Despite its limiting hardware which produced some pretty short games,Nintendo’s debut home console is home to some truly grueling, and often lengthy, experiences. While this isn’t usually the case when it comes to its more family-friendly platformers, thereisstill an abundance of games from this genre that can take marathon sessions to power through in one piece. Even disregarding the inevitable frequent deaths when running, hopping, and fighting your way through some of these colorful fantasy worlds, theNESis home to some platformers that can run you a number of hours.
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With this list, we’ll highlight the 10 longest platformers for NES. This article was aided largely by the efforts of the great websites ofthemexicanrunner.comas well ashowlongtobeat.com, and factors in various YouTube playthroughs. The length will, of course, primarily be factored in, but so will difficulty, pacing, and difficulty of the navigation.
10Mighty Bomb Jack
This pretty average sequel to the ‘84 platformer by Temco has you traversing a myriad of indoor environments which all reside inside a gigantic pyramid. The goal is to plunder a smattering of treasure chests, nab money bags, avoid colorful floating foes, and gather bombs. Yes - the bombs are not hazards or weapons in this game, but rather, more like coins fromSuper Mario Bros; collectible trinkets to apparently be coveted by Jack.
Making your way through this intricate pyramid and defeating the final boss, Belzebut, can run roughly 2 and a half hours if you’re brisk.
9Super Mario Bros. 2
You may not have expected to see aSuper Mario Bros.title on this list - but this quirky NES platformer is no ordinaryMariogame. In fact, this was a spur-of-the-moment conversion of the even stranger Japanese game,Doki Doki Panic. That probably explains this game’s odd, often cumbersome digging mechanic, in addition to its abnormally long runtime in general.
As it can take a long time to explore, dig, and “leave no stone unturned,” as it were, in thisSuper Mario Bros.sequel, this one can be a marathon platforming romp of close to 4 hours. That is one lengthy dream for Mario to have! All that hard work as a plumber and saving the princess must have taken a toll on him.
8The Goonies II
As is the case with many trickier, more ambiguous games of the NES era, much ofThe GooniesII’s lengthy runtime (3 to 4 hours specifically), tends to be derived from aimlessly wandering around, fumbling with different items, finding keys, and simply searching the next thing to do. Not only do you have to deal with the convoluted level design, but you’ll also sometimes be jarringly tossed into corridors which you view from a first-person perspective.
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This can be quite the marathon session for our protagonist Mikey, even if youdohappen to know where you’re going within these massive dungeons.
7Blaster Master
You know you’re dealing with a rather amusing gaming experience just based off the premise of this one. Your protagonist, Jason, follows his wandering pet frog Fred down a large chasm in the earth, before discovering a tank which he uses to combat a slew of toxic mutant creatures crawling about. The solid mechanics, tricky gameplay, and fun blend of shooting and platforming help round out this enjoyable experience.
It’s definitely a lengthy mission of running/driving and gunning - which clocks in at 3 to 5 hours - but it’s certainly a memorable one, at least.
6Air Fortress
You’d think being able to jet around in a spacesuit while endlessly firing powerful weapons would make for a swift, simple experience. Well, that’s not quite the case, at least when it comes to this outer spaceMetroid-esque odyssey.Air Fortressbombards you with a slew of projectile hazards, disorienting corridors, and tons of settings that oscillate from platforming to sidescrolling shooting.
The diversity of styles is pretty impressive to say the least, as is its runtime, which can take you close to the 5-hour mark if you don’t have your wits about you.
5Treasure Master
This is quite ironically titled as it’s neither easy to master nor do you secure much “treasure.” There’s more to this game than meets the eye, however. This platformerdoeshold meaning in its title, as MTV and ASC Games essentially developed this as part of a prize-winning contest involving the music channel.
Basically, players had to wait to receive a secret password, which would prompt an additional “Prize World” level. They then had to power through some awkward mechanics and tricky obstacles to complete the level, which would reveal a 24 character code. Entering the code would then grant a chance to win one of 10s of thousands of prizes. To bad this entire game, including Prize World, had to be beaten, and could realistically take3 to 5 hoursto complete. This was no easy feat considering this window of time allotted by MTV to find the code was under a single day!
It’s tough not to be intrigued by a cyberpunk-themed action-platformer entitled “Rad Gravity.” In fact, this game provides8large and distinct biomes, each with their own motif - ranging from a caustic trash world to a lavish green jungle.
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While the game is manageable in terms of difficulty and actually pretty fun, its abundance of puzzles, slow movement speed, and variety of worlds help make for a lengthy platformer. To be specific, this one can take you from 4 to 6 hours depending on your skill. It doesn’t help that this sidescroller has some rather stiff controls and questionable physics, even for an NES title.
3Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
NowadaysStar Warsgames seem to be a dime a dozen, though back in the NES days, we were dealing with territory that was largely uncharted for this space fantasy. Fans of the film equivalent ofThe Empire Strikes Backsoon found that this game was similarly epic and intense. The game somewhat follows the main beats of the film - or at least Luke’s portion.
The game stars the Jedi-in-training as he tries to flee a Wampa-infested ice cave, take out some AT-AT Walkers during the Hoth battle, train with Yoda, and rescue his friends in Cloud City. While it doesn’t sound like much, these sidescrolling levels can be grueling, lengthy affairs. While a deathless run can be knocked out in over an hour, this game will more realistically take around 6 hours to complete. Hey, no one said becoming a powerful Jedi would be easy!
2Athena
A long game can go by quite a bit more swiftly if it’s enjoyable. On the flipside, a clunky, repetitive, ambiguous sidescroller likeAthenacan manage to feel evenlongerthan its already long runtime. Its difficulty shouldn’t be all too surprising to arcade aficionados, as this was an arcade port by SNK designed to eat up a large number of players’ quarters.
This odd platformer stars a princess of the heavenly “Kingdom of Victory,” seeking adventure and stumbling her way into a colorful but hostile fantasy world crawling with all sorts of weird baddies. It’s all very “Alice in Wonderland.” Given its hefty runtime of around 5 hoursto reach the end, princess Athena probably wishes she would have stayed put at her palace…
1Back to the Future Part II & III
This 1990 platforming adventure from Beam Software is quite a lot to take in, not only because you’ll need to power your way through2games in 1, but because this romp can be both tricky and cryptic. The space-time continuum is falling apart, and it’s up to you to traverse a myriad of insane futuristic platforming stages to correct it - and to save Doc’s future son from committing a crime.
Part III has you goingbackin time to 1955 to save Doc. This is no easy task, as players have to dodge a slew of crazy hazards, work through intricate puzzle rooms, and seek out keys by killing certain baddies. This time-traveling odyssey, which comprises 2 games, clocks in at an absoluteminimumof 3 hours, but more realistically, will probably take you 6 to 8 to find your way to the end.
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