Category:Capsule reviews

From thecrankyhermit

View the A-Z list of all capsule reviews here!

Key to the capsule reviews

This is intended to be a near-comprehensive list of every classic, pre-2008 game that I think is still worth playing for general audiences, including their vital stats, and a brief review, meant as a guide to be used to pick games to play. Unlike most review books and websites, everything here is a recommendation. Average, mediocre, and bad games are simply not covered at all.

I won't focus much on games' online experiences, as they are often too volatile to make enduring relevant evaluations. None of the games are going to be too obscure; I may recommend some games you never heard of, but I expect every game here has been played by at least one gamer reading this other than me.

Nearly everything in the boxes can be clicked on to browse by that category. Most of the sections in the capsule review are self explanatory, but some merit explanation.

Stars

Stars in the upper-right corner of the box mark exceptional titles. Even titles without any stars are recommendations, but having a star makes it a stronger recommendation, and more stars make it yet stronger.

1 star games represent roughly 30% of all recommended games.
2 star games represent roughly 12% of all recommended games.
3 star games represent roughly 3% of all recommended games.

Original platform

The system that the game appears to have been originally designed for. This is usually, but not always, the system that it was first released on. The most authentic gameplay experience, unless otherwise noted, will be on that platform. The category link description will include emulation notes when applicable.

Current official platform

The platform(s) that you can acquire the game on today, if current. When marked "official emulation," it's probably good enough, but you can usually do better with unofficial emulation. In other cases, assume this is my preferred way of playing the game, unless otherwise noted.

Optimization notes

This is important! When this section is present, it indicates that there's something you need to do to optimize the gameplay experience, beyond simply obtaining and playing the game out of the metaphorical box.

In any of these cases, clicking will link to further notes or instructions. For instance, DOS games composed for the MT-32 need special work if you want the music to sound right, so for these games, this section will indicate that status and link to instructions on how to properly use or emulate an MT-32.

Key people

Not meant to be exhaustive, but mainly as an interesting browsing option. This section will list the most prolific creative contributors to the game, with Wikipedia as a guideline to determine who is "prolific" enough to be listed.

Pages in category "Capsule reviews"

The following 83 pages are in this category, out of 83 total.