Pacific Theater of Operations on the Genesis is one of those old-school war games that actually makes you think. You start off staring at a map of the Pacific, moving fleets and troops like some general who forgot to sleep—except the AI actually fights back, and hard. First time I played, I sent my entire navy straight into a trap near Midway. Learned that lesson fast.

The battles play out in this weird but cool hybrid of turn-based strategy and real-time action. One minute you're plotting supply routes, the next you're manually aiming battleship guns while enemy planes dive at you. The historical scenarios nail that "just one more turn" tension, especially when you're barely holding some island the game insists is important. If you mess up, there's no respawn—just the cold reality of a campaign map slowly turning enemy colors.

It's janky by today's standards (good luck figuring out the supply system without the manual), but there's something satisfying about outmaneuvering the computer after it crushed you three times in a row. The music even gets weirdly intense when your transports are about to get sunk. Still one of the few war games where losing a cruiser actually feels like a punch to the gut.