Play Benkei Gaiden - Suna no Shou (Japan) Online

Benkei Gaiden - Suna no Shou is one of those SNES games that makes you wonder how it slipped under the radar. You play as Benkei, this hulking warrior monk who swings a naginata like it weighs nothing, cutting through bandits and supernatural weirdness in equal measure. The combat’s satisfyingly chunky—enemies stagger when you hit them just right, and there’s something weirdly zen about clearing a screen of foes with a single spinning slash.

But it’s not just mindless hacking. Some areas have these little environmental puzzles—push a boulder here, light a torch there—and the game loves throwing you into these surreal dream sequences where the colors go all washed-out and eerie. The pixel art’s gorgeous, especially the way dust kicks up when you dash across sand dunes or how torchlight flickers in caves. And that soundtrack? Haunting flutes and taiko drums that stick in your head.

It’s got this weird mix of history and myth, like someone took a samurai drama and ran it through a ghost story. If you’re into action games with a bit of atmosphere (or just want to see what Zelda might’ve looked like with more blood and existential dread), track this one down.