If you haven't tried it you might look at Gemfire. It has some vague rpg elements and is made by KOEI. Unlike most of their strategy games it is very simple - so no wading through screens of menus. The neat thing about it is that you can plow through a game in a night or two - so perfect filler when you don't want to commit to a lot of time. It was available on NES, SNES and Genesis - as far as I know all of the releases were the same.