Like a lot of games that I've rented over the years, the Super NES Pitfall game was way too long and difficult for me to master in the one evening that I had it. So if I was ever going to see the end of it, I needed some help.

In the case of this game, help entailed going to the title screen

and pressing

X, Select, A, Select, Y, A, X, Select

And then I was able to choose whatever level I wanted

So I just started at the end, beat the last boss, and won!

Which is way more achievable for one night with the game than working your way through the whole thing at once, right?

Super Baseball 2020 is one of those sports games where they take a look at the 'distant future' of professional sports. But, at its core, it's just baseball... with cybernetics and robots.

But, say you start a game, and when you get to this screen

you hold Select while you press Start. You can then put a password in if you like. If not, you'll be greeted with the League Selection screen. Pick whichever league you like, and then get ready.

The computer takes over, it picks the teams

And then it starts playing the game by itself.

And it'll keep going until you reset the game or turn it off.

What's the point? I let it go for two games before I got bored watching it, but you could probably do the whole Pennant race if you wanted to.

Oh, and the passwords that you get after each game do work if you ever want to use them to take over the season, or if you don't want the computer to lose its progress.

Uniracers is kind of odd. You have to take your living unicycle through a series of races and stunt tracks because that's apparently what living unicycles do.

During the stunt tracks, you get points for doing a variety of tricks, but there are a couple that aren't listed in the manual anywhere, the so-called 'Mega' tricks.

The first one is the Head Bounce. While standing still, jump up, press and hold the X button so that you bounce a couple of times

Then let go. Boom! Head Bounce

The second one is a little tougher to do. You have to get some significant air, then press the X button, but release it when you're halfway turned

Then press X again to turn back, which will give you a Tabletop.

Now, you might notice that on your scoring screen, there's a spot for four Mega tricks, even though I've only shown you two.

And I can't find the article to source this, but the reason is that there's four spots for tricks, and only two tricks is because otherwise the scoring screen would have looked funny, like there was something missing.

So don't go trying to find tricks that don't exist, mmkay?

The Ren & Stimpy games were really tough. Mostly because the levels were long, poorly laid out, and you had poor control of your character. But they were based on a show that I liked at the time, so I was obligated to play them.

And, thankfully, I didn't have to slog my way through the game the hard way to see everything.

I went to the title screen

And before the word 'Veediots' is completely drawn, I pressed

L, R, A, L, R, L, B, R, X

To bring up a level-select menu.

Which was great, because now I could get a taste of all the levels.

Plus, some of the levels that you had to pick from weren't levels at all, but rather the between-level cutscenes

So I got to see those, too.

The Earthworm Jim games are known for being a little on the odd side.

Really.

For instance, in the first game for the SNES if you pause the game anywhere

And press:

Y, A, B, B, A, Y, A, B

You'll be greeted with this!

It goes on like this for a few minutes, with a message for Mr. Jones. And then takes you back to the title screen. So you probably don't want to do this if you've already made significant progress in the game.

You might not have heard of Cacoma Knight in Bizyland, but it's kind of like Qix, only with better graphics and more plot.

It also gets pretty tough as you go along, so I like to go to the Mode Selection screen

and put in Not Quite The Konami Code

Up, Up, Down, Down, Right, Left, Right, Left, B, A

Which takes me to the "Special Presents" menu

Where I get to play with all kinds of settings, including how many lives and continues I get, as well as my starting round.

Which is great when I get frustrated and stuck so that I can see the rest of the game.

The Clayfighter games are weird. They're fighting games where the characters are stop-motion claymation... things. And they're not very good. But the characters and presentation are usually pretty well done, so I still played them.

In C2: Judgment Clay you have a roster of eight combatants to choose from.

Unless!

You go back to the title screen

And press and hold L & X, while you press Up, Up, Select, Up, Up, Right. Done right you'll hear a sound. And when you start the game

Eight more characters to choose from. Sure they're just recolored versions of the original eight with different names, but don't worry about that.

In Super Mario Bros 3, getting maxed out on 1UPs on that one stage is pretty great, but what about the rest of the game?

Well, every time you finish a stage, you get a Card, which sits down at the bottom-right of the screen.

Collect three cards and you get a 1UP. Collect three matching cards, though, and you get more. Three mushrooms nets 2UP, Fire Flowers nets 3UP, and Starmen get you the pretty awesome 5UP.

So, if you know how to manipulate the cards, you can slowly build up a pretty good stockpile of extra lives.

You start by running into the dark area at the end of the stage at full speed (or pretty close to). Then jump up and hit the goal at 45 degree angle.

Done right you'll get a Star. Every time! Which will lead to

5 extra lives, every three stages or so.

Not a bad ROI, I'd say.

A while back I showed you a method that you could use to get all the 1UPs you wanted in Super Mario Bros. 3 that used a bouncing shell. Fast forward a few years and the same method makes a comeback in one of the sequels.

First, make your way to Stage 4-1 called "GO! GO! MARIO!!". It's one of the few stages that actually has Koopas in it.

Then, grab a Koopa shell (they're all over the place) and make your way to this pipe formation.

Spit the shell to the left, so it bounces between the pipes. Shy Guys will keep coming out of the leftmost pipe and jumping down to meet their doom. And eventually:

1UP! Just remember: If you've got the maximum amount of Eggs, nothing will come out of the pipe, so you have to throw one (or more) away.

And, since there's no time limit, you can stay here as long as you want, racking up lives.

It is kind of annoying that you don't get to do this until about halfway through the game, but it does get pretty tough from here on in. So you're going to need all the help you can get.

I've noticed that sports games are a little bit underrepresented on here, so let's fix that right now.

NBA Jam isn't your traditional basketball game. It features 2v2 matchups and plays kind of fast and loose with the rules of basketball and the laws of physics.

That's what makes it so fun.

That, and the secret players in the game.

For instance:

On the Super NES version, enter your initials for record keeping.

Then put in "NE" and move your cursor to the "T"

Hold L + R, and press X to make your choice, confirm, and when you go to select your team

Your player will be replaced with Al Gore.

Enjoy!