Play Perman - Enban wo Torikaese!! (Japan) Online

Perman: Enban wo Torikaese!! came out for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990, published by Irem. It's one of those late-era NES titles that feels a bit off the beaten path, based on a Japanese manga and anime series that never really made it big overseas. You play as a kid superhero named Mitsuo Suwa, part of a group called the Perman team, who get their powers from special masks.

You control Mitsuo as he runs and jumps through side-scrolling stages, trying to recover stolen prize tokens from a rival group of villains. Your main tools are a selection of silly disguise helmets you can find and use, like a balloon hat that lets you float or a boomerang helmet you can throw. The levels are fairly straightforward platforming affairs, but the enemy patterns and some of the platforming challenges keep you on your toes. It has that specific, slightly stiff feel of an NES action game, where timing your jumps and attacks matters more than raw speed. Playing it feels like navigating a cheerful, slightly unpredictable Saturday morning cartoon.