King’s Knight is one of those weird NES shooters that feels like it couldn’t decide if it wanted to be an RPG or a bullet hell. You pick from four characters—each with their own weird quirks—and then it’s just you, a ton of enemies, and this oddly satisfying grind for power-ups. The knight’s sword feels clunky at first, but once you grab a few weapon upgrades, you start slicing through everything like butter.

What’s funny is how much it pretends to be deep. There are hidden caves, invisible blocks (because of course there are), and these random elemental letters you have to collect for the final level. Half the time I had no idea what I was picking up, but hey, more speed or an extra life never hurts. Just watch out for the Life Downs—nothing worse than grabbing what you think is a bonus only to lose health.

Also, side note: despite the Square Soft logo, this wasn’t actually made by Square. It’s a Workss game, which explains why it plays nothing like Final Fantasy. Still, it’s got that weird charm only ‘80s NES games can pull off.