10 Most Rare NES Games, Ranked

If you’re familiar with game collecting, you should know that the 80s and 90s were a very different time for the collecting scene. You had store variants, not for resale cartridges, games meant for the military, and so on. The NES arrived before systems like the Genesis and SNES, so the rarest games can be very difficult to find.

You still have some competition cartridges, including the most famous one in all of gaming, some wildly rare standalone titles, games with more screws in them, and even test carts. With how old and rare these games are, none of the rarest titles cost under $3,000.

All values are based on PriceCharting’s complete price at the time of writing. When no complete price is available, the loose price will be used instead.

10

Donkey Kong Jr. Math – $3,447

Who Could Have Guessed The Poor Sales Of A Donkey Kong Math Game?

Donkey Kong Jr. Math is one of the most disliked Nintendo-developed games on the NES. Educational games have never been popular with mainstream gamers and likely never will be. This was especially true back in the 80s when the age demographic of gamers was much younger than the wide diversity today.

No one actually wanted to buy this title back then so, thanks to the poor sales, complete in-box copies are now worth over $3,000. That price alone tells you how few copies were sold, because even biggest financially failures don’t usually command this high of a price.

9

Hot Slots – $4,254

“Face It Tiger, You Just Hit The Jackpot”

In the realm of unlicensed NES games, the most infamous titles have to be the trilogy of adult games by publisher Hacker International. Frankly, these wouldn’t be considered adult games now, but they were back in the day.

You had the most famous one, Bubble Bath Babes, Peek-A-Boo Poker, and the rarest one, Hot Slots. Hot Slots is exactly what you think it is, a slot machine with naughty picture rewards every so often as you win big. All three of these games are incredibly rare, but Hot Slots is the most uncommon and thus the most valuable.

8

The Flintstones: The Surprise At Dinosaur Peak – $4,999

You’ll Need To Win Big At Viva Rock Vegas To Get This Game

One of the rarest standalone titles on the NES is The Flintstones: The Surprise at Dinosaur Peak. Published by Taito, a company with more than one incredibly rare NES game under its belt, Dinosaur Peak is a pretty solid platformer. At least you get a good game for thousands of dollars, but why is the title rare in the first place?

One look at its release date should tell the story. October 1993 is very late in the NES’s lifecycle, and most moved on to the SNES at that point. Releasing late in the console’s life usually results in a very rare title, and that’s been proven within the rare catalogs of various systems. Plus, the game had a low amount of cartridges produced, which is another aspect typical of end-of-life releases.

7

Nintendo World Championship Gold – $5,013

The Literal Holy Grail Of The NES

The most legendary early gaming competition events of all time has to have been the 1990 Nintendo World Championship. Partially inspired by the 1989 film The Wizard, the Nintendo World Championship took place all across the United States, with the finals occurring at Universal Studios Hollywood, just like the movie.

Contestants played Super Mario Bros., Rad Racer, and finally Tetris. The gray NWC cartridge given to the 90 finalists is already incredibly rare, but there’s a gold variant given away as a second-place prize in a Nintendo Power contest. That’s right, second place, and there were 25 winners. Now, that’s a low number.

6

Cheetahmen 2 – $5,289

A Miracle It Even Exists

You can make an argument that Action 52 is the worst game on the NES. Retailing for $199, not one of its 52 games is any good, including the big one, Cheetahmen. This blatant Ninja Turtles knockoff didn’t go anywhere, but a sequel followed regardless. Cheetahmen 2 was, thankfully, never finished, but how does that explain the existence of a Cheetahmen 2 cartridge?

In what must have been a search through unclaimed packages in a random Florida warehouse, 1,500 cartridges were found and subsequently sold in 1996. The game’s still unfinished and not good at all, but the history and true rarity make this product so valuable.

5

Little Samson – $5,357

The Biggest Hidden Gem On The System

Here’s a game akin to the expensive hidden gems you often see in later consoles like the PS2. Little Samson is another Taito-published game created by ex-Capcom developers, and it shows. The action platforming gameplay here is incredible, with switching characters on the fly similar to Castlevania 3, but far better.

The title still holds up today, but Taito strikes again, as copies are very rare. Little Samson sold poorly, as you’d expect, considering its critical notoriety didn’t come until fairly recently. There’s not even a modern rerelease as the game’s in legal limbo, similar to No One Lives Forever, so the $5,000 price likely means you’re not playing it.

4

Zelda Test Cartridge – $6,369

The Rarest Zelda Game

Like all console manufacturers, Nintendo had its own service centers, aka repair centers, and back in the 80s and 90s, a Zelda Test Cartridge was used for NES console testing. These types of cartridges normally don’t end up in the public hands, and the only reason this Zelda Test Cartridge did is because numerous service centers shut down in the late 2000s, and Nintendo sold off their inventory.

Nowadays, companies will probably be more restrictive about selling inventory like this, but that’s how these cartridges escaped company hands. It’s a miracle these test carts are even out in the wild, making it not only ludicrously expensive but the most valuable Zelda game ever.

3

Nintendo Campus Challenge 1991 – $17,083

The Rarest Competition Cartridge On The NES

Even though the Nintendo World Championship remains the most iconic gaming competition event of the 90s, there were still many afterward. Nintendo Campus Challenge occurred the following year in 1991 and, appropriately, ran events at US college campuses during Spring Break.

Once again, you played three games. The first one was Super Mario Bros. 3, the second was the NES version of Pin Bot, and finally, Dr. Mario to cap things off. A very odd choice to include Pin Bot, but the cartridge itself is even more elusive. Only one exists today, at least in public hands. As it was a nationwide competition event, many carts were used, but they likely belonged to Nintendo, so who knows what happened to them?

2

Mega Man 5 Screw – $33,867

Ungodly Rare

Most NES games have three screws in the cartridge, but some have five. The reason for this is that during the NES’s early years, five screws were the standard. They’re present in all the NES Black Box games, for example, but in 1987, Nintendo transitioned into three screw cartridges to cut costs.

As such, games within that 1987 time window have both three and five-screw versions. You want the five screw carts because they’re immensely rarer. Mega Man 1 released in December of 1987, and somehow a few cartridges were still produced with five screws, making it the second-rarest game on the console.

1

Family Fun Fitness Stadium Events – $42,004

The Actual Holy Grail Of The NES

While Nintendo World Championship Gold has to be the most desired game on the NES, the actual rarest game is Family Fun Fitness Stadium Events. You’re probably familiar with World Class Track Meet, the game that came with the Power Pad. That title was originally Stadium Events, published by Bandai with its own Family Fun branded pad, but Nintendo saw dollar signs.

They quickly picked up the rights to the pad itself, rebranded it as the Power Pad, and published the same game as World Class Track Meet. The Power Pad sold very well for its time, so Nintendo made the right call, but they scooped up the rights so fast that Stadium Events remains the rarest game on the NES.