Long animation locks gave it away?
Boss fights, with long animation locks, to get RNG loot drops to fight harder bosses, with some non boss fight content sprinkled in every now and again.
Except nuclear powers are not allowed to lose. That’s why everyone wants to be a nuclear power and all the nuclear powers don’t want any new nuclear powers.
Super Mario Bros 3. Never beat it until the Allstars version on SNES, but it’s the first video game I remember playing. Or maybe it was Gauntlet, but SMB3 was the funner one.