Watch CBS News

Rich Unveils Top Five Nintendo Games Of All Time

BOSTON (CBS) -- Rich Shertenlieb is no stranger to controversy, and this week, he jumped headfirst into arguably the most controversial topic of all time: Nintendo games.

The Toucher & Rich co-host unveiled his top five NES games of all time on Thursday on Twitter:

He also included the honorable mentions:

And on Friday's show, Rich amended No. 5, switching it from "Blades Of Steel" to "Double Dribble."

These decisions weren't without their naysayers, a group which included Fred Toucher.

"'Double Dribble' sucked!" Fred pleaded. "When you dunked, it just showed a picture of a guy. I owned it, I just thought it was terrible."

That wasn't Fred's only complaint.

"What about 'Tecmo Bowl,' [hot shot]?" asked Fred (the "hot shot" quip was insinuated).

"'Tecmo Bowl' is like, top 10. 'Tecmo Bowl' was great," Rich admitted.

"'RBI Baseball,' 'Tecmo Bowl' and then 'Punch-Out!' ... 'RBI' is still an enjoyable game," Fred said when asked for his top games.  "'Punch-Out!' and 'RBI' are probably the only two NES games -- maybe 'Mario Brothers' -- that you could play now and they would still be fun."

Ehhhhhh, not so sure about that one, Freddy. It's tough to watch two minutes:

RBI Baseball - NES Gameplay by nesguide on YouTube

"Yeah, 'Mario 3' was, I mean, that's one that you can spend 30 minutes playing and not get bored -- which is saying a lot for today's NES games. Most of them, you're just like all right, five minutes and you're done," Rich added.

Even though "Blades Of Steel" got bumped, Rich shared his love for it.

"The reason that was such a big deal was because it was the first game where you could actually fight. The hockey players would go to another screen, and you could beat the snot out of each other," he said.

Blades of Steel First Pro Shift fight and a goal. by tblach04 on YouTube

Rich had an underappreciated game on his honorable mentions list.

"You know what game ruled and went way under the radar but I spent completely too much time playing? .... 'PRO WRESTLING'! You had the lizard dude who could bite your head. The lizard guy was the only guy that I mastered, because I knew how to bite someone's head. And then there was the guy with the star on his face."

Yeah there was!

A healthy debate also broke out over "Excitebike."

"'Excitebike' sucked," Rich said flatly.

"No, 'Excitebike' was OK because you could build your own track," Fred carefully retorted.

"But the thing is, you'd get bored by it after five minutes," Rich replied. "I would have taken 'R.C. Pro-Am' over 'Excitebike' any day."

Listen to the full discussion below, and leave your top five NES games in the comments.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.