Skip to content

Top Navigation

EW.com EW.com
    • All TV
    • TV Reviews
    • TV Reunions
    • Recaps
    • What to Watch
    • Winter TV
    • Comedy
    • Crime
    • Drama
    • Family
    • Horror
    • Reality
    • Sci-fi
    • Thriller
    • All Movies
    • Movie Reviews
    • Trailers
    • Film Festivals
    • Movie Reunions
    • Movie Previews
    • All Music
    • Music Reviews
    • All What to Watch
    • What to Watch Podcast Episodes
    • TV Reviews
    • Movie Reviews
    • All BINGE
    • EW's Binge Podcast Episodes
    • Recaps
    • Survivor
    • This is Us
    • RuPaul's Drag Race
    • Stranger Things
    • The Boys
    • The Blacklist
    • The Walking Dead
    • Better Call Saul
    • All The Awardist
    • The Awardist Podcast Episodes
    • Oscars
    • Emmys
    • Golden Globes
    • SAG Awards
    • Grammys
    • Tony Awards
    • All Books
    • Book Reviews
    • Author Interviews
    • All Theater
    • Theater Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • Gaming
    • All Events
    • Comic-Con
  • Celebrity
  • Streaming

Profile Menu

Your Profile

Account

  • Join Now
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletter
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Subscribe

Explore EW.com

EW.com EW.com
  • Explore

    Explore

    • A guide to The Last of Us Easter eggs

      A guide to The Last of Us Easter eggs

      From the Uncharted lighter to the giraffe plushie. Read More
    • 2023 Oscars predictions: See who will win at the 95th Academy Awards

      2023 Oscars predictions: See who will win at the 95th Academy Awards

      From Brendan Fraser and Angela Bassett to a potential upset in Best Actress, see who EW thinks will win at the 2023 Oscars. Read More
    • Meet the cast of Survivor 44

      Meet the cast of Survivor 44

      Here are the 18 contestants who will be vying for $1 million. Read More
  • TV

    TV

    See All TV
    • TV Reviews
    • TV Reunions
    • Recaps
    • What to Watch
    • Winter TV
    • Comedy
    • Crime
    • Drama
    • Family
    • Horror
    • Reality
    • Sci-fi
    • Thriller
  • Movies

    Movies

    See All Movies
    • Movie Reviews
    • Trailers
    • Film Festivals
    • Movie Reunions
    • Movie Previews
  • Music

    Music

    See All Music
    • Music Reviews
  • What to Watch

    What to Watch

    See All What to Watch
    • What to Watch Podcast Episodes
    • TV Reviews
    • Movie Reviews
  • BINGE

    BINGE

    See All BINGE
    • EW's Binge Podcast Episodes
    • Recaps
    • Survivor
    • This is Us
    • RuPaul's Drag Race
    • Stranger Things
    • The Boys
    • The Blacklist
    • The Walking Dead
    • Better Call Saul
  • The Awardist

    The Awardist

    See All The Awardist
    • The Awardist Podcast Episodes
    • Oscars
    • Emmys
    • Golden Globes
    • SAG Awards
    • Grammys
    • Tony Awards
  • Books

    Books

    See All Books
    • Book Reviews
    • Author Interviews
  • Theater

    Theater

    See All Theater
    • Theater Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • Gaming
  • Events

    Events

    See All Events
    • Comic-Con
  • Celebrity
  • Streaming

Profile Menu

Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
Your Profile

Account

  • Join Now
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletter
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Sweepstakes

Follow Us

  1. Home
  2. Gallery
  3. 15 Videogames We Miss

15 Videogames We Miss

''Wreck-It-Ralph'' ignites a wave of EW staff nostalgia for ''Super Mario Bros.,'' ''Qbert,'' ''Zelda,'' and other faves we played as kids

By EW Staff November 01, 2012 at 07:00 PM EDT
Skip gallery slides
FB

1 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Super Mario Bros. 3

''The first three Mario games were so central to my childhood, I suspect I still could play them by memory now if I picked up…

''The first three Mario games were so central to my childhood, I suspect I still could play them by memory now if I picked up a controller. When Super Mario Bros. 3 first came out, I even tried to befriend the local jerky kid down the street because he was the first on the block to have it. His other jerky friend ended up calling my bluff — ''You're only here because he has Mario 3, huh?'' — but, man, that hour playing the game was still bliss. My father ended up buying me the game as a surprise one day, causing me more joy than I knew my skinny frame could muster — and my mother much more consternation, as I completely blew off a book report to play it non-stop for a week. She took away the game for two weeks, if I recall correctly, but I ended up getting paid to write about videogames for my job, so things didn't turn out too terribly.''—Adam B. Vary

1 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Contra

'' Contra !!! And I totally played Wheel of Fortune on Sega. Is #I'mAMassiveNerd trending?''— Lanford Beard

''Contra!!! And I totally played Wheel of Fortune on Sega. Is #I'mAMassiveNerd trending?''—Lanford Beard

2 of 15

3 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Street Fighter II

'' Street Fighter II ! It was the only game I was ever good at, and Chun Li is my favorite videogame character of all…

''Street Fighter II! It was the only game I was ever good at, and Chun Li is my favorite videogame character of all time. Other kids always accused me of ''cheating'' because I used her rapid-kick move all the time, but I could also beat people using her slow/ineffective but awesome upside-down-helicopter-legs move too. I didn't like her Super Street Fighter iteration as much because she finally learned how to shoot fireballs but they sputtered out of her wrists like weak little jellyfish — disappointing.''—Stephan Lee

3 of 15

Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

4 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Mike Tyson's Punch Out

'' Mike Tyson's Punch Out : Don Flamenco! King Hippo! Bald Bull! — mere pretenders to the heavyweight crown. Before EA's Madden football revolutionized the…

''Mike Tyson's Punch Out: Don Flamenco! King Hippo! Bald Bull! — mere pretenders to the heavyweight crown. Before EA's Madden football revolutionized the genre, Techmo Bowl — which once featured an unstoppable Bo Jackson — was a perfectly acceptable excuse to justify why I wasn't out on Friday night. Ninja Gaiden re-introduced me to Japanese anime... and carpal tunnel.''—Jeff Labrecque

4 of 15

Advertisement

5 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Looping

'' Looping for ColecoVision may have been the very first game I had an addiction to. The only control you had was up and down,…

''Looping for ColecoVision may have been the very first game I had an addiction to. The only control you had was up and down, and anything you touched exploded you. I think this may have also been my earliest introduction to anxiety and the soothing powers of chiptunes.''—Jef Castro

5 of 15

6 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Dr. Mario

''As a young boy with an NES, I would spend hours and hours on end playing Dr. Mario — wearing out my prescription pad and…

''As a young boy with an NES, I would spend hours and hours on end playing Dr. Mario — wearing out my prescription pad and cramming pill after pill down my patients' throats like I was Rush Limbaugh's GP. I even started to hear the music in my sleep. It's the game that made me want to be a doctor. Of course, I ended up working here so I guess it didn't do that great a job.''—Keith Staskiewicz

6 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

7 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater

'' Twisted Metal , Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for PS1, Super Smash Brothers , Mario Kart for N64 , Pokemon Yellow for Gameboy Color.''— Josh…

''Twisted Metal, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for PS1, Super Smash Brothers, Mario Kart for N64, Pokemon Yellow for Gameboy Color.''—Josh Stillman

7 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement

8 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Pokemon

'' Legend of Zelda and Pokemon (specifically Yellow version).''— Tara Fowler

''Legend of Zelda and Pokemon (specifically Yellow version).''—Tara Fowler

8 of 15

Advertisement

9 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Donkey Kong Country

''My house contained one TV and two older siblings, so I spent most of the early-to-mid '90s watching my brother and sister duke it out…

''My house contained one TV and two older siblings, so I spent most of the early-to-mid '90s watching my brother and sister duke it out on Super Mario, Donkey Kong Country, and Street Fighter II. Although I was never allowed to pick up a controller myself, I did memorize how to get to bonus levels and the best way to defeat King K. Rool. (Wait for him to throw his crown before you jump on his head!)''—Hillary Busis

9 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

10 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Qbert

''In the 'yes, I am old' category [my favorites were]: Qbert , Frogger , Tetris , Donkey Kong , Pac-Man , Centipede , Street Fighter…

''In the 'yes, I am old' category [my favorites were]: Qbert, Frogger, Tetris, Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Centipede, Street Fighter, and Mortal Kombat. The last two were more my college years. I kicked ass with Sub-Zero back in the day, but in a recent round with my 14-year-old — Mortal Kombat vs. Something or the Other — had that same ass handed to me.''—Abby West

10 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

11 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Frogger

''Being old.com and not having a video game console in our house = Lemonade Stand , Oregon Trail , and Frogger on the Apple iiC,…

''Being old.com and not having a video game console in our house = Lemonade Stand, Oregon Trail, and Frogger on the Apple iiC, Mario Bros and Duck Hunt on my cousin's Nintendo, and Asteroids on my friend's Atari.''—Laura Hertzfeld

11 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement

12 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

The Legend of Zelda

''[I loved] Zelda , Mega-Man , Metroid , San Francisco Rush , Earthworm Jim . Also, PS1 throwbacks: Crash Bandicoot , Metal Gear Solid ,…

''[I loved] Zelda, Mega-Man, Metroid, San Francisco Rush, Earthworm Jim. Also, PS1 throwbacks: Crash Bandicoot, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy 7.''—Chris Cosgrove

12 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

13 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Circus

'' Tempest ! But really, we had a game called Ladybug , which — while seemingly all dainty-like — was a much more awesome version…

''Tempest! But really, we had a game called Ladybug, which — while seemingly all dainty-like — was a much more awesome version of Pac-Man. And there is a game called Circus where you have a teeter-totter that bounces clowns up to pop balloons. When they die because of your inept handling of said teeter-totter, the funeral dirge song plays. It's sad.''—Martin Schwartz

13 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

14 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Paperboy

''I was really into the lamest, least-challenging games on NES — anything that involved shapes, colors, and pharmaceuticals ( Dr. Mario ), '80s game show…

''I was really into the lamest, least-challenging games on NES — anything that involved shapes, colors, and pharmaceuticals (Dr. Mario), '80s game show titles like Anticipation and Concentration (two concepts I never quite mastered in real life either), and Disneyland, which poorly approximated some of the rides and infuriatingly featured zero concession stands. Paperboy at a friend's house introduced me to bullying, so I walked home and dumped the friend as well.''—Annie Barrett

14 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement

15 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Super Mario Bros. 3 (Japanese Version)

''When I was in seventh grade, my best friend's stepdad owned a local video store. They imported the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 3…

''When I was in seventh grade, my best friend's stepdad owned a local video store. They imported the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 3 months before its U.S. release, making me feel like I was in the Fred Savage video-game classic The Wizard.''—Aaron Morales

15 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement
Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

By EW Staff

    Share the Gallery

    Pinterest Facebook
    Trending Videos
    Advertisement
    Skip slide summaries

    Everything in This Slideshow

    Advertisement

    View All

    1 of 15 Super Mario Bros. 3
    2 of 15 Contra
    3 of 15 Street Fighter II
    4 of 15 Mike Tyson's Punch Out
    5 of 15 Looping
    6 of 15 Dr. Mario
    7 of 15 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
    8 of 15 Pokemon
    9 of 15 Donkey Kong Country
    10 of 15 Qbert
    11 of 15 Frogger
    12 of 15 The Legend of Zelda
    13 of 15 Circus
    14 of 15 Paperboy
    15 of 15 Super Mario Bros. 3 (Japanese Version)

    Share & More

    Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message
    EW.com

    Magazines & More

    Learn More

    • Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
    • Advertise this link opens in a new tab
    • Content Licensing this link opens in a new tab
    • Accolades this link opens in a new tab

    Connect

    Subscribe to Our Newsletter
    Meredith© Copyright 2023 Meredith Corporation. Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. Entertainment Weekly may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Privacy Policythis link opens in a new tab Terms of Servicethis link opens in a new tab Ad Choicesthis link opens in a new tab California Do Not Sellthis link opens a modal window Web Accessibilitythis link opens in a new tab
    © Copyright EW.com. All rights reserved. Printed from https://ew.com

    View image

    15 Videogames We Miss
    this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.