Since I grew up on my first on-and-off playthrough of this, and even though I've beaten it many times since, getting to the end always feels like the end of a personal journey. The graphics are primitive, the unskippable tutorials can be frustrating after twenty-five years, and the parts that terrified me when I was little can still disturb me. Although I don't think it should still be considered the greatest video game ever made, it's still a lot of fun, I can always discovering something new about it, and it touches my inner child more than any other piece of media can. Being able to pick up right where I leave off every time by playing it on Switch also cut out some traveling annoyances.

While Sands of Time is one of my favorite games, I've avoided its main sequels due to their brutal violence and risque attire (well, even more risque attire); the pre-sequel The Forgotten Sands, however, scratches that Prince of Persia itch for me. The story may be unambitious, recycling a lot of ideas from Sands of Time, but it's engaging enough; the horde-based combat often lacks challenge, but the platforming sections and the inventive mechanics used to traverse them make up for that. While it's a fairly fluffy experience, I can picture myself revisiting it. Also, it can't be a coincidence that the Prince's brother looks kind of like Jake Gyllenhaal.

Given all the times I had to look up a walkthrough, even for the final boss, I wasn't sure whether this game was badly designed or I was just bad at it; now that I've seen others' reviews, I'm now thinking the former. The story's okay, even if it's unevenly paced and ignores Mara Jade's interesting backstory. But the level design and the overpowered enemies at the end... For the latter, the game practically punishes you for sticking with non-combative Light Side powers when you're forced to stick with your lightsaber for the rest of the game, even though the story's ultimately about trying to save someone from the Dark.

This, like Star Wars: Dark Forces, is another FPS from my childhood that I got stuck in and dropped until now, except it's from the previous franchise's archrival. But hey, if Ravensoft could go on to develop the latter two Jedi Knight games after this, I can like both, too.

Now, I don't know Voyager well, but it's cool that this game brought in the show's main cast, which is secondary to the titular special ops team that goes on off-ship missions. Although shoot-em-up gameplay doesn't quite fit the spirit of Star Trek, and the combat could be more challenging, the game aesthetically nails the Star Trek universe despite poorly aged graphics, it moves at a brisk pace, and I didn't have to look at walkthroughs once, even for the part I got stuck at years ago.

This is the first in the Kyle Katarn saga that I knew about; in fact, when I first played Dark Forces, I was expecting the low-polygon character models of its first sequel instead of sprites. Kyle becoming a Jedi in this adventure allows for more compelling storytelling and more varied gameplay than its predecessor, and even though we can't interact with the harmless NPC's featured in a number of levels, they make the game feel more like we're playing through a series of worlds rather than just a series of levels.

Alas, this is the most I've had to look at walkthroughs for a game in a long time, though mostly for missing switches; Kyle at one point commits a vengeful act that gets glossed over, the ending feels a bit abrupt, and while the lightsaber boss fights are challenging, that's partly because the hit detection is inconsistent.

Nonetheless, it's a worthwhile classic. Get the version on GOG, though; the Steam version is unplayable.

I'd beaten Jedi Academy by the time I first played Dark Forces, and this completion of Dark Forces was well over a decade in the making. I got this game's PS1 port way back when because my older siblings' CD for the PC version was so old by the time I tried it that it couldn't play sound, and I got so stuck on one level that I dropped the game forever... Until now.

Revisiting it through Steam, I still needed to look at a walkthrough for that part, one more comprehensible than the one I tried back then. Still, I had fun throughout, especially for its retro charm. The lack of permanent checkpoints during each mission is a little frustrating, though, especially for the more challenging missions.

It's also unrealistic because the stormtroopers can hit you.