Turmoil, CutterCross (^)
🔰 #30 | Bootèe, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #31 | Adventures of Panzer, Pixelcraft (^)
🔰 #32 | Jet-Paco, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #33 | Ralph 4, Pubby (^)
🔰 #34 | Espitene, Mojon Twins (^)°
🔰 #35 | Eyra, Second Dimension (^)
🔰 #36 | Nomolos, Gradual Games (^)
🔰 #37 | Filthy Kitchen, Dust Mop (^)
🔰 #38 | Sir Abadol, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #39 | Machine Cave, Aeromangus (^)
🔰 #40 | Rainbow Brite, Pixelheart (^)
🔰 #41 | Lala the Magical, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #42 | Che-Man, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #43 | Mad Wizard, Sly Dog (^)
🔰 #44 | The Wizard, RetroAge (^)°°°
🔰 #45 | Wo Xiang Niao Niao, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #46 | Micro Knight IV, Siudym (^)
🔰 #47 | Pinky, Axbakk Games (^)

🔘 Adventures of Eldorin (^)
🔘 Banana Nana DX (^)
🔘 Love Story (^)
🔘 Micro Knight: Foul Skulls’ Revenge (^)
🔘 Purple Cape Man: Vigilante Ninja (^)
🔘 Veggie Invaders (^)
🔘 Waddles the Duck (^)

° Not to be confused with Espitenen & Mr. Pimponen, an excellent 2019 game by The Mojon Twins that is ranked in the RETRO Top 250’s Platformer section, below.
°° This game is an unlicensed demake of a game by Lab Zero Games and 505 Games.
°°° This game’s final boss hasn’t yet been coded, leaving the work without an ending. It may, however, have the best music of any NES homebrew in the RETRO Top 250. If or when this game is completed, it will likely be in the top 35 games in this category.

Adventure Game Rankings

🔘 Larry & the Long Look for a Luscious Lover (^)

Arcade Game Rankings

🔰 #1 | Assimilate, Nessylum Games (^)
🔰 #2 | Fire and Rescue, Skyboy Games (^)
🔰 #3 | Kira Kira Star Night DX, RIKI (^)
🔰 #4 | Yeah Yeah Beebis II, Mega Cat (^)
🔰 #5 | Super Painter, Retrosouls (^)
🔰 #6 | Zooming Secretary, Shiru (^)
🔰 #7 | Blazing Rangers, Karu_gamo (^)
🔰 #8 | Get ’em Gary, Second Dimension (^)
🔰 #9 | Neo Heiankyo Alien, Columbus Cir. (^)
🔰 #10 | Wart Worm Wingding, Vanderhoef (^)
🔰 #11 | Super NeSnake 2, RetroUSB (^)
🔰 #12 | Eskimo Bob, SBP (^)
🔰 #13 | Jammin’ Honey, Fraker (^)
🔰 #14 | Lawn Mower, Shiru (^)
🔰 #15 | Plummet Challenge, Fista Games (^)
🔰 #16 | Virus Cleaner, Second Dimension (^)
🔰 #17 | Rooms, Manjiro (^)
🔰 #18 | Perfect Pair, Shiru / RetroScribe (^)
🔰 #19 | Get It!, Gravel Studios (^)
🔰 #20 | Beer Slinger, Shiru / RetroScribe (^)
🔰 #21 | Carpet Shark, Fista Productions (^)
🔰 #22 | Split Second, Hyatt (^)
🔰 #23 | Driar, Adolfsson & Eriksson (^)
🔰 #24 | Blow Em’ Out, Second Dimension (^)
🔰 #25 | Robo-Ninja Climb, Bite the Chili (^)
🔰 #26 | Ball n’ Flag, Barasc (^)
🔰 #27 | Box Boy, Tew (^)
🔰 #28 | Flappy Jack, Fraker (^)
🔰 #29 | Germ Squashers, 8bit Evolution (^)
🔰 #30 | Intergalactic, Lembcke (^)
🔰 #31 | Tesla vs. Edison, RadTek (^)
🔰 #32 | Just Another Maze Game, Siudym (^)
🔰 #33 | Gruniożerca, Kur & Brzukała (^)
🔰 #34 | Forehead Block Guy, Hoffman (^)
🔰 #35 | Brick Breaker, Correa (^)°
🔰 #36 | Ninja I & II, Elisondo (^)
🔰 #37 | Crypto, Mercan & Yeni (^)
🔰 #38 | Ultimate Frogger Champion, KHAN (^)

🔘 Angry Birds (^)°°
🔘 Chu Chu Rocket (^)°°
🔘 Nature Clan: Escapeway (^)
🔘 Nature Clan: Pindable Crystal Ball (^)
🔘 Nature Clan: Spring World (^)
🔘 Tortoises (^)

° Also known as Mini Brix Battle.
°° This game is an unlicensed demake of a popular game for another platform.

Card / Party Game Rankings

🔘 Quadralords (^)
🔘 Spacey McRacey (^)

° Tailgate Party is a bean bag–throwing party game that uses the NES Power Pad.

Fighting / Brawler Rankings

🔘 Bushido Bomb (^)
🔘 Chumlee’s Adventure (^)

Music / Art Rankings

🔘 A Winner Is You (^)
🔘 Raddio (^)
🔘 RNDM Nes Album (^)
🔘 Teletime (^)
🔘 Turquoise Palace (^)

° A karaoke game requiring use of a FamiCom Microphone in the second NES port.

Platformer Rankings

🔰 #1 | Micro Mages, Morphcat (^)
🔰 #2 | Flea!, Lowtek Games (^)
🔰 #3 | Nebs ’n Debs, Dullahan Software (^)
🔰 #4 | Project Blue, Phillips / FrankenGraphics (^)
🔰 #5 | Basse Def Adventures, Broke Studio (^)
🔰 #6 | Cowlitz Gamers’ 2nd Adventure, Kur / M-Tee (^)
🔰 #7 | Twin Dragons, Broke Studio (^)
🔰 #8 | Demon Burst, Crowno (^)
🔰 #9 | Wolf Spirit, Salgueiro (^)
🔰 #10 | Rollie, Optovania (^)
🔰 #11 | Espitenen & Pimponen, Mojon Twins (^)°
🔰 #12 | Slow Mole, Rosenlund (^)
🔰 #13 | Shera & the 40 Thieves, CGT (^)
🔰 #14 | Doodle World, Peters (^)
🔰 #15 | Nim & Nom, Krill (^)
🔰 #16 | Battery Chad, Formula Fanboy (^)
🔰 #17 | Nalleland, Nallebeorn (^)
🔰 #18 | Super Uwol, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #19 | Nessy! The NES Robot, DTG (^)
🔰 #20 | Mineshaft, Nioreh (^)
🔰 #21 | Inversion, Kur / Red Moon (^)
🔰 #22 | Underground Adventure, Coop (^)
🔰 #23 | Pogo Cats, Yggi (^)
🔰 #24 | Study Hall, KHAN (^)
🔰 #25 | Frog, Boston Breams (^)
🔰 #26 | Blobert, Mystical Wheelbarrow (^)
🔰 #27 | I Wanna Flip the Sky, Livak (^)
🔰 #28 | Chicken of the Farm, Link / Mitch (^)
🔰 #29 | Falling, Tragic Muffin (^)

🔘 8-Bit Xmas 2015: 12 Seconds of Xmas (^)
🔘 8-Bit Xmas 2019: Study Hall 2 (^)
🔘 Dragon Leap (^)
🔘 Kid Funky (^)
🔘 Marble Run (^)
🔘 Mega Mountain (^)
🔘 Mr. Maymunshine’s Christmasland (^)
🔘 Nature Clan: Forest Adventure (^)

° Not to be confused with Espitene, a 2018 Mojon Twins game ranked in Adventure.

Puzzle Game Rankings

🔘 8-Bit Xmas 2020: Dr. Covio (^)
🔘 Bomb Sweeper (^)
🔘 Laser (^)
🔘 Sokoban (^)
🔘 Squirrel Domino (^)

RPG Rankings

🔰 #1 | Light From Within, Atarath (^)
🔰 #2 | Quest Forge, Ludosity (^)
🔰 #3 | The Legends of Owlia, Gradual (^)
🔰 #4 | We Are Hejickle, Pubby (^)
🔰 #5 | Mystic Origins, New 8-Bit Heroes (^)
🔰 #6 | Candelabra: Estoscerro, Sly Dog (^)
🔰 #7 | 1000 Stars, Vufka (^)
🔰 #8 | Paws of the West, Pigeonaut (^)
🔰 #9 | Anguna: Scourge of the Goblin King, Bite the Chili (^)
🔰 #10 | Time Survivor, Tinsley (^)
🔰 #11 | Black Box Challenge, Sly Dog (^)
🔰 #12 | Swords and Runes, Sole Goose (^)
🔰 #13 | The Paths of Bridewell, ZKIP (^)
🔰 #14 | Inherent Smile, Calima (^)

🔘 TheWit.nes (^)

Shooter / Run n’ Gun Rankings

🔰 #1 | Astro Ninja Man, Columbus Cir. (^)
🔰 #2 | Star Keeper, 87 Arts (^)
🔰 #3 | Blade Buster, High Level Challenge (^)
🔰 #4 | Haradius Zero, Neodolphino (^)
🔰 #5 | Aspect Star N, Nicole Express (^)
🔰 #6 | Super PakPak, AOH Games (^)
🔰 #7 | NeMULEsis, Vanderhoef (^)
🔰 #8 | Sinking Feeling, Mega Cat (^)
🔰 #9 | Star Versus, Dust Mop (^)
🔰 #10 | Copper Jacket, Monsoon Studios (^)
🔰 #11 | Super Russian Roulette, Reitano (^)
🔰 #12 | Gold Guardian Gun Girl, Good_Tune (^)
🔰 #13 | The Rise of Amondus, Sly Dog (^)
🔰 #14 | Touhou Rououmu, Kyoske (^)
🔰 #15 | Sgt. Helmet, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #16 | Ghoul Grind, WoogWorx (^)
🔰 #17 | Bat Lizard Bonanza, Vanderhoef (^)
🔰 #18 | Spook-o’-Tron, Sole Goose (^)
🔰 #19 | Thwaite, Yerrick (^)
🔰 #20 | Gaplus, M2 / Bandai Namco (^)
🔰 #21 | DABG, Hoffman (^)
🔰 #22 | Spirit Impel, Passe Gaming (^)
🔰 #23 | Chrono Knight, Artix (^)
🔰 #24 | CYO, Nemesys (^)
🔰 #25 | Lunar Limit, Pubby (^)

🔘 Bloodfall (^)
🔘 Falling Tiles (^)
🔘 Galaxxon III: The Third War (^)
🔘 Godzilla: King of Monsters (^)°
🔘 Improbability Fighter (^)
🔘 Jupiter Scope 2: Operation Europa (^)
🔘 Light Shields (^)
🔘 Saturn Smash (^)
🔘 Scramble (^)
🔘 Solar Wars (^)
🔘 Spacy Shooty (^)
🔘 Sweethearts (^)
🔘 T*Gun (^)
🔘 Wraith (^)

° Not to be confused with the licensed NES game, Godzilla: Monster of Monsters.

*Gotta Protectors: Amazon’s Running Diet.*

Sports / Racing Game Rankings

° Offers a substantial Adventure game component as well as a bowling game.

Strategy Game Rankings

° This game is an unlicensed demake of a popular game for another platform.

🔰 #SC | Kubo 3, Seiji / SJ Games (^)

To conceive of, design, and code an aftermarket NES game approximately thirty years after the last licensed NES cart was published is a tremendous feat—an act of bravery, ingenuity, and determination.

To do this at the age of eight is nothing short of an act of heroism. RETRO would like to issue a special citation to Seiji, who developed the extremely promising game Kubo 3 and did so many, many years before the average person even begins to understand all that producing a video game requires. Seiji and Kubo 3 are an inspiration to everyone.

If you’d like to learn more about Seiji and Kubo 3, RETRO recommends this primer:

Reviews and Gameplay Videos

🔰 #1 | Witch n’ Wiz

Review: Reminiscent of a combination of several cult-classic—but still underrated—NES puzzle games like Fire n’ Ice, Puzznic, Adventures of Lolo, and Boulder Dash, what sets Witch n’ Wiz apart is its brief-but-emotional backstory, its consistently fine graphics and block-erasure level design, and a caliber of perfection in difficulty scaling that was never really achieved by the games we now call “Nintendo Hard.” While Witch n’ Wiz can be quite hard, never before have I played a video game that seems to set the amount of time, energy, and brainpower necessary to beat each screen at exactly the right level. At the very moment you feel like a level is too difficult to best, you do; at the very moment you fear perhaps the game is unfair, you realize it isn’t; and the result of this is a sense of ecstatic accomplishment that many otherwise wonderful original NES titles missed out on producing because they’d calibrated their learning curve and difficulty spikes improperly. Over dozens of levels, Witch n’ Wiz remains fresh, engaging, and a joy to puzzle through—a testament to developer Matt Hughson’s genius. Each set of sublevels offers an idiosyncratic gameplay mechanic that’s newly in play, and as you progress through each set Hughson continually finds clever new ways to deploy the mechanic. Meanwhile, the story sequence that leads off the game—and for that matter, the exciting and tense boss battle that closes it—lend emotional stakes to the game that subsist throughout its runtime. Overall, this game is just so impossibly tightly made that it feels like an instant NES classic; there are no flaws or hiccups one can identify, just a purely joyous game-playing experience that’s truly unforgettable.

🔰 #2 | Tapeworm Disco Puzzle

Review: Sometimes a game just hits every note perfectly. Alistair Low from LowTek Games has created a marvelous, ever-expanding world with his games Flea! and Tapeworm Disco Puzzle. By taking generally avoided and disfavored organisms one would never think of as protagonists and placing them in colorful, vibrant, whimsical environments that are aesthetically cohesive as well as imaginatively diverse, Low is creating a novel world that bears visiting over and over. In Flea!—quite cleverly, an “endless jumper” rather than “endless runner”—the gameplayer must navigate the idiosyncrasies of the primary sprite they control as well as the idiosyncrasies of the environment, which include dangerous needles, a straw subway, and all sorts of icky microbiology. As Henry the Hyperactive Flea, you find yourself in a platformer where timing rather than jumping is the focus, as jumping is constant and uncontrollable. While the graphics of this game and its same-world peer Tapeworm Disco Puzzle are deliberately pixelated and deformed in a way one can’t miss, the chromatic tones and general atmosphere of the works seem just as they should be—as if there couldn’t possibly have been a better alternative. As a gamer I think it comes down to feeling like these two games and the characters in them are truly loved by their creator; there’s a sense of warmth, humor, and resignation to danger in this world (this last particularly appropriate for organisms so easily vanquished by their environment or manmade forces) that just feels right because it feels innately earned. It helps that the controls are tight, the difficulty scaling masterful, the storytelling touch light but also profoundly generative and subtly humorous, and the layout of each screen clearly the result of genius-level game-development instincts. This applies with perhaps even greater force to Tapeworm Disco Puzzle than Flea!, as the former game has a story and characters that build off their predecessor and offer a sense of sonic style—as one might expect, given the name of the game and the profession of its protagonist (who literally lives in a cassette tape)—that makes even the toughest levels, for instance the ones in which a suddenly hypnotized protagonist moves ceaselessly (as is de rigueur in Flea!) eminently bearable. In Tapeworm Disco Puzzle, the titular tapeworm can only move a limited number of spaces outside his cassette at once, which is a challenge given how much he needs to do away from home; fortunately, you have wormholes and other clever gameplay mechanics available to extend your reach and allow you to offer aid to your friends, who are being attacked one by one by a mysterious unseen villain. This is one of those games in which every enemy, obstacle, screen, and mechanic is organically “of the world” of fleas and ticks, tapeworms, and other creepy-crawlies—but in a delightfully whimsical way rather than one played for cheap shock value. In the best art, each element speaks to every other element, and this is richly the case with Tapeworm Disco Puzzle and Flea!, which are unquestionably stunning works of digital art.

🔰 #3 | Astro Ninja Man

Review: Some games simply have an unmistakable, inimitable, idiosyncratic style—and Astro Ninja Man is just such a game. Some of this flows from the title’s conceit, which commingles the ancient and the futuristic in a way that perfectly contextualizes its over-the-top combination of pseudo-militaristic monologuing (every boss battle is preceded by a threat made against the player), ethereal beauty, techno music, and the sort of adorable cartoonizing of the game’s protagonist that can only happen when narrative cohesion and mimetic reality have already been thrown out the window. Many space shooters allow you to gain allies as power-ups, but in Astro Ninja Man it’s a straight-up doubling—then tripling and quadrupling—of the titular ninja-astronaut, which seems as much an aesthetic decision as a gameplay one. But it works. What also works is the outrageous color scheme, inscrutable bosses, oddly “floaty” projectiles (which at times seem more beautiful than dangerous), and a forgiving “hit box” that doesn’t count your allies against you, meaning you only take damage if the protagonist himself is hit. Playing Astro Ninja Man is an intense and unforgettable experience not just because the game’s conceit and sonic/color palettes are fresh, but because enemy movements and patterns are engaging, the difficulty scales properly, and the whole packages feels as much like an experience as a contest of dexterity. Every retro gamer must play this game.

🔰 #4 | Böbl

Review: Not to wax poetic here, but I think there’s something profound about selecting one of the most fragile phenomena on Earth—a bubble—as the protagonist in an NES adventure. We’re all familiar with “one-hit kill” titles that are set up this way merely to appeal to the subset of retro gamers who are masochists (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but it’s refreshing to see a game put a frame around why its primary character is particularly vulnerable. It helps, of course, when a game looks beautiful, is difficult but also oddly calming, and perpetually surprises the player with novel obstacles, power-ups, and environments. While there’s certainly a bit of a learning curve here in terms of controlling the titular bubble and its power-up functions, the game never feels unfair, and indeed somehow provokes a sort of emotional investment that’s a hallmark of the very best Adventure games. One finds in this game the earnest joy of exploration and discovery; beneath the deceptively simple package of Böbl is a game with an intriguing physics engine, great controls, and an extremely inviting set of environments. This game gains your emotional investment and your time in every way that a video game can and should. Highly recommended.

🔰 #5 | Micro Mages

Review: It seems like every retro gamer in the world absolutely adores Micro Mages—and it’s not very hard to see why. Yes, the sprites are tiny (even micro), but of course that’s part of the charm of this Platformer: it’s not just the vertical autoscrolling, which sees you frantically using Ninja Gaiden- (or Streemerz-) like wall-jumping to kill enemies, open chests, and hit checkpoints as quickly as possible; and it’s not just the excellent music and charming back-story; it’s that it’s simply remarkable that any game can look this good—with protagonists and enemies that move so fluidly—at this scale. Every space in this game is fully realized and wholly believable, which is made possible not just by all of the above features but the incredibly tight controls and the great score. Add in multiple difficulty modes, a multiplayer option, and a password system, and you have a game—like all of the Top 10 games in this list, in fact—that without question would have been ranked in the Top 100 of original NES games. It is not too much to say that Micro Mages is an addictive, action-filled gaming experience that will forever—and I mean forever—be regarded as a truly essential NES homebrew experience.

🔰 #6 | Star Keeper

Review: It’s a genuine shame that so few people will ever get to play this game, and if RETRO had a magic wand it would will 87 Arts and the game’s unknown developer—his name doesn’t appear in the credits—to agree to distribute this work of art via one of the many fine 8-bit-game publishers listed in this article. Playing Star Keeper is like stepping into a dream; while a few of the game’s visual setpieces (e.g., its clouds) may immediately put on in mind of Nintendo’s Super Mario games, even when Star Keeper echos that legendary series it does so by honoring its very finest qualities: a diverse rogues’ gallery with enemies that can only be described as adorable; truly effervescent environments; and a dreamlike ambiance that remains soothing even at moments the game’s difficulty seems to briefly ramp up. The simple premise here, of a boy with a house that’s also a spaceship, is memorable enough that the overall gaming experience feels like an “It’s a Small World” ferry ride through childhood wonders. So many 8-bit shooters take themselves too seriously; Star Keeper follows in the grand tradition of Sqoon, Gun-Nac, and Parodius by not falling into this trap and giving players something to do (collect stars) while jet-packing around and firing at enemies. All in all, this is a singular and sublime gaming experience that hopefully—one day—many more gamers will be able to enjoy.

🔰 #7 | Haunted: Halloween ‘86

Review: This may well be the quintessential NES homebrew. Its writing and graphics never feel other than homespun, but always in a way that is engaging, and often with subtle complexities that belie the charmingly organic nature of the work. Before more is said about the game, however, can we first address its core concept? Halloween is a holiday that surely deserves hundreds of video games devoted to it, and while it does have many, few more perfectly capture the sense of gloom and adventure surrounding All Hallows Eve than Haunted: Halloween ‘86. The drab color palette in the game is perfectly suited to its context, even as it is often surprisingly expressive; level designs so beautifully interact with with the many different background environments the game’s two protagonists fight their way through that the player never feels anything but wholly located in this richly realized world. Adversaries and obstacles are spooky, icky, and unnerving in exactly the right measure, and for an 8-bit beat ‘em up the two playable characters—who you can switch between at will, and will often need to—get an admirable number of special moves throughout the course of the game. Most of all, however, Haunted: Halloween ‘86 is to be celebrated for its inventive boss battles, its unique health-point system (you gauge the status of your playable character by how closely their skin tone matches that of the zombie that every successful hit gets closer and closer to turning you into), and its pitch-perfect atmosphere. This is a game series one genuinely hopes goes on and on, and (no spoilers!) the engaging, eerie story the series tells absolutely has the legs for several more entries. I can’t wait for the next one!

🔰 #8 | Flea!

Review: See the review for Tapeworm Disco Puzzle, above.

🔰 #9 | The Magnilo Case

Review: This game is a blast, pure and simple—and I say that as a retro gamer who often dislikes Adventure games, and games in the mystery sub-genre specifically. What makes The Magnilo Case something else entirely, however, is the quality of its writing: both the text itself, and also the pacing, plotting, evidence, and scenery that make this game run. From the moment you step inside Magnilo Studios, you want to explore it because it is creepy and adorable and ethereal all at once—by which I mean that you never know what the next room will hold, because the game developers have clearly let their imaginations run wild. Some Adventure games meet the requirements of the genre but lack a real sense of exploration, wonder, and negative capability (the idea, which we get from the poet John Keats, of finding a certain joy in uncertainty); The Magnilo Case reels you in from the very beginning and never lets go. Gameplay-wise it has all the features you would expect from this sort of title, yet all of them are done wonderfully and with a snarky, noirish panache. Magnilo is a game—and a place—you will want to lose yourself in.

🔰 #10t | Alfonzo’s Arctic Adventure

Review: Alfonzo’s Arctic Adventure is a remarkably complete game—not just for an NES homebrew, but for any NES game. If there’s a thing you love about 8-bit gaming, it’s here. Several playable characters, each with their own personalities and powers? Check. Elements of all six major 8-bit video game genres (Action, Adventure, Beat ‘em Up, Platformer, Puzzle, and Shooter)? Check. An overworld? Yes. A unique aesthetic that comes with a sense of humor? Certainly. While the story is gestural, (a) there is one, and (b) it’ll make you smile on occasion. But more than all this, and beyond even the tight controls, fine difficulty scaling, and interestingly varied levels and obstacles, Alfonzo’s Arctic Adventure is invested enough in immersion and replayability to offer secret areas, special hard-to-find items, and little gameplay quirks (such as needing to duck into an igloo—if/when you can get to it—to change characters) that lend a sense of, pun a bit intended I guess, “adventure” to the game. I suppose I’m also one of those retro gamers who greatly appreciates a developer willing to build out a world across multiple games; it should be deemed a significant asset of Alfonzo’s Arctic Adventure that if you like its graphics, music, gameplay and characters, you can spend even more time with them—in a set of games that are excellent in their own right—via Eskimo Bob: Starring Alfonzo, Alfonzo Melee, and The Alfonzo Game. With the ongoing “Haunted: Halloween” series (which includes, so far, Haunted: Halloween ‘85 and Haunted: Halloween ‘86) and John Vanderhoef’s excellent “MULEniverse” series (which includes neMULEsis, Leggite Luta Livre, Bat Lizard Bonanza, Wampus DX, and Wart Worm Wingding), the “Alfonzo” series has all the makings of a new cult-classic miniverse in the NES2 ecosystem.

🔰 #10t | Little Medusa

Review: We need to get the obvious out of the way, first: yes, this game is reminiscent of Kickle Cubicle, a widely respected original NES title that nevertheless only made #100 on the consensus Top 100 NES Games of All Time ranking. In view of this, there is ample reason to feel like retro gaming needs more games that investigate the unique mechanic from Kickle Cubicle: pushing enemies to turn them into useful landmasses. Whereas Kickle Cubicle lacked an interesting narrative frame, Little Medusa not only has one but is of course borrowing from the best frame there is: Greek mythology. But it’s not just that the story here is far more engaging than was ever the case with Kickle Cubicle—though that’s true—but so too are the level designs, the enemies, the boss battles, your powers, the power-ups, the obstacles, the battlefields, the overworld art, the puzzles, the cutscenes and intermediary graphics, the music, the secret areas, and—well—everything, really. When you take a classic gameplay mechanic and improve on everything surrounding it in every way imaginable, you end up with a thrilling game. Little Medusa can confidently stand alongside the very best action-puzzle games from the original NES.

Some Other Reviewed Games

{Note: Homebrew games deemed a cut above the others listed here will be marked with a “🔸”.}

8-Bit Xmas 2008
8-Bit Xmas 2009: Snowball Fight!!! 🔸
8-Bit Xmas 2010: Jolly Joyriding 🔸
8-Bit Xmas 2011: Fireplace Bash°°°
8-Bit Xmas 2012: Biplane Dogfight 🔸
8-Bit Xmas 2013: Santa’s Blasters 🔸
8-Bit Xmas 2014: Killer Queen Arcade
8-Bit Xmas 2016: Xmas Pinball
8-Bit Xmas 2017: Anniversary Multicart
1007 Bolts
A Small World
Airboat Apocalypse
Ambushed
Astroid
Auge 🔸
Axelay 🔸
Basic Championship Wrestling
Battleball
Beat ‘em and Eat ‘em
Berzerk 🔸
Betelgeuse
Big City Sliding Blaster
Blurred Lines 2048
Bomb Array
Bomberman 2002 🔸
Brilliant Pebbles 🔸
Brony Blaster
Bsides
Bust a Nut
Candy Shop°
Cat Killer 🔸
Cats
Chase 🔸
Code Master
Connect 4
Convention Quest
Dizzy: Melanchony of Existance [sic]
Drakaina
Fighter F-8000
Fire of Rebellion
Flappy Bird 🔸
Flappy Block
Flight Minigames
For the Birds VI
For Points 🔸
Function 🔸
Galaxy NES 🔸
Galaxy Patrol 🔸
Game of Life
Geminim 🔸
Go
Grave Digger
Greedy Snake
GSM
Halloween 2009 🔸
Hangman
HexS 🔸
Horror Hospital
Hot Head Joe
Hot Seat Harry
Invaders Must Die
Juhannussauna
Lake Fever
Libertango°
Lights Out
Mandelbrot Set
Manhole
MashyMashy
Melo-Jellos 2 🔸
Memory
Meteor Guard
Midnight Jogger
Missing Lands
Moon Magic
Munchie Attack 🔸
Nanaca Crash 🔸
Nature Clan: Island
Nature Clan: Mirror Devil World
NES Raycaster
Nesglovphone
The Ninja of the 4 Seasons 🔸
Ninja Slapper
Nintencat: The Parody
NNNNNN 🔸
No Points
Nothing Good Can Come of This
Number Muncher
Obstacle Trek 🔸
The One with the Walls
Orphea 🔸
Paint or Draw
Pair the Pets
Pegs 🔸
Pong 198X
Pong & Head Bounce
Poronkusema 🔸
Prez
Pung! Balls of Steel
Putt Putt
Reggie’s Radical Adventures
Robotfindskitten
Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Sbock
ROM City Rampage
Save the Kuin
ShootNES
Simone Says
Sitten Kitten
Slappin’ 🔸
Snail Maze 🔸
Snowball
Soko Man
Space Fighter
Sparkle Panda Rainbow Hunter
Specus
Splash Rightnut
Sprilo
Squish: The Bouncing Cat Ball
S.T.I.N.G.
Super City Mayor 🔸
Super Floofy Sheepie
Super Marxsky Comrades
Super Roman
Sweetie and the Carnage
The Tao of 007
Thallasophobe
That’s Whack
Theremin
Tiger Jenny°° 🔸
Vector Run
Zombie Calavera Prologue 🔸

° These individual chiptune tracks by Norwegian programmer Snowbro might well make the RETRO Music / Rhythm rankings if compiled on a single ROM or cartridge.
°° This game’s final boss hasn’t yet been coded, leaving the game without an ending.
°°° See Quadralords, under the Card / Party section of these rankings.

Games To Be Reviewed

Subscribers can comment below this article to suggest additional games for review.

0—>X; Arlington Apple in An Interplanetary Pickle; Blob Land; Bovinium Quest; Bowels of the Beast; Brandon, You’re Going to Hell; Claudia Adventure; Dragon Feet; Electronic Sweet-N-Fun Fortune Teller; Garage Cart; Goofy Foot: Power Chiptunes; The Legend of Weed N’ Stiff; Masmix; Mouser II; Nighttime Bastards; Ooze Redux; Paws N’ Play; Perkele; Pixel Poops: Number Two; Planter; Ploid; Retropia; Rick Starfield: Hero of Space and Time; Saturdayman; TRACK+FEEL II; True Alien: It Came From Outer Space; Turtle Rescue Unwrapped DX; Uchusen: Ultimate Ploid Battle; Weed N’ Stiff 2: Bobson’s Revenge; You Are Insignificant; Zdey the Game.

Here’s a non-exhaustive watchlist of unreleased NES homebrews of interest to RETRO:

Allison of Astra
Balls and Booty
Chaos Between Realms
Diary of a Zomboni Driver
The Drunk Time Traveler’s Fiancee
Force Bot
Full Quiet
Former Dawn
Halcyon
High Noon Knockout
Isolation
Malasombra
The Meating
Mega Commando
Mystic Searches
Orange Island
Project Chocoblip
The Prying Eye
Pyronaut
Sam’s Journey
Skeler Boy
Sword of Ianna
Sydney Hunter and the Caverns of Death
Walter Nate: Timeline Agent
Witch City
The Witch Guild

Looking for Legally Acquired Aftermarket ROM or Cart

Contract RETRO via this form if you are in legal possession of any of the games below (as either a ROM or cartridge) and are legally entitled to share them with a third party.

Ping Pong°

° Specifically, the late 1990s or early 2000s Hummer Games version, pictured below.

Promising Homebrews Never Released

RETRO is watching—albeit with not too much hope—these NES homebrew projects, on the long odds that they may one day be resuscitated by their very talented creators.

Journey World

Maru Mari

Neotoxin

RETRO owes a debt of gratitude to the many digital artists and game development studios that have offer critical feedback during the formation and evolution of this ranking. RETRO would like to offer special thanks to Matt Hughson (website), M-Tee (website), Jeffrey Wittenhagen (website), FrankenGraphics (website), and Michael Chiaramonte (website). More names will undoubtedly be added to this list soon!

RETRO dedicates this first edition of its Top 250 NES Homebrews to the memory of talented retro gamer, streamer, and rom-hack game developer Adam Hiner of Akron, Ohio (1983–2021).

Known by the many gamers whose lives he touched via his various online channels as AdamOSRetro, Adam exhibited an irrepressible love of gaming and NES homebrews in particular. His energy, joy, and bravery was superlative, and he will be sorely missed.