Lost Plays

Hey howdy ho everyone! lostleader, and I finally got a tumblr for all my video, reviewing, and let's play needs.

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Game 86: Racer (WASM-4) Mar2026 While Racer is fundamentally very basic and only sports 3 tracks to play through; I have to say it honestly was a good time. Sadly, there isn't any track selection, so you'll have to run through them to get to tracks 2 or 3. The graphics are fairly basic and reminiscence of something you find on the game boy color. It's not exactly winning awards for anything out there, but rather that it captures the old school charm of racers of yesteryear without it being too harsh or flawed in a glaring way. It be nice if there was more challenge to it like more racers on the tracks or simply have more tracks to work with, but for what it provides at the low cost of free, I think it's worth checking out for a fun 5 minute break.

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Game 28: Pokémon Snap: Basement Jan2026 Pokemon Snap's Basement mod feels like a proof of a proof of concept that shouldn't have been released for the public. As much as the idea that Pokemon would appear in another video game setting like Golden Eye seems interesting, in practice, it's ruined by the game's setting not being made for taking pictures in them. Not to mention that nearly all the Pokemon are positioned in a way that feels way too fast or too far away to really get any proper interaction with them along with the track constantly feeling claustrophobic and consistently blocking your view. In a lot of ways, Pokemon Snap Basement feels like an anti-snap adventure that ruins the spirit of the original game.

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Game (42): Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends Feb2026 Honestly, this game works on an aesthetic level and nothing else. While I understand that this is a prototype that never released, it really doesn't seem like difficulty works at all. I just can't tell much of a different when most solutions are the same as they were in all three modes. This added to the limitations of the NES really makes this game charming to look at, but worse than redundant to play. We already have a superior official release of the SNES version, so really you're only coming here for aesthetics anyway. It's not really bad either, just outclassed in every way.

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Game 44: Sonic Arena Feb2026 Sonic Arena I really liked the cut of your jib, but people play test their games for a reason. Sadly Sonic Arena just didn't do that and while my initial impression was how hard it was, turns out there are two safe spots to exploit in the middle and on the right. Admittedly the gap isn't that big, but it is big enough for Sonic to bounce consistently up and down while you go make yourself a pot of coffee and chili dogs. The initial idea of bouncing on enemies was a really fun one, and I think if it just focused on that instead of the ball also trying to harm Sonic this could have been avoid. As it is now though, it's a broke game that lost it's potential.

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Game 72: Tetris26 March2026 This really is just a fumbl-y version of Tetris. Not to say it's not impressive or neat that we have a functioning Tetris on Atari 2600, but ultimately why play it aside from novelty? The rotation button is far too sensitive with it's inputs, and there is no predicting what piece you get next so veteran players are at a lost there as well. Ultimately, any other version of Tetris is just better, and probably has better music too. I will give it at least one thing though. The flashy rainbow pixels it utilizes is at least captivating. Solid good try at a demake for sure, but it's ruined due to some much needed core mechanics just not functioning right or being there.

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Game 75: Color a Dinosaur Mar2026 It's amazing how technology can offer a ton of new and interesting things, but at the same time be a major step back. Not only is Color a Dinosaur a weak imitation of a video game, but it's also something that can't even do what basic coloring books can. From mixing colors to drawing patterns, or even rainbow colors from crayons. Pretty much anything that can be done in Window's paint is better than what Color a Dinosaur did. The game has little music to it, an extremely limited palette, and you're only allowed to fill spaces in. In other words, Color a Dinosaur feels like a scam in the most traditional sense. What makes this perhaps worse is the target audience being kids that wouldn't know better at the time. You're only playing this to see how bad it is or because you get something aside from the game itself because there isn't a game here.

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Game [54]: Mini Cookie Feb2026 Effectively just a tech demo that shows what people can do on the Pokemon Mini. It's fairly simplistic and neat for a minute or two, but nothing too engaging. A lot of the fun of this game really has though just comes down to making your own pictures over the actual objective of eating all the cookies. So with that, it can be a bit more creative than originally made, but even that has it's very strict limits. Still for a tech demo, it's a little neater than most.

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Game [53] Loopover Feb2026 What is effectively suppose to be a 2D Rubix cube, the actual way to solve it turned out to be an easier pattern than an actual Rubix Cube. Like give me a regular Rubix Cube and ask me to solve it, and im bashing it into pieces so I can put them back together again, but here the answer really is a simple crisscross applesauce dealy. I'm not particularly annoyed with it or anything, but considering the pattern can only do so much, once you solve it the game is kinda too simple to really play anymore. Sadly with this version of Loopover, you also might run into trouble with varies letters like, U, V, P, and F, but it was never enough to run the fun of it. A decent puzzle for a game, but not exactly a full game worthy of playing over and over.

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Game 27: Pokémon Snap: Rith Essa Jan2026 I'm genuinely shocked this is from another game, and Jet Force Gemini no less. Not exactly something I'm mad about, but I am kinda wondering just how iconic this map actually is because the hack version of Rith Essa feels hella barebones. Like compared to another hack I played for Pokemon Snap, this one is certainly better. The level lends itself well enough to Pokemon Snap's design and the Pokemon are close enough that you can interact with them properly. Mainly, the problem with this mod is it just feels like a coat of paint on the original beach level over anything actually interesting. Even the level doesn't really feel like it's from anywhere to me due to how drastically empty it is giving no real indication or proper crossover blending. In the end, Rith Essa hack is just kinda there.

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Game 31: Neo Racing Genesis Jan2026 It looks like a game, but trust me, it's not a game. It's a holding A button simulator that happens to have some pretty graphics for the system, and nothing more. No soundtrack, no noise, no need to turn. The menu system is more complex than the "game" itself. It is pretty though.

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Game 32: Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3-e - Classic World 2-2 Feb2026 My main problem with a lot of these remakes to older stages in Super Mario Advance 4 is just it not being particularly interesting past nostalgia. Like it's just 2-2 from the original game, but in Super Mario Advance 4's game style. Like it's not that impressive of a level or as iconic as 1-1 was. And because the e-reader level doesn't do anything interesting with it the whole level becomes novel at best and forgettable at worst. Honestly wish we got something else here.

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Game 35: Joust Feb2026 Iwata made Balloon Fight because he made Joust wrong. Like it's kinda insane seeing in real time how erasers got on pencils, and the way Joust on the NES basically has the same physics as Balloon Fight does, while not adjusted to it is both telling and historical.

Like on the whole, Joust is a fairly basic design game of upping your opponent while avoiding getting knocked out yourself. On the surface, NES Joust does exactly that, but when you start experiencing higher amount of play, the game starts breaking showing how messy and slippery it can really be. From not being able to stop properly, little bugs that cause your ostrich to not land, the way your character ping pongs on the board like a pinball if you so much as go faster than a Balloon Fighter. NES Joust just isn't tightly controlled nor is the game suited for how fast the character can go. From just dying from an enemy spawning, the way hitboxes sometimes don't read correctly, and how the AI just cheats you out. Even the pause button doesn't work well as sometimes you pause out of a pause into another one.

Joust NES is at most a testament to how experiences both good or bad can lead to something different and perhaps better. While I won't hand over Joust (arcade) being better than Balloon Fight (NES); I will say Balloon Fight clearly got a lot of it's design from NES Joust's physics. Nearly any complaints made about this port is what pretty much makes Balloon Fight work. And while I don't think this port is abysmal, I will say that it's hard to really play let alone recommend. It's a game where you constantly fight the controls to get what you want while being completely at the games mercy on whether it will work as intended. By technically it is still Joust, and when the game is working or you feel you get the hang of it does bring a certain amount of joy with it. Just never expected that to last long here.

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Game 33: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Feb2026 Who Wants To Be A Millionaire is truly one of the last phenomenon game shows of the 20th century that really captivate audiences around the world. It used trivia and dramatic music to really help escalate the situation as well as a host that would often give misleading sentences to help the drama for the audience. In this way, it's really hard to capture what makes Who Wants to Be A Millionaire so good in a video game, and they didn't with this one.

The UK version is honestly probably the best version of this game as it actually uses voice clips of the actual host, but ultimately this game barely captures 40% of the magic the game show did. A lot of this can be blamed on the visuals. The game pretty much takes place in a blank void with the same type of chair and screens you'd see on the show. Most of the time you'll just be looking at the trivia screen as the game awaits the answers. Ultimately though the game just doesn't give any tension or stakes that you would find on a game show. Even with the idea that you use this as a multiplayer game is kinda ruined because visually it's just not appealing. No avatars, no host, just blankness and some outdated trivia questions. There isn't even an audience to make the game feel more alive.

Truly what this game feels like is a cash grab on the success of the show which I can't really blame on a business side of things. I will say the music and dramatic stings did work pretty well, but there has to be better game show games than this one. Don't bother if you don't have too, it's really no better than any trivia pursuit board game.

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Game 41: Retro Adventure Feb2026 It' s just a shitpost game about the website Retroachievements. It's certainly nice to look at for the usual GBstudio affair, but there really isn't much here unless you're apart of the community and/or participate on that website. It's plagued with inside jokes and Sudoku praise too. So ya, unless you want a "free mastery" you're better off playing something else.

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Game 38: Notenogram Feb2026 Stylistically I really love the look of this Nonogram. It has a notebook charm to it that just makes it feel like someone made this on their notebook. Sadly, such a style consistently clashes with the logical basis that most of these puzzles work well with, and that means that the numbers, pictures, and overall puzzle isn't too clear when you look at it. On top of that some of the puzzles aren't solvable due to one or two 1 -1 pieces being too close together and messing up where the information would usually be there. It's not enough to sore the mood though as the girl in the corner is a good indication of messing up, but it does dampen this game a bit compared to some other Nonograms. Thankfully the game never really punishes you for it, and the only time it would is in the story puzzle which is entirely solvable. The story even has 3 different endings depending on how well you did, and for that I really do have to give this game props despite some of it's dubious puzzling. It's charming and cute more than anything else.

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Game 43: Retro Quiz Tower Feb2026 Retro Quiz Tower is only going to appeal to so many people to begin with, and with the way this game sets up it's controls to move around, well it just isn't pleasant. I don't want to knock this game too much from it's initial charm and interesting premise but it really only goes so far as quiz games can go. Not only is the Game Boy limited in what it can do, but largely you can just brute force a lot of these questions due to them consistently being in the same spot or looking them up on the internet if you are quick enough. Did I enjoy my time with this game? Yes, but I have a lot more gaming know how than most, and I don't let little spelling errors get to me compared to the average bear, er…gamer. The main problem really is I just don't feel compelled to really play this again or recommend it to anyone. The right audience will find it.

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Game 48: Pokémon Party mini 2 Feb2026 It really is a matter of bad execution mixed together with slow pacing. Realistically every mini game here is super easy and you can score really high thanks to that. Kangaskhan jump is literally just the same two platforms over and over again, Moving Marill gives you way too much hp for easy to avoid enemies, and Electrode's Eventful Evening is literally stopped at a snail's pace due to a slow moving enemy and bad depth perception. Pokemon Party Mini 2 doesn't feel like a game, but more like a hostage situation. And it really sucks too because I can see what they wanted to do with each mini-game, but the pacing and execution of it just isn't up to par with the idea they had. Mixed that together with bad presentation and next to no whimsy when it comes to sound design means it's just a poo'd party.