Maniac Mansion (1990 on NES) is a landmark: the debut of LucasArts' SCUMM engine, a verb-and-cursor graphic adventure ported to a console controller. You pick a team of teenagers, each with their own skills, to sneak into Dr. Fred's mansion and rescue a kidnapped girlfriend.

It's funny, full of puzzles and secrets, and famously has multiple endings depending on which kids you bring and what they do — including, yes, the option to microwave a hamster (a gag Nintendo's censors fought over for the US release).

Steering a point-and-click cursor with a D-pad was awkward and wonderful. A genre that defined PC gaming, squeezed onto a Nintendo. Tentacle included.