Lair of the Necromancer
Platform played: Commodore 64 emulator on classicreload.com
Date beaten: October 3, 2023
An interactive fiction/text adventure. Not too hard to solve if you make a map and figure out how it works. Each creature in the game can only be defeated by one specific item, making it a series of puzzles where you need to get the right item to beat a monster, which will usually give you another item you can use to beat the next monster, and so on. Even the final boss, the necromancer himself, is simply defeated by typing "use magic sword." Well actually, the game will only accept single-word commands, so you have to first type "use," then when prompted, type "magic sword." And you have to type the exact name of the item. Just typing "sword" won't work.
Anyway. I'm pretty sure I did defeat the necromancer, although I wasn't able to read the ending properly, as it flashed by quickly before the emulator booted me back to the title screen for some reason...
Word Munchers
Platform played: emulator on classicreload.com
Date beaten: Oct 4, 2023
(Technically, made it up to level 22. Like with earlier arcade-style games, I'm counting it as "beaten" because it starts looping. The levels continue on and get harder, but the cutscenes repeat.
Loved this game as a kid, probably my favorite of the edutainment games on the school computers. Maybe in part due to English being my favorite subject, but I think what I really liked was the monsters. Not only the enemy Troggles, but even the player character, the "Muncher," is a weird green monster thingy. There's also an amusing cut scene every few levels, of the Muncher defeating or trapping the Troggles.
While avoiding Troggles, you have to munch the words that have a certain vowel sound, which is harder than it sounds because it's not always obvious which words have the "same" sound as in "a as in hat," for example. It occurs to me that this would really only work in a language like English with its absurd orthography. Half the challenge is that the game will ask you to munch words that have the same "oo" sound as in "moon," then fill the board with words that are spelled with the same vowels yet don't have the same sound, like "look." Wouldn't work in a language like Spanish where the spelling of vowel sounds is much more standardized.
Number Munchers
Platform played: Emulator on classicreload.com
Date beaten: October 7, 2023
More or less the same game as Word Munchers, but with math instead of English. As with its predecessor, I'm counting it as "beaten" when the cut scenes loop. While the specific cut scene shown is random, you can tell they're looping because after "Act 5," it displays "Act 1" again. TECHNICALLY speaking, there aI'mre several game modes, and I DID get as far as I could in each one, but I'm not gonna try to get to the looping point in every single one lol.
Ice Climber
Platform played: NES Classic Mini
Date beaten: October 12, 2023
The jump and collision detection are really wonky, but that just makes it all the more satisfying to beat. It's a bit anticlimactic though as it just loops back to the first stage, no credits or anything. Later in this project, I don't think I would have the patience to actually stick with this and beat it, but this game came earlier enough that I was still determined to actually finish every game. I definitely would suggest playing this game before Super Mario Bros. though, since Mario improved the platformer formula so much that you won't want to come back to this one with its slippery controls.
Balloon Fight
Platform played: NES Classic Mini
Date beaten: Oct 14, 2023
Technically doesn't end, but I got to a point where the stages started repeating, and got to "Rank 1" on Balloon Trip mode. This is another game that feels made for two players. I don't have much to say about it really.
Super Mario Bros.
Platform played: NES Classic Mini
Date beaten: October 19, 2023
Of course, it's a landmark game that changed that greatly influenced gaming going forward. Unlike many of the prior arcade-style games on the NES, it has more than one screen and a proper ending. While it may be a bit simplistic by modern standards, it's a solid game that is still fun to play today. My main criticism is that the bosses are repetitive. You fight Bowser at the end of each stage, although all but the last one are actually another enemy in disguise - they will revert to their true form if you hit them with a fireball. That's why the Toads always say "Our princess is in another castle" - apparently the plot is that Mario is going to each castle in turn, trying to find which one has the real Bowser and thus Peach.
Game of the year: I'm not exactly breaking any new ground by saying it's Super Mario Bros., but it's Super Mario Bros. None of the other games on this list can compare. It's appeals to all ages and easy to pick up and play, yet still challenging enough to be fun. The controls feel more responsive than Ice Climber, and it's longer and more varied than the arcade-style games like Balloon Fight. It's also the only game on this list I could see myself revisiting in the future.