Down The World - Mervil’s Ambition is one of those SNES hidden gems that feels like it got lost in the shuffle back in the day. You play as Mervil, this scrappy little hero with a sword way too big for him, bouncing through colorful, slightly off-kilter levels full of traps and secrets. The first thing you’ll notice? The art style—it’s got that perfect ‘90s pixel charm, with weird little enemies that look like they escaped from a Saturday morning cartoon.

The puzzles are just the right kind of frustrating—not so hard you’ll rage-quit, but tricky enough that you’ll feel smug when you figure them out. And the boss fights? Classic SNES energy. That first giant spider battle had me sweating. The music’s a bop too—catchy in that way where you’ll hum it hours later without realizing.

It’s not perfect (some of the platforming’s a little janky), but that’s part of the retro appeal. If you miss when games were weird and unpolished in the best way, this one’s worth dusting off the SNES for.