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Shows like Street Sharks and Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars! continued the pattern of sentient animals fighting crime. Smaller series struggled to stand out among competitors due to the success of larger shows. Quality children's entertainment from the '90s like The Tick & Pepper Ann remains underrated today.

The '90s brought about numerous animated series with a few dominating pop culture conversations, leaving other shows to go unrecognized. '90s cartoons such as Rugrats and Pokmon still receive acclaim and fanfare decades after their premieres for their innovative animation and storytelling. It's because of these larger shows with massive success that smaller series have fallen under the radar, especially considering the heightened quality needed to stand out among competitors. Many of the kid's shows from the decade had a similar setup that featured a heroic lead, typically endowed with superhuman abilities, fighting various bad guys.

Therefore, unless there...

X-Men '97 captures the nostalgia of the original animated series all thanks to the involvement of a key creative.

The original X-Men animated series was a definitive event for Marvel fans who grew up in the 90s, a decade also defined by shows like Batman: The Animated Series. Some stood out because of their catchy themes or opening credits, and, X-Men's intro sequence excelled on both fronts, immediately drawing viewers into the action with an earworm song and in-your-face visuals. The showrunners leveraged this in X-Men '97, which successfully recreated the original's tone and animation style. In an interview with /Film, showrunner Jack Castorena confirms that key creatives from the original show were directly involved in X-Men '97, including the director of that show's opening titles.

Related X-Men '97 Director Explains How the Show's 'Unique' Animation Style Came Together X-Men '97 head director Jake Castorena shares how the long-awaited...

As anyone who grew up with the console knows, most Nes games based on movies or TV shows were…terrible. Licensed games would eventually improve, but some of the worst licensed Nes games are also often considered to be among the worst games ever made. Your memories of most of those titles have not betrayed you.

However, all of those terrible licensed games also shaped a dangerous and inaccurate narrative that suggested that every licensed Nes game was bad. That couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, some of the best Nes games based on movies and TV shows aren’t just better than the competition but honestly deserve to at least be mentioned when we’re talking about some of the Nes’ greatest experiences.

15. The Lone Ranger

Though there were a surprising number of Nes games based on early TV shows, most of them…oh…how to put this?...

The Famicom (the Japanese version of the Nes) is turning 40 in 2023. While 40 isn’t quite as old as it used to be when we’re talking about people, it’s pretty much ancient for any piece of technology. The Famicom/Nes were released at a time when people were debating over Betamax vs. VHS, rocking out on their Sony Walkmans, and checking the time on their Casio watches. It’s natural that many of the games made for the Nes will not have aged that well in the grand scheme of things. Of course, that makes it that much more impressive that there are some Nes games that have actually aged incredibly well.

What does it mean for an Nes game to age well? The answer to that question will vary from person to person. For me, though, a game ages well when you can play it today and not...