Little Nemo: The Dream Master

Little Nemo: The Dream Master is based on the animated film Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, and in 1990 Capcom turned it into one of the most original platformers on the NES. The main hero can't do much on his own – he can't jump high and has no weapon. Instead, he collects candy that he throws at enemies to put them to sleep and turn them into controllable animal bodies with their own abilities, from a frog capable of a high jump to a mole that can dig through the ground, or an ant with enough strength to lift heavy boulders.

This system of "transforming" into animal forms gives the game an unmistakable identity and forces the player to constantly think about which creature they need for a particular obstacle. The level design makes full use of it – sections are built to require quick switching between forms, keeping the game feeling fresh from start to finish. The visuals are above average for their time, with a soft pastel palette that faithfully captures the dreamlike atmosphere of the source film, and the transitions between the waking and dream worlds are accompanied by imaginative on-screen effects. The difficulty gradually increases and forces the player to combine animal forms even within a single jump across a chasm.

Little Nemo: The Dream Master still ranks among the NES library's hidden gems – a game that genre fans discover only years later and wonder why they hadn't heard of it sooner. Although it's based on a children's film, in the difficulty and inventiveness of its level design it holds its own against the other platforming classics of Capcom's output at the time.

Why play it: for its clever animal-transformation system, which turns every level into a different puzzle.