In terms of its overall place in the series, a more fair rating for Pokémon Red would probably be a 3.5/5. But reviewing it based on how it made me feel at the time, this is an easy 5/5. It may not be easy for anyone born after the turn of the millennium to imagine a world where we aren't terribly used to Pikachu and friends but as someone who was still in school when Pokémania hit, Pokémon Red and Blue were unlike anything that came before. It goes without saying that these games inspired a multimedia phenomenon that will likely never be dethroned. Ultimately, it all comes back down to these original games.

The original paired Pokémon games lack a lot of the complexity and gimmickry of the modern entries and that's in no way a bad thing. The end result is a very "warts and all" version of this series' core gameplay. The world is aesthetically simple yet absolutely teeming with character. The soundtrack doesn't particularly push the Game Boy to its limits but every track is memorable and catchy. The level curve rockets towards the end of the game, but provided your Pokémon are at least able to get the first hit in you'll generally be okay. Post-game is essentially non-existent! But that's okay because playing against friends in the playground was the postgame back when this came out.

This isn't the best rendition of Kanto- the following three Generations all added improvements to the experience (FireRed and LeafGreen being the best take on the region, for my money). But it is, at its heart, pure, distilled Pokémon. When Game Freak released these games they couldn't have known what awaited. I'm certainly glad Nintendo took a risk on them, however, as gaming changed forever as a result.

Somehow, WWF No Mercy is only just beginning to show its age some two decades on. In that time, it has reigned almost unchallenged as the supreme professional wrestling video game and even now boasts features that modern releases struggle to emulate.

The in-ring action is surprisingly deep, with a number of features not even listed in the game's instruction manual. Players can often find these advanced techniques for themselves through experimentation and extended play (or, perhaps more likely these days, via the internet). The light and strong grapples and strikes are accessed intuitively by either pressing or holding their respective buttons- almost everything else is secondary, though clever mapping of the controller means you're not going to confuse yourself and wonder what button performs which action. Easy to pick up and play, deceptively deep and with lots of room to learn control mastery.

The game may have aged least well graphically. Even at the time, reviewers commented on how the playable roster didn't have any shoulder joints and some odd animations and strange choices for face images do sometimes leave characters looking a bit odd. Additionally, in spite of the relative simplicity of the models, the game will sometimes creak a little when four characters are on screen in a match, despite there being very little to suggest anything being rendered is processor-intensive. The crushed music tracks being a casualty of the N64's chosen medium doesn't help matters either, but it was impressive enough at the time.

But if you can get past those admittedly minor woes, you'll find a game teeming with content. If you want to clear every single branching Championship mode, you'll have to play dozens of times. The stories twist and turn depending on the outcomes of your matches and filling out a Championship map to 100% completion is incredibly satisfying because there's no simple option to leap back and re-select a prior chapter- you're going to have to work to get full completion and, more importantly, you're going to feel you earned it.

Clearing out the in-game shop is another challenge in itself, with some items costing so much you'll have to clear every Championship path just to afford them alone! But the Survival mode is a nifty way to rack up the dough, if you're willing to put in the time and effort. The rewards are substantial, with not only unlockable characters, arenas and weapons but hundreds of options for customisation available to you.

The customisation itself is phenomenal and, in some regards, superior to what we have in modern WWE games. Eighteen slots to create an original wrestler may not seem like a lot, but it doesn't end there. Every single character in the game is editable- while you can't change their moves and AI, you can change every aspect of their looks and profile, meaning, if you like, you can get rid of the huge late Attitude Era WWF roster the game offers and replace them with a roster entirely of your choosing! And did I mention each character slot has four attire slots, meaning you can choose to multiply that roster by four?

There is one enormous flaw in this game that I've elected not to reflect in my score but is worth mentioning. If you buy this game physically, you'll want to be sure the cartridge bears a "-1" at the end of the serial number. This is a revision to the original game which unfortunately does remove blood graphics (but not functionality, luckily) but more crucially removes a game crippling bug. The original version of the game has a bug in it that means your progress will be wiped completely at random. Just be mindful if you have a cart from the original run that you'll struggle to keep a hold of your unlocked and customised characters.

It took THQ a long time to come close to this calibre of wrestling game again and it took 2K a lot of false starts and huge missteps, and even then they still lack features of this seminal title in the genre. WWF No Mercy may not be the perfect wrestling game at the time of writing this, but it very probably was when it came out and for a long time afterwards.

For a Dragon Ball fan, this may be the greatest piece of fan service ever produced. With one of the largest fighting game rosters ever (second only to Tobal 2, a game with characters designed by Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama, as it happens), every era of the franchise that existed at the time is represented, with playable characters from every Saga of Dragon Ball Z as well as the major players from Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball GT, plus the DBZ movie villains too. Add to that, every transformation and powered-up form those characters were seen to use in the series up to then is also an option, as well as the most beloved Fusion characters- transformations which can be activated and deactivated during a fight at will. As if that weren't enough, the game's menus are hosted by various characters too, all of whom with something to say, so even the non-fighter characters like Dende, Launch and Bulma put in an appearance.

While the music isn't all great, it does its part. The voice acting on the characters, on the other hand, is superb, every bit as good as one would expect from Funimation's cast, who clearly take tremendous pride in their part in popularising Dragon Ball in the West. This complements the character models well and helps the overall presentation, making it feel like you're playing an interactive episode of the anime, only with 3D character models during the action.

It's the fighting gameplay of the game that mars it somewhat as what's on offer here goes for spectacle over depth. In terms of the mechanics, this doesn't compare to later Dragon Ball games such as FighterZ. There are definitely enough mechanics in the game to make a two-player game or a battle on harder difficulties a challenge, but you'll generally be able to walk all over lower-level opponents by hammering the A button. To tell the truth, however, one rarely feels ripped off by this as the game captures a three-dimensional movement style and charging and releasing of special moves that only further adds to making you feel you're playing an episode of the DBZ anime. You could go in for a combo and do less damage or you could charge an attack from afar and leave yourself wide open to a quick opponent. Working out where to stand (or hover) in relation to an opponent is key too as attacks can be evaded simply enough if an opponent has enough warning. As a bonus, the Wii version lets you optionally use motion controls, which are usually performed by making the motion the character you're playing as makes to do the move, which is brilliant fun and makes you feel greater affinity for your character.

Ultimately, though, with hundreds of fights to play through and a levelling up system that will mean you'll have to spend an age to fully max out each character, you'll have more than enough to do in this game and plenty of characters to do it with so you don't tire of seeing the same faces over and over again. It isn't the greatest fighting game mechanically but any Dragon Ball fan will struggle to find a more perfect love letter to the series than this one.