The Top 500 Indie NES Games, Vol. 9

Decades after the last licensed Nintendo Entertainment System cart, NES games still get released. This list—which excludes prototypes/localizations of first-gen NES titles—ranks 1,401 indie games.

Seth Abramson

Apr 12, 2024

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Introduction

Subscribers can read the Methodology and Eligibility sections of this ranking here.

Please note that a ranking of anything is by definition subjective. Every ranking has a human creator behind it who’s determined what will be measured and how. While I’ve taught video games as an R1 university professor, been a journalist for 25 years, and am a professional culture critic and video game reviewer, none of this ensures that you’ll agree with my judgments—nor does it mean that they’re “objectively” correct.

{Note: Information on my background as a journalist, a critic, a video game reviewer, and an academic specializing in digital culture can be found here.}

It is already the case that more NES titles have been published in this century than were published last century, and it’ll soon be the case that more complete-in-box titles—NES games with a cart, manual, and fully designed box—hail from 2000 and after than the 1900s (there are already over 300 such games, with the pace of their creation increasing each year).

With this in mind, the purpose of this report is to at once advance indie NES game development as a hobby (for gamers and collectors), a teaching tool (for anyone who is interested in becoming a game dev); and a locus for historical preservation (because this ongoing series of Retro reports on indie NES games serves as the largest archive of such games in the world, it tells the ongoing saga of the Nintendo Entertainment System better than any other historical record could). Retro urges its readers to share a link to this report whenever you see people asking around for further reading on the evolution of the NES in the twenty-first century; it’s a story that deserves telling.

My hope is that gamers young and old will come to understand that the NES isn’t just one of the greatest video game consoles ever released; isn’t just the perfect system for those of any age who prefer retro gaming to modern gaming; isn’t just an ideal locus for aspiring game developers hoping to learn the craft; isn’t just a sprawling, uniquely welcoming community of gamers, developers, collectors, video game reviewers, and video game historians; but the future home of the largest game library ever produced.

That’s right: the NES is well on its way to having more games produced for it than any home video game console in human history, and that includes even the PlayStation 2.

But potential fans of the NES—whether adults picking it up again after decades away or young people discovering that 8-bit games speak more to their interests than AAA modern ones—won’t understand the shocking expansion of NES gaming this century if they’re never told that there are thousands of games to play (not just 1,386 NES and Famicom games from last century and the 1,400+ titles from this one listed below, but the 1,000+ additional NES and Famicom games Retro is aware of but simply hasn’t yet had time to play and archive).

In short, this hobby should be even larger than it already is, and the view of Retro is that it will only grow as fast as it can and should if potential new entrants are shown the way in by those already deeply invested in the NES. This means not just pointing neophytes to regular publishers of indie NES games (scores of which are listed below), not just pointing them to developers of such games (hundreds of which are below), but pointing them to an archive of over a thousand titles they can obtain, which archive has been curated by genre to help them find the games they’re most likely to enjoy.

Retro also urges new and returning NES fans to check out these websites and groups:

Itch.io (homebrew library I)
Itch.io (homebrew library II)
NesDev
NesDev Compo
NESmaker
NESmaker Byte-Off
NESWorld
The New 8-Bit Heroes
The Retroverse
RomHacking
The Game Beaters (indie NES reviews)
Video Game Sage (indie NES marketplace)
White Hat 94 (indie NES speedrunning)

Given the foregoing, the fact that some will agree with the rankings below and some won’t is beside the point—as ultimately the rankings themselves are beside the point. It’s the links that matter: the compiling of names of games, developers, and publishers.

So feel free to use this Retro archive regularly—and do share it as widely as possible!

Total Library Size

This report lists 1,401 indie NES titles, making it by far the largest archive of its kind in the world. This tally includes:

500 ranked games;
376 honorable-mention games;
127 third-tier games;
212 un-tiered games (see the “Other Reviewed Games” section); and
124 “watchlisted” NES games that haven’t yet received a full public release.

Of the indie NES games above, 302 are available as complete-in-box (“CIB”) titles.

The report below also includes:

120 additional NES titles that are anthologies, apps, demos, hacks deemed new-game equivalents, multicarts, music carts, ports, serials, or untranslated games.

Review Copies

Studios or developers looking to send review copies to Retro can arrange to do so here.

The curator of the Retro ranking owns a retroUSB AVS, and can receive new NES games as CIBs, cartridges, digital ROMs, or any combination of these three forms.

Corrections

If you have a link to your indie NES game that you’d prefer Retro use over the one that’s been used below, use the contact form linked to above to request a change. If you’d like Retro to reassess your game because it’s received a substantial update, send Retro a note via this contact form with instructions on where to find the new version.

Additional Rules

Localizations, prototypes, and reproduction NES games are ineligible for this ranking. A long—but non-exhaustive—list of games falling into these three categories appears toward the end of this Retro report.

{Note: Use “Ctrl+F” and the phrases below to find the following ranking sections.}

💮 Ranking Key

Game Rankings

💮 Action-Adventure (103 games)
💮 Adventure (37 games)
💮 Arcade (72 games)
💮 Card & Dice (5 games)
💮 Fighting (18 games)
💮 Kids (2 games)
💮 Party (5 games)
💮 Platformer (70 games)
💮 Puzzle (50 games)
💮 Rhythm (9 games)
💮 RPG (34 games)
💮 Shooter (54 games)
💮 Simulation (7 games)
💮 Sports (21 games)
💮 Strategy (8 games)
💮 Zapper (5 games)

Additional Rankings

💮 Anthologies (6 anthologies)
💮 Art Apps (5 apps)
💮 Hacks (20 hacks)
💮 Multicarts (2 multicarts)
💮 Music Carts (24 carts)
💮 Music Apps (10 apps)
💮 Ports (35 ports)
💮 Serials (1 serial)
💮 Tech Demos (5 demos)
💮 Untranslated Carts (11 carts)
💮 Utilities (1 utility)
💮 Other Reviewed Games
💮 Ineligible Games
- Localizations (19 titles)
- Prototypes (47 titles)
- Reproductions (20 titles)
- Special Editions (7 titles)
💮 The Retro Indie Game Watchlist (124 titles)
💮 The NES Indie Game Hall of Fame (88 games)
- Hall of Fame Games (5 games)
- Current Vote Recipients (83 games)

Ranking Key

{Note: This section, much like the rankings as a whole, is best viewed on a desktop computer.}

🔰 = A “Top 500” (First Tier) game; the bolded number beside it is its in-genre ranking.

🔘 = An “Honorable Mention” (Second Tier) indie NES game, according to Retro.

🎴 = An indie game that has at some point been available as a complete-in-box product.

🔹 = A title new to this report; this symbol is removed for subsequent volumes.

🔸 = A game whose ranking has changed notably in this volume due to a reassessment.

🅰️ = A game featuring adult images, situations, or themes; viewer discretion is advised.

🔫 = A game that requires (rather than just allowing) an NES Zapper to play properly.

📒 = Ranked NES titles that don’t count toward the Top 500 because they’re not games.

Action-Adventure Rankings

Top Games

🔰 #1 | Full Quiet, Retrotainment (^)
🔰 #2 | Dungeons & Doomknights, Artix (^)
🔰 #3 | Alfonzo’s Arctic Adventure, SBP (^)
🔰 #4 | Alwa’s Awakening, Elden Pixels (^)
🔰 #5 | Little Medusa, Mega Cat (^)
🔰 #6 | Spacegulls, Morphcat (^)
🔰 #7 | Trouble at 2A03, Team Disposable (^)
🔰 #8 | L’Abbaye des Morts, Parisoft (^)
🔰 #9 | Nix: The Paradox Relic, Huddleston (^)
🔰 #10 | Sam’s Journey, Knights of Bytes (^) 🔹
🔰 #11 | Little Sisyphus, Pubby (^) 🔹
🔰 #12 | Kingdom Crisis, Ninja Dynamics (^)
🔰 #13 | Trophy, Gradual Games (^)
🔰 #14 | The Storied Sword, Raftronaut / BTC (^)
🔰 #15 | Orebody: Binder’s Tale, Vanderhoef (^)
🔰 #16 | Battle Kid 2, retroUSB (^)
🔰 #17 | Crowborg, Miau (^)
🔰 #18 | Garbage Pail Kids, Retrotainment (^)
🔰 #19 | Super Bat Puncher, Morphcat (^)
🔰 #20 | The Great Gatsby, Hoey (^)
🔰 #21 | Rabbits World, Cmyksoft (^)
🔰 #22 | Wolfling, Lazy Cow (^)
🔰 #23 | Space Raft, Raftronaut (^)
🔰 #24 | Battle Kid, retroUSB (^)
🔰 #25 | Adventures of Panzer, Pixelcraft (^)
🔰 #26 | The Meating, Mega Cat (^) 🔹
🔰 #27 | Mark of the Beast, Red Moon (^) 🔸
🔰 #28 | Torgman Adventures, Pt. 1, TORG (^) 🔹
🔰 #29 | Cheril’s Nightmares, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #30 | Eyra, Second Dimension (^)
🔰 #31 | Burn ‘em Down, Dr. Colossus (^) 🔹
🔰 #32 | Biocats, PB Games (^)
🔰 #33 | Steel Legion, Aeon & Star (^) 🔹
🔰 #34 | Isostasy, Gravel Studios (^)
🔰 #35 | Nin Nin, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #36 | Sunset Land, Industrial Pixels (^)
🔰 #37 | Tactus, Zeta (^)
🔰 #38 | Cheril the Writer, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #39 | More Glider, retroUSB (^)
🔰 #40 | Cheril the Goddess, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #41 | The Wizard of Oz, Waixing (^/^)°
🔰 #42 | Beyond Frontier 5, board-b (^) 🔹
🔰 #43 | Yun, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #44 | Bootèe, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #45 | Tower of Turmoil, CutterCross (^)
🔰 #46 | Delta 9, Grimware (^) 🔹
🔰 #47 | The Mad Wizard, Sly Dog (^)
🔰 #48 | Jet-Paco, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #49 | Mawthorne, CrazyGroupTrio (^) 🔸
🔰 #50 | The Cube, Rusty Retro (^) 🔹
🔰 #51 | Land Ahoy!, SciNEStist (^) 🔹
🔰 #52 | Flowers in the Mirror, Waixing (^/^)
🔰 #53 | Underground Mission, Inventor (^)
🔰 #54 | Saturdayman, Sunday Pistols (^)
🔰 #55 | Nomolos, Gradual Games (^)
🔰 #56 | Center of the Alien, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #57 | Lala the Magical, Mojon Twins (^) 🔸
🔰 #58 | Rainbow Brite, Pixelheart (^) 🔸
🔰 #59 | Espitene, Mojon Twins (^) 🔸
🔰 #60 | Machine Cave, Aeromangus (^) 🔸
🔰 #61 | Sir Ababol, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #62 | Space Foxes, Henry (^)°°
🔰 #63 | Raven’s Gate, Mercury BD (^)
🔰 #64 | Che-Man, Mojon Twins (^)°°°
🔰 #65 | Ralph 4, Pubby (^)
🔰 #66 | Vigilante Ninja II, Fraker (^)
🔰 #67 | Filthy Kitchen, Dust Mop (^)
🔰 #68 | Hiatus Ward, Sedwave (^)
🔰 #69 | Streemerz, Faux Games (^)
🔰 #70 | Nova the Squirrel, Nova Squirrel (^)
🔰 #71 | Desert of the Undead, Retrobro 85 (^) 🔹
🔰 #72 | Press Start Again, Coop (^)
🔰 #73 | They Came to Wreak Hell, Team Disposable (^)🔸
🔰 #74 | Press Start, Coop (^) 🔸
🔰 #75 | Deth Complex 2, Moore (^)
🔰 #76 | Antenna Antics, FG Soft (^)
🔰 #77 | Kuku-Ruku, Siudym (^)
🔰 #78 | The Stranger, FG Soft (^)
🔰 #79 | Zapp and Zapper, van der Burg (^) 🔹
🔰 #80 | Skybound Quest, Reimer (^) 🔹
🔰 #81 | Almika: Star Rider, Mouse Spirit (^)
🔰 #82 | The Binding of Isaac, Nasdalack (^)
🔰 #83 | Ramen Adventure, Baldriz (^)
🔰 #84 | Wo Xiang Niao Niao, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #85 | The Wizard, RetroAge (^)
🔰 #86 | Zombiehunter Bob, Baardbi (^) 🔹
🔰 #87 | Jane Austen’s Adventure, Justice (^)
🔰 #88 | Montezuma’s Revenge, Normal (^)
🔰 #89 | Elemental, James (^) 🔹
🔰 #90 | Humbled, Kevin81 (^) 🔹
🔰 #91 | Pelusa Saga, Broke Studio (^) 🔹
🔰 #92 | The Myth of Zayla, M8sibit (^) 🔹
🔰 #93 | Nathan & Drake’s Adventure, Perez (^) 🔹
🔰 #94 | Rick Starfield, Nietfeld (^)
🔰 #95 | Space Hero, Nietfeld (^) 🔹
🔰 #96 | Atmoss9, FFFF Lab (^) 🔹
🔰 #97 | Black Jewel Reborn, PSCD Games (^)
🔰 #98 | Bobby Six Seven, CalGames (^)
🔰 #99 | Mattock Mike, NESLurker (^)
🔰 #100 | Claudia Adventure, Voltopt (^)
🔰 #101 | LSD: One of Us, Eber (^)
🔰 #102 | Reign of Death, Fernandez (^) 🔹
🔰 #103 | Ninja Teenz, Sherman (^) 🔹

Action-Adventure Games: Honorable Mentions

Tier 3: Other Action-Adventure Games

Almika in Space Too (^)
Aspen’s Adventure (^)
Basu (^)
Friday the 13th: Return to Camp Blood (^)
Halloween: October 31st (^)
Hazard: Let Us Out
Miles Con 2016
Master of Time (^)
Musical Quest
The Ninja of the 4 Seasons
Ninja Trip (^)
Reknum: Souls Adventure (^)
Slice of Bread (^)
Zombie Calavera Prologue

🎴 Complete-in-Box Action-Adventure Games

The Adventures of Panzer
Alfonzo’s Arctic Adventure
Alwa’s Awakening
The Banketh
Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril
Battle Kid 2: Mountain of Torment
Black Jewel Reborn
Bobby Six Seven
Candelabra: The Mad Wizard
Dungeons & Doomknights
Eyra the Crow Maiden
Flowers in the Mirror
Jane Austen’s Adventure
Jet-Paco: Hyper Special Space Agent
L’Abbaye des Morts
Little Medusa
Machine Cave
Mawthorne
The Meating
Miles Con 2016
Montezuma’s Revenge
More Glider
Nix: The Paradox Relic
Nomolos: Storming the Catsle
Pelusa Saga: Kaji’s Trials
Ploid
Rainbow Brite: Journey to Rainbow Land
Reknum: Souls Adventure
Sam’s Journey
Sir Abadol
Skate Cat
Space Raft
Super Bat Puncher
Tower of Turmoil
Trophy

° Requires the use of an English-language patch to play. Use the UniPatcher app from the Google Play store to quickly combine any NES ROM with an “.ips” translation file.
°° Approximate ranking only (derived exclusively from available gameplay footage).
°°° Dire Job—an earlier, equally playable version of this game, with different sprites and a slightly different narrative—can be found here.

Adventure Game Rankings

Top Games

🔰 #1 | MOMOC, Goaterby (^)
🔰 #2 | Böbl, Morphcat (^)
🔰 #3 | The Magnilo Case, Dalyen Retro (^)
🔰 #4 | Lizard, Smith (^)
🔰 #5 | Cave Driller, Mazin (^)
🔰 #6 | Blob Quest, Livak (^)
🔰 #7 | NEScape!, Hanley (^)
🔰 #8 | The House in the Cemetery, Daylen (^)
🔰 #9 | Dead Tomb, Limited Run Games (^)
🔰 #10 | Echoes of the Unread, Clever Cat (^) 🔹
🔰 #11 | Tryptic, CrazyGroupTrio (^) 🔹
🔰 #12 | Alien Isolation, Siudym (^)
🔰 #13 | Cold & Starving, Memlvar (^) 🔹
🔰 #14 | Sweetleaf, Cramer / Marcel (^)
🔰 #15 | Cheril of the Bosque, Mojon Twins (^)°
🔰 #16 | Turtle Rescue DX, Turtle Rescue (^)
🔰 #17 | Soul Stone, Harry Dwarf (^) 🔹
🔰 #18 | Squirrel Chaser, Hammond (^)
🔰 #19 | What Remains, Iodine Dynamics (^)
🔰 #20 | Temple Dilemma, Chacon (^)
🔰 #21 | Kazik, Siudym (^)
🔰 #22 | Zdey the Game, Art’cade (^) 🔸
🔰 #23 | Harry Dwarf, Convoy Avenger (^)
🔰 #24 | Micro Knight IV, Siudym (^)
🔰 #25 | Escape From Flooded Cave, Voxel (^)
🔰 #26 | Waldos Forever, Raftronaut / Coop (^)
🔰 #27 | Cowlitz Gamers’ Adventure, Kur (^) 🔸
🔰 #28 | Wampus DX, Vanderhoef (^) 🔸
🔰 #29 | Star Evil, Pubby (^)
🔰 #30 | Retropia, Scardua (^)
🔰 #31 | Closing In, CPP (^)
🔰 #32 | Demon District, Klonoa (^)
🔰 #33 | Kubo 3, SJ Games (^)
🔰 #34 | The New Adventures of the Black Cat, Paltridge (^) 🔹
🔰 #35 | Bustina, Holmade Games (^)
🔰 #36 | Dream Divers, Game Losers (^)
🔰 #37 | Depths, Parker (^) 🔸

Adventure Games: Honorable Mentions

Tier 3: Other Adventure Games

The Box
Dungeon Explorer (^)
Jane Jones: Poet Detective
The Life of Cirkat
Nightmare on Elm Street: Son of 100 Maniacs (^)
Pingback
Windermere

🎴 Complete-in-Box Adventure Games

The Cowlitz Gamers’ Adventure
Dead Tomb
Kubo 3
Lizard
The Magnilo Case
NEScape!
Oof McBrewster’s Haunted House Adventure
Temple Dilemma
What Remains
Zdey the Game

° The Mojon Twins’ Cheril of the Bosque extends over three separately titled ROMS: Cheril of the Bosque: Prologue; Cheril of the Bosque; and Cheril of the Bosque in the Other Bosque. A version of the game in which the protagonist is portrayed as a baby instead of a woman is called Cheril Begins, and is not counted as a separate game here. Another version of the game—Ninjajar, in which the protagonist is portrayed as a ninja—can be found here, and is also not counted as a separate game (despite the presence of other altered sprites in the gameplay, as with Cheril Begins).

Arcade Game Rankings

Top Games

🔰 #1 | Sparky, Most (^)
🔰 #2 | Assimilate, Nessylum Games (^)
🔰 #3 | XenoCreeps, Ehlers (^)
🔰 #4 | Fire and Rescue, Skyboy Games (^)
🔰 #5 | Kira Kira Star Night DX, RIKI (^)
🔰 #6 | Space Raft Arcade, Raftronaut (^)
🔰 #7 | Coin World, Cmyksoft (^)
🔰 #8 | Yeah Yeah Beebis II, Mega Cat (^)
🔰 #9 | Super Painter, Retrosouls (^)
🔰 #10 | Eskimo Bob, SBP (^) 🔸
🔰 #11 | Zooming Secretary, Shiru (^)
🔰 #12 | Blazing Rangers, Karu_gamo (^)
🔰 #13 | Cue, Most (^)
🔰 #14 | Neo Heiankyo Alien, Columbus Circle (^)
🔰 #15 | Altercation, Scott (^)
🔰 #16 | Miroh Jr., Scardua (^) 🔹
🔰 #17 | Super Snake, HD380000 (^)
🔰 #18 | Paws N’ Play, Darthlother (^)
🔰 #19 | Get ’em Gary, Second Dimension (^)
🔰 #20 | Wart Worm Wingding, Vanderhoef (^)
🔰 #21 | Plummet Challenge, Fista Games (^)
🔰 #22 | The Cell, Most (^)
🔰 #23 | Carpet Shark, Fista Games (^) 🔸
🔰 #24 | Super Crusher Fighters, FG Soft (^)
🔰 #25 | Escape From Pong, Gashlin (^)
🔰 #26 | Up the Wall, Most (^)
🔰 #27 | Lawn Mower, Shiru (^)
🔰 #28 | Jammin’ Honey, Fraker (^)
🔰 #29 | Blob Land, Scardua (^)
🔰 #30 | Beer Slinger, Second Dimension (^)
🔰 #31 | Rooms, Manjiro (^)
🔰 #32 | Spacewalk 3030, Cramer (^)
🔰 #33 | Proximity Shift, Fiskbit (^) 🔹
🔰 #34 | Perfect Pair, Second Dimension (^)
🔰 #35 | I Love Polun-chan’s Rice Balls, Mook (^)*
🔰 #36 | Sinking Feeling, Mega Cat (^)
🔰 #37 | Crabbie Attack, Sherman (^) 🔸
🔰 #38 | Get It!, Gravel Studios (^)
🔰 #39 | NES Virus Cleaner, Sly Dog (^)
🔰 #40 | Be a Pirate!, FutuRETROistic (^)
🔰 #41 | Chopper Bombs, Most (^)
🔰 #42 | The Paper Plane in Subsoil, 5cinq (^)
🔰 #43 | Cyberblade, LCM Games (^) 🔹
🔰 #44 | Robo-Ninja Climb, Bite the Chili (^)
🔰 #45 | Germ Squashers, 8bit Evolution (^)
🔰 #46 | Ninja I & II, Elisondo (^)
🔰 #47 | Heather the Beheader, Addolorato (^)
🔰 #48 | Minekart Madness, Hughson (^)
🔰 #49 | Desert Escape, Wowee! Games (^)
🔰 #50 | Spacin’ Gators II, Addolorato (^) 🔹
🔰 #51 | Pye the Pyper, Retronika (^) 🔹
🔰 #52 | Bombermania, Senil Data (^)
🔰 #53 | Mooooo!, Toscani (^)
🔰 #54 | Leprechaun, Daylen Retro (^) 🔹
🔰 #55 | Radish Field, Nice Code (^)
🔰 #56 | Micro Knight V, Siudym (^)°
🔰 #57 | Ouroboros, Scardua (^)
🔰 #58 | Immunatio, Romek RJM (^)
🔰 #59 | Blow Em’ Out, Second Dimension (^)
🔰 #60 | Heist, Johnybot (^)
🔰 #61 | Turtle Party, Sherman (^)
🔰 #62 | Crap Job, Oniric (^)
🔰 #63 | FamiDepth, Oliver Twins (^)
🔰 #64 | Submarine, Dream Gear (^)
🔰 #65 | Fox Hunt, Tolerant X (^)
🔰 #66 | Bovinium Quest, Grey Badge (^) 🔸
🔰 #67 | Wacko, Most (^)
🔰 #68 | Ball n’ Flag, Barasc (^)
🔰 #69 | Alley Bat, FG Soft (^)
🔰 #70 | Gruniożerca, Kur & Brzukała (^)
🔰 #71 | Clouds n’ Crows, FG Soft (^) 🔹
🔰 #72 | Tracy’s NEScapades, OmniRetro (^)

Arcade Games: Honorable Mentions

Tier 3: Other Arcade Games

8-Bit Xmas 2009: Snowball Fight
1007 Bolts
Ball Catch 80 (^)
Balloon Stand (^)
Bird Blaster (^)
Busy Bar (^)
Cat Killer (^)
Cauldron of Elements (^)
Chase
Closeout (^)
Dwarves Manager (^)
Flappy Bird
For Points
The Game (^)
Hammer and Nail (^)
The Invasion (^)
Juhanusolumppialaiset 2017 🅰️
Just Another Ladder Game
Kosmity Atakujo
Munchie Attack
Nanaca Crash
Nighttime Bastards
Ninja
Ninja II
Ninja Muncher (^)
NNNNNN
Over Crisp’d
Pegs
RoboRun
Simplistic (^)
Super City Mayor
Super Insect Swatter

🎴 Complete-in-Box Arcade Games

8-Bit Xmas 2009: Snowball Fight
Assimilate
Beer Slinger
Blazing Rangers
Blow Em’ Out
Bovinium Quest
Carpet Shark
Eskimo Bob
FamiDepth
Fire and Rescue
Germ Squashers
Get ’em Gary
The Grind
Gruniożerca°°°
Juhanusolumppialaiset 2017
Kevin Power in Concert Carnage
Kevin Power in Too Many Games
Kira Kira Star Night DX
Lawn Mower
Neo Heiankyo Alien°°°
NES Virus Cleaner
Nighttime Bastards
Ninja I
Ninja II
Ninja I & II
North Korea
Perfect Pair
Plummet Challenge
Super NeSnake 2
Super Painter
Twelve Seconds
Wart Worm Wingding!
Yeah Yeah Beebis II

° More commonly known as Micro Knight: Revenge of the Foul Skulls.
°° Brick Breaker is also known as Mini Brix Battle; Corpse is also known as Cheril in Cadàveriön.
°°° Available in Famicom edition only.
* The untranslated title of this game is (in Japanese) Porun-chan no Onigiri Daisuki.

Card & Dice Game Rankings

Top Games

Card & Dice Games: Honorable Mentions

🔘 | Concentration Room, Yerrick (^)

Tier 3: Other Card & Dice Games

Baccarat (^)

🎴 Complete-in-Box Card & Dice Games

Freecell

Fighting Game Rankings

Top Games

🔰 #1 | Haunted (‘86), Retrotainment (^)
🔰 #2 | Almost Hero, Mega Cat (^)
🔰 #3 | Jay & Silent Bob: Mall Brawl, SBP (^)
🔰 #4 | Haunted (‘85), Retrotainment (^)
🔰 #5 | Jim & Dill 2, CalGames (^)
🔰 #6 | City Trouble, Walter (^)
🔰 #7 | Alfonzo Melee, SBP (^) 🔸
🔰 #8 | Leggite Luta Livre, Vanderhoef (^) 🔸
🔰 #9 | Justice Duel, Mega Cat (^)
🔰 #10 | Super Homebrew War, Bite the Chili (^)
🔰 #11 | Super Tilt Bro., Gadrat (^)
🔰 #12 | Fight of the Phoenix, Lother (^)
🔰 #13 | Chibi Monster Br4wl, Coop (^) 🔹
🔰 #14 | Oink n’ Boink, James (^)
🔰 #15 | Karate Kick, Moffitt (^)
🔰 #16 | Chumlee’s Adventure, GSPawn (^)
🔰 #17 | Snow Brawl, Svntax (^) 🔹
🔰 #18 | Bushido Bomb, Sleeping Burrito (^)

Fighting Games: Honorable Mentions

Tier 3: Other Fighting Games

Meet Me in the Parking Lot (^)

🎴 Complete-in-Box Fighting Games

Almost Hero
Chumlee’s Adventure: The Quest for Pinky
City Trouble
Haunted: Halloween ‘85
Haunted: Halloween ‘86
Jay & Silent Bob: Mall Brawl
Jim & Dill 2: Bobson’s Revenge
Justice Duel
K.Y.F.F.
Meet Me in the Parking Lot

Kids Game Rankings

Top Games

🔰 #1 | Maile Penguin’s Adventure, Karikas (^)
🔰 #2 | Pair the Pets, Broke Studio (^)

Kids Games: Honorable Mentions

🔘 | The Alphabet, Sly Dog (^)

Party Game Rankings

Top Games

Party Games: Honorable Mentions

🔘 | Expedition, Mega Cat (^)
🔘 | HappyNESs, Scardua (^)
🔘 | Quadralords, retroUSB (^)
🔘 | $how do 1000000, Scardua (^)°°

Tier 3: Other Party Games

Fireplace Bash (^)

🎴 Complete-in-Box Party Games

8-Bit Xmas 2011: Fireplace Bash
Billionaire Banshee
Expedition
Quadralords
Tailgate Party

° Tailgate Party is a bean bag–throwing party game that uses the NES Power Pad.
°° Requires knowledge of Portuguese—though for certain of the questions in this quiz-show NES game, advanced knowledge of Spanish will also suffice.

Platformer Rankings

Top Games

🔰 #1 | Micro Mages, Morphcat (^)
🔰 #2 | Flea! 2, LowTek (^) 🔹
🔰 #3 | Flea!, Lowtek Games (^)
🔰 #4 | The Adventures of Panzer 2, Pixelcraft (^)
🔰 #5 | Nebs ’n Debs, Dullahan Software (^)
🔰 #6 | Project Blue, Phillips / FrankenGraphics (^)
🔰 #7 | Basse Def Adventures, Broke Studio (^)
🔰 #8 | Cowlitz’s 2nd Adventure, Kur / M-Tee (^)
🔰 #9 | Twin Dragons, Broke Studio (^)
🔰 #10 | Pizza Portals, Artix (^) 🔹
🔰 #11 | The Void, Behr / LCM Games (^)
🔰 #12 | Cowlitz’s Lost Adventure, Kur / M-Tee (^)
🔰 #13 | Wolf Spirit, Salgueiro (^)
🔰 #14 | Rollie, Optovania (^)
🔰 #15 | Espitenen & Pimponen, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #16 | Shera and the 40 Thieves, CGT (^)
🔰 #17 | Ghoul Grind, WoogWorx (^)
🔰 #18 | Slow Mole, Rosenlund (^)
🔰 #19 | Hey Reset, Jacotomo (^)
🔰 #20 | Copter Bot, Cramer (^) 🔸
🔰 #21 | NecroNancy, Artix (^) 🔹
🔰 #22 | Cube, Resident Emil (^)
🔰 #23 | Doodle World, Peters (^) 🔸
🔰 #24 | Deth Complex, Moore (^)
🔰 #25 | Assault on Planet Beezlbub, Moore (^)
🔰 #26 | Pinky, Axbakk Games (^)
🔰 #27 | Nessy! The NES Robot, DTG (^)
🔰 #28 | Super Uwol, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #29 | Cheril in the Cave, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #30 | Rendezvous, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #31 | Nim & Nom, Krill (^)
🔰 #32 | Espinete Meets Ana, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #33 | Espinete Strikes Back, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #34 | Nalleland, Nallebeorn (^)
🔰 #35 | Mogura Mines, 8bitalo (^) 🔹
🔰 #36 | Cheril Perils Classics, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #37 | Battery Chad, Formula Fanboy (^)
🔰 #38 | Pinky Xmas, Axbakk (^)
🔰 #39 | Mutant Sewer Girls, Boring Kate (^)
🔰 #40 | Blickel, Vintro Studios (^)
🔰 #41 | Welcome Treasure Man, Awful Games (^)
🔰 #42 | Attack of the Gummy Bears, Duel (^)
🔰 #43 | Enormous Adventures, Game Losers (^)
🔰 #44 | Awol, Most (^)
🔰 #45 | Pugslay’s Parades, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #46 | Bowels of the Beast, Moore (^)
🔰 #47 | Inversion, Kur / Red Moon (^)
🔰 #48 | Monona Ninona Pana, Mojon Twins (^)°
🔰 #49 | MineShaft, Nioreh (^)
🔰 #50 | Tomb Gator, Addolorato (^)
🔰 #51 | Pogo Cats, Yggi (^)
🔰 #52 | Study Hall, Hanley (^)
🔰 #53 | Study Hall 2, retroUSB (^)
🔰 #54 | Fish, Voxel (^)
🔰 #55 | Double Dream, Magidev (^) 🔹
🔰 #56 | Snackventure, Smile Hero (^) 🔹
🔰 #57 | Mosh Lift, Morphcat (^) 🔹
🔰 #58 | Noxious Liquid, Pablomanez (^) 🔹
🔰 #59 | Moonglow, Yurt Fiend (^)
🔰 #60 | Driar, Adolfsson & Eriksson (^)
🔰 #61 | Platycat, Logana (^)
🔰 #62 | Lala Lah, Mojon Twins (^)°°°
🔰 #63 | Underground Adventure, Coop (^)
🔰 #64 | Space Mutants, Moore (^) 🔹
🔰 #65 | Falling, Tragic Muffin (^)
🔰 #66 | Falldown, Sivak (^)
🔰 #67 | I Wanna Flip the Sky, Livak (^)
🔰 #68 | Blobert, Mystical Wheelbarrow (^)
🔰 #69 | Frog, Boston Breams (^)
🔰 #70 | Exit Loop, The Mad Cete (^)

Platformers: Honorable Mentions

Tier 3: Other Platformers

Alex Islands (^)
Miner
Minotaur Game
Obstacle Trek
Kapitan Sowa
A Simple Platformer Game
Super Honza (^)

🎴 Complete-in-Box Platformers

8Bit Xmas 2015: 12 Seconds
8Bit Xmas 2019: Study Hall 2
The Adventures of Panzer 2
Basse Def Adventures
The Cowlitz Gamers’ Second Adventure
Doodle World
Dragon Leap
Exit Loop
Flea!
Flea! 2
Micro Mages
Nebs ’n Debs
Pinky
Project Blue
Rollie
Shera & the 40 Thieves
Space Mutants
Study Hall
Super Adventure Jih
Super Uwol
Twin Dragons

° Another version of this game, Baboon, has identical gameplay but different sprites.
°° This game, an unlicensed NES adaptation of Sonic the Hedgehog, extends across three discrete subgame ROMS: Sonic Mal, Sonic 2, and Sonic 3: Sonic of the Bosque.
°°° This game is a “mirror image” of Petulant Pugslay’s Powerful Parades; in Lala Lah, the player plays the former game “right side up” rather than wholly upside-down.
°°°° This game’s final boss hasn’t yet been coded, leaving the game without an ending.

Puzzle Game Rankings

Top Games

Puzzle Games: Honorable Mentions

Tier 3: Other Puzzle Games

Coin-Grab Puzzler (^)
Dude, The Deck Swabber (^)
Enigmacore
Function
HexS
Knurps Egg Rescue (^)
Melo-Jellos 2
Planter (^)
Puck-Man Puzzler (^)
Race-car Guzzler (^)
Randy in Sokobanland (^)
Santa’s Snowman (^)
Senseless City (^)

🎴 Complete-in-Box Puzzle Games

0-to-X
8-Bit Xmas 2020: Dr. Covio
Alter Ego
AO
Draiocht
Dushlan
Enigmacore
Family Picross
Force Bot
From Below
GemVenture
Hack*Match
The Incident
Lan Master
Lucky Penguin
Multidude
Mystic Pillars
Rock Paper Scissors
Roniu’s Tale
Soko Banana
Tapeworm Disco Puzzle
UXO: Unexploded Ordinance
Witch n’ Wiz

° To play this game, you will need to rename the ROM file after downloading it by removing the “.txt” extension; this will automatically convert the file to a “.nes” file.

Rhythm Game Rankings

Top Games

Rhythm Games: Honorable Mentions

🔘 | Hocus Pocus Hero, Tomlin / Percival (^)
🔘 | Utaco, Zurashu (^)°°°

🎴 Complete-in-Box Rhythm Games

8-Bit Rhythm Land°°°°

° Supermagic Music Maker isn’t so much an NES “game” as it is an NES “experience.”
°° TRACK+FEEL II is optimized for use with the Power Pad, but can be played without it; Hocus Pocus Hero requires the use of a hacked Guitar Hero 2 guitar, and cannot be played without it.
°°° A karaoke game requiring use of a Famicom Microphone in the second NES port.
°°°° Available in Famicom edition only.

RPG Rankings

*Jim & Dill 1: The Legend of Weed N’ Stiff.*

Top Games

🔰 #1 | The Legends of Owlia, Gradual (^)
🔰 #2 | Jim & Dill 1, CalGames (^)
🔰 #3 | Chaos Between Realms, VGU (^)
🔰 #4 | Save the Kuin, Yukahu Games (^)
🔰 #5 | Mystic Origins, New 8-Bit Heroes (^)
🔰 #6 | Scourge of the Goblin King, BTC (^)
🔰 #7 | Mauri Mursu’s Hangover, Nervanti (^) 🔹
🔰 #8 | Light From Within, Atarath (^)
🔰 #9 | We Are Hejickle, Pubby (^)
🔰 #10 | Quest Forge, Ludosity (^)
🔰 #11 | Candelabra: Estoscerro, Sly Dog (^)
🔰 #12 | Adventures of Eldorin, Outlaw Bits (^)
🔰 #13 | Just a Game, Jacotomo (^)
🔰 #14 | 1000 Stars, Vufka (^)
🔰 #15 | Paws of the West, Pigeonaut (^)
🔰 #16 | Steins Gate, MAGES (^)°
🔰 #17 | Stellarator, McKinley (^)
🔰 #18 | No Good Choice, Veremenko (^)
🔰 #19 | Moon Harvest, Scardua (^)
🔰 #20 | File Fixers, Scardua (^)
🔰 #21 | Carmilla, CrazyGroupTrio (^) 🔹
🔰 #22 | Time Survivor, Tinsley (^)
🔰 #23 | Love Recovery, Moehr (^) 🔹
🔰 #24 | Black Box Challenge, Sly Dog (^)
🔰 #25 | Pwn Adventure Z, Vector 35 (^)
🔰 #26 | Swords & Runes III, Sole Goose (^)
🔰 #27 | Swords & Runes: Dark Tower, Sole Goose (^)
🔰 #28 | Swords & Runes, Sole Goose (^)
🔰 #29 | CORGS Simulator, Burke /Files (^)
🔰 #30 | Eternal Prelude, Rustocrat (^)
🔰 #31 | The Paths of Bridewell, ZKIP (^)
🔰 #32 | Roguelore, Scardua (^)
🔰 #33 | Inherent Smile, Calima (^)
🔰 #34 | To the Ends of the Earth, RinRem01 (^)

RPGs: Honorable Mentions

🔘 | An Elf’s Tale, Bardsley (^)
🔘 | Page Turner, Ferret Hall (^)
🔘 | Shadow Animus, Chronicler of Legends (^)
🔘 | Shokan Doro, Gonzalez (^)

Tier 3: Other RPGs

The Adventures of Lex & Grim (^)
Dangeon (^)
First Light’s Cry (^)
Monster Slayer (^)

🎴 Complete-in-Box RPGs

Anguna: Scourge of the Goblin King
Black Box Challenge
Candelabra: Estoscerro
Chaos Between Realms: Mission to MGC
Jim & Dill 1: The Legend of Weed N’ Stiff
The Legends of Owlia
Mauri Mursu’s Hangover
Mystic Origins
Quest Forge
Save the Kuin
Swords and Runes
Swords and Runes III

° Often stylized as “Steins;Gate” [sic].

Shooter Rankings

Top Games

🔰 #1 | Astro Ninja Man, Columbus Circle (^)
🔰 #2 | Star Keeper, 87 Arts (^)
🔰 #3 | Blade Buster, High Level Challenge (^)
🔰 #4 | Haradius Zero, Neodolphino (^)
🔰 #5 | Over Obj, Little Sound (^) 🔹
🔰 #6 | Haratyler, Impact Soft (^)
🔰 #7 | NeMULEsis, Vanderhoef (^)
🔰 #8 | Adventures of Panzer: Frontiers, Pixelcraft (^) 🔹
🔰 #9 | Aspect Star N, Nicole Express (^)
🔰 #10 | Mine Mayhem, FG Soft (^)
🔰 #11 | Godzilla: King of Monsters, FG Soft (^)
🔰 #12 | Sgt. Helmet: Training, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #13 | Gunhawk, Skyboy (^) 🔹
🔰 #14 | Copper Jacket, Monsoon Studios (^)
🔰 #15 | D’veel’ng, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #16 | Gold Guardian Gun Girl, GoodTune (^)
🔰 #17 | Cheril the Nine, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #18 | GunTneR, Langel (^)
🔰 #19 | Oratorio, Vanderhoef (^) 🔹
🔰 #20 | Sgt. Helmet: Commando, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #21 | Bat Lizard Bonanza, Vanderhoef (^) 🔸
🔰 #22 | The Rise of Amondus, Sly Dog (^)
🔰 #23 | Star Versus, Dust Mop (^)
🔰 #24 | Mega Meghan, Mojon Twins (^)
🔰 #25 | Encuera Women, Mojon Twins (^)°
🔰 #26 | X-Horde, Caruso (^)
🔰 #27 | Touhou Rououmu, Kyoske (^)
🔰 #28 | Project S.K.I.F.F., Chacon (^)
🔰 #29 | Steel Moons, Mazionach (^)
🔰 #30 | F-22, Inventor (^)
🔰 #31 | MultiDefender, Tvoybro (^)
🔰 #32 | Star Power, Nia Prene (^)
🔰 #33 | Vegetablets Go, Tulip House (^)
🔰 #34 | Rekt, FG Soft (^)
🔰 #35 | Catmercs, Team Disposable (^) 🔹
🔰 #36 | DABG, Hoffman (^)
🔰 #37 | Spook-o’-Tron, Sole Goose (^)
🔰 #38 | Mermay’s Den, Mihoshi (^)
🔰 #39 | Drunk Time Traveler’s Fiancée, 8BZ (^)
🔰 #40 | Troll Burner, New 8-Bit Heroes (^)
🔰 #41 | Thwaite, Yerrick (^)
🔰 #42 | Chrono Knight, Artix (^)
🔰 #43 | Sweethearts, Zhamul (^)
🔰 #44 | Spirit Impel, Passe Gaming (^)
🔰 #45 | Improbability Fighter, Scardua (^)
🔰 #46 | CYO, Nemesys (^)
🔰 #47 | Lunar Limit, Pubby (^)
🔰 #48 | T*Gun, Crisafulli (^)
🔰 #49 | Super PakPak, AOH Games (^)
🔰 #50 | Bandana, Most (^)
🔰 #51 | Zombie Night, Most (^)
🔰 #52 | Bloodfall, Ludos (^)
🔰 #53 | Harry’er Space, Harry Dwarf (^) 🔹
🔰 #54 | My DVD Logo Daycare, Wrymouth (^) 🔹

Shooters: Honorable Mentions

Tier 3: Other Shooters

8-Bit Xmas 2010: Jolly Joyriding
8-Bit Xmas 2012: Biplane Dogfight
8-Bit Xmas 2013: Santa’s Blasters
Auge
Axelay
Brandon, You’re Going to Hell
Brilliant Pebbles
Cornball C*cksuckers
Final Blood (^)
Galaxy NES (^)
Halloween 2009
Happy Scrappy & the Haunted Mansion
Iconoclast (^)
Invaders Must Die
Little Flame
Meteor Guard 2 (^)
Meteor Swarm
NES Sample Balls
Orphea
Poronkusema
Slaughter (^)
S.T.I.N.G. (^)
Terminator (^)
Zack in Time

🎴 Complete-in-Box Shooters

8-Bit Xmas 2010: Jolly Joyriding
8-Bit Xmas 2012: Biplane Dogfight
8-Bit Xmas 2013: Santa’s Blasters
Astro Ninja Man°°
Brandon, You’re Going to Hell
Candelabra: The Rise of Amondus
Copper Jacket
Ghoul Grind: Night of the Necromancer
Gold Guardian Gun Girl
Gunhawk
Halloween 2009
Haradius Zero
Haratyler°°
Kubo 1 & 2
Lunar Limit
Oratorio
Over Obj
Rekt
Scramble
Sgt. Helmet: Training Day
Spirit Impel
Spook-o’-Tron
Star Keeper
Star Versus
Super PakPak
T*Gun
Uchūsen

° Encuera Women extends across three separately titled ROMs: Encuera Women in the Swamp; Encuera Women in the Desert; and Encuera Women on the Rooftops.
°° Available in Famicom edition only.

Simulation Game Rankings

Top Games

Sims: Honorable Mentions

° This game requires both a Power Pad and a Power Glove.
°° Only the first two “rooms” in this game have been completed (the “basement” and the “living room”). The remaining two rooms can be viewed but are not fully playable.
°°° A conversation/dating simulation game with text entirely in Japanese. An English patch or intermediate reading knowledge of Japanese is needed to play this game.

Sports Game Rankings

NES Longplay [4291] Za! Yukigassen - YouTube — *Za! Yukigassen* (*Snowball Fight*).

*Gotta Protectors: Amazon’s Running Diet.*

Top Games

🔰 #1 | Arm Wrestling Classic, Fista Games (^)
🔰 #2 | Snowball Fight, Takenoko (^) 🔹
🔰 #3 | Beyond the Pins, Hanley / Holland (^)°
🔰 #4 | Log Jammers, Mega Cat (^)
🔰 #5 | Creepy Brawlers, Mega Cat (^)
🔰 #6 | Galf, Spoony Bard (^)
🔰 #7 | Amazon’s Training Road, Limited Run (^)
🔰 #8 | Amazon’s Running Diet, Ancient (^)
🔰 #9 | Fishing Tournament, Nice Code (^)
🔰 #10 | Haku Goes Fishing, Haku (^)
🔰 #11 | Project D.A.R.T., CutterCross (^)
🔰 #12 | F-Theta, Neodolphino (^)
🔰 #13 | Skiing, retroUSB (^)
🔰 #14 | EV Cruising, M8sibit (^) 🔹
🔰 #15 | Skate Scramble, Eggs with Leggs (^) 🔹
🔰 #16 | Tiny Golf Johnybot (^) 🔹
🔰 #17 | NESert Golfing, Smith (^) 🔸
🔰 #18 | 8bit Slicks, 8bit Dude (^)
🔰 #19 | Rumblefest ‘89, Jurassic Sunset (^)
🔰 #20 | F-FF, Pubby (^)
🔰 #21 | RC2 Rally, Good_Tune (^)
🔰 #22 | Mr. Splash, Project F (^)
🔰 #23 | Fõonfboärder, Vufka (^) 🔹

Sports Games: Honorable Mentions

Tier 3: Other Sports Games

Box & Wrestle (^)
Caged Fury
Firewall (^)
Soccer of the World (^)

🎴 Complete-in-Box Sports Games

8-Bit Xmas 2018: Xmas Skiing
8-Bit Xmas 2021: Exciteduck
Amazon’s Running Diet
Amazon’s Training Road
The Arm Wrestling Classic
Beyond the Pins
Creepy Brawlers
Galf
Log Jammers
Mr. Splash
RC2 Rally

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

Strategy Game Rankings

Top Games

Strategy Games: Honorable Mentions

🔘 | Guardian 5, Maaskant (^)

🎴 Complete-in-Box Strategy Games

Armed for Battle
Galactic Ascension
Tower Defense 1990

° The title of this game has been mistranslated from Chinese, possibly as “Fighting Pirates” (erroneously transliterated as “Fated Pirate”). The correct title (“对抗海盗”) is Against the Pirates; the protagonist is in each stage fighting off hordes of marauders. Note that you input your ship’s movement in a very unusual way—via the Start button.

Zapper Game Rankings

Top Games

Zapper Games: Honorable Mentions

Tier 3: Other Zapper Games

Blastered Cats 1K (^) 🔫
Zap Ping 🔫

🎴 Complete-in-Box Zapper Games

Super Russian Roulette

° Can be played with a controller instead of a zapper, if the player wishes.
°° Requires the use of an Oculus Rift as well as an NES and NES Zapper. See the link following the game for an explanation of the game’s mechanics and synchronization.

Anthology Rankings

Top Anthologies

📒 #1 | Triple Jump, Morphcat (^) 🔹

🥇 Micro Mages: Second Quest
🥈 Spacegulls
🥉 Böbl

📒 #2 | Action 53 #4, Various (^)°°

🥇 Gruniożerca 3
🥈 Project Blue°
🥉 Gruniożerca 2
The Cowlitz Gamers’ Lost Adventure
Wolfling
We Are Hejickle
Aspect Star N
Cheril’s Nightmares
Super Uwol
Jammin’ Honey

📒 #3 | Action 53 #3, Various (^)

🥇 Nebs n’ Debs°
🥈 Twin Dragons
🥉 Haunted: Halloween ‘85°
Sinking Feeling
Cheril the Goddess
Filthy Kitchen
Ralph 4
Super Tilt Bro.
Lala the Magical
Karate Kick

📒 #4 | Action 53 #2, Various (^)

🥇 Sgt. Helmet: Training Day
🥈 2048
🥉 RHDE: Furniture Fight
Super PakPak
Double Action Blaster Guys
Sir Abadol
PCB Artist
MilioNESy
Solar Wars
Love Story

📒 #5 | Action 53 #1, Various (^)

🥇 Zooming Secretary
🥈 Lawn Mower
🥉 LAN Master
Streemerz
MineShaft
Pogo Cats
Driar
Thwaite
Russian Roulette 🅰️
Forehead Block Guy

📒 #6 | NESDEV 2019 Compo Cart, Various (^)

🥇 Böbl
🥈 Blockage
🥉 NIN NIN
Hot Dance 2020
Bloodfall
Falling Tiles
Veggie Invaders
Super City Mayor
Save the Kuin
NNNNNN

Anthologies: Honorable Mentions

🔘 | 3-in-1 2P Pack, Sly Dog (^)*
🔘 | MGC Homebrew Showcase 2011, Various (^)*
🔘 | Atari Flashback Mini 7800, Haywood (^)
🔘 | Game On Expo 2015, Collectorvision (^)°°°/*
🔘 | Garage Cart, Parsell / Covell (^)*
🔘 | HBWC 2012, Various (^)*
🔘 | MGC Arcade Pack 2022, Tolbert (^)*

🎴 Complete-in-Box Anthologies

3-in-1 2P Pack
Action 53, Vol. 1: Function 16
Action 53, Vol. 2: Double Action 53
Action 53, Vol. 3: Revenge of the Twins
Action 53, Vol. 4: Actually 54
Home Brew World Championship 2012
MGC Arcade Pack
NESDEV 2019 Compo Cart
Retroplayer Championship 2016

° Demo version.
°° Other games of particular note anthologized for the first time in this unusually stacked anthology cart include (in alphabetical order), The Alfonzo Game, Alfonzo Melee, Espitene, Euchre, Falling, Get It!, Leak or Die, Nalleland, Nim & Nom, Robo-Ninja Climb, Split Second, Star Evil, and Super Homebrew War.
°°° This 25-screen-long Sydney Hunter adventure is exclusive to this competition cart.
* 3-in-1 2P Pack includes Boombox, !CLIK! (better known as NES Virus Cleaner), Pegs, Snail Maze Game, and Tic-Tac XO; 2011 Midwest Gaming Classic NES Homebrew Showcase includes Concentration Room, LJ65, Munchie Attack, Thwaite, and Yars’ Revenge; Game On Expo Retro Championships 2015 includes Meteor Swarm, Pedal to the Metal, and a special demo edition of Sydney Hunter; Garage Cart includes Hot Seat Harry, Munchie Attack, and Solar Wars; HBWC 2012 includes Chunkout 2, NES Virus Cleaner, Seagull’s Revenge, Slappin’, and Ultimate Frogger Champion; MGC Arcade Pack includes Convention Quest, NNNNNN, Spacey McRacey, and Super Homebrew War.

Art App Rankings

Top Apps

Art Apps: Honorable Mentions

🔘 | Color a Deer, Pubby (^)
🔘 | GalleryNES, Miller [No Carrier] (^)
🔘 | GlitchNES, Miller [No Carrier] (^)
🔘 | Graphics Editor, Yerrick (^)
🔘 | Lightwall, Green (^)
🔘 | NES Paint, KHS (^)
🔘 | NESpix, Morphcat (^)
🔘 | Paint or Draw, Fraker (^)
🔘 | Palettician, RG59 (^)
🔘 | Pixel Art Editor, Baraso (^)
🔘 | Power Coloring, Parker / retroUSB (^)
🔘 | Random Access, Miller [No Carrier] (^)

🎴 Complete-in-Box Art Apps

Power Coloring
Turtle Paint

° This entry—and this ranking—correspond to the original NES ROM of Retro Puzzle Maker. The app has now been built out to constitute a full web-based application that, while excellent, isn’t (because of its form) eligible for this ranking of indie NES apps.

Hack Rankings

{Note: There’s a fine line between the categories below, which are not arranged by value. Some gamers prefer hacks that are like new games, while others want hacks to be games they already love that have been significantly improved. There are no right answers when it comes to what a “hack” should achieve. Retro here ranks the Top 20 hacks on the basis of their quality, cross-indexed with how close they are to being the equivalent of original NES games. Because of the difficulty of ranking hanks, the below lists also use numerals to indicate how many experts of seventeen consulted ranked the hack in question as being among the best. Note that there are more than 1,000 NES hacks, so for a hack to even be named by two or three experts is striking.}

Top Hacks: Original Game Equivalents°

📒 #1 | 9 | Mario Adventure (^)
📒 #2 | 6 | Metroid: Rogue Dawn (^)
📒 #3 | 5 | Super Mario Bros. 3mix (^)
📒 #4 | 3 | Dragoon X Omega II (^)°°
📒 #5 | 4 | Deadpool (^)°°
📒 #6 | 4 | Mega Man in the Mushroom Kingdom (^)
📒 #7 | 1 | The Legend of Iowa (^) 🅰️
📒 #8 | 1 | Dragoon X Omega (^)°°
📒 #9 | 5 | The Legend of Zelda: Outlands (^)
📒 #10 | 6 | Castlevania: The Holy Relics (^)
📒 #11 | 4 | Extra Mario Bros. (^)
📒 #12 | 6 | Castlevania: Chorus of Mysteries (^)
📒 #13 | 3 | Beatles: Adventures in Pepperland (^)°°
📒 #14 | 3 | The Legend of Link (^)
📒 #15 | 3 | Super Mario Bros. Unlimited Deluxe (^)
📒 #16 | 3 | Super Mario Ultimate (^)°°
📒 #17 | 1 | Byte’s Adventure (^)
📒 #18 | 2 | Legend of Zelda: Link’s Shadow (^)
📒 #19 | 6 | Rockman 4: Minus Infinity (^)
📒 #20 | 3 | Rockman 2: No Constancy (^)

Original Game Equivalents: Honorable Mentions

🔘 | 1 | Castlevania: Castlevania 5 Legacy
🔘 | 1 | The Legend of Zelda: The Trial of Courage
🔘 | 1 | Mega Man: Limbo Edition
🔘 | 1 | Pony Quest
🔘 | 1 | Puresabe Kirby’s Adventure
🔘 | 1 | Shin Zelda Densetsu Final
🔘 | 1 | Spaceweed (^)°°
🔘 | 1 | TetrisGYM (^)
🔘 | 1 | Zelda II: The Adventure of Link 2
🔘 | 1 | Zelda II: Amida’s Curse
🔘 | 1 | Zelda II: Part 2

Category D Hacks: Primarily Cosmetic Alterations to Existing Games

Category F Hacks: Expansions of One-Player Games to Co-Op Games

🎴 Complete-in-Box Hacks°°°

Castlevania: The Holy Relics
Deadpool
The Legend of Link
The Legend of Zelda: Outlands
Mario Adventure
Mega Man 2: Rockman No Constancy
Metroid: Rogue Dawn
Shin Zelda Densetsu Final
Super Mario Bros. 3mix
Super Mario Bros.: Unlimited Deluxe

° Extra Mario Bros. is a mash-up of Super Mario Bros. and Metroid; Mega Man in the Mushroom Kingdom is a mash-up of the Super Mario Bros. and Mega Man games; The Legend of Banjo is a mash-up of The Legend of Zelda and Banjo Kazooie; Byte’s Adventure mashes up many different franchises, from Super Mario Bros. to The Legend of Zelda to Mega Man (leaning most heavily on the last of these three series).

°° The source material for these games is as follows: The Beatles: Adventures in Pepperland, Super Mario Bros. 2; Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Power Blade and Power Blade 2; Royal Flush: Princess Side Story, Super Mario Bros. 3; Super Smash Bros., Nekketsu Kakutou Densetsu; Dragoon X Omega II, Final Fantasy; Super Mario Fantasy Adventure, Final Fantasy; Dragoon X Omega, Dragon Warrior; Hyrule Warriors, Gauntlet; R-Type X, Magic Dragon (Famicom); Metroid: Dark Alliance, Blaster Master; Deadpool, Ninja Gaiden; Sonic the Hedgehog, Somari; Street Fighter II, Street Fighter III (Famicom); Super Mario Ultimate, Super Mario Bros. 3; Bomber Mario, Bomberman and the Super Mario franchise; Batman Bros., Super Mario Bros. and the Batman franchise; Ricky & Morty, Alien Syndrome; Spaceweed, Section Z.

°°° Ranked and honorable mention games—“Category A” hacks, above—only.

Sources (17): Captain Jack (I, II); CBR; Denver Gamer (I, II); Fandom Spot; I Heart Una; The New Retro Show; PC Mag; Portal of Awesome; Recommended Games Wiki; Reddit; Requiem Homebrew; Retro; Retro Dodo; RetroPie; RomHam; SNESdrunk; and Ultra Mega Blob Man (I, IV).

Multicart Rankings

Top Multicarts

📒 #1 | Mojonian Tales, Mojon Twins (^)
📒 #2 | Perkele, Donkey Games (^)°

Multicarts: Honorable Mentions

🔘 | 4-in-1 Retro Gamepak, Hanley (^)
🔘 | Geminim & Siamond, Sivak (^)

Tier 3: Other Multicarts

PowerPlayer 3-in-1 (^)°°

🎴 Complete-in-Box Multicarts

4-in-1 Retro Gamepak°°
Geminim & Siamond
Mojonian Tales°°°
Perkele

° One of the three indie NES games on the Perkele cart, Winter War, can be—but need not be—played using an NES Zapper (🔫).
°° PowerPlayer 3-in-1 includes Hanuman Quiz Game, Hanuman Typing Game, and Malaria; 4-in-1 Retro Gamepak includes E.T.: The Extraterrestrial, Fishing Challenge, Sneak n’ Peek, and Ultimate Frogger Champion, all by Kevin Hanley of KHAN Games (a publisher pronounced as the two-syllable word “KAY-HAN”, with “han” rhyming with “ban,” “ran,” or “tan”).
°°° Contains “20+” Mojon Twins games, including all of those listed in this ranking.

Music Cart Rankings

Top Carts

📒 #1 | Quiet, Ragonnet [Zi] (^)
📒 #2 | Dawn Metropolis, Anamanaguchi (^)
📒 #3 | Silicon Statue, Ragonnet [Zi] (^)
📒 #4 | Thornby, Ragonnet [Zi] (^)
📒 #5 | 8-Bit Music Power Final, RIKI (^)
📒 #6 | 8-Bit Music Power, RIKI (^)
📒 #7 | Goofy Foot, Swedish Columbia (^)
📒 #8 | 9999 in 1, Nuclear Mushroom Boom (^)
📒 #9 | NOFX, HeavyW8Bit (^)
📒 #10 | Vegavox 2, Mauer (^)
📒 #11 | Endless Fantasy, Anamanaguchi (^)
📒 #12 | Moon8, Smith (^)
📒 #13 | Project PAL, Kreese/Zabutom/Wiklund (^)
📒 #14 | Curious Quail, Petriform (^)
📒 #15 | 8-Bit Music Power Encore, RIKI (^)
📒 #16 | Duck Tails, Puzzle Boys (^)
📒 #17 | Four, Ragonnet [Zi] (^)
📒 #18 | Power Supply, Anamanaguchi (^)
📒 #19 | Years Behind, Retrocoders (^)°
📒 #20 | Fie, Ragonnet [Zi] (^)
📒 #21 | 2A03 Puritans, BitPuritans / Smith (^)
📒 #22 | Mom My Ears Are Bleeding, Various (^)
📒 #23 | Polygondwanaland: Edition 2, 5Seven (^)

Music Carts: Honorable Mentions

Tier 3: Other Music Carts

8-Bit Riki Illustrations (^)
32 Bytes Your Butt (^)
Color Caves (^)
Goldrunner (^)
Holly Jolly (^)
Lickshot (^)
Mandelbrot Set (^)
NES Band (^)
Reformat/Reboot (^)°°
Retrogathering (^)
Sunny Dance (^)

🎴 Complete-in-Box Music Carts

8-Bit Music Power
8-Bit Music Power Final
A Hole New World (OST)
A Winner Is You
Alwa’s Awakening (OST)
Chip Maestro
Creeping It Real
Goofy Foot: Power Chiptunes
Holly Jolly NES Mix
Journey
Polygondwanaland
RNDM NES Album
Teletime: Animalstyle

° If played on an emulator, the emulator’s Region setting must be changed to “PAL.”
°° An NES music cart comes with an expansion audio chip so that this non-8-bit LP can be played—and heard in its original form—on an NES. See here for more details.

Music App Rankings

Top Apps

Music Apps: Honorable Mentions

🔘 | CajoNES, Baldwin (^)
🔘 | LogoNES, Miller [No Carrier] (^)
🔘 | ScrollNES, Miller [No Carrier] (^)
🔘 | Speech Synthesizer, Parsell (^)

Tier 3: Other Music Apps

droNES
liveNES (^)

° A direct successor to (and evolution of) NRTQ, PULSAR, is intended to allow the user to sequence and synthesize sounds directly on an NES console.

Port Rankings

{Note: This section ranks games that meet both of two criteria: (a) the game is an NES port of a game originally from a generation of game consoles preceding or succeeding the generation the NES is from (the third generation), and (b) the game is a non-simultaneous port, meaning it has not been been published in conjunction with many variations of the game intended for different consoles. So, for instance, an NES demake of a fourth- or subsequent-generation game, or an NES remake of a first-/second-generation game, would appear below; in contrast, an NES homebrew that is simultaneously/near-simultaneously being published by a publisher across a range of different-generation consoles would appear in the genre rankings, above.

The reason Retro now offers a discrete ranking for ports is to be fair to these games—which are best compared to one another rather than non-port homebrews. Typically, games that are the subject of remakes or demakes are among history’s most beloved video games, making it hard to disentangle them from their original versions when ranking them alongside homebrews with no predecessor, historical subtext or existing cachet. By the same token, developing a port brings unique challenges with it that center on efforts to preserve the source material’s existing gameplay components. Retro is a fan of ports, and for this and the preceding reasons thinks that they deserve their own discrete ranking in the Retro Top 500 NES Homebrews ranking.

A home computer’s equivalent “generation” is determined by whether or not it was a part of the 8-bit generation of computing. Because some ports aren’t self-evidently ports, or originally appeared on rather obscure hardware, this section is necessarily a long-term work-in-progress. Retro asks subscribers to comment below if a homebrew that should be in this section isn’t.}

Top Ports

📒 #1 | Jim Power: Lost Dimension, Piko (^)
📒 #2 | Street Fighter II: Champion, Twin Eagles (^)
📒 #3 | Street Fighter Alpha Zero, Hummer (^)
📒 #4 | Diablo II, Shenzhen Nanjing (^)
📒 #5 | Glider, retroUSB (^)
📒 #6 | Pokémon Yellow, Shenzhen Nanjing (^)°
📒 #7 | Pokémon Diamond, Jinkotai (^/^)°
📒 #8 | Indivisible, Kasumi (^)
📒 #9 | Resident Evil, Waixing (^)°°
📒 #10 | Final Fantasy VII, Shenzhen Nanjing (^)°
📒 #11 | Fearless, Pacnsac Games (^)°
📒 #12 | Plants vs. Zombies, Nice Code (^)°
📒 #13 | Earthworm Jim, Hummer (^)
📒 #14 | Pac-Man, Namco (^)
📒 #15 | Tekken 2, JY (^)
📒 #16 | Dark Seed, Yancheng (^)°°°
📒 #17 | Bomb Sweeper, SnowBro (^)
📒 #18 | Scramble, Hanley (^)
📒 #19 | Super Donkey Kong 2, NT (^)
📒 #20 | DK2: Jumpman Returns, Kulczycki (^)
📒 #21 | Planet Smashers, Requiem Homebrew (^)
📒 #22 | Pepsiman, Metro-Cross (^)
📒 #23 | Ultimate Frogger Champion, Hanley (^)
📒 #24 | Wall Kickers, Plewe (^) 🔹
📒 #25 | Pitfall, Neverware (^)
📒 #26 | Gaplus, M2 / Bandai Namco (^)
📒 #27 | Gravitar, Requiem Homebrew (^)
📒 #28 | Asteroids, Requiem Homebrew (^)
📒 #29 | Centipede, Requiem Homebrew (^)
📒 #30 | 99 Layers, Nagi-P Soft (^)
📒 #31 | SplatooD, der Zauberer (^)
📒 #32 | Bomberman 2002, Alien Tech (^)
📒 #33 | Aerial Warfare, Nice Code (^)
📒 #34 | Tortoises, FG Soft (^)
📒 #35 | Angry Birds, Nice Code (^)

Ports: Honorable Mentions

Tier 3: Other Ports

Crystal Castles (^)
Eatfish (^)
Mouser II
Night Driver (^)
Warlords (^)

🎴 Complete-in-Box Ports

Adventure
Bomb Sweeper
Earthworm Jim
E.T.: The Extraterrestrial
Final Fantasy VII
Glider
Jim Power: Lost Dimension
Larry & the Long Look for a Luscious Lover
Pepsiman
Pokémon Yellow
Resident Evil°°
Scramble
Sneak n’ Peek
Solaris
Tortoises
Ultimate Frogger Champion

° English patch available online.
°° Sometimes known, in its NES-port form, as Bio Hazard.
°°° A patch is required to play this ROM in English. This patch is under development.

Serialized Game Rankings

Top Serials

📒 #1 | Allison of Astra, Paltridge (^)

Tech Demo Rankings

Top Demos

Tech Demos: Honorable Mentions

🔘 | Rotozoom, FG Soft (^)
🔘 | Sayoonara, Covell (^)

Tier 3: Other Tech Demos

Super Stalin Bros. (^)

🎴 Complete-in-Box Tech Demos

Bad Apple

Untranslated Cart Rankings

{Note: This section contains games only available as a Famicom cart. Famicom homebrews that have been made available as NES-compatible ROMs are ranked above by genre. Because of the difficulty in accessing these carts, the rankings below are only an approximation based on game descriptions, news articles, screenshots, longplays, reviews, and developer interviews. These games are not counted toward the Retro Top 500, but are counted toward the total library of this archive. If or when any of these games are ported to the NES or become legally made ROMs, the game(s) in question will be moved to the Retro Top 500 rankings, above.}

Top Untranslated Carts

📒 #1 | Cross-Strait Independence, ITG (^)°°°
📒 #2 | Ilevan, Tulip House (^)
📒 #3 | Hungry Ghost Night, ITG (^)
📒 #4 | F-Θ (F-THETA), Little Sound (^) 🅰️
📒 #5 | Utakata Synopsis, Little Sound (^) 🅰️
📒 #6 | Dragon Boat Festival, ITG (^)
📒 #7 | Chinese New Years Adventure, ITG (^)
📒 #8 | Peace, Love, Trippy Club, ITG (^)
📒 #9 | Nearly Eastern Story, Jiyugiga (^)
📒 #10 | NES Rocky Theme, Habit Soft (^)
📒 #11 | Pirate Pop OST, Dadako (^)

Untranslated Carts: Honorable Mentions

🔘 | DENDYCompo II, 8081 Netlabel (^)

Tier 3: Other Untranslated Carts

Southern Taiwanese Haunted House (^)
Leopard Cat (^)
Piss the Fish (^)°°°°

📢 Forthcoming Untranslated Carts

Fighting HRD, Impact Soft (^)
HaraForce, Impact Soft
Hot Pot Runs, FC Gamer (^)

⚙️ Untranslated Ports

Pokémon 4-in-1, Martian Electronics (^)
Pokémon Crystal, Mars (^)
Pokémon Diamond I, Jncota (^)
Pokémon Diamond II, Jncota (^)
Pokémon Gold, Mars (^)
Pokémon Leaf Green I, Hengge (^)
Pokémon Leaf Green II, Hengge (^)
Pokémon Leaf Green III, Hengge (^)
Pokémon Ruby I, Hengge (^)
Pokémon Ruby II, Hengge (^)
Pokémon Ruby III, Hengge (^)
Pokémon Sapphire, NJ (^)

🎴 Complete-in-Box Untranslated Games

Chinese News Years Adventure°
Cross-Strait Independence°/°°
Dragon Boat Festival°
F-Θ (F-THETA)°
Hungry Ghost Night°
Ilevan°
Peace, Love, Trippy Club°
Utakata Synopsis°

° Available in Famicom edition only.
°° You can watch some gameplay footage of this game at this link.
°°° This appears to be the same game as Never Say Die, whose website is at this link.
°°°° Retro has not yet had the opportunity to review this Famicom homebrew.

Utility Rankings

Top Utilities

📒 #1 | ConnectedNES, Weil (^)

Utilities: Honorable Mentions

Tier 3: Other Utilities

Brainf*ck Interpreter (^)
Power Glove DevKit
Social Media Bros.

Other Reviewed Games

8-Bit Xmas 2008 🎴
8-Bit Xmas 2014: Killer Queen Arcade 🎴
8-Bit Xmas 2016: Xmas Pinball 🎴
8-Bit Xmas 2017: Anniversary Multicart 🎴
52
1007 Gifts°
1007 Hammers°
A Place of Memories (^) 🔹
A Small World
Adventures of Tomley Kleene
After Dark (^)
Airboat Apocalypse
Alone in the Dark (^) 🔹
Ambushed
AngstMan Rebooted (^) 🔹
Another World (^) 🔹
Art Is Dead (^) 🔹
Astro Smash n’ Blast (^)
Astroid
Attribute Zone
Baddie Blaster vs. the Unliving Dead (^) 🔹
Battleball
Beat ‘em 🎴
Betelgeuse
Big City Sliding Blaster
Bill World
Birthday Cart
Blurred Lines 2048
Blusterer
Bohpoli!
Boing!
Bomb Array
Bomber
Bomber 4k
Box Game
Brony Blaster
Brother (^)
Bsides
Bust-a-Nut 🎴
Button Logger (^)
Candy Shop°°
Cats
Cemetery (^)
Chasing Balls
City of the Undead (^) 🔹
Code Master 🎴
Commie Killer 🎴
Computers Are Easy, Love Is Kind
Connect 4
Console Killer°°°🎴
Convention Quest 🎴
Cookie Clicker (^)
Crazy Bus
Cursed Bushido
The Cutting Room Floor (^)
d3ad_form4t (^)
DeadlyNeuroEF (^)
D*ck Drawing Simulator (^) 🅰️
Diffusion Chamber
Dig Deeper (^)
Dizzy: Melancholy of Existence
Dragon Ball: Dragon Daihikyou (^)
Drakaina
Eat Sh*t (^)
Electronic Sweet-N-Fun Fortune Teller 🎴
Elusion of the Dead
Fade 2 Black
The Fateslayer
Fighter F-8000
Fire of Rebellion
FizzBuzz
Flappy Block
Flashdroid (^)
Flight Minigames
Flight of the Harbinger 🎴
For the Birds VI
Forgotten in Time
Froggy 1k (^)
Global Warming
Go
Golf Cart Traffic Jam (^) 🔹
Grave Digger
Gray Box
Greedy Snake
GSM
Halloween 2015 Scare Cart 🎴
Halloween 2016 Scare Cart 🎴
Halloween 2016 Scare Cart: Party Edition
Halloween 2017 Scare Cart 🎴
Halloween 2017 Scare Cart: Party Edition 🎴
Halloween 2018 Scare Cart
Hammer Smack
Hazard
High Heels
Horrible Mazes Adventure (^)
Horror Hospital
Hot Head Joe
Hot Seat Harry
Hunt or Run (^)
I, Zilla
Jelly Jam’d
Juhannussauna 2016 🎴🅰️
Lake Fever
Larange Boy (^)
Libertango°°
Lights Out
Lil’ Digger
Lil’ Digger 2
Llamagade
Love Machine
Malaria
Manhole
March of the Minotaurs
MashyMashy
Memory
Metal Warrior 4
Meteor Guard
Micro Knight: Noname (^)
Midnight Jogger
Minimal (^)
Missing Lands
Moon Magic
Mr. Potato Head in PotatoLand
MUSE
Mustard
My Friendly A.I. Assistant Robot (^) 🔹
NAGE Fundraiser Cart 2009
NAGE Hunt February 2009 Prize Cart (^)
Nature Clan: Island
Nature Clan: Mirror Devil World
NES Quine
NES Raycaster
NESert Bus
Nesglovphone
New Year 2011 (^)
Ninja Slapper 🎴
No Points
Nothing Good Can Come of This
Number Muncher
NTSC Pattern Torture Test (^)
Nyan Cart (^) 🎴
Odyssey 1156
The One with the Walls
Ooze Redux 🎴
Overclocked
Pacstyle
Paint or Draw
Pas-sage (^)
Platform Game (^)
Pong 198X
Pong 1k2p (^)
Pong & Head Bounce
Poti Poti Grufas (^)
Prez
Pung! Balls of Steel (^)
Putt Putt
Quordle (^)
Rabbit & Egg (^)
Rainbo (^) 🔹
Random Insult Generator (^) 🎴
Reggie’s Radical Adventures 🎴
R*tard Adventure
Reknum: Fantasy of Dreams (^) 🎴 🔹
Replanet (^) 🔹
RetroRGB Test
Rick Roll’d (^)
Roadkill
Robotfindskitten
Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Sbock 🎴
ROM City Rampage
Shaolin Squirrel
ShootNES
Simone Says
Sitten Kitten
Ski Pirates
Slappin’ 🎴
Slime Combine
Snowball
Soko Man
Space Dude
Space Fighter
Space Punks
Spacevania
Sparky’s Return (^)
Specus
Splash Rightnut
Sprilo
Squish: The Bouncing Cat Ball
Stallar (^)
Star Command (^)
Strange Brew Games Promo 2012
Stuck in Castle Nessenstein (^)
Studnia
Super Floofy Sheepie
Super Marxsky Comrades
Super Roman
Sweet Child o’ Mine°°
Sweetie and the Carnage
Target Blitz 1K (^)
The Tao of 007
Tarot (^)
Thallasophobe
That’s Whack
Theremin (^)
Tic-Tac-Two-P (^)
Time Conquest (^)
Tower (^)
Tower to the Truth (^)
Tracklayer
Unknown Soldier (^)
Urban Acid Zombies
Vector Run 🎴
VGBS Gaming Podcast 🎴
Want You Gone (Eternal GladNES)
Whack-a-Mario (^)
Who’s Cuter? (^)

° While this game is arguably a hack of 1007 Bolts, 1007 Bolts has so few gameplay components that sprite changes create what is here deemed a (slightly) distinct game.
°° These individual chiptune tracks by Norwegian programmer Snowbro might well make the Retro Music rankings if compiled on a single ROM or cartridge.
°°° Do not insert this cartridge into any video game console, whether the NES or any other system that accepts NES cartridges. It is especially designed—as it informs you both on its box and in its manual—to fry video game consoles. This is not a joke: this cartridge is actually dangerous, and it constitutes a major fire hazard. If for any reason you choose to insert this cart into your NES to kill it, do not leave the NES and cart on and unattended, as a fire could start in your absence. Retro does not endorse this cart or encourage its use—by anyone. It is listed here for the sake of creating a complete archive of NES homebrews, and for this reason only.

Ineligible Games

If there are NES games you expected to see in the rankings above but didn’t, it may be because they’re ineligible for inclusion in the Retro Top 500 Rankings because they’re in one of four ineligible categories: localizations, prototypes, reproductions, or special (faux NES) editions.

Needless to say, being ineligible for the lists above in no way speaks ill of a game. But because NES titles are often wrongly included in indie NES game listings, it’s important that Retro explicitly distinguish between the two categories. Only those titles most commonly confused for indie NES games are listed below. To read Retro’s ranking of all unreleased NES prototypes, see here. To read the Retro ranking of all localized and localization-eligible NES games, see here. Please note that these two links do require a full Retro subscription to access.

Note: None of the games listed below are included in the “total library size” of this archive, and they cannot be regarded as indie NES titles under even the broadest definition of the term.

Localizations

Adventure Island IV
Akira
Cocoran
Cosmo Police Galivan
Crisis Force
Chronicle of the Radia War
Earthbound
Final Fantasy II
Final Fantasy III
Flying Hero
Hello Kitty World
Holy Diver
Huge Insect
Kid Dracula
Recca
Samurai Pizza Cats
Sky Destroyer
Silva Saga
Sweet Home

Prototypes

The Adventures of Dr. Franken
Airball
Bashi Bazook: Morphoid Masher
Bio Force Ape
The California Raisins
Chase H.Q.
Cheetahmen II
Chip’s Challenge
Chuck Yeager’s Fighter Combat
CrossFire
Days of Thunder
Drac’s Night Out
Dreamworld Pogie
The Escape From Atlantis
Exploding Fist
Fighting Simulator World Champ
Free Fall
Happily Ever After
Happy Camper
Hard Drivin’
Hellraiser
HeroQuest
Hit the Ice
Hoppin’ Mad
Kung Fu II
Makai Island
Mike Ditka’s Big Play Football
Mystery World Dizzy
Panic! Dizzy
Pizza Pop!
Police Academy
Pyramids of Ra
Proto Dere
Robocop Versus The Terminator
Secret Ties
SimCity
Spy vs. Spy II: Island Caper
Squashed
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior
Sunman
Super Boogerman
Super Pitfall II
Time Diver Eon
UWC
War on Wheels
A Week of Garfield
Wonderland Dizzy

Reproductions

Aladdin
Altered Beast
Banana Prince
Battletoads
Battletoads & Double Dragon
A Boy and His Blob
Devil World
The Goonies
Hammerin’ Harry 🔹
The Lion King
Magic Block
Magic Jewelry
Metal Storm
Moon Crystal
Mr. Gimmick
S.C.A.T.
Shadow of the Ninja
Space Harrier
Star Wars
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Ufouria
Zombie Nation 🔹

Special Editions

NES Product Sold By Independent Publisher

Data East All-Star Collection

NES Box or Cart with No Product Inside

Bonestorm°°
Mighty No. 9
River City Girls°°
Shovel Knight

Non-NES Products in NES Packaging

Castlevania: Anniversary Collection°
Infernax°
River City Girls°

° Castlevania: Anniversary Collection is a Nintendo Switch game in an NES box; Infernax is a PS4 game in an NES box; and River City Girls is a CD of that game’s soundtrack in an NES box. River City Girls also comes in an empty-NES-box edition.
°° Bonestorm is an NES box with no cart inside it, and River City Girls an NES cart with no game inside it.

The Retro Indie Game Watchlist

This is a non-exhaustive watchlist of unreleased NES indie games of interest to Retro (with those games known to be slated for a “CIB” release demarcated with a “🎴” icon):

8bit-Strike
Almost Hero 2
Anna 🔹
Api the Cat
At Doom’s Gate
Attack From Planet X
Bad Hare Day 🎴
Balls and Booty 🎴
Banana Bash 🔹
Bat Hunt
Beastly Battalion 🔹
Blades of the Lotus
Bleu Bleu’s Adventure (^)
Bloodbath (^)
Brizzle
Bullet Bros.
Casablanca by Night
Cat Zap
Cauldron 🔹
Choumiryou Party 🎴
CityZen (^)
Clean-Up Crew
Cobol’s Laboratory
Code Name: Silencer (^)
Courier
Crypt Stalker
Data Man
Deal or No Deal
Deep Blue (^)
Demptronic NFL Football
Diary of a Zomboni Driver
Doodle World 2 🔹
Echoes of the Unread 🔹
Ember Hollow 🔹
Epicade (^)
The Excitables
FamiJammers
Flap Happy and Fancy Free 🎴
Former Dawn
Foxyland 🔹
FX Unit Yuki
Gamer Quest 🎴
The Gift of Discernment
Gorodki
Gypsum & The Travelers
Halcyon
High Noon Knockout
Hyperdrive Soul
Hyperion 🔹
Icescape
In Cod We Trust
Isolation
Isometric Survival Horror
Isshokuta
Jester 🎴🅿️
John Wick
Journey to Cygnus
Knil
Knuckle Knight
La Patifferie 🔹
Legacy of the Vagrant
Leon: Tactical Asshole Cat
Lumber-Jerks! (^)
Malasombra
Mega Commando
Mr. Lee’s Alishan Tea Collector 🔹
Mutant Island
Mystic Searches 🎴
The Myth of Zayla 🔹
NES Breakout (^)
Nightmare Castle
Nosey Joe: The Power Mystery (^)
October Sinclair
One Last Bloody Gasp 🔹
Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls
Orange Island 🎴
Pio Pow
P.O.W. 2
Powerglove
Project Chocoblip
Pyronaut
Rally Rally Rally
Ramses
Relic Hunter (^)
Retro Space Championship
Rival Swarms
Robo Factory
Saru Kani Panic 🎴
Senseless City: Space Jesus 🔹
Shadow of the Beast (^)
The Shapeshifter 1 & 2 🎴
Shark Pirate (^)
Skeler Boy 🎴
Snakey
Space Beats
Street Fighter II: Deluxe (^)
Summer Island Battle Tactics 🔹
Super Hiking League
Super Sunny World
Sushido°
Sword of Ianna
Sydney Hunter and the Caverns of Death 🎴
Tamfor (^)
Tattoo Apprentice
Tcheco in the Castle of Lucio
Tomb Gator 3: The Search for Tomb Gator 2 (^)
The Trial of Kharzoid
Turtle Rescue: Storm Watch
Vice: Magic City Mayhem
Vigilante
Walter & Billy’s CONQuest
Walter Nate: Timeline Agent
Wartide 1990
Witch City
The Witch Guild
Wizz Scape
Wolfholm
You Are Error 🎴
Your Pizza Sir
Zombie Siege: Lumberjack Defense
Zombiejack°°

NES indie titles that have been released but cannot yet be tracked down for review:

Meathook Massacre (^)🎴

° An 8-bit demake of Sushido was released on Game Jolt in 2015. Retro holds out hope that a ROM or cart of this demake will eventually be released by developer Yal.
°° In 2017, this game existed (with screenshots) as a collaboration of developer Shiru and Mega Cat Studios (MCS) that played like Germ Squashers or Yeah Yeah Beebiss II: a co-op-oriented single-screen 2D arcade shooter. All traces of this version of the game—which may be related to what is now Log Jammers (MCS)—have been erased from the internet. The game is listed here on the assumption it may one day reappear.

The NES Indie Game Hall of Fame

Retro wants gamers to have as much of a voice in honoring NES indie games here at Retro as the author of this publication has. This was the impetus for the first-ever NES Homebrew Hall of Fame—an archive and ranking created by and for Retro readers.

Each year, a month-long open-voting period will lead to the induction of new games to the Hall of Fame. Below you’ll find the inaugural class of NES Indie Game Hall of Fame inductees and the current state of the voting for games not yet inducted.

Dozens of voters contributed ten-game ballots during the 2022 NES Indie Game Hall of Fame balloting, with an astonishing 88 discrete games receiving votes from voters.

Hall of Fame Games

The Top 500 Indie NES Games, Vol. 9

Decades after the last licensed Nintendo Entertainment System cart, NES games still get released. This list—which excludes prototypes/localizations of first-gen NES titles—ranks 1,401 indie games.

Introduction

Total Library Size

Review Copies

Corrections

Additional Rules

Table of Contents

Ranking Key

Action-Adventure Rankings

Top Games

Action-Adventure Games: Honorable Mentions

Tier 3: Other Action-Adventure Games

🎴 Complete-in-Box Action-Adventure Games

Adventure Game Rankings

Top Games

Adventure Games: Honorable Mentions

Tier 3: Other Adventure Games

🎴 Complete-in-Box Adventure Games

Arcade Game Rankings

Top Games

Arcade Games: Honorable Mentions

Tier 3: Other Arcade Games

🎴 Complete-in-Box Arcade Games

Card & Dice Game Rankings

Top Games

Card & Dice Games: Honorable Mentions

Tier 3: Other Card & Dice Games

🎴 Complete-in-Box Card & Dice Games

Fighting Game Rankings

Top Games

Fighting Games: Honorable Mentions

Tier 3: Other Fighting Games

🎴 Complete-in-Box Fighting Games

Kids Game Rankings

Top Games

Kids Games: Honorable Mentions

Party Game Rankings

Top Games

Party Games: Honorable Mentions

Tier 3: Other Party Games

🎴 Complete-in-Box Party Games

Platformer Rankings

Top Games

Platformers: Honorable Mentions

Tier 3: Other Platformers

🎴 Complete-in-Box Platformers

Puzzle Game Rankings

Top Games

Puzzle Games: Honorable Mentions

Tier 3: Other Puzzle Games

🎴 Complete-in-Box Puzzle Games

Rhythm Game Rankings

Top Games

Rhythm Games: Honorable Mentions

🎴 Complete-in-Box Rhythm Games

RPG Rankings

Top Games

RPGs: Honorable Mentions

Tier 3: Other RPGs

🎴 Complete-in-Box RPGs

Shooter Rankings

Top Games

Shooters: Honorable Mentions

Tier 3: Other Shooters

🎴 Complete-in-Box Shooters

Simulation Game Rankings

Top Games

Sims: Honorable Mentions

Sports Game Rankings

Top Games

Sports Games: Honorable Mentions

Tier 3: Other Sports Games

🎴 Complete-in-Box Sports Games

Strategy Game Rankings

Top Games

Strategy Games: Honorable Mentions

🎴 Complete-in-Box Strategy Games

Zapper Game Rankings

Top Games