Our look back at some of Capcom’s best 16-bit titles (as part of the Super NES’ 20 ^th anniversary) continues! Today I’ve chosen a real grab-bag of games: one mega hit, one bizarre spin-off and one underappreciated arcade gem. As with the past three posts on this topic, I also have 2000 Wii Points up for grabs so’s you can download some of these excellent titles of yesteryear…

SUPER BUSTER BROS

Thanks to Street Fighter II, I spent an embarrassing amount of time in ‘90s arcades. SFII was undoubtedly the reason for my attendance, but eventually someone way better than me would come along and dominate the machine. That usually meant finding something else to do while he obliterated the rest of the room, as I wasn’t about to keep dropping coins on a futile match. Such roaming desperation led me to Super Buster Bros, which turned out to be a surprisingly addictive puzzle/platformer combo that happily played second fiddle to all the fighting games clogging the arcade.

The premise is quite simple: shoot harpoons at giant bubbles. Clear them all to finish the level and move on. But! – those bubbles multiply with each strike, so one giant bubble becomes two smaller, and two smaller still. Managing which bubbles to pop (and when) became a Zen-like trance, and the many power-ups and backdrops helped keep the action from getting stale. Eventually the game came to Super NES with all that fun intact, so naturally I played it a crapload there too. A small, niche title for sure, but no less fun.

MEGA MAN SOCCER

Hoo boy. Apparently in between shooting each other with Bubble Leads and Hard Knuckles, Mega Man and the rest of the robo-crew would get together for a nice little game of soccer. The results are… odd, to say the least, but there is definitely a good bit of fun tucked inside this supremely strange spin-off. For starters, you could infuse the ball with various Robot Master powers and then kick it across the field, say with Cut Man’s blade or Dust Man’s garbage ball attached. If it struck the goalie, he’d crumble into dust and you’d essentially score a free goal. Think of it as a precursor to Super Mario Strikers.

Notice Proto Man is referred to as Blues – his Japanese name

Stranger still is the fact that multiple versions of each robot could be on the field at the same time. Two Cut Men in one universe? Impossible! Shame the controls are a bit, uh, let’s say sluggish, as the premise and underlying mechanics are fairly entertaining. If nothing else, Mega Man Soccer was (and remains) a fantastic oddity in the canon, worth digging up solely to say “Huh. So that happened.”

MEGA MAN X

Easily one of the most popular Super NES games of all time, and to this day one of the best 2D action games (I placed it quite high in this GamesRadar article , as well) to boot. Odds are just about everyone visiting this site has played MMX at some point, as it went on to become its own successful spin-off series with multiple sequels spanning a decade. But what made it so good at the time, and then what made it last so long?

The ultra-cool opening stage, complete with action-movie-style setpieces

For me, it was the “cool factor” of making Mega Man an adult-ish, mysterious tough dude instead of the happy-faced kid-robot of the NES games. Oh I love classic Mega Man, but at the time, X was so fresh and badass that he reignited all the love I felt for the series. Of course the rock-solid gameplay from the NES games was intact, with perfect controls, impeccable level design, copious hidden items and a timeless soundtrack that is still on my iPod today. With fundamentals that strong, Mega Man X has persisted through the years and hasn’t aged a day – it’s every bit as fun now as it was in 1994.

And it just so happens to be on the Virtual Console! So, as with the other articles, post a comment about any of the games in this list – fond memories, cool moments, whatever – and I’ll choose one of ‘em for 2000 free Wii Points (good for use on the North American store). Then head to the official thread for these posts for even more discussion!

And then come back tomorrow for the final post, with entries from myself and Snow!