What was the first unpopular NES game you liked?

[NintendoLegend]

It may seem like an odd question, but here is my reasoning: For many people, myself included, our first exposure to the NES was a copy of Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt. Of course you are going to love that cartridge -- everyone does, and it is a classic.

Casual fans of the NES would have liked it, too, and moved on to other lovable legends like the Mega Man series, Contra, Tecmo Super Bowl, etc., you know what I mean.

But a true lover of the NES began to realize that he or she enjoyed dipping into a little more obscure corner of the library.

For instance, I knew I was a true NES fan when I loved games like M.U.L.E., Rescue: The Embassy Mission, Toobin', and Startropics, despite my NES-playing friends disliking these titles or even telling me they were stupid.

While the definition of "unpopular" may differ from person to person, what were those games you loved despite no one else liking them, and thus made you realize you were truly fond of the NES?

[mt]

As far as EARLIEST, i'd say that Kung Fu Heroes, Guerilla War, and Maniac Mansion fall into this category for me.

Kung Fu Heroes has a certain charm and simplicity to it, even if it's not exactly a great game. To this day I don't really have any friends who played it as a kid or owned it or anything, so I consider it to be pretty obscure. Guerilla War, while being awesome, seemed to be a very "under the radar" game and none of my friends really even knew what it was or gave a crap about it.

I think a lot of my friends thought I was pretty weird for liking a "boring" game like Maniac Mansion instead of action games like Mega Man and Mario Bros., but I grew up playing a lot of old text adventures and stuff on PC and maniac mansion is still one of the best out there if you ask me! my brother and I ended up having to buy an old issue of Nintendo Power to get further in the game since this was before the internet and gamefaqs! the way you progressed through those games was really exciting and fun at the time and it seems like a lot of my friends/peers just couldn't care less about making it to a new room and finding more items to collect and use elsewhere

[NintendoLegend]

I hear ya, mt -- I used to enjoy the point-and-click games like Deja Vu, and had to rely on my own perseverance to see through to the end. Guerilla War is an awesome game just for needing to fulfill a craving to sit down and blast the crap out of stuff for a while. Good times, thanks for reminding me of those, I never got into Kung Fu Heroes much but it might be worth some revisiting!

[neojake]

I can think of two off the top of my head. Donkey kong 3 (everyone said it sucked and the first two were superior) and Wall Street Kid. There were so many others but now looking back, I have trouble picking out which ones were actually unpopular because I surround myself with video game geeks now!

[godslayer]

One I liked (hence my avatar) that is still one of my favorites; Crystalis. I grew up in a really small town, and none of my friends were really into RPGs or even this kind of adventure game. Only a couple of my friends even played Legend of Zelda, and no one I knew liked Final Fantasy. Thanks to the Nintendo Power giveaway, many of them had tried Dragon Warrior, but that was about the extent of that. I think all the wrestling games were the most popular then.

A few more that my friends and I enjoyed were Yo! Noid, Shatterhand, and Totally Rad. Not my favorites, but I thought they were good enough, and I was surprised later to find out that I think all three are kind of pallete/text swaps of Famicom games. Yo! Noid was a ninja game? Makes a little more sense I think.

I still like Castlevania 2 and Zelda 2, and even though they're super-mainstream, they always seem to get a lot of crap.

A few more would be Monster Party, Shadowgate, and Rock 'n' Cats.

[andrewg]

Yo! Noid was a game I always enjoyed but a lot of people didn't care for it. Another game as of recent, Werewolf. It's a pretty good game overall, but everyone seems to hate it.

[smashedgoomba]

The Magic of Sheherazade. Most of my NES friends have never heard of this title before. I had never heard of it until recently. I suppose it's an, "unpopular" NES game. When I mention this game on Twitter, many people I follow, and my followers have never heard of it.
I was impressed when I first popped this game into the old Nintendo. The game draws you in from the very beginning with an interesting story line and cool graphics. It reminded me of an Arabian version of The Legend of Zelda.
I like how it successfully combined live action fighting and turn based fighting. It was also unique in how you can change your class during the game if you wanted. I also liked how you can hire characters to fight with you. There are so many elements I like about this game and I am very happy to come across it.
I would recommend this game to people and I would say it is a true NES gem. I remember mentioning it to Nintendo Legend, and he agreed with me about the quality of this game. I would love to hear other peoples thoughts on this game.

[nightshade]

I liked the koei simulations .....Wall Street kid... Sid meiers pirates

off the wall games like that