Top 10 games of 1988

by Blake Snow { Sep 4th 2006 at 12:15PM }

GameFAQs has compiled a top 10 list for the best games of 1988. Me thinks Contra should be much higher, maybe even in the second spot, especially if you're talking about time spent playing a game. How would your list differ?

Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
Ninja Gaiden (NES)
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (NES)
Forgotten Worlds (Arcade)
Double Dragon II: The Revenge (Arcade)
Bionic Commando (NES)
Mega Man II (NES)
Guardian Legend (NES)
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES)
Contra (NES)

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jigen @ Sep 4th 2006 12:21PM

Wow, that list is messed up.

SMB3 came out in 88 in JAPAN, but Zelda 2 came out in 87 in Japan (88 in America)... And that's just the first 2 games I searched to be sure...

soco @ Sep 4th 2006 12:23PM

probably worth noting that, at least according to Wikipedia, most people reading this blog probably didn't play SMB3 until 1990 or 1991, as it wasn't released in the US and Europe until those years...

Denji @ Sep 4th 2006 12:27PM

Keep in mind that the list is only one contributor's opinion, not a site consensus.

Dr.Swiss @ Sep 4th 2006 12:40PM

I'm still waiting for SMB4 to come out.

FooAtari @ Sep 4th 2006 12:59PM

@3 It's from GameFAQ's is it not. No one at Joystiq put this top 10 together. Correct me if Im wrong though

reebo @ Sep 4th 2006 1:02PM

I don't have a list. I wasn't born 'till 2 years later. =(

Miharu @ Sep 4th 2006 1:04PM

I would raise Contra and Megaman 2 higher. Damn all of those games are awesome, and I have the most on original cartridges too

socrates @ Sep 4th 2006 1:06PM

Me too, Dr.Swiss....me too.

If time spent playing a game is the criteria, then my list would look like:

1. Dragon Warrior 3
2. Mega Man 2
3. Zelda 2
4. SMB2 (SMB3's US release date was 1990, according to Nintendo...it would still come in at number 4 here, though)
5. Bubble Bobble!
6. Contra
7. Bases Loaded
8. Ninja Gaiden
9. Castlevania II (this game is a few spots too low, but I never played it as a kid, for some reason)
10. Bionic Commando

Honourable mention: KARNOV! Because poeple don't say "Karnov" enough.

geekRECON @ Sep 4th 2006 1:13PM

But have you ever played any of these games with a Power Glove? Okay, no I haven't either. But some guy Lucas says that it's so bad! I know he meant "bad" as in "good", but we know better.

Shadowstorm @ Sep 4th 2006 1:30PM

OLD!

reefinyateef @ Sep 4th 2006 1:32PM

I agree with raising Contra up a notch. I'd also replace Castlevania 2 with Altered Beast and Forgotten Worlds with Ghouls and Ghosts.

sonofnone @ Sep 4th 2006 1:33PM

Now that's some killer gaming! If any current gen system could get a lineup half that impressive I'd be emtying my bank account today - or tomorrow when the banks open.

Gozan @ Sep 4th 2006 1:36PM

What?! Not a single Amiga game? I call shenanigans!

unreal mccoy @ Sep 4th 2006 2:35PM

Ahh, to be 10 again...

John H. @ Sep 4th 2006 2:35PM

Ninja Gaiden, ugh.

Guardian Legend deserves a higher spot, as does Zelda II.

Atomicapondula @ Sep 4th 2006 2:43PM

Too console (and US) biased ;) Where's all the ZX Spectrum classics!?

alex @ Sep 4th 2006 3:00PM

clearly the list writer's version of 1988 is probably the best year ever

Galcian @ Sep 4th 2006 4:28PM

I'm the one who wrote that list, and that's my opinion. Blake Snow, the very idea of Contra being ranked higher than Ninja Gaiden is hyperbole. Hell, even ranking it higher than Forgotten Worlds would be as such. Forgotten Worlds was everything that Contra was and much, much more. I love Contra, but I wont deny that most of why people love it is because of nostalgia. I look back on a lot of games I loved on NES these days and say to myself "Jesus, what was I thinking?" Nostalgia and fondness can sometimes hide a game's flaws. I think all those games are better than Contra, and unless you can give me a detailed explaination why any of those games are inferior aside from your fond reminiscence of childhood experiences, I suggest you accept that and shut the fuck up.

PS, about the date of Zelda II's release, I went by GameFAQs release dates and all they had was 1988. That's a bit nitpicky though.

Galcian @ Sep 4th 2006 4:35PM

Gozan, my favorite Amiga games were the Turrican trilogy, which didn't start until 1990. By the time I got to my 1990 list (1988 isn't the only list I've written, I've gone from 1987 to 1997) there were just too many awesome games for me to bother with Turrican.

Atomicapondula, I'm a console gamer all the way, but you'll note in my 1987 and later lists that MSX games are littered about.

GSI @ Sep 4th 2006 4:54PM

@ Galcian:

Ohhhh...that's an awesome come back:

"I suggest you accept that and shut the fuck up."

Wow do you feel smarter now? If you can't take someones criticism then get lost.

Oh yea "February 12, 1990'...that's when SMB3 came out...not 1988. How old are you? 10?

JM Scion @ Sep 4th 2006 5:16PM

Wow, so that's what games were out when I was born.

Zelda 2 came out in 88? When did the very first Zelda come out, and what was that like?

kelekod @ Sep 4th 2006 6:34PM

Here's why Contra is fun. Simply put its a great game, it burns like 10-20 minutes to beat it. It's hard to explain.. it's like Goldeneye, it has the feel that you want to come back to it. You have all the levels memorized, you know where all the weapons are, you know the weak points on the bosses.. it's just that great of a game. Some still need the 30 lifes, some of us try without the cheat. Some of us (including me) have won the game without dying a single time. It was fun with a buddy as well. You could kill each other by waiting at the edges of the screen (most levels) or in level 3 you could jump ahead and kill your buddy. It was a great punch-you-gut kinda thing.

It's just one of those games, where you'll forever go back to it, play through a few times, and you not play it for a few days, weeks, months or even years again. Sure the graphics can't match anything of today, but for most, it's considered a classic.

A list of games that will always be fun upon return to playing them:
Contra
Legend of Zelda(NES [both games], SNES, N64)
Super Mario(NES [all 3], SNES [both], N64)
Tetris (NES)
Pac-Man (NES/Arcade)
Super Dodgeball (NES)
Double Dragon (NES [all 3 plus Ultimate Team])
Goldeneye (N64)

I know my personal list includes such bizarre games as:

Duck Tales (NES)
Rescue Rangers (NES)
Wizards and Warriors (1 & 3) (NES)

Simply put, these are all great games that for some reason or another some of us will always go back and play for a quick or perhaps long time and win the games over and over.

Snappy J @ Sep 4th 2006 6:43PM

Mega Man II should be waaaay higher. And I don't even like Mega Man.

Galcian @ Sep 4th 2006 7:35PM

GSI, I was going by Japanese release dates. Super Mario Bros. 3 came out on October 23rd, 1988 in Japan.

The reason I go by Japanese release date is because for Japanese games, it's the games debut. Sometimes it takes years for a Japanese game to be localized, and I don't think it's fair to those games to be pitted against Western games that are more up to date. Look at Epica Stella. It came out in 1998, where it was fairly impressive, but it didn't come out here until late 2000 when it had titles like Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy IX to compete with, so I'd rather judge the game on 1998 standards than 2000 standards.

hey alex @ Sep 4th 2006 8:09PM

I'm having a hard time remembering 1988. Whoa talk about flashback though. I had totally forgotten about Forgotten Worlds (but then again, maybe I wasn't supposed to remember). At the time, that was a pretty cool collaborative game.

Double Dragon II was a good game, but I thought the original Double Dragon was more fun than the sequel.

I wonder what the 10 best are for 89.