In the 1980's and 1990's, games like Gradius, R-Type, Thunder Force, Soldier Blade and others were headlining home console offerings. I play a lot of twin-stickers. Sparkster could flip out, rocket-rush through the air, spin-slice his enemies and keep his rodent mohawk looking perfect all the while an under-appreciated mascot in a great game. Seeing Leo, Raph, Don and Mikey warp through history and pop up in the age of the dinosaurs, the wild west and the far-flung future was even more epic and awesome than we could have imagined. Wild Guns is a gallery shooter developed by . Genre : Action role-playing game, Indie game, Adventure game, Shooter Video Game, Simulation Video Game. The Death and Return of Superman brought the most memorable Superman storyline of the '90s to interactive life on the SNES, as you stepped into the role of Kal-El and cleaned up the streets of Metropolis with his many powers. Brotato is only in early access right now, but most top down shooter games don't really develop much of a story once . Edition. . The series debuted in America is 1994, and late the next year we got this second installment. The last traditional side-scrolling Mega Man game to come to a Nintendo console before the franchise migrated away for over a decade, Mega Man X3 was a solid send-off for the 16-bit era. Billy the Kid Returns! The first racing game to make the cut for our countdown, Kemco's Top Gear 2 represented a step up from what racing games had been in the previous generation but not too drastic a step. While the SNES Mouse peripheral never really took off in the grand scheme of things, it did give us Mario Paint, a Nintendo themed creativity studio complete with drawing, animation, music composition modes even mini-games! ReelDeadOne 4 days ago. On paper, Harvest Moon sounds like it would be no fun at all. Few would argue with the assertion that Nintendo's Super Nintendo (SNES) system is one of the greatest platforms in the history of the industry. Even more thankfully, the resulting game was a great one. The gameplay evolved and gave players a choice between multiple Force options the Force being that floating, extra pod thing that accompanies your ship in R-Type games. The roster of playable characters grew to five different heroes here, as in addition to controlling Luke, Chewie, and Han, you also now got to step into the role of the rugged, bow-wielding Ewok Wicket and wear the gold bikini as slave-costumed Leia. Mario Paint had a little something for everyone and its no surprise that fans have been clamoring for a sequel since its original release in 1992. The rise of the Sinistrals, of course, a group of villainous would-be gods who appear suddenly on the planet and challenge any of the world's warriors to try to oppose them. A selection of courses set around the world, a vehicle upgrade system and new weather effects kept Top Gear making progress toward what more traditional racing titles would eventually offer in the future, but in the end the SNES was more defined by its all-new takes on racing (like F-Zero's futuristic hovercrafts and Super Mario Kart's item-shooting go-karts). Konami solidified a reputation as one of the gaming industry's best shooter developers in the 8-bit era with the release of both Gradius and Life Force on the NES. But because, for whatever reason, it bombed in sales. Batman's been a character who's had as many misses as hits in video games over the years, but this SNES effort was one of his best. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. Playing out like a gritty, futuristic version of the classic Prince of Persia designs, Blackthorne casts you as an alien commando raised among humans who must return to his homeworld and blast everyone in sight in order to reclaim his birthright and reign as king. Cuphead is the newest game on this list and is set in a 1930s cartoon. Tetris & Dr. Mario included a unique multiplayer mode that challenged you to play both games at the same time. Man, Kirby is killing this countdown this is his fourth featured game after Kirby's Avalanche, Kirby's Dream Land 3 and Kirby Super Star. Gradius III shipped to stores alongside Nintendo's launch day titles and supported them with a visual spectacle the scope, grandeur and incredible graphical detail present in each of this sequel's environments and screen-filling boss enemies was a true sight to behold. The R-Type series is known for taking the shoot em' up genre and adding in obstacles you must dodge, giving it almost a platformer feel. Video games bearing the Star Wars license have appeared on nearly every gaming platform released through the last three decades, but the Super Nintendo's exclusive trilogy of film adaptations are some of the most memorable ever made. Home console ports usually go the other direction, sacrificing content in order to fit the home format. But it's arguable that Square's masterpiece is the best. It was a clash of softened style and hardcore action that still gets us nostalgic to this day. In the era of the NES and SNES, few made action/adventure games like Capcom. Kirby's kind of got a thing for being the last guy left at the party. As the ECO35-2 Cyborg, players must fight against enemy robot forces, led by the mysterious Supervisor. A Link to the Past made that series a legend. Whatever the reason, A Link to the Past remains our choice for the greatest game of possibly the greatest system of all time. Thanks to ROMs for SNES, you can play them on any modern device! That's why we have comments. With just one entry, Square and Nintendo created a game that is not only noteworthy for its crisp gameplay and clever JRPG innovations, but also for its ability to let Mario work side-by-side with his nemesis Bowser. Metal Slug 2 (Metal Slug 2: Super Vehicle-001/II) Neo Geo Cup '98: The Road to the Victory. But those 4 are the only ones I know! Street Fighter Alpha 2 was released even later than Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, and was the kind of late-to-the-party release that seemed just a little nonsensical but, when you played it, it felt like a real labor of love. That was the idea behind Kirby Super Star, a compilation game that brought together a ton of smaller Kirby adventures into one grand package. Find game assets tagged Pixel Art and stardock like Pixel Art Package - Velexian Starbases & Spacedocks, Pixel Art Package - Kadarras Starbases & Spacedocks on itch.io, the indie game hosting marketplace. If you like any of the games from the list, head out to the Nintendo Store and grab them! There's a long list of killer shooters, but perhaps the best of these thrilling games include hits like Time Crisis , House of the Dead 2 , and T2: Judgment Day . Top-down, twin-stick styled shooter. More varied environments, a new playable character (the roly-poly Kiddy Kong) and a deeper amount of side quest content kept true Kong aficionados busy here for hours on end. The game is stunning to look at with its vibrant colors and highly detailed animation. 1 Borderlands Provides All The Loot A Group Of Players Would Ever Want & Is The Ultimate Co-Op Game. Platform(s): SNES Genre: Top Down Shooter Estimated year of release: Probably early 90s Graphics/art style: classic 16Bit game, not really impressive graphics for the time. Best arcade top down shooters , MAME overhead shooters, top down run n guns.Commando/Ikari type games. The difficulty level was also famously brutal, but the game was nevertheless successful enough to warrant sequels based on Empire and Jedi. In addition to fast-paced, frenetic gameplay, this action-packed flight simulation game was also distinguished as being the first Nintendo title to feature three-dimensional graphics, back when this was still incredibly rare. It's a bit upsetting to get to The Legend of the Mystical Ninja here on our countdown, because it reminds us how many different Goemon games have never been localized for American audiences. The level design, like Tiny Toons, took its cues from the show's most memorable episodes. Like getting two games in one, half of the levels scrolled vertically while the other half displayed the action from the side. Adding Mario or not, Nintendo and Square pulled out all the stops, creating an RPG that stands alongside some of the best products from either company. The last of the three installments released in the Super Nintendo's groundbreaking Super Star Wars series, Super Return of the Jedi featured the same tough-as-nails, action-heavy version of its adapted film as the two titles preceded it but it eclipsed them in gameplay variety. Here it is the first official four-player game for the SNES. Many thought the 16-bit SNES just wouldn't be able to keep up anymore. Buster Busts Loose adapted the animated hijinks of that Saturday morning staple into an impressively varied hop-and-bop platformer, each level of which had a different theme featuring characters and settings from several of the show's episodes including spoofs of Back to the Future and Star Wars (starring Plucky Duck as Duck Vader). While previous Contra games drew inspiration from action movies like Rambo and Aliens, Contra III features some suspiciously Terminator-like cyborgs, an evil Boba Fett wannabe and whole host of other blockbuster movie references that add to its distinct early 1990s charm. You clear some lines in Tetris, jump over to zap some viruses in Dr. Mario, then head back over to Tetris to wrap things up. 15. You had Gourmet Race, a hybrid racing/platformer where King Dedede challenged our hero to see who could simultaneously run and stuff their faces with food the fastest. That's mighty impressive. From the moment you set foot on Zebes to the moment you leave it exploding in your wake, every moment of this game is unadulterated fun, and it only gets better the further you get. How do you make a cybersuit-wearing mutated earthworm superhero even weirder? It's true they were only one of three current teams to operate under the umbrella of a company instead of an individual entrepreneur. That might seem fairly standard today, but back then Nintendo fans across the globe were blown away. -. Finally, the title we all knew was going to be here. The game also introduced Captain Falcon, a talented driver and mysterious bounty hunter who came to be the poster boy for the series, and we'll never forget when he first showed us his moves 20 years ago. Our criteria were simple quality upon release, originality, replayability, and impact upon the industry. Topic: Top Down Shooters without Mouse (Read 1851 times) . Ad - content continues below. - Port of the arcade game. Pokmon. And now the other franchise that most defined the '90s fighting genre. And since Capcom was the company doing the development, the end result ended up feeling like these X-Men got loose in a Mega Man game, running, jumping and blasting their way through side-scrolling stages lorded over by some of the baddest villains from the show. The evolution of the original series, Mega Man X changed the game by introducing new mechanics, new characters, and a new take on the Blue Bomber. A fool with a tool is still a fool. That was Shiny's big addition to this 16-bit sequel, as our hero Jim gained a sidekick whose name actually was Snott and who was, in function and form, just a giant sticky booger. Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers (Real Bout Garou Densetsu 2: The Newcomers) Samurai Shodown 64: Warriors Rage (Samurai Spirits 2: Asura Zanmaden) Shock Troopers: 2nd Squad. Another genre-defining masterpiece that is arguably still one of the best in its class. You could even use a weed-whacker as a weapon. 1 Cuphead. The game itself was also superb, serving as one of the earliest appearances of the famous Bomberman Battle Mode that has gone on to become such a staple of party gaming since. Bruce Timm's bold and bar-setting Batman: The Animated Series was unquestionably the best cartoon to come out of the '90s, and its license thankfully wasn't passed over for adaptation into a game. See now the 17 best steam games with a top-down (isometric) view. Utilizing the new FX chip (whatever that does) this game unleashed polygonny goodness upon the kids of the 90's for the first time ever. Not U.N. Squadron. Platform : PC. Contrary to its numbering, Lufia II is actually a prequel to the first Lufia released on the SNES it's set 100 years earlier in the timeline and chronicles the events that led up to the first game's story. In fact, the company was so good that many of its licensed titles would rival even the efforts of Nintendo itself. The game is more of a boss run with a gimmick that allows you to bounce off pink bullets to help raise your super meter. Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! Trying to remember an old game from childhood. on the NES is a straight port of the top-down shooter arcade game that sees up to two players clear different stages featuring paths, hordes of enemies, and powerful bosses. A prophetic alien bee named Buzz Buzz changes the course of the young boy's life, setting him on an adventure that those of us who have experienced it would never forget. The graphical design is top notch. Mario has visited many established genres and franchises, but with Super Mario Kart he started something new. They were tiny. It was just a newer title with better graphics/music and the SNES really made the classic . You could choose your character color, I think. Every system gets some first-party-published version of each of the three, with Wii Sports' combo of the trio serving as the most recent example and Mario starring in several in generations prior. There is a ton of parallax scrolling, and inventive backgrounds. Now if only we could get a true sequel. Super Star Wars started that set of three, taking the characters, settings and soundtrack of the 1977 cinematic masterpiece and reinforcing them with a fresh injection of early '90s action. Maciejewski (crazyaejay): Haha - Trouble Shooter is a lot of fun! Kirby Super Star was an incredible game and incredible value. To this day we'll never forget the Magician, Firefighter and Mountain Climber Mickeys attempting to thwart the evil Emperor Pete. While most other games in the genre just had you direct the falling blocks themselves, Wario's Woods innovated in the puzzler category by actually giving you a character to control inside the playing field Toad from the Mario franchise, who's taking on the oddball Wario and trying to keep him from wreaking havoc in a friendly forest. Kirby's Dream Land 3 was pretty tried-and-true Kirby, pairing the little pink guy up with an array of animal buddies both old and new. The last and most overlooked of the original Donkey Kong Country trilogy, DKC3 was a late SNES release that unfortunately went ignored by a lot of Nintendo fans since it first shipped to stores two months after the N64 had debuted. It wasn't just cosmetic. See where these classic games rank on our top 100 list. This one, unfortunately, didn't do that well. Specs. Back in 1997, after everyone had already migrated over to the N64, Kirby hit the aged SNES with this platformer sequel. There are a lot of great shmups on SNES ! X3's major claim to fame, though, didn't come from Mega Man at all it came from Zero. Aka. Platforms: Windows, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, Mac, Linux. Really poorly translated text. We've got to celebrate the ones we have received, though, and this SNES sequel served as the series debut for our audience and it was a great first pick. Most notably, Chrono Trigger features 13 endings, a stunning feat for a lengthy RPG. The best FPS games on Switch in 2023. And they do in wildly colorful environments, all while wearing big, silly grins grins that attract the attention of some prehistoric hotties. When it comes to basic sports games made available on every different platform, Nintendo has a holy trinity it commits to before anything else baseball, golf and tennis. The year was 1993, and the world had seen very little 3D computer graphics, let alone play with them in a video game. It's impossible to calculate how many hours we spent chasing each other around maze-like battlegrounds or avoiding ricocheting shells in an effort to pop balloons. The story follows Ness, a character who grew to know greater popularity than his game thanks to his inclusion in the Super Smash Bros. series of fighting games. Using a unique application of the system's Mode 7 capability, the game rendered its environments in such a way as to make them look like they were rolling up over the horizon to meet you a bold and memorable graphical technique. 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