This week your favorite agents have a classic and a relatively unknown review for your reading pleasure. Everyone knows that Mega Man 2 is a classic but you may have to tell that to Agent K (check out his 2^nd opinion) but not many people have played Bucky O’Hare a game that plays remarkably similar to Mega Man in a lot of ways. You’ll have to click on the links to find out which one got the higher review…

In other news, next week marks the return of Little Mac to the gaming world in the surefire hit Punch-Out for the Wii. It looks to be a virtual remake of the original Punch-Out!! for the NES minus Mike Tyson of course.

Also, over on Nintendo Age there has been the free release of a 2^nd previously un-played prototype – U-Force Power Games. Unfortunately you actually need to own the U-Force to be able to play this title, which neither Agent has ever even sniffed. The game is made up of a handful of mini-games the most intriguing being a one-on-one basketball game in which both players can use the U-Force. One final exciting note is that another previously unreleased prototype is getting the CIB treatment, Hoppin’ Mad was an unfinished game that has been finished thus making this the first prototype-homebrew hybrid title to be released complete in box. Head over to Nintendo Age for all the news on this release.

4-29-09

You’d think that Agent J was going to Disney Land this week based off of the reviews he has submitted. But alas, the closest he came to Disney Land was playing Adventures in the Magic Kingdom, a virtual tour of the theme park brought to you by the mighty Capcom. Also on tap this week is a review of the classic platformer DuckTales.

There isn’t too much going on this week in NES news, there is talk over at Nintendo Age of releasing War on Wheels, which is pretty much the last NES prototype that is completely unreleased in any region that is known to be in the hands of collectors. So if you have a hankerin’ for some roller derby or you’d just like to play another “new” Nintendo game head on over there and put in your two cents.

We’re down to our final few weeks before Punch-Out is released on the Wii and Agent J has been priming for the big day by continuously defeating Mike Tyson. He still has never been able to knock him out in the first round but if you twist his arm you may be able to get him to tell you the tale of the time he KO’d Iron Mike in Round 2…

4-14-09

The big news in the NES world this week is that Mike Tyson’s Intergalactic Power Punch has been released as a download through Nintendo Age. In addition you can pick up the game in cartridge form at Retrozone. The game is the prototype version of Power Punch II before Nintendo dropped Tyson. You star as Mike Tyson and are now boxing aliens and robots from other planets since no humans could defeat you. Other than the addition of Tyson content, including Don King in the crowd the game has some different names for boxers and some other minor changes that I’ve noticed so far. Make sure to pick up this game while you still can.

In honor of Opening Day for baseball, Agent J has offered up reviews of R.B.I. Baseball 2 and R.B.I. Baseball 3, which must be masterpieces considering they are following up one of the all-time great baseball games. Enjoy the reviews and the baseball season in which the Cubbies are sure to finally break their darn curse!! Also checkout Agent K’s updated Baseball Rankings to see which games to play this season.

3-31-09

For our final review of March ’09 and in honor of the incredible March Madness tourney going on right now Agent K has delivered on his promise of a basketball review. NOT!

Sorry folks, somehow Borat got control of our website for a moment. As the e-mails predicted, Agent K did not deliver his review so Agent J has come through with a decidedly non-basketball related review of the RPG/Adventure classic Magic of Scheherazade (good luck pronouncing or spelling that game!) After reading the review see where it lands on the rankings page, how does it compare to Spiritual Warfare or Hydlide???

There are also some major developments going on in the NES world worth keeping track of. First off, in case you haven’t heard Nintendo Age is selling a reproduction of an unreleased (for good reason) platformer called Happy Camper, it was meant to be released by Color Dreams in 1991 and is limited to 250 carts of which there are only 100 left. They are also in the process of releasing the ROM for Mike Tyson’s Intergalactic Power Punch. This was the original version of Power Punch II, prior to the Tyson endorsement being dropped. The game will almost certainly be the same with just some touches of Tyson added to the game. Also there are a couple of homebrews coming soon to the market. A new version of Frogger titled Ultimate Frogger Champion will be coming out and it looks like a very faithful port of the arcade classic. If that isn’t exciting enough, a brand new platformer is in the works and it looks top notch. Battle Kid – Fortress of Peril has an expected release date of mid 2009 and should be the biggest news of the year NES wise. Make sure to go over to Nintendo Age to find the latest on these developments. One final piece of NES news is that earlier this month the mighty Retrozone released yet another NES game. This time it’s the Nintendo Campus Challenge 1991; this game is similar to the famous Nintendo World Championships 1990 cart but includes Super Mario Bros. 3, Pinbot and Dr. Mario. This contest wasn’t as famous and there is only one known cart to exist but the game itself looks really fun. Don’t miss out on a chance to own a very unique game. All in all I’d say there are a lot of exciting events in the NES world. I can only hope Nintendo picks up on this and releases a couple more old-school games like Mega Man 9.

Stay tuned next week for our first review post-NCAA tournament and let’s all hope for some upsets this weekend!

3-24-09

In order to make up for missing last week’s update your favorite unreliable agents have brought forth two reviews for you. The original goal was for a basketball review to be posted in honor of March Madness but there are only a few hoops games left to be reviewed and Agent J’s pathetic attempt at mastering Ultimate Basketball left him in a caveman rage due to the possibly broken controls of the game. This left Agent K and he has promised a review before the Final 4, so the nation waits with their eyes firmly rolled upwards…

With no hoops review in hand Agent J came to the rescue with a pair of classic Zapper reviews. Duck Hunt and Wild Gunman were two of the launch titles for the NES and along with Hogan’s Alley form the original trilogy of the original Zapper games.

Along with these reviews, Agent J defeated Hydlide, updated the review and added his 2^nd opinion. Also, check out the updated basketball rankings, two player simultaneous rankings, Adventure/RPG rankings and lanch title rankings. Whew, them’s a lot of updates, enjoy!!

3-10-09

Agent J had a rare visit from an old buddy named “The Log” this weekend. Upon arriving at Agent J’s cave, The Log insisted upon playing one of his favorite childhood games – Rampage. 128 levels and many hours later the two emerged with the United States destroyed and a review in hand. Agent J wanted to thank The Log for introducing this “classic” to him and mention that next time they would play a game of Agent J’s preference.

As the world gears up for March Madness and the potential domination of Michigan State, Agent J has challenged Agent K to provide the world with a basketball review. Let’s see if he is able to meet the challenge.

3-3-09

The moment the world never thought would happen is upon us. Agent K’s long sought after review has been discovered and posted. And this just in, the world is disappointed that the highly anticipated review is for the not very popular Joust. One of Agent K’s favorite games for the Atari was also one of Agent K’s highly desired NES games for quite some time. Agent K finally got his hands on it and quickly wrote this review. As we know, the rest of the process wasn’t so quick and therefore this review has been in limbo for over six months. If you scroll down to the bottom of this page, you’ll see that in June 2008 the review was already being spoken of in epic terms. Will Agent K ever submit another review to the site? Only time will tell. But expect the updates to continue as Agent J continues to churn them out. Be sure to check out the updated Classic Video Game Rankings as well.

2-24-09

Consistency has come to NES Archives, can you believe it? Your lovable agents have actually stuck to their pledge to update every Tuesday. For the third straight week a cult classic is being reviewed. River City Ransom (which was reviewed two weeks ago) is actually the sequel to this week’s review – Super Dodge Ball. This was one of those games that both agents salivated over throughout their childhood NES days. Well, the salivating has officially stopped as both agents own the game and a review for it is now up for you, our loyal reader, to peruse.

Stay tuned, because in only 7 days Agent K will be back with a new review! Does that mean he is back as a full-time reviewer? Alas, no. Think of him as being one of those Jedi Force Ghosts from Return of the Jedi because his return is in spirit only. If you’ve been reading the updates over the last six months, an extremely old Agent K review has been discovered, translated, re-mastered and re-mixed for today’s youth. Next week you will finally get to feast your eyes on what may be the last words from Agent K.

2-17-09

Another week and yet another co-written review by our agents that first was featured in Video Game Trader Magazine. This one is another cult classic North and South. In between Tuesdays there is often work going on behind the scenes with reviews getting updated and changed over to the new format. This week saw a bunch of reviews get pictures added to them, some broken links fixed and a revamped Muppet Adventure review. Enjoy!

This may be hard to believe but Agent K’s epic review has been completely translated and transferred from its ancient scroll to a shiny html document. Expect that highly anticipated review on an upcoming Tuesday. It has been over 5 months since Agent K’s last review so this is big!

2-10-09

Wow, it’s been pretty slow over here at NES Archives. With Agent K’s new offspring and Agent J’s constant letter-writing campaign to bring back the GEICO Cavemen TV show there hasn’t been much time for NES reviewing. Well, today that changes with a rare review co-written by both Agents that has been dusted out of the archives from the last time those two got together. River City Ransom is one of the most popular games today that wasn’t popular during the NES’s lifetime, the agents decided to see what all the hubbub was about… Be sure to check out their updated two-player simultaneous rankings along with the Essential NES list.

11-18-08

Bad news here at NES Archives. After searching high and low for over a month, Agent K’s whereabouts are still unknown. A couple clues have emerged though, there is a note saying that one may find him at the hospital on December 4^th and even more shocking than Agent K’s disappearance was the discovery of his legendary review that he promised over six months ago. Unfortunately the document was written in an ancient language and is on the verge of turning to dust so it will take a little time to get it ready for publication but have no fear, it is now in your webmaster’s hands and will be coming soon.

In the meantime Agent J conquered Crystalis and reviewed it. You can compare his review to Agent K’s old review that he wrote when he was halfway through the game. Also check out the newly updated Zelda RPG rankings along with the Essential NES list.

10-9-08

We promised every Tuesday but already it took your humble webmaster two extra days to pry a review out of Agent J’s hands. Once again, you are getting your first glance at a review that was previously published in Video Game Trader. Here on NES Archives, though, is the first release of the unedited, full length review of Déjà Vu. Agent J’s full review was too long to fit in the magazine so it got heavily edited and Agent J claims “the best bits got left on the floor” (don’t they always say that?).

Agent J has been going prototype crazy lately, playing two different ones extensively. First off, he is in the midst of what has proven to be a long-term undertaking – Final Fantasy II. He also picked up Mike Ditka’s Big Play Football and has just started playing it. His early summary of Ditka’s game is that it is more reminiscent of his days coaching the Saints than his glory days with the Bears. Final Fantasy II, on the other hand, has been a pleasant surprise. Agent J had been told the game would be very disappointing but he says that so far the game has been strange but fun. Reviews are sure to come some time before year’s end…

9-30-08

Well as promised, it is Tuesday, thus here is an update. Agent K has brought to us a review that appeared in the fine magazine Video Game Trader. If you have not heard of this magazine yet you should first get your head checked, then second cruise over to their site and check it out.

As a child there were only a handful of NES games that Agent K would have killed over and Baseball Stars was certainly on that list. Many days and nights were spent trying to improve his players so that he could pit them against Agent J’s ridiculous maxed out team. Also, in case you were not aware of this, the images of Agents J and K at the top of the screen were created with Baseball Stars. So without further ado here is the one, the only, Baseball Stars!

9-23-08

In light of Nintendo’s greatest release in years, Mega Man 9 for the Wii, Agent J went deep into the archives and pulled out a review of the original Mega Man. Eight official titles later (and over 50 total releases) Mega Man 9 looks eerily similar to the one that started it all. Agent J has downloaded and played the new Mega Man game and has declared it “Totally Awesome”. When asked about the extra two bucks needed to play as Proto Man among other goodies, he was quoted as saying, “The game costs ten dollars, ten freakin’ measly dollars. Are you really going to complain about two extra dollars on top of that when it cost me five months’ allowance to pick up Mega Man 3 back in the day? Really?” Agent J was then asked why as a full grown caveman he was receiving allowance in the early 90s and he angrily grunted and hung up the phone.

In other news, Agent J and K have promised that they will now be updating the site every Tuesday as school is back in session. Look for many reviews to appear but also each Agent has promised a couple of interesting articles as well. It also looks like NES Archives may receive the Agent K review that has been mentioned in these updates for over five months now. This webmaster will believe it when he sees it…

8-18-08

Watching the baseball portion of the Summer Olympics got our beloved agents thinking. There was a certain NES video game that reminded them of the U.S. team. Like the team, this game is thought to be good but upon further inspection is actually very disappointing. That’s right it’s Bases Loaded. Agent J took one for the team and reviewed this baseball “classic”.

The agents have promised an Olympic themed review sometime this week, let’s see if this is a real promise or one of those that they tell their webmaster after three pitchers of A&W…

8-12-08

As promised Agent J & K’s second ever joint review has been posted today. The two agents were able to set up a rare meeting with each other and instead of having long deep conversations what did they do? That’s right they played a whole lot of Balloon Fight. So please enjoy their review as they sacrificed a lot to bring you, loyal reader, this review. Expect any day, the long, long, long gestating classic video game review from Agent K!

The two agents also beat a couple of other popular two-player games so expect a couple more joint reviews in the recent future – unless Video Game Trader gets them first. In which case you’ll have to head there to have first dibs on those reviews.

8-10-08

Agents J and K have been NESing up a storm and many reviews are forthcoming. They’ve beaten three games this week: Balloon Fight, River City Ransom, and North and South. Additionally, they have gone NES crazy going to flea markets and stores picking up every NES game they see. Check out The Quest to see their most recent purchases.

For those who have not noticed NES Archives loading time has improved substantially because many older news items have been sent to the archives. Be sure to check there if you want to see some oldies but goodies.

In Tecmo Super Bowl news Agent K sunk to a new low this week when he lost a game by running out of the endzone under zero pressure. 2 points to Agent J and a memorable colossal blunder for Agent K!

Agent J owns one of the coolest accessories for the NES, the Power Pak and our beloved agents played many unknown but cool Famicom games including Hello Kitty World, River City Ransom 2, Pac Land, and Hit the Ice. Keep an eye out for mini reviews for these games in our Famicom section. Check out Retrozone for more information on the amazing Power Pak.

Also, In My NES and Most Wanted Games have both been updated.

8-6-08

Back to back updates?? Yup, we said there would be a lot of NESing going on. Agents J and K found a new shop that sells NES games and better yet the guys working there were pretty darn cool. We picked up Rollerball, Widget, Flight of the Intruder, and The Punisher (Agent K has been wanting this one for quite some time.) So for those of you following The Quest closely that means we now have OVER 500 GAMES!!!! That’s right Flight of the Intruder was game number 500. We here at NES Archives consider that quite a milestone indeed.

In other news Agent J picked up 2 FC Mobile systems. For those of you not in the know that is the portable NES. Yes, that was not a typo for about 40 bucks you too can play your NES on the road. Do you have a PSP? Chuck it in the trash and get an FC Mobile! Stay tuned for a full review of the FC Mobile.

Agents J and K chose an odd game to play in their precious little time together, Balloon Fight. Did they love it or hate it? Check back later today or tomorrow for the full review.

8-5-08

Well it certainly has been a while since our last update and we are long overdue. First, for all our loyal viewers Agent J is officially off the market. Sorry ladies our beloved caveman has found himself a cavewoman. However, our two agents did spend some time together NESing. They almost beat River City Ransom and vow to do so the next time they get together. When will they get together next you ask? How about today! That’s right Agent J has come to visit Agent K and there most certainly will be a whole lotta NESing going on.

In other news, Agent K has picked up a ton of interesting games lately including Lemmings, Dragon’s Lair, Metal Storm, Day Dreamin’ Davey, and Cool World. Stay tuned for some reviews.

To wet your appetite here are a few short blurbs about two.

Dragon’s Lair: Agent K so wanted this game as a child and he would have hated it. It is ridiculously hard and Agent J hates it. However, for some reason Agent K has a certain fondness for it. Basically you move and die. Every now and then you figure out the precise moment to stab and you don’t die. Sounds great huh!

Metal Storm: Seems pretty darn cool from two plays. You can flip gravity to help you maneuver through the levels which is cool. However, one hit and you are dead until you get some power-ups. This one looks like a winner.

7-15-08

Agent J has provided NES Archives with its very first racing game review. Of course he has reviewed R.C. Pro-Am, the all-time – wait what’s that? It isn’t R.C. Pro-Am? It must be Rad Racer or Micro Machines then. No? Wow, who would have thought the checkered flag would go to Danny Sullivan’s Indy Heat, I doubt even his mother expected that he would earn such an honor. So do him a favor and check out the review to his game!

In other news, Agent J has picked up a slew of new games (some courtesy of Agent K in a box with no return address label as he remains in the wild) including the much wanted North & South. Early grades have been posted for some of these games boosting the total amount of games given grades to over 300, huzzah to NES Archives!

7-6-08

There has been a very exciting development in the world of Nintendo! In case you haven’t heard, Capcom has created Mega Man 9 for release as part of Nintendo’s Wiiware program. That means that you can download it it to play on your Nintendo Wii. The coolest part is that the game was created using 8-bit graphics! So we essentially have our first new NES game in 14 years. Word is that the game will not be able to be ported on to an NES cart but this is still exciting news! If it sells well, I imagine that more 8-bit games will come our way via the Wii. To the right is a screenshot of Mega Man 9 that was first seen in the latest issue of Nintendo Power.

Also, Entertainment Weekly released a list of the 50 greatest video games of the last 25 years and included a grand total of two NES games on their list – Contra and Tecmo Super Bowl. Make sure you write in to lambaste them for this ridiculous list, rest assured that Agent J already has.

Finally, we are proud to present a review of Sesame Street ABC. A solid educational title released almost 20 years ago. Also check out our updated reviews of Jaws and The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle.

7-2-08

Yesterday marked Agent J’s 28^th year back in civilization and he marked the day in style. What did he do you ask? Why spent the day reliving his youth – quite literally. That’s right he spent the day playing and reviewing Bonk’s Adventure a game highly based off of his life as a youngster. This marks three consecutive Hudson reviews from Agent J for those of you keeping score at home. Will Agent J move in a new direction with his next review? Stay tuned and while you are enjoying the 4^th of July you can relive some of the greatest hits of Agent J’s life by watching Encino Man and playing Bonk’s Adventure. Sadly neither measure up to this cro magnon himself.

6-30-08

Just as the world welcomed back Agent K, he disappeared again (this time to Ohio) and took his classic video game review with him! No matter, Agent J is once again around to pick up the slack! Following up on Hudson’s Felix the Cat, Agent J has reviewed Faxanadu, an adventure game created by Hudson but liscensed to Nintendo. The game may look ugly but Agent J claims that it is actually pretty darn fun. Tomorrow will mark the 28^th year since Agent J was discovered in California and 16 years since his story was turned into a full fledged movie. Agent J has promised to review a game dear to his heart for this special occasion and hopes that everyone else watches Encino Man to honor his extraordinary accomplishments.

6-27-08

Yawn. Stretch. Ahh, Agent K has finally emerged from hibernation. He looks around and sees, oh my goodness Agent J has passed him in reviews!! Agent K carried the load for years and now Agent J is the man. Well that cannot stand, it is time for Agent K to pump out some reviews. However, that will be an update for tomorrow. Today Agent K got back to his NES by borrowing Agent J’s deal sniffing dog Nester and picked up 9 new games today including some rare items like: Death Race, Robodemons, Captain Comic, Where in Time is Carmen San Diego and Ninja Crusaders.

Here is a quick glance at a few of the games Agent K picked up today.

Robodemons: Not great. You are a guy who can shoot with an inaccurate gun. It has elements of shooters and platformers. It is weird and does not look great.

Death Race: Seems interesting. Top down car driving game with funky controls. You can buy a variety of upgrades for your car. The game is basically capture the flag with a car that has missles.

Alpha Mission: Pretty decent. A shooter in which you grab powerups and energy. Similar to Gradius in that you can choose from a variety of weapons as you get more goodies. It seems difficult but possibly fun.

Where in Time is Carmen San Diego: Decent if you like games about history. Where were fireworks first invented an informant asks you. I know, I know, Agent K’s hand shoots up and he blurts out China. Time to get in the time machine and catch a criminal. This may be a good educational game for a 14 year old. For a 90 year old history professor it is not so educational, but still somewhat entertaining.

All in all it was a good day back to the NES for Agent K and don’t you worry more reviews are eminent!

6-24-08

It looks as though Agent K has gone on the lam and taken his classic video game review with him. NES Archives has been unable to contact him for over a week now and his answering machine claims that we have reached some restaurant called Medieval Times. Very strange… Either something catastrophic has happened to him or he has a case of writer’s block worse than the guy in Wonder Boys. At any rate, life must go on here at NES Archives so we present to you another review from Agent J that absolutely no one was clamoring for – Felix the Cat. Just how bad is this game? Click on the review to find out!

6-18-08

The world can breathe a sigh of relief as Boston has won another championship. We all know the whining we would have heard out of Beantown if they would have had to go two straight sports seasons without a champion. NES Archives must doff its hat in the direction of Kevin Garnett a Chicago son who finally has won his first championship after a long and productive career.

Anyway on to NES stuff. Agent J’s latest review is for the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2, which he got as a repro cart from www.nesreproductons.com. A mini-review was added to the Famicom mini-review section as well. It is a real shame that the United States was deprived of this classic cart.

6-16-08

For the first time in the history of NES Archives Agent J has more reviews than Agent K! Have no fear fans of Agent K, he has officially said that starting next week he will be reviewing games again and will begin by posting his long awaited opus about a certain old-school video game classic.

Today’s review is Short Order/Eggsplode. It is a virtually unknown Power Pad classic developed and released by Nintendo. This marks the Power Pad’s debut on NES Archives, expect a review of Stadium Events in August to honor this year’s Olympic Games.

A quick note to our Lakers fans out there. How about that comeback victory over the Celtics last night! Was there anyone out there sorry to see another team from Boston not win a championship??? I think that city has won enough…

6-15-08

Agent J has officially tied up Agent K with his 60^th review! Who will be the first agent to hit 100? The nation awaits with bated breath. This review of Double Dragon originally showed up in Video Game Trader Magazine and is finally now arriving home at NES Archives. Which Double Dragon doubled Agent J’s pleasue? Click on the review to see how the original compared to Double Dragon II. Stay tuned to see if Double Dragon III was able to triple Agent J’s pleasure…

6-13-08

Was there anyone who was upset to see the Lakers blow a 24 point lead in the NBA Finals last night? It’s hard to feel sorry for the most selfish star in the NBA and the most overrated coach in the history of basketball. In celebration of the Lakers’ epic collapse last night, Agent J went and reviewed another mediocre basketball title – Roundball. Two-on-Two or one-one-one, just the way Kobe prefers it. Enjoy the rest of the NBA Finals and if you have the time, bust out a basketball game for your NES. Any one will do, they are all pretty bad! If you aren’t sure which you want to try, check out Agent J and K’s basketball rankings.

6-12-08

Last night was Game Night at Agent J’s place! After the smoke had cleared and Agent J had awoken from his haze he sat down to review two of the games that were played. Two of the games that provided hours of wild entertainment were Othello and Solitiare. Both have been played hundreds of times without an NES by Agent J so how did he appreciate their digital siblings? Read his reviews to find out!

As the world patiently awaits Agent K’s mysterious and epic review of a classic video game, Agent J is slowly catching up in total reviews with the total now standing at 60-58. Will he be able to pass Agent K up? Signs point to yes…

6-10-08

Agent J had some Pac-Man fever this weekend and there was only one prescription. Pac-Man!! Another old-school arcade classic has been reviewed by the ancient Agent J while the world patiently awaits Agent K’s mysterious and long gestating review. In the meantime check out the Pac-Man review along with Agent J’s rankings of all the arcade classics available on the NES.

6-4-08

We had some very upset people last week when Agent J tried to pawn off an updated review of Wayne Gretzky Hockey as his tribute to the Stanley Cup Finals. Apparently there are still a few fans of hockey left in Detroit and they are clamoring for a review of a good hockey game. Agent J was only too happy to oblige as playing Blades of Steel is much more fun than actually watching a hockey game! Check out his review and keep the hockey hate mail coming!! Also take a gander at the hockey rankings page to see how the esteemed agents feel about all of the hockey games released on the NES.

On a side note, with the end of the school year approaching Agent J and K feel confident that updates will be happening on a very frequent basis – until the summer ends…

Looking for older news? Visit our archives for old but interesting news!