Welcome to Just Games Retro, a home for reviews of classic console and computer games. Occasionally we’ll wax poetic about our favorite games or person anecdotes, but in many ways, this is a work of exploration – looking at unplayed or unfamiliar older games from a perspective balanced between how it stood up on release, and if it’s still worth your time today.
Read our sordid history here
We Finish Every Game Before We Review It
This is part of why it takes so long to get new content up, and part of why you don’t see many RPGs on the site. But we do believe it’s important to fully represent an entire game instead of making assumptions from a couple of hours.
We Serve No Ads
None. We appreciate your visit, and respect it enough to not try to milk pocket change off of it. We’re here to serve you; not the other way around.
This also allows us to complete games before writing about them. We don’t make money from the site, so there are no deadlines, no sponsors, no promotions, just our own opinions.
We Use the Full Review Score Range
We love games of all kinds and eras so we’re going to be a little more lenient and open-minded about them than more modern-focused perspectives might be. If you turn your nose at 8-bit graphics, you’re in the wrong place.
That said, we do use the full range of scores, and intend for them to be taken that way. A 3-star game is meant as average. We can find enjoyment in even a 2-star game, but your mileage may noticeably vary. For technical reasons, we can’t issue zero stars, so a 1/2 star review is the only score intended to convey a game with absolutely no redeeming qualities, and as such, is rare.
We Host No Warez/Abandonware
There are plenty of places to find and download games, and you don’t need us to help you with that. We’re simply here to point out games you might not have heard of that you might find worth seeking out.
We (Usually) Review A Game Separately For Each System
Each review will be attached to only one system (the system it’s reviewed for) despite being released on multiple systems. For example, DOS games were frequently also available on the Amiga or Atari ST.
Even though ports may be similar, we don’t write “catch-all” reviews meant to cover the game as it exists on all platforms. For one, there are often graphical, auditory, or gameplay differences, and we cover those in the individual reviews. For two, it gives another reviewer a chance to comment on the same game, if it’s already been reviewed.