I'm currently in the process of repurchasing my childhood and rebuilding my NES, SNES (and, shortly, Genesis) collections and I'm running across a lot of good games I missed out on as a kid in addition to enjoying my old favorites again.

What were/are your favorite 8/16-bit era games that I should check out?

And if we could reignite the Nintendo/Sega console wars in this thread I'd be SOOOOO happy

The first Metroid on the NES.

Back in the early 80's I had a Commodor 64 and loved their stable of games, particularly the EA games: Archon, Archon II, Seven Cities of Gold, Mail Order Monsters and others I can't even remember the name of.

I remember my buddy had an Intellivision and I loved the game Dreadnaught Factor. Another buddy had an Atari 5200 which had some good games but crappy joysticks.

In college a suite mate had an early Nintendo system and I got addicted to Doctor Mario. I could beat that on level 19 but not 20.

I still play some of my favorite NES and SNES games on the emulator for my touchpad.  On my list:

Nobunaga's Ambition (NES)
Final Fantasy (NES)
Leged of Zelda (NES)
Zelda, Link to the Past (SNES)
Castlevania (NES)
Super Castlevania (SNES)
Ogre BAttle (SNES)
Dragon WArrior (NES)
Final Fantasy VI (SNES, my personal favorite)
Breath of Fire (NES)
Super Mario World (SNES)

I was a Sega Master System kid and later got a SNES.

For the Master System, I thought R-Type, Operation Wolf, [strike]Conan[/strike] Rastan (oh God, fucking Rastan, I sometimes get on YouTube just to listen to the level 1 midi and chanced upon this awesome "remake") and Wonder Boy II were da bomb.

For the SNES, Super Mario World and Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past are the no-brainers. I was also big on arcade game conversions: Final Fight, Ghouls & Ghosts (if you defeated the final boss without collecting the key you were sent back to the start of the game. Fucking brutal and unthinkable today), R-Type (I think it was called R-Type Zero or something) and a side-scrolling beat'em-up game which was balls-out D&Dish fantasy whose name escapes me.

Quote from: The Butcher;736915...a side-scrolling beat'em-up game which was balls-out D&Dish fantasy whose name escapes me.

A few that fit that description on SNES were Magic Sword, and Knights of the Round, but I'm guessing King of Dragons?

Also no SNES collection is complete without Chrono Trigger.

Quote from: JamesV;736923Also no SNES collection is complete without Chrono Trigger.

Chrono Trigger costs a bajillion dollars, yes?

Quote from: Piestrio;736926Chrono Trigger costs a bajillion dollars, yes?

There is a good chance of that, since like Super Mario RPG, it was released near the end of the SNES lifespan.

If you're willing to compromise, it was also ported to the DS. In either case it's a great game.

Quote from: Piestrio;736926Chrono Trigger costs a bajillion dollars, yes?

Just a quick Google shopping search shows prices for a used copy ranging from $80 to $110.  Those are inflated, of course.  I think it's fair to say a bare cart could be had for somewhere between $40 and $80 if you hunted a bit.

The game was also ported to the DS and PS1.  The PS1 version is on the Final Fantasy Chronicles disc which you can still find new on Amazon for under $20.  The DS port is also available new on Amazon for under $25.  Failing that, it can be downloaded for the PS3 through the Playstation Store for $10.  Not that any of those options will help a SNES collection.

But another option if you want to play SNES games on real hardware (not a clone system) is to get a flash cart.  I own two for my SNES: the Super Everdrive and the SD2SNES.  Both support Chrono Trigger.  The SD2SNES is the more expensive option with greater capability.  The Super Everdrive is the cheaper route.  Either one will make up for their purchase cost as soon as they're loaded with Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, and whatever other hard to find carts strike your fancy.

A few for SNES

Starfox
Super Castlevania IV
Romance of the Three Kingdoms II
Gemfire
Final Fantasy II or Final Fantasy III
Earthbound (probably better to get a flash cart, it would be about the same price)
Ogre Battle
Rock n Roll Racing
Mortal Kombat II
Final Fight 2 or 3
King of Dragons

And a few for Genesis if you go that route.  Despite this being a smaller list, I'm more of a Genesis gamer.

Golden Axe (hunt down 6-Pack which has this game and some other cool ones)
Streets of Rage 2
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Phantasy Star 2 and/or 4
Shining Force
Lightening Force
Shadowrun
Alisia Dragoon
Ranger X
Castlevania Bloodlines
Road Rash 2

Thanks Gabriel,

I'm seriously temped by one of those Flashcarts...

Don't know about you Windows lot, but this works nicely in OSX:

Open Emu

QuoteWe combine some of the best emulation projects together into one beautiful unified application that simply organizes your personal games library. Watch as you drop in backups of your games (ROMs) & they are gracefully added to their appropriate library along with original box art!

(works with my PS3 controller too!!)

Hooooleee shit, now we're talking my time. What'cha wanna know? What are your favorite genres? How willing are you to play imported games, especially those with a different language?

Was a SEGA kid from the beginning and been there from arcade and SMS to Dreamcast. Still love the other systems, but SEGA always had my favorite type of games at my favorite difficulty level: PUNISHING! So if anyone wants to throw down like it's 1989, it's ON!

Off the top of my head, stuff I played and liked:

SMS

-rpgs-
Y's Vanished Omens
Phantasy Star
Miracle Warriors
Golvellius
Wonder Boy in Monster Land
Lord of the Sword (an exercise in agony! ten continues, that's it!)

-shooters-
After Burner (gets much harder after 11th level. )
Astro Warrior
Action Fighter (a neat game, part spy hunter, part 1942.)
Bomber Raid (1942-esque)
Choplifter
F-16 Fighting Falcon (card. you just jet duel off HUDs! fun!)
Fantasy Zone I & II
Galaxy Force (this & Zaxxon 3-D blew my little child mind back in the day)
R-Type
Space Harrier & in 3-D
Thunderblade
Transbot
Zaxxon 3-D

-action adventure-
Alex Kidd in Miracle World
Alien Syndrome (3 lives, no continues, 8 levels, one-hit-wonder. suck on that.)
Aztec Adventure (use gold to hire enemies! weird bosses!)
Bonanza Bros (bank heist stealth while tripping up the cops!)
Bubble Bobble
Double Dragon (ooh! two players!)
Gain Ground
Kung Fu Kid (easy, but you can FLY! early wuxia craziness.)
Psychic World
Psycho Fox
Quartet (gettin' high huffin' the chiptunes)
Rainbow Islands (bubble bobble's sequel)
Rampage
Rastan (still huffin' the chiptunes)
Shinobi
Spy vs. Spy
Time Soldiers
Wonder Boy I & II
Zillion

-miscellaneous-
Casino Games
California Games
Paperboy
Parlour Games
Shanghai
Penguin Land
Rescue Mission (light gun)
Hang On
Outrun (zOMG! Magical Sound Shower! *HUFF*)

well this is too long... give me a genre or three and I can drive you on through to all there was in each system, even PC Engine/TG-16, SNES, NES, Genesis, Sega CD, and on.

Quote from: The Butcher;736915and a side-scrolling beat'em-up game which was balls-out D&Dish fantasy whose name escapes me.

Dungeons & Dragons Tower of Doom. Wonderfull rendering of D&D by Capcom.
Also the sequel, Shadow over Mystara.

My favorites, all for SNES, were:

Drakkhen
Actraiser
Legend of Zelda
Shadowrun (#2 pick)
Super Metroid (#1 pick)

There's one other that I had and loved but can't remember its name; it's the port of the British Isles computer games. I liked Castlevania 4 but found it somewhat difficult.