I wanted to convince myself it was good so bad when I was a kid. Xmen were cool, Nintendo was cool, this game had to be rad as hell, I must just be bad at it... I eventually traded it to a friend's cousin for Star Tropics, so I guess it was a pretty good purchase
I loved the X-Men so much and I was so hyped about getting this game. I was terribly disappointed and even more so with my favorite xman being the worst character in it. Wolverine was atrocious. No ranged attacks, basic attacks and slow. I think he slowly healed but it doesn't matter when you are at the mercy of gates and a timer when you beat a boss. I wanted to like this game but I just couldn't.
I remember renting it as a kid expecting it to be amazing and after playing less than an hour, I realized the game was just terrible. As a 7 year old trying to explain that to your parents is a losing battle as they just assume you are complaining and want another game instead
And yet Nintendo gave it their $eal of approval. It didn't have nudity, blood, religion, hamsters in the microwave, and most importantly the check they got from the publisher cleared.
Sometimes I think I'm the only person who likes the Spidey NES game. Loved how you could hold down the punch button and one or two-shot Mysterio if you hit him just right. I do hate the zombie enemies on Mysterio's level, though!
I agree with pretty much all of your rankings. The only thing I would change is bumping up "Friday the 13th" to A tier. That game is criminally underrated and actually really fun to play. I play through it every year, never gets old.
I agree… It also felt strangely haunted as a kid, which I think is an achievement as a horror game one that is rarely duplicated even in modern gaming.
I put it in the D tier because, well, yeah... I mean, nevermind, I put it in the C tier because I really want to like it, but I don't, so I can't really... yeah.
I could of swore that Silver Surfer was LJN because the Game design and Music was right there with Wolverine. I corrected myself that it was published by Arcadia.
Both Wolverine and Silver Surfer were made by Software Creations (as well as Pictionary and Incredible Crash Dummies). LJN didn't make any games themselves.
Man you’re so right about T&C Surf Design! People played cause that’s all they had. Can’t believe I replayed the same level over and over struggling to get through the controls and levels. It has a great soundtrack though!
This was great. I immediately fired up Jaws and did the only trick I know, which is to immediately find Jaws then move one pixel down with my diver from the top of the screen and rail on Jaws with harpoons on turbo. Still works!
When I was a kid, I made it my mission to beat every NES game I came across...That mission ended when we rented Karate Kid. I had gotten soooo close, but ended up rage quitting before rage quitting was ever coined as a term. Recently, I fired it up to try again...Didn't make it 5 minutes into the game, and I'm like nope...not going to happen.
I beat the Karate Kid multiple times as a kid. The trick is to cheese the enemies that pop up and get them to either run past you by switching levels or by getting three of them to constantly chase you which keeps new enemies from spwning ahead of you and you can just rush to the end, as long as you keep enough distance from them.
Wrestlemania Challenge was a fresh of breath air compared to the original Wrestlemania. LJN may be the rainbow of death but had some fun games on the NES. Now, SNES.....I got a few favs.
I rented Bill and Ted soooo many times. I didnt know it was a bad game when i was a kid, I just thought I was bad at it. Lol. Then I played it 20 years later and never again. 😂😂 Great video Riggs!
I think Gotcha were little plastic pellet type things with paint on them, a bit different from paintballs. But this is trying to remember them from 30 years ago
I have memories of my dad playing jaws when I was a little kid. It’s really the only one I know from this list besides Friday the 13th which is strange cuz I remember getting a little scared when Jason came. But I was a little kid so.
I consider the game ahead of its time for this. The way Jason is going around the map and you run into him is a lot like Nemesis and Mr X from Resident Evil.
When I was young a friend of mine in the apartments we lived in would play Who Framed Roger Rabbit with me and we would take notes. Had a small note book for clues. We had such an amazing time with that game.
Games like Jaws and Nightmare on Elm Street provide fond memories because I simply owned them. Its like you said - back then you played a game because you had it. I remember getting Nightmare on Elm Street at a yard sale for $1 loose cartridge and recently seen it loose at a pawn shop for $50 (Canadian). The owner explained the AVGN episode boosted its value, and he also told me it retains value because its the ONLY Nightmare on Elm Street video game out there. Is that true?
Call me crazy but Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and WWF Wrestlemania Challenge are all A and S tier games for me. Glad you didn't rank F13 and Nightmare too low. A lot of people assume they are bad because of the AVGN. A Nightmare on Elm Street had 4 player co-op, tight controls, cool music, and awesome boss fights. To me it's one of the most underrated games.
Elm Street is probably the best game LJN ever Published. Which makes sense since it was developed by RARE. Idk if I’d put it in S tier but definitely deserves A tier at least.
I loved Nightmare on Elm Street. Me and my cousins would play it all the time. And we even had the 4 score for 4 player support. Definitely S tier as far as LJN games go.
Friday the 13th for the time definitely wasn't bad some minor complaints the water part is kind of unfair to the player and the random spawning weapons can kind of screw you though, jaws could have been longer because it wasn't there worst but way too short
You will be hard pressed to find a more fun game than Nightmare on elm street with 4 players and game genie it makes for a great party game. One of my best memories growing up was playing through it with my brother and two cousins in one night with that set up it was epic fun!
You're totally not wrong about Who Framed Roger Rabbit. That was one I remember renting a ton. I don't remember being particularly good at it, but it was just fun to explore.
He's also not wrong about the boss. Judge Doom really was one of the most tedious final bosses I can remember ever dealing with. The fight goes on FOREVER, and you're just doing the same basic move over and over and over.
I've been binge watching all of your tier lists and I have to say one of the stand-out moments so far has been the thousand-yard stare at 2:01, I'm laughing so much
Punisher also has really cool palettes for its environments. X-Men is a game that I wanted to like, because the visual design was so strange and fun to explore, but it really is pretty rough. Good to know that I wasn't the only one using the Nightcrawler trick, though.
It's nice to see some love for Friday The 13th. I honestly think it's unfairly panned, and if it had been put out by ANY other publisher, it would be recognized - at least - as an incredibly ambitious, if flawed, ancestor of the survival horror genre. The open-ended gameplay is particularly impressive, by third gen standards. The player is given a huge amount of freedom to explore strategies and find their own way through the game, and you really didn't see that in most NES games.
Your list is pretty spot on. I grew up in the era when these came out and there were more bad games than good. However, to this day, I will always have a soft spot for Jaws and Friday the 13th since I still own and play those games. I'm so old I remember sending in a picture of my high score for Jaws to Nintendo Power!
F13 was the bane of my youth but I do definitely have a soft spot for it. I wish I had Elm Street instead though growing up honestly as I could of had a lot of fun with that. I appreciate F13 more nowadays though as it’s a really ambitious game for NES days.
Friday the 13th is a solid A+ for me. I still regularly enjoy it to this day. I agree with the B rating for Nightmare on Elm St. They were two of my favorites back in the day.
Good list, John! I would actually encourage you to take the time to play Thrilla's Surfari a bit more because it really is a solid game. I rented it back in 1992 when it was new so I certainly have that nostalgic attachment to it but it is genuinely good once you get a feel for the controls/gameplay and nuances within the game such as collecting coconuts (gives you more tries in the bonus game so that you can get extra lives) and what not. It's the one LJN game I own if that means anything. ;) I do agree with you on Jaws because that game is so simple yet it's a fun little gem. You are making me want to try Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street though!
It would've been really awesome if LJN's "The Karate Kid," much like Capcom's "The Goonies II," had a licensed song from the movie. I'd love to hear an 8-bit version of "You're the Best" by Joe Esposito!
My personal favorite of the LJN titles has got to be Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I actually really enjoyed that game. It's also the only one off the top of the head I beat too. And it followed the movie which is one of my absolute favs.
I absolutely loved The Karate Kid as a child. The hit detection was rough for sure , but I so loved the mini games, especially the chopsticks. An A for me!
I agree with you that Punisher should be ranked higher than what John gave it, but I think it belongs in the B-tier personally. The only thing holding it back from A-tier IMO is the lack of in-game music (aside from the saxophone player).
As someone who have never owned or played an NES and these games, it's interesting some of these games you kinda like and AVGN hates. Like the two horror based games. Thanks for the video.
I gotta put T&C as a solid B , I think a C is harsh. Cool music, interesting characters and once you get the hang of the controls it’s pretty rewarding to progress in the game.
The worst part of these games is that LJN bought licenses to great movies, and my dad would always buy me one of these turds for Christmas based on the name alone, unaware of LJN's now legendary penchant for mediocrity.
As a sports gamer, Roger Clemens Baseball was fun. It was not officially licensed by MLB or MLBPA so they couldn’t real names but the real players were all alluded to. In the clip you showed there was a “S. Clarinet” that’s Steve Sax from the Dodgers. You also showed M. Donningly. That’s the great Don Mattingly from the Yanks. That was a fun part of that game actually
I have good memories of T&C Surf Design 1. At least, the skateboarding parts. Never played NES T2. Wonder how it compares to the GB game - which I owned and enjoyed as a kid.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a solid A-Tier IMO. The open world element and whole atmosphere of the game is great. Heck, it was just fun driving the car around the open worlds. It was one of the games my cousins would bring it over for nearly every party for a couple years and we would play it for hours.
LJN published 25 NES games, 15 SNES games, 18 or 19 Gameboy games, 1 Dreamcast game, an accessory for the NES(the Rolling Rocker) and a console(the LJN Video Art). He has covered quite a lot of their games, the Rolling Rocker in his "Nes Accessories" video and the LJN Video Art in one of his Christmas videos so i would say that he's near the end. Although he covered "Spirit of Speed"(the LJN Dreamcast game and their last one) in a James and Mike video and not as the AVGN. Here's hoping he covers Spirit of Speed as the AVGN, that would be cool and funny to see. I can only imagine the AVGN celebrating like crazy and throwing quite a party like he did when he finished with Action 52, upon finding out "Spirit of Speed" is the last LJN game. 😀😁
Roger Rabbit was a really really good game. I'd even say it was ahead of it's time to an extent. You shoulda just went with A! Also the guy who did the soundtrack for Pictonary also did Crash Test Dummies!
I still love my copy of The Karate Kid. Couldn't agree with you more when you said, you played these games because you had them. And I def played a lot of KK! Great content, as always!!!
@johnriggs. 🙏🙏🙏please do a retro review of Data East games!! I would be thrilled to hear your thoughts on Capt America, Bad Dudes, RoboCop, and so on. I'm new to the channel, but have quickly become a fan of your content. Keep up the awesome work!!!!!
i have to put jaws as a solid A tier just for the diving portions and the jellyfish mini games. and can i even get started on the music? and a nightmare on elm street is a total S tier just for the awake asleep themes. the music. and actually being multiplayer. i was never really into Friday the 13th. even after learning how to play it i had no love for it. but ill agree with you for what it is. but overall the list seems pretty accurate to me. great work Riggs
Solid line analysis of the LJN library John. Folks seem to give LJN an unfair biased because of AVGN and the fact that they never put out any real bangers like Capcom or Konami. Wolverine should have been a B or at least C though.
I feel like Clara in Doctor Who during the Capaldi era where she learns The Doctor was trapped in the confession dial and wouldn't tell what he knew, which would have released him, and instead was stuck in it for 4 and a half billion years and the only thing she can say to him is "WHY?! WHY WOULD YOU EVEN DO THAT TO YOURSELF?!" I feel like if ones choices were being trapped in a torture chamber for 4 and a half billion years or playing EVERY N.E.S. LJN game choosing the 4 and a half billion year torture chamber would be a no brainer!
I’m sure this has been answered already, but why is there no E-tier? I won’t be able to sleep until I know! Great series btw, good job! You really know these games well.
So many missed opportunities with the movies based games. I get the feeling during the nes days some games they just took a stock games and just slapped a movie title on it and called it a day.
The Gotcha! movie was not about paintball directly. The paintball aspect of it was more a plot point as to how he could sneak around campus and be competent with a pistol and taking out KGB agents.
I used to use my baseball cards of this year to match the players jersey number with the name, and play the all star mode with my friends with our favorite players. I beat thrillas surfari, it is an awesome game if you play it more than once
@@JohnRiggs I have to agree with Chris there, I was able to beat it as a kid on more than one occasion. The key is to farm drum punches and crane kicks. I'd put KK above Jaws, probably a real solid B tier game for me.
An interesting fact about Back to The Future NES is the song playing as Marty collecting clocks is none other than Power of Love but it was speed up due to a programming issue. Also some LJN games were made by Rare as well. Also Who Framed Roger Rabbit was made by both Capcom and Rare so I can see why the game was an OK game. The only LJN game that I have ever owned was WWF Royal Rumble on SNES.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit was not done by Capcom at all, just Rare. On an unrelated note, Kemco's Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle was a Roger Rabbit game in Japan.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Let's Rank All 30 NES Black Box Games ua-cam.com/video/_Eu0H3I0cKA/v-deo.html
If a game is ranked lower than "Back to the Future"...
Ljn wasn’t all that bad just rushed programming on all of them.
crazy putting Thrilla's in F tier
I thought we had it bad with the Commodore 64 🤣
I hope you do a Tengen one
"There's a lot of things we could have done with this but didn't." -- LJN's mission statement
We blew our budget on licensing the title.
X-Men was, hands-down, the most heartbreakingly bad game I have EVER played.
I wanted to convince myself it was good so bad when I was a kid. Xmen were cool, Nintendo was cool, this game had to be rad as hell, I must just be bad at it...
I eventually traded it to a friend's cousin for Star Tropics, so I guess it was a pretty good purchase
I remember being so excited to rent this and it was my biggest gaming disappointment at that time.
I loved the X-Men so much and I was so hyped about getting this game. I was terribly disappointed and even more so with my favorite xman being the worst character in it. Wolverine was atrocious. No ranged attacks, basic attacks and slow. I think he slowly healed but it doesn't matter when you are at the mercy of gates and a timer when you beat a boss. I wanted to like this game but I just couldn't.
I remember renting it as a kid expecting it to be amazing and after playing less than an hour, I realized the game was just terrible. As a 7 year old trying to explain that to your parents is a losing battle as they just assume you are complaining and want another game instead
And yet Nintendo gave it their $eal of approval. It didn't have nudity, blood, religion, hamsters in the microwave, and most importantly the check they got from the publisher cleared.
Sometimes I think I'm the only person who likes the Spidey NES game. Loved how you could hold down the punch button and one or two-shot Mysterio if you hit him just right. I do hate the zombie enemies on Mysterio's level, though!
Somewhere an angry nerd just had goose bumps shoot up his neck while suddenly getting an urge to drink a rolling rock! 😂 🍻
Laughing Joking Numbnuts
And somewhere else a certain defender is feeling innocent until proven guilty.
@@mattpurvis927 EXACTLY!
RainingMetal LJN defender doesn’t exist anymore.
@@Rountree1985 I know. I was a Patreon patron of his and saw all the announcements.
I agree with pretty much all of your rankings. The only thing I would change is bumping up "Friday the 13th" to A tier. That game is criminally underrated and actually really fun to play. I play through it every year, never gets old.
I agree… It also felt strangely haunted as a kid, which I think is an achievement as a horror game one that is rarely duplicated even in modern gaming.
This is probably my favorite video currently, just for how fun you made this!
Bhis.
"I want to like it because you can do some things in it."
- John Riggs
The MOST important thing, not mentioned, is you can turn it off. I feel like that was an oversight on his part.
I put it in the D tier because, well, yeah... I mean, nevermind, I put it in the C tier because I really want to like it, but I don't, so I can't really... yeah.
I mean, what other positives are there in ljn games?
I rented The Punisher many times , loved that game. Great video as always.
Oh man, this is AVGN's worst nightmare, all LJN games in one video lol
I could of swore that Silver Surfer was LJN because the Game design and Music was right there with Wolverine.
I corrected myself that it was published by Arcadia.
Both Wolverine and Silver Surfer were made by Software Creations (as well as Pictionary and Incredible Crash Dummies). LJN didn't make any games themselves.
@@Ruudos
Even just as a publisher I can't think of one company since that has this level of reputation. I mean LJN consistently had terrible games.
@@JohnDoe-yf9wk T*HQ and Mindscape are pretty awful too.
Man you’re so right about T&C Surf Design! People played cause that’s all they had. Can’t believe I replayed the same level over and over struggling to get through the controls and levels. It has a great soundtrack though!
I love these Nintendo ranking videos of yours. I hope you do more.
This was great. I immediately fired up Jaws and did the only trick I know, which is to immediately find Jaws then move one pixel down with my diver from the top of the screen and rail on Jaws with harpoons on turbo. Still works!
Sounds like you knew how to really have fun with the Jaws game.
When I was a kid, I made it my mission to beat every NES game I came across...That mission ended when we rented Karate Kid. I had gotten soooo close, but ended up rage quitting before rage quitting was ever coined as a term. Recently, I fired it up to try again...Didn't make it 5 minutes into the game, and I'm like nope...not going to happen.
I beat the Karate Kid multiple times as a kid. The trick is to cheese the enemies that pop up and get them to either run past you by switching levels or by getting three of them to constantly chase you which keeps new enemies from spwning ahead of you and you can just rush to the end, as long as you keep enough distance from them.
I am really enjoying your recent ranking videos! Keep up the good work.
Wrestlemania Challenge was a fresh of breath air compared to the original Wrestlemania. LJN may be the rainbow of death but had some fun games on the NES. Now, SNES.....I got a few favs.
I rented Bill and Ted soooo many times. I didnt know it was a bad game when i was a kid, I just thought I was bad at it. Lol. Then I played it 20 years later and never again. 😂😂 Great video Riggs!
yeah the role playing element was good on paper but getting bad advice
So many bad NES games made me think I was a bad gamer.
I think Gotcha were little plastic pellet type things with paint on them, a bit different from paintballs. But this is trying to remember them from 30 years ago
Great video. I just recently bought the super retro trio plus and never had a nes back in the day so this guide is super useful to me. Many thanks 😊
I have memories of my dad playing jaws when I was a little kid. It’s really the only one I know from this list besides Friday the 13th which is strange cuz I remember getting a little scared when Jason came. But I was a little kid so.
Jason popping up is still scary!
JohnRiggs And the Cabin music is creepy, but not as creepy as Kunitoki’s music in The Last Ninja
I consider the game ahead of its time for this. The way Jason is going around the map and you run into him is a lot like Nemesis and Mr X from Resident Evil.
edit: bootleg SPINY, not Lakitu
You said: Lakitu
You Meant: Spiny
I thought: Koopa
Karate Kid is pretty easy. Especially the last level since you can keep a couple guys chasing you during most of the level so new ones can’t appear.
Right? I beat it as a kid and you can cheese the enemies on screen and get them to run past you by changing levels.
When I was young a friend of mine in the apartments we lived in would play Who Framed Roger Rabbit with me and we would take notes. Had a small note book for clues. We had such an amazing time with that game.
Games like Jaws and Nightmare on Elm Street provide fond memories because I simply owned them. Its like you said - back then you played a game because you had it. I remember getting Nightmare on Elm Street at a yard sale for $1 loose cartridge and recently seen it loose at a pawn shop for $50 (Canadian). The owner explained the AVGN episode boosted its value, and he also told me it retains value because its the ONLY Nightmare on Elm Street video game out there. Is that true?
I absolutely love T&C surf designs. The skateboarding stages were so addictive
This is an awesome series and I hope you continue it. How about ranking all of the Acclaim NES games next?
Call me crazy but Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and WWF Wrestlemania Challenge are all A and S tier games for me. Glad you didn't rank F13 and Nightmare too low. A lot of people assume they are bad because of the AVGN. A Nightmare on Elm Street had 4 player co-op, tight controls, cool music, and awesome boss fights. To me it's one of the most underrated games.
I agree with Nightmare. That is a solid A tier, maybe even S. Friday always pissed me off. Never played Wrestlemania Challenge.
Elm Street is probably the best game LJN ever Published. Which makes sense since it was developed by RARE. Idk if I’d put it in S tier but definitely deserves A tier at least.
The nerd was correct though his experience was my experience...
I loved Nightmare on Elm Street. Me and my cousins would play it all the time. And we even had the 4 score for 4 player support. Definitely S tier as far as LJN games go.
Friday the 13th for the time definitely wasn't bad some minor complaints the water part is kind of unfair to the player and the random spawning weapons can kind of screw you though, jaws could have been longer because it wasn't there worst but way too short
You will be hard pressed to find a more fun game than Nightmare on elm street with 4 players and game genie it makes for a great party game. One of my best memories growing up was playing through it with my brother and two cousins in one night with that set up it was epic fun!
You're totally not wrong about Who Framed Roger Rabbit. That was one I remember renting a ton. I don't remember being particularly good at it, but it was just fun to explore.
The game was fun I thought also
He's also not wrong about the boss. Judge Doom really was one of the most tedious final bosses I can remember ever dealing with. The fight goes on FOREVER, and you're just doing the same basic move over and over and over.
I bought the x-men game at a yard sale thinking it would be awesome. Boy was I wrong.
I've been binge watching all of your tier lists and I have to say one of the stand-out moments so far has been the thousand-yard stare at 2:01, I'm laughing so much
Punisher also has really cool palettes for its environments. X-Men is a game that I wanted to like, because the visual design was so strange and fun to explore, but it really is pretty rough. Good to know that I wasn't the only one using the Nightcrawler trick, though.
It's nice to see some love for Friday The 13th. I honestly think it's unfairly panned, and if it had been put out by ANY other publisher, it would be recognized - at least - as an incredibly ambitious, if flawed, ancestor of the survival horror genre. The open-ended gameplay is particularly impressive, by third gen standards. The player is given a huge amount of freedom to explore strategies and find their own way through the game, and you really didn't see that in most NES games.
Your list is pretty spot on. I grew up in the era when these came out and there were more bad games than good. However, to this day, I will always have a soft spot for Jaws and Friday the 13th since I still own and play those games. I'm so old I remember sending in a picture of my high score for Jaws to Nintendo Power!
F13 was the bane of my youth but I do definitely have a soft spot for it. I wish I had Elm Street instead though growing up honestly as I could of had a lot of fun with that. I appreciate F13 more nowadays though as it’s a really ambitious game for NES days.
I still love Jaws even though someone probably made it in an afternoon hahaha
Friday the 13th is a solid A+ for me. I still regularly enjoy it to this day. I agree with the B rating for Nightmare on Elm St. They were two of my favorites back in the day.
Love Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street and Jaws. Some of my go to NES games. S grade for me!
My favorite NES LJN games would be T&C Surf Design, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm ST, WWF Wrestlemania Steel Cage Challenge
Great video topic! Loved the "Ranking the Black Box Games" topic as well. Brilliant, Riggs!
In March 13, 1990, LJN became a subsidiary of Acclaim. So in a way, the Acclaim games after that point are sort-of LJN games.
Awesome video. Loved this one Riggs. Looking forward to more like this. I dig the Jaws music recap of the game ratings too
Good list, John! I would actually encourage you to take the time to play Thrilla's Surfari a bit more because it really is a solid game. I rented it back in 1992 when it was new so I certainly have that nostalgic attachment to it but it is genuinely good once you get a feel for the controls/gameplay and nuances within the game such as collecting coconuts (gives you more tries in the bonus game so that you can get extra lives) and what not. It's the one LJN game I own if that means anything. ;) I do agree with you on Jaws because that game is so simple yet it's a fun little gem. You are making me want to try Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street though!
Exactly. I love that game!
Playing Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th are Halloween traditions for me. I still love them.
It would've been really awesome if LJN's "The Karate Kid," much like Capcom's "The Goonies II," had a licensed song from the movie. I'd love to hear an 8-bit version of "You're the Best" by Joe Esposito!
My personal favorite of the LJN titles has got to be Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I actually really enjoyed that game. It's also the only one off the top of the head I beat too. And it followed the movie which is one of my absolute favs.
Just on NES? Because I always thought Maximum Carnage on Snes and Genesis was undisputed champ of LJN IMO.
Great episode and great channel. Big Riggs is the man!
Thanks for making this great video. Love your videos. Legend!
Where do we go to buy some of your beer, Riggs?
I absolutely loved The Karate Kid as a child. The hit detection was rough for sure , but I so loved the mini games, especially the chopsticks. An A for me!
Gotcha was based on the 80's toy line which was squirt guns with colored water so you could see when someone was hit.
Making me wanna watch AVGN again
A lot of people also forget that Beam Software and Rare helped out LJN a lot, Punisher was Beam, and gets an A in my books
I agree with you that Punisher should be ranked higher than what John gave it, but I think it belongs in the B-tier personally. The only thing holding it back from A-tier IMO is the lack of in-game music (aside from the saxophone player).
As someone who have never owned or played an NES and these games, it's interesting some of these games you kinda like and AVGN hates. Like the two horror based games.
Thanks for the video.
Can you rank all the NES baseball games in one video. I think ranking by genre like that would be cool.
Thanks to Tim Follin's god tier music, Pictionary is a C rank game.
Totally agree with T/C. I still have mine. I played it a ton back in the day... 🥳
I gotta put T&C as a solid B , I think a C is harsh. Cool music, interesting characters and once you get the hang of the controls it’s pretty rewarding to progress in the game.
Luis Suarez S!
The worst part of these games is that LJN bought licenses to great movies, and my dad would always buy me one of these turds for Christmas based on the name alone, unaware of LJN's now legendary penchant for mediocrity.
Original T&C Surf Design has got to be an A. Like you said, everyone played and remembers that game!!
S for me!
As a sports gamer, Roger Clemens Baseball was fun. It was not officially licensed by MLB or MLBPA so they couldn’t real names but the real players were all alluded to. In the clip you showed there was a “S. Clarinet” that’s Steve Sax from the Dodgers. You also showed M. Donningly. That’s the great Don Mattingly from the Yanks. That was a fun part of that game actually
Years later Acclaim would own LJN, Flying Edge, Arena Games
I have good memories of T&C Surf Design 1. At least, the skateboarding parts.
Never played NES T2. Wonder how it compares to the GB game - which I owned and enjoyed as a kid.
Excellent video , you really know your stuff when it comes to video games !
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a solid A-Tier IMO. The open world element and whole atmosphere of the game is great. Heck, it was just fun driving the car around the open worlds.
It was one of the games my cousins would bring it over for nearly every party for a couple years and we would play it for hours.
I totally remember what you mean by how when the sport of paint ball was coming around that we all did call it Gotcha for about a year.
Gotcha was a paint toygun manufactured by LJN as is the game, and it is based on that movie.
I hope ya keep this series goin'.
Man, I love this rank videos =D
How did they get all of these licenced properties?
I wonder when AVGN will run out of LJN Games to review?
LJN published 25 NES games, 15 SNES games, 18 or 19 Gameboy games, 1 Dreamcast game, an accessory for the NES(the Rolling Rocker) and a console(the LJN Video Art).
He has covered quite a lot of their games, the Rolling Rocker in his "Nes Accessories" video and the LJN Video Art in one of his Christmas videos so i would say that he's near the end.
Although he covered "Spirit of Speed"(the LJN Dreamcast game and their last one) in a James and Mike video and not as the AVGN.
Here's hoping he covers Spirit of Speed as the AVGN, that would be cool and funny to see.
I can only imagine the AVGN celebrating like crazy and throwing quite a party like he did when he finished with Action 52, upon finding out "Spirit of Speed" is the last LJN game. 😀😁
The T&C game the skateboarding part is fun. However. I couldn't figure out the controls for the surfing part.
Excellent job, always enjoy your videos
Roger Rabbit was a really really good game. I'd even say it was ahead of it's time to an extent. You shoulda just went with A!
Also the guy who did the soundtrack for Pictonary also did Crash Test Dummies!
Nice, you should do one for The Acclaim games on the NES, ocean games and Jaleco
I still love my copy of The Karate Kid. Couldn't agree with you more when you said, you played these games because you had them. And I def played a lot of KK! Great content, as always!!!
@johnriggs. 🙏🙏🙏please do a retro review of Data East games!! I would be thrilled to hear your thoughts on Capt America, Bad Dudes, RoboCop, and so on. I'm new to the channel, but have quickly become a fan of your content. Keep up the awesome work!!!!!
Friday the 13th gets a B?! Hard to take the rest of the video seriously after that!
i have to put jaws as a solid A tier just for the diving portions and the jellyfish mini games. and can i even get started on the music? and a nightmare on elm street is a total S tier just for the awake asleep themes. the music. and actually being multiplayer. i was never really into Friday the 13th. even after learning how to play it i had no love for it. but ill agree with you for what it is. but overall the list seems pretty accurate to me. great work Riggs
Id put Jaws and rodger rabit as A tier... only LJN NES games i ever go back to and play
Solid line analysis of the LJN library John. Folks seem to give LJN an unfair biased because of AVGN and the fact that they never put out any real bangers like Capcom or Konami. Wolverine should have been a B or at least C though.
I feel like Clara in Doctor Who during the Capaldi era where she learns The Doctor was trapped in the confession dial and wouldn't tell what he knew, which would have released him, and instead was stuck in it for 4 and a half billion years and the only thing she can say to him is "WHY?! WHY WOULD YOU EVEN DO THAT TO YOURSELF?!" I feel like if ones choices were being trapped in a torture chamber for 4 and a half billion years or playing EVERY N.E.S. LJN game choosing the 4 and a half billion year torture chamber would be a no brainer!
Friday the 13th! I have retro Jason tattooed on my arm.
T&C Surf Designs, should be an A aside from the akward surfboarding, it's a really fun game I always come back to.
Ranking the SNES LJN games would be fun too.
Great idea, I still can't believe Alien 3 is from ljn
I like fun things for sure!
I’m sure this has been answered already, but why is there no E-tier? I won’t be able to sleep until I know!
Great series btw, good job! You really know these games well.
Ocean games on the Amiga. Love your work JR.
Bill and Ted game I give a b tear for bogus
So many missed opportunities with the movies based games. I get the feeling during the nes days some games they just took a stock games and just slapped a movie title on it and called it a day.
LJN created the Rage meter long before Samurai Shodown.
So what would you say is your favorite LJN NES game?
Such a soft spot for WWF Wrestlemania Challenge. It was undoubtedly in my top 5 most played as a child.
The Gotcha! movie was not about paintball directly. The paintball aspect of it was more a plot point as to how he could sneak around campus and be competent with a pistol and taking out KGB agents.
I used to use my baseball cards of this year to match the players jersey number with the name, and play the all star mode with my friends with our favorite players. I beat thrillas surfari, it is an awesome game if you play it more than once
Wait, what? Karate Kid is super easy, just got to know some simple strats. Another solid game.
haha, dammit!
@@JohnRiggs I have to agree with Chris there, I was able to beat it as a kid on more than one occasion. The key is to farm drum punches and crane kicks. I'd put KK above Jaws, probably a real solid B tier game for me.
Gotcha movie... It was paint baller college kid, meets espionage.
Thirty-three people really, really, really loved LJN games and this video was an affront on their whole being. This is the hill they would die on.
That pictionary soundtrack gives me Maniac Mansion vibes.
I have a bunch of nostalgia for LJN.
This is a great series! What's next? Capcom... Konami...
Planning on both eventually. Probably Capcom next to wash away the sorrow of this list.
Used to play Karate Kid for hours. You just replay the same stages after beating it.
It was a better game than his rating here...
An interesting fact about Back to The Future NES is the song playing as Marty collecting clocks is none other than Power of Love but it was speed up due to a programming issue. Also some LJN games were made by Rare as well. Also Who Framed Roger Rabbit was made by both Capcom and Rare so I can see why the game was an OK game. The only LJN game that I have ever owned was WWF Royal Rumble on SNES.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit was not done by Capcom at all, just Rare. On an unrelated note, Kemco's Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle was a Roger Rabbit game in Japan.