Shadowgate Classic on Game Boy Color is one of those games that makes you feel like you're actually poking around a cursed castle with nothing but your wits and a torch that burns out way too fast. Right away, you're dropped into this eerie, atmospheric dungeon where every object might be a clue—or a death trap. I remember wasting half an hour trying to figure out if I should eat the suspicious mushroom or throw it at a wall (turns out: neither).

The puzzles are brutal in that old-school way where you’ll scribble notes like “don’t touch the skeleton’s left hand” or “blue rune = instant death.” But when you finally crack one, it feels like you outsmarted the game itself. The pixel art holds up surprisingly well, especially those flickering torchlight scenes that make you nervous something’s creeping up behind you.

Fair warning: save often. You’ll die. A lot. But that’s part of the charm—it’s like a gothic escape room where the room hates you. If you’ve got patience for trial-and-error adventuring, this one’s still weirdly satisfying decades later.