If you grew up with a Super Nintendo and a dog-eared copy of The Lord of the Rings, this game hits different. You start as Frodo—of course—but pretty soon you're switching between the whole fellowship, each with their own weird little quirks. Aragorn swings his sword like he's swatting flies, Gandalf's magic feels overpowered (in a good way), and the puzzles? Some of them had me stuck for way longer than I'd like to admit.

The sprites are chunky in that classic SNES way, but there's something charming about how they crammed all of Middle-earth into 16-bit. You’ll recognize Moria’s shadowy halls, Rivendell’s waterfalls, even the creepy dead marshes—though they’re way less terrifying when they’re made of pixels. The music’s got that synth-orchestral vibe that somehow still feels epic.

It’s not perfect—some of the platforming is janky, and good luck figuring out where to go next without a walkthrough—but if you love Tolkien, it’s a weird little time capsule worth revisiting. Just don’t expect Legolas to do anything useful.