Nerdicus NES Review #59 : Bandit Kings of Ancient China

Title : Bandit Kings of Ancient China

Publisher : Koei

Genre : Turn Based Strategy

Players : 1 Player (up to 5 simultaneously though)

Release Date : 1990

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

Back in 1989, while I wasn't obsessing over my NES system, I was also getting involved with PC gaming. I didn't have many PC games back in 1989, but I do remember having some absolute classics. Prince of Persia, Populous, Kings Quest, Ultima, Maniac Mansion, Sim City, and this little gem right here. Bandit Kings of Ancient China.

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Nerdicus NES Review #58 : Bandai Golf - Challenge Pebble Beach

Title : Bandai Golf Challenge Pebble Beach

Publisher : Bandai

Genre : Golf

Players : 1 / 2 Players

Release Date : 1989

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

Let's get this fact perfectly clear. I am bad at golf. Sure, I go to the driving but I'm also a self taught hack. I slice with a driver a good 100 yards to the right. If you think about it, if you take into the slice compensation, I'd probably be driving a consistent 300 yards with a decent driver. But, nope. My stance is wrong. My swing is awful. And I'd much rather be playing at a mini golf course. Unless of course you're talking about stress relief, then a driving range is the way to go.

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Nerdicus NES Review #57 : Balloon Fight

Title : Balloon Fight

Publisher : Nintendo

Genre : Platform

Players : 1 / 2 Players

Release Date : 1986

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $4-$5

Phew - you don't know how excited I am to finally review a black box game. These games were the blood of the NES library back when it first came out. These were the original classics, and although there were a few that just didn't excel as some of the others, they were all decent releases. It's pretty much a safe bet that if you were to pick up a black box game, you were at least guaranteed to have some fun with it.

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Nerdicus NES Review #56 : Bad Street Brawler

Title : Bad Street Brawler

Publisher : Mattel

Genre : Beat Em Up

Players : 1 / 2 Players

Release Date : 1990

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $4-$5

It seems like only yesterday I was playing BAD DUDES, another well known Beat em Up. Sure enough it was practically yesterday, and lo and behold I am facing another Beat Em Up. This one I had never heard of until recently, and after looking at the publisher and the title....well.....I can't necessarily say I was looking forward to it.

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Nerdicus NES Review #55 : Bad News Baseball

Title : Bad News Baseball

Publisher : Tecmo

Genre : Sports

Players : 1 / 2 Players

Release Date : 1990

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $4-$5

Besides hockey, there aren't many sports games I enjoy playing. Football is alright, as long as I'm playing with someone else. Basketball I despise, probably because I just don't like basketball. Now when it comes to baseball, I'm really not that much of a fan when it comes to playing the games. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the sport and I'm a huge New York Mets fan (you can make fun of me all you want). Baseball games just bore the hell out of me.

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Nerdicus NES Review #54 : Bad Dudes VS Dragon Ninja

Title : Bad Dudes VS Dragon Ninja

Publisher : Data East / Ocean

Genre : Beat Em Up

Players : 1 / 2 Players

Release Date : 1988

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $5-$6

There's a lot of debate as to what game has the greatest title for the NES. I'm not sure why there is such a debate, because it is obvious that BAD DUDES VS DRAGON NINJA is the winner. As a kid just seeing the cover and title of this game is enough to make your nerdy head explode. How much more epic can you get!?

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Nerdicus NES Review #53 : Back to the Future Part 2 + 3

Title : Back to the Future Part 2 + 3

Publisher : LJN

Genre : Action Adventure

Players : 1

Release Date : 1990

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $5-$6

*sigh*

No, wait. Make that....*SIGH*

Just when I thought that LJN couldn't ruin my beloved Back to the Future series, they went ahead and pulled this out of their arses. Instead of doing Back to the Future Part 2 and 3 as individual games, they merged them both into one extreme cluster *insert expletive here*. 

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Nerdicus NES Review # 52 : Back to the Future

Title : Back to the Future

Publisher : LJN

Genre : Action Adventure

Players : 1

Release Date : 1989

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

Back to the Future easily remains in my top five favorite movies of all time. I've bought the movies at least a half a dozen times in DVD, VHS, Blu-Ray, and collector boxes. You name it. I have movie posters, models, legos, and I even shelled out the money for the MATTEL release of the special edition hoverboard. That's right. I'm a Back to the Future junkie.

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Nerdicus NES Review # 51 : Aussie Rules Footy

Title : Aussie Rules Footy

Publisher : Mattel

Genre : Sports

Players : 1 / 2 Players

Release Date : 1991

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $??????

This one is going to be a quicky for a few reasons. 1) It's a sports games, and you guys know how I feel about sports games. 2) This was only released in Australia, so I shouldn't even be doing this. BUT I have a few Aussie friends, so why not. 3) It's Rugby.....I DO NOT..UNDERSTAND...RUGBY.  All I know is that the players leave bruised and bloody. This is the craziest sport I've ever seen. Seriously, have you ever watched a game? It's insane.

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Nerdicus NES Review #50 : Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

Title : Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

Publisher : THQ

Genre : Action Platformer

Players : 1

Release Date : 1992

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $15-$20

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes was quite possibly one of the campiest and bizarre "B-horror" movies of its time. Well, it was a mockery of those movies, and it only had a budget of around $100,000. But that didn't matter. After its release it garnered a HUGE cult following. So huge in fact, that they even made an animated series based on the movie. And where there are animated series, there are usually video games. Thus, the ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES NES game was born. This game was also released for a slew of other systems, but hey, we're doing NES so we're going to have to stick with it. 

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Nerdicus NES Review #49 : Athletic World

Title : Athletic World

Publisher : Bandai

Genre : Sports / Fitness

Players : 1  / 2 Players

Release Date : 1987

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $6-$12

Before there was Wii Fit, there was ATHLETIC WORLD. Some of you may know this game as the re-hashing of that famous NES game worth thousands of dollars, STADIUM EVENTS. Well after Nintendo bought the rights to the FAMILY FUN FITNESS pad, they decided to slap their own label on it so they can market it with the power pad. In fact, you can only play this game with the power pad. Luckily I have one. SCORE! Much like the Wii Fit games, you need to actually get off your arse and move around to play this game.

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Nerdicus NES Review #48 : Athena

Title : Athena

Publisher : SNK

Genre : Action Adventure Platformer

Players : 1 Player

Release Date : 1987

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

Athena - the Goddess of Wisdom, Warfare, Divine Intelligence, Architecture, and Crafts....not to mention crappy NES games. In comes Athena, by SNK. A horrid attempt at a platformer, and the final product made it seem like SNK had no idea what they were doing at the time. Surprise, surprise.

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Nerdicus NES Review #47 : Astynax

Title : Astynax

Publisher : Jaleco

Genre : Action Adventure Platformer

Players : 1 Player

Release Date : 1990

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

Only in Astyanax does a 16 year old kid turn into a barbaric warrior with a fairy named CUTIE as a side kick. Not a joke. The fairy is called Cutie. At least she doesn't irritate the hell out of you with incessant "HEY, LISTEN!"'s Oh, but it gets better. You also have to rescue the Princess Rosebud. Okay, that's not so bad. But how about the name of your axe. Yes, you heard me right. Your axe is named BASH.

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Nerdicus NES Review #46 : Asterix

Title : Asterix

Publisher : Infogrames

Genre : Platformer

Players : 1 Player

Release Date : 1993

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $50-$75

I may be cheating a little bit by adding this game to my NES reviews since it was only released in Europe, but I can't help it. Asterix was one of my favorite cartoons / comics growing up and I snagged as many translated versions of this as I could. 

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Nerdicus NES Review #45 : Arkista's Ring

Title : Arkista's Ring

Publisher : American Sammy

Genre : Action Adventure

Players : 1 Player

Release Date : 1990

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $8-$10

Ah, what a way to start the New Year. After playing the Legend of Zelda approximately a million times when I was a kid, I was always craving something that could fill the void and match Zelda's epic-ness. Sure enough, there are plenty of them on the NES, but nothing quite met up to the standards that Zelda set. Arkista's Ring being one of them. Now this is one of those games that I played through a few times when I was younger as I thought it was pretty damn entertaining. It's not quite like Zelda as some of the other top down action / rpg games, but the box art  makes it look the story revolves around like an 80's anime-styled female link, versus a Gundam-esque Gannon.

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