Introduction Urban Champion was developed by Nintendo R&D1, produced by Gunpei Yokoi, designed by Makoto Kanoh, and scored by Hirokazu Tanaka, releasing on the Famicom and the arcade VS. System in 1984 before reaching the NES in North America and Europe in 1986 as one of the console’s original launch titles. Nintendo built it as…
Introduction Crystalis was developed and published by SNK, known in Japan as God Slayer: Haruka Tenkū no Sonata, directed and produced by Kazuto Kohno with programming from Yukio Gu, F. Sasami, and Satoru Okada and a soundtrack by Yoko Osaka, releasing there in April 1990 before reaching North America that July. It marked a notable…
Introduction Gun-Nac was developed by Compile, a studio best known for shooters like Zanac and the Aleste series, and released in Japan by Tonkin House in October 1990 before ASCII Corporation brought it to North America the following September. It turned out to be the last game Compile ever made for the NES, closing out…
Introduction Shatterhand was developed by Natsume, with programming by Kazuhiko Ishihara, art from Shunichi Taniguchi, Norihide Mizoguchi, and Sachiko Matsuura, and music by Iku Mizutani and Hiroyuki Iwatsuki, originally releasing in Japan in October 1991 under Angel (a Bandai label) as a licensed tie-in to the live-action tokusatsu series Super Rescue Solbrain. For the Western…
Introduction Mega Man 6 was developed by Capcom and released in Japan in October 1993, but by that point Capcom’s Japanese arm had largely moved on from the aging NES, so for the first time Nintendo of America stepped in to co-fund and publish the game in the West itself, bringing it to North America…
Introduction Mega Man 5 was directed by Ichiro Mihara and produced by Tokuro Fujiwara, with Keiji Inafune once again handling character design, and released in Japan in December 1992 as part of Capcom’s continued annual cadence for the series. Rather than reinvent the formula, the team focused on refinement, again running a public design contest…
Introduction Mega Man 4 was developed and published by Capcom, produced by Tokuro Fujiwara with Keiji Inafune continuing on as character designer, and released in Japan in December 1991 under the studio’s push for annual sequels following the series’ continued commercial success, reaching North America the following month. The biggest gameplay addition was the Mega…
Introduction Life Force was developed and published by Konami, originating as the 1986 arcade shoot ’em up Salamander, a spin-off of the studio’s hit Gradius built instead of an immediate direct sequel and released internationally under the Life Force name. Rather than a straight arcade port, Konami used the NES conversion, which reached Japan in…
Introduction River City Ransom was developed and published by Technos Japan, directed by Mitsuhiro Yoshida and Hiroyuki Sekimoto with music by Kazuo Sawa, and released in Japan in April 1989 as the first game the studio built specifically for a home console rather than adapting from arcades. It’s the third entry in the Kunio-kun series…
Introduction Mega Man 3 was developed by Capcom and released in Japan in September 1990 and North America that November, arriving under a troubled production: original director Akira Kitamura had left the company, and his replacement, programmer Masahiko Kurokawa, clashed with the rest of the team over the series’ direction badly enough that lead artist…
Introduction Balloon Fight was developed by Nintendo together with HAL Laboratory, produced by Gunpei Yokoi, designed by Yoshio Sakamoto, and programmed in part by a young Satoru Iwata in one of his earliest collaborations with Nintendo before he went on to lead the company as its president. It debuted as the arcade cabinet VS. Balloon…
Introduction Ice Climber was developed by Nintendo R&D1, directed by Kenji Miki with Masayuki Uemura and Shigeru Miyamoto producing, and programmed by Kazuaki Morita and Toshihiko Nakago, releasing in Japan in January 1985 and reaching North America that October on both the NES and the arcade VS. System. It came right after the same core…