If you wanted to shoot things on the NES, you had options. Most of these started in arcades, which is worth remembering when they feel unfair: they were built to take a quarter every ninety seconds, and the home ports kept the pacing even after the coin slot went away. My action-and-shooter shelf runs deep:

• 1942 and 1943: The Battle of Midway, Capcom's WWII plane shooters. 1942 gives you a loop-the-loop instead of a bomb to dodge with; 1943 adds an energy bar that doubles as a timer, so taking damage costs you the clock as well as your life.
• Super C, the sequel to Contra, every bit as run-and-gun glorious and a two-player staple. It alternates the side view with overhead stages, and the spread gun is still the correct answer to every question.
• Ikari Warriors, Guerrilla War, Heavy Barrel and P.O.W., overhead commando run-and-guns by the truckload. Ikari lost its rotary joystick in the port, which is why aiming feels wrong, and it's so hard that the continue code is better known than the game.
• Rush'n Attack, Cold War knife-and-rescue side-scrolling. Konami called it Green Beret everywhere except America, where somebody could not resist the pun.
• Operation Wolf and Smash T.V., on-rails and twin-stick mayhem. Operation Wolf supports the Zapper, and Smash T.V. supports two controllers held at once so one thumb moves and the other shoots, which is the only correct way to play it.
• Xevious, Galaga, Gyruss, Tiger-Heli and Twin Cobra, the classic shmup pantheon. Xevious is the ancestor of the whole vertical genre and the first game with a real hidden secret, the buried Sol Towers you bomb up out of blank ground.
• Bad Dudes. "Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the President?" Yes. Yes I am.

Add Cabal, NARC, Rampage, Rolling Thunder, Section-Z, Burai Fighter, Image Fight and Abadox, and you've got a whole evening of trigger fingers. Image Fight in particular is Irem at their most merciless: fail to hit a target quota and it sends you to a penalty stage.

The NES could bring the noise.