NilkadNaquada
This game is absolutely brimming with shockingly interesting ideas, especially for an 8-bit platformer, as well as just gallons upon gallons of charm. I was not expecting to be playing an action RPG metroidvania where most of the mechanics are tied to different forms you have to go out of your way to swap between, but I'm glad it ended up being that because it's a lot of fun.
This game is absolutely brimming with shockingly interesting ideas, especially for an 8-bit platformer, as well as just gallons upon gallons of charm. I was not expecting to be playing an action RPG metroidvania where most of the mechanics are tied to different forms you have to go out of your way to swap between, but I'm glad it ended up being that because it's a lot of fun. The remake also has really gorgeous animation and excellent music, as well as the option to swap between retro and modern graphics and sound on the fly, which is super cool and makes this pretty easily the definitive version of the game.
This just kinda sucks honestly
1988
Spiritual predecessor to the Kingdom Hearts Gummi Ship Stages
Wait a minute this is just a middling Adventure Island game
1988
What if Space Harrier was harder to control
Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys retro JRPGs. This game is brimming with charm, looks absolutely gorgeous, and with the balance tweaks made in the SEGA AGES release, is a pretty smooth and briskly-paced adventure. Just a ton of fun from start to finish.
There's some cool games in here and the extra historical goodies included are very nice. Recommended if you're at all interested in obscure 80s games.
1990
Solid core mechanics and a lot of charm to be found here, but it gets pretty monotonous after a while. Definitely worth a look if you're big on action RPGs, though, and it's very impressive for the NES in terms of visuals, game feel, and smoothing out the play experience with very welcome convenience features.
2019
It's good
1988
Pretty archaic in a lot of ways, as you might expect, but it's got some real charm and a lot of genuinely groundbreaking ideas for 1988. Definitely recommended if you're the type of person who can handle DOS RPG jank, and even if these old games aren't usually your type of thing I'd recommend at least giving it a shot (be sure to read the manual first) just to see. It can be played for free in browser on internet archive, so there's no reason not to.
An extremely fun game at its core about feeling out enemy behaviors and responding to them fluidly, with some really nice touches. Waiting through the opponent's ten-count does a great job of building tension. I find that the enemy boxers' damage output gets a little ridiculous around Soda Popinski, though, it doesn't feel like I have a reasonable chance to experiment.
Pretty fun base gameplay, though unfortunately the difficulty level is pretty unreasonable. Lots of enemies have patterns that are just kinda too much to deal with, and most of them also have variants that are immune to sword beams, requiring you to poke them up close.
1986
This game controls like shit
2004
Because it's so early and simple compared to later RPGs, it feels like the kind of like a miniature version of the genre, like Gato Roboto but for RPGs