Mega Man
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One Man’s Quest to Review Every 16-Bit Game

I’ve played, reviewed, and documented my thoughts about every single game that was released in North America during the 16-bit era. Crazy, right? That’s 716 Super Nintendo, 704 Sega Genesis, and 95 TurboGrafx-16 games, for a grand total of 1,515 fourth-generation titles. Obviously, this begs two questions: Why would you do such a thing? My…
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Collecting retro Nintendo doesn’t have to be expensive, actually.

Greedy doodoo-heads seem determined to make my favorite hobby unaffordable. It’s been a little while since DKOldies started popping off on social media, but their legacy of severely overpriced retro games still lives on. For now, at least. Astute readers already know where I’m headed. Yes, this post exists in large part to promote the…
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16 Underrated NES Games

The Nintendo Entertainment System is one of the most successful and most enduring video game consoles ever invented. Following the North American console crash, the NES emerged not only as the dominating force in home gaming, but as a pop culture icon so ubiquitous as to be almost unmatched in its ubiquitatious ubiquitosity! Mario, Metroid,…
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Final Fantasy vs Dragon Warrior pt 1: A deep dive into JRPGs for the NES

…in the Japanese version…a woman offers to sell puff-puff – a Japanese onomatopoeia for a girl rubbing her breasts in someone’s face, or juggling her own breasts. In the North American version, the woman sells tomatoes.
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The 15 Best Sega Dreamcast RPGs

Sega’s systems have had plenty of great RPGs, but like Rodney Dangerfield, they get no respect. Sega Dreamcast was a very intriguing system that never lived up to its full potential. Despite having internet connectivity and good graphics, the Dreamcast lacked the sales to keep up with the competition. Remember, the system suffered from the…
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Couch Co-op Peaked with Bubble Bobble

When it was originally released to arcades in 1986, developer Taito wanted to create a co-op game with the pacing and quarter-munchability of games like Galaga and Xevious. They succeeded at that, but they also managed to make it pretty darn cute. Bubble Bobble enjoyed great initial success in arcades, and was a subsequently ported…
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Blaster Master is the first best metroidvania

These days, developers have pretty much perfected the metroidvania. It’s completely insania. But I can’t complnainia. I’ve quite enjoyed the genre since its earliest iterations on the NES—talking about the original Metroid and Simon’s Quest—even though they were rough around the edges. There are a handful of other proto-vania games on the NES, too. I’d…
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Excitebike Belongs in a Museum

In 1985, Excitebike was released in the US as a “black label” launch title. It didn’t *look* all that impressive, but it was technologically notable as well as being generally well-received as fun and easy for all ages to pick up and play. The game’s simple mechanics let you accelerate, brake, boost, and reorient your…
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Shadowgate: A Dark and Deadly NES Adventure

Originally created by the now-defunct developer, ICOM Simulations, Shadowgate is one of the most iconic adventure games of all time. This brutally tough point-and-click title was initially released in 1987 for Apple Mac computers, but its legacy was cemented in 1989 when it was ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System. Grim, immersive, and unabashedly challenging,…
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15 NES Games that Still Hold Up Today

Nearly 40 years after its release, the NES is still one of the most popular gaming consoles in the world! Much of that is due to nostalgia–which is a legitimate aspect to retro gaming–but few can deny the charming simplicity of the NES. Two buttons, four directions. What else do you really need? And while…
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Unexpected, Bizarre, and Oddball Ports for the Classic Gameboy: Part 2

Though composed of hardware considered limited even at release, it didn’t stop the Game Boy from becoming a force who’s lifespan would overtake many of its more powerful big brothers. In our last adventure, we explored some of the unusual and/or unexpected ports to hit the humble gray brick. Games whose very ideas, graphical stylings,…
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NES Speedrun Games: Pushing the 8-Bit Limit

Over the past decade, speedrunning has exploded in popularity, starting as a small community within gaming and bursting into the mainstream thanks to events like the Games Done Quick marathons. NES speedruns are viewed as some of the most pure and challenging of them all, commanding mastery of precise mechanics in addition to the baseline…



