Lickle Samson!

I want to talk about a game I recently discovered...
Lickle!  I mean, Little Samson!  I mean, Lickle Samson!

Samle Litson is an NES platformer from 1992 and basically was made by a team of programmers who had recently left Capcom.
I'm not going to waste any time building things up; this game is amazing.  Pixel-perfect platform, beautifully-done 8-bit graphics, super-polished controls, wonderful level design and great diversity in the gameplay.  You take control of 4 separate characters, the titular Little Samson/Lickle, Gamm the Golem, Kikira the Dragon and K.O. ...the mouse!
Each of the 4 characters has unique abilities and you'll be guaranteed to use all 4 of them in any given level (following the 4 intro levels where you have to play as them separately).  The levels are all planned in a way that each character has a section where they're the best choice.
Lickle can jump high, shoot magical bells (..yeah), and climb on walls and ceilings.  K.O. can also climb walls and ceilings, move through small passageways, and, despite having the least health, has the strongest attack:  Bombs.  The mouse uses bombs.  Aw yeah.
Gamm moves really slow but can walk on spikes, has the most health, and can attack upward and (when jumping) downward.  Kikira can fly for about 5 seconds (similar to Princess Toadstool in Super Mario Bros. 2), shoot fireballs in spurts of 3 that 'swish' upwards and charge her fireball up to deal more damage.
Throughout the game, you will find health bar upgrades that you can use to extend each character's life.  Each character has his/her own max health bar length so, even maxed out, the characters are still pretty balanced.
There's a lot to say about the game but to keep it simple, this game is a ton of fun.  Play it.