Hatris is one of those games made by the guy that made Tetris in what I assume was an effort to recapture the magic that Tetris had. But it wasn't really that good.

But, I suppose that some people like sorting hats that fall from the heavens, so this tip is for them.

If the hats don't quite fall fast enough to give you a proper challenge, you could go to the title screen

And hold Down on the control pad and press Start.

Done right, when you start the game, you'll see the word 'TURBO' down in the bottom-right portion of the screen

Forcing you to be on top of your hat-sorting game.

I was really disappointed with Super Pitfall. The game has nothing to do with the old Atari 2600 games of the same name, and to make things worse, the game's really not all that fun.

But if you've run out of other things to do, you might be tempted to play this a time or two. And given the shoddy controls, you're going to see this a lot

But, if you're really determined to keep playing, once you're taken back to the title screen, you could hit Select, A, A, A, Select. Done right, your guy will move down to a third, hidden option.

Which will allow you to continue where you left off.

And you can do this as many times as you need. Though, after playing it for a while, I'm not sure why you'd want to.

The NES version of Hook is a pretty terrible game, but if you absolutely must see the ending, I have some good news, I guess.

First, go to the title screen.

Then grab Controller 1 and press Right, Up, Up, Down, Down, Right, Left, Up

Done right, you'll hear a sound, then hit Select to see the ending... which really just consists of two screens of text with a Tinkerbell flying around in front of them.

Or, you could just start the game. If you do, you can use the compass to point to a stage and hit the B button to move around on the map, and the A button to play any stage you like.

But since you've already seen the ending, I'm not sure why you'd want to do that.

Been playing the Super NES port of Mortal Kombat 3 and been getting bored with it? (And at this point the game's life, who wouldn't be?)

Well, then, let's tweak a few options, shall we?

First, go to the 'Start' Screen

And press Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, A, B, A on Controller 1. Done right, a new menu option will appear, Kool Stuff

With several things to tweak.

Not enough?

Well, then go back to the 'Start' screen and press Select, A, B, Right, Left, Down, Down, Up, Up on Controller 1.

Another option will appear, Kooler Stuff

With lots more options to flip

Still not enough?

Okay, go back to the 'Start' Screen and press X, B, A, Y, Up, Left, Down, Right, Down on Controller 1 to get the final menu choice, Scott's Stuff

Which has yet more options for you to play with

Now things will start getting interesting, so go nuts flipping those options!

Thanks, reader EASY, for suggesting today's tip!

Playing Super Puzzle Fighter and tired of playing as Dan (or one of the regular characters)?

Well, then I've got a present for you!

Start the game as Player 1

Then, hold down the Start button and press Down, Left, Down, Left, Down, Left, Down, and then press and hold Left on the Joystick (while still holding Start, remember). While holding all these down, press one of the Action Buttons to select Morrigan. Done right, she'll turn into Akuma!

Who cuts a much more imposing profile.

And should make the game a little more fun.

You remember Karnov, right? The muscular fire-breathing circus strongman? He has his very own NES game, and it's actually pretty tough. Tough enough that if you make any kind of progress that you might not want to turn off your NES when you're done because you'll have to start over from Stage 1 if you do.

Or do you?

If you go to the title screen

And on Controller 1 hold Right + Select + A + B, and while holding all those down, press A on Controller 2 one time for each stage you want to skip, and while still holding down all those buttons on Controller 1, hit Start on Controller 1 (you might want to enlist the help of another hand or a foot).

Done right, you'll be whisked away to the stage of your choice

The only problem is that you won't have the benefit of having collected the items scattered around the levels that you skipped, but that's a small price to pay, right?

You might remember some time ago that I covered a method for continuing in Super Mario Bros. But would you believe that this works or other games, too? Because it totally does.

Like Kung-Fu Heroes.

Get the Game Over screen (and you will, trust me)

Head back to the title screen

Hold A and press Start, and wham!

Back to where you were to try again!

Which is much faster than trying to work your way through the beginning stages again.

You remember the ol' Konami Code, right? In case you've forgotten, it's:

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

And it's used in lots of Konami-branded games.

Like the arcade game compilation Konami Collector's Series: Arcade Advanced, which has five old-school arcade games for you to test your mettle in. Complete with original graphics and sound!

But, go to the title screen of your favorite game and put in The Code and you'll hear a sound

And when you start the game, behold!

Better Graphics for you! And this works for all the games in the compilation.

Except for Rush 'n Attack, the graphics stay the same, but you get more lives to play with

Which is probably more useful in that game anyway.

Knight Rider is an OK game, but not one that I was ever very good at. So, I got to see this thing a lot.

After failing to do whatever it is I'm supposed to do in the game a few times, I just hold down the Select button on controller 1 and hit the Reset button on my NES

Then, the ending starts to play

Just be aware that it's one of the lamest, most unsatisfying endings you'll ever see. Which looks to be a pretty big letdown if you earned it the hard way.

Dusty Diamond's All-Star Softball is an... interesting softball game for a lot of reasons, like the unique characters that are featured. Like Zelda the witch

But let's suppose for a minute that you went to the title screen

And while there you took Controller 2 and held Up while pressing A six times, then held Down while pressing B four times. Then used the Start button on controller 1 to start the game as normal. Then what would you have?

Well, nothing obvious. But when you get to the part of the game where the camera's zoomed out to show the field (i.e. after a ball's been hit), you can hold down the Start button and use the Control Pad to look at any part of the field you want.

Which is actually kind of useless since the default is for the camera to follow the ball so you can make plays. I really only found it useful as something to do after I hit a home run and was waiting for the guys to round the bases.