Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (Jan 21, 1994)
Platform played: GB Emulator
Date beaten: Jan 9, 2025
In the third Super Mario Land game, you play as Wario, who has a somewhat different moveset and powerups than Mario, such as a dragon hat that spits fire, instead of the traditional fire flower. The goal of the game is to collect as much money and treasure as possible, and you get a better house in the ending depending on how much money you collected (similar to the later Luigi's Mansion). Kind of like Kirby's Dream Land 2, it's a somewhat short Game Boy game (I beat it in a day, maybe 3-4 hours total) but your play time can be extended by looking for all the treasures and going for a higher score. The treasures generally require you to find a key somewhere in the level to unlock a door, and then exit the level. Compared to the previous Mario Land games, it feels a bit slower-paced and more puzzle-oriented.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Feb 2, 1994) / Sonic & Knuckles (Oct 18, 1994)
Platform played: PC (Sonic Origins - Sonic 3 & Knuckles)
Date beaten: May 18, 2024
This one has a bit of a weird release history. Apparently Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles is what Sonic 3 was meant to be all along, but Sega had to split the game in half, so they first released Sonic 3, and then later, Sonic & Knuckles. The Sonic & Knuckles cartridge could then be "locked on" to Sonic 3 to unlock the full game. This lock-on technology could also be used with the Sonic 2 cartridge to let you play as Knuckles in Sonic 2 (but not Sonic 1, due to palette limitations). Of course in Sonic Origins, you don't have to fuss with all this, it's just Sonic 3 & Knuckles to begin with and you can play as Knuckles in Sonic 2 and even Sonic 1 as well.
Anyway, this game feels like the peak, fully realized 2D Sonic in much the same way that Final Fantasy 6 felt like the pinnacle of 2D Final Fantasys. S3&K introduced the "elemental shields," items so iconic that I'm always surprised when I remember they weren't in the previous games. You can play as Tails or Knuckles with their own special abilities. The level design is varied and interesting. The special stages are actually fairly fun and not annoying, and you access them by finding hidden giant rings in each level, giving plenty of chances to attempt them.
Shin Megami Tensei II
Platform played: SNES Emulator (Aeon Genesis fan translation)
Date beaten: Dec 17, 2024 (Chaos route)
Much like Megami Tensei II began in a virtual/game world, this game begins with you training in a "virtual battler" which serves as a sort of tutorial. You run into Steven in the VB who gives you the Demon Summoning Program. Your character lives in the slums of Valhalla in Millenium City, but after winning against another citizen in a Coliseum match, you earn the right to move into the Center, where the rich and privileged live. When you get there, you are told that you lost your memories and were originally a citizen of the Center in the first place. Even later in the game, you will find out that you, along with the other characters you named at the beginning of the game, were actually created by the government of Millenium and grown in a tube as an "artificial messiah." The other were also artificial humans given various roles, such as one being the administrator of the virtual utopia of Arcadia, and one begin the "Anti-Messiah" you are supposed to defeat. Even though you name them, not all of these characters will join your party. Again like in MTII, your male friend will join you briefly at the beginning, but for most of the game, it's you, the heroine (Hiroko), and your demons. The Pillars also return from MTII, and once again you have to collect them all to continue to the next part of the game which takes place in the Abyss/Hell.
The game takes a fair bit of inspiration from Judaism. Not only are the characters' default names all Hebrew letters and the areas of the Abyss are named after the Sephiroth on the Tree of Life, but Satan is also portrayed as a servant of YHVH, which fits much more in a Jewish interpretation, as opposed to in modern Christianity where Satan is shown as the enemy of God in a more dualistic manner. In the Chaos route, you actually team up with Lucifer to fight AGAINST Satan, which is interesting. Lucifer is portrayed as the light bringer who gave knowledge to humanity in the Garden of Eden, much like the way modern Satanists tend to view Satan-Lucifer. It is also stated that the Egyptian God Set is half of Satan, and Satan revives when Set awakens. A similar concept applies to Astaroth wanting to reunite with his true form, the Egyptian Goddess Ishtar. These concepts again are returning from MTII, where you had to reunite Baal with Belial, for example.
The ending (at least of the Chaos route) is also extremely similar to the ending of MTII, where you fight Satan and then are teleported to a dimly lit corridor, walk straight forward and then fight YHVH, the true final boss of the game, who appears as a big floating head. From what I can tell, it seems like the Law ending plays essentially the same, except you will summon Satan and fight Lucifer. But you still have to defeat YHVH at the end.