Okay, so The New Zealand Story is this weirdly charming Genesis game where you play as Tiki, a tiny kiwi bird—except he looks more like a cartoon chicken with a beak. Real kiwis are these shy, fuzzy things, but Tiki? He’s out here dodging penguins with jetpacks and rescuing his kidnapped bird friends from a leopard seal. Classic 90s logic.

You start off hopping between floating islands, grabbing arrows and bubble guns to take out enemies—sometimes you even steal their weapons mid-fight. The levels get wild fast, with hidden warp zones and sudden underwater sections where Tiki somehow swims perfectly fine. I still don’t know why half the bosses are seals in sunglasses, but I’m here for it.

It’s one of those games where the music sticks in your head for days, even if you’re terrible at it (and trust me, I died a lot to those sneaky penguin snipers).