Beyond Zelda — NES RPGs You Forgot Existed

Everyone remembers Final Fantasy and the Zelda games, but the NES had a deeper RPG bench than its reputation suggests, much of it ported from home computers. My shelf:

• The Ultima trilogy — Exodus, Quest of the Avatar, and Warriors of Destiny, Richard Garriott's landmark series brought to the console.
• Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord — the grid-crawling dungeon RPG that shaped an entire genre (especially in Japan).
• Hydlide — an early action-RPG, infamous now for its grind, but a real piece of history.
• The Magic of Scheherazade — an underrated action-RPG with a time-travel hook and party combat.
• Legacy of the Wizard — Falcom's sprawling, password-driven Metroidvania-RPG.

And for the strategists: Koei's Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Shingen the Ruler brought deep historical war-sims to a console most people associated with jumping on turtles. The NES contained multitudes.