[Perndog]

The guys that did Contra are called the Minibosses, they also recorded a bunch of other great old NES tunes.

My recommendations are:

Wild ARMs
Chrono Trigger
Chrono Cross
Brave Fencer Musashi
Donkey Kong Country 1 and 2
Xenogears
Warcraft II (you can rip the audio tracks straight off the game CD, at least with the original release)
Terranigma
Secret of Mana