It's hard to pin down the year, but near as I can tell, I got an NES as a gift from my father when I was 6 or so. Video games have been a hobby, passion, time-waster, distraction, or coping mechanism occupying a critical part of my life ever since then. And in my (at the time of this writing) 32+ years of gaming, I can't say as I have ever had an experience like this one.
It wasn't perfect all the way through.
I did have to look up how to proceed more than zero times which was disappointing and took some of the magic away.
The structure of the game is such that if you don't like how time pressure feels it will make you anxious and maybe encourage you to go fast and miss things at times when going slower and being more thoughtful would benefit you.
....but I have never, ever, had an experience like this one, and I certainly wasn't prepared to confront my own mortality, and my own feelings about entropy as much as I did at the very end of it.
10/10, recommended for everyone.

It's hard to pin down the year, but near as I can tell, I got an NES as a gift from my father when I was 6 or so. Video games have been a hobby, passion, time-waster, distraction, or coping mechanism occupying a critical part of my life ever since then. And in my (at the time of this writing) 32+ years of gaming, I can't say as I have ever had an experience like this one. It wasn't perfect all the way through. I did have to look up how to proceed more than zero times which was disappointing and took some of the magic away. The structure of the game is such that if you don't like how time pressure feels it will make you anxious and maybe encourage you to go fast and miss things at times when going slower and being more thoughtful would benefit you. ....but I have never, ever, had an experience like this one, and I certainly wasn't prepared to confront my own mortality, and my own feelings about entropy as much as I did at the very end of it. 10/10, recommended for everyone.