8. Little Nemo
Developer: Capcom Year: 1990 Availability: NES Loosely based on the 1989 anime movie Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, the Dream Master is a side scrolling platformer/adventure game. Each of the levels in the game has a certain amount of keys, indicated at the end by the number of locks on a door - the goal is to find all of the keys in the level, but Nemo cannot do it alone. Using pieces of candy he is able to coax friendly animals from the level to give him a ride: Gorilla, Bee, Frog, Lizard, Hermit Crab, Flounder, Mole and Mouse - each with a special ability to help Nemo traverse Slumberland safely. The game is much less linear than most platformers of the 8-bit era. Rather than going in a straight line from left to right, players are asked to explore the world thoroughly- traveling far up into the trees, down into the ground or underwater to find every key. The graphics are very dated at this point, and the story is pretty uninteresting, but the game itself is a blast to play.