LJN

February 1988

Action/Sports

1-2 Players (alt)

T&C Surf Design offers both skateboarding and surfing in one package.  The surfing, with its lack of variety and atrocious control, is anything but radical.  However, riding a skateboard through streets filled with obstacles and gaping holes can be pretty gnarly, once you get in a little practice (and if you can tolerate the mocking music you'll hear when you wipe out).

LJN/Sculptured

March 1992

Action

1 Player

This game is a radical departure from the original... dude.  This time, you're on a skatin', surfin' journey to save your girlfriend from the unflattering African tribesman stereotype who kidnapped her.  You'll race down rivers and over hilly tracks, frequently tripping over stones and wildlife in this peculiar, yet marginally entertaining, action title.

Tradewest/Rare

April 1989

Miscellaneous

1 Player

Of the dozens of games Rare designed for the NES, this is hands down the most bewildering of the bunch.  Taboo: The Sixth Sense is an electronic tarot card reader... you enter some personal information, and Taboo responds by drawing a series of cards, each with cryptic messages that will leave you more confused than when you first asked the game for guidance.

Data East/Namco

October 1986

Sports

1-2 Players

Oooh yuck, brother!  This limpwristed wrestling game obviously didn't say its prayers or take its vitamins.  In fact, it's hard to call this a game when you have so little control over what happens in the ring.  No matter how hard you try to defend yourself, your badly drawn opponents will toss you around like a ragdoll until you're weak enough to pin.

FAST FACT:  The Strong Bads, the first team you face in Tag Team Wrestling, inspired the grumpy Mexican wrestler Strongbad in the successful Homestar Runner cartoon series.  Well, at least SOMETHING good came out of this game...

Capcom

December 1991

Shooter

1 Player

Baloo leaves the jungle and takes to the sky in this wacky side-scrolling shooter based on the Disney cartoon series.  Talespin's most notable feature is that you can actually flip upsidedown and travel backward through each stage.  Past that, Talespin is exactly what you'd expect from a Disney-licensed Capcom game, with adorable artwork and solid gameplay.

Taito/Software Creations

March 1990

Fighting

1 Player

Forget the title or the thrown together storyline... this doesn't star Kunio, and it has nothing to do with Renegade.  It's just a monotonous clone of Double Dragon that drowns you in a sea of greasy bikers, while flashing stupid messages on the bottom of the screen.  The fighting is clumsy and completely devoid of depth... you can't even throw your enemies!

Tecmo

January 1989

Sports

1-2 Players

Tecmo Baseball went unnoticed next to Tecmo's wildly popular Tecmo Bowl series, but there's no doubt that it's every bit as good as its more successful cousin.  The batting sequences look fantastic thanks to sharply drawn, full-sized characters, and the game plays like a dream.  There are even voices and a catchy soundtrack that really gets you into the action.

Tecmo

February 1989

Sports

1-2 Players

Are you ready for some football?  If so, you'll be happy to know that Tecmo Bowl offers some of the best gridiron action you'll find on the NES.  This game's got all the impact of the sport and then some... quarterbacks shout out instructions to their teammates, and bodies fly everywhere as you fight through the opponent's defense with the ball tucked under your arm.