Contra Spirits (or "Contra: Hard Corps" if you're not playing the Japanese version) is one of those games that looks awesome until you realize it wants to murder you immediately. You pick between four characters—each with their own weapons—and then it’s just non-stop chaos: aliens, explosions, and yeah, you can literally hop on a missile at one point (which is as ridiculous as it sounds).

The SNES version is smoother than the Genesis one, but don’t let that fool you—this game is brutal. I swear the first boss exists just to teach you how many times you’re gonna see the "Game Over" screen. Still, once you get the hang of the patterns, pulling off a clean run feels amazing. Just don’t throw your controller.