Duck Hunt

Duck Hunt is one of the most iconic symbols of the entire NES era, a game recalled even by people who never owned a console. Its magic lay in the Zapper light gun, which turned the living room into a shooting range as the player aimed straight at the TV screen.

The concept was simple and addictive: ducks fly up out of the grass and you have to shoot them down before they escape off screen. Miss too many shots and you lose the round. Alongside the ducks, the game also offered a variant with clay-pigeon shooting. The most unforgettable element, though, became the hunting dog, that loyal four-legged companion who retrieves the ducks you shoot down, but when you miss, he pokes his head out of the grass and laughs at you mockingly. That dog earned a place in gaming history as one of the first video-game trolls. Technically the Zapper worked on a clever principle of sensing the screen's brightness, so the game could only be cheated on classic CRT televisions. Duck Hunt was often sold bundled together with Super Mario Bros. and thus became, for millions of people, their first encounter with Nintendo. For retro gamers it's pure nostalgia and an immortal piece of eighties pop culture.