Heavy Barrel is one of those NES games that feels like it should’ve been in an arcade—fast, chaotic, and just a little unfair in the best way. You start with a basic rifle, but the real fun comes from hunting down weapon parts scattered across each level. Once you collect all six, boom, you’ve got the Heavy Barrel, a screen-clearing nuke that makes everything explode in the most satisfying way possible.

The enemies come at you from all sides—some drop from helicopters, others pop out of trenches—and the controls are just tight enough that when you die (and you will), it feels like your fault, not the game’s. The music’s got that classic 8-bit urgency, too, like it’s constantly yelling at you to move faster. If you’ve ever wanted to feel like a one-person army with a comically overpowered gun, this is your jam.