The Snes Gaiden isn't an exact port, and despite the visual upgrade has some gameplay issues

Theres a few differences between both versions. You can look them up online.

The Super Mario Bros games are way better on the NES versions then the crappy All Stars versions.

I own NGT for the Snes and I've owned and played the 8bit originals many times through out the years.I'm aware of the differences between the games,and their are not that many.

I've never really thought about this, to be honest..

I'd have to say that the NES Mega Man games play better than Mega Man 7 (where they technically evolved to).

Contra, I do think plays better on the NES. But, that's not to discount Contra III (or the next one on the Genesis, Hard Corps)--those play a lot faster and are a lot more chaotic. Plus they are memorizers like R-Type, something that wasn't necessarily required in the NES games. The NES Contras also have a nice feel and almost perfect pacing, and I think that's what makes me appreciate them more.

Castlevania--the first SNES one beats the NES ones hands-down. Few action/platformers have been as perfect as Castlevania IV in my opinion, either before or since.

Battletoads--Better on the NES. The thing I dislike about Battlemaniacs is how inconsistently your punches seem to connect. I also dislike how overpowered the enemies are in it. Not from an attacking standpoint--enemies have always been very strong in the Battletoads games--but they take so many hits compared to what they did in the NES Battletoads. And with all of the sprites being larger, you don't have as much room to manuever around big groups of enemies. The NES Battletoads felt a lot more balanced in that regard, and your power attacks (like the double-tap foward ram) felt like they actually did something.

Yeah, like I said, a few. OP asked what series played better on the NES than SNES and I felt the NES version was better, that's all.

Agreed entirely.  I can think of others too that are easy choices.
- Mighty Final Fight (FF1 on SNES is censored and a stage removed)
- Gargoyles Quest II (over Demon's Crest)
- Mike Tyson's Punchout (Super Punchout with it's 1 round rigid pattern play or fail design)
- Mega Man series (vs the X games)
- Super Mario Bros 3 (over world, but marginally so neary even)
- Battletoads and Double Dragon (SNES game controls and play are stiff, harms it)

Yeah ,the controls are a little stiff in the Snes remakes the buttons were moved around from the originals,especially on part 2 .Plus removing the lighting effects in part 2 didn't help it much with me.And the music in the Snes version leaves a little to be desired.

You can't really compare MM1-6 with the MMX series. They're completely different.

^^^Yep!But I will say this I prefer the original series over the X series.

Lets see...

Double Dragon series
Contra (I would agree with this one)
Mega Man (yep)
Castlevania

In what sense does castlevania play better on NES than on SNES? Isn't super castlevania 4 like...Superior in every way?

Yes the SNES game (#4) plays, looks and sounds superior entirely, but sometimes nostalgia gets in the way.

-The nitpicks on Final Fight for the SNES do not equal a worse experience.
-You're insane. I've completed both 100%, and Demon's Crest is FAR superior.
-Super Punch-Out technically has more in-depth play mechanics. Liking one over the other would be purely nostalgia.
-Mega Man X series was never intended to be an update of the original series. They are apples and oranges.
-Another one based on taste. I preferred SMW and never liked SMB3.
-Agreed.

Anyway, my vote is Life Force versus Gradius III. The slowdown on the SNES game made the gameplay worse than the NES game.

^This.

Your location info lists Germany... does that mean you've only experienced the PAL version then? That'd be a shame, they really busted it in the conversion from NTSC. They tried to rebalance things for the slower framerate and totally trashed the speed timings and gravity table as a result. The game "ends" a full ten levels earlier!

I'll agree that NTSC NES is better than the slight remix included in SNES Tetris + Dr. Mario. But, best there ever was and will be? Surely other masterpiece titles such as Tetris: The Grand Master are contenders, but I won't go as far as to pick a singular favorite in that contest.

Removing a character, a playable character and a stage isn't nitpicking.
Opinion, it's inferior to me.
Removing two rounds and turning it into a memory match game was a downgrade, fixed even in the Wii comeback you're in the minority.
its still mega man in general and to me and many inferior with the poor,y implemented SOTN knockoff gear up system.
im as I said more or less even on SMB3 and World, but 3 did have more variety.

i could care less about the slowdown in Gradius 3 it was superior in so many ways, a great arcade conversion.

http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=31&th...

Yup. They really thrashed the PAL version. I do have a NTSC cart now and that is basically all I have been playing since.
 I do pop in the PAL version every now and then to see if I can crack the 500k, but so far to no avail. Never hit level 20 on the PAL version either. Yet...

 And to be honest, I've never tried Tetris: The Grand Master. Maybe I should rephrase my statement by adding on a Nintendo console.

Ivan Stewart Off Road. Even though the graphics are better on the SNES, I prefer the order of tracks on the NES version better.

Hey look, it's my crappy YouTube video! Cool, glad to hear you're set up in that regard. (If you ever set any scores you'd like to share, feel free to swing by the records thread on Tetris Concept. )

If we limit our scope to Nintendo consoles, then I'd agree that NES is a pretty clear winner. There are some other solid or novel offerings, but (some accessibility concerns aside) I'd put NES on top -- as good as the others may be, they tend not to be quite as satisfying to play for score in the long run.

Ninja Gaiden 1-3 is the obvious answer. The SNES version is worse in every single category, including graphics. That's pretty sad considering how powerful the SNES hardware is compared to the NES.

The SNES NG Trilogy they just did the bare minimum to upgrade the audio and visuals, but the games are solid still and we got NG3 in the original Japanese design and difficulty which I think along with the passwords are a pair of pluses. But in the end sure it's a notable audio/visual halfassery job entirely. I don't have the time anymore to try and finish those in a sitting so I keep the SNES game instead, not to say if I ever bumped into the 3 NES games cheap I wouldn't buy them as the price on 3 sucks now.

I agree with this sentiment wholeheartedly.

Maybe in graphics and sound (well not maybe,)  but I prefer Castlevania III a lot more. More challenge, more replay value (because of the branching paths and different characters).

I actually think Super Castlevania iV is a bit overrated (it's still very good but I see people calling it the greatest game of all time). Maybe it is because I've never played it in the past or that my expectations of it were too high because of all of the praise it got. 

Contra > Contra III
Mega Man 1-6 ~= Mega Man X series.... I thoroughly enjoyed both series, just comparing to 7 though, NES wins
SMB 3 > Super Mario World.... Although both were two of the greatest games ever
SMB 1,2 & 3 > Mario All Stars
Punch Out >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Super Punch Out

Castlevania is debatable. The challenge just wasn't there on the SNES. I guess the SNES technically "played" better because it what very fluent being able to whip in practically every direction. That also took away a lot of the challenge though, which is kind of what made the series for me. Not to mention the different paths and characters of C3.