A Nerdicus Year in Gaming : Top Ten List of 2013

With 2013 coming to a close, I figured what better way to end it than by taking a look back and listing my favorite games of the last year. Now this will be a quickie, as I'll just speak a little bit about each game.

I also wanted to take the opportunity to thank everyone who has kept up with my little attempt at a video game based Blog for the last few months. Last month happened to be my highest traffic month, so I really appreciate everyone stopping by and putting up with my retro reviews and retrospectives. Means a lot!

Without further adieu, here's my own personal 2014 top ten list. It may surprise you.

10) STARBOUND

I debated even putting this on the list, because it is still in development. But it's been a form of addiction for me ever since the early release came out. Take Terraria and add in a slew of planets, quests, and critters and you've got yourself absolute brilliance. I've seriously lost sleep on this game so far, and the more it progresses, the better I see it coming. 

It's turning into another MINECRAFT for me.

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Nerdicus NES Review #44 : Arkanoid

Title : Arkanoid

Publisher : Taito

Genre : Breakout

Players : 1 / 2 Player

Release Date : 1987

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $10 - $15 (upwards of $100 with the controller)

Ah, Arkanoid. The classic and seemingly perfect breakout game. Endless hours of fun, and countless incidents of absolute frustration when you lose your last damn "ship" on the later levels. Seeking a puzzle / breakout game that will make your hands clammy? Look no further than this classic example of breakout perfection.

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Nerdicus NES Review #43 : Archon

Title : Archon

Publisher : Activision

Genre : Strategy

Players : 1 / 2 Player

Release Date : 1989

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $4-$7

I'll admit it. I was a member of the Chess Club in Junior High School. I didn't care if that stamped a giant NERD label on my forehead. I loved chess. The strategy, the thought process involved, and the utter satisfaction in defeating your opponent. Now being an uber nerd throughout my youth, I was of course obsessed with the fantasy element. Dragons, Wizards, Knights. You name it, I loved it.

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Nerdicus NES Review #42 : Arch Rivals

Title : Arch Rivals

Publisher : Acclaim

Genre : Sports

Players : 1 / 2 Player

Release Date : 1990

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $4-$7

Looking at the box art, I don't even know what to expect with this. Are we going to be slipping on banana peels and giving each other wedgies on the basketball court? I mean, I don't mind parody sport games as there were quite a few on the NES that I actually liked, but this just looks absolutely ridiculous. 

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Nerdicus NES Review #41 : Antcipation

Title : Anticipation

Publisher : Nintendo

Genre : Board game

Players : 1 / 2 Player

Release Date : 1988

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $3-$4

I always found Anticipation to be a really odd choice for a video game. If I wanted to play a board game, I'd play an actual board game. Board games are meant to be played on a table, surrounded by family and friends. I like to hold the cards, or game pieces, and be interactive in person. Not on the screen. I love video games, don't get me wrong, but this was the one genre of game I truly did not understand.

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Nerdicus NES Review #40 : American Gladiators

Title : American Gladiators

Publisher : GameTek

Genre : Sports / Gameshow

Players : 1 / 2 Player

Release Date : 1991

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $4-$8

When I was a wee lad, American Gladiators was the Pinnacle of late 80's early 90's television. It was something I watched all the time, especially when there wasn't anything else on TV at the time this aired. It was also something I dreamed of being a part of. What other opportunity did we have to watch fake "super stars" battle against normal human beings. Warriors such as NITRO, and LASER were waiting to kick your arse and spit on your grave. ALL IN THE NAME OF GLORY AND THE AMERICAN DREAM!

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Nerdicus NES Review #39 : Amagon

Title : Amagon

Publisher :  Sammy / Vic Tokai

Genre : Platformer Action

Players : 1 Player

Release Date : 1989

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $5-$8

Ah, Amagon. Also known as Tostuzen! MACHOMAN! in Japan. Ahem, I think the game would have sold much better if it had a name like that in the US. Anyway, I remember first seeing this game at RKO video, which was a local video rental store about 10 blocks away from my house. The cover art pulled me in as a gullible six year old kid. I mean, come on. Dinosaurs, robots, machine guns, and giant schwarznegger-esque warriors? How is a kid to resist! I rented it at least a half dozen times in my meager attempts of beating this game, but never did when I was a kid. It was just to damn frustratingly hard.

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Nerdicus NES Review #38 : Alpha Mission

Title : Alpha Mission

Publisher :  SNK

Genre : Vertical Shooter

Players : 1 Player

Release Date : 1986

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $2-$4

Yay! Another vertical shooter! I haven't played one in so long........ahem - I have inserted heavy sarcasm there in an attempt to make a valid point. Anyway, so this bad boy comes from the early years of the NES right before it hit its prime around 1988-1990. And as far as vertical shooters go, this one isn't too bad. It's pretty much ripped straight from the arcade, and graphically isn't too far off.

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Nerdicus NES Review #37 - All-Pro Basketball

Title : All-Pro Basketball

Publisher :  Vic Tokai

Genre : Sports

Players : 1 / 2 Player

Release Date : 1989

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $3-5

Well, I knew it was going to happen sooner or later. Sport games. Ugh, how I hated them on the NES. Seriously, I think ICE HOCKEY was one of the only ones I actually enjoyed playing when I was a kid. Biased since I'm a huge hockey fan, and the fact that you have guys that look like Mario and Luigi. Oooh...they need to make a Mario Hockey. Sorry, side tracked.

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Nerdicus NES Review #36 : Alien Syndrome

Title : Alien Syndrome

Publisher :  Tengen

Genre : Run and Gun

Players : 1 / 2 Player

Release Date : 1988

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $6-$8

Looking for a mindless, alien shoot 'em up? Then look no further than ALIEN SYNDROME by our favorite non-licensed Nintendo publisher, Tengen. This game actually started out in the Arcades and moved on to the SEGA MASTER SYSTEM before being shoved into the NES library. 

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Nerdicus NES Review #35 : Alien 3

Title : Alien 3

Publisher :  LJN

Genre : Platformer / Action

Players : 1 Player

Release Date : 1993

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $5-7

You're all gonna die. The question is how you check out.

Before we get started on this, let me go on to say that I am probably one of the few people that actually enjoyed the movie, Alien 3. Not long ago I was involved in a very long and grueling twitter debate at the lack of appreciation this movie receives. I realize it doesn't quite fit as well as the second one did (which is still my favorite), and the premise is a little bit off the wall, but it's not a bad movie. I think of it as more of a stand alone movie in the Alien series. I mean, come on it's not as bad as Alien Resurrection which is just absolute garbage.

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Nerdicus NES Review #34 : Alfred Chicken

Title : Alfred Chicken

Publisher :  Mindscape Sunsoft

Genre : Platformer

Players : 1 Player

Release Date : 1994

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $20-$30

So, yeah. Um.......where do I begin. Oh, okay. So the title is Alfred Chicken. Yup, uh.......basically.....erm. Let's see how do I say this? This game has to be the result of publishers being high out of their minds while developing a game. First of all, this came out in 1994 for the NES which is already way past the NES lifespan. Secondly, it's not like this is based off a cartoon or anything. Although I don't even know if I would watch a cartoon like this. This was just some cockeyed disturbed mascot attempt. It's not funny, and it's not fun. 

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Nerdicus NES Review #33 : Adventures of Gilligan's Island

Title : Adventures of Gilligan's Island

Publisher :  Bandai 

Genre : Action Sidescroller

Players : 1 Player

Release Date : 1990

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $10-$14

Come on, everybody! All together now! Just sit right there, and you'll hear a tale! A Tale of a fateful trip. That started from this tropic port, aboard this tiny ship...okay fine, don't sing. Bastards.

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Nerdicus NES Review # 32 : Al Unser Jr. Turbo Racing

Title : Al Unser Jr. TURBO Racing

Publisher :  Data East

Genre : Racing

Players : 1 Player

Release Date : 1990

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $1-$3

I'll say this right now. I'm not a fan of racing games. Not then. Not now. I've never even owned a racing game for the modern consoles besides Gran Turismo. In fact, the only racing games I DO own and play religiously, are the Mario Kart games. Give me Forza with spike turtle shells, and I'll play it all the time. But just driving around in laps without anything extra is too monotonous . I need the action / battle aspect, or I'll suffer from extreme boredom.

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Nerdicus NES Review #31 : Airwolf

Title : Airwolf

Publisher :  Acclaim

Genre : Combat Flight Simulator / Shooter

Players : 1 Player

Release Date : 1990

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $3-5

Happy Cyber Monday, folks! My apologies for the lapse in having a Friday post, but ya know it's the holidays and we should all be spending that time with family. But, now that the holidays are over (for now anyway), it's time to go back to some good old retro gaming in between my bouts of watching Netflix on my PS4.

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Nerdicus NES Review #30 : Air Fortress

Title : Air Fortress

Publisher :  HAL Laboratory Inc.

Genre : Side Scrolling Shooter / Platformer

Players : 1 Player

Release Date : 1989

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $4-8

Ahh, Air Fortress. The only game on the NES where you can play as a Scuba Diver with an antenna poking out of his rather large arse, flying through space to kill aliens. But seriously, folks. This was one of the first games I owned for the NES, and was easily one of my favorite NES games growing up as a kid. I'm not sure why looking back, but it was. After all it was just one of those simplistic side-scrolling / blast em up / platformers. Unfortunately, simplicity was the true downfall to this game. You could finish the entire game in little under an hour, and it really doesn't leave you craving for more. 

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Nerdicus Rant #1 : Gaming OCD

I swore I would never fall victim to it again, but here I am, putting myself through the same torment that I had done so many times before. I'll even say to myself that now will be the last time I do it, but I know it won't be. It'll suck me back in, just as it has done before. 

Of course, I'm talking about Pokemon.

I originally realized I had a problem back in 7th grade when I first got my hands on Pokemon Red. I thought that once I ran through the game, I'd be done with it. But I wasn't even close. The fact that by the time I had beaten the game I barely had over half the amount of Pokemon that existed in the world annoyed the hell out of me. Those blank spaces in my Pokedex drove me insane. So, I would force my friends to trade with me after they were done just to ensure I had all the pokemons across both version. I spent time during health class just gaming in the back of the room, capturing rare pokemon. Eventually, I caught all of them except for Mew. Years later, I would catch him though in a legit method just to complete the 151. 

I was victorious.

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Nerdicus NES Review #29 : Afterburner

Title : Afterburner

Publisher :  Tengen

Genre : Combat Flight Simulator 

Players : 1 Player

Release Date : 1989

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $3-4

Here we go folks, one of the first of many unlicensed NES games brought to you by the amazing TENGEN! Now, unlicensed sounds like a bad word, but most of the games TENGEN that were released weren't half bad. And taking part in an combat flight simulator game such as Afterburner is a nice change of pace from the last two atrocious side scrollers we played. Think of this game as a Top Gun redux. I mean, how bad can it be right? It's a port from a pretty good arcade simulator, and the Sega version was semi-decent.

Can't go wrong right?

Right? 

No really, please tell me I'm right.

Oh, no.

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Nerdicus NES Review #28 : Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Title : Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Publisher :  SETA

Genre : Action

Players : 1 or 2 Players

Release Date : 1989

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $5-8

One look at the box art to this game, and Tom Sawyer appears to be quite the bad ass. Those are roaring rapids he's on, and apparently he had to go face to face with the loch ness monster and travel through a giant mushroom forest. Who knew!? I don't remember reading about that back in elementary school. I mean, this is based on the book, right?

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Nerdicus NES Review #27 : Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends

Title : Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends

Publisher : THQ

Release Date : 1992

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $10-13

I watched cartoons as if it were my job when I was a kid. I would wake up early every morning, run downstairs and flip on the television just so I could watch as much as possible before the rest of my family woke up to join in on the TV time. 

You name it, I had to watch it.  Especially the classics. And I'm talking the all-time greats Scooby Doo, Justice League. Anything Hanna Barabera or Warner Brothers. 

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Nerdicus NES Review #26 : Adventures of Rad Gravity

Title : Adventures of Rad Gravity

Publisher : Activision

Release Date : 1990

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $5-$7

I, er. I don't even know where to begin. This might very well be one of the most painful games I've had to play through. And I'm not using painful as a metaphor here. My eyes were ACTUALLY throbbing halfway through my play through. 

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Nerdicus NES Review #25 : The Adventures of LoLo 3

Title : The Adventures of LoLo 3

Publisher : HAL America

Release Date : 1991

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $30-$50

Lolo is at it again in this third, and final installment of The Adventures of Lolo. We've been through a lot, that little blue ball and I. From puzzle filled rooms that I breezed through in a matter of seconds, to rooms that i sold my soul to the devil himself in order to pass. All to save that pink little cutey by the name of Lala. Oh, you guys make such a cute couple. But, alas it's time to say our goodbyes. There are many more NES games to conquer, and your series has drawn to a close.

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