Short reviews of games played and beaten in 2025
Published at 2026-04-03T00:48:32-05:00
All games are scored in a personally used 21-point scale, ranging from -10 to +10, 0 inclusive. Games between -2 and +2 can be considered "average", +3 to +6 being "good", +7 to +10 being "great", -3 to -6 being "bad", and -7 to -10 being "awful". Alternatively, a visual guide:
Any game listed directly underneath a game is the original/unmodified game and the score I give it (assuming I have played the original).
Table of Contents
Mortal Kombat II Arkade Edition [NES Romhack] (2)
---Mortal Kombat II Special [NES bootleg] (-1)
I always enjoyed playing the Mortal Kombat 2 port by Hummer Team but this greatly improves on the presentation. Better visuals, better music, even includes voice samples. The movelist has been improved as well and it's genuinely fun to play now. The only complaint I'd have is the lack of fatalities, but outside of that this feels like a very late gen NES port that could have been done by Acclaim. Definitely something I could see myself firing up to play for 10 or so minutes for some quick fun.
The Jetsons: Cogswell's Caper [NES] (2)
Music is good and some of the level design is nice, the bosses have some easy patterns and the visuals are decent enough, but some of the level design is cruel at times especially with a few of the bosses and the light strobing whenever you hit a switch and during the final level is just obnoxious. It's definitely a late NES-era platformer so it controls well, but it's also a little on the short side taking about an hour or so to beat. A decent licensed title for the system.
Pokemon TCG: Neo [Gameboy Color Romhack] (5)
---Pokemon TCG [Gameboy Color] (4)
One thing I will note is that despite every card being changed, amusingly enough the game is made a bit easier because the Cyndaquil & Friends deck is absolutely busted; I used this single deck throughout the entire game with very, _very_ little modification. That being said, I like the different variety here with the cards being more creative compared to the ones in the original release. Then again I am a huge Generation 2 fan so I'm probably a tad biased here.
Donkey Kong Country 4 Improvement [NES Romhack] (-1)
---Donkey Kong Country 4 [NES Bootleg] (-2)
Well, it's certainly an improvement. The physics are still janky but some of the spritework looks better now. In addition, the soundtrack is actually good instead of the weird tinny audio you get from typical Hummer Team games. Unfortunately, weird physics in a platformer will still hamper your enjoyment of this, and outside of maybe one or two levels the game is fairly easy and rather short.
Pokemon Polished Crystal [Gameboy Color Romhack] (8)
---Pokemon Crystal [Gameboy Color] (6)
Alright, I'll just say this right here; this is the best Pokemon romhack I've ever played. The title of this game is incredibly misleading; it's not just a polished version of Pokemon Crystal, it's an entire revamp of the game taking into account roughly 25 years of homebrew development for the Gameboy Color packing in as much as possible. It not only fixes just about every flaw there is with the original game (party leveling is still a bit slow as the exp share doesn't cover the entire party like later gens), it backports quality of life features from later generations and adds plenty of content on its own that perfectly fits the game world. Multiple new routes and locations directly inspired by Pokewalker routes, evolutions and pre-evolutions introduced in later generations, revamped movesets and a much better leveling curve. The only real blemish I can even include here is the unfinished content in later portions of the game. If there's any game in this entire list that anyone must play, it's this one.
Honestly I kind of wanted to play this after seeing it on GameCenter CX and you know, it's actually very fun. The game is a rather simple in design puzzle platformer where you grab a key and make it to the end of the level, but its central gimmick is that you don't have any attacks and you don't have a jump button, rather an "ascend" button. Levels take advantage of this, so while the controls feel weird after 10 or so minutes you quickly adjust to the physics. Took about 10 or so hours to beat and I enjoyed it a fair amount, much better than I was expecting. As a sidenote, yes I did the famous GCCX Level 97, it took me about 45 minutes to beat.
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker [Gamecube] (3)
I bought this game in 2003. I played it on and off and made it all the way to close to the end, getting the light arrows and making my way just before the puppet ganon fight. And then I left to go do a bunch of side quest stuff, with my last save being in mid 2005. It took me literally 20 years to come back to this game to finish it, and what can I say. It's an okay Zelda game but I wouldn't put it in my top 3 list. The game is way too frontloaded, the ocean is mostly empty (but that's to be expected I suppose), the triforce shard hunt can kick rocks, and the dungeons are rather linear. But at least I closed a 20 year door, so that's a plus.
Super Mario RPG [SNES] (6)
Okay so technically this wasn't a vanilla playthrough as I was using the MSU-1 patch to give it the soundtrack of the Switch remake, but I didn't include that info here as it really doesn't change the game at all. Nearly 20 years since I last played this and it still holds up rather well. It doesn't overstay its welcome, most of the chapters are of good length (except nimbus land thats basically a two-parter), and the game isn't too difficult. Of course if you get the Lazy Shell half-way through nimbus land then the game difficult is completely broken in your favor, but I won't hold it against the game. The isometric 3d sprites still hold up as well and gives the game a very distinctive look. Definitely still worth playing.
The best part of this game is the 10 minute entirely un-needed adventure game segment at the beginning. The first stage is almost entirely RNG, the second stage goes on for way too long, the third stage has truly awful platforming, the fourth stage is a very out-of-place underwater level, the fifth stage is a way too long drive through the desert avoiding scorpions, wild boars and snakes, the sixth stage is a random shmup level and the final stage features high speed driving through incredibly narrow crevices that instakill you. Every single level changes the mechanics that makes knowing the controls from the previous level entirely useless. You never have the chance to properly adapt to the controls as they keep changing; the first level you press down to brake but the last level you press A to brake. Nothing works in this game and it certainly has next to nothing to do with the Paris-Dakar Rally.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time [PC Fan Port] (7)
---Ocarina of Time [N64] (6)
I had a bit of an urge to revisit Ocarina of Time after not playing it in over 20 years, so I decided to check out the PC port. It's still Ocarina of Time so that's a positive, but with a few Quality of Life features that are some solid improvements like assigning items to the D-pad in addition to the C buttons. I had a few issues playing this on an Xbox-style controller (using the analog stick for C-buttons is a nightmare imo) and by the time my 8bitdo 64 controller arrived I was mostly finished with the game, but I still had a good time with it. Certainly the best way to play the original release these days.
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX HD v1.14 [PC Fan Port] (4)
---Link's Awakening DX [Gameboy Color] (4)
Yet another game that I haven't played in about 20 years, but I wanted to try something different like the PC port of Ocarina of Time. The fan port has been a bit of a buggy mess, with hitboxes being rather wonky, the game softlocking on occasional, and a few music bugs. However the Quality of Life changes have been incredible; no dumb dialog every time you touch a liftable object, multiple buttons to assign items to, and being able to see the entire game world at the same time is amazing, although not as useful as you'd think it to be.
At the time of this writing, the current version is v1.72 which has apparently fixed a ton of bugs and improved the hitboxes. Perhaps I'll give this a second look in 2026.
Lost Kingdoms [Gamecube] (4)
A childhood classic of mine, from completely obscure developers From Software. There's a little bit of jank but it doesn't heavily detract from the game experience in my opinion. It's a strange card battling action rpg, you use cards from your deck to summon monsters to act as attacks. There's not a huge amount of cards in the game total; only 150, but the amount of variety isn't bad. Cards can be straight-forward attacks, summoned and CPU controlled, or cutscene style abilities. There's a very small amount of post-game, but I think the game as a whole is only about 10-12 hours long. Pretty good title if you want a card battler that's not the standard duel type.
Os Cavaleiros do Zodíaco [NES Bootleg] (-1)
A game from Hummer Team that nobody knew existed until last year. It's one of their fighting games and yeah, it's about what you'd expect if you know what they do. It's halfway decent for a bootleg but nothing really amazing. The biggest thing here is the voice samples and audio, assuming you play it on its native hardware, the Rinco Talkman. I do like the novelty of a Taiwanese developed game using the Portuguese dub and names of characters and being published exclusively by a Taiwanese company who released it only in Saudi Arabia. Too bad its rather short, but most Hummer Team fighters are short affairs.
Titenic [NES Bootleg] (-1)
Speaking of Hummer Team, Titenic is a beat-em-up based on...Titanic? The movie? What a strange choice. I have no idea how they misspelled the title unless it was intentional to avoid copyright, but it's very, very plainly based on the movie. The movement physics are weird, jumping feels very janky, and some enemies can be real damage sponges. The music is...okay, I guess. Visually the game looks nice, a trait shared by most Hummer Team titles. As bizarre of a concept this is, it kinda works? Vaguely? I'd play it again, especially if someone made a patch to remove a little bit of the jank.
Deathbots [NES Unlicensed] (-7)
I've played this game on and off for the past 30 or so years, never making it past the second level. After the MaxiVision 30-in-1 cart was dumped I decided to actually sit down and play it for real. That was a mistake; the graphics are gross, the levels are annoying to get through, inventory management is terrible with some of the worst menuing, and you just have to love enemies who can shoot through the entire level while your bullets only travel about two body lengths. Multiple corridors where you can't manuever at all forcing you to take damage from enemy shots. Music that's horribly repetitive and annoying to listen to. The worst part? I had to play through this _twice_; the version included on the Maxivision 30-in-1 (and the Maxivision 15-in-1) is simply a _demo_ version. After playing a dump of the standalone cart, my opinion did not improve. The game has an additional 2 levels, some of the enemy sprites are very, very slightly better (and a few aren't just placeholders anymore), and there's an odd shop system where you don't have any currency, you just pick between two choices? Who on earth thought this was a good idea to release to the general public. Perhaps one day I'll play the original Amiga game (yes, this was a port of an Amiga title apparently)
True Crime: New York City [Gamecube] (-4)
I bought this game as a teen and only played the first...chapter? Even back then I knew it was bad compared to the first game, but I wanted to experience the whole thing (apparently I am a masochist) and see the whole story. This game is a technical mess; glitchy, poor performance, muddy textures. A lot of the mechanics introduced in this game make sense but have very poor implementation or just feel unfinished. The voice acting leaves a lot to be desired, the story is a tad boring and it has that expected mid-00s open world GTA-clone jank. Underneath it all though, you can tell the developers had a ton of ambition for the game, but either lack of budget or lack of time (or both) just completely hampered what they could do. Honestly just check it out to see how busted it is, you might get a laugh or two.
Star Fox: Assault [Gamecube] (3)
Alright I feel like I'm the weird one here so I'm going to get this out of the way first thing; I feel like this is the direction the Star Fox series should have gone in. This game isn't perfect of course, it's linear and there's less proper arwing sections to make way for third-person on-foot segments that feel a little off, but its a good way of pushing the series forward I believe. The story is...fine, I guess? Nintendo really had a thing for assimilation enemies during this time period. Controles are just a little janky; everything feels a bit _too_ floaty. Missions are kind of repetitive as well, way too many "blow up the generator" missions when the whole game is only 10 missions long. The multiplayer is really, really fun though, no bots unfortunately.
Digimon Sapphire [Gameboy Advance Bootleg] (2)
I have never played any Digimon video game before this one so I had no idea what to expect. Honestly? This is a pretty decent bootleg platformer. Visually the game looks nice, the music is passable, the physics aren't as janky as you'd expect and there's a fair amount of levels. I feel like the boss fights can drag on a bit too long sometimes, and there's a few bugs that are easy to exploit. The lack of checkpoints in levels is also a pain, forcing you to start the entire stage from the beginning if you happen to die near the end.
Alfred Chicken [NES] (-4)
This is about what I expected from a eurojank platformer. Sprawling levels and collecting things while playing as a chicken trying to...rescue his girlfriend? I have no idea as the game doesn't have much of a story. It's only a few levels long but the levels are big and require you to release all of the balloons. There's apparently some other things you're supposed to collect (hidden items?) but I didn't really bother looking for those, I just wanted this game to be over with about an hour in. At least it gave us some funny phone call recording from decades ago.
Link: Faces of Evil Remastered [PC Fan Port] (1)
Zelda: Wand of Gamelon Remastered [PC Fan Port] (1)
After finally playing these well known memes I can say that they're passable. Granted this is because I'm playing the fan remasters that applies a ton of Quality of Life changes to them, but they're serviceable games at the end of the day. The cutscenes are laughable but that's most of the charm. The games aren't that difficult and its a bit on the short side (2 hours for each), but they're not bad. I've never played the originals but these feel like solid improvements that grant a fair amount of polish.
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