Shadow of the Beast - Mashou no Okite is one of those Genesis/Mega Drive games that looks incredible but will absolutely wreck you if you're not careful. The Japanese version tweaks some things from the original, but it's still a brutal side-scroller with this eerie, gothic vibe—think dark forests, creepy temples, and monsters that look like they crawled out of a nightmare.

You play as this beastly warrior, slashing through enemies with these weird, floaty controls that take some getting used to. The music? Haunting. The backgrounds? Layers upon layers of parallax scrolling that still impress. But man, the difficulty spikes are real—one wrong jump and you're back to the start. Not for the faint of heart, but if you love punishing retro action, it's a weird little gem.

Definitely one of those "admire it more than enjoy it" kind of games.