For every Mario there are a dozen great NES games nobody talks about. Some of the best things on my shelf are the ones people skipped:

• Little Nemo: The Dream Master — Capcom's gorgeous platformer where you feed candy to animals to ride them.
• The Guardian Legend — a brilliant hybrid that switches between top-down adventure and vertical shmup.
• Adventures of Lolo — a sublime block-pushing puzzle series (HAL's work, pre-Kirby).
• Snake Rattle 'n Roll and Solar Jetman — two slept-on Rare gems.
• Snake's Revenge — the Western-made Metal Gear sequel Kojima didn't make (but it's good).
• Bucky O'Hare & Clash at Demonhead — colorful, tough, criminally overlooked.
• Wario's Woods — notably the last licensed NES game released in North America.
• Mendel Palace — the very first game from Game Freak, who'd go on to make Pokémon.

Throw in Kickle Cubicle, Marble Madness, Cobra Triangle, Solomon's Key, Solstice, Conquest of the Crystal Palace, and Yoshi, and you've got a stack that deserved far more love than it got.