While the main character and enemy sprites in this side-scrolling shooter are unusually large and detailed for the era, what really makes this game stand out are the highly detailed backgrounds that stand toe-to-toe with better-known NES games. Unfortunately, Insector X was never released outside of Japan, so there’s a good chance you didn’t get the chance to grow up with this one. Fortunately, the entire game is in English, so it’s still fairly accessible to Western gamers who are able to find…some way to play it today.
5. Little Samson
One of the weirder things about the NES library is that some of the console’s best-looking games were also largely ignored at release. Granted, part of the reason that seemed to be the case is that stunning 8-Bit titles like Little Samson were released after the launch of the SNES when more gamers were focused on the graphical power of Nintendo’s 16-bit console. Still, it’s mystifying just how little attention this gem received back in the day when it looked and played as beautifully as it did.
Simply put, Little Samson is among the very best platformers on the NES. Highlighted by the ability to switch between four playable characters (including a dragon and golem) mid-level, this game also featured some stunning technological accomplishments. Specifically, Kikira the Dragon is one of the best sprites on the NES and looks even cooler going through the game’s beautifully detailed levels that include everything from caves and castles to volcanoes.
4. Darkwing Duck
Capcom was known for producing a string of excellent Disney platformers during the NES era, and, given how much experience the developer had with the console by the early ‘90s, it really shouldn’t come as a surprise that Darkwing Duck ended up being one of the most graphically advanced games on the system.
Capcom squeezed an impressive amount of color out of that console in every one of this game’s stunning stages. Parts of this game actually look closer to a SNES title. Darkwing Duck himself looks like the spitting image of his cartoon counterpart, and there are even a handful of brief cutscenes that might be the very best on the NES.
3. Recca
Developed in 1992 as part of a Japanese shooting game competition known as “Summer Carnival,” Recca was created with one goal in mind: to push the Famicom hardware to its absolute limits. In that regard, Recca is a massive success. The game is blindingly fast, with a constant stream of enemies, explosions, and background effects. By all accounts, the console never should have been able to run a game like this, but somehow Recca looks right at home on the 8-bit hardware.
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