Konami

September 1987

Shooter

1-2 Players

You'll get more than your recommended daily allowance of weirdness in Stinger, a distant cousin of Konami's Gradius series.  Get this... your spaceship has arms, and your enemies range from giant watermelon slices to leaky faucets.  You'll blast 'em all in a variety of brightly colored stages, while collecting bells that boost your weapon strength.

Bandai

June 1989

Exercise/Action

1 Player

You, looking stupid while stomping all over your Power Pad, is taped live on location at your house.  Er, sorry.  Anyway, this is a simplistic side-scrolling action game made unique by the input device required to play it.  You step on various sections of the Power Pad to make your cute police officer dash, turn around, and of course, clobber suspects with his billy club.

Capcom

September 1990

Action

1 Player

A new and improved Ken (yes, that Ken) searches the galaxy for the murderer of his best friend (no, not Ryu) in this unusual Street Fighter spin-off.  Truth be told, it doesn't play like Street Fighter at all, but this futuristic action game with a unusually agile cybernetic hero does hold rewards for anyone who can muscle through its extremely difficult stages.

FAST FACT:  A traditional Street Fighter game was never released for the NES... at least, not in an official capacity.  However, over a dozen Street Fighter translations were designed and distributed in Hong Kong, without Capcom's consent.  As ambitious as these conversions often were, they all lacked the tight control and the full cast of characters present in Capcom's genuine Street Fighter games.

Capcom

July 1989

Action/Adventure

1 Player

In this extension of the popular arcade game, high-tech ninja Strider Hiryu has reservations about his latest mission... to assassinate a fellow operative.  He'll hack and slash his way around the globe, piecing together the mystery of this rogue agent in a half-hearted adventure without the fast-paced excitement or clever stage design of the original.

Konami

April 1990

Action/Shooter

1-2 Players

When alien overlord Red Falcon drops by Earth for an uninvited visit, it's up to the heroes from Contra to show him the door in this sequel to Konami's ferociously intense side-scrolling shooter.  It's got the powerful soundtrack and detailed graphics of the first game, along with a more reasonable difficulty level and a handful of enjoyable overhead view stages.

Electrobrain/Gremlin

February 1991

Racing

1 Player

Super Cars is a lot like your first car... it's solid and dependable, but hardly exciting.  The game's races, seen from an overhead view, feel more like leisurely Sunday drives thanks to a sluggish pace and opponents who don't put up much of a fight.  Purchasing new weapons and cars shifts the action into second gear, but that's as thrilling as Super Cars ever gets.

CSG Imagesoft/Technos

June 1989

Action/Sports

1-2 Players

It's all the heart-pounding action of a real game of dodgeball, without the welts and bruises!  Can it get any better than this?  Well, actually, it can.  Super Dodge Ball is handicapped by distracting flicker, but it's still entertaining and addictive, especially when you're competing against another player.  A hectic free-for-all mode makes the game even more fun.

Mattel

October 1990

Action

1 Player

Super Glove Ball is a futuristic game of Breakout with a first-person perspective, designed especially for the Power Glove.  While wearing the glove, you use various hand gestures to catch the ball, throw it at tiles, and punch enemies.  You can also use a standard controller in a pinch, but Super Glove Ball loses a lot of its impact without its intended peripheral.