Super Mario Bros. is the pinnacle of pure, unblemished gaming. The 2D platformer, designed by Nintendo’s legendary figurehead Shigeru Miyamoto, still remains in our minds the most intuitive and addictive entry in the genre. The title stars “Jump Man” himself, Mario, along with his brother Luigi, and takes players through more than 30 colorful levels of varied theme and design, all of them packed with cute, stylized enemies like the goombas and a wide array of platforms and obstacles. Super Mario Bros. is the first major showpiece for Nintendo’s heightened quality of gaming: full of depth, layered with tight control and remarkably clever level creation that spills with secrets and extras.

Legand of Zelda

Embark on a quest to find the Triforce, slay Ganon and save Princess Zelda in the timeless adventure game from Shigeru Miyamoto that invented the genre. Originally released for the Famicom Disk System in Japan, the game arrived in the US on cartridge in 1987. In an ingenious marketing ploy, Nintendo released the game on a gold cartridge, so if you hadn’t heard about the glory of Zelda, the shiny cart would definitely catch your attention. And since Zelda originated on the Disk System, the US version also included the ability to save your game status via battery back-up — a first for the NES. The game’s release heralded the end of the days when console games were all about linear quests and never-ending twitch gameplay with small level variations or increasing speed settings.

The birth of all RPG games!