To save time, this list is in reference to all Nintendo systems of this era. That is to say it will include the Japanese Famicom as well as the European console as well. Despite the Super Nintendo launching in 1991 in Japan and 1991 in North America and 1992 in most other regions, support for the NES was still strong.

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Some of these games were even after the PS1 launched. Furthermore, some of the best games came out in these twilight years. What did the end look like and when exactly was that? The following is spread out between all three regions and some of the results may be surprising.

10 Mickey's Adventures in Numberland

Mickey's Adventures in Numberland gameplay screenshots

Mickey's Adventures in Numberland released on the NES in March 1994 in North America only. At its core this is a platformer starring Mickey Mouse. However, it’s not as good as the Capcom games they made starring Disney’s lovable mascot during the SNES era. This is more like an educational game disguised as a platformer and a poor one at that.

9 Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II

StarTropics II gameplay screenshots

Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II released on the NES in March 1994 in North America only. This is overall a forgotten series from Nintendo.

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It was marketed more toward the West with a strange history in Japan despite it coming directly from Nintendo. This sequel is often not as fondly remembered as much as the original island take on The Legend of Zelda but that doesn’t mean this game is bad by comparison.

8 Datach: J. League Super Top Players

Datach J League Super Top Players gameplay screenshots

Datach: J. League Super Top Players released on the NES on April 22, 1994 in Japan only. This is a soccer game If the name wasn’t a dead giveaway. It is one in dozens that released on the NES. Soccer still hasn’t made a big splash in North America so it understandable why this game didn’t come over twenty some odd years ago.

7 Pachi-Slot Adventure 3: Bitaoshii 7 Kenzan

Pachi-Slot Adventure 3- Bitaoshii 7 Kenzan gameplay screenshots

Pachi-Slot Adventure 3: Bitaoshii 7 Kenzan released on the NES on May 13, 1994 in Japan only. This is a pachinko game which is another huge craze in Japan. If a console launches over there one can bet it will launch with one, if not several different versions of a pachinko, or a mahjong game. Gambling is a huge market for video games that just never caught on in the West as much on consoles.

6 J-League Winning Goal

J-League Winning Goal gameplay screenshots

J-League Winning Goal released on the NES on May 27, 1994 in Japan only. This is another soccer game. So many of them released closely together in this era and it got even worse on the SNES. Worse is a relative term as in there was a dump truck of soccer games on the system. Sifting through the bad to get to the good was troubling. This game in particular is an average sports title at best.

5 Mario's Time Machine

Mario's Time Machine gameplay screenshots

Mario's Time Machine released on the NES in June 1994 in North America only. This actually came out a year after the MS-DOS and SNES versions. It’s odd then why this game received a port especially since the metaphorical jig was up. The box art may have fooled some at the time that this was a new Mario adventure, but it was yet another educational game disguised as a bad platformer.

4 Master Takahashi's Adventure Island IV

Takahashi Meijin No Boken Jima IV gameplay screenshots

Master Takahashi's Adventure Island IV released on the NES on June 24, 1994 in Japan only. This list has been primarily focused on bad, or average games unfortunately. The narrative changes now as this is the best game on the list, which was Japan’s final NES release.

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The name might be confusing but this is an Adventure Island game and it was the most ambitious yet as sort of a Metroid like experience. It’s well worth seeking out plus there is an English fan patch out there.

3 Disney's The Jungle Book

Disney's The Jungle Book gameplay screenshots

Disney's The Jungle Book released on the NES sometime in August 1994 in North America and on August 25, 1994 in Europe. Those dates could be the same but that is only a guess. This was an odd game to release at this point since that film originally debuted in 1967. One can presume this platformer was released to coincide with perhaps a new home video version as Disney was want to do in the 90s via its various Vault collections.

2 Disney's Aladdin

Disney's Aladdin gameplay screenshots

Disney's Aladdin released on the NES on December 31, 1994 in Europe and sometime also in 1994 in Australia. Even though this was a year after the initial set of releases in 1993, this NES version was not the last. It would also get ported to PC in 1996 and Game Boy Color in 2000. Everyone forgets about these three versions though as the debate is usually focused on the SNES and Sega Genesis versions on which one is better.

1 Disney's The Lion King

Disney's The Lion King gameplay screenshots

Disney's The Lion King released on the NES on May 25, 1995 in Europe only. This was the last version of the game following the SNES, Sega Genesis, MS-DOS, Amiga, Game Gear, Master System, and Game Boy versions, all of which launched in 1994. It is pretty much the same as its SNES counterpart albeit graphically downgraded. It might actually be a harder game too.

Next: The Last 10 Games To Come Out On The Nintendo 64