1) Secret of Monkey Island (ScummVM/Switch - I think it was the PC version)
Still lovely, and I still remember how to complete it. The music didn't sound as good as I remember (this might be a PC/Amiga thing, or maybe it just wasn't setup right, but the Switch kept crashing when I went into the settings).
Already started Monkey Island 2 and I don't have a clue what I'm doing, but I'm blundering through ok at the moment.
2) Monkey Island 2
Got there in the end. The first version I played kept crashing on Phatt Island, so I had to start again. It didn't seem as difficult as I remember it, but I guess that just meant most of the solutions were still in my head somewhere. The few times I did get stuck, I knew what I was meant to do, just couldn't remember how to do it.
All ready for the proper sequel now...
3) Yakuza Kiwami PS4/5
After many aborted attempts to get through this since it first came out on the PS2, I finally made it all the way through. Unfortunately, I was playing it over such a long period of time, I usually had absolutely no idea who anybody was or what was going on. Fortunately, Yakuza 2 features a nice recap at the start of the game, which I probably would have rewatched before finishing this one if I'd known about it (although I guess it would have spoiled the ending, so maybe not). Anyway, it's still the spiritual successor to Shenmue, and I felt compelled to do far too many side stories for very little gain, but I'll try to finish the second (and subsequent) ones in a bit of a shorter time frame
4) Super Mario Bros - Super Mario All-Stars - SNES/Switch
Not sure why I played the SNES version rather than the original (although when I moved onto 2 on the NES, I couldn't deal with the button layout, so maybe it was a blessing). Anyway, I must have finished this loads of times, but always with gratuitous use of warp zones, so this time I went through each level (and made gratuitous use of the rewind feature), and also the "harder version" (was that on the NES, I seem to remember you getting a level selection when you finished it).
Anyway, onto the lost levels.
5) Super Mario Bros - The Lost Levels - Super Mario All-Stars SNES/Switch
Well. It's like Super Mario Bros, but designed by someone that hates you. I cannot begin to fathom how you might play it without rewinding every few seconds (or sometimes rewinding entire levels, because you've run out of time getting lost), as the game likes to throw pixel perfect jumps at you, or jumps that you can't quite make, and have to approach in a different way. It's not Rick Dangerous-esque in how it tries to kill you, because you can always see what's coming, however it does throw pretty much everything it possibly can at you without cheating.
There was one part I couldn't work out how to get past without getting hit, and I eventually found a YouTube video of someone getting past successfully, but it was never something I'd have worked out how to do.
6) Super Mario Bros 2- Super Mario All-Stars SNES/Switch
Tedious shite.
7) Super Mario Bros 3 - Super Mario All-Stars SNES/Switch
This is more like it. Not really sure how I missed out on this one when I was younger. We definitely owned it, but I must have been too busy playing on my Megadrive, which is a shame as I really enjoyed Super Mario World a few years later, and this feels like a real stepping stone towards that game.
Not sure what to play next now...
Curse of Monkey Island
It has its moments, but it's not a patch on the first two. I did most of it with a walkthrough, because it felt like a slog to go round and talk to everyone, rather than, you know, fun.
There's something comforting about FMV from that era though.
9) Return to Monkey Island
I finished this a while ago, but obviously just forgot to post about it. Anyway, it's a delightful homage to the original, without just being a safe remake. It's funny, it's sad, it's clever. And once I finished it, I started playing it again (although I did kind of give up and play something else).