HONORABLE MENTION: Mickey Mousecapade (1987)So this is a fun little platformer that I just had to mention. Again, nostalgia plays a big role here, but also the fact I just recently in the last few years started playing this again every so often and was able to beat pretty regularly (something I was never able to do as a kid). It's a nice, short platformer where you control not only Mickey, but Minnie as well. This is both a blessing and a curse, as she provides an extra attack (assuming you don't miss her "Star" in the first level that allows her to attack), but other than that is pretty much a nuisance to control. But what I love about this game is the environments. Although there's only 5 levels, each has it's own theme and they're all fun to play. Levels 2 (Ocean) and 4 (Pirate Ship) are pretty short and straight forward, but levels 1 (Fun House), 3 (Woods), and 5 (Castle) are pretty much mazes where you have to figure out where to go. It's like a puzzle game in a platformer. I love stuff like that! Mickey Mousecapade has never been re-released, so you'll have to track down an original NES copy, or grab an emulator.
23. Kirby's Adventure (1993)Awwwww, HE'S SO CUTE! So the beginning of the list has LOTS of NES games. Sorry. It just had so many good games! And Kirby's Adventure is no different. In this game, if you don't know, you play as the lovable marshmallowy Kirby, who eats his enemies and gains their power. Kinda like if Mega Man was a cannibal. The best partof the game is the powers you get. A lot of times you have to figure out what works best in what level. Sometimes there are secrets that can only be unlocked if you have a certain weapon (kinda like Metroid). Now that I'm thinking about it, Kirby is kinda like Metroid and Mega Man and Mario all rolled into one marshmallow. No wonder I like it so much! Adventure's latest re-release is for the Virtual Console on Wii U and 3DS, so check it out if you never have (or even if you have)!
22. X-COM: Enemy Unknown (2012)Yes, I do play games for today's systems too. I should preface this by saying that I usually do NOT like strategy RPGs. Never got into FF Tactics, tried Rainbow Moon, I just can't get into them. Now, when I say this game BLEW ME AWAY, you'll know why. I grew up watching my brother play the original game on PSOne. I thought it was very intriguing, but looked way too hard. So when I heard they were updating it, I had to check it out. Well, it didn't disappoint. In this game you are fighting aliens that come down to Earth with their UFOs. You shoot them down and go to the crash sites and infiltrate. The longer you survive in the game, the bigger and badder the aliens get. Throughout the game you come to trust your squad. When someone dies, you really feel it, because they're gone for good, and you have to replace them with a rookie. It's all very realistically done (as much as a video game about an alien invasion could be). Sometimes you'll debate whether resetting and losing an hour or two is worth not having your level 5 sniper die, haha. As I said, the gameplay is strategy, turn-based, which usually turns me off. But this is just so wonderfully done, I completely forgot that I don't usually like games like this. Not knowing what was around the corner made this game pretty intense. It was hard to put this one down. I was always finding reasons to stay up and do another mission. Now I'm finding it hard to stop praising it, haha. Anyway, check this one out if you get the chance. It's on the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.