Axelay

Publisher: Konami
Developer: Konami
Release Date: September 1992

An original and SNES-exclusive shoot-em-up, Axelay was what you expected from Konami at the time: expertly-designed action with gorgeous graphics and catchy music. What you didn't expect, and what made the game particularly notable, was the graphical warping effect that produced a pseudo 3-D perspective in the vertical-scrolling stages. It's funny to think about now, but this effect blew a lot of people away back then, and was what distinguished the game among the glut of shooters that populated the Super Nintendo's first year.

Disregarding the graphical novelty, Axelay is at its heart an alternating vertical and horizontal scrolling shooter. There are no power-ups-- instead, you choose three weapons at the beginning of each stage which you can switch between in the heat of the action. The pace is typically slow, similar to a game like Gradius or R-Type. There is never an overwhelming number of enemies on screen, but many of the enemies take an abundance of hits, and the action involves quite a bit of terrain-dodging. Furthermore, the weapon-changing mechanic gives the game an air of strategy, as you often need to switch to the correct weapon to navigate certain portions of a level.

Though the Super Nintendo isn't commonly known as a great system for shoot-em-ups, it does feature a small group of them which are of a notably high-quality. If you are a fan of the genre looking for action on your Super NES, Axelay certainly belongs at or near the top of your list.

Arcana

Publisher: Hal America
Developer: Hal Laboratory
Release date: May 1992

This was a rare find on consoles at the time: A Japanese-style RPG with a first-person vantage point. Arcana was one of the final console games released by Hal as an independent publisher before its marriage with Nintendo, and it was a notable effort.

I speak of "Japanese-style RPG" of course in relation to western-style RPGs, which are more common to use the first-person view. Even though Arcana is first-person, it has a linear progression, a developed story, and a set cast of characters with limited customization, essentially like a Japanese RPG. There is no real overworld-- the player chooses from locations on a map. The game is otherwise a dyed-in-the-wool first-person, tile-based dungeon crawler where the player progresses from town to dungeon to a new town to a new dungeon, and so forth.

When I was a kid I was frightened of first-person games, precisely because they were usually of the complex European or American mold with high strategy, customizability and an often creepy atmosphere. For me, Arcana was the first game with this type of viewpoint that I ever felt comfortable playing, precisely because of its accessibility and the cartoony, anime-style art. Japanese RPG fans will definitely find themselves at home here-- the game even features a catchy and full-featured soundtrack, also a common trait of the Japanese style.

So if you're looking for a nice, entry-level Japanese-style RPG that uses a first-person vantage point, you can't go wrong with Arcana. Though it does nothing overly remarkable, it is highly polished and a very enjoyable playthrough.