The Nintendo Entertainment System's most iconic games haven't necessarily aged the best, as their reputations stem from their legacies and influence. Services like Nintendo Classics have helped preserve a few forgotten greats, but I doubt many people are scrounging through the lineup for NES hidden gems that still hold up in 2026. Well, this article aims to simplify that process.
Compared to the SNES and Sega Genesis, most NES games haven't stood the test of time, and many of the console's heavyweights were superseded by far better sequels on 16-bit hardware. As a result, the titles that have aged gracefully are largely standalone releases without direct successors, so they can stand on their own. More importantly, these NES games are just simple fun.
By 1993, the NES was very much old news, but Nintendo wasn't quite ready to abandon ship. While not deemed worthy of a North American release, Joy Mech Fight found its way onto the Famicom, instantly establishing itself as the hardware's most impressive fighting game. A decade after the horrendous Urban Champion, Nintendo redeemed itself by producing a game that felt far more in tune with the 16-bit post-Street Fighter 2 era than any fighter on the NES.
As the console really struggled with full-body character sprites, Joy Mech Fight circumvented that issue by featuring fighters with unconnected body parts. The combat is shockingly fluid and allows for complexity through aerial flips, ranged attacks, and blocks. Nintendo also went with an over-the-top story about two mad scientists and their robot creations, with a roster of more than 30 (an absurd size for the NES).
Look, I'm not going to say that Joy Mech Fight feels like a modern fighting game, as that is certainly not the case. However, it is not only playable, but downright enjoyable. The gameplay is accessible without sacrificing depth; more importantly, most of the content revolves around single-player, so you can enjoy most of it.
Released in North America a few months after the SNES's debut, Vice: Project Doom fought and lost an impossible battle, and an NES release had no chance of buildinghype in the shadow of the new, shiny system and Super Mario World. If it had just come out a year earlier, Aicom's game might have garnered more recognition and acclaim; unfortunately, it had to settle for being one of the NES's best and most underappreciated action epics.
Although hardly the only NES project to blend genres, Vice: Project Doom surpassed the likes of The Adventures of Bayou Billy by actually nailing all three playstyles, rather than shining in only one.
Infamously, many games from this era were "Nintendo Hard," but Vice: Project Doom mostly avoids relying on artificial difficulty. Don't get me wrong: the campaign is quite challenging, but it doesn't punish failure much (forgiving checkpoints and unlimited continues).
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