Castlevania

 

Simon Belmont tries to kill Dracula.

Released for the Nintendo NES in 1987, Castlevania became one of Konami’s most treasured franchises.   The game focus’ on central character Simon Belmont who comes from a family bloodline of Vampire Hunters.  Simon must go through this side-scrolling game killing Werewolves, the Grim Reaper and other mythical monsters until finally taking on his arch nemesis Dracula.  The game offered 3 different endings based on how you played.

 

Castlevania’s popularity was so immense that there have been 24 sequels since the original Castlevania was released.

Check out why IGN named Castlevania #4 of the best game franchises.

Castlevania NES Flash

Fun Facts About Nintendo

The Original Nintendo Co. Nameplate from 1889

If you are a fan of Nintendo you might not know some of these facts.  However, if you are a Nintendo fanatic this may be old news.  Albeit here are some fun facts about the greatest video game company of all time.

• The company Nintendo was founded in Japan on September 23, 1889.  That’s not a typo, Nintendo is over 120 years old.
• Nintendo started as a playing card company with a game called Hanafuda.
• In 1963 Nintendo started new ventures including Taxi companies, Hotels and a TV Network which all ultimately failed.
• Nintendo Co. didn’t get into video games until 1974 when it began distributing the Magnavox Odyssey video game console.
• They began producing their own hardware by 1977 and in 1985 the Nintendo NES was released in North America.
• Nintendo means “Leave luck to heaven”.
• Nintendo is a majority owner of the Seattle Mariners Baseball team.

Now that you know all this, you are well on your way to becoming a true Nintendo aficionado.

Metroid

Screenshot of Metroid for the Nintendo NES

Released in 1986 by Nintendo, Metroid was a game chronicaling the adventures of bounty hunter Samus Aran whom fights Space Pirates. It was the first game to feature a female main charecter and became one of the most popular Nintendo NES games. It combined the gaming platform of Super Mario Bros. and the sandbox type exploration of the Zelda series.

Metroid sold 61.79 million units, spawned 11 spin-offs and is ranked #8 for the top video game franchises of all time acording to IGN.

You can play it here:

Metroid NES Flash

Nintendo eBay Auction

I would love to get my hands on this

This week has been a little slow for crazy eBay auctions. The best that I could find was for a pretty intense NES collection consisting of a console, accessories and 492 games. What an amazing set. Perfect for any Nintendo enthusiast with an extra $5,500 lying around. It even comes with the amazing Power Glove and Rob the Robot. You don’t see those everyday.

Check it out here.

Legend of Zelda

Title Screen from The Legend of Zelda

Released by Capcom in 1986, Zelda became one of Nintendo’s most cherished franchises.  Over the years Nintendo has released 15 spin-offs of the popular game over numerous consoles.  The original NES game sold over 16.5 million cartridges and is still thought of as one of the best Nintendo NES games ever released.

Much like the Mario franchise, the main character Link is in charge of saving Princess Zelda from the evils of this far off fantasy land.

The Legend of Zelda is ranked as the fourth best selling game for the NES console.

// Play Legend of Zelda NES Online

Cool Nintendo NES Stuff

Here is a collection of coolNES stuff I’ve come across today for the super geeks out there.  Some really cool stuff.

Now your sleeping with power. Nintendo power!

Nintendo Bed

Sweet dreams of Megaman and Mario await anyone who rests on this Nintendo bed.  The only problem is convincing anyone over the age of 8 that this bed is cool!  I have a feeling I won’t be able to get my girlfriend to agree to this item but perhaps she’ll go for

the…….

 

The Nintendo NES Geekini

The Nintendo NES Geekini

For ladies that are true fans of the NES or just want to attract dorks at the beach, this is the bikini for you.  The Nintendo Geekini is equal parts sexy as it is dorky.  There is nothing better then a sexy nerd!

 

Forget about Rockband on the PS3!

The Nintendo NES Guitar

This is just amazing.  Well, the Nintendo guitar looks insane.  Sadly it just doesn’t play as well as an actual guitar, but then again who cares.  It’s awesome.  There is no doubt heads would turn if you were playing this guitar.  Kudos to the maker of this.

 

That’s it for now.  I imagine I’ll come across some more cool retro Nintendo items in the coming weeks.  Enjoy.

Action 52 Worst Game For The NES

The Worst Game To Grace The Nintendo NES

Ever wonder what the worst game for the Nintendo NES was?

Released in 1991 Action 52 was one of the least popular, badly made cartridges to be seen on the NES.  It was an unlicensed game that tried to merge 52 mini games onto one cartridge.  The problem with Action 52 was, due to bad programming the game would crash constantly and overheat to the point of ruining the game itself.  Most of the games were impossible to beat since some of the levels were  unfinished or had major glitches and programming flaws.

It was also one of the most expensive games at the time, retailing for $199.  The few that bought it were obviously quite upset.

Other problems of the game were unresponsive controls, lack of instructions, random character deaths and bad or miscatorgized descriptions of the game.

However bad this game was, it is considered rare and coveted by video game collectors worldwide.

Check out this youtube video to see just how bad Action 52 is.

The Last Game For The Nintendo NES

The Last Game Made for The Nintendo NES

Ever wonder what the last offical game for the Nintendo NES was?  Well wait no longer.

On December 10th, 1994 (9 years after Nintendo was introduced to North America) Nintendo released Wario’s Woods, the final game for the console.

Wario’s Woods was a puzzle game much like Tetris or Dr. Mario where the player had to remove multi-colored monsters from the playing field using similar colored bombs.

As well, Wario’s Woods was also released for the SNES which had made it’s debut 3 years prior.  It is also the only Nintendo NES game to have a rating from the ESRB.

Bubble Bobble

Originally released as an arcade game, Bubble Bobble was introduced to the Nintendo NES in 1986 by gaming company Tatio.  It’s an action game in which two twin dragons named Bub and Bob, trap enemies with their bubble’s over the course of 100 different levels in order to save their girlfriends.

This is one of the funnest games to be released on the NES and anyone who has played it most likely has the theme song still stuck in their head.

After a well received reception of Bubble Bobble, many sequels and variations of the game were later released over many other platforms.

Play Bubble Bobble

This Weeks Crazy Nintendo Ebay Auction

Would you pay $500,000 for this?

I’m hoping to find crazy Nintendo NES auctions every week and this week’s outlandish price tag goes to a sealed copy of Stadium Events for $500,000.

Now I have never played Stadium Events by Bandai for the NES, but I can’t imagine it’s worth $500,000 sealed or otherwise.  Of course this is not the first time I have seen Stadium Events go for a crazy price somewhere.  I guess it must be a rare cartridge.

If you want, you can check out the auction for some laughs or to cough up a cool half a million.

Check it out here.