I’m not one for countdown list, but since the NES was released in the U.S. 40 years ago and because it wwould become the hot thing for several years and ubiquitous in our lives by the end of the decade, I have been thinking about what my favorite games were. But come on, I’ve already blogged about Bases Loaded and Ice Hockey and do you really need to see me gush about The Legend of Zelda, saying things that have already been said a million times?

Besides, not everyone got the marquee games all the times and there were always those random games that we loved even if they weren’t top tier. I got my NES–the Action Set with the gray zapper that I received for my 11th birthday–I got a few games with it aside from the Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt cartridge (which I played all the time). Some of them were marquee games like Zelda, but there were others that people bought for me because they might have looked interesting (or maybe I did ask for them). What I always found cool ws that Ninetndo did publish its own line of games and they all had different categories. My wife still has her old Nintendo–she had the Deluxe Set with R.O.B.–and one of the box flaps had info that detailed all of the games series that Nintendo offered. In case you want to know, they were:

• Action (Balloon Fight, Clu Clu Land, Ice Climber, Kung Fu, Pinball, Super Mario Bros. Urban Champion)
• Adventure (Kid Icarus, Metroid)
• Arcade Classics (Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong 3, Donkey Kong Jr., Mario Bros., Popeye)
• Education (Donkey Kong Jr. Math)
• Light Gun (Duck Hunt, Gumshoe, Hogan’s Alley, Wild Gunman)
• Programmable Series (Excitebike, Mach Rider, Wrecking Crew)
• Robot Series (Gyromite, Stack Up)
• Sports Series (10-Yard Fight, Baseball, Golf, Ice Hockey, Pro Wrestling, R.C. Pro-Am, Rad Racer, Slalom, Soccer, Tennis, Volleyball)

Now, I am not sure if this list is comprehensive (and I’m pretty sure there was a poster with all the games listed that was included with the NES but it wasn’t in the box). I also didn’t play all of these games and even among the ones I played, I didn’t own all of them. But one of the great things about the NES and your friends all having it was that you were always borrowing one another’s game cartridges, and by the end of the 1980s, you could rent them from the video store. So I got a lot of exposure to some of the more random games, and I thought I would do a rundown of my favorite Nintendo-produced games from the early, pre-Zelda NES days. I’ve got eight altogether and I’m going to count them down.

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