Might be worth checking out the Gargoyle's Quest trilogy. If you're familiar with the Ghosts 'n Goblins series, Gargoyle's Quest is a spinoff of that franchise. Capcom was great at making platformers with gimmicks that made them stand out from the pack, and this series is a good example of it. The general hook is that you're an animate gargoyle (technically speaking a you're a "grotesque", because gargoyles are water spouts) monster, trying to accumulate more power in the realm of the monsters. Since you are based off architectural decoration, this becomes part of your moveset. You can cling to walls pretty much indefinitely, and use this wall-grab to direct your mobility. This mechanic makes it possible for stages to twist and coil into any direction, and often even makes floors optional. The first two games have some RPG elements to them that makes for an interesting genre-blend.
The first game is on the original Gameboy, the second one on the NES and the third one is a Super Nintendo title under the name "Demon's Crest". All three are worth playing in my opinion. The first one is probably the roughest of the three, but still my personal favourite. Its NES successor streamlines a bunch and polishes up some of its ideas. It's still great, but it doesn't bring a ton new to the table. Demon's Crest on the other hand, mixes the formula up again, and kind of strips away most of the RPG elements. One big downside of Demon's Crest however, is that all the bosses kind of have two as much HP as they should be having. If you can live with boss fights that drag on a bit, you're in for a game with some of the highest quality sprite work of that generation.
All three games were released on the virtual console if I recall correctly.
Great pick. It's far from perfect, but I just adored this game's ideas. In case it wasn't clear to those that are unfamiliar with the game, EVO is about taking your little creature, and gradually evolving your creature by changing parts of it to adapt to the ever changing world. Each part has its own stats, and determines your available moveset.
It's really unfortunate we never got a proper sequel of it, because there's still so much potential there. I'd even say that polygonal games with procedural animation would make a sequel more viable than ever too. Spore ended up using a bunch of the ideas, but didn't really do a whole lot with it.
Illusion of Gaia/Time is lovely, as are its predecessor and its successor. Certainly three of my favourite games of that generation. I really miss Quintet.
