Of these, Baseball is definitely the one that holds a place in my heart.
A friend and I rented 10-Yard Fight one time circa 1989. I recall being bewildered from not knowing the rules to football at the time. After experiencing its mechanics, my friend pronounced, "This game is more like 10-Yard Fart." A review that resonates across the decades. He later picked up Tecmo Bowl, a game that we both knew was too good to compare to any smelly bodily function, even with the word "bowl" just sitting there.
My childhood was such that I knew baseball pretty well by age 5 (learned from playing NES Baseball with dad) but didn't know much about football until a few years later (learned from playing Tecmo Bowl with that friend).
Clu Clu Land, on the other hand, is a game that after renting I suspected must be good but I just didn't "get it." As you said, I wanted to love it, and all these years later, maybe I still do want to. But I don't.
Baseball is my favorite among the three as well. All those who doubt Baseball's powers, just play a two-player game with a friend. Never disappoints!
Oh man, I shared that 10-Yard Fart line with my wife, we both had a hearty laugh with that one. I imagine renting the game in 1989... yeah, it was definitely outdated by then. Especially with Tecmo Bowl out in '89. I'm pretty sure Tecmo Bowl still holds up? I guess we'll see!
Clu Clu Land is a very mid-80s arcade title, and I think it probably feels a lot better to play with an arcade joystick than the NES' stiff D-pad.
That's a solid library, although I've never played Dune or Desert Strike. Heard nothing but good things about the Strike series back in the day. Kid Chameleon and Ecco are peak early 90s strangeness. Today's indie titles that ape 16-bit aesthetics don't even go that hard.
Dune on Sega Genesis (a friend's rental) was my introduction to the RTS genre. The game was barely playable, but we were blown away by it. He later picked it up for DOS, which was slightly more playable. The whole issue with the game is you have to issue orders one unit at a time -- highly annoying with a mouse, utterly maddening with a Genesis gamepad. You couldn't use most of the RTS tactics we now know and love, like rushing and focus-firing. Instead, the whole game for us was finding ways to cheese the primitive AI.
I actually did the same thing with SimEarth for SNES -- rented it and then bought the superior DOS version. In the case of Wing Commander, I rented it for SNES and then picked up Wing Commander Privateer for DOS, which may be my all-time favorite DOS game. I wonder how common this experience was?
I feel sorry for the poor soul somewhere whose intro to SimCity 2000 or Ultima 7 was the vastly inferior SNES versions of those games, but hopefully he was eventually able to play the PC versions.
This is great, I’m working on a pet project involving the NES launch and these articles will help immensely. Nintendo really had their work cut out for them choosing a dozen or so games for the launch but they had a good variety of titles here. Odd that Donkey Kong didn’t make the cut, although I suppose there were enough versions of DK to go around at that point.
Thank you, sir! Is this project going to be published on Substack or is it just something for you?
Yeah, I find it odd that DK, DK Jr., and Mario Bros. didn't arrive on the NES until '86, but I guess there were so many different versions out there already on the Atari consoles, Intellivision, etc, that Nintendo thought they should focus on more exclusive titles first.
I might have said this before, but what's curious is that DK, DK Jr., and Popeye were THE launch titles for the Famicom. It strikes me as so strange to think about the NES as a machine to play home versions of Donkey Kong and DK Jr., when that barely offers a glimmer of what the NES was to become.
I have to think that, in the US, Nintendo wanted to present this console as more of a break from the past and glimpse into the future than was the case in Japan. See also the presence of R.O.B. and the Zapper.
That's a good point. It seemed like Nintendo knew that, in order to win people back to gaming consoles in America, they needed to see something they'd never seen before. Like Super Mario Bros, Legend of Zelda, etc.
These were the first three games ever released? Oof. Amazing the system lasted long enough for Mario to drop. Also, what’s with the asterisk after the title “Ten Yard Fight” on the box? Is there a corresponding asterisk somewhere recommending you do not play?
Of these, Baseball is definitely the one that holds a place in my heart.
A friend and I rented 10-Yard Fight one time circa 1989. I recall being bewildered from not knowing the rules to football at the time. After experiencing its mechanics, my friend pronounced, "This game is more like 10-Yard Fart." A review that resonates across the decades. He later picked up Tecmo Bowl, a game that we both knew was too good to compare to any smelly bodily function, even with the word "bowl" just sitting there.
My childhood was such that I knew baseball pretty well by age 5 (learned from playing NES Baseball with dad) but didn't know much about football until a few years later (learned from playing Tecmo Bowl with that friend).
Clu Clu Land, on the other hand, is a game that after renting I suspected must be good but I just didn't "get it." As you said, I wanted to love it, and all these years later, maybe I still do want to. But I don't.
Baseball is my favorite among the three as well. All those who doubt Baseball's powers, just play a two-player game with a friend. Never disappoints!
Oh man, I shared that 10-Yard Fart line with my wife, we both had a hearty laugh with that one. I imagine renting the game in 1989... yeah, it was definitely outdated by then. Especially with Tecmo Bowl out in '89. I'm pretty sure Tecmo Bowl still holds up? I guess we'll see!
Clu Clu Land is a very mid-80s arcade title, and I think it probably feels a lot better to play with an arcade joystick than the NES' stiff D-pad.
Oh man, I'm loving this so far. I was a Genesis kid in the early 90's, so a lot of the NES/SNES stuff I missed. Of course I had both.
Thanks man! What were your top Genesis games back in the day?
The Sonics of course, Streets of Rage, Kid Kameleon(weirdest game vibes), Ecco the Dolphin, Dune, Desert Strike
That's a solid library, although I've never played Dune or Desert Strike. Heard nothing but good things about the Strike series back in the day. Kid Chameleon and Ecco are peak early 90s strangeness. Today's indie titles that ape 16-bit aesthetics don't even go that hard.
Dune on Sega Genesis (a friend's rental) was my introduction to the RTS genre. The game was barely playable, but we were blown away by it. He later picked it up for DOS, which was slightly more playable. The whole issue with the game is you have to issue orders one unit at a time -- highly annoying with a mouse, utterly maddening with a Genesis gamepad. You couldn't use most of the RTS tactics we now know and love, like rushing and focus-firing. Instead, the whole game for us was finding ways to cheese the primitive AI.
I actually did the same thing with SimEarth for SNES -- rented it and then bought the superior DOS version. In the case of Wing Commander, I rented it for SNES and then picked up Wing Commander Privateer for DOS, which may be my all-time favorite DOS game. I wonder how common this experience was?
I feel sorry for the poor soul somewhere whose intro to SimCity 2000 or Ultima 7 was the vastly inferior SNES versions of those games, but hopefully he was eventually able to play the PC versions.
This is great, I’m working on a pet project involving the NES launch and these articles will help immensely. Nintendo really had their work cut out for them choosing a dozen or so games for the launch but they had a good variety of titles here. Odd that Donkey Kong didn’t make the cut, although I suppose there were enough versions of DK to go around at that point.
Thank you, sir! Is this project going to be published on Substack or is it just something for you?
Yeah, I find it odd that DK, DK Jr., and Mario Bros. didn't arrive on the NES until '86, but I guess there were so many different versions out there already on the Atari consoles, Intellivision, etc, that Nintendo thought they should focus on more exclusive titles first.
I might have said this before, but what's curious is that DK, DK Jr., and Popeye were THE launch titles for the Famicom. It strikes me as so strange to think about the NES as a machine to play home versions of Donkey Kong and DK Jr., when that barely offers a glimmer of what the NES was to become.
I have to think that, in the US, Nintendo wanted to present this console as more of a break from the past and glimpse into the future than was the case in Japan. See also the presence of R.O.B. and the Zapper.
That's a good point. It seemed like Nintendo knew that, in order to win people back to gaming consoles in America, they needed to see something they'd never seen before. Like Super Mario Bros, Legend of Zelda, etc.
I am proposing an exhibit commemorating the 40th anniversary of the NES launch. Have lots of fun ideas in mind!
Oh man, that's rad! I'd love to know more about it whenever you feel like you can share!
These were the first three games ever released? Oof. Amazing the system lasted long enough for Mario to drop. Also, what’s with the asterisk after the title “Ten Yard Fight” on the box? Is there a corresponding asterisk somewhere recommending you do not play?
17 launch titles all told. I don't want to confuse/mislead people, though, so maybe I'll change that article title!
*thank you for purchasing 10-Yard Fight. We now recommend you return 10-Yard Fight to the store you purchased it from.
It’s a note that Irem owns the name 10 Yard Fight. Although it could serve that other purpose as well, lol
That makes sense, since Nintendo published, but did not develop it. Cheers, JT!
I tried 10-Yard Fight and I lasted a long, long four minutes! 😂
That's more than most! I salute you!