{"arcade80s/galaga":"this is a test review just to test how our card frame handles the bespoke PNG. Galaga is pretty cool though. Better than Space Invaders. Would be nice to spend more time with it as an adult because I've played a lot of the games this one has inspired since.","arcade90s/mega_man_the_power_battle":"I had never been so excited to play an arcade game as when I came across this one. And I only ever saw it and played it once. Seemed right up the alley of the kind of game Mega Man should be in. Definitely gonna have to give this and the sequel a playthrough via emulator sooner than later.","nes/a_boy_and_his_blob_usa":"Spent hours throwing jelly beans around in the first area but could never progress. Deserves another playthrough as an adult and may get a higher score.","nes/blaster_master_usa":"Played a little bit on Wii homebrew. Was immediately struck by how ambitious and well-crafted this game is. Only got a couple hours in but it left a strong impression. Deserves a proper full playthrough.","nes/bomberman_usa":"The green background is genuinely nostalgic. Put a lot of hours into it when I was very little, though I never got particularly far. The core loop is satisfying and it's easy to see why the series took off from here. Never revisited it after falling in love with the Super Nintendo entries, which made everything here feel a little rough by comparison. The second NES game looks worth checking out too.","nes/bugs_bunny_birthday_blowout_usa":"Only got to play it once, but looking at screenshots again brings it all back — this was a seriously high-quality licensed game. Great game feel, cool bosses, and lovely visuals. The engineers clearly put real care into it. Need to sit down with it as an adult and give it the full playthrough it deserves.","nes/castlevania_usa":"An absolute masterclass in game design.\n\nWhat makes it so brilliant is how the entire experience is perfectly built and balanced around the known, deliberate constraints of the player's movement and attacks. Because the game understands your limitations so well, the levels and bosses always feel completely fair.\n\nThe level design is incredibly smart, featuring cheeky, well-placed enemies designed to test your spatial awareness. This is balanced out by checkpoints that are placed at the exact right locations—spaced just far enough apart to maintain the perfect amount of tension without crossing over into cheap frustration.\n\nIt demands your attention, but the payoff is worth it: once you actually learn the patterns and master the mechanics, you feel like an absolute badass.","nes/castlevania_ii_usa":"Played it right after Castlevania I, well aware of its reputation for a notoriously bad translation that blocked progression. Kept a guide handy throughout and still found it genuinely enjoyable. Not as polished or cohesive as I or III, but still worth playing — especially as part of a series run.","nes/castlevania_iii_usa":"Played it right after I and II and it immediately felt like a step up in craft — like going from Mega Man 1/2 to 3/4. The branching paths and multiple playable characters add real replay value. Visually it's a clear leap forward, taking advantage of a beefed-up cartridge the way some of the better late-gen NES titles did. Only did one playthrough but really enjoyed it. Will have to go back and explore the alternate routes. Excellent game.","nes/chip_n_dale_rescue_rangers_usa":"Only played as a kid but put a ton of hours in. One of Capcom's best licensed games — and that bar is high. The art is lovely, the gameplay is tight, and the level designs and bosses are consistently fun. The kind of game that holds up completely as an adult. And that cover art is just wonderful.","nes/contra_usa":"Played it dozens of times but could never get very far — it was just too punishing as a kid. Need to give it a serious go as an adult with the skill set I've built from all the other games I've played since.","nes/duck_hunt_usa":"Had the NES cart with Mario / Duck Hunt together. Put in many happy hours with this as a toddler. The core memory of pressing the Zapper right up against the CRT glass screen to guarantee a hit is vivid.","nes/ducktales":"Came in knowing the reputation and left underwhelmed.\n\nThe Amazon opens things up on a rough note — the bee enemies behave like Castlevania's Medusa heads, and their placement alongside instant-death pits feels unfair from the jump. The helicopter rope segment is purposefully set up for a bee to kill you in an annoying way. The falling blocks kill you if you walk across them instead of pogoing. Should have been tuned to be a smidge more forgiving. The level's music is genuinely great though — The Amazon theme has at least two strong melodic hooks\n\nFinding out you need to replay the level just to afford the toll, and then having the toll seemingly do nothing — just hopping an enemy to progress anyway — was annoying. There is an extra life in the bottom path of the level, so maybe I'm being too harsh, but losing all progress and being sent to the title screen when you lose your lives never stops feeling bad.\n\nTransylvania castle has ghost placement that feels cheap. The witch boss's attack that drops toward the player is too unpredictable — beat me four times. Closing in to pogo her consistently resulted in getting clipped by her hitbox feeling unfair. \n\nThe African Mines kicks you out back to the castle to find a key. That's neat. Once you get back, the level has a spot that manifests two chests when you pass their tiles. Their positioning traps you and forces you to get hit by a piranha plant to get out. Not cool when you have max 3HP. The slug boss at the end of that level killed me in about five seconds at full health and I didn't find any 1-UPs. That a boss encounter that quick could send you back to the title screen feels like sloppy design.\n\nThe Himalayas has the most egregious moment in the game so far. There is a Mario invincibility star meant for the player to charge through the spider ahead, and while it did kill the spider, I also bonked my head still receiving collision and fell into a death pit. If intentional and not a bug that was pretty lame.\n\nThe slippery ice and an awkward floating platform each killed me twice feeling more like sloppy design than a player skill issue. At least this level has a +1HP upgrade — I'd do it first on any future playthrough like Ice Penguin in Mega Man X. The yeti boss is a pushover.\n\nMoon stage is underwhelming but has one of the best video game songs ever written. Plenty of health to find, and an easy mouse boss.\n\nThe end game reuses Dracula's castle for a third time. The final boss being a Rothschild-coded villain for your plutocrat scrooge hero is a funny touch. He's positioned awkwardly and his bat minion is genuinely difficult to pogo without eating a hit. I arrived with save states and still had only one 1-UP left by the time I got there, dying five times before finishing it. A clean run could easily end in a title screen wipe right at the finish line.\n\nA few technical gripes: the hitbox on larger minions and several bosses isn't rounded enough at the corners, meaning pogo attempts frequently clip the invisible edge mid-jump and deal damage. It happened often enough to be a consistent frustration. Player control felt tight though.\n\nThere are light Metroidvania elements in the stage select structure and some branching level paths that add a little texture. A couple of stages have Mario 1-2 style above-the-ceiling secret areas. Scrooge's hat floating in the air for a frame when he crouches is a cute detail. His stuck-in-snow pogo sprite is charming. I recognized a minion death sound effect they used later on Chip 'N Dale.\n\nThis came out right after Mega Man 2 and doesn't compare favorably. Not a bad game, but the reputation far exceeds the reality. No desire to return to it. DuckTales 2 came out three years later with a more experienced team, it'll be interesting to see how it compares. I've been meaning to play this for over 2 decades, so it is nice to finally put it to rest.","nes/earthbound_usa_custom_unreleased":"Will make you cry. Play the rom hack that fixes the balance issues — it transforms the experience. An absolute must-play if you love Mother 2 / EarthBound on SNES. The raw, understated version of everything the series would later refine, and emotionally it hits just as hard.","nes/flintstones_the_rescue_of_dino_and_hoppy_usa":"Very well made platformer with great art, mini-games, and story beats.","nes/jaws_usa":"Jaws is an excellently crafted arcade game and a must-play for anyone studying quality game design. The controls are tight, the core loop is incredibly satisfying, and navigating the different depths of the main gameplay area against a solid variety of enemies keeps the action fresh.\n\nI originally played this as a toddler. Back then, the game was genuinely scary but still completely playable. While my kid-brain didn't understand how to properly upgrade or trigger the endgame, I vividly remember how satisfying it was to finally unlock those cannon bullet upgrades and start doing real damage (and the mini sharks!).\n\nComing back to it as an adult, I can confidently recommend Jaws '87 with the greats of any era.","nes/jetsons_the_cogswells_caper_usa":"Beautiful color theory and sprite work throughout. Gameplay is pretty solid too. I remember the diffculty level being pretty high though. Might get a higher score on adult playthrough.","nes/kirbys_adventure_usa":"Considered docking half a point for being too easy, but it's hard to argue against perfection. One of the best-looking and best-feeling NES games ever made. A timeless masterpiece and probably the ideal first video game to hand to someone new to the medium.","nes/kung_fu_usa":"Played many hours but never made it more than halfway through. The art and sound design are great — but I remember some of the enemy placement and attack patterns feeling a bit cheap. The rhythm of the combat is satisfying when it clicks. Worth revisiting as a seasoned adult gamer.","nes/legend_of_zelda_the_usa":"As a kid, I \"didn't get it\" and could never get far. Played as an adult (without a guide) and loved it. I did have to look up how to get through some grave yard thing in the late game. Played a little NewGame+ too.","nes/mario_bros_usa":"Put in a lot of hours solo and with siblings. It's a pretty fun arcade game with a satisfying core loop, but the progression gets stale quickly. Interestingly, the Animaniacs Game Pack and Bonk Heads clones both managed to squeeze more fun out of the same basic formula.","nes/mega_man_usa":"Mega Man 1 gets points for style and concept, but earns a low grade for sloppy execution. If you consider yourself a casual gamer, Mega Man 4 is a great entry point instead. However, in spite of the series difficulty, I recommend playing MM1 through 6 in succession to truly appreciate the Blue Bomber's rough-around-the-edges origins.\n\nThe Mega Man franchise is renowned for tight platforming, but you won't find that here. The player physics feels heavy, slippery, and gross, and the hitboxes are poorly calibrated—a deadly combination that frequently results in cheap, unfair pit deaths. Add in minions and bosses that deal far too much damage utilizing unfair attack patterns, and it's an experience only decades-long veterans can breeze through today. While the game mercifully avoids a 0% progress hard-reset by giving you infinite continues, losing a life and being sent all the way back to the beginning of a grueling stage happens far too frequently.\n\nAesthetically, the music and sound effects are phenomenal, and the boss sprite-work carries the game with a ton of charm. Setting nostalgia aside, however, MM1 is easily the ugliest of the classic series. The development team was clearly still finding its legs, lacking the polished graphic design chops and unified appeal they would hone in later games. To be fair, they were also constrained by early technology, building the game on a basic UNROM mapper. It wasn't until they upgraded to the MMC1 chip (allowing for eight bosses and better scrolling in MM2) and the mighty MMC3 chip (powering fixed HUDs, parallax scrolling, and detailed animations in MM3-6) that the developers finally had the tech to match their evolving artistic vision.","nes/mega_man_2_usa":"Often lauded as the best NES Mega Man game — I'd push back on that. It's a massive leap over the original and the dev team's growth is obvious in every stage. But it doesn't hold up as well as 3 and 4 in overall game design. Still a must-play and a genuine milestone in the series.","nes/mega_man_3_usa":"Mega Man hits its groove here. The formula is locked in and everything built around it is polished — fair, challenging platforming, great minion and boss design, lovely music and art. The introduction of Rush and the slide mechanic add real depth. A very strong entry and a clear turning point for the series.","nes/mega_man_4_usa":"The high-water mark of the NES series visually. The color theory in many of the stage set pieces is as good as anything you'd see in an art gallery. Movement feels more refined than ever, the bosses and minions are all iconically cool, and the level gimmicks are thoughtful without ever feeling gimmicky. A beautiful game from start to finish.","nes/metroid_usa":"Tough but deeply rewarding. The atmosphere — lonely, hostile, and beautiful — is unlike anything else on the NES. Finding upgrades and hidden paths is genuinely satisfying once you learn the language of the game, though a guidebook with map helps. I have a core memory of a younger sibling hitting the reset button and wiping my progress. I don't think I finally beat it until I was an adult.","nes/mighty_bomb_jack_usa":"Punchy colors and fun, challenging arcade action. The difficulty ramps hard. I assumed it was unbeatable as a kid, but there is apparently a credit roll ending — which makes it worth going back for. Underrated little NES game.","nes/ninja_gaiden":"A game that's about 95% excellent and 5% inexcusable. The first stage eases you in well — great sprite work, solid movement, a generous variety of power-ups, and a cinematic cutscene that immediately signals this is different. The storytelling ambition alone sets it apart from its peers.\n\nStage 2-2 introduced the game's central tension early: a black guy on a pedestal knocked me into an instant-death pit seven times before I figured out there was a sub weapon in the dragonfly enemy just before him that makes the whole thing manageable. Annoying discovery, but the checkpoint at the start of 2-2 softened the blow. What I kept noticing throughout the early game was how tight and deliberate the enemy placement felt even when it was punishing — 2-2's death pit killed me eleven times and I didn't feel cheated once since the checkpoint was so short. That's a fine line and the game mostly walks it well. Also — why are football players attacking you alongside monster bugs, demon priest assassins, and soldiers? I need answers.\n\n3-2 was cheeky and tough, made me swear a few times, and killed me on the pit at the end. First boss loss too. By 4-1 things started getting genuinely hard — the very first enemy is ruthless, hitting guys below you without a downward air attack is awkward, and the sub weapons that help drain all mana immediately. The melee hitbox reads as slightly too high throughout the whole game, which compounds every tight situation.\n\nThe 4-2 track is one of my favorite songs ever written. The Advantage's cover is great. The stage killed me a ton right at the start and I didn't care — I was having too good a time. The checkpoint system is generous enough that the difficulty reads as exciting tension rather than punishment through most of the game, and the pacing of progression is genuinely well-crafted.\n\nBy 5-1 it's crystal clear this is a campy 80s action movie with horror elements, and that's a compliment. The buff white ninja kicked my ass several times. The bat knock into the pit near the end of the stage is a little cheap — the game demands you treat every newly revealed inch of screen with suspicion.\n\nThe wall cling and wall jump mechanic is a weak point throughout: jumping up a single wall doesn't feel clean the way Mega Man X later perfected it, and you almost always need one more cross-jump than the geometry visually suggests. 5-3 has jetpack ninjas, which gets the noggin going — a reminder that you can do anything you want with this medium. The checkpoint rolls back further here, which feels like appropriate escalating stakes. One leopard placement is flat-out unfair and killed me repeatedly.\n\nThe 5-4 boss is where the game first truly breaks the rules of good game design. Knocked me into insta death pit repeatedly from a single shot, couldn't dodge the lightning attacks, and the checkpoint sends you back to 5-3. It isn't designed fairly and it costs the game real points, because everything up to this moment had been so much fun. The solution appears to be: arrive with full health and spam attack. Fine, I guess.\n\n6-2 through 6-3 are relentless in the wrong way. Unfair minion clusters, a stretch near the end of 6-2 with birds and bats that killed me roughly a dozen times, brutal ninja placements in 6-3, and four jumping gremlins that WILL damage you and feels like the game actively trolling the player. The 6-4 boss is one of the worst I've encountered in gaming history — I won on what felt like pure RNG after twenty or thirty attempts using a save-state to restart quickly. Too many drones, and getting the boss away from the orb long enough to attack it is more luck than skill.\n\nAnd then... a single death against the final boss sends you back to 6-1. Not 6-4. 6-1. That's not a difficulty curve, that's cruelty. The first wave of fireballs is extremely difficult to dodge and sometimes persist along subsequent waves. Contact with the boss body does too much damage. A third form exists, and it also sends you back to 6-1. I can beat every Pantheon in Hollow Knight and I could not finish this game without save states. In this case I saved after every successful hit against the boss. A well-made game should theoretically allow a skilled player to complete it without taking a single hit, and this final stretch fails that test completely. The devs did not playtest the last 5% of this game the way they should have.\n\nSeeing a tiny credit roll at the end made me less angry. The pixel art is genuinely beautiful throughout. The minion variety and unique attack patterns are impressive for the era. Sub weapons are a good idea that never gets the ammo balance it needs to be consistently fun. Controls are mostly tight but don't account well enough for the enemy types and platforming edge cases they're placed against.\n\nIt's a very similar game to Castlevania I in feel, audio, and visual polish — and that comparison is ultimately what defines it. Castlevania is fair, and that's what separates it as a masterpiece. Ninja Gaiden almost gets there, but is only a good game, not great.","nes/ninja_gaiden_II":"The intro cinematic is immediately badass — and then the very first thing the game does is place a wall right next to your spawn point, practically begging you to grab it. When you do, you slide up and down freely instead of locking in place. It's the developers talking directly to the player: we heard you, we fixed it. A perfect opening statement.\n\nThe prismatic UI is a nice touch and the sprite work feels noticeably more ambitious than the first game. The cutscenes are remarkable — the art, animation, lighting, and sound effects are all genuinely impressive, holding up well even now and functioning as real creative inspiration. The script is pretty bad, but the presentation surrounding it is so confident that it barely matters. Each cut holds a beat too long to allow players to finish reading, which hurts the pacing. I'm not sure I've seen cinematic work quite like this on the NES or SNES. The moving clouds during one of the mid-game cutscenes are a particularly nice touch.\n\nAct 2's moving train set piece is a highlight early on — three layers of parallax scrolling doing real work. Act 2's wind physics gimmick, borrowing from Mario Bros. 1, is a fun stage mechanic, and losing all lives there sends you back to 2-1 which is fair. Act 3 opens with lightning strobing across the scene in a way I genuinely hadn't seen before. The \"enemy castle in the distance\" establishing shots, a cliché of the genre, are the best-looking versions of that shot I've encountered. The devs clearly pushed hard on set design and it shows at every turn, consistently outdoing the first game.\n\nThe difficulty balance is meaningfully better calibrated than Ninja Gaiden I. Health potions show up with some regularity and 1-UPs are distributed generously — often placed in spots that are tough but fair, rewarding rather than punishing. That said, 3-2 introduces some genuine instant-death pit traps, and one small persistent annoyance: you can't climb the final rung of a ladder and instead have to jump across and back to clear it, which never stops feeling slightly wrong.\n\nThe Act 3-3 boss fight takes place against a backdrop of parallax clouds that's genuinely pretty. The boss himself is tough, killed me, but has fair and readable attack patterns across multiple phases — a long, satisfying battle. The checkpoint isn't punishing.\n\nAct 4 opens with an animated fire background in 4-1 that's striking — a clear step up in set design ambition. There's one unfair pit-kill enemy placement here that sticks out against the otherwise well-judged difficulty. Act 4-2 has a really pretty palette and a 1-UP placed in a genuinely good tough-but-fair spot. The Act 4 boss is straightforward and easy — nothing memorable mechanically, but looks nice enough.\n\nThe 10+ mana upgrade scrolls are consistently positioned in good high-risk spots throughout the game so far, making grabbing them feel earned. There's a solid downward-strike sub weapon that doesn't hemorrhage your mana in three uses, which alone fixes one of the first game's persistent frustrations. One worth flagging: health doesn't refill between levels, which I only noticed at 5-2 and which changes how carefully you play the back half. The 5-3 boss set piece is visually unique and well done. Dying sends you back to roughly halfway through 5-2 — not the worst checkpoint. The sub weapon made short work of him.\n\nThe clone ninja upgrade is clearly a dev favorite — it gets used so often it starts to feel like the default state of the game. It's a cool mechanic but the constant sprite flickering clutters the screen and makes it hard to track what's happening. The devs also swap your sub weapon out far too frequently, which disrupts any rhythm you build around a loadout you like.\n\nThe 6-3 boss is a copy-paste of the twin hopping gargoyles from the first game — harder this time and now throwing projectiles. The game acknowledges it in the cutscene: Ryu notes he's fought this before, which is a genuinely funny self-aware moment. \"Jungle Rat\" Rob gives us a bit of camp.\n\nAct 7-1 brings another pretty palette and a distinctive set piece, with a mean bird death-pit placement. 7-2 is tough — genuinely difficult in a way that still mostly feels fair, though it pushes slightly closer to the edge than Mega Man or Castlevania would allow. There's a kind 1-UP and health upgrade placed in an easy spot that feels like the game acknowledging the stretch ahead.\n\nThe Act 7-3 boss is tough but his body and flame attacks are telegraphed and dodgeable — a direct philosophical improvement over the first game's final stretch. Loading up on mana throughout the level and saving it for the fight is the correct strategy, and the game communicates that implicitly. Normal attacks do almost nothing here; it's a mana fight. I beat him with clone ninjas on the fourth try using save states.\n\nThe final boss is a multi-phase encounter that, yes, sends you back to the beginning of 7-2 on death — including through a cheap gun enemy shortly past the checkpoint who knocked me into a hole four. Getting sent back through a tough level on a single life loss during the boss is the one design philosophy carried over from the first game that still stings. Mega Man rules — lose all your lives, then reset — would have been the right call here. Arriving at the second phase with only 30 mana out of 100 is a real problem since melee alone isn't sufficient. Even with save states after every succesful hit, the second phase was still annoyingly difficult.\n\nThat said, the third phase of the final boss itself is a massive improvement over Ninja Gaiden I's ending. It will certainly kill everyone on their first playthrough, which is fine in Mega Man since you get to jump right back in, but is pretty annoying here having to go through the whole difficult level again. But thankfully, there are a couple of safe standing spots that let you chip away methodically, and once you learn the patterns the whole thing becomes genuinely satisfying. The castle destruction sequence that follows just keeps going — the longest I've seen of its typey.\n\nThe music is strong throughout without producing the immediate earworm moments the first game had. One nice touch: dying and replaying a level sometimes swaps in a different track, which does real work breaking up the monotony on tough stretches.\n\nThe credits roll on a single programmer. One person. Whether or not it's the same individual from the first game, the improvement in craft from one entry to the next is commendable. A remarkable achievement.\n\nNinja Gaiden II lands nearly in masterpiece territory — alongside the best of Capcom and Konami. The flaws that pulled the first game down from greatness simply aren't here. It feels properly playtested, properly paced, and properly finished. Where the original stumbled at the finish line, this one sticks the landing.","nes/ninja_gaiden_III":"The intro cutscene is cringey — a step down from the confident B-movie energy of the first two games. But Ryu has a flowing scarf idle sprite animation now, which is a nice touch, and a ceiling crawl mechanic is a genuinely cool addition. The monster set pieces and enemy variety out of the gate are promising. You can also see what a wall item contains before committing to opening it, which is a smart quality-of-life improvement over the previous games.\n\nThe first boss is pretty, has a great sprite, and goes down easy. Then 2-1A hits and the difficulty spikes hard — enemies killing you through attrition rather than instant-death pits, which I don’t think happened happened once across the first two games. Making it to 2-2A with two hits of health left only to find that dying sends you back to 2-1A and burns one of five continues — presumably a full game reset on the last one — is a serious disappointment. The checkpoint structure here is the first sign that the dev team made some choices that are difficult to defend.\n\n2-2C's checkpoint back to 2-2A is at least tolerable. There's a 1-UP in there, but not a single health item to be found anywhere in the first two acts. The Act 2 boss has a predictable and fair attack pattern — genuinely damageless once you read it — but the lack of any healing on the way to him makes arriving with enough health to learn that pattern a real ask.\n\n3-1A opens beautifully — great color choices, nice depth, strong animation work — and gives you full health, which is a relief. But you can't swing your sword while climbing or hanging, and the mana supply for sub weapons is too stingy to compensate. The platform and minion placement here is unfair and killed me repeatedly. 3-2A is really lovely. 3-2C finally produces the first health potion, along with a second mana upgrade — both placed too easily compared to the second game, which made finding them feel earned. The hidden wall item contents being visible now also removes the risk-reward tension that made hunting them interesting before.\n\nThen 3-3A: even using save states I arrived at the boss without enough time left, the timer expired, and I got sent back to 3-2A. The timer mechanic is a blatant Mario Bros. 1 import and it has no business being in this game. The first two Ninja Gaiden games never once ran me out of time. Someone on the dev team was convinced good games have timers. They were wrong, and it's one of the worst design decisions in the trilogy. The cutscene that follows is horribly written, but the music is excellent.\n\n4-1A feels very much like Guts Man's stage from Mega Man. There's one flying minion placement that is genuinely indefensible — nobody survives it the first time. The boss goes down almost instantly and leaves no impression. The bio-noid plot thread is at least interesting, even if the cutscene pacing remains painfully slow.\n\nBy Act 5 it's clear the enemy variety isn't as strong as it initially seemed — the running zombies have been present since the same level in Act 1 and appear everywhere. 5-1B throws an impressive wall of animated rain tiles at the screen and is reminiscent of the first Mega Man X Sigma stage, shorter but with the same level design. Worth noting that across both this game and the second, Tecmo was getting significantly more animated sprites on screen simultaneously than most NES games could manage. 5-1C finally gives a second health potion, immediately followed by a wave of way too many enemies. The Ryu clone boss in Act 5 has the best-designed attack patterns in the entire series — fair, readable, and fun if you don't rush. Beat him damageless on the third attempt with zero seconds left on the clock. The timer almost ruined it.\n\nThe cutscene heading into Act 6 opens with a track that sounds very strongly like a Mega Man song. 6-1A's opening frame is beautiful, but the slippery ground physics are a problem — you slide off into death pits even when not pressing anything. It should stop you at the edge unless you're actively moving. There's also a cheap exploding projectile that is effectively guaranteed to hit you on first encounter. 6-1B's enemy placement is rough throughout.\n\nThe 6-3A boss fight on a quicksand floor is unsatisfying — the ceiling rocks have hitboxes larger than their sprites and the pattern is unavoidable more often than it should be. But the real offense comes after the fight: the quicksand will still kill you for standing still too long even once the boss is dead. That's a rage-inducing oversight that should have been caught in playtesting.\n\nAct 7 opens with another striking stage — strong movement layers, gentle wind pushing you back. I’ve only seen footage of the SEGA Genesis game Shinobi, but I’d bet it took a bunch of inspiration from these stages.  But the flying enemy placement in 7-1A and 7-2C is sloppier than it should be, and 7-3 is where the timer fully breaks the game. With save states I still couldn't reach the boss before time expired — 40 seconds left entering 7-3B, 16 seconds at 7-3C with no boss in sight, still nothing at 7-3D. To beat this act cleanly you'd need to be a speedrunner with the whole thing memorized across hundreds of attempts. The spiky trap walls are tough to latch onto correctly, and some enemy placements guarantee a hit. Bad design, full stop.\n\nThere are small positives to note in the back half: a clever 1-UP in 6-2B that can only be released with a sub weapon is one of the series' better collectible designs. Being able to steer mid-fall rather than being locked to a rigid trajectory is a welcome physics improvement that I only noticed late. And 7-4A's boss, despite sending you back to 7-1A on death in typical series fashion, has a fair lightning pattern once you invest the lives to learn it. The second form is easy. The third and final form is a Dr. Wily-style giant robot — destroy the outer components to expose the core — and goes down without much drama. Same formula as the previous two final bosses, less satisfying than either.\n\nCredit roll. No joy. There's craft to appreciate here from a game dev study perspective, and if this had been one of the only cartridges I had access to in 1991, I'd have ground through it and probably built nostalgia for it. But it isn't, and it's not one I'll be returning to. A disappointing close to a trilogy that still hasn’t quite figured out how to make an excellent game.\n\nI did some research on the dev team and learned the following from Perplexity AI.\n\nMasato Kato (Runmaru) – Graphic designer, left Tecmo in the early 90s and joined Square, where he became scenario writer and planner on games like Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, two of the most acclaimed games of all time.\n\nHideo Yoshizawa, Director, went on to work on Klonoa, which I haven’t played yet but have heard is great.","nes/paperboy":"Played about a dozen times for about 10 minutes. Am curious about the mid and late game if there is one at all.","nes/Punch-Out!! (USA)":"Fun and iconic but not nearly as satisfying as the SNES masterpiece. The character designs are great and some of the boss patterns are clever, but the game feel and depth feel underdeveloped by comparison. Worth a playthrough for the series history, but play Super Punch-Out!! for the most fun.","nes/rush_n_attack_usa":"Pretty fun core action gameplay undercut by some cheap enemy arcade coin sponge design.","nes/sesame_street_big_birds_hide_and_speak_usa":"I think we rented this when I was a toddler. A faint, fragmented memory — more feeling than detail.","nes/simpsons_the_bart_vs_the_space_mutants_usa":"The art and character design are cool — it absolutely nails the show's aesthetic for the era. But the execution is badly off. The game is too hard for the wrong reasons — badly tuned gameplay. Always appreciated the style; could never get far enough to appreciate much else.","nes/simpsons_the_bart_vs_the_world_usa":"Similar story to Space Mutants — style is there, execution isn't. Wanted to like it much more than I did.","nes/super_mario_bros_usa":"I always got stuck in one of the last Bowser \"pick the right path\" mazes","nes/super_mario_bros_2_usa":"A genuinely great Mario game with a distinct identity. The character selection and item-throwing mechanics set it apart, and the level design holds up well. Worth playing through to the credits at least once — and the bosses near the end are fun and iconic.","nes/super_mario_bros_3_usa":"Takes all the best elements of 1 and 2 and refines them into something extraordinary. The art and music are incredible, minion placement and level design are thoughtful and varied, and the sheer volume of content — if you're not skipping ahead with a whistle — is staggering. Player movement feels excellent. The bosses are probably the one weak point, being a little too easy, but everything else is firing on all cylinders.","nes/tetris_usa":"It never really grabbed me. Cool for what it is, and clearly important, but it just doesn't hold my attention for long. The NES version in particular isn't the ideal way to experience it.","nes/tiny_toon_adventures_usa":"A really well-made platformer — tight, responsive, and visually feels next gen. Konami at their licensed-game best. Feels and looks great throughout. Deserves a full playthrough.","nes/tom_and_jerry_usa":"Played this a ton. Not in the same tier as the Capcom or Konami greats, but made well enough to be genuinely fun throughout. The late game eventually tips into unfair territory — I never managed to beat it, and I'm pretty sure that was the game's fault, not mine.","nes/yoshi_usa":"A fine little puzzle game","snes/battle_dodge_ball":"Played on an emulator as a kid. Was fascinated by the Japanese stuff. Appreciated the well designed gameplay loop. Might give it more points on a new playthrough.","snes/beavis_and_butthead":"Gets points for nailing the show's aesthetic — the art and attitude feel right. But the game itself isn't up to the task. Unfair enemy placement and attack patterns drag it down, and the design works against you in ways that feel like sloppiness rather than challenge. Couldn't get far due to being a bad game. Got some good memories playing co-op, though your partner dying before you was very punishing and also bad game design.","snes/chrono_trigger":"Abosolute cinema.","snes/contra_iii_the_alien_wars":"Always died around the top town 3D effect stage. The series has such a great reputation that I'll have to give this another try as an adult.","snes/cool_spot":"Not particularly fun and the music doesn't do much for me. Never played past the first stage or so. But visually I've always loved the appealing character design of Spot and played it just for him.","snes/donkey_kong_country":"One of the best-made games of all time. The pre-rendered CGI visuals were jaw-dropping at the time and still hold a unique look today. The game feel is exceptional — weighty but responsive. Tough in the back half, but fair. Not quite as refined as DKC2, but a masterpiece in its own right and a landmark moment for video games.","snes/donkey_kong_country_2":"Everything great about the first game, refined and elevated. The game feel is even better, the level designs are more inventive, and the atmosphere gives it a distinct identity. Dixie Kong is the obvious choice to main; her helicopter spin changes the way you play and think about every level. Diddy is essentially survival mode until you get another barrel. The game isn't truly finished until you've beaten K. Rool the second time in the volcano area — don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I will make my own DKC2 game one day.","snes/donkey_kong_country_3":"A great game that never pulled me in the way the first two did. The music isn't as strong — there are some nice tracks but nothing that sticks the way DKC1 and 2's OSTs do. Visually it's refined and detailed, but less charming. The fat baby partner was never a concept I warmed to. Still deserves a full playthrough to the credits, and I'm sure there are secrets worth discovering that I've never seen.","snes/earthbound":"A masterpiece. Play as much as you can without a guide — the game rewards curiosity and the writing is best experienced fresh. If you get truly stuck, ask an AI to minimize spoilers. The humor, the heart, and the moments of genuine strangeness make it one of a kind. There's nothing else quite like it.","snes/earthbound_halloween_hack":"Really fun and challenging EarthBound content from the guy who went on to make Undertale — which makes it interesting as a design artifact on top of being enjoyable on its own. If I remember correctly it runs around 3-4 hours. Worth the playthrough for any EarthBound fan.","snes/faceball_2000":"Rented a few times and played with siblings. A genuinely early first-person shooter on home console hardware, and it's more playable than you'd expect. Fun as a curiosity and a decent multiplayer hangout game for its time.","snes/final_fantasy_iii":"Got about 3-4 hours in years ago and would have to start fresh. One of those games I've always meant to return to properly.","snes/goof_troop":"A great two-player Capcom puzzle-action game that deserves a full playthrough. The cooperative design is clever and rare for the era — almost everything you'd want to do is better with a second player. As a rule I only played co-op with siblings since good co-op games were so hard to come by, so solo runs always felt like the wrong way to experience it. Not sure why I never played to the end. Got pretty far at least a couple of times.","snes/inspector_gadget":"Only played it once, but screenshots and vague memories suggest it was a reasonably well-made licensed game. Worth revisiting with fresh eyes.","snes/james_bond_jr":"Clunky but with a certain charm. The source material gave it a built-in hook and I remember it being fun enough to keep coming back to despite the rough edges.","snes/kirby_super_star":"A masterpiece. Everything great about NES Kirby refined and elevated. The distinct game modes keep things fresh for multiple sessions. One of the best SNES co-op experiences and one of the best games on the system.","snes/kirbys_avalanche":"A Puyo Puyo game dressed in lovely Kirby-themed art. Accessible, fun, and surprisingly engaging if you play against an equally matched human opponent. Worth playing through to the credits.","snes/kirbys_dream_course":"A charming concept with beautiful art and nice music — golf crossed with Kirby's copy abilities is a genuinely interesting idea. But the game design has a certain clunkiness to it that keeps it from ever fully clicking in single player. Multiplayer, though, delivered real hours of entertainment. Getting the power-ups is consistently satisfying even when the pacing around it isn't.","snes/kirbys_dream_land_3":"A great video game — perhaps the most visually distinctive Kirby entry, with its crayon-sketch aesthetic pushing it into a category of its own. Not the peak of the series, but the animal friends add a lot of variety and the vibe is warm and unhurried. Worth a full playthrough.","snes/looney_tunes_b_ball":"Played it on an emulator a few times and remember enjoying it quite a bit. I think a the ROM and that's the only reason I didn't put more time into it. Like Mega Man soccer, there were cool power attacks if I remember correctly.","snes/mario_is_missing":"I remember the exact rental store we got this from, the layout and vibe of the store, the clerk presenting the box art, and being disappointed almost immediately. Played it for a very short amount of time. Probably one of the worst titles Nintendo has put out.","snes/mega_man_7":"An excellent Mega Man game that earns its place on the SNES without abandoning its NES roots. It does a genuinely impressive job retaining the classic Mega Man identity while getting a full 16-bit polish distinct from the X series. I'd rate it somewhere between X1 and X2.","snes/rockman_and_forte":"An excellent Mega Man game. The fight against Forte's dog is super memorable. It's basically more Mega Man 7, so if you liked that, give this a go. Never got an official North American SNES release; the first Western version was the GBA port. Given the GBA's limited resolution, this SNES version is the way to go.","snes/mega_man_x":"You'd have to be a psycho to not get the dash at Chill Penguin first. Though the first time you discover that after struggling in other levels first is really cool. So is having levels change depending on what bosses have been beaten. The pacing is perfect. The spritework, animation, game feel, music, secrets, level design, enemy placement, and boss patterns are all effectively flawless. Checkpoints and difficulty are fair throughout. And Zero is so god damn cool.","snes/mega_man_x2":"Not quite as immediately impactful as X1, but in some ways more interesting. Grittier, edgier, and darker in tone. More challenging in ways that feel deliberate rather than arbitrary. Some of the movement capsule upgrades are an improvement on X1's. There's a certain quality to it — hard to name exactly — that I find myself drawn to even though X1 is the more iconic and memorable game. X1's story moments with Zero and Vile hit harder than anything X2 does narratively, but X2 holds its own everywhere else.","snes/mega_man_x3":"Rented it once and then could never track it down again — called rental places monthly trying to find it. Emulators had trouble running it for years. By the time those obstacles cleared, the game had developed a reputation for being sloppily made, which cooled my urgency. The mech suit upgrade concept was exciting when I first played it but sounds clunkily executed. The soundtrack is probably the weakest of the three SNES X games. The PlayStation Mega Man X games that followed seem like a significant step up.","snes/mega_man_soccer":"A bit janky, but a lot of fun. May be one of the least polished Mega Man games, but the gimmick of super powered kicks works really well. Handling sucks, the AI enemies suck, pacing / loading sucks. Two player multiplayer is fun.","snes/mortal_kombat":"Never got to the credit roll, played some multiplayer, never seriously learned a move set. This style of fighting game — like Street Fighter — just never hooked me the way action-platformers did. The shock value and character designs are iconic, but something was missing.","snes/pac_man_2_the_new_adventures":"Rented it once. Thought it was pretty cool. Probably worth giving a full playthrough.","snes/prince_of_persia":"Played this on the Mac too. The SNES version is often cited as the best of the ports, and the fluid rotoscoped animation still impresses. I think I was too young to understand that this is more of a puzzle game than an action game. I never got far and played quite a few times. The making-of book is a great read.","snes/rock_n_roll_racing":"A really cool, stylish, and well-made SNES racer from Blizzard — yes, that Blizzard — before they became synonymous with PC strategy games. The licensed rock soundtrack, the isometric presentation, and the vehicle upgrades all come together really well. I remember it having great game feel and confident design throughout. Will have to play it again as an adult to fully reassess.","snes/secret_of_mana":"I liked it. The battle system was fun and engaging but I don't think I got everything out of it I should have. I think I ended up spamming certain spells. Music wasn't my favorite though there was some good songs. Spritework and animation are lovely. Multiplayer aspect is pretty cool. Beat it in a day but didn't consider it the masterpiece that some people hype it up as. The second game looks better but I haven't played it yet.","snes/speed_racer":"I played the hell out of this game. Always got to the very end and lost my lives to a total game reset at the horribly designed snowy cliff platforming. The racing and platforming game mechanics are both designed poorly but I still really enjoyed it.","snes/star_fox":"A genuine showcase title that still holds up. The game feel, music, and story beats are all excellent, and the branching path system gives it real replay value. The Mode 7 and Super FX visuals were genuinely mind-blowing at the time and have a charming retro quality now. Arwing controls feel responsive and satisfying from the first stage to the last. The appalling 10-15 FPS went totally unnoticed.","snes/stunt_race_fx":"I remember having fun when we rented it, but the game feel was janky and the execution didn't quite match the concept. Worth giving another shot — the aesthetic is charming and the cover art is great. Another Super FX chip game trying to push what the hardware could do, which is interesting even when the result is imperfect.","snes/super_bomberman":"A solid Bomberman game and a great starting point for the SNES series. Nails the arcade-style campaign in a way that makes reaching the credit roll feel satisfying. Later SNES entries refine the formula aesthetically and mechanically, but this one sets the template well.","snes/super_bomberman_2":"More of the same from Super Bomberman 1 — which is a compliment. Tighter and a bit more confident in its design. Worth playing through if you liked the first.","snes/super_bomberman_3":"Bunny mounts! And emulator-only for Americans, which is a shame. Played this a ton on a Power PC Macintosh. This game feels very much like going from Mega Man 2 to 3 and 4 — a clear leap in visual identity and design confidence. The art style pushes further in a direction I really like. The soundtrack is genuinely incredible: \"Super Bomberman 3 - Intro (SNES OST)\" (https://youtu.be/iF1UgTIoZ8U?si=ebXZdnXg7aZE7jov) is a banger right out of the gate, and the quality holds throughout. Bomberman games really do have excellent music in general. The bunnies add a lot to both two-player campaign and battle mode — one of the series' better additions.","snes/super_bomberman_4":"I could have sworn I played this one but I don't recognize the campaign footage or creature mount at all.","snes/super_bomberman_5":"The peak of the series. The bipedal bosses are what I remember most vividly — far more interesting and fun to fight than the giant multi-tile bosses of earlier entries. The graphics are perfectly refined, the campaign areas are distinct and memorable, and the minions and set pieces are consistently cool. The battle mode was my siblings' and my go-to competitive Bomberman. Bunnies return. An excellent video game and the best show for what this series can be at its highest point.","snes/super_castlevania_iv":"Doesn't quite match the visual sharpness and tight design of NES Castlevania III in my view, but it's still an excellent game. The whip mechanics are expanded in satisfying ways — being able to swing and angle in eight directions changes how you approach every encounter. The atmosphere is great and it's a fair, enjoyable playthrough from start to finish. A strong entry.","snes/super_godzilla":"I played a Japanese cart a ton on an emulator as a kid. Some really cool moments and remember the gameplay being quite fun though it might not look it from just watching.","snes/super_mario_all_stars":"My preferred way to play Super Mario Bros. 1. The visual facelift is great across all the included games, and The Lost Levels is a fascinating harder-edged alternate take on the original. A shame this kind of thoughtful remaster collection never got revisited for later generations — though I think a few GBA remasters may have scratched that itch.","snes/super_mario_kart":"The main campaign and balloon battle mode are both masterpieces. Incredible music, sound design, and art direction — the Mode 7 track presentation still has a charm of its own. Game feel is top notch from the first race to the last. The foundation of one of Nintendo's most enduring franchises, and it holds up.","snes/super_mario_rpg":"Hard to know where to start. This game has everything — a great battle system, tons of variety in set pieces, minions, spells, and bosses, and writing that's consistently funny without ever being cloying. The pacing is excellent and the content density is high without ever feeling padded. Put tons of hours in. Might have only beaten it once or twice. One of the greatest RPGs.","snes/super_mario_world":"Mario 3 on NES is a 10, and somehow the same team turned the knob up even further. Top of its class in game feel — the cape, Yoshi, and the expanded move set all feel immediately natural. The hidden star levels and secret exits give the world map a real sense of discovery. A game everyone should finish completely, including all the star road content.","snes/super_mario_world_2_yoshis_island":"A genuinely unique platformer with an aesthetic that still looks remarkable — the hand-drawn, crayon-textured art style is completely its own thing. The boss fights are highlights that give you a clear goal to push toward at the end of each world, and the designs are consistently creative. Difficulty is well-balanced throughout and the credit roll is very doable. The Yoshi vehicle transformations are fun even if a little gimmicky. Yoshi getting high from the fuzzy dandelions is iconic. As for the crying baby — just get good and stop getting hit.","snes/super_metroid":"A landmark of atmosphere and game feel. The rain falling on your ship sets the mood instantly and never lets up. Everything great about the NES Metroid is taken further here — deeper, more expressive, more fluid. When people picture \"Metroidvania,\" it's Super Metroid's fingerprints they're imagining more than the NES original. The timed lava escape in the intro is one of the most memorable sequences in early gaming, and Hollow Knight: Silksong paying tribute to in a showpiece moment says everything about its legacy.","snes/super_punch_out":"The game feel is perfect. So are the visuals and sound design. Never connected with the NES original, but this one is a masterpiece — a console-style arcade game that gets everything right. The character designs are vivid and memorable, the patterns are learnable without being trivial, and the pacing keeps you pushing forward. The end-game difficulty is genuinely brutal and perhaps a touch unfair, but that's a minor flaw in an otherwise excellent package. Modern arcade-style games could learn a lot from what this one does right.","snes/super_star_wars":"This series was always really fun in concept — incredible visuals and sound design, amazing set pieces and enemy designs, great weapons and Force power variety. But the difficulty is tuned wrong throughout, which sours what could have been a masterpiece. Player movement has a floatiness to it and hitboxes aren't calibrated as they should. The individual moments are often great; the overall experience is more frustrating than it should be.","snes/super_street_fighter_ii":"Alright but mostly button-mashed through it. Like Mortal Kombat it never drew me in enough to actually invest in learning the system. There's clearly a deep and rewarding game in there for someone willing to put in the time — that person just wasn't me.","snes/the_death_and_return_of_superman":"Janky mid tier game, made well enough to be fun and worth playing through. I remember at least two full afternoon sessions with it — the kind of game you rent on a weekend and find yourself genuinely engaged with.","snes/the_incredible_crash_dummies":"I remember renting it once when very little living in Deer Park outside of Spokane. A little before playing a bunch of Speed Racer. Vague enough memories that I can't judge it fairly, but what's there suggests it was a serviceable, fun enough licensed game. Deserves another look to find out.","snes/tiny_toons_adventures_buster_busts_loose":"Excellent spritework and game feel throughout — a genuinely beautiful game. Presumably the same Konami team behind the NES entry, and the jump to SNES did them nothing but favors. A great video game that I never finished. Need to give both this and the NES game a proper playthrough as an adult.","snes/warios_woods":"A must play if you like Puyo Puyo or Panel de Pon style puzzle games.","snes/yoshis_cookie":"A big step up from the NES Yoshi puzzle game. The aesthetic is charming and I remember genuinely having fun with it. Not in the same tier as Puyo Puyo, Wario's Woods, or Panel de Pon, but a solid puzzle game worth a look.","snes/zombies_ate_my_neighbors":"The art direction and premise are genuinely cool — the horror B-movie theming and character variety are inspired. But the execution lets it down badly. The difficulty spikes in ways that feel cheap rather than challenging, the enemy AI isn't programmed fairly, and the gameplay never becomes fun or satisfying. Couldn't make it past maybe 30 or 40%.","n64/jet_force_gemini":"Might rate it higher after playing it again. Oozing style. I love the logo and aesthetics throughout.","n64/turok_2_seeds_of_evil":"CEREBRAL BORE","n64/turok_dinosaur_hunter":"Wasn't allowed to play the story mode for 1 or 2 but put tons of hours in to multiplayer battles.","n64/turok_rage_wars":"Something was wrong with my cart and it always crashed before my friend and I could finish a co-op campaign.","gamecube/dance_dance_revolution_mario_mix":"I think I got stuck at the very last level on the hardest difficulty. Loved it. Remember the pad slipping around like nobody's business.","gamecube/final_fantasy_crystal_chronicles":"Might have beaten it. Remember wishing I had the GBA multiplayer attachment. Oozing style. Very well made combat.","gamecube/mega_man_network_transmission":"A little clunky. Really deserved a sequel to polish the great foundation they created.","gamecube/metroid_prime_2_echoes":"Game crashed when I picked up a missile pack upgrade at the top of a tower (snowy tower?) Never picked it up again after that since I was many hours deep.","gamecube/nba_street_vol_2":"Might deserve less than a 10. I'd have to play it again as an adult. I remember the gameplay being incredibly fun and arcade-ey.","gamecube/super_mario_strikers":"Didn't get much time with it. Might deserve higher score.","gamecube/timesplitters_future_perfect":"Wasn't allowed to play story mode but played a ton of multiplayer.","wii/donkey_kong_country_returns":"Only put a couple hours in. Need to give it a full playthrough.","wii/mega_man_9":"Been too long. Can't remember how I'd compare it to the classics.","wii/mega_man_10":"Been too long. Can't remember how I'd compare it to the classics.","switch/super_smash_bros_ultimate":"Okay, so I didn't 100% the board game thing, but I unlocked every character. Multiplayer is the main game loop.","gameboy/metroid_ii_return_of_samus":"I might have beat the fan remaster. Can't remember.","gameboy/pokemon_red_version":"I honestly can't remember which version I had. Both are iconic.","virtualboy/vb_warioland":"Pacing of the intro cutscenes was a bit slow. Pause menu slides up too slow. Lots of 3D gimmicks right off the bat to show off the hardware.\n\nThe parallax layers are cool. Your player sound FX get quieter when you are off in the distance—that's cool.\n\nLv 3: the water level is pretty but I can't say I've had fun yet. I don't see what the point in me collecting coins and hearts is or the gambling minigames. Oh, 100 hearts give an extra life. But when the minigames give you 9999 coins, why bother collecting 50-100 in a level?\n\nAfter the minigames, there is text that says SAVE POINT but you can't get over to it to click it. It isn't clear if you are at an autosave checkpoint or not. The enemies and \"puzzles\" have been basically a walk left to right simulator so far. Not engaging at all.\n\nA mini boss appeared with 2HP. Okay, the boss in the door was cool looking—nice set and sprite. He killed me... You don't have to kill the mini boss again. That's good. No Ninja Gaiden BS.\n\nHe killed me 6 more times. The difficulty spike feels like bad game design. It isn't easy to get a hit in without taking damage. And speaking of spikes, his long distance spike ball is really tough to dodge even when running and jumping. I like the effect used to make the water ripple. Could use that myself.\n\nFinally beat him with only 3HP. The time I beat him I finally figured out the distant spike ball timing, but the close up spike ball keeping you from bouncing on his head still isn't programmed well. I like how when sprites are in the far distance they are drawn simpler because there are fewer pixels.\n\nThe heart mini game... I like the idea of risk/reward having to time hitting the big diamond and not hit the bat that is holding it.\n\nLv 5 forest level is pretty. New round fluffy sprite baddie is cute. I do not like where the secret treasure was hidden. I did some tough platforming with no reward and thought I missed the treasure but it was in a hidden unmarked wall area.\n\nBeat the level. Still not really having fun.","gbc/pokemon_crystal_version":"No need to list Gold and Silver since this is the best version.","gba/castlevania_circle_of_the_moon":"Circle of the Moon is fun for the first half. For a GBA launch title rushed out in under a year by a completely different team with a third of the Symphony of the Night staff, it still works well. The optional boss rush and new game modes are nice value adds.\n\nHowever, it hasn't aged beautifully. Despite coming after SOTN, it plays like a clunky prototype where movement and combat feel less fair than the '86 original. Mid and late-game balancing is atrocious; enemies become massive damage sponges that can two to three-shot an upgraded player. The best spells and armor are locked behind abysmal RNG, requiring hours of grinding and a guide—I entered the final boss with a full, entirely useless mana bar (I had fire/stone/ice whip).\n\nFor context, I've beaten all of Hollow Knight's Pantheons, but still had to save-state scum after every hit to beat late-game bosses like Carmilla, Lilith, and Dracula. Dracula alone took over an hour, even with cheating. That's not good game design. It gave me major Mega Man Zero 1 & 2 flashbacks. If this was your only GBA game at the time, you could spend a month grinding and enjoy it, but decades later I'd recommend pulling up a map after you get stuck and plowing through in a day.\n\nI finished with an 84.4% completion score.","gba/dragon_ball_z_the_legacy_of_goku":"Very fun.","gba/mega_man_zero_1":"Boss rooms are too cramped. Death from bosses happen too soon to learn patterns without an emulator with save states.","gba/metroid_fusion":"Masterpiece.","gba/mother_3":"Masterpiece. Starts a little slow. Music timing for battle is totally unnecessary balance-wise.","ds/elite_beat_agents":"Oozing style. Played it briefly. Looks really fun.","genesis/monster_world_iv":"High on my playlist. Looks beautiful and super polished. Only played about an hour.","genesis/sonic_spinball":"A little janky but I enjoyed it a lot. Loved the art direction.","genesis/the_lion_king":"Janky player controls and hit boxes add unnecessary difficulty.","genesis/toy_story":"Controls are a little floaty and game feels unpolished at times as a game, but the aesthetics and creativity are off the charts. A very fun video game even if the difficulty is unfair at times.","genesis/vectorman":"Only ever rented it. Very cool character and game. Deserves a full playthrough and new rating assessment.","ps1/castlevania_symphony_of_the_night":"Symphony of the Night successfully takes the best aspects of classic Castlevania and Super Metroid and builds them into something legendary. The presentation is virtually flawless across the board: it boasts incredible sprite work, gorgeous animations, iconic character designs, and a top-tier soundtrack. Backed by fantastic game feel, perfect balance, and tight pacing, it's an absolute joy to play.\n\nMy only minor gripes come down to the late-game navigation. I almost finished my playthrough completely blind, but ultimately had to cave and use a guide to find one obscure room after tediously sweeping the entire map multiple times. Furthermore, while the post-game \"mirror world\" is a famously cool twist, the execution feels like it doesn't quite live up to its massive gameplay potential.\n\nStill, these are incredibly small bumps in what is otherwise a masterclass in game design.","ps1/chrono_cross":"One of the most beautiful looking and sounding games of all time. Very satisfying to finish.","ps1/dragon_ball_gt_final_bout":"Fun despite the jank.","ps1/dragon_ball_z_ultimate_battle_22":"Fun despite the jank.","ps1/final_fantasy_viii":"Great game. Would like to do a full playthrough.","ps1/medievil":"Stylish but janky. Deserves another playthrough.","ps1/mega_man_x4":"I'd need to play through X4-X6 again to give fair ratings. They are all great games but not as good as X2.","ps1/parappa_the_rapper":"Only played briefly. Oozes style. Might get a 10.","ps1/ready_2_rumble_boxing":"I remember having a great time with it. Need to give it another playthrough.","ps1/the_simpsons_wrestling":"Very fun.","ps2/fantavision":"Played it bundled with a PS2 we rented the month the console came out (if I remember correctly). Had it for a week or so. Deserves another playthrough.","ps2/futurama":"Has some shovelware trappings but more polished. Voice acting and writing from the main team.","ps2/gran_turismo_3_a_spec":"Not a huge racing game guy, but remember being very impressed by the great gameplay and all around polish.","ps2/jak_and_daxter":"The animation is far ahead most games.","ps2/kingdom_hearts_ii":"An excellent sequel with more refined gameplay than the first game. I think the graphic design is stronger too.","ps2/marvel_vs_capcom_2":"I've yet to learn how to properly play this genre.","ps2/wallace_gromit_in_project_zoo":"Like Futurama, has shovelware trappings, but with surprising polish.","ps2/zone_of_the_enders":"Only played a little bit. Very cool polished presentation. Might deserve a higher score.","macearly/Apple Macintosh Airborne!":"A perfect arcade game. Play it and take notes.","macearly/Maze Wars":"Really fun early First Person Shooter. Great visuals and sound design.","macearly/Shuffle Puck Cafe":"Some unfair AI, but great fun and top notch style.","macearly/Sierra Championship Boxing":"Very charming visuals and sound design. I don't remember if the gameplay was good or not.","animaniacs_game_pack":"Each game is very fun with a lot of character but a bit unpolished and janky. It never feels like a waste of time though. Well worth the full day it takes to beat them all. A step up in quality from a flash game of that era.","another_world":"Very stylish, but puzzles too hard for a kid to figure out.","apeiron":"A much better clone of classic Centipede. The controls and sound design feel great.","barrack":"Top tier arcade game with excellent game feel.","battle_chess":"The animations are a lot of fun. Good memories.","battlin_babe":"Absolutely loved the shareware demo. Took 20 years to track it down again. Even at the time I could tell that the programming was simple. Would need to play it again to assess why it was so good.","blood_suckers":"Really fun simple game with great visuals.","bonkheads_deluxe":"The classic Mario Bros. arcade game fleshed out into a full game. If you liked the original, you'll LOVE this version.","boom":"A really fun well made Bomberman clone.","bubble_trouble":"Top-tier arcade game.","burning_rubber":"It's fun.","damage_incorporated":"Really fun multiplayer FPS built on the Marathon engine (Bungie/Halo).","full_throttle":"My favorite LucasArts point and click game.","glypha_3_0":"An excellent Joust clone. Best version I've played.","gridz":"Loved the shareware demo. The UI/UX is peak aesthetics. Bet this game would be popular if remastered and tuned up.","heartquest":"Simple arcade game. Remember enjoying it.","indiana_jones_and_the_fate_of_atlantis":"Played it as an adult on Steam. Top notch.","lode_runner_the_legend_returns":"The best of the Lode Runner games. Hands down. There's a free rebuilt version for modern computers via https://mmr.quarkrobot.com/ called \"Mad Monks' Revenge\". Go download it now. You won't be disappointed.","lunar_phantom":"Really fun clone of Lunar Lander. \"The Lunar has landed.\"","marathon":"Wasn't allowed to play story mode for any of the three, but the multiplier was great fun and very well made.","mario_teaches_typing":"Played the heck out of this crappy little game and legitimately learned, more or less, proper technique.","mortal_pongbat":"A fun game and nice lesson in doing your own twist for a clone.","munchies":"I LOVED this arcade game. I can't even remember if I only had the shareware version.","myst":"Beautiful visuals and atmosphere but I was a dumb kid that could only look around and fiddle with things. Devs are located in Mead, just outside of Spokane WA where I'm from.","myth_the_fallen_lords":"Gory RTS by Bungie of Halo fame. Fun and stylish.","number_munchers":"Very very cool mascot. Scary baddies. Scarier numbers.","pajama_sam":"Only ever had the shareware demo. Lovely production values all around.","pararena":"Really cool arcade game. I think the controls were a little loose and floaty, but it is definitely aa great game that deserves another go today.","reader_rabbit_3":"Always loved the great production values and cartoon humor of this edutainment game.","ruffs_bone":"A click everything storybook overflowing with charm. Excellent visuals and sound on every \"page\".","sammy_the_cyclebot":"A really fun arcade game I had been looking for for decades. It might not be as good as I remember, or it might even be better! Definitely need to give it another go.","schoolhouse_rock_math_rock":"Janky, but at least a few hours of fun. Worth playing through once.","shadow_warrior":"You no mess with Lo Wang!","squirrel_kombat":"Would like to play the non shareware version. There are tons of special abilities with Mortal Kombat moves to trigger them.","star_wars_dark_forces":"Played the first hour probably a dozen times. Might not have gone further due to abysmal frame rate. Don't remember.","stay_tooned":"I loved the refrigerator bug arcade game and remember something about different condiments like mustard. I think I only ever played the shareware version.","super_munchers":"I remember it being more polished and interesting than the first one.","the_dig":"Was a big fan of the aesthetics and sought out the full game but ultimately got frustrated by the obtuse puzzles (was High School age).","warcraft_ii_tides_of_darkness":"I need to play through the RTS Warcraft games. They're probably all great. I think I only ever played a demo.","wolfenstein_3d_spear_of_destiny":"Was fun but I never liked it enough to try and beat it.","you_dont_know_jack":"Legendary game. Tons of style. Lots to learn from for successful game dev.","pocket_tanks":"Great Worms clone.","sam_max_hit_the_road":"Great humor, performances, and visuals. Puzzles too obtuse. Played it on Steam recently.","duke_nukem_3d":"Might deserve a higher score. I played the first section probably 30 different sessions.","grim_fandango":"Cheated with a walk through. No regrets. Pretty but not a fan of the obtuse puzzles.","alien_hominid":"Might deserve higher score","brutal_legend":"Great style but remember the controls and actual game aspect being a bit clunky.","dragon_age_origins":"The main chick on the cover is a such a well designed hottie! I think I actually beat this game but might not have.","mirrors_edge":"Barely played it. Might deserve higher score.","before_the_echo":"Rhythm game with music by the legendary Ronald Jenkees!","bit_trip_runner":"Stylish but never held my attention long enough to beat it.","hawken":"An incredible game way ahead of its times. Look up screenshots. Still looks better than most stuff in late 2020s. Very tight satisfying controls. One of the best FPSs I've ever played, and is QUICK despite the huge mechs. Hard to believe it got cancelled. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3507666635","super_meat_boy":"Might deserve higher score. I remember it being floaty and unfair.","celeste":"Might deserve higher. Need to beat it.","hollow_knight":"I've beaten all the Pantheons. This game's my jam.","hollow_knight_silksong":"100%-ed it within a week from release. A masterpiece.","hylics_2":"2 is better, but both get a 10 for above and beyond style points.","mutazione":"A little boring, but I enjoyed the atmosphere.","south_park_the_stick_of_truth":"Gameplay could be better. But gets a 10 for outstanding humor and production value and pulling off TV production in a video game unlike anyone else has been able to pull off.","undertale":"No game has affected my moral growth more than this.","tv/arcade_gamer_fubuki":"Sponsored by Namco, yet somehow squanders every opportunity to do anything interesting with video games — the gaming angle is shallow to the point of embarrassment. The script is boring, the panty-superpower premise never stops being cringe, and there's no tension, no payoff, nothing. A shame, because the set pieces are striking, the character designs are lovely, and the animation, sound design, and acting are genuinely solid.\n\nI enjoy fanservice, but am dumbfounded Namco funded an entire production to ogle middle schooler pussy. Lol Japan.\n\nProduced by Studio Shaft, which explains why it looks so good. Also — \"Shaft.\" Given their broader catalog, I just realized the name is probably not a coincidence.","tv/puella_magi_madoka_magica":"One of the most beautiful pieces of visual media I've ever experienced.\n\nEnemy witch dimensions are really cool graphic design with an Undertale Final Boss vibe.\n\nThe color theory used throughout is incredible.\n\nThe city, home, and school infrastructures have an excellent believable beautiful future aesthetic.\n\nThe girls have great designs and performances.\n\nThe music and sound design is great.\n\nThe tension and stakes weren't as intense as I was led to believe, I thought it would be a gorier horror, but I was engrossed through to the end.\n\nIn this regard, it did everything right that Sailor Moon does wrong.\n\nGot choked up and teary eyed many times.\n\nThe OP song is great.\n\nSkimmed through the first movie recap and was surprised that it looks even better.\n\nMadoka might be my favorite Christ-figure. More so than Neo and Goku.\n\nOccult stuff like Walpurgis Night / Walpurgisnacht and Kyubey the Demiurgic Loosh Harvester are right up my alley and noteworthy real magical lore worth considering for my own projects in the future.","tv/the_promised_neverland":"Season 1 is 10/10 masterpiece. Season 2 was rushed and didn’t address the occult things like I wanted. Felt a similar disappointment as the last Hunger Games movie.","tv/westworld":"First couple seasons are incredible. Last couple seasons were painfully bad sci-fi. Incredibly unsatisfying.","tv/scavengers_reign":"Really inventive creatures and beautiful animation.","tv/the_legend_of_vox_machina":"I was initially put off by all the swearing and adult humor in general and suspicious of Amazon putting Netflix-like grossness in it, but the series won me over quickly and kept me engaged through the first three seasons with high praise.\n\nTitmouse studio are one of the best in the biz.","movies/donald_duck_chip_n_dale_out_on_a_limb":"Donald is such a dick in this. Really mean hearted in a way Bugs Bunny never is (at least from memory) Beautiful character design, props, sets, and animation though. Chip’s design is so cute and appealing! And I loved the bird branch clipper thing.","movies/feed_the_kitty":"Marc Anthony’s (the dog) expressions and performances are some of the funniest I’ve seen in my life.","movies/for_scent_imental_reasons":"Jesus Christ, what a rapist locking the door to keep his victim from leaving. Pepé is definitely a monstrous villain. I don’t remember all the gags, but I remember laughing and enjoying the tension and performances.","movies/looney_tunes_bugs_bunny_hare_way_to_the_stars":"Gets a 10 for the set design alone. Incredible.","movies/looney_tunes_daffy_duck_duck_amuck":"One of the greatest fourth wall / meta series of jokes of all time. Incredible animation / performance / design work.","movies/looney_tunes_three_little_bops":"The pigs and audience are unnecessarily jerks to the wolf. And the wolf is in the wrong for forcing himself onto the stage and not sharpening his ability first. The punchline that you have to go to hell to get hot as a musician didn’t land for me.","movies/the_hudsucker_proxy":"Was recommended by Genndy Tartakovsky because of the hula hoop scene. I loved the fairy tale quirkiness throughout. Never seen a movie like it. Bruce Campbell’s character was my favorite, followed by Jennifer Jason Leigh. Great chemistry from her. The props and set designs were super cool. I think the camera work or something like that was top notch. A Sam Raimi and Coen Brothers Combo movie. Very artistic and polished. The last 5-10 minutes were my least favorite. I think it was the somber vibe and slow pacing.","movies/scary_movie_1":"A lot of aspects of it were visually produced very well. Lots of great gags got laughs from me throughout. Seemed to peter out near the end. The annoying black person movie theater scene could have been done well, but just came off as cringy and racist.","movies/scary_movie_2":"Low Vibration Cringe. The so called \"friends\" wish ill on each other at every turn. Someone is sexually assaulted every couple minutes. Very few jokes got so much as a smile from me. SM1 got quite a few guffaws from me. Only finished watching it because of the cultural relevance.","movies/hey_arnold_the_jungle_movie":"Most of the characters were still on-model, but Gerald was changed completely. Not my Gerald. Felt like it was some racist DEI shenanigans. The magical stuff was too overt and I don’t remember ever feeling any tension from the story beats. All I really remember is feeling gross and disappointed at the end.","movies/tag":"Watched this at the Garland in Spokane, got excited when the characters were going to Spokane. They never ACTUALLY shot anything in Spokane.","movies/predator_badlands":"The first 12 minutes were almost enough on their own to warrant a 10/10. And then the next scene that climaxes with the title screen was also stellar. And through to the end I had very few gripes, but lots and lots of fun.\n\nAll the devices / props / assets were outstanding. Main characters were great.\n\nGripe... why aren't any of the synths connected to a hivemind communication network? If any one sees danger or receives damage, it should set off some kind of alarm.\n\nThe pet 🐍 knowing how to use the tools feels cheesy. But then again even the trees are smart here.\n\nSome of the later battle moments were cartoony.","movies/send_help":"A couple moments were too campy for my taste, like the jerk in the plane having his teeth fly out of his mouth from getting hit by Rachel. And the CGI boar hamming it up a bit too Looney Tunes.\n\nBut all in all one of the most fun and engaging and well made movies I've seen.","books/true_hallucinations":"I think I read this around age 21 before I had even taken mushrooms. I really need to give it another look. I have immense respect for Terence."}