A Guest Blog Post by Dylan from ArcadeAttack.co.uk (Retro Gaming Blog)
This article was originally written for Rareburg, who in December, has joined forces with hobbyDB to provide an excellent source of collectible knowhow for the community. Dylan shares with you his thoughts on past favorites and unearthed ‘gems’ alike that are considered to be the top 10 most valuable NES games.
Created by Hacker International in 1991, Peek-A-Boo Poker is one of their three adult titles made for the NES. The other two: Bubble Bath Babes and Hot Slots are unsurprisingly, also extremely rare.
One of the oldest adult video games ever released, it’s rare as the first distribution was limited to a few ‘select’ retailers.
Cartridge Price: £450.00 / $690.00
New / Boxed Price: £981.00 / $1,500.00
Released in 1994 by Taito, it’s rumored that this was meant to be an exclusive Blockbuster Video rental game only. As many people had moved onto the 16-bit consoles by 94, demand was low. Due to its incarnation as a rental exclusive, obtaining the box and manual is extremely difficult.
Cartridge Price: £457.00 / $699.00
New / Boxed Price: £801.00 / $1,225.00
An ambitious group of characters created by Active Enterprises on their Action 52 NES compilation cartridge, The Cheetahmen was is known as being one of the worst video games ever made. Active expected Action 52 to be a massive hit, so Cheetahmen 2 came to being.
Never officially released or completed (only 6 of the 10 levels were finished), it looked set to disappear into the ether. But miracles do happen, 1500 copies of it were discovered in 1996 and promptly sold. Such a low figure obviously makes it a must for any retro game collector.
Cartridge Price: £471.00 / $721.00
New / Boxed Price: £841.00 / $1,286.00
The little known Samson (see what we did there) is a platformer in the mould of the popular Mega Man titles. Created by Takeru and published by Taito, it’s unique in the sense that there’s no game dialogue (spoken or written – unheard of these days!). It’s considered one of the best games ever released on the NES, featuring graphics that squeeze out the very best from the 8-bit. For reasons unknown, the game sold very badly when released – which seems odd as it was released in 1992 when decent platformers sold incredibly well. For this reason, there aren’t many copies around.
Cartridge Price: £497.00 / $760.00
New / Boxed Price: £497.00 / $760.00
Why was the yellow Zelda cartridge ever made? Most believe they were utilised by Nintendo Service Centres to check if the game worked on various hardware and third-party accessories. They contain the same Legend of Zelda game you’d normally find in the original grey or gold packaging. How many of them are out there? Not many, as it turns out.
Cartridge Price: £526.00 / $805.00
New / Boxed Price: N/A
5. Myriad 6-in-1
An exact copy of the Caltron 6-in-1 game, with a new sticker plastered over it, this collectable unlicensed game consists of: Cosmos Cop; Magic Carpet 1001; Balloon Monster; Adam & Eve; Porter and Bookyman which all received bad reviews at the time and when you look closely are poor imitations of other popular NES titles.
The Myriad version is extremely rare as it’s believed that less than 100 copies of the game exist.
Cartridge Price: £768.00 / $1,175.00
New / Boxed Price: £3,502.00 / $5,355.00
Although the PAL version of the game is quite rare (achieves around £300.00), the NTSC version is the true jewel in the crown. Only 200 copies of it were ever released to the public for purchase.
Developed by Bandai, it worked alongside the Family Fun Fitness mat, a running accessory for the NES. And you thought the Wii was innovative…
Cartridge Price: £5,424.00 / $8,292.00
New / Boxed Price: £22,960.00 / $35,100.00
The inaugural Nintendo World Championships was set up due to the success of The Wizard (an eighties film based around a NES video game championship). Held in 1990, it toured 29 cities across the United States and featured three games – all packed in one extremely rare cartridge: Super Mario Bros; Rad Racer and Tetris.
Each finalist was given a copy of the custom grey NES cartridge (in addition to other prizes). Only 90 copies were ever made (our friends at VideoGamesNewYork have one if you want to see it in person) and awarded to the tournament winners. Each has a unique number which makes them easier to track.
Cartridge Price: £5,755.00 / $8799.00
As with the original Nintendo World Championships, a similar tournament was held the following year around 60 college campuses in the US and Canada. Three different games featured this time: Super Mario Bros. 3; Pin Bot and Dr. Mario.
One 1991 Campus Challenge cartridge is known to exist which is quite frankly ridiculous. It’s only due to the popularity of the next cartridge that this isn’t considered the rarest NES cart of all time. Discovered in a garage sale in 2006, it later went on to sell for over $20,000.
Cartridge Price: £13,148.00 / $20,100.00
Only 26 of these known to exist, the gold Nintendo World Championship cartridge is rightly considered the “holy grail” of any NES collector.
With no tournament involved and containing the same insides as the grey version, only those lucky enough to have won a competition run by the Nintendo Power magazine have it. I know what you’re thinking, yeah, I wish I’d paid more attention to those competitions too…
Cartridge Price: £17,450.00 / $26,677.00
We love retro video games! We love to write, we love gaming and this is why Arcade Attack is in existence.
25 is barely enough to do the SNES justice, there are other awesome games on there that could make the list more than some of the titles you had on there, games like Pilotwings, Sim City, ActRaiser 1+2, Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, Terranigma, Lufia 1+2, Demon’s Crest, Secret of Evermore, Skyblazer, The Firemen, Legend of the Mystical Ninja, Stunt Race FX, Breath of Fire 1+2, Dragon View, Zombies ate my neighbors, Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, Killer Instinct, Lost Vikings 1+2, Shadowrun… So many good memories…
I’m so excited for the SNES Classic, and even though I didn’t get a preorder it would have been great if these top 10 games would have been the preloaded one (Although most are). The only ones I felt deserved a spot were Actrasier, Mario Paint, Krustys Super Fun House, Killer Instinct and God forgive me Bubsy. I mean those were some of my SNES games of my childhood and I still think they’re great (No matter what anyone says) Overall though to this day I think the SNES was the best video game system to date!
Never watched this video, I predicted Super Mario World at #1! And LITERALLY just as I was typing this, Super Mario World was #2? I’m actually surprised by WatchMojo this time! After that though I knew a Zelda game was #1 and I’m not surprised by that at all! Also no Kirby Super Star? Not even an honorable mention? And I would but the whole Super Nintendo DK Country trilogy in 1 spot! Again, only the Super Nintendo ones, for anyone who misread that!
I’m searching for a super nintendo beat’em’up style game, that I never seen since my childhood. It featured big buffed guys, and you could beat wending machines, to give you canned drink, that you could drink (seemingly the character was pressing the can against his forehead as he drank) and gain lifebar back. Anyone remembers?
I only ever played the super popular games, but some of these look really unique and fun. Basically, my dad still had a Super Nintendo from a while back, and I got into it. He only ever had like seven games; Super Metroid, Mega Man X, Chrono Trigger, Link to the Past, Castlevania, Earthbound and Super Mario World. At least, those are the ones that still worked. Anyway, if I were born like a decade earlier I think I would’ve enjoyed the more obscure games out there. Great list, though!
As much as l like nowadays games such as GOW series, or COD, GT and the hyper realistic GTA, as well as recognizing that graphics are awsome and had been the aim of many videogames, you know, to get it improved, but I feel thar videogames have lost its charm. I mean, videogames with top graphics are more and more like imitations of reality than a paralel world that might not be as good looking, but inspired a lot more of imagination. I know kids arent the same anymore, but I miss the way a simple game like mario world, DK, top gear, even older ones like sonic, got me do involved by sparking my immagination. It’s like reading a book compared to Watching a movie, no effects can match your mind.
Paul Brown
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