List of Nintendo Entertainment System games


The Nintendo Entertainment System has a library of officially licensed games released during their lifespans, plus 7 official multicarts and 2 championship cartridges. Of these, 672 were released exclusively in Japan, 187 were released exclusively in North America, and 19 were released exclusively in PAL countries. Worldwide, 521 games were released.
Its launch games for the Famicom were Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., and Popeye. Only first-party titles were available upon launch, but Nintendo started a licensing program the following year that allowed third-party companies such as Namco, Hudson Soft, Taito, Konami, Bandai, and Capcom to create titles and produce their own cartridges for the Famicom in exchange for royalty payments; Nintendo later revised the program to mandate itself as the manufacturer of all cartridges while carrying it with the console outside Japan. The launch games for North America were: 10-Yard Fight, Baseball, Clu Clu Land, Duck Hunt, Excitebike, Golf, Gyromite, Hogan's Alley, Ice Climber, Kung Fu, Pinball, Soccer, Stack-Up, Super Mario Bros., Tennis, Wild Gunman, and Wrecking Crew. The final licensed game released is the PAL-exclusive The Lion King on May 25, 1995.
As was typical for consoles of its era, the Famicom used ROM cartridges as the primary method of game distribution; each cartridge featured 60 pins, with two pins reserved for external sound chips. For the console's North American release in 1985 as the Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo redesigned the cartridge to accommodate the console's front-loading, videocassette recorder-derived socket by nearly doubling its height and increasing its width by, resulting in a measurement of high by wide. Referred to as "Game Paks", each NES cartridge sported an increased total of 72 pins, with two pins reserved for the CIC lockout chip and ten pins reserved for connections with the console's bottom expansion port. However, the two pins for external sound were removed and relocated to the expansion port instead; any Famicom game using them would have its soundtrack recomposed for releases on NES cartridges. Though the extra space of the NES cartridge was not utilized by most games, it enabled the inclusion of additional hardware expansions; in contrast, some copies of early NES games like Gyromite merely paired the printed circuit board of the game's Famicom version with an adapter to convert between the different pinouts. Cartridges had storage sizes ranging from 64 Kilobits to 8 Megabits, with 1 to 3 Megabit cartridges being the most commonly used.
Nintendo later released the Famicom Disk System in Japan in 1986, intending to have developers distribute all future games on proprietary floppy disks to avoid the cost and size limitations of cartridges; however, developers began re-releasing FDS games on cartridges as advancements in cartridge technology made them feasible again with the limitations of the floppy disks and their ecosystem apparent, pulling support for the FDS by the 1990s.

Licensed games

Compilations

Championship games

Konami QTa Adaptor games

Bandai Datach games

TitleDeveloperPublisherJP
Crayon Shin-Chan: Ora to Poi PoiToseBandai
Battle Rush: Build Up Robot TournamentToseBandai
Dragon Ball Z: Gekitō Tenkaichi BudokaiToseBandai
J. League Super Top PlayersToseBandai
SD Gundam: Gundam WarsToseBandai
Ultraman Club: Supokon Fight!ToseBandai
Yū Yū Hakusho: Bakutō Ankoku Bujutsu KaiToseBandai

Unreleased games

TitleYearPublisherRegion
The Adventures of Dr. Franken1993EliteNA
Airball1990TengenNA
Arc Hound1992KonamiJP
Armadillo1991IGSNA
Armadillo II1992IGSJP
Battle Choice1989KonamiJP
Bio Force Ape1992SETAJP
Bashi Bazook: Morphoid MasherJalecoNA
Blazeblasters1991NexoftNA
Blockout1990Technōs JapanNA
Buster Bros.1993Hudson SoftNA
Buzz & WaldogInnovationNA
The California Raisins: The Grape Escape1990CapcomNA
Card Sharks1988GameTekNA
Cheetahmen II1993Active EnterprisesNA
Chip's Challenge1991Bullet-Proof SoftwareNA
Chuck Yeager's Fighter Combat1993Electronic ArtsNA
Crash 'n the Boys: Ice Challenge1992Technōs JapanNA
Crash 'n the Boys: Soccer Challenge1994Technōs JapanNA
Cyberball TengenNA
Danger Zone1989TradewestNA
Days of Thunder 1990MindscapeNA
Dennis the Menace1993Ocean SoftwareNA
Dewey the Dolphin1990Ocean SoftwareNA
Donkey Kong no Ongaku Asobi1983NintendoJP
Double Play1989TradewestNA
Drac's Night Out1991Parker BrothersNA
Earth Bound1990NintendoNA
Erik the Viking1992Video SystemNA
Escape from AtlantisColor DreamsNA
Exploding Fist1991TradewestNA
The Fairyland Story1986TaitoJP
Felix the Cat1992Hudson SoftJP
Final Fantasy IISquareNA
Final Fantasy IV1991SquareJP
Fun House 1990Hi Tech ExpressionsNA
Happy Camper1990Color DreamsNA
Happily Ever After1991SOFELNA
Hard Drivin'1990TengenNA
Hellraiser1990Color DreamsNA
HeroQuest1991Milton BradleyNA
Hit the Ice1993TaitoNA
Ivan 'Ironman' Stewart's Super Off Road1991Pack-in-VideoJP
John Madden Football '931992UbisoftNA
Kung Fu 21991IremNA
Loopz1991Mindscape International JapanJP
NBA1989LJNNA
Neo Vulgus1988CapcomJP
New Kids on the Block1991Parker BrothersNA
Ninja Taro1989American SammyNA
Parody World: Monster Party1989BandaiJP
Password1988GameTekNA
Pescatore1991SunsoftJP, NA
Pizza Pop1992JalecoNA
Police Academy1990TengenNA
The Price is Right1988GameTekNA
Rampart TengenNA
Return of Donkey KongNintendoNA
Road Runner MindscapeNA
RoboCop vs. the Terminator1993Virgin Interactive EntertainmentNA
Secret Ties1992Vic TokaiNA
Shounen Majutsushi Indy1992IGS Corp.JP
SimCity1991NintendoNA
Spy vs. Spy II: The Island Caper1989KemcoNA
Square Racing1990SquareJP
Squashed1991JalecoNA
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier1989BandaiNA
Strider Hiryuu1988CapcomJP
Sunman1992SunsoftJP, NA
Super Password1989GameTekNA
Super Pitfall 21989ActivisionNA
Sydney Hunter and the Curse of the MayanCollectorVisionNA
Talking Super Password1990GameTekNA
Technocop1992TengenNA
The Terminator 1989SunsoftNA
Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends1993THQNA
Time Diver: Eon Man1993TaitoNA
Tip Off1992ImagineerJP, EU
Titan Warriors1988CapcomNA
Trivial Pursuit1991Parker BrothersNA
Twin Peaks1991Hi Tech ExpressionsNA
UWCSETANA
Vindicators1990AltronJP
War on Wheels1991JalecoNA
World War III1989LJNNA
Xybots1990TengenNA