Top 10 Overlooked Video Games of the 3rd Generation

Kicking up our list is this action side-scroller where your character is apparently badass enough to punch his way through bullets, robots and even walls. The gameplay is quite simple and power ups include robot helpers armed with grenades, swords, flame throwers or a full robotic suit allowing you to shoot fireballs. The story is pretty basic: you're good, they're bad, punch them. Your adventure taking you over several stage which you can decide in what order you finish, and confronts you to robots, aliens, armed guards and ninjas.

This game had all the cuteness to be good. It is about a little plush toy who goes on an adventure to save his owner who was kidnapped by other plush toys, apparently sent by an evil wizard for some reason. The hero's primary way of attack is making a star to be thrown on his enemies. But some enemies are hard to touch, others take more than one hit, and making a star takes about a second. The game is good, but not as kid friendly control-wise as it’s art style might lead you to believe

Here we have another simple story game. Bad guy attacks, heroes come to the rescue. The main interest of this game was the fact that you had up to four different characters to play with, each having its own attack, special capacity, and even life bar, which could be increased over time. With high detailed sprites and animation normally unseen on the NES, it’s a shame this game never caught on.

Once you get past the pronunciation of the name, this games takes you on a side scrolling RPG were you play as Apollo, a spaceman who has to, stop me if you’ve heard this one, save a princess from a terrible evil. The power ups come in the form of items you can buy in exchange for “E balls” collected from enemies or treasure room. The genres seems to mix even more than the letters of its name, but the game itself was surprisingly easy to understand and NPCs gave you all the info you need to progress.

Based on a just as overlooked a cartoon that lasted only one season, this game is a good example of a multi-character game done right. You first have to rescue your crew, scattered on different planets and, as you do, you can play as each of them, using their different weapons and special abilities. Also worth mentioning was the arcade game released at the same time, which concluded the unfinished plot of the cancelled cartoon show.

What do you do when cosmic radiation causes ordinary inanimate objects to suddenly spring to life and attack mankind? Well you send in special commander Gun Nac, to go blow all them up. This top down Shoot em up is known for its vast array of power-ups, some obtained by hitting little space octopi, and that can others can be bought at a gun-lover's version of a fast food. There’s also a robot rabbit from space. Did we mention this game is Japanese?

Now here’s an interesting game that’s part Point and Click Adventure, and part 2D Fighter. You play as the titular hero trying to stop an old Egyptian god, using a variety of objects you find along the way, as well as your fists to fight evil henchmen. The game is detailed enough that you don't have to do pixel hunting to find notable items, and it both features quite a bit of jokes and some sweet cinematic moments. As such, many who know it consider it to be a game that was way ahead of its time.

This one is for 80’s action movies fans, starting with an obvious overly rich villain, followed by a fast paced car chase were you get to met the hero, Hart, a badass cop who uses a gun, a sword and grenades to fight his enemies. As one of the few NES games to have parallax scrolling, it featured set pieces like car chases, and rail shooter section. Later sections become a more standard kind of side-scroller, where you shoot ninjas, lots of ninjas

This game is original on many levels. The goal is the save the inventor of the doomsday device, and stop said device. But for that, you need to travel all over the non-linear map in order to find the power ups and items you'll need. The graphic look like an old Japanese anime, giving the game a somewhat comedic look, and there are many useful features such as the ability to access a shop on demand. The better still though, was being the look on the bad guys when you hit them.


Before we unveil our top pick, let's have a look at some honourable mentions.

Dynamite Dux (1989)


"Teddy Boy" (1986)


"Crystalis" (1990)


"Legacy Of The Wizard" (1987)


"Metal Storm" (1991)

Topping our list is this multi-gameplay pearl. As a gigantic object approaches your homeland, you are sent to confront it. The game is a combination of a Zelda style Adventure game, where you have to solve puzzles and buy stuff, and sections called corridors that are essentially Shoot Em Up stages, where you blast through enemies and fight large bosses. Even though it combined elements from two very popular games, Zelda and Gradius, it came out late in the NES life-cycle and its box art did not correspond to its excellent content.


Chances are we’ve overlooked a few games during this era, so let us know about some NES or Master system games that don’t get any recognition, And For more under-appreciated top 10, visit us at WatchMojo.com