The Spyro games are usually described as platformers, which is a somewhat misleading label. While it's true you do a lot of jumping in these games, there's very little in the way of the usual pits or spike traps. Instead, these are games about the joy of movement, exploration, and momentum. However, unlike the later Spyro games, which rely heavily on minigames to break up the action, Spyro is a remarkably "pure" experience of charging, breathing flame, and collecting treasure. Compared to the Crash Bandicoots of the world, there's not a lot of challenge here, but there doesn't need to be: this is a enjoyable kid's game that still holds up all these years later. The sequels are better, though.

Better than Halo.

Okay, that's a dumb joke, even though I actually believe it. When I bought my neighbor's original Xbox from him around 2006, this was one of the games I was dying to play, along with Butcher Bay and Breakdown. As a whole, this game takes everything I loved about JGR and elevates it. It isn't flawless, don't get me wrong - the controls take some getting used to, and the soundtrack doesn't necessarily reach the highs of the original - but overall, JSRF is the game that JGR should have been.

This might produce a flood of negative feedback, but I have to be honest: this game is the Comix Zone of the Dreamcast. To interpolate somebody else's Comix Zone review, this game gets an A for aesthetics, an A+ for concept, a A for its soundtrack, a C for general execution, and a big fat F for controls - which is unfortunately the most important part of this kind of game. I don't think it's a coincidence that JSRF is essentially just a remake of this game in a slightly different setting: they knew they could do it better, and they did. Definitely worth checking out for the historical value, but if you want to play a good video game, JSRF is the way to go.

When I first played Comix Zone as a 7-year-old, between its novel premise, grunge-inspired soundtrack, and electric-tailed rat, I thought it was the apex of '90s video gaming. These days, while I don't regard it as a classic or anything, I do think that this game tends to get a bum rap from people who pick it up, die to the first or second enemy, and then go on Twitter to proclaim that it sucks. While it's certainly a punishing experience for newbies - there are no continues or save/password system, which was a rarity even for the retro era - if you actually take the time to figure out what you're doing, this isn't a particularly challenging game, and you can easily beat it in less than an hour. I don't think anybody should go out of their way to play Comix Zone if they're otherwise inclined, but as a whole, this is a remarkable aesthetic achievement that deserves a little more respect than it gets.

Head and shoulders above every other classic entry in the Sonic series in both quality and scale, this is one of the defining games of the 16-bit era. S3&K improves on virtually every area of the Sonic experience (even the Special Stages don't suck anymore!), and its level design is much more consistent and enjoyable than its immediate predecessors. As a whole, it's still not going to convert those who don't enjoy the pure kinetic fun of Sonic-style platformers, but if you're at all interested in a game where every button is jump, this is about as good as they get.

I remember when I first started using the internet, I discovered that a lot of people view this as the best game in the series, and that definitely surprised me. Though I thoroughly enjoyed Sonic 2 as a kid, I think a lot of Sega fans remember it with rose-colored glasses - there are several dud Zones here, and the smooth transition between the eye-popping "fast" loop-de-loops and the "slow" precision platforming still isn't quite there. The spin dash is a much-needed improvement, however. Still one of my favorite Genesis games to revisit, but there are much better entries in the 2D Sonic canon these days.