Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. 198X presents a set of five arcade game stages, each in a different genre, strung together by brief story sequences about the experiences of a school-age child who finds solace in the arcades of his world. There's a nice range of genres on offer - starting with a side-scroller beat 'em up/brawler, the game then progresses through space shooting, racing, an auto-runner and finally a first-person RPG dungeon. The game's nature as a compilation means that none of these individual games are particularly deep or extensive, but as brief tasters of each genre they work well. There's certainly some scope for frustration from narrow failures given the relative lack of checkpoints, but that comes with the territory when we're talking about arcade-style games. The game's presentation is excellent, with well-drawn pixel-art throughout and effective if unmemorable music.

There's some limited potential for score-chasing and attempting 'perfect' runs, to add some longevity, but a single playthrough of 198X is likely to be a fairly short experience - around 2-3 hours is likely to be typical - so waiting for a discount before purchasing may be the best approach if the game appeals to you.