The Battle of Olympus

The Battle of Olympus is a side-scrolling action RPG built on Greek myth, and it sits in the same small family as Zelda II - a game that mixes platforming, experience points and items in a way very few NES titles attempted.

You play Orpheus, whose companion Helene has been taken by Hades, and the way you progress is by appealing to the gods. Each one grants a favour - a weapon, a shield, the ability to breathe underwater, a way past a specific barrier - and those gifts are what open the world rather than keys or switches. Combat runs on experience and levels, so grinding is a legitimate route through a hard section, and the map is a connected overworld of forests, caves, temples and the underworld. The setting is used properly rather than as decoration: the enemies, the locations and the characters are all pulled from the myths, and the game's reputation has grown considerably since release.

• ▸Favours granted by the Greek gods act as the game's key items
• ▸Experience points and levels to carry you past hard sections
• ▸Connected overworld spanning forests, temples and the underworld
• ▸One of the few NES action RPGs structurally compared to Zelda II