Excellent horizontal Shmup made by Sega where you're in command of a submarine. The simplicity of it's graphics, and power-up system truly belie the well judged gameplay, and level design in it, the game does definitely grow on you the more you play it and the further in you get.

For the last of the Alex Kidd games made for the Master System Sega decided to do a cross-over with its popular Shinobi licence, and thankfully after the years of disappointments here we have a return to form. There's a lot of differences to Miracle World, this has you sword slashing, platform jumping, and swinging your way through the excellent Shinobi themed levels, but some familiar elements do return, such as the swimming stages, block breaking, and vertically scrolling areas. The only real element holding Shinobi World back is it length, its only 8 stages long, but the game is at least marginally challenging so it should take most people a good few attempts.

Cool little puzzle game where you play as a penguin trying to roll it's egg to the bottom of the screen without letting it break, if it drops too far (safe distance is shown by a white line) then it'll break, if you land on it and it has no where to move it'll break. A nicely designed game that's quite clever.

Arriving just after Super Mario Bros the original Wonder Boy was another of the true classics of early scrolling platformers. The game is fast and furious in comparison to everything else that was out there, and some of its elements, like the exhilarating skateboard power-up that sends you zooming through the levels (with practice) were really unique and rewarding. The SMS version is as close to being arcade perfect as you can get, and actually even has a bunch of new, and exclusive levels which arguably even put it ahead! There's also a NES port of Wonder Boy out there too which was renamed Adventure Island (due to licensing reasons), but to be honest it doesn't compare very well to this.

Apart from a choppy frame rate Mortal Kombat 2 on the Master System is actually extremely impressive, and somehow still manages to retain a lot of the feel and playability even in a 8-bit version. Must be a real feat of programming for the machine.

Playing quite similarly to the C64's Racing Destruction Set, as well as the NES game R.C. Pro-Am, Buggy Run has you racing around courses from an isometric view and upgrading your vehicle between races. The game plays well, has a fun 2-player mode, and has some pretty nice graphics too.

Spellcaster is the predecessor to the Mega Drive game Mystic Defender, but whilst it's sequel goes for an action only stance Spellcaster attempts to mix platforming with RPG, and adventuring elements. The game generally alternates between a point and click style interface, platforming stages, and spellcasting sections, and when you've gotten past the slow start the whole thing actually works quite well. The plot is better than what you'd expect of the time, the platforming sections are challenging, and the adventure segments add an element of problem solving to the gameplay. A unique game which is well worth checking out.

Many people out there still have fond memories of this game, and for good reason, the cutesy graphics and flying around the maze like stages on the floating platforms really made it stand out as a classic platformer for its era. The game would've definitely placed higher on the list, but unfortunately the SMS version is very difficult in that it only gives you one credit to do the entire game with! there's also a few inaccuracies here an there, such as the whale boss which no longer eats you, and some of the enemy placements. Still problems aside the gameplay is still there.

One of the more popular of the Tetris clones of the time, Columns requires you to match coloured blocks of 3 in a row. Its a fun puzzler which includes a much more combo orientated gameplay than Tetris and manages to rival the classic.

Space Harrier is one of the first rail shooters (games where you fly into the screen in pseudo 3D along a set path shooting enemies) which really popularised the genre, it stunned with its advanced graphics, exhilarating gameplay, and original environment designs and offbeat themes. For its time the SMS port is a very impressive, and commendable effort.