A pretty impressive version of the popular space exploration game. Its a bit inaccessible and dated these days but still even now represents a unique and interesting game play experience which contains an inordinate amount of freedom.

I still remember playing this game in the arcades as a kid, and the first time I realized I could push the enemies off their flying platforms and steal them myself was one of those classic moments. This version is probably the most accurate of the 8-bit ports and retains most of the secrets which were missing from many of the other versions. It also sports some typically high quality sound work from Tim Follin too.

One of the main problems I usually find with many beat-em-up's is a general lack of variation, this is thankfully not a problem with Battletoads as the play styles vary considerably from one level to the next, here you'll be abseiling one moment and riding a high speed jet bike the next. Unfortunately they did however end up substituting one problem for another as they made the game a little too difficult for the average gamer, making this more of a game for experienced players only.

The original Gargoyle's Quest appeared on the Game Boy and was a real hard act to follow. At its heart the game play was based in a similar style to that of Zelda II, a top down over world which joined onto side scrolling action stages and the ability to power-up your character as the game progressed. But the thing which really lent the game its personality was the way it dealt with flight, the levels were carefully designed to force you to master the flight and use your limited time in the air to full effect. Here in the sequel we have all these classic features returning, along with much better graphics and some timeless NES music to elevate it even higher, easily my favourite of the three games in the series.

One of the best scrolling shmups on the NES, Over Horizon has the classic combination of excellent power-ups, clever level designs, great bosses and smattering of unique ideas which separate the stand-outs of its genre from the generic, it also utilizes a system where the two buttons are assigned to forwards and backwards firing which works pretty excellently.

A fun and accessible sequel which has you riding a plethora of different dinosaurs. The original Adventure Island was actually just a re-branded version of Wonder Boy, a series which became steadily more adventure game orientated as it went on, whilst the Adventure Island series stayed quite close to the first game's roots.

Great little action RPG that has absolutely nothing to do with the movie, the game is very nicely styled and feels a little bit reminiscent of the Mana series, but with an element of the Legend of Zelda too.

An awesome two player game that was pretty much everything the NES version of Ikari Warriors had failed to be, instead of the slow game play and atrocious controls which had come to define that game, here you find fast and frenetic game play with responsive controls and great graphics. It even had you playing as Che Guevara and Castro in the original Japanese version.

The original Micro Machines was already pretty much fully formed even at this stage, containing much of what made the series the success it was, simple but fun top down racing game play with miniature cars, fun courses taking place in oversized environments, and a fantastic multiplayer.

One of the all time classic simple arcade platformers, each stage is set over a single screen which you need to clear of enemies to proceed, great in multiplayer, and with an infectiously annoying tune to boot.