Last week, early adopters of the 3DS got their first taste of the Ambassador Program with ten free NES games. It’s one of the ways that Nintendo rewarded players who bought the 3DS early before the price drop. I downloaded them all so I figured in this blog, I would list them all and share my personal experiences with each one.

But before I start, I have heard lots of complaints about what Nintendo did with the 3DS price drop. But you won’t hear me complaining. First off, when you become an early adopter of some kind of electronic, you have to accept that the price can go down at any time; it’s just part of it. And Nintendo didn’t even have to do anything; I figured they just did since the price went down so quickly.

Plus, the ten free NES games (and the upcoming ten free GBA games) are a heck of a lot more interesting to me than what Sony gave out (and for only a limited time) when their PSN was down for so long. Of course, I don’t want to totally slam Sony since brother Jeff got to play Infamous and I got Super Stardust HD for free.

I guess the only thing I could complain about is how quickly Nintendo implemented the 3DS price drop after the release, but I like to look at the positives. I was planning on buying another 3DS eventually for my mom anyway. You see, she’s a HUGE Animal Crossing fan, and she’ll want a 3DS for the upcoming AC game on it. So now, I can get her one for even cheaper! But enough of that, here are the ten free NES games Ambassadors got, and some of my personal experiences on each one.

Super Mario Bros.

While most people have fond memories of this game, and how it was their first game they ever played, blah, blah, blah…I wasn’t really as into SMB much as you might think. For starters, I first saw this game in an arcade, not on the NES. And I was impressed, and my friend and I had fun playing it when he got his NES. But however, I was still pretty happy playing Pengo on my Atari 5200 at the time, so Super Mario Bros. wasn’t the game that convinced me to buy a NES.

The Legend of Zelda

THIS was the game that convinced me to buy a NES! When I first saw this game at a friend’s house, you know what impressed me the most? Not the catchy music or the lengthy adventure, but the fact that you could save your game and come back to it later. I soon got a NES after that so I could play Zelda as well. I’m really glad it is one of the free games on the 3DS. It’s probably my second or third favorite Zelda title (right after Link’s Awakening and Link to the Past), and I never tire of playing it. And it’s actually pretty challenging, at least compared to some of today’s Zelda games anyway.

Wrecking Crew

Most people probably never heard of this game, but I actually owned it on the NES. When I first got my NES, it came with “The Official Nintendo Players Guide.” Anyone remember that? It had a little blurb about Wrecking Crew in it, and that sounded right up my alley, so I got it soon after I got my NES. The gameplay was a little like Pac-Man with some puzzle elements, and me and my friend had hours of fun making up our own levels, like in Excitebike. Too bad you couldn’t save them, although there are save and load options on the menu that didn’t do anything. I heard that you could save and load levels on the Famicom disk version of this game, though, but I’m not sure. Wrecking Crew also had some pretty catchy music, and there are lots of references to that game in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I also know they made a 16-bit update of Wrecking Crew in Japan on the Super Famicom’s Satelliteview. I wish we could’ve gotten that here, too! So yeah, if you are a 3DS Ambassador, try out Wrecking Crew and let me know what you think!

Donkey Kong Jr.

Never really played the NES version much, but I’m glad it has all four levels, unlike the NES version of the original DK. I mostly played DK Jr. in arcades. When I first saw it at a roller rink near my house, I first thought it was a Donkey Kong game for little kids. Since I was a little kid at the time, I was happy about that, but the game was still hard so I was a bit disappointed. But since then I’ve learned to appreciate and get good at that game, and I liked how they implemented DK Jr. gameplay elements in the Game Boy version of Donkey Kong, which you can download on the 3DS and I highly recommend it.

Balloon Fight

Eh, it’s just poor man’s Joust. Never really got into it in the NES days. I think the first time I really played it was when it was one of the bonuses you could get in the GameCube version of Animal Crossing. I would like to play the version of Balloon Fight that had Tingle in it. As disturbing as Tingle is, his games intrigue me for some reason.

Ice Climber

It’s another one I never played on the NES, but I did try it a few times in the arcade under Nintendo’s “VS.” cabinets. It’s OK I guess, but the controls are a little wonky. Super Smash Bros. Melee and Brawl was the best thing to ever happen to Ice Climber, as the two characters were playable there. I’m glad they put them in the SSB games, though, as they were fun to play as.

NES Open Tournament Golf

Out of all the NES games on the 3DS Ambassador list, this was the ONLY one I had never played before at some point! But I did know about it and I almost got it back in the NES days. You see, there was a golf game made by Nintendo that came out early in its lifespan, and I owned it. You might remember it, as it was pretty basic and Mario looked really fat and dumpy in it. I had the original NES Golf because it was one of the few games my dad would play (aside from Arkanoid and Rad Racer). Years later, when NES Open Tournament Golf came out, I thought about getting it for my dad’s birthday or for Father’s Day. But it was too expensive and I was still a kid and didn’t have much money. Plus my dad said he was still perfectly happy playing the old game, so I never bought it. And by that time, I either had my SNES or was saving up for it, so I didn’t get too many NES games after that anyway. So I’m glad I finally got to play it here.

It’s a fun game, but I think my dad was right, he’d still be perfectly happy playing the old one. It took me a hole or two to get used to the controls, mainly because the screen size is so small that it was hard to see things. Plus the repetitive music is grating, but I did have fun annoying my brother Jeff with it the other day. But it’s still a fun little portable time waster and I can see myself playing NES Open Tournament Golf again a few times. At least it’s nice to play a NES game that I haven’t played to death before. One interesting thing is the Princess palette swap that stands next to Luigi on the title screen. I heard that was actually supposed to be Daisy.  Overall, I think my favorite golf video games are the unique Kirby’s Dream Course on the SNES, Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour on the GameCube (it’s amazing how much control you have over the ball in that one), and Neo Turf Masters on the NGPC.

Metroid

I never really got into the first Metroid. I do like Metroid games, but I prefer the more modern ones (Super Metroid and beyond) that featured things I like such as save points and in-game maps. Back in the NES days, I was mostly a back seat driver with Metroid. My friend would play it and I would tell him where to go by looking at the maps we made (this was before strategy guides and the Internet). We actually did that with a lot of other games, too, such as Zelda 2, Dragon Warrior, and Final Fantasy (I didn’t get into RPGs myself until the 16-bit days). I think I’d rather have Metroid: Zero Mission over the NES version, but I can’t complain about a freebie. I do know that NES Metroid has been ported a lot of other times, though. And back in the day, Samus being a woman was a lot more unheard of. In fact, when I first played Metroid, I thought Samus was a robot. Like Mega Man’s cousin or something. They both had arm cannons and exploded in the same way on the NES anyway.

Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link

Fans are going to hate me for what I’m about to say, but I don’t like Zelda 2. I’m sorry. I do appreciate Nintendo trying new things with a sequel, which is unheard of in today’s market. But I was really glad that subsequent games in the series went back to Zelda’s original gameplay roots. But Zelda 2 wasn’t all bad. Like Metroid, I preferred to be a back seat driver while my friend played. But I never had much fun playing it myself.

Yoshi

And the last game is a puzzler that came out late in the NES lifespan. When Tetris got really popular, it seemed every company had to have their own falling block puzzle game. Some companies even had several, like Nintendo. Owning the Tetris rights wasn’t enough for them. Unfortunately, Yoshi really isn’t that much fun. A lot of people would probably rather have Dr. Mario, but I’d like to make another suggestion. How about Wario’s Woods? It hasn’t been done to death like Dr. Mario has, and it was a really fun puzzler, too! Plus, even though Wario was in the title, the game really starred Toad, my favorite Mario character. The NES version was actually the last NES game Nintendo published in the US. Although I’d rather have the SNES version anyway. Me and my friends in college played the SNES Wario’s Woods game to death!

Conclusions

And that’s all the NES games on the 3DS Ambassador program! They haven’t announced all ten of the GBA games yet, but I read that Metroid Fusion, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi’s Island, and WarioWare would be on it. I’ve also heard rumors about Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, too, but I don’t know. Anyone know when Nintendo will release the free GBA games on the 3DS? I think I’ll wait and talk about the GBA games later on another similar blog, though. In the comments section, let me know what you think of these ten free NES games and your own personal experiences with them!

Tags: Game Reviews