The Mafat Conspiracy is one of those NES deep cuts—a side-scrolling action game with a weirdly cool sci-fi vibe. You play as this dude in a jumpsuit blasting through alien-infested corridors, which sounds simple until you realize half the enemies explode into smaller, even more annoying enemies. Classic NES logic.

Controls take a second to get used to—Z and X for shooting and jumping, arrows to move—but once it clicks, it’s satisfying in that old-school "die a bunch but keep retrying" way. The music’s got this eerie synth thing going on that somehow makes the whole alien conspiracy plot feel legit. Just don’t expect the story to make much sense.

Pro tip: Save your bombs for the bosses. You’ll thank me later.