Majin Tensei is the perfect idea on paper - mixing the demon collecting and ideological battles of SMT with the tactical gameplay of Fire Emblem. Unfortunately, the execution is severely flawed.

While this game has everything you'd expect, including a large variety of demons to recruit, elemental weaknesses, strategizing with terrain, and even multiple endings, it's all bogged down by map design that is okay at best, and unforgivable at worst.

Many maps are absolutely gigantic for no discernible reason and littered with weak opponents that serve no purpose other than to waste time. If that wasn't enough, this game also features a staggering 59 stages, not counting repeats if you want certain endings. Enemy turns play out at an abysmally slow pace as the camera pans between 30-40 demons who sit motionless. If you're playing this on real hardware without some kind of fast forward function, it's easily a 60-80 hour game. About a quarter of the stages could be cut and it would still feel bloated with nothing very exciting to show for.

On a brighter note, Majin Tensei has one of the best soundtracks on the Super Famicom, and the sprite art is pretty incredible. It's worth giving this game a look, but unless you're among the most dedicated Megaten fans or you're just really thirsty for an SRPG, it is very hard to recommend a full playthrough.

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The golden age of video games began and ended with the Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device.

So firstly, I obviously didn't play this on the original hardware given the fact that this was really a patented proof of concept that as far as I'm aware never made it to any sort of production model so I used an online simulator to experience the magnificence that is the Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device. You can play it for yourself here

Anyways, what the hell do I actually say here? The core gameplay comes from positioning little planes on the screen and then essentially tuning the CRT beam to move over a plane and then blow it up by moving various dials. There is a bit of a dead-zone on the left and bottommost corners of the screen so it makes some areas impossible to hit (or I just don't know how to move these dials properly), so it's up to you to make sure the game is possible in the first place. Moreover, there's no in-game logic to check on whether or not you are playing correctly, so really the whole game is beholden to the honor system of the player. I guess it works given the fact that it's an "amusement device" and not necessarily a game.

I guess what's more interesting than the game itself is moreso the context behind it as being one of the first instances of using video display technology for recreational entertainment purposes. There has been a reasonable amount of debate on whether or not this counts as a computer video game given the fact that there is no in-game logic and it's moreso just tuning a CRT beam in a fun way. These days there has been a lot of discussion as to what defines a video game and giving examples of acclaimed modern games that challenge the medium, when my homeboy Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. did that shit all the way back in 1947. Truly a revolutionary.

At the end of the day it certainly is more of a historical curiosity than anything, this is like reviewing a museum artifact. You'd definitely have to be a very certain type of person to even know about this thing though, let alone play and review it on a site like this. I've always been a fan of playing old titles to see where things have gone, and you really can't go any farther back than here. It's nice to pay the extremely primitive origins of video games their dues.