Little Nemo: The Dream Master

It's got all of the usual, great Capcom trappings: fantastic graphics, decent music, great gameplay. It's also a bit on the short side. But the variety of powers you can collect and the non-linear goal of each level push this one way up there.

Possess the bodies of frogs, moles, bees, gorillas and fish as you travel deeper into the world of dreams to confront the Nightmare King. With its night oceans and mushroom forests and cities in the clouds this game does such a good job evoking this dreamy fantasy atmosphere on NES hardware, and the Capcom touch makes it as great to play as any Mega Man. Maybe one of my top five favorite NES games, just great stuff.