The lady and I had a lot of fun swimming around in SPLASH LAKE. It has a low barrier to entry and is easy to pick up and play, the difficulty level ramps up at a very steady but manageable pace. It plays great in two player mode, and all the extras and bonus levels keep the replay value high. We'd get stumped on a few levels, but the game is well designed in that it will reward (and require) different strategies to complete. There's some personality to the game with some of the characters (cigarette smoking stump? compulsively shitting bird?), the (admittedly pretty lame) "Ostrich Theater", and the slightly cinematic closing screen. Like another of my favorite puzzle/platform hybrids that also features a bird, PENGUIN LAND on the Master System, this is a game that's simple in presentation but long on fun. Great little game.
I also started rummaging around GHOST MANOR, and it's a pretty idiosyncratic game with a lot of quirks, but once you start to figure out the weird psychology of the game (took me FOREVER to realize you jump on the ghosts for a ride up in the first level) it gets pretty fun. The animation is appealing and the physics and momentum of the game give it polish along the lines of Mario or Sonic. For all the platformers that are out there, few deal with physics in as good a way as the two big mascots, so it's nice to play around with it here. Perhaps the best part for me is that it's actually a horror platformer that's PLAYABLE on the system - unlike NIGHT CREATURES, which has neverending respawning enemies and cheap deaths galore, this one gives you plenty of life and time to explore. Looking forward to getting further in this game in the future.