Niahak's Place

Arcana – RPG(SNES)
HAL

I have to admit that I, too, have not played this game for a long while. It’s not a game without its frustrations, and I haven’t had the patience to get all the way through it in the past few years.
If, however, you can stand the frustrations, you’ll be treated to a remarkably above-standard game.

U.N. Squadron – Action(SNES)
Capcom

A game that slipped under the radar (ha-ha), U.N. Squadron is a solid side-scrolling action game with a few twists.
The actual action part is quite good. It’s a shooter in the vein of Gradius, with a large variety of enemies and special weapons to use.

Gemfire – Strategy (SNES / NES / GEN)
Koei (Kou Shibusawa)

Perhaps the only time that I can say I felt there was a “golden age” for Strategy games was Koei’s incredible set of variations on the SNES. Although not all of them were made by Romance of the Three Kingdoms / Nobunaga’s Ambition mastermind Kou Shibusawa, they represent a very large variation in themes and make me wonder why nobody’s made an officer-based strategy game kit yet.

Gemfire is an excellent example of one of these variations, one which perhaps should’ve been taken further. The concept is simple enough – an original fantasy world (somewhat resembling England), complete with monsters and magicians, is created.

Lufia & The Fortress of Doom – RPG (SNES)
Taito / Neverland Co.

My second entry I beat for the first time last week. I knew it existed, and had a copy, but had more or less ignored it in favor of newer stuff.
This is one of the RPG gems for the SNES. It’s not one of the “big names”, but it still has an atmosphere and a feel that is light-hearted, and yet can become quite serious – somewhat similar to the Lunar games.

Warsong (Langrisser 1) – Strategy / RPG (GEN)
Treco / Masaya / Career Soft

This game had to be my first entry, since it’s a game that grabbed and has kept my attention for many years – but nobody’s heard of it.