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Top Famicom Games of All-Time

According to Readers of Famitsu Magazine

 

    In 2006 Famitsu, the most popular Japanese video gaming magazine asked their readers what the greatest games of all-time were.  In the end the magazine released a poll featuring the Top 100 games.  Sprinkled in among those 100 games were 19 that were released for the Famicom.  Here is that list with their overall ranking in parentheses.

 

 

  1. Dragon Warrior III – 1988 (#3)
  2. Final Fantasy III – 1990 (#8) unreleased in U.S.
  3. Dragon Warrior IV – 1990 (#14)
  4. Dragon Warrior II – 1987 (#17)
  5. Super Mario Bros. – 1985 (#21)
  6. Dragon Warrior – 1986 (#30)
  7. Mother – 1989 unreleased in U.S. (#38)
  8. The Legend of Zelda – 1986 (#46)
  9. Digital Devil Story Megami Tensei II – 1990 (#58) unreleased in U.S.
  10. Final Fantasy II – 1988 (#60) unreleased in U.S.
  11. Final Fantasy – 1987 (#63)
  12. R.B.I. Baseball – 1986 (#65)
  13. Wizardry – 1987 (#66)
  14. Hokkaido Murder Mystery – 1987 (#67) unreleased in the U.S.
  15. Best Play Pro Baseball – 1988 (#72) unreleased in the U.S.
  16. Kung Fu – 1985 (#87)
  17. R.B.I. Baseball 2 – 1987 (#95)
  18. Gradius – 1986 (#98)
  19. Super Mario Bros. 3 – 1988 (#99)

 

This is a very interesting list to look at because it differs greatly from what would be on an American list of the 19 greatest NES games of all-time.  Obvious choices not represented on this list are Metroid, Zelda II – The Adventure of Link, Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, Contra and any games from the Mega Man series.  It is also very surprising to see such mediocre games as Kung Fu, R.B.I. Baseball 2, and Wizardry making appearances on the list while the almost universal #1 choice on an American list, Super Mario Bros. 3 is relegated to 19th place.  It should come as no surprise that RPGs led the way with 11 of the 19 entries.  Interestinlgy five of the games on the list never made its way across the ocean.  Two (Final Fantasy and Mother) were developed and have been discovered as prototypes while it is pretty obvious what Final Fantasy III will be like.  The other three games are a little more mysterious.  Digital Devil Story II is a post-apocalyptic RPG based on a popular series of Japanese novels.  Hokkaido Murder Mystery was originally released on the Famicom Disk System in 1988 and is a text based adventure story.  Best Play Pro Baseball is a more realistic version of Baseball Stars with longer seasons and more stats and attributes to be mindful of – the catch is that you are the GM and manager only.  You don’t actually get to control the players in your games, I sure with that that someone would release a translation of that game because it sure sounds cool to me!