The Nintendo Entertainment System produced an absurd number of games during its lifespan, with its official North American library coming in at around 675 titles. That doesn't take into account unlicensed games like Action 52 and The Ultimate Stuntman, nor the 350+ Japan exclusives that never made it to Western nations. While a few of the system's juggernauts continue to be remembered fondly, plenty of massive NES games are entirely forgotten nowadays.
Just to be clear, I'm not talking about flops that came and went without leaving an impact; all these upcoming NES games were big deals when they came out, but they simply have not endured as forever-loved masterpieces. If you are really into this era, you probably have heard of some of these fading classics, but you are likely one of the exceptions.
Fueled by the power of Tom Cruise, Top Gun became a global phenomenon in more ways than one, although its legacy tends to be distilled to just the movie. While the blockbuster didn't receive a sequel until decades later, developers refused to stop releasing Top Gun games, producing around 12 between 1986 and 2012. Konami released two games specifically for the NES, both of which are combat flight simulators.
Top Gun puts you in the cockpit of an F-14 Tomcat for four missions, which generally involve shooting down enemies, executing frustrating-as-heck landing sequences, and refueling mid-flight. Except for the relatively easy dogfights, the core loop is difficult to the point of annoyance, and the gameplay is nowhere near good enough to make these flights worth taking.
With this NES game, we have a prime example of a release shot into superstardom thanks to brand recognition. Once that hype disappeared, all that remained was a mediocre flight sim that couldn't reliably hit the target. The sequel, The Second Mission, is better, but who wanted a Top Gun game in 1990?
Anybody remotely into manga and anime should have heard the name Golgo 13, as Takao Saito's long-running story about a cold-as-ice assassin has been around for literally decades. While not subjected to an avalanche of adaptations, the manga has received a couple of games over the years; more importantly, Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode and its sequel were the only ones to release in North America.
Even if it wasn't a particularly gigantic hit, Top Secret Episode proved successful enough in both Japan and North America to warrant releasing a sequel in both regions, and the game's appeal kind of makes sense. As most NES games were sanitized and family-friendly, Golgo 13's "adult" story about a killer who engages in international espionage, shoots people in the face, and sleeps with women was something a touch different.
To its credit, Top Secret Episode tries to offer decent variety, with four relatively different styles of gameplay. None of them are particularly great or even fun, though, and the game became obsolete once the 16-bit era started to produce far better spy-themed adventures.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://gamerant.com/nes-games-classics-nobody-remembers-today/
