What pre-90's game would you consider a masterpiece?

Hello, was just watching this with a fellow who sounds like the grandson of a war criminal, and was thinking "What pre-90's game consider a masterpiece? "

What pre-90's game would you consider a masterpiece?

Super Mario Brothers 3.

• Ninja Turtles (1989)
• Ducktales (1989)
• Double Dragon (1987)
• Mario 3 (1988)
• Dodge Ball (1988)
• Zelda (1986)

I don't think i ever played a single game released pre 90's.

Not gonna look to see what others posted until I post... I wanna see how I compare without anyone's suggestions...

Let's see... Pre 90s masterpieces...

Zelda

Tetris

Punch out

Duck Tales

Mega Man 1, 2 and/or 3

Bionic Commando

SMB

This isn't much of a thinker there are tons, and that's just on home console. Arcades had a lot of great stuff to.

Quite a few probably. Some off the top of my head:

- Final Fight

- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game

- The Legend of Zelda

- Super Mario Bros. 3

As others have said, Zelda and Mario 3 for the NES.

Sim City came out in 1989 and that was pretty awesome for the time.

Just to clarify, "game", not "games".

As in chose "1".

While certainly agree this is a masterpiece, bolstered by multiple iterations, it is unfortunately a (albeit early) 90's game.

@uninspiredcup: but having to choose one over another would torment me

@uninspiredcup: Oh yeah. D’oh!

Looking at 80's pre-SFII fighting games before it set the standardized template be happy calling International Karate + a masterpiece that doesn't really get much recognition.

May be wrong in this claim, but it was also the first smash style game? Again, that might be bullshit, but does seem like it.

probably -

• Mega Man 2
• Revenge of Shinobi
• Space Harrier
• OutRun
• After Burner
• SMB1

Galaga

Super Mario Bros 3 and 2 (Doki Doki Panic version)

Contra

Castlevania

Mike Tyson's Punch Out

I was actually just having this thought the other day, but Tetris is probably one of the most perfect games ever made. Every new game that comes out, there's little to no change to the main formula, and I believe it's much because it was perfected in the first place.

Double Dragon was the best game ever as far as I was concerned back in the 80s, I put so much money into that game, it was what I looked forward to most of all when I went to Skeg with the family. Target Renegade on the Amstrad CPC was a masterpiece too, it was the closest thing to Double Dragon for home computers at the time as the home computer/console versions of Double Dragon absolutely sucked hard, at least until I got my hands on the Master System version which was probably the closest version to the arcade that I played.

Space Invaders (1978)

Pac-Man (1980)

Space Harrier (1985)

Alex Kidd in Miracle World (1986)

Out Run (1986)

Double Dragon (1987)

Wonder Boy in Monster Land (1987)

Snatcher (1988)

Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988)

Golden Axe (1989)

Ys I & II (1989)

Gauntlet

Pac Man

Galaga

Contra

Megaman

List wars.

Not really a fan of pre-90s games. I wouldn't call it a masterpiece but my favourite would be Contra.

Not masterpieces as such but I loved them just the same..

• Wonder boy
• Paper Boy
• Space Invaders

• Ultima 5
• Nethack
• Mario 3
• Zelda
• Contra
• Megaman 2
• Sim City
• Elite
• Lode Runner
• Manic Mansion
• Pool of Radiance
• King's Quest 4

Good choice. These games tend to still go under the radar 30 odd years later, even though they are seemingly universally excellent. Hardly anyone talks about them.

The original is very tightly paced. Partly due to the bump mechanic keeping an unmoving rhythm, constant forward momentum. II unfortunately with its magic system loses some of that.

Back then people were still largely use to rudimentary tunes, and most of the ports such as the Master System were just that. The CD version of Yuzo Koshiro soundtrack is fucking incredible.

None. 80s games are old and shit. true masterpieces didn't really arrive until 1998.

Very unfortunate.

@uninspiredcup: Ys I & II was also huge for its time. Back then, cartridges and floppy disks held less than 1 MB of data... Ys I & II on CD-ROM was over 600 MB! Although most of it was for the CD-quality soundtrack, which was phenomenal Yuzo Koshiro musical work (before he composed Streets of Rage), and the voice acting. But the game data itself was still much larger than what cartridges or floppy disks could handle at the time.

Nethack. Never shall I win.

@Mozelleple112: 🤣 I get that we all have different opinions, but opinions can be dumb and wrong and yours here is both.

@vfighter: Go ahead and enjoy your shitty, super basic games with god awful graphics.

There's a reason gaming as a whole was extremely niche in the 80s, compared to the exponential growth it got in the 90s/00s.

Look at budgets. even as late as the early 90s, being a video game developer wasn't a job, it was more of a hobby.

@uninspiredcup: First of all: great thread.

If you are interested in watching more I feel Spoony has a really fantastic retrospective of all the ultima games.

From the first one right down to the last.

Not sure masterpiece is the right word, but I would still play these games today over the literal trash that is available on smartphones:

• Contra
• Super Mario bros trilogy
• Mario Bros
• Donkey Kong
• Paperboy
• Mega man 2
• Space invaders
• Pacman
• Ghouls 'n ghosts
• TMNT

I agree with many listed I'll just add Shinobi and Alex Kid.

I was playing games in the late 80's but I honestly don't remember that many. Those were my NES and Sega Genesis days and I honestly just remember all those games as being a whole bunch of fun and perfect.

Just listing some off, not really sure if release dates line up, but:

• TMNT
• Mario Bros. series
• Pacman
• Outlander
• Space Invaders
• Zelda
• SimCity

ik+ was awesome. do you remember yie ar kung fu? that was amazing too.

problem with the question in the op for me is back in the 80s i thought most games were masterpieces lol, the further back in time i go the less my judgement can be trusted. most of the big ones have been mentioned i'd throw bombjack, chuckie egg, manic miner, rainbow islands, indiana jones and last crusade (lucasarts) and kings quest iv into the mix.

shame cant include 1990 as that's when some bonafide masterpieces released. super mario world, castle of illusion, secret of monkey island, speedball 2, kick off 2. got an amiga and snes for consecutive christmases 90 and 91. amazing times

@hardwenzen: I'm pretty sure not ever having played SMB3 is some sort of crime.

@Mozelleple112: In 20 more years those games will also look and play like shit.

Zillion, the Ninja, SMB3

Yes, old man had it on C64 used to play the shit out of it at a caravan site, 10p a pop. Only arcade machine in some damp, dark leisure area nobody ever went but me. By this time games like SFII were already out, so nobody had any interest.

That and the place stunk of piss.

@fedor said:

Yes !!! it's surprising how good this game still holds up ... i mean i still like Turtles in Time a lot more, but this one was so ahead of its time.

Also, like many have said ... Super Mario Bros 3, Zelda, Punch Out, Castlevania, Megaman 2, Metroid and Contra. I feel all those games pushed the industry in the right direction.

@jaydan: Yeah, truly timeless. If there's one current video game that people will still be playing 50+ years from now, Tetris would probably be it.

There are so many masterpieces pre 90. A few include Battle of Olympus, Bionic Commando, Blades of Steel (still one of the best Hockey games ever made), Castlevania, Dragon Warrior, Faxanadu (and one of the best soundtracks of all time to go with it), The Legend of Zelda, Life Force, Mega Man 2, Punch Out!, RBI Baseball, RC Pro Am, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Side Pocket, and Super Mario Bros., and those are just on the NES.

100% Paradroid. It may not look like much these days :/ That black 476 you can see was by the way quite the pain/blessing.

Xenon 2 megablast on the Amiga 500, 1989. What a great system that was. Just missing your 1990 cut-off point we have Lemmings, Gods, Shadow of the Beast all 90/91.

Secret of Monkey Island was 1989 I think, another classic, though I played that one on PC.

That's where my mind instantly went to. Next would be Mega Man 2.

@Pedro: Agreed. SMB3 is really the only correct answer here.