Two games that are awesome are
Target Earth for the Sega Genesis,
and
Dangerous Dave 2. Well Dangerous Dave 1 kicks some serious ass too.
Dave1 is a very primal game experience for me. Some of Romero's serious passion and
curiosity seem to leak through when you play it. Things like climbing on trees
and the Jetpack are just ultra-cool.

Original Dave
In Dangerous Dave 2 in the Haunted Mansion you play a wily hick, who pulls
up to a haunted mansion in a pickup truck and decides to go have some fun
with the zombies and ghouls within. Its got one of the coolest game mechanics
ever in that when you stop blasting zombies dave loads shells into his shotgun
automatically.

You have to be careful though because its pretty easy to run out of ammo when
you are in a tight situation. you're usually screwed if this happens.

The Dave games are challenging too. I've never gotten to the end of either.
Target Earth compared to some of the games that came out at the same time was
like seeing Metallica for the first time after thinking that there was only
lawrence welk. It was _intense_. It has a great plot. excellent classic-era pixel art, and the
gameplay is challenging. Oh and the music kicks ass too.



Its not quite as much a classic as a Castlevania or 2D Metroid game. Its too
short for one thing. But it stands up to the greats, IMO, in every other way.
and you do get to fly in space, which is friggen awesome!