So, settle down and prepare to scroll through the best NES games available on Nintendo Switch Online in the West (see our full list of every Nintendo Switch Online retro game for Japanese exclusives). We begin, naturally, at the bottom...
Donkey Kong Jr. Math adds some arithmetic to the basic vine-swinging and platforming of Donkey Kong Jr. in a title that sucks all the fun out of both gaming and mathematics. It combines 'education' and 'entertainment' to make — you guessed it! — a terrible game. Think of the poor kid who got a launch NES console and this. There must have been at least one.
Don't feel too sorry, though. Boxed versions of Donkey Kong Jr. Math are worth a pretty penny these days, so silver linings and all that. The title makes the game sound dreary, and it very much is, but at least it delivers on the promise of its name, and a unique, surprisingly fun two-player experience is this retro curio's saving grace.
Previously available via Virtual Console and now on NSO, it's technically playable on GameCube, too, as it's one of the NES games included in the original Animal Crossing .
When Urban Champion was released it would surely have been mediocre even for its time, but played in the modern era it's painfully bad. It's rubbish, and we'd rather take to the streets and pick random fights — which we'd in all likelihood lose — than play this again. However, there's no arguing that as the first entry on a very short list of Nintendo fighting games, it's a significant entry in the company's catalogue.
Certain entries in Nintendo's 'Black Box' series have aged better than others and, unfortunately, Volleyball Tennis
Another rather primitive take on a national sport, the 'Black Box' title Baseball
The beautiful game has seen more than its fair share of digital iterations over the years. This quaint early effort won't keep you occupied for long, but Soccer
An isometic fantasy action-RPG published by EA, The Immortal
City Connection
This is the game, originally programmed by HAL Laboratory's Satoru Iwata, that was hidden in Switch's firmware as a good luck charm for the system in 2017. Golf may not be the most exciting game on the NES, but it set the template for almost every video game version of the sport until Wii Sports arrived over two decades later.
Jaleco's Ninja JaJaMaru-kun wasn't released outside Japan until the arrival of the Virtual Console on Wii. The game takes place on a horizontal playing field with four storeys, between which are solid concrete floors and weak brick floors that you can break to jump through. It can get pretty dang hard later in the game, so if you're one of those people who can't even beat the first stage of (Super) Ghouls 'n Ghosts , this one probably isn't for you.
You'll need to bring a second player along to get the most out of Kung-Fu Heroes
If you can stomach the odd controls and steep difficulty, you may well be able to mine some fun from Clu Clu Land
Rudimentary is perhaps too kind an adjective to describe Tennis , although we've always had a soft spot for it (and its Game Boy brethren , in particular). It's an extremely simple take on the sport, and not one that'll keep you occupied for any length of time, but at the very least it's fun to see how far we've come.
Game? Why not. Set? Hmm, perhaps. Match? Nah, you're alright. Let's play Mario Bros. 3
Publisher: Toshiba-EMI
Release Date: TBA
Available On: Nintendo Switch Online Daiva Story 6: Imperial of Nirsartia is, as the title suggests, the sixth entry in a seven-part series. As the only game released on the Famicom, it was apparently simplified considerably when compared to the previous games to account for Nintendo's younger audience. Nevertheless, the game displayed a pretty sophisticated visual design and certainly posed a challenge despite the apparent nerfing. Heck, weren't all NES games challenging to some degree...?
A relatively unique offering from Tecmo, Mighty Bomb Jack
One of the lesser-known entries in the NES lineup, Eliminator Boat Duel
