Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

Right before Count Dracula was killed in the first game he placed a curse on the cities near his castle. In the evenings the cities are littered monsters and the evil creatures set loose in the other surrounding areas become much stronger. To remove the curse you take on the role of Simon Belmont to find the parts of Dracula, resurrect him, and then kill him. It's an odd story but in the end the game is so fantastic it's easy to overlook how they managed to get Count Dracula back in the game. Rather than stick with the linear paths of the original game this one breaks all the rules and allows you to go pretty much anywhere. The overall game design is very much similar to Metroid from a few years earlier. The game features individual towns to explore which had stores to shop at, people to talk to, and tons of secrets. The paths that connected the towns together were littered with enemies which when killed sometimes yield hearts.