Top 10 games of 1988

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...

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...

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

I'm still waiting for SMB4 to come out.

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

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

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.

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.

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

OLD!

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

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.

Ninja Gaiden, ugh.

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

Ahh, to be 10 again...

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

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

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.

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.

@ 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?

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?

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.

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

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.

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.

1. Mega Man II (NES)
2. RoadBlasters (ARCADE)
3. Bionic Commando (NES)
4. Double Dragon (Arcade)
5. Super Mario Bros (NES)
6. Kung-Fu (NES)
7. Ninja Gaiden (NES)
8. Gauntlet (ARCADE)
9. Rygar (video game)
10. Contra (NES)

The best thing to come out of 1988 is me.

We're in Japan?

Oh wait...that's right, we're not so it doesn't matter if it came out there first.

BIONIC COMMANDO!!!!!!!!!111111111 OMFG!!!!!

(pardon my french!)

@ #4:

SMB4? It's called New SMB.