10 memorable/surprise NES game moments

Everyone likes lists, right?

No? Oh... well, I do. They're quick, they're concise and if enough people read them, they always lead to some sort of debate/conversation/name-calling...

I think my break from the blog was good for me. Now in my ongoing effort to burn myself out on posting video game thoughts, I figured I would add a few more 'conversational' pieces now and then. Here's my first one. Background: the other day one of my buddies and I were discussing a game we played on the NES, and it got me to think about some of the more surprising moments I ran into while playing NES games.

10. I tried the Contra/Konami code on Lifeforce on a whim - and got 30 lives instead of 3.

9. Kid Icarus was a tough game, combining platforming with adventure/rpg elements. So imagine my surprise when in the last level the entire game play has become a side-scrolling shooter. I had never had a game change its core play that much on me so far along before.

8. Beating Ghosts n Goblins... only to realize I didn't beat what was one of the hardest games I had actually played in my life, and that in fact I had to go through it again to get to the real boss.

7. The hundreds of lives trick in Super Mario Bros. using a turtle and steps. Took me a lot of tries to get it to work, but the goofy symbols for lives was totally worth it.

6. Ending of Super Mario Bros 2 - really? It was a dream...?

5. On the endings theme: I just beat Dracula in Castlevania 2: Simon's quest. I had spent a ton of time scouring over that game, and enjoyed it thoroughly. And now I'm reading the ending and... I died of fatal wounds? I just killed Dracula, and I die anyway?

4. Sticking to endings of games: did you know that at the end of Dragon Warrior, the final boss gives you a choice to join him? Did you know that if you agree, your screen blanks out and your character gets deleted? I didn't know that going into it - I just wanted to see the different ending...

3. River City Ransom. Loved that game. Loved beat 'em ups like Double Dragon as well. So imagine my surprise when I heard the Double Dragon music and Billy and Jimmy came out to fight me! Don't recall ever seeing a cross game item like that previously.

2. Beating Contra on a single life. I know I couldn't do it today, but I had my patterns down to something sick back then...

1. Speaking of beating hard games, I remember Mike Tyson kicking my butt over and over again in Punch Out! But when I finally beat him, he never laid a glove of me.

Honorable Mention: The arcade version of Double Dragon, when my buddy and I finally beat the gang only to realize that now - we had to fight it out for the girl between one another.

Dishonorable Mention: Metroid. I was not an early adopter of the game so I had already long but known that Samus was a woman by the time she took off her helmet and armor - so in a sense even though I loved the game, the ending was sort of ruined for me