I'm going to cull through my beats for the last few years or so like
Ex did. Only going back to 2017, when I started assigning scores. This should be everything I gave an 8/10 or above.
- Terranigma (SNES)
- X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse (SNES)
- Marvel Super Heroes in War of the Gems (SNES)
- Spin Master (Neo Geo)
- Shock Troopers (Neo Geo)
- The Last Blade (Neo Geo)
- Looney Tunes (GBC)
- Mega Man V (GB) (play the DX version!)
- TMNT: Tournament Fighters (SNES)
- The Violinist of Hameln (SNES)
- Gate of Thunder (Turbo CD)
- Soldier Blade (TG16) (my favorite shooter on the system, play it!)
- Sunset Riders (arcade, SNES version also great, others dig the Genesis port)
- Monstania (SNES)
- Ganbare Goemon 2 (SNES)
- Ganbare Goemon 3 (SNES) (both of these are fantastic and have great fan translations)
- Kishin Douji Zenki (GG) (mentioned earlier, great game)
- Mercs (arcade)
- Ranger X (Genesis) (takes a bit to grok, but fantastic game)
- Aquales (X68000) (mentioned already, but I gave it an 8/10, so on the list it goes!)
- Batman: The Video Game (GB)
- Landstalker (Genesis)
- Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow (SNES, Genesis version also great and slightly altered, also a PC port)
- U.N. Squadron (SNES)
- Super Turrican 2 (SNES)
- The Ninja Warriors (SNES)
- Mega Man IV (GB) (not sure if a color hack is coming, but it's a good candidate for sure)
- Soul Blazer (SNES)
- Operation C (GB)
- Wild Guns (SNES)
- Gargoyle's Quest (GB)
- Demon's Crest (SNES)
- Skyblazer (SNES)
- Knights of the Round (Arcade/SNES)
- Top Gear 1 and 2 (SNES)
- Operation Logic Bomb (SNES)
- King of Dragons (arcade/SNES)
- Bionic Commando (GB) (amazing game, play it!)
- Return of Double Dragon (SNES)
- Cadash (arcade/TG16)
The more obvious choices:
- Kirby's Dream Land 2 (GB) (use the new DX hack!)
- Killer Instinct (SNES, could also do arcade)
- Mega Man X (SNES) (duh)
- The Secret of Monkey Island (PC)
- ActRaiser (SNES)
- Contra III: The Alien Wars (SNES) (duh)
- Super Castlevania IV (SNES) (duh)
- Contra: Hard Corps (Genesis) (duh)
- Streets of Rage (Genesis) (duh)
- Dracula X (SNES and Turbo CD) (no, I'm not kidding on the SNES one)
- Link's Awakening (GB) (duh, duh, DUH!)
- Final Fight 3 (SNES)
- Mega Man X3 (SNES)
- Super Street Fighter II (pretty much anywhere, but arcade is probably best these days)
- Castlevania Bloodlines (Genesis)
- Streets of Rage 2 (Genesis) (duh)
- Bare Knuckle 3 (Genesis) (play this one over the US release, there is a translation)
- Super Punch-Out!! (SNES)
- Super Mario Land 2 (GB) (play the DX version!)
- Robocop (arcade)
- Metal Slug X (Neo Geo)
- Donkey Kong Country (SNES) (I mean, duh)
- TMNT (arcade) (duh, also a beta MiSTer core just dropped for it!)