

Rent A Hero is an action role-playing video game series released by Sega for the Mega Drive console in 1991 with a large emphasis on humor. The game features the same graphic engine previously used in the development of Sword of Vermilion. However, Rent A Hero has an unusual innovation for the genre. Instead of using standard turn-based battles, fights are in a similar format to 2D fighting games.
Taro Yamada lives in the town of Corja in Japan with his mother, eccentric father and younger sister Alyssa; the family moved there after his father changed jobs. He received his Combat Armor by accident during their house-warming party, when he ordered pizza from 'Sensational Cafeteria' or SECA and instead received the Rent-A-Hero suit. After realizing the suit gave him incredible strength and that he is required to pay for the armor, Taro decides to become a hero for hire, performing various heroic tasks and odd-jobs for the townspeople of Corja.

Fighting / Role-playing (RPG) / Adventure / Action / Comedy
A cure?! Ranma recieved a letter and seeks the truth! Interact with the townspeople, and fight for your survival! Immerse yourself in a day in Ranma's life.

Fighting / Role-playing (RPG) / Adventure / Action / Fantasy
Cadash is an early example of what would become a fairly common trend in Japanese-made arcade games of the early 1990s: the "platform-RPG". Cadash borrows many principles of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link's gameplay, combining side-scrolling platform action with an RPG system of statistics, levels, money and magic. Four characters can play at once in the arcade version, and up to two players may select from four different characters in the console versions: fighter, mage, priestess, and ninja, each with different attacks, statistics and skills. Players then proceed through each level, killing monsters and bosses, collecting keys to unlock doors and collecting gold and experience. Gold is also taken from slain foes and treasure chests. Villages sell items, weapons, armor and (in the console versions) extra lives, with each village encountered providing better equipment. Some villagers and benevolent creatures will also provide information. The arcade version has a limited game time, which can be extended by buying progressively more expensive hourglasses at shops, or by picking up rare bonuses. In shops, and in hidden places, are medicinal herbs which restore 10 HP if brought to zero, and antidotes which cure poison inflicted by specific foes. There are also two elixirs in the game that act like medicinal herbs, except that they restore all HP. There are five stages in the game. Stages one, two and four consist of two worlds, above and below ground. Stage three consists of three worlds. Stage five is set entirely within Castle Cadash. The environments differ significantly, from pleasant meadows to caves, and from forests to underwater environments. Some foes encountered in these levels are derived from common mythology while others are completely made up for the game.

Fighting / Role-playing (RPG) / Adventure / Action / Fantasy
The fighting system in Tobal 2 is the same as in the previous game. The player can freely navigate 3D fighting arenas under the condition that he or she faces the opponent. High, medium, and low attacks can be executed using assigned buttons. As in Tobal No. 1, the grappling and blocking system offers the player a variety of offensive and defensive maneuvers. A new unblockable fireball attack has been added for each character. Tobal 2 was released on the same day as Sony's Dual Analog Controller in Japan, noted as the first game compatible with the peripheral. Graphically, the game features Gouraud shaded and higher-resolution character models compared to Tobal No. 1, but still runs at 60 frames per second.

Fighting / Role-playing (RPG) / Action / Science fiction
Custom Robo is sort of a sci-fi action take on Nintendo's own collect-and-battle style Pokemon titles. In the game's story mode, you slip into the role of a young boy who has just built his very own toy robot who goes by the name of Ray. Together with your cousin, you head down towards Robo Station to take part in a giant Custom Robo battle championship that takes place in the local Holosseum. The ultimate goal is to improve your skills so that you can defeat the champion Custom Robo builder of them all, Mamoru. Gameplay involves robo customization and frantic action battles in confined 3D arenas. Followed by a sequel.

Role-playing (RPG) / Adventure / Action / Fantasy
Paper Mario, a turn-based JRPG entry in the Mario franchise with a paper-based aesthetic and platforming elements, sees the titular character working his way through the Mushroom Kingdom's diverse locales and biomes, meeting its inhabitants, fighthing unruly enemies and recruiting an array of companions in order to once again save Princess Peach from the clutches of the evil Koopa King Bowser.

Role-playing (RPG) / Adventure / Action / Fantasy
A JRPG entry in the Super Mario franchise in which Mario meets many unlikely allies in order to jump and fight his way through the Mushroom Kingdom and collect stars to repair the Star Road, the pathway that grants people's wishes, which was destroyed by Smithy, the otherworldly entity that hijacked Bowser's castle and threw the Kingdom into disarray.

Role-playing (RPG) / Adventure / Action / Fantasy
ToeJam & Earl is an early 1990s dungeon crawler. The game features two alien rappers, who have crash-landed on Earth and parodies 1980s urban culture. The game's design was heavily influenced by the role-playing video game Rogue, and took from it such features as the random generation of levels and items. Played from a 2D-top-down perspective the game contains both single-player and two-player cooperative modes. The latter displays a single screen when both characters are near each other, but splits it apart when they are not. Playing the game with two players reveals dialogue and jokes between the characters not heard in the single player game.

Fighting / Role-playing (RPG) / Hack and slash/Beat 'em up / Action / Fantasy
Guardian Heroes is a 2D side-scrolling beat 'em up video game with RPG elements developed by Treasure and released in 1996 for the Sega Saturn. A band of young adventurers begin a quest to change the fate of their kingdom after an enchanted sword falls into their hands. Players may choose between four characters, each with their own unique fighting style, and embark on many different paths in the game's story mode. The game also includes a special versus mode wherein up to six players can compete against each other in arena combat.