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Mark must help Bert free his planet from the evil monsters.

One of the strangest games ever created came in the form of Bandai's 1989 NES game Monster Party. It was arguably one of the best games that Bandai released for the NES (aside from the Namco games they released). Unfortunately, the game didn't do as well as it should have (perhaps people were turned off by the sheer psychotic quality of the game), and the heroes, Mark and Bert, faded away almost as fast as Hayato and Jack Avery did. As probably the world's biggest Monster Party fan, I would love to see them come back, but I seriously doubt that will ever happen.

One brave man was sent to the empire with a special mission: to rescue Super Joe.

Bionic Commando was initially released in 1987 in arcades. Variations of the game appeared for both the NES and GameBoy several years later. What made the game unique was that Radd (aka Ladd), the hero, could not jump. He had to use his grappling hook to swing over obstacles. Every game in the series was called Bionic Commando, even though they were all different games. After the GameBoy game was released, Radd faded away into obscurity. Capcom attempted to revive the series with Bionic Commando: Elite Forces for the GameBoy Color in the late '90s - without Radd, of course. It just wasn't the same, sadly, and no new Bionic Commando games have been planned.

The President has been kidnapped by ninjas. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the President?

Bad Dudes was released by Data East in arcades in 1988, during the height of Double Dragon mania. It featured Blade and Striker, two "bad dudes" who were out to rescue President Reagan (President Bush in the NES version), who had been kidnapped by the Dragon Ninja. It was one of the better side-scrolling beat 'em ups released. However, once the whole "2 players vs. the world" craze ended, so did any hopes of seeing Blade and Striker return.

According to legend, many years ago, an evil being was sealed into four crystals. An evil emperor decides that he wants these gems to help him conquer the world. He invades the planet of Gunstar 9 to find these jewels. It's up to the Gunstar Heroes, Red and Blue, to stop them.

One of the best games ever released for the Sega Genesis, Gunstar Heroes was the epitomy of run-n-gun action - even surpassing the mighty Contra. However, due to Treasure's policy of creating no sequels to their games, Red and Blue have faded away into... well, I can't really say obscurity, as there's so much out there on the net devoted to Gunstar Heroes. Let's just say they were retired. Hopefully Treasure will decide to start making sequels at some point - then maybe we'll see Red and Blue return.

Then a wandering lad with wild green hair and a taste for adventure came into the village. His name was Kelesis, which in the language of the kingdom of Aleid meant, "Bane of Demons."

Compile created their own version of The Legend Of Zelda for the MSX - Golvellius: Valley Of Doom in the late '80s. Most American gamers became acquainted with it through its Sega Master System incarnation. A sequel appeared for the MSX 2 (which was never ported over to the SMS like the first one - and even if it had been, U.S. gamers may never have seen it anyway), but after that Kelesis faded into obscurity. Compile has not seen fit to revive Golvellius yet, but who knows? They released Zanac Neo for the PlayStation last year (in the Zanac X Zanac pack), so maybe a new Golvellius won't be far behind...

As Stanley the Bugman, you must spray repeatedly to get Donkey Kong up to the top of the vines and to zap the bees.

What was Nintendo smoking when they came up with this one? Instead of following up the platforming action of the first two Donkey Kong games, they attempted to create a Galaga-esque shooter starring not Mario, but Stanley the Bugman. The game was not very well recieved, and it faded away into obscurity shortly thereafter - taking Stanley with it.

Lee, Mary, Edgar, and Joe must find and destroy the level boss, collect its key and move onto the next stage.

Quartet was initially released in arcades, then later ported to the Sega Master System (it was known as Double Target in Japan). It was unique in the fact that it was a four player game in a time when there were very few four player games (it should be noted that the SMS game only featured two of the characters from the arcade game, Mary and Edgar). There was a Quartet 2 that was released in arcades - however, it was only a two player version of the original game, like the SMS game. Sega never created a true sequel to the game, and the group from Quartet has been long forgotten by now...

Now an evil fox has gained control of a shrine and plans to conquer the world using strange creatures he created. He is known as Madfox Daimyojin. The other foxes of the Inari shrines chose Psycho Fox to go out and defeat Madfox.

Psycho Fox was Sega's attempt at creating a Super Mario-esque platformer for the Sega Master System. The ability to change into three other animals - a tiger, a hippo and a monkey - was fairly unique at the time. Unfortunately, this was the only game Psycho Fox ever appeared in - he never resurfaced in any other games. There was another game that copied the Psycho Fox engine almost identically for the Sega Genesis, called Magical Flying Hat Turbo Adventure (changed and released as Decap Attack Starring Chuck D. Head in the U.S.), but there was no references at all to Psycho Fox in either game.

Achacha, an evil sorcerer from the Achacha dimension, has kidnapped your girl and changed you into a duck! Now, as Dynamite Dux, you must follow Achacha and get your girl back.

One of Sega's more interesting arcade titles, Dynamite Dux was later ported over to the Sega Master System. The story was changed a bit on the game's release for the SMS, but the basic gameplay remained unchanged. However, the SMS game was never released in the U.S., and the arcade version, although released worldwide, wasn't really well known. After the SMS release, though, Bin and Pin faded in obscurity. As a side note, Bin's son Bean did turn up in the Saturn game Fighters Megamix as a playable character (with Bin as his second outfit!).

You are James Pond, an underwater agent of an anti-crime organization called F.I.5.H. You must save the world from the evil Dr. Maybe.

James Pond: Underwater Agent surfaced (no pun intended) on the Sega Genesis back in 1991. An obvious spoof of Agent 007, James would fight his way through two sequels (and one abysmal sports spinoff, James Pond's Aquatic Games) before finally being retired. Rumors are abounding that he'll resurface on the GameBoy Advance sometime this year, but nothing solid has been confirmed yet.