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" GoldenEye  This game is undoubtedly one of the best first-person shooters ever made. It was also the best way to use the N64&amp;#039;s four-player capacity. Based on the James Bond film of the same name, the single-player version tracks 007 through a series of espionage missions, taking Cold War leftovers to the trash and such. But it was the innovative multiplayer options, involving different levels, games and arsenals, that made GoldenEye a staple of slumber parties the world over. It also opened up the option for a few classic video-game punks, including the &amp;quot;Sneak up behind and shoot you in the head,&amp;quot; and the perennial favorite &amp;quot;Snipe you right after you got killed.&amp;quot; Unfortunately for Nintendo, Microsoft now owns the software company that makes the game, which means it will probably never make it to the Wii. The upside? GoldenEye might just hit XBox Live Arcade this year.  Contra  For some reason, the Wii masters have managed to find space for Contra III: The Alien Wars on the Virtual Console, but not for the 1987 original. Perhaps that&amp;#039;s because the original was known for its multistage bosses and obnoxious level of difficulty (Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right-B-A-B-A notwithstanding). The game&amp;#039;s context is as thin as its graphics (something about aliens and bandannas?), but if you remembered to avoid getting hit by one of those 5000 projectile fireballs, you might make it through the first couple of levels and impress your mom enough that she&amp;#039;d grab you a congratulatory Sunny D from the fridge. Contra was also famous for popularizing &amp;quot;The Konami Code&amp;quot;, the aforementioned cheat that in this game gave you 30 lives per Continue, instead of three. It goes without saying that if Nintendo disabled the cheat in the emulation for some reason, we wouldn&amp;#039;t be nearly as excited to have it on the Wii.  Mortal Kombat  Oh, 1993: When eviscerating a grainy, spandex-clad, 2D weirdo was cause for alarm, and the controversy over a game where you could murder streetwalkers GTA-style was just a gleaming dot on the horizon. Sigh. Of course, those controversial kills came courtesy of Mortal Kombat&amp;#039;s innovative fatalities, whereby after defeating your opponent you could enter an extended keystroke combination. If you were lucky, your (already defeated) opponent would slice in half, or his head would explode, or he would be lit on fire, or some other murderous technique with gore-gasmic effects. Performing an MK fatality is one of the greatest ways to punk an opponent in all of video-game history. Though some may argue that Mortal Kombat was no Street Fighter, its graphics were great (for the time) and its dark, apocalyptic story line made it a standout.  Castlevania III: Dracula&amp;#039;s Curse  The Castlevania franchise is an NES mainstay, as its dark, scary, vampire bent made it a sort of goth-kid kindergarten. The third in the series was a superbly playable synthesis of the series&amp;#039; first two installments; the Castlevania mostly involved whipping enemies while the second was almost an RPG. Castlevania III combined the best elements of its predecessors, allowing players to choose between characters and take a number of different paths through the game&amp;#039;s many catacombs, haunted-castle rooms and nighttime graveyards without losing any of the skeleton cracking and bat murdering. One of this game&amp;#039;s greatest accomplishments is its willingness to sacrifice vampire lore (can you really kill a vampire with a whip?) for the sake of superior game play, unfortunately leaving a whole generation vulnerable and incorrectly educated regarding vampire safety. This is about as good an example for the youth as driving games without seatbelts, but the result certainly was fun.  Bad Dudes  Action games nowadays are frequently exaggerations of contemporary conflicts, with themes pulled from common fears. In this respect Bad Dudes was seriously ahead of its time, setting you up for an adventure with an &amp;amp;lt; target=&amp;quot;_blank&amp;quot;&amp;amp;gt;opening screen that rivals the best ever: The president has been kidnapped by ninjas, and this game, unlike so many, challenges every player to look inward to his essential core and ask, &amp;quot;Am I a bad enough dude to rescue the president?&amp;quot; Although this is a typical scrolling fighter, akin to Double Dragon, the weight of the quest elevates Bad Dudes from the entertaining to the transcendent. And then there&amp;#039;s the final sequence, where the president invites you to go for a burger with him. Tubular.  Super Mario Kart  Some franchises hit their peak in their first iteration, and I&amp;#039;m inclined to think that Super Mario Kart for the SNES (1992) falls into that category. The split-screen races between character favorites like Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach provided one of SNES&amp;#039;s best multiplayer experiences. With three engine classes and a variety of safe, for-all-ages levels, the game offered more geeky excitement than a typical season of NASCAR, without the fatalities or hearing damage. Nonetheless, the battle mode is where this game elevates itself to classic status. With flat, manageable battlegrounds, head-to-head racing was confined and confrontational in a way it hasn&amp;#039;t been on any of Mario Kart&amp;#039;s versions since (well, maybe the new Wii game). Something about shooting a red turtle shell to rid your buddy of his last floating orb is uniquely satisfying.  Battletoads  One of the most challenging and varied games of NES&amp;#039;s twilight years, Battletoads has elements of a Double Dragon -style progressive beat &amp;#039;em up with racing challenges and mazes. It was one of the hardest but perhaps most rewarding NES titles ever, requiring a level of concentration and patience--particularly on the racing and swimming levels--that could detract seriously from your sixth grade homework. The graphics are about as advanced as NES ever got, with a variety of exaggerated, cartoonish attacks from the warted heroes, who went by the names of Rash and Zitz. Let&amp;#039;s be clear: These frogs may be named after skin diseases, but, for my money (or Wii points), they were far cooler than the artsy Ninja Turtles could ever hope to be.  Demon Sword  This was a classic case of a game that was too big and too weird to ever achieve great popularity. The basics involve a burly, shirtless dude named Victar who runs around killing demons, collecting pieces for his ever-growing sword. Victar has an impressively high jump, which he uses through levels that include a gigantic bamboo forest and an icy death mountain. Since there&amp;#039;s no time limit and seemingly no end to the number of demons to slay, you can play through this game as slowly as you like. The mere sound of the swinging demon sword is one of the most satisfying 8-bit sounds ever synthesized--it&amp;#039;s comforting metallic sching lets you know there&amp;#039;s a little less evil in an imaginary world.  The Punisher  This NES game is what I like to think of as a lost classic. Though some obviously disagree, The Punisher was an unsung side-scrolling gallery shooter of the highest caliber, for several reasons. With a variety of bosses and a variety of people to shoot (you can even hit the saxophone player), The Punisher makes New York feel like a gun party where you&amp;#039;re the guest of honor. You can destroy pretty much anything in the game, from windows to stop signs, street lamps to trash cans. Every level ends with a statistics rundown that calculates the accuracy of your vengeance and gives you little rewards for it. Reasonably difficult, it is a Marvel Comics pillar of glory when compared to other similar NES titles. Games like this fell out of favor when real first-person shooters became available, but that doesn&amp;#039;t mean The Punisher wouldn&amp;#039;t offer hours of fun on the Wii.  Tetris  We&amp;#039;re going to go ahead and say it: Tetris is the most compulsively addictive puzzle game ever. The 1985 brainchild of a Russian computer science student, this title set off a cold war of legal wrangling between Tengen and Nintendo before its NES release in 1989. Those who swear by Tetris (your author included) claim that it&amp;#039;s a fine replacement for organized religion, that it makes Dr. Mario look like a back-alley acupuncturist, and that when you&amp;#039;re in the zone, it&amp;#039;s better than friends, food or the sun. Just try arranging the falling blocks into horizontal lines without feeling like you&amp;#039;ve found your life calling--or the path to enlightenment. With greater point rewards for greater speed (and hence greater risk), Tetris uses positive reinforcement to transform willing initiates into oiled machines of Tetrical annihilation. On second thought, the fact that it&amp;#039;s not on Virtual Console might be healthy for me, in particular. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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