Reviews

Review Philosophy

Since 1999, I’ve run a number of websites, most of which contained video game reviews at some level.  With The Retro Review Project, I’m trying something a little different.  There are lots of places on the internet to read detailed, in-depth reviews with very specific scores.  But ultimately, I find those boring and not very helpful.

The scores are what bother me the most.  What does “8.2” mean?  How does one really distinguish between a “9.0” and a “9.1”?  Is an “8.5” for a game on one system equivalent to an “8.5” for a game on another system?  Frankly, I don’t really need to compare the reviews of every single game ever on one single scale.  I just want to know whether a game is worth playing.

These days, I listen to word-of-mouth and recommendations from people that I trust much more than largely anonymous reviewers who write without much of any personality.  With The Retro Review Project, I hope to become the former, not the latter.  My reviews will be short and to the point, they’ll be expressed with my own personal voice, and my own personal biases.  I won’t try to assign an arbitrary number or letter-grade to a game.  I’m simply going to tell you whether it’s worth playing and spending your money on.

Hopefully, over time, my recommendations will be viewed less like those of the anonymous writers you know nothing about and more like those of the people you trust.

Review Index

 = Retro Star Award

3DO

• Out of This World
• Total Eclipse

Atari Lynx

• Robo-Squash

Neo Geo CD

• Blue’s Journey / Raguy

NES

• A Boy and His Blob
• Blaster Master
•  Marble Madness
• Metroid

Sega Genesis

• Streets of Rage

Sega Master System

• Alex Kidd: High Tech World
• Zillion

Sega Saturn

• Sonic R
• Virtua Cop

SNES

• Out of This World
•  Super Mario World

TurboGrafx-16

• Bonk’s Adventure
•  Ninja Spirit

Virtual Boy

•  Space Squash