This was only the second Zelda game that I ever played – as you can imagine, I feel a great deal of nostalgia for it and I am very fond of it. However, I don’t think my fondness is entirely rooted in nostalgia. I think this is genuinely one of the best instalments in the series.

Something I really like about this game is that its story is very different from the others. Link is onboard a ship which sinks in a storm and he then wakes up on Koholint Island. He then gets caught up in the mysteries of this island and finds himself on a quest to awaken the Wind Fish, who sleeps within a giant egg on top of the mountain. It’s much smaller scale than a heroic quest to save a kingdom from a dark lord, but I find this quirky little tale rather charming.

The original Game Boy wasn’t a particularly powerful console and Koholint Island is broken up into a large number of screens which you tranisition between. Despite this the island comprises of beaches, mountains, forests, swamps, caves, rivers, graveyards and more. At the time, it felt amazing to have this miniature world contained within a Game Boy cartridge and to this day, it’s something which remains appealing to me. It’s really satisfying to explore every nook and cranny of the island as there are a lot of secrets to discover.

A part of what makes Koholint Island so charming, is the people who inhabit it. First there’s Marin, a kind hearted girl who helps you out when you first wash up on the beach. There’s her Mario-lookalike father, Tarin, who loves hunting for mushrooms. There’s a talking alligator who loves eating dog food. Syrup, a witch who lives in a crooked tree who can make magic powders for you. There’s also a whole village of talking animals, including a hippo who’s a model. It’s beautiful.

And guess what else? This island is full of Nintendo cameos. Shy Guys, Goombas and Piranha Plants all appear as enemies. An evil version of Kirby, named the Anti-Kirby, is another one. There’s also Mr. Write, an introverted man who loves writing letters, who is also quite literally just Dr. Wright from Sim City. There’s a lady who keeps pet Chain Chomps and part of the game (a really good bit) involves taking one for a walk. Wart the villain of Super Mario Bros. 2 and Doki Doki Panic is an NPC. I love this kind of stuff.

Besides all this, you have a solid Zelda adventure, which involves exploring various different dungeons in order to collect ancient instruments. Despite being in black and white and working with 8-bit graphics, the game succeeds in making each of the eight dungeons feel unique and distinct. A part of this comes down to the fact that each one has its own musical theme. Speaking of which, the game as a whole greatly benefits from its soundtrack – though 8-bit, it helps set a mysterious tone (sometimes veering on creepy), helping to intrigue you about the dark secrets of the island.

Overall, I think this is a great game. It’s also a little melancholy, for reasons I won’t get into just now to avoid spoiling it, but it’s only really comparable to Majora’s Mask in this regard. If you’re in the mood for a classic Zelda adventure, but one which also goes against the mould in some regards, then this may be your best choice. I heavily recommend it to any fan of the series.

Rating: 9.3/10

Buy it here.

Wario’s games come in many different shapes and sizes. From platformers which aren’t too different from Mario games, all the way through to really bizzare mini-game collections. Wario’s Woods was one of the first Wario games and it’s very different to everything which came before or after.

Player’s may be a little disappointed to find that they don’t play as Wario, but instead Toad. Wario has invaded the Peaceful Woods and filled it with monsters, so Toad heads into the trees and has to stack bombs on different coloured enemies to make rows of fours to destroy them, eventually making your way to Wario.

This is, in my opinion, one of the best puzzle games Nintendo ever created and one of the best games on the NES. For a while, I played a level of this game every day after work and it was the perfect way to relax an unwind. It was pretty addictive actually and I often couldn’t stop after only one level. I was sad when it came to an end.

In some ways, it feels like it’s building on some of the ideas of Super Mario Bros. 2 and then implementing them in a puzzle game. Toad has never been a character I’ve been hugely invested in, but this is probably my favourite of his playable appearances because this is a fun and unique game and it’s all ‘his’. It’s also nice that it has some kind of a story (the end is pretty funny) and Birdo is there too – which is kind of random, but interesting early use of the character.

So if you like puzzle games, you should definitely try this because it plays really well and hasn’t really aged too badly at all (despite being a NES game). I think it’s a shame that this game is so overlooked because I consider it a real classic.

Rating: 9/10

Buy it here.

This was the first Bomberman game to be released on the SNES and it’s a pretty solid instalment in the series. If I’m completely honest, a lot of Bomberman games are all pretty similar, but they all have a very solid formula at their heart (especially for multiplayer) which makes the series fun to return to regularly.

The single player story is your standard affair – the planet of the Bomber people is threatened by an evil villain, so you have to go through various levels in order to defeat their minions and to work your way up to them. You walk around through mazes full of destructible walls and have to defeat all of the enemies in them and find the exit, collecting items which enhance the power of your bombs as you do. Levels include fun fairs, factories and sky scrapers. What I found most fun in single player were the boss battles, which are all giant enemies which require a little more strategy to defeat. The final bosses in particular were impressive, though also rather tricky!

Then, of course, there’s the multiplayer mode. I think this is the selling point for most people – not that the single player mode is bad. In this, two to four Bombermen are put in an arena together and have to blow each other up. It’s really fun running around and trying to out-manoeuvre your opponents with bomb placements. It can be hilarious to watch people accidentally blow themselves up and the feeling of trapping somebody in a corner with your bombs is delightful. What makes this one especially remarkable (historically) is that it was a four-player game on a console which only allowed two players – it came with a special device which let you add two more controls.

So if you get this game, you’re getting the amazing Bomberman multiplayer fun that has been highly regarded for so long… but you’re not really getting anything you can’t get anywhere else in the series. It’s a shame, because at the time it was highly innovative, but what made it impressive has ceased to be so.

Rating: 7.8/10

Buy it here.