Classic Vidya Reviews — The Rules

For years, I've had it in my head that I should go back and play some of the old classic games which I either never had as a child, or was too dumb to beat. As you'll probably notice from the 'completion dates' on these reviews, I used the plague and the lockdowns as an opportunity to start this project.

Each of these reviews contains a date completed (I wish I'd recorded the dates I started, but didn't think to), and a photograph of the end screen, taken on the hardware I played the game on. I set the following rules for myself:

• Emulators are OK, but using any emulator-only features is against the rules. No save states, no using fast-forward to grind through RPG's or using rewind to save yourself from a death in an action game, etc.
• If the game itself does not have a built in save feature, it is OK close the emulator and later pick up where you left off. An equivalent of this would be just like when you were a kid and you left the cartridge in and the console turned on all night.
• If the game does have any sort of in-game save feature, at all, including a password system, then that in-game system must be used to save a game and pick it up later if you don't complete the game in 1 session.
• All forms of strategy guides are allowed, but if available, try to find a pdf of a guide from the time.
• Unless stated in the review page, no game is here unless it's "beaten," which almost always means showing the ending screen if the game has one. If there are other victory conditions, this is also noted.
• Get as close as possible to playing the game using the real controller of the time. For NES games, I have USB NES controllers from Amazon. Same for SNES. PlayStation games use a real OE PS3 controller, with a USB adapter. Game Boy games either used the NES controller, or were played on the Analogue Pocket.

My game time has slowed down since the plague ended but not stopped completely! More games will be added here as I complete them.