Desert Strike is one of those Genesis games that makes you feel like a total badass pilot—until you crash into a sand dune five minutes in. You're dropped into this massive desert map with a chopper that handles like a tank with rotors, and suddenly you're juggling fuel, ammo, and hostages while dodging missiles from every direction.

The first mission tricks you into thinking it's just "shoot the bad guys," but then you realize you've got to actually land near POWs without squashing them (easier said than done). The Apache helicopter's weapons feel satisfyingly chunky—those mini-guns chew through enemy bunkers, and the rockets? Pure chaos when you nail a convoy.

What I love is how it forces you to think ahead. Run out of fuel mid-mission? Game over. Blow up the wrong building? Oops, there goes your score. It's brutal but weirdly fair—once you learn to stop treating it like an arcade shooter and start planning routes like a military ops nerd. Still holds up if you can handle the janky '90s flight controls.