Play Gryzor (Japan) [En by MadHacker v1.0] [Fix by g8z et al] (Gryzor Version) Online

Gryzor—or as we knew it in the West, Contra—is one of those NES games that still holds up shockingly well. The Japanese version has this weird charm to it, like the slightly off-brand cereal your mom bought that somehow tasted better. You’re running, jumping, and spraying bullets everywhere while aliens and soldiers pour in from both sides of the screen. It’s chaotic, but in that perfect way where you’re laughing as much as you’re sweating.

The English patch here is solid—no garbled text or weird glitches. And yeah, the difficulty is still brutal (that waterfall level haunts me), but that’s part of the fun. Grab a friend for co-op, mash in the Konami code like it’s 1987, and try not to yell when you accidentally jump into a pit. Classic NES action doesn’t get much tighter than this.