Three verdicts this bulletin, scored out of ten. No half marks, no review copies, no embargoes — just cartridges that got played until the batteries in the controller gave out.
A world map turned a platformer into an atlas, and the raccoon suit turned it into a small miracle. Every level teaches you a trick and then asks you to use it somewhere unfair. Still the measuring stick every side-scroller since gets held up against, whether it wants to be or not.
The cabinet that turned arcades into rooms full of strangers shouting motion inputs at each other. Eight fighters, eight personalities, and a special-move system simple enough to learn in an afternoon and deep enough that people are still finding new combos in it decades later.
Seven shapes and one falling grid, and somehow it never runs out of things to teach you. No plot, no characters, no ending — just a piece of software that understood exactly what it was for and refused to be anything else. The highest score this bulletin gives, and the only one that isn't close.