Adventurous Boy (or Mao Xian Xiao Zi if you're feeling fancy) is one of those Genesis gems that somehow flew under the radar. You play as this little dude in a red cap bouncing through these surprisingly detailed levels - think secret passages hidden behind waterfalls, enemies popping out of nowhere, and those classic "wait, was that platform always there?" moments.

The first thing that hits you is how bright everything is - like someone cranked the saturation to max on a 16-bit palette. The controls take a minute to get used to (that jump arc is... particular), but once it clicks, you're hopping between floating islands and dodging spike traps like it's second nature.

What I really dig is how it mixes straightforward platforming with these weird little puzzles. Sometimes you're pushing blocks to reach higher ledges, other times you're backtracking because you just noticed a suspicious-looking wall. And the music? Pure early-90s Sega cheese in the best possible way.

It's not the hardest game in the Genesis library, but there's enough challenge to keep you retrying that one annoying jump for twenty minutes straight. Definitely worth dusting off the old console for.