Hokkaidou Rensa Satsujin: The Portopia Serial Murder Case is one of those old-school NES text adventures that makes you feel like a real detective—if you can wrestle with the parser long enough to figure out what it wants from you. You’re typing commands like "examine body" or "call witness" while your sidekick chimes in with hints (or sarcasm, depending on how badly you’re doing).

No hand-holding here—you’ll be dialing random phone numbers, collecting weird bits of evidence, and accusing the wrong person at least once (the police chief will yell at you). The lack of music and save files makes it feel even more like some gritty ‘80s detective sim. But when you finally piece together the right clues, it’s weirdly satisfying. Just don’t expect the game to spell anything out for you.