Blood Bros. - the title for this game was so lame I avoided this for years but it's a great arcade game in the genre of NAM-1975, except it's a single screen game (no scrolling). Developed by the mysterious Tad Corporation who were best known for Toki. Little things like the cowboy dancing around and going further into the background after beating a stage really give it some charm.
NAM-1975 - the first four games for the Neo were this, Baseball Stars Professional, Magician Lord, and a mahjong game, all released on April 26th, 1990. I always thought this was such a strange idea for the first Neo game but thinking of the variety of the four games at release it makes sense. The animation is still top-notch and fluid, seeing the enemies on fire is satisfying, but the oddness of the first level bosses leaves a disappointment that every other boss doesn't stack up. It still blows my mind you literally shoot at and demolish a statue of Buddha in the first level. I've always liked this despite never being able to beat Dr. Muckly. What I hate is that I feel like I almost know the pattern to beat Muckly but just can't pull it off.
Power Blade - one of those NES games that was completely remade for an American audience, I frst discovered this game in the early 2000s and was blown away by it. Playing it today the music really reminded me of Castlevania and whaddya know, the same composer for Castlevania did the music for this. Today was the first time I beat the game and I was surprised at how easy it was to go through compared to other platformers of the era. Still a very cool game.
Power Blade 2 - got this for a dollar along with Power Blade almost 20 years ago and now I see it's going for $500ish? LMBO. Anyways. It was a bad idea to give the game a darker color palette, and it just doesn't 'feel' as fun as the original. Haven't beat it yet but my opinion hasn't changed from way back when, the original is better but this is still serviceable. I'm amazed Taito made a sequel in the first place.