So The Guardian Legend is this weird, cool NES game where you play as this transforming robot-warrior thing trying to stop a planet-sized death ship from smashing into Earth. You start off blasting through corridors like a top-down shooter, then suddenly—boom—you morph into a little jet and the game turns into a vertical shooter. It’s jarring at first, but somehow it just works.

Inside the ship, you’re hunting down self-destruct switches while fighting off these creepy alien things. The levels get seriously tough, but you can backtrack to earlier zones with new upgrades (that laser whip you find halfway through? Game-changer). The music’s got that classic NES synth vibe—haunting but weirdly catchy when you’re grinding through the same hallway for the tenth time.

Honestly, it’s one of those games that shouldn’t mash together this many ideas, but it somehow pulls it off. Just don’t expect to beat it in one sitting.