Let's Rank All 30 NES Black Box Games kzfaq.info/get/bejne/laulY6tkrpbHe3U.html

"There's a lot of things we could have done with this but didn't." -- LJN's mission statement

X-Men was, hands-down, the most heartbreakingly bad game I have EVER played.

Somewhere an angry nerd just had goose bumps shoot up his neck while suddenly getting an urge to drink a rolling rock! 😂 🍻

Sometimes I think I'm the only person who likes the Spidey NES game. Loved how you could hold down the punch button and one or two-shot Mysterio if you hit him just right. I do hate the zombie enemies on Mysterio's level, though!

I agree with pretty much all of your rankings. The only thing I would change is bumping up "Friday the 13th" to A tier. That game is criminally underrated and actually really fun to play. I play through it every year, never gets old.

"I want to like it because you can do some things in it." - John Riggs

This is probably my favorite video currently, just for how fun you made this!

I rented Bill and Ted soooo many times. I didnt know it was a bad game when i was a kid, I just thought I was bad at it. Lol. Then I played it 20 years later and never again. 😂😂 Great video Riggs!

When I was a kid, I made it my mission to beat every NES game I came across...That mission ended when we rented Karate Kid. I had gotten soooo close, but ended up rage quitting before rage quitting was ever coined as a term. Recently, I fired it up to try again...Didn't make it 5 minutes into the game, and I'm like nope...not going to happen.

This was great. I immediately fired up Jaws and did the only trick I know, which is to immediately find Jaws then move one pixel down with my diver from the top of the screen and rail on Jaws with harpoons on turbo. Still works!

I rented The Punisher many times , loved that game. Great video as always.

Man you’re so right about T&C Surf Design! People played cause that’s all they had. Can’t believe I replayed the same level over and over struggling to get through the controls and levels. It has a great soundtrack though!

Wrestlemania Challenge was a fresh of breath air compared to the original Wrestlemania. LJN may be the rainbow of death but had some fun games on the NES. Now, SNES.....I got a few favs.

I could of swore that Silver Surfer was LJN because the Game design and Music was right there with Wolverine. I corrected myself that it was published by Arcadia.

I love these Nintendo ranking videos of yours. I hope you do more.

I have memories of my dad playing jaws when I was a little kid. It’s really the only one I know from this list besides Friday the 13th which is strange cuz I remember getting a little scared when Jason came. But I was a little kid so.

It's nice to see some love for Friday The 13th. I honestly think it's unfairly panned, and if it had been put out by ANY other publisher, it would be recognized - at least - as an incredibly ambitious, if flawed, ancestor of the survival horror genre. The open-ended gameplay is particularly impressive, by third gen standards. The player is given a huge amount of freedom to explore strategies and find their own way through the game, and you really didn't see that in most NES games.

I asked for Spider Man for my birthday, and my parents got it for me! I loved it. I beat it. I still have it complete in box.

You will be hard pressed to find a more fun game than Nightmare on elm street with 4 players and game genie it makes for a great party game. One of my best memories growing up was playing through it with my brother and two cousins in one night with that set up it was epic fun!

You're totally not wrong about Who Framed Roger Rabbit. That was one I remember renting a ton. I don't remember being particularly good at it, but it was just fun to explore.

My personal favorite of the LJN titles has got to be Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I actually really enjoyed that game. It's also the only one off the top of the head I beat too. And it followed the movie which is one of my absolute favs.

I absolutely love T&C surf designs. The skateboarding stages were so addictive

I am really enjoying your recent ranking videos! Keep up the good work.

Your list is pretty spot on. I grew up in the era when these came out and there were more bad games than good. However, to this day, I will always have a soft spot for Jaws and Friday the 13th since I still own and play those games. I'm so old I remember sending in a picture of my high score for Jaws to Nintendo Power!

Oh man, this is AVGN's worst nightmare, all LJN games in one video lol

Friday the 13th is a solid A+ for me. I still regularly enjoy it to this day. I agree with the B rating for Nightmare on Elm St. They were two of my favorites back in the day.

It would've been really awesome if LJN's "The Karate Kid," much like Capcom's "The Goonies II," had a licensed song from the movie. I'd love to hear an 8-bit version of "You're the Best" by Joe Esposito!

Games like Jaws and Nightmare on Elm Street provide fond memories because I simply owned them. Its like you said - back then you played a game because you had it. I remember getting Nightmare on Elm Street at a yard sale for $1 loose cartridge and recently seen it loose at a pawn shop for $50 (Canadian). The owner explained the AVGN episode boosted its value, and he also told me it retains value because its the ONLY Nightmare on Elm Street video game out there. Is that true?

Punisher also has really cool palettes for its environments. X-Men is a game that I wanted to like, because the visual design was so strange and fun to explore, but it really is pretty rough. Good to know that I wasn't the only one using the Nightcrawler trick, though.

When I was young a friend of mine in the apartments we lived in would play Who Framed Roger Rabbit with me and we would take notes. Had a small note book for clues. We had such an amazing time with that game.

Great video. I just recently bought the super retro trio plus and never had a nes back in the day so this guide is super useful to me. Many thanks 😊

edit: bootleg SPINY, not Lakitu

As someone who have never owned or played an NES and these games, it's interesting some of these games you kinda like and AVGN hates. Like the two horror based games. Thanks for the video.

Making me wanna watch AVGN again

Thanks to Tim Follin's god tier music, Pictionary is a C rank game.

I absolutely loved The Karate Kid as a child. The hit detection was rough for sure , but I so loved the mini games, especially the chopsticks. An A for me!

Original T&C Surf Design has got to be an A. Like you said, everyone played and remembers that game!!

This is an awesome series and I hope you continue it. How about ranking all of the Acclaim NES games next?

I think Gotcha were little plastic pellet type things with paint on them, a bit different from paintballs. But this is trying to remember them from 30 years ago

In March 13, 1990, LJN became a subsidiary of Acclaim. So in a way, the Acclaim games after that point are sort-of LJN games.

Totally agree with T/C. I still have mine. I played it a ton back in the day... 🥳

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a solid A-Tier IMO. The open world element and whole atmosphere of the game is great. Heck, it was just fun driving the car around the open worlds. It was one of the games my cousins would bring it over for nearly every party for a couple years and we would play it for hours.

Good list, John! I would actually encourage you to take the time to play Thrilla's Surfari a bit more because it really is a solid game. I rented it back in 1992 when it was new so I certainly have that nostalgic attachment to it but it is genuinely good once you get a feel for the controls/gameplay and nuances within the game such as collecting coconuts (gives you more tries in the bonus game so that you can get extra lives) and what not. It's the one LJN game I own if that means anything. ;) I do agree with you on Jaws because that game is so simple yet it's a fun little gem. You are making me want to try Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street though!

My favorite NES LJN games would be T&C Surf Design, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm ST, WWF Wrestlemania Steel Cage Challenge

Roger Rabbit was a really really good game. I'd even say it was ahead of it's time to an extent. You shoulda just went with A! Also the guy who did the soundtrack for Pictonary also did Crash Test Dummies!

This is a great series! What's next? Capcom... Konami...

Wait, what? Karate Kid is super easy, just got to know some simple strats. Another solid game.

Playing Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th are Halloween traditions for me. I still love them.

As a sports gamer, Roger Clemens Baseball was fun. It was not officially licensed by MLB or MLBPA so they couldn’t real names but the real players were all alluded to. In the clip you showed there was a “S. Clarinet” that’s Steve Sax from the Dodgers. You also showed M. Donningly. That’s the great Don Mattingly from the Yanks. That was a fun part of that game actually

I totally remember what you mean by how when the sport of paint ball was coming around that we all did call it Gotcha for about a year.

Great video topic! Loved the "Ranking the Black Box Games" topic as well. Brilliant, Riggs!

I hope ya keep this series goin'.

A lot of people also forget that Beam Software and Rare helped out LJN a lot, Punisher was Beam, and gets an A in my books

Such a soft spot for WWF Wrestlemania Challenge. It was undoubtedly in my top 5 most played as a child.

Man, I love this rank videos =D

Friday the 13th! I have retro Jason tattooed on my arm.

Jaws should be a solid A-tier game. Definitely the best LJN game I’ve ever played.

Call me insane, but I enjoyed WWF WrestleMania Challenge and WWF WrestleMania Steel Cage Challenge and I still do

Karate Kid is pretty easy. Especially the last level since you can keep a couple guys chasing you during most of the level so new ones can’t appear.

Call me crazy but Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and WWF Wrestlemania Challenge are all A and S tier games for me. Glad you didn't rank F13 and Nightmare too low. A lot of people assume they are bad because of the AVGN. A Nightmare on Elm Street had 4 player co-op, tight controls, cool music, and awesome boss fights. To me it's one of the most underrated games.

Gotcha was a paint toygun manufactured by LJN as is the game, and it is based on that movie.

Ranking the SNES LJN games would be fun too.

Id put Jaws and rodger rabit as A tier... only LJN NES games i ever go back to and play

Gotcha movie... It was paint baller college kid, meets espionage.

Solid line analysis of the LJN library John. Folks seem to give LJN an unfair biased because of AVGN and the fact that they never put out any real bangers like Capcom or Konami. Wolverine should have been a B or at least C though.

Since basically no one is playing NES games on original hardware these days, it's a tad unfair to criticize them for button mapping (button remapping is super simple with even the most obscure emulators)

The worst part of these games is that LJN bought licenses to great movies, and my dad would always buy me one of these turds for Christmas based on the name alone, unaware of LJN's now legendary penchant for mediocrity.

Thanks for making this great video. Love your videos. Legend!

I still love my copy of The Karate Kid. Couldn't agree with you more when you said, you played these games because you had them. And I def played a lot of KK! Great content, as always!!!

I feel like Clara in Doctor Who during the Capaldi era where she learns The Doctor was trapped in the confession dial and wouldn't tell what he knew, which would have released him, and instead was stuck in it for 4 and a half billion years and the only thing she can say to him is "WHY?! WHY WOULD YOU EVEN DO THAT TO YOURSELF?!" I feel like if ones choices were being trapped in a torture chamber for 4 and a half billion years or playing EVERY N.E.S. LJN game choosing the 4 and a half billion year torture chamber would be a no brainer!

T&C Surf Designs, should be an A aside from the akward surfboarding, it's a really fun game I always come back to.

The Gotcha! movie was not about paintball directly. The paintball aspect of it was more a plot point as to how he could sneak around campus and be competent with a pistol and taking out KGB agents.

Used to play Karate Kid for hours. You just replay the same stages after beating it.

I used to use my baseball cards of this year to match the players jersey number with the name, and play the all star mode with my friends with our favorite players. I beat thrillas surfari, it is an awesome game if you play it more than once

I’m sure this has been answered already, but why is there no E-tier? I won’t be able to sleep until I know! Great series btw, good job! You really know these games well.

I bought the x-men game at a yard sale thinking it would be awesome. Boy was I wrong.

Where do we go to buy some of your beer, Riggs?

I have a bunch of nostalgia for LJN.

This episode should have been titled "(Don't) taste the rainbow" 🤣🤣🤣

I had a lot of fun with Punisher as a kid. Was also a huge X-men fan so very angry when I rented the X-Men game.

Still one of our favorite episodes

Nioce! My list top five would be F13, Wolverine, Jaws, ThePunisher, & T2.

That pictionary soundtrack gives me Maniac Mansion vibes.

So many missed opportunities with the movies based games. I get the feeling during the nes days some games they just took a stock games and just slapped a movie title on it and called it a day.

That X-Men game just brought back a lot of bad memories. The dread.

Ljn had all the good movie titles for games and they messed it up. I wasted a lot of time on some cause of the title and box art 😂

Mostly agree with these. I'd probably bump up Karate Kid and Alien 3 as they're 2 of the best playing LJN games, knock down Jaws a rank due to it being very repetitive and Roger Rabbit due to it being very confusing, my list would probably be like yours otherwise.

I still love Wolverine on NES.

Love your face in this thumbnail 😆

I have good memories of T&C Surf Design 1. At least, the skateboarding parts. Never played NES T2. Wonder how it compares to the GB game - which I owned and enjoyed as a kid.

You are doing the lords work. Thank you

Ocean games on the Amiga. Love your work JR.

Liked specifically for the reference to GOTCHA starring Anthony Edwards. WOW!

Woah, dude, come on tc surf is my favorite nes game of all time. The replayability or soothing sound of the waves crashing in the title screen should at least get a B rank. Not to mention the rad box art and manual illustrations. And as someone from the pnw surging is most def a thing. All other ranks were accurate though. Great vids 🤙🏻

I loved who framed roger rabbit . Awesome game !.

Great episode and great channel. Big Riggs is the man!

"bootleg lakitus" Yeah... My dude those are Spikeys. Lakitu is the guy in the cloud that throws the Spikeys.

The only part I must respectfully disagree with is Nightmare on Elm Street. Cannot be stressed enough, but while it was distributed by the Rainbow of Doom, it was crafted by the very capable hands of the one and only Rare. This game was a really solid platformer for its time. It had great jump mechanics for an NES game. Another cool element was that, unlike a great many film adaptations on the early consoles, it stayed very close to its source material with its environments, its bosses (mostly), the sleep/"Zzz's" system, the Dream World versions of the levels, the Dream Warrior powers and so on. Just as well, in my opinion, this game had what was easily some of the best music in the NES library. For me, it's an "A" rank on this one. The only things stopping it from being a home run for me are the placement of some of the infinitely respawning enemies (and their hasty respawn times) and the strange, out-of-place "slippery/ice environment" movement mechanic. I love this game, though, and I go back and play it quite often.

Oh, it's on son!