Introduction Gradius began as a 1985 arcade shoot ’em up from Konami, developed under the working title Scramble 2 as a spiritual successor to the studio’s earlier Scramble, and it became one of the biggest arcade hits of the following year. Konami ported it to the Famicom in April 1986 and brought it to the…
Introduction Excitebike was developed by Nintendo, directed and designed by Shigeru Miyamoto, and released in Japan in November 1984, with a North American NES release following in October 1985 as one of the console’s early best-selling titles. It introduced a handful of mechanics that were unusually sophisticated for the time, including a motorcycle engine-heat gauge…
Introduction Mega Man 2 was developed and published by Capcom for the NES in 1988, directed by Akira Kitamura and produced by Tokuro Fujiwara, with Keiji Inafune stepping up from artist on the first game into a more central production role alongside fellow artists Yasuaki Kishimoto and Naoya Tomita and composer Takashi Tateishi. The sequel…
Introduction Final Fantasy was developed and published by Square for the NES in 1987, created by designer Hironobu Sakaguchi after Square’s leadership, initially hesitant to greenlight an RPG, changed course following the breakout success of Dragon Quest in 1986. Sakaguchi assembled a small team that would go on to define the genre for decades: Hiroyuki…
Introduction Battletoads was developed by Rare and published by Tradewest, designed by Tim and Chris Stamper with a soundtrack by David Wise, and built with the explicit goal of giving Rare its own answer to the era’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles craze. It released on the NES in North America and Japan in June 1991,…
Introduction Double Dragon began as a 1987 arcade beat ’em up developed by Technos Japan and distributed by Taito, a spiritual successor to Technos’s earlier Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun that added two-player co-op and the ability to pick up and use a disarmed enemy’s own weapon, quickly becoming one of the genre’s foundational hits. Technos ported…
Introduction Ninja Gaiden was developed and published by Tecmo for the NES, directed by Hideo Yoshizawa with art by Masato Kato, released in Japan in December 1988 and in North America the following March. It ran in parallel with an unrelated arcade beat ’em up of the same name built by a different team, sharing…
Introduction Kirby’s Adventure was developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the NES in 1993, directed and designed once again by Masahiro Sakurai with lead programming by Hiroaki Suga and production input from Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto, and Takao Shimizu. Sakurai had originally been asked simply to port the Game Boy original, Kirby’s…
Introduction Punch-Out!! was developed by Nintendo R&D3 under director Genyo Takeda, with character designs from Shigeru Miyamoto and production by Minoru Arakawa, adapting Nintendo’s arcade boxing series for the NES. Nintendo first released a Mike Tyson-free gold cartridge in Japan in September 1987, initially given out as a tournament prize, before the more famous Western…
Introduction The Legend of Zelda was developed by Nintendo R&D4, directed and produced by Shigeru Miyamoto with Takashi Tezuka as story writer, and built alongside Super Mario Bros as a launch title for the Family Computer Disk System, released in Japan in February 1986 before reaching the NES on cartridge in North America and Europe…
Introduction Super Mario Bros. 3 was developed by Nintendo EAD under director Shigeru Miyamoto and lead designer Takashi Tezuka, with development beginning right after 1986’s Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels and running roughly two and a half years before its Japanese release in October 1988; North America had to wait until February 1990. Miyamoto…
Introduction Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was developed by Konami and published in North America under its Ultra Games imprint, a label Konami founded in 1988 specifically to get around Nintendo’s limits on how many titles a single publisher could release per year. The game reached the Famicom in Japan in May 1989 and the NES…