Plays like Double Dragon or Final Fight, but with Batman characters.

Plays from an overhead perspective.

2D Japanese platformer with a musical theme. It has a lot of depth to it, and fun gameplay. I don't know Japanese, so I can't say anything about the story line. The Japanese subtitle for the game translates to "Milon's Exciting Huge Adventure". This isn't the same Milon as in Milon's Secret Castle.

2D platformer with 3D CG graphics.

2D platformer with 3D CG graphics.

2D platformer with 3D CG graphics.

This is the simplified and censored version of the Japanese Final Fantasy IV. This was the first Final Fantasy game to have the Active Battle System. It felt a lot like the NES Final Fantasy, but with much improved graphics and sound, and a far deeper story line.

This is the Japanese Final Fantasy VI with slight censorship. What an amazing game! The story line is very compelling, and the music is outstanding. Many people feel this is the greatest Final Fantasy game ever. It is certainly one of the best by any measure.

This game is almost Final Fantasy, but not quite. The graphics and gameplay mechanics feel similar to FF2 US, but it doesn't seem to share much of the naming conventions, so the world doesn't feel like a Final Fantasy world. Equipment is handled automatically. You will find better equipment along the way, and it will automatically be used. The story line is pretty much nonexistent. Overall, it is a much easier game than any FF game I've played. But it's not too bad.

Horizontal shooter.

I didn't like this one as well as the NES Kirby's Adventure. They added a lot of complexity by involving extra characters that you can combine with to change your abilities. It made the game unnecessarily complex. I found that most of the time, regardless of what combination of abilities I ended up with, I didn't have the ability I needed to accomplish some goal, so I had to go back and figure it out. That slows the game down considerably, and made it kind of boring for me.

Amazing update to the NES classic. It plays more like the original Zelda than Zelda II. The graphics and music are certainly better than the NES. It has a nice storyline, and the game world is huge. It also has a surprise twist that occurs about half way through the game. Excellent, and highly recommended!

This is a very unique puzzle game with platformer elements where you play three vikings who have unique abilities, and you use those abilities to get the vikings to the exit on each level. One viking can run quickly, jump, and head-butt through walls and enemies. Another can use a sword or a bow, but can't jump. The last one can use a shield to block enemies and projectiles, and the shield can be held over his head to act like a parachute or to be a platform for the first viking to jump on in order to get to higher platforms. It is very humorous, and it often breaks the fourth wall. The music is also very catchy.

Although not as good as a Final Fantasy RPG, Lufia is a good game. The music and story line is not as good as a Final Fantasy game. Also, it uses the old school RPG battle method where if you have multiple people hitting a single enemy, and the enemy is killed by the first attack, the later attacks will miss instead of automatically going for the next enemy. That makes the battle strategy a lot harder.

This Japanese game never made it to the U.S., and that is sad. I enjoyed Mario's Picross on Game Boy (and the Japan-only sequel), so when I found out there was a SNES version, I found a ROM and played it in emulation. Picross is a fun puzzle game where you build a picture using numbers as a guide. This takes a lot of brain power, and it is quite gratifying when you complete a picture.

Parachute, hang glide or fly a plane to complete objectives. This is surprisingly fun.

Nothing like the Atari classics. Pitfall II FTW!

Nice port of the arcade game.

Super Mario Bros. 1-3 and Japanese SMB2, all with enhanced graphics and sound, but with the gameplay completely intact. It also lets you save on all the Mario games, which is a nice addition.

Go-kart racing with Mario characters using weapons. Uses Mode-7 graphics.

Mario-themed RPG by Square. Although the combat is turn-based, it has action elements that make it a lot of fun. The storyline is deep and compelling. Definitely worth playing.

Quite possibly the best 2D platformer ever. Although it doesn't have the different suits like Super Mario Bros. 3, it has a huge world to explore. Many of the levels have 2 or even 3 exits to discover that lead you to secret areas.

Control Yoshi as he brings baby Mario back to his parents. The graphics look hand-drawn, and has a crayon-like effect to it. Not as good as Super Mario World, but still an excellent game.

Outstanding action/adventure/platformer that expands on the NES classic. The world is much larger, and Samus has many more abilities than before. The graphics, sound and music are fantastic, except for the gay-sounding narrator when you beat the game. I don't know what happened there. Yikes.

Port of arcade horizontal shooter Darius.

Horizontal shooter.

Excellent action/adventure/platformer based on the Amiga classics. It remixes the music from Turrican 3, and uses some of the levels from Turrican 2.

This is another great Turrican game, but the difficulty level is very unbalanced. I have yet to beat this one because of the high difficulty level in some stages, and I've even tried using save states in an emulator!

Race unicycles in a side-view perspective. Uses split-screen for two-player mode. You can rotate your unicycle, which is helpful for landing when going through the various loops and twists in the tracks. It is definitely better with two players.

Zany, lighthearted, 50s B-movie horror theme. 2-player co-op. Isometric perspective. Fun!