Wii

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

Castlevania II was the perfect game to play in 1988. Sitting in your basement with your NES, accompanied by a couple of friends and copy of Nintendo Power – together deciphering the game's cryptic clues and passing the controller around the room to help lessen the boredom of the tedious parts. It was a game tailor-made for what the culture of being a Nintendo gamer was, 20 years ago. But removed from that context, it's lost some of its original appeal.

In the original Castlevania, you journeyed up multiple floors of a castle, merrily whipping zombies and Dracula's generals until you reached the throne room and unleashed your fury against the Count himself. However, as it turns out, old Drac cast a deadly curse on you right when you dealt the fatal blow. So now, in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, you have to break the curse by--get this--recovering the Count's body parts from the various monster-filled mansions the villagers socked them away in. That's not the only twist, either. This second installment does away with the linear level structure from the first game and instead lets you explore a contiguous world of towns, mansions, and haunted wilderness at your leisure.