you know this arrow is big for games
like Mario and Zelda but now it's time
to look at the games that are hiding in
the shadows of their more popular
counterparts welcome to watchmojo.com
and today we'll be counting down our
picks for the most overlooked games of
the third generation just to be clear
the third generation of gaming includes
the Nintendo Entertainment System and
it's Japanese counterpart the family
Khan Sega's Master System and computer
games dating from 1983 to 1990 number
ten shatterhand kicking off our list is
this action sidescroller where your
character is apparently badass enough to
punch his way through bullets robots and
even walls the gameplay is quite simple
and power-ups include robot helpers
armed with grenades swords and
flamethrowers or a full-on robotic suit
that allows you to shoot fireballs the
story is pretty basic
you're good they're bad you punch them
your adventure takes you into several
stages and you can decide which order to
finish them in and along the way you
confront robots aliens armed guards and
ninjas
number nine mr. gimmick this game had
all the cuteness to be good it is all
about a little plush toy who goes on an
adventure to save his owner who is
kidnapped by other plush toys apparently
sent by an evil wizard for some reason
the heroes primary way of attack is
making a star that can be thrown at his
enemies but some enemies are hard to
touch others take more than one hit to
go down and making a star takes about a
second the game is good but it's not as
kid-friendly control wise as its art
style might lead you to believe
number 8 little samson here we have yet
another simple story bad guys attack
heroes come to the rescue the main
interest of this game was the fact that
you had up to four different characters
to play with each having its own attack
special capacity and even a life bar
which could be increased over time with
highly detailed sprites and animation
normally unseen on the NES it's a shame
that this game never caught on number 7
Sexy's or zexis Azure sexy sir I don't
know once you get past the
pronounciation of this game it takes you
on a side-scrolling RPG adventure where
you play as Apollo a spaceman who asked
you and stop me if you've heard this one
save a princess from a terrible evil
the power-ups come in the form of items
that you can buy in exchange for
Ebel's collected from enemies or
treasure rooms the genres seem to mix
even more than the letters of the name
here but the game itself was
surprisingly easy to understand and the
NPC's gave you all the info you needed
to progress number 6
captain Bucky O'Hare based on just his
overlooked a cartoon show that lasted
only one season this game was a good
example of a multi character game done
well you first have to rescue your group
scattered on different planets and as
you do you can play as each one of them
using their different weapons and
special abilities also worth mentioning
was the arcade game released at the same
time which concluded the unfinished plot
of the cancelled cartoon show number 5
gun Mac what do you do when cosmic
radiation causes ordinary inanimate
objects to suddenly spring to life and
attack mankind
well you send in special commander gun
Mac to blow them all up
this top-down shoot-'em-up was known for
its vast array of power-ups some
obtained by hitting little space octopi
and others that could be bought from a
gun lovers version of a fast food chain
there's also a robot rabbit from space
did we mention this game is Japanese
number four nightshade now here's an
interesting game that's part
point-and-click adventure part 2 the
fighter you play as the titular hero
trying to stop an old Egyptian gone
using a variety of objects you find
along the way as well as your fists to
fight henchmen the game is detailed
enough that you don't have to do too
much pixel hunting to find notable items
and info features quite a bit of jokes
and some sweet cinematic moments boom as
such many who know it consider it to be
a game that was way ahead of its time
number three vice project dude
this one is for the 80s action movie
fans starting with an obvious overly
rich villain followed by a fast-paced
car chase where you get to meet the hero
part a badass cop who uses a gun a sword
and grenades to fight his enemies as one
of the few NES games to have parallax
scrolling
it featured set pieces like a car chase
and a rail shooter' section later
sections became a more standard side
scroller where you shoot engines lots of
ninjas number 2 clash at demonhead this
game was original on many levels the
goal is to save the inventor of the
doomsday device and stop set device but
for that you need to travel all over the
nonlinear map in order to find the
power-ups and items that you'll need
the graphics look like an old Japanese
anime giving it a somewhat comedic look
and there are many useful features such
as the ability to shop on demand even
better still was the look on the bad
guys faces when you hit them before we
unveil our top pick let's have a look at
some honorable mentions number one the
Guardian legend topping off our list is
this multi gameplay pearl as a gigantic
object approaches your homeland you are
sent to confront it the game is a
combination of a Zelda style adventure
game where you have to solve puzzles and
buy stuff and sections called corridors
that are essentially shoot-'em-up stages
where you blast through enemies and
fight large bosses even though it
combined elements from two very popular
games Zelda and Gradius it came out late
in the NES lifecycle and its box art did
not correspond to its excellent content
chances are we've overlooked a few games
during this era so let us know about
some NES or Master System games that
didn't get any recognition and for more
under appreciated top 10s published
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