Niahak's Place

Uncharted Waters: New Horizons – Simulation / Strategy (SNES/GEN/PC)
Koei (Eiji Fukuzawa)

Another product of the innovation from Koei that resulted in Gemfire and Aerobiz, Uncharted Waters may have been partially inspired by Pirates! from Sid Meier. Much of the interface is the same, several of the themes are the same – but Uncharted Waters improves on Pirates! in several ways.

Harvest Moon – Simulation (SNES)
Natsume

Harvest Moon is unlike nearly any other game there is. There are no enemies to fight, no evil villains, no number-crunching and little strategy is required.

This is because Harvest Moon is a farm simulation. You plow fields, plant crops, raise animals, and woo and potentially marry one of the five girls in town.

Cave Story (Doukutsu Monogatari) – Action / Adventure (PC/MAC)
Pixel Studios.

Although it’s been featured on several websites and publication as an outstanding freeware game (including, in fact, our school newspaper) this game deserves still more coverage. It has an excellent plot (thanks to a great translation by the guys at Aeon Genesis, it is great in English as well), a very large map to explore, tons of secrets… the list goes on.

Shadowrun – Action / RPG (GEN)
Blue Sky / FASA

Shadowrun is a classic tabletop RPG system – in a dark, apocalyptic-esque future, complete with all the different races that are a hallmark of fantasy, mercenaries called “Shadowrunners” try to eke out a living. It’s a dark, gritty, yet somehow opportunity-filled world where individuals have the potential to take on the mighty megacorporations. The two games that have come out in the setting (this one and the SNES one) are no exception, although this is the more open-ended of the two games.

8 Eyes – Action / Adventure (NES)
Seta / Thinking Rabbit / Taxan

This game is actually surprisingly good; it may initially come off as a clone of Castlevania, and at first glance that is exactly what it seems to be. This game, however, does several things that Castlevania did not.