Bee 52 is one of those weird little NES gems where you play as, well, a bee. You’re buzzing through side-scrolling stages, dodging enemies and squeezing through tight gaps—sometimes I swear the hitbox is just a pixel too big, but you get used to it. The controls are simple: shoot straight ahead with A or dive-bomb sting with B, which feels oddly satisfying when you nail an enemy from above.

What keeps it interesting are the power-ups. Every now and then, a rare lightning bug drops a super stinger or better shots, and there’s this tiny bug named Junior that follows you around like a bodyguard. Lose a hit? Junior takes the fall instead of you. It’s a nice safety net, but man, losing him hurts—especially when you’ve stacked up good weapons. The levels get pretty chaotic later on, but that first run where everything clicks? Pure bee-bliss.