The game focuses on Link as he travels on a journey to save Hyrule, defeat Ganon and rescue the seven descendants of the Sages. To save Hyrule, Link must rescue the Seven Sages from different dungeons scattered across the Dark World. Once they are freed, Link must use their power to break into Ganon’s Tower. There, he must face Agahnim and defeat him. Ganon then rises up from Agahnim’s body and flies away. Link chases after him and eventually confronts him inside the Pyramid of Power in the Dark World. After Link defeat’s Ganon, he touches the Triforce and restores Hyrule to how it was before Ganon intervened.

Most SNES games of this era had 4 Mbit (512 KB) of memory. This game broke the mold and used 8 Mbit (1 MB), which allowed Shigeru Miyamoto’s development team to create a much larger and more expansive world. The game added mechanics and concepts to the series that have become commonplace. These additions include multi-level dungeons and new equipment.

The game is one of the best-selling SNES games of all time. The game had more than five consecutive years in the number one spot of Nintendo Power’s top games list. It is widely recognized as one of the greatest video games of all time, not just on the SNES but on all gaming platforms. It has been voted onto top games lists in Entertainment Weekly, GameFAQs, Famitsu, Electronic Gaming Monthly, GameInformer, Nintendo Power, Edge, ScrewAttack, and many more magazines and websites.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past may not be number one on every list of the best SNES games, but it is definitely in the top ten (of any list that matters). Link remains one of the most popular video game characters of all time, inspiring fanboys (and fangirls) around the world to jump on the bandwagon. The Zelda series also remains one of the most popular video game series of all time for any gaming platform. It should be no secret why this game ranks so highly on our, and many other, top SNES games list.

10 – Super Mario Bros – The original NES game. Who hasn’t played this game at least once? Odds are even if you never owned an NES you still probably played the game in the arcade or on a computer later on. It spawned one of the most successful game franchises of all time, the Mario Bros.

9 – Battletoads – Had arguably one of the best soundtracks of any game on the NES. It also had arguably one of the hardest levels of any game to complete, EVER. It is considered to be one of the most difficult games on any platform to beat.

8 – Castlevania III – Dracula’s Curse – The Castlevania series was incredible and the third game, Dracula’s Curse, was probably the best NES Castlevania game ever. The characters you get in the game are a blast to play with and changed up the dynamics of play.

7 – Contra – Introduced one of the most popular game phrases of all time, “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start!” The ultimate game code! This was a great one of two player game and possibly was the best co-op player game for the NES.

6 – Bubble Bobble – One of the most fun two-player games of all time on the NES (could also be played one player), Bubble Bobble seemed to have an infinite amount of fun levels to go through. It is a total NES classic to anyone that ever played it.

5 – Mega Man 2 – Considered by some to be the best in the Mega Man series, Mega Man 2 featured a major change in the game’s look from the first version. It also introduced power-up changes and the energy tank. Due to its password system, you didn’t have to beat the game in one sitting like previous games.

4 – Mega Man 3 – Awesome music and graphics for the time that it came out. Mega Man 3 continues to bring it up a notch from the previous two games in the series. It remains one of the ultimate side-scrolling action games of all time.

3 – The Legend of Zelda – The starter game to one of the greatest RPG series of all time. It is a great game that spawned many other successful games in a line of Zelda-based products. It has one of the most recognizable video game characters, Link, in the entire world.

2 – Final Fantasy – The first game (American version at least) in what is probably the most successful RPG series of all time. This game set the standard for all in its genre that followed it. There have been dozens of Final Fantasy games on multiple game platforms.

1 – Super Mario Bros 3 – This could be the ultimate old-school platform game of all time. It is one hell of a game and up the ante on the Mario series in a big way. It’s hard to get tired of playing this game. It is one of those games you can just play over and over and over…

This isn’t a scientific list by any means, but it is a pretty solid list of the ten best NES games of all time. It is just for fun but is, in itself, a pretty solid list.

This list was inspired by another list at SydLexia.com.