Ultima: Quest of the Avatar (Nintendo, 1990)

Published by Fujisankei, this version of Quest of the Avatar, like Exodus for the NES was strongly influenced by the success of the granddaddy of Japanese RPG's Draqon Quest (Dragon Warrior) in Japan, a game that itself ironically was clearly influenced by Ultima III: Exodus (and Wizardry, etc.) for home PC systems of the early 80's. One big difference is the smooth movement versus tile-by-tile movement from the PC versions. Another is the sort of cutesy big-headed Japanese RPG look of the characters. Dialogue options are also more limited. But if you don't mind that, this version is more accessible and easy to play, especially if you are not familiar with Ultima on systems like the Apple II or Commodore 64, and have no patience for learning a dozen special key bindings for keyboard play. On the down side you can only have 4 characters in your party in the NES version (you need to swap them out), and I think the music on systems like the Commodore 64 is superior to the tinny NES tunes, though this game is not so bad on the music side as NES music goes. The big reason to buy this is if you're short on time but want to re-experience the Quest for the Avatar in a casual, convenient way -- get yourself and FC toploader or similar Famiclone system, one of these carts, and seek out the NES specific walthrus on the web. Quest for the Avatar is a unique RPG in that you are not out to kill the bad Foozle, but rather to improve yourself through shrines of virtue, and while it feels like a Japanese RPG, it is not linear like so many JRPG's and allows freedom to explore and do things in whatever order you want.

This game started the whole RPG craze where you really had to think to advance. The Ultima series RPG where one of my all time favorite games.

There's nothing like dusting off an old system, in this case the NES, to play a classic RPG. You can easily spend hours and hours on this RPG with out a moment of boredom. Basic grapihcs and basic controls also make this game approchable to the not so hard-core rpg fans.