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[Golds]

I'm always interested in discovering lost gaming gems, and I've found several through people here on the forums.  Here's a few I've only discovered in the last few months.



Wonder Boy III - pretty cool sega master system platformer.  you change into different creatures throughout the game, with different abilities.  and a section of the opening sequence totally reminds me of Hell in Cave Story.  Unfortunately this game gets incredibly hard.



Maze of Gallous - I haven't gotten very far into this yet, but it seems pretty cool.  It's an MSX game that La Mulana apparently draws a lot of inspiration from.

Post cool or weird stuff in any genre!

[deadeye]

Ufouria

This one's probably not very familiar to US gamers.  It's a Metroidvania type platformer where you have to find your lost friends to help you get home.  Each friend you find is a new playable character with different powers that let you explore new areas.



Found something strange when looking for images... check out the first result in this GIS for "u*four*ia" (link)

Anyway.  Another odd one that I really enjoy for some unknown reason is Arkista's Ring.  It's not much to look at, and is really simple, but there's just something pure and fun about this game.  I liked it so much I've considered doing a remake of it:

[Saint]

...

Since you already covered Wonder Boy III I'm gonna have to go with...



... Psycho Fox!

This is a weird platformer for the Master System in which you play a fox deity that can change into a tiger, monkey or pig - each with different abilities. You can also get a bird to throw at your enemies.

The controls are kind of sloppy, but the style, music and level design more than makes up for it.

[siiseli]

Yeah maze of galious rules.. I played it as a kid with my aunts.. they had both beaten the game, and I did the same years later.

[BenH]

I loved playing Psycho Fox when I was a kid. Strangely enough, I'm absolutely shite at it now, I have no idea how I got so far through it as a kid!

[StephenAnthony]

Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure is a game I played a lot when I was little. I remember really liking it at the time, partly because the levels just seemed so huge to me. It was actually one of the first games I really played seriously.

Looking back, I'm actually not -entirely- sure if this is 8-bit or not. I've never even really thought about it... BUT I SHALL POST IT ANYWAY.




ALSO! Some random YouTube video I found of it. Woo!

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

Zelda: Outlands is a great "remix" of the first Zelda game, which I guess counts.





It's incredibly creative considering that it's just a remix; it makes everything feel original again, and is probably even better than the original (although much harder).

[Camdag]

http://www.nesplayer.com/reviews/littlesamsonr.htm

Little Samson, totally. Great platforming action game. You pick up new characters throughout, and can you can switch out at any time with special potions, or, when a character dies.
Characters:

1. There's little samson, an acrobatic little boy with amazing climbing skills, and the ability to throw projectile bells.
2. The Dragon, he is the first boss fights, but joins you afterwards. He can fly almost indefinitely, if you have good button timing, and can shoot fireballs- he can also shoot supercharged fireballs that are humongous and spread out.
3. The Golem, he has a massive amount of hit points, and can walk on spikes. He dishes out amazing damage up close, but he is incredibly slow.
4. The mouse, small, can climb anywhere, and plants explosives that deal amazing damage. Has terrible hitpoints.

The boss fights are particularly cool, and difficult- you WILL eat through some of your characters trying to win. Good thing you can revive them later.

[Derek]

Phantom Fighter's actually a pretty sweet game!  You just go from house to house kicking ghost's asses.  But they're Chinese ghosts, so they hop around and try to stab you with their fingernails.  The combat is strange and slow, and it's really weird, and the graphics are beautiful in their own way.

[deadeye]

Seconding Little Samson, that game rules!

As for Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure, it's not 8-bit, but it is from the same era.  I remember playing that one as a kid and thinking it had the best graphics I'd ever seen at that time.  (BTW, you should probably host those images elsewhere, I'm getting a special message from Uncle Duke Nukem.)

[Ivan]

Not sure if this is really off the beaten path, but Codename Viper is one of my most favourite NES games. Apparently it was a complete rip-off of some arcade game, but good times none the less.

[skaldicpoet9]

Dash Galaxy in the Alien Asylum.



Kind of a mash up of a platformer and sokoban and maybe a little bit of Lode Runner.

You run around the levels and collect keys and bombs. Using the keys to get past lasers and the bombs to blow up enemies.

The control is kind of weird but is pretty cool at the same time, they made it so Dash jumps like he is in Zero-G (or I guess as much as they could do in the 8-bit days) so you have to be methodical about getting through the level.

I think my parents played this more then I did for some reason :D

[Bennett]

There are so many for the ZX spectrum - truly an indy developer's paradise. The dev teams were small and creative, which means that many of the games, though rough, ugly and unplayable, are very creative.



Then there was Aztec on the apple II - one of the first real sandbox games, where you could drop a stick of dynamite onto the head of a crocodile.

[Camdag]

I love how the color limits sometimes make it seem like the characters are pants-less.

[moi]

There are so many games it's difficult to remember one.

Well since we have mentioned the SMS this underappreciated console, I'm going to mention Air rescue.


An helicopter rescue game, not very original but sweet and not overdrawn. And the graphics become surprisingly better after you passed the first stage.
And the gameplay is practically perfect, as with most early SMS games because the devellopers weren't trying to emulate other platforms, they were doing with the limitation of the machine.
I like short games, I prefer a short game that will leave a good impression on me  and a sense of accopmplishement, than a long, annoyingly difficult one that I know I will never replay.
The future is to shorter well proportioned games.

[Alex May]

Just mentioned JCB Digger to Golds on irc, he found this: