A total of 716 known licensed games were released for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) during its lifespan; 367 of these games were released only in North America plus 2 championship games, 36 games released outside North America and 313 games released everywhere. Games dated October 18, 1985 are launch titles for North America.
There are 174 unlicensed games in the NES library released without approval from Nintendo during the console's lifespan. There are an additional 123 unlicensed games released after the console's lifespan.
list of rare pal nes games
Nintendo's 8-bit console is home to a slew of exceedingly rare, expensive games. Despite their age and archaic nature, there are ample titles that remain coveted and often cost loads more than flashy games of the modern era. Thanks to its seasoning and several unique and obscure games, NES remains a platform of choice for collectors looking to show off their rare gaming artifacts.
Updated January 5th, 2023, by Stephen LaGioia: Collecting rare video games is a hobby that continues to grow in the gaming community. This is especially true as gamers rediscover popular retro classics of the Atari, NES, and Genesis era, consoles that have increasingly ridden the nostalgic wave.
And in an age where digital is increasingly becoming the norm, there's something to be said about having a physical disc or cartridge, which can be proudly showcased on one's gaming shelf, or, if valuable enough, sitting in glass displays. With this in mind, and given the fluctuating prices, we decided to revisit this list of the rarest, most valuable NES games for collectors.
Back when the American market was still hesitant to take on gaming again after the Atari crash, Nintendo decided to position their NES as more of a toy. Enter the clunky, slow-moving R.O.B. the Robot, an accessory that was to work in conjunction with certain games. One of the premiere titles was this strange block-sorting "game."
As one can imagine, this premise didn't quite wow gamers even in the '80s, when such tech may have been considered more cutting-edge. This made the game particularly tough to get ahold of, especially when included with the clunky robot. The in-box version of Stack Up is particularly rare, fetching over a grand.
On top of this, there were various skews for Tournament Fighter, along with regional releases. In a rare role reversal, Japan never got a release of this NES Turtles game, further adding to its scarcity.
It's a shame this converted arcade game has been relegated to obscurity, as it contains some simultaneous co-op that's quite enjoyable. Yet, apparently, most gamers in 1991 didn't quite think so, as it never really took off, getting lost amidst a sea of great NES games.
It was also followed by the hyped SNES around the time of its release and overshadowed by the similar Bubble Bobble games. These factors, coupled with developer Toaplan filing for bankruptcy and closing its doors in '94, led to a short, limited run of the NES version of Snow Brothers.
It didsee a renaissance, however, as it was one of the first games to kick off Nintendo's Wii Virtual Console in 2006. This more recent port ironically gave it far more exposure and players than its original NES release.
Gaming collectors would have hit the jackpot if they happened to be a fan or collector of Japanese publisher Taito. Getting one's hands on a Taito-published game produced near the end of the NES's life seemingly ensures one will get a highly rare and sought-after cart.
The originalcan be found as part of another rare NES game known as Action 52. A sequel was planned and partially developed but never carried to completion. In fact, no official finished game carts exist, with the roughly 1,500 in circulation housing the incomplete game in bare plastic. The bare cart merely has a simple gold sticker with the title slapped on. And good luck finding the box, which is even rarer!
It's tough to get rarer than this, as there exists only one cart that's accounted for. Similar to Nintendo World Champions, this strange cart was made for the singular purpose of playing segments of Nintendo games used for a special event. This occasion, named the Nintendo Campus Challenge, was a Nintendo-sponsored competition held in '91 and '92, in which the Japanese developers toured dozens of college campuses in the US.
Some of the most rare and expensive games ever are from the Nintendo NES. Below is a list of the rarest and most expensive Nintendo games and what makes them so valuable.The list is ranked by highest recorded sales price per game.Click for Prices For All Nintendo NES GamesStadium EventsNew Price: $41,300 Used Price: $1,000An auction for a sealed copy of Stadium Events set a record for the highest priced game ever sold. The game was released in a limited number of stores in 1987, but Nintendo bought the rights to this Bandai game so they could release it as World Class Track Meet. This is considered to be the rarest of the licensed NES games with only an estimated 200 copies in existance. Don't confuse this with the PAL version (see below) which is not as rare but looks very similar. You can use a Stadium Events version guide to tell them apart.See Historic Prices See Ebay ListingsNintendo Campus Challenge 1991New Price: NA Used Price: $20,100In 1991 Nintendo held a video game tournament at college campuses across the country. For the competition they created a cartridge which had three games on it, Super Mario 3, Dr. Mario, and PinBot, and a 6 minute time limit. Only one of these is known to exist and was found at a ex-Nintendo employee's garage sale. The game sold on ebay this past summer for $20,100.See Historic Prices See Ebay ListingsNintendo World Championships GoldNew Price: NA Used Price: $18,000Considered to be the "Holy Grail" of game collecting by many, it is no longer the most expensive video game or even the most expensive Nintendo game. Nintendo gave away 26 of these gold cartridges after the 1990 Nintendo World Championships (see below). The game cartridge has Super Mario, Tetris, and Rad Racer on one cartridge and gives players a combined score for all three games after playing for six minutes.See Historic Prices See Ebay ListingsNintendo World Championships GrayNew Price: NA Used Price: $5,500The gray version of Nintendo World Championships is not as rare as the Gold version, but still sells for more than $5,000. Nintendo held a video game competition in 1990 to determine the best Nintendo players in three different age groups. The winner in each age group and each city was given a gray cartridge as a prize so only 90 of these exist today.See Historic Prices See Ebay ListingsMyriad 6-in-1New Price: $5,000 Used Price: $985Myriad 6 in 1 is a collection of six games on one cartridge. Myriad bought all the remaining 6-in-1 cartridges from Caltron (see below) as they were going out of business. Myriad then changed the sticker on the front and added a unique serial number to each cartridge. The game was unlicensed by Nintendo and there are thought to be fewer than 100.See Historic Prices See Ebay ListingsStadium Events PAL VersionNew Price: $4,000 Used Price: $990The European version of Stadium Events is not as rare as its American counterpart, but is still an expensive NES game. The PAL version was released in multiple languages so some versions have English wording, while others have German or even Dutch. The game isn't as rare because Nintendo never recalled it like they did with the NTSC version.See Historic Prices See Ebay ListingsCaltron 6-in-1New Price: $1,775 Used Price: $860Caltron 6-in-1 is an unlicensed game for the NES and is notoriously bad. All six games are of very low quality and this helped limit the number of games sold. Caltron Industries shut-down as a video game publisher after this game came out and it is the only game they ever released. The six games on the cartridge Cosmos Cop, Adam and Eve, Magic Carpet 1001, Balloon Monster, Porter, and Bookyman, are all take offs on other popular NES games.See Historic Prices See Ebay ListingsPeek-A-Boo PokerNew Price: NA Used Price: $1,300Peek-A-Boo Poker is another unlicensed game for the NES, but it is also adult rated. The game is basically strip poker on the NES with female characters on the game removing clothes if you win. The game was made by Panesian, the same publishers who made Bubble Bath Babes and Hot Slots, which are two more pornographic games you will see lower on this list.See Historic Prices See Ebay ListingsBubble Bath BabesNew Price: NA Used Price: $725Bubble Bath Babes is an adult version of Tetris with bubbles. You arrange bubbles of similar colors so they are touching and they disappear. The game was produced in very limited quantities and were sold in VHS style boxes instead of the usual NES game box. Very few of these ever sold because it was only sold through Video stores, and not game stores.See Historic Prices See Ebay ListingsCheetahmen IINew Price: $870 Used Price: $650Cheetahmen II is a sequel that was never officially released. It was completed by it's developer but never sold. In 1997 all 1,500 of the games were found in a warehouse and sold in the secondary market. The game has so many bugs that it considered almost unplayable. In-spite of its poor quality it will still fetch more than $600 on a regular basis.See Historic Prices See Ebay ListingsHot SlotsNew Price: NA Used Price: $550Hot Slots has you play a slot machine on the NES but at certain times during the game pixelated woman without much on will show up on the screen to say something. The game was only sold through mail-order to video stores and for obvious reasons was never licensed by Nintendo for the NES.See Historic Prices See Ebay ListingsPunch-Out Special EditionNew Price: NA Used Price: $415A gold version of Punch-Out for the NES. 10,000 copies of the game were made and given out as part of a Nintendo Golf competition in Japan. The game is for the Famicom in Japan. The special editon was actually released before any other version of Punch-out and doesn't even have Mr. Dream or Mike Tyson as the final fight. Super Macho Man is the last character in the game.See Historic Prices See Ebay ListingsMr. GimmickNew Price: NA Used Price: $200Mr. Gimmick was came out in Japan as Gimmick and Europe as Mr. Gimmick. The European version is the rarer of the two. The game plays like a traditional platformer but is notoriously difficult. The Electronic Gaming Monthly reviewed the game in their American magazine so it was thought it might come out in the US, but the game was never released stateside.See Historic Prices See Ebay ListingsFlintstones Surprise at Dino PeakNew Price: NA Used Price: $170Surprise at Dino Peak was the second Flintstones game for the NES but it came out three years after the Super Nintendo released. Most gamers had moved away from the original Nintendo so the game sold poorly, which makes it quite rare today.See Historic Prices See Ebay ListingsDevil WorldNew Price: NA Used Price: $150Devil World was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and published by Nintendo, but is still a rare game. Devil World plays very similarly to PacMan but depicted the Devil and other religious symbols. Because of this Nintendo never released the game in North America, which makes it the only game designed by Miyamoto that didn't come out in the USA.See Historic Prices See Ebay ListingsOther Expensive Nintendo GamesLittle Samson - Used Price: $120
190-in-1 Cartridge - Used Price: $105
Bubble Bobble Part 2 - Used Price: $100
Panic Restaurant - Used Price: $100
Action 52 - Used Price: $75
Bonk's Adventure - Used Price: $65
Secret Scout - Used Price: $60
Megacom 76 - Used Price: $56
King Neptune's Adventures - Used Price: $55
Power Blade 2 - Used Price: $55
Snow Brothers - Used Price: $55
Menace Beach - Used Price: $51
See What Your Games Are WorthClick for Prices For All Nintendo NES GamesSee a list of the most expensive video games of all timeVGPC.com has daily updated prices for every NES game and most NES consoles and accessories. Our NES price list includes more than 780 games. See Prices For All NES GamesBuy and sell games in our Free Game Marketplace 2ff7e9595c
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