Ask a room full of people who grew up with Nintendo to name the best NES games, and you’ll probably start an argument.
Somebody will say Super Mario Bros. 3. Somebody else will insist on Metroid. And at least one person will wonder how you could possibly leave out their favorite.
But when I think about Nintendo back in the day, five games immediately come to mind: Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!, Super Mario Bros., Contra, The Legend of Zelda, and Tecmo Bowl.
These are my Big 5, in no particular order. They’re the games that capture what made the original Nintendo Entertainment System so much fun: learning secrets, getting better through repeated failure, and finding another reason to say, “One more try.”
Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!: Every Opponent Was a New Problem
Few Nintendo games could make you feel as confident—and then as helpless—as Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!.
You played as Little Mac, facing opponents who towered over you. At first, it seemed like a boxing game where you just needed to throw enough punches. That idea didn’t last very long.
Winning meant figuring people out. When should you dodge? When was there an opening? What was the trick to beating this guy?
Glass Joe gave you confidence. King Hippo made you think. And Tyson could send that confidence straight to the canvas.
That’s what made the game so satisfying. An opponent who seemed impossible eventually became beatable because you learned what to watch for. You weren’t just advancing. You were improving.
Reaching Mike Tyson felt like an accomplishment. Beating him was something you wanted witnesses for.
Super Mario Bros.: The Game That Felt Like Nintendo
When I think of the original Nintendo, I think of Super Mario Bros.
The opening music. The first Goomba. The question blocks. The mushroom you chased before it disappeared somewhere you couldn’t reach.
It takes almost nothing to bring those memories back.
The idea was easy to understand: move forward, jump over obstacles, avoid enemies, and make it to the end. But there was always something else to discover. Hidden blocks, underground areas, warp zones, and shortcuts gave you reasons to keep playing.
Knowing a secret also gave you something to share. You could show someone where to go or watch them react when you revealed something they hadn’t found.
And then there was the familiar disappointment of reaching a castle only to learn the princess was somewhere else.
Super Mario Bros. belongs in my Big 5 because it still feels like the starting point for the whole Nintendo experience. A controller, two buttons, and a game you immediately wanted to play again.
Contra: Two Players, Plenty of Chaos
Contra was a great way to find out how well you and a friend handled pressure.
You could play alone, but having a second player added another layer of fun. Suddenly, there were two people shooting, jumping, dodging, and occasionally blaming each other for what went wrong.
The screen could get hectic fast. Enemies came from different directions, bullets filled the space around you, and a mistake could cost you a life before you had much time to process it.
Then you picked up the Spread Gun, and everything felt a little more manageable.
Of course, any conversation about Contra eventually gets to the famous code:
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A.
The 30-life code gave you more chances. It didn’t guarantee you knew what you were doing.
What I love about Contra is how quickly it gets to the action. There’s no long setup. You start playing, the game starts testing you, and you either keep moving or get another lesson.
The Legend of Zelda: A Whole World to Figure Out
The Legend of Zelda offered a different kind of Nintendo experience.
Instead of pushing you through one stage after another, it gave you a world to explore. You could wander, find a dungeon, discover something useful, or end up somewhere you weren’t ready to handle.
That freedom made the game feel enormous.
The gold cartridge helped, too. Before you even started playing, it looked like something special.
But the real appeal was discovery. A suspicious wall might hide an opening. A bush might conceal a secret. An item could change where you were able to go and what you could do.
Progress often came from curiosity—and sometimes from hearing a tip from someone who had already figured it out.
Zelda made exploration feel rewarding. You wanted to know what was on the next screen, even when the last screen had nearly killed you.
Tecmo Bowl: Simple Football, Serious Competition
Tecmo Bowl belongs here because it made football easy to pick up and hard to stop playing.
You didn’t need a huge playbook to have a competitive game. With four offensive plays to choose from, a lot of the tension came from trying to predict what the other person was about to do.
Were they going to run again? Were they setting you up for a pass? Could you stop the play even when you thought you knew what was coming?
Then there was Bo Jackson, who could make your defensive plans feel pretty optimistic.
A big run or a perfectly timed interception could change the mood in the room immediately. Tecmo Bowl had that wonderful sports-game quality where a close loss rarely ended the session. It usually led to a rematch.
And yes, I mean the original Tecmo Bowl here. Tecmo Super Bowl deserves its own conversation.
For my Big 5, this is the football game that gets the spot.
Honorable Mentions: Ninja Gaiden and Mega Man
Choosing five means leaving out some excellent NES games. These two deserve a mention.
Ninja Gaiden
Ninja Gaiden combined fast action with cinematic story scenes that gave the adventure a sense of drama.
Playing as Ryu Hayabusa felt great when everything clicked. You could move through a section, land your jumps, and handle enemies like you finally had the game figured out.
Then a badly timed hit would send you into a pit.
The difficulty is a big part of its identity, but so is the urge to keep going. You could see what you needed to do. Pulling it off was another matter.
Mega Man
Mega Man earns an honorable mention for giving you a choice of bosses and making each victory useful.
Defeating a Robot Master meant gaining a new weapon, which gave you something else to try against the remaining bosses. Picking a stage became part of the strategy.
There was plenty to learn along the way: enemy patterns, tricky jumps, and when to use the weapons you’d earned.
It’s another classic example of an NES game that rewarded practice. A section that stopped you cold could eventually become one you handled without much trouble.
Which Classic Nintendo Games Make Your Big 5?
There are plenty of other games that could belong on a list of the best NES games. That’s part of what makes the conversation fun.
But for me, Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!, Super Mario Bros., Contra, The Legend of Zelda, and Tecmo Bowl cover so much of what I remember about Nintendo: the challenge, the discovery, the competition, and the feeling that the next attempt might finally be the one.
Throw in Ninja Gaiden and Mega Man, and that’s a pretty good reason to spend an afternoon with an NES controller.
What’s your Big 5—and which game did I leave out that you can’t believe isn’t here?
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