Play Barcode World (Japan) Online

Barcode World is one of those NES games that makes you go, "Wait, this was a real thing?" You get this little handheld scanner—the Barcode Battler—and suddenly every barcode in your house becomes a mystery box. Scan a cereal box, and boom, you’ve got a new weapon or maybe some weird creature to fight for you. It’s like if someone mashed together an RPG and your mom’s shopping list.

The actual gameplay is pretty basic—mostly menus and turn-based battles—but the magic is in the sheer absurdity of scanning random stuff just to see what happens. I spent way too long as a kid waving the scanner over shampoo bottles and snack wrappers. It’s janky, it’s unbalanced (some barcodes just wreck everything), and it’s 100% a novelty, but that’s why it’s so fun. These days, it feels like a weird precursor to QR code games or even Pokémon GO. If you’re into retro oddities, this one’s a trip.