The best behind-the-ship rail shooter on Playstation - I have no idea who has the patience for the cutscenes between levels, though.

Most advanced rail shooter on the NES. This game rules - it's got levels with enemy formations synced to classical music chiptunes, elaborate visual setpieces, mid-level dialog - and it even plays great!

Really mushy Star Fox clone that seems to have put more effort into the score attack than making the actual flying feel good.

Harrowing nightmare collage. No less a vibes-based experience than the first, but enthralling if you're into Yume Nikki kinda stuff.

Warm, fuzzy, bouncy, but kinda by the numbers. Play Solar Ash and Sonic Frontiers first.

The Tonka Truck version of Panzer Dragoon.

Necessary for rail shooter heads.

Snackable, workmanlike platformer which ends with a whimper unless you're a completionist.

Really great concept that's too obsessed with its own levels.

Requiring so many replays per level obliterates the pacing.

A gorgeously realized choose-your-own-adventure book of a video game which still doesn't have any notable clones, strangely.

Well-crafted shmup-action-RPG hybrid which gets out of its own way, but refuses to compromise on things such as "save points" or "continues".

Guess that makes sense, since the game's physical-only release shows a similar ideological commitment to the bit.

A Scrooge-dive into an entire arcade redemption center's worth of plastic toys. This chintzy-ass game doesn't even have an options screen to fix its atrocious audio mixing, but you won't care if you're playing this thing drunk at a party with three others - which feels like the intended use case.

Stupid but brave. A gorgeous experiment that turned out pretty well, all things considered. I love the way the rails and platforms look, splattered across the sky, contrasted with the rolling natural hills.

Roomerang is genius.

Phantasy Star Online in the streets, Stardew Valley in the sheets.

I loved where they took the story in this. Gorgeous art direction and soundtrack carried me through a sometimes monotonous, inconsistent action RPG.

Nintendo's best new IP in at least a decade takes a victory lap.

The singleplayer is so good, I wish there was a level editor.