[PC] True Love (1995)

How:
Came to know of it while chatting with my brother and got a downloaded version directly from him.
Note:
The English translation is the official Windows port.
Endings:
I got the Remi ending on my own and then saw all the others at once by following a walkthrough.
Pros:
- Mostly nice pixel graphics for both backgrounds and characters
- Some nice endings
- Some unexpected routes (e.g. saving a girl drowning in the ocean)
- Grinding skills can be rewarding
- There is a cameo of Akane from the game Venus
Cons:
- Music can get very repetitive
- Some typos
- Some continuity bugs
- A few ugly character drawing, few background scenes (most of them are just recolored)
- Very dumb, clichéd setting
- Unlikable main character
- Unrealistic dialogues

This character here is 茜 from Venus (1994).

[PSP] Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (2011)

How:
The game was frequently mentioned on review websites and forums, bought it for 5€ at Gamestop as a first game for the PSP for long trips.
Pros:
- Huge replayability value with loads of extra contents
- Extremely non-linear
- Can be very challenging
- Epic final battle
- Some very good in-game graphics and special effects especially near the end
- Very good character portraits
- Can revisit past events and undertake new paths to get different outcomes
- A lot of different classes, skills, magic spells, items, and so on
- Many special moves that gradually unlock with experience
- Economy works well
- The game records all previous events, dialogues and cut-scenes
Cons:
- The story is very contrived, full of difficult-to-memorize names, and dialogues that are extremely hard to follow
- Sometimes when action happens at the borders of the screen, you cannot see who's aiming at who and what's the induced effect (you only know a posteriori)
- Music is boringly epic
- Some of the game mechanics are too tedious to be actually usable (e.g. recipes, beast hunting)
- Some character classes cannot use certain magic spells for no apparent reason, even if the spell can be learned and the character has the right magic skills
- Not being able to see the map/enemies before entering the battle field greatly reduces the strategic value of the game (e.g. entering a map full of undead without bringing someone able to exorcize them)
- Grinding new characters for experience can be very difficult as the game progresses, since enemy strength is balanced with the player's strength

[PC] Flight of the Amazon Queen (1995)

How:
Didn't know the game before it was given for free on Ubuntu together with Beneath a Steel Sky. Finally played it after getting it (for free) on Gog.com.
Pros:
- Very nice animations and graphics
- Nice overworld map idea (Joe looks at the jungle from a pinnacle, with a nice parallax effect)
- Very good voice overs
- Several cutscenes
- Some amusing sections (e.g. dialogue with Death before taking the boat)
Cons:
- Cannot skip dialogues
- Mostly inventory oriented puzzles, with tons of inventory items
- Graphics, music and overall tone are too much reminiscent of Monkey Island and Indiana Jones
- Uninspired, sometimes annoying music
- Some bad jokes
- Must mouse over items twice to get a description

[Android] Layton Brothers: Mystery Room (2012)

How:
Heard about it on Adventuregamers.com. Found the demo on the Play Store and bought the game after playing the first two episodes.
Pros:
- Great, colorful graphics
- The 3D sections are simple yet very consistent and well integrated with the rest of the game
- Quirky characters
- Fun and addictive gameplay
- Nice background story
- Cool turn of events near the end
Cons:
- Apparently there is no penalty for making mistakes
- One long episode is suddenly interrupted specifically by the end of the second (purchased) episode package
- Pop-up messages are there until the very last episode
- Puzzles are often given away by excessive talk and hints
- Correct answers given at the wrong time are considered wrong
- Title is completely misleading

[PC] Portal (2007)

How:
Knew about it since HL2, got on Steam with a daily sale.
Pros:
- Immersive and addictive gameplay
- Amazing atmosphere
- Surprising turn of events near the end
- Excellent voice work and amusing script
- Cool puzzle mechanics
Cons:
- Graphics are a bit monotonous
- Music is a bit lacking

[PC] King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow (1992)

How:
Often heard of it as one of the best adventure games ever, got on Gog.com with the King's Quest 4+5+6 pack.
Points:
I managed to finish the game with 228/231 points without using a walkthrough (I actually needed a walkthrough just to open the ink bottle...). The only puzzle I missed was feigning death in front of the black cloaked man, since I got the correct lamp by trial & error. Still got the best ending possible.
Pros:
- Some memorable and diversified music
- Generally good voiceovers
- You get to ride a black winged horse to the realm of the dead!
- Direct references to previous episodes of the series
- Rather lengthy, with a great amount of optional content
- The second half of the game is amazing (realm of the dead + castle)
- Very nice and logical puzzles
- Great graphics and cool cutscenes
- The possibility to die or get dead ends makes gameplay more exciting
Cons:
- Some super-fast animation glitches
- Some audio glitches (sometimes the music volume covers the narrator's voice)
- Using an item or using an item on the main character give different results only with some items (e.g. the ink bottle must be used directly on Alexander to open it)
- The Isle of Wonder seems more like the deus-ex-machina of missing inventory items
- Once again a final love ballad
- Some tedious backtracking required
- Trial & error required to solve certain puzzles
- Dead ends (usually quite clear though)

[PC] Hamlet (2010)

How:
Read about it on Adventuregamers.com, got with the Bundle in a Box (Capsule Computers indie bundle).
Pros:
- Nice, colorful graphics
- Boss fights
- Some clever puzzles
- Fun setting and story
Cons:
- Extremely short
- Sold as a "classic adventure game"
- A couple of puzzles require quick reflexes

[PC] Hector: Badge of Carnage - Episodes 1-3 (2011)

How:
Heard about it on Adventuregamers as a iOS exclusive, then got it with the Humble Weekly Sale: Telltale Games.
Pros:
- Nice puzzles
- Very good voiceovers
- Smooth animations and graphics integrating well characters and background
- Cool cut-scenes
- Some amusing characters and situations
- Lots of humor
- Nice music fitting well the different areas and situations
- Surprisingly lengthy
- Overall fun, colorful and well balanced
Cons:
- Perhaps exceedingly rude at times (e.g. fill used condom with pee)
- Some glitches
- Some annoying characters (the DJ in the last episode, the kids in the park)

[Amiga] Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

How:
Played on the Amiga as a kid, never finished it because the game crashed in the catacombs. Eventually found it again in my Gamebase Amiga collection.
Endgame:
Actually I didn't manage to complete the game since I couldn't identify the correct grail to pick at the end (tried all of them --should have read a certain message in the catacombs in order to be able to finish the game). Obviously didn't feel like going through the maze sequences again to properly finish the game.
Pros:
- The game introduces the Talk verb and dialogue trees for the first time
- Very good graphics (only 16 colors!)
- Smooth animations
- Very good puzzles
- Cool, adventurous settings
Cons:
- Character interaction feels a bit rushed (especially between Indy and Elsa Schneider)
- The game follows the movie a bit too closely
- Terribly annoying maze sequences, especially in the zeppelin
- Very frustrating and repetitive dialogue puzzles, the only way to solve them is via trial-and-error
- Mediocre music
- Fights are annoying, useless and basically unwinnable
- The game starts very well, but completely changes for the worst after the catacombs
- I've never used the Load game feature so much in any other game before
- Dead-ends

[PC] Beneath a Steel Sky (1994)

How:
Played the Amiga demo as a kid, finally got it for free on GOG.
Pros:
- Excellent graphics and animations
- The Virtual Teathre engine retains all the good points from Lure of the Temptress and hugely improves upon them
- Voiceovers are so good and enriching that this is probably the first time I leave them on when given the option
- Amazing, compelling story with a great pace
- Very good and moderately challenging puzzles with some well placed red herrings
- Memorable characters and lines
- Some very humorous parts (e.g. the trial)
Cons:
- People tend to get in the way (especially Joey)
- Music quality could be better
- Some bugs and crashes

[PC] Teenagent (1995)

How:
Got for free automatically in my GOG account when signing up.
Pros:
- Nice and moderately challenging puzzles
- Some good red herrings
- Very nice animations and pleasant graphics
- Very good sense of humor
- Fun setting and immediate gameplay
Cons:
- A couple of illogical puzzles (e.g. using a pinecone to create a dart, using a ribbon to straighten up fork prongs)
- The inventory tends to clutter up

[PC] Dragonsphere (1994)

How:
Promoted on Gog.com as a freeware game, got it without knowing anything about it. Played it after reading hg101 review.
Additional comment:
Not quite as short as most reviews mention (I think I needed around 10-11 hours from start to finish). The slow movements might have contributed.
Pros:
- Very good graphics and excellent in-game animations
- Very good (sometimes creepy) music
- The game has a very immersing, serious atmosphere differentiating it from most other adventures in similar fantasy settings
- Great dialogues and overall very likable characters
- A very deep and intriguing story with cool ideas thrown everywhere and a dramatic turn of events
- There are some rather challenging (but fair) puzzles
- Some puzzles can be solved in multiple ways
- Death is automatically undone, with no need to reload
- Lots of interactive elements, with long text descriptions
Cons:
- Movements are rather slow and unskippable (e.g. when climbing the mountain)
- Mediocre voice acting, thankfully it can be turned off
- Perhaps too many red herrings (both useless inventory items and misleading puzzle solutions, e.g. the poems)
- The story can be "broken" in a couple of ways (e.g. by going to the Spirit Plane without knowing about the Soul Egg)
- The interface can be confusing as some objects have item-specific default actions, e.g. a hidden button on the wall has "Activate" as default action, and "directions" can also be examined (this is especially important towards the end of the game when a door must be examined to reveal the symbol of a crown)

[PC] Falling Skywards (2011)

How:
Got with the AGS Bake Sale.
Pros:
- Very nice, atmospheric setting and good background story
- Good puzzles
- Very good graphics and animations
Cons:
- Games by the same author always feel too much sparse

[PC] Prime Minister's Questions (2011)

How:
Read about it on Indigames.com.
Pros:
- Very nice pixel art
- Fun voiceovers recorded from real sittings
- Fun and well balanced dialogue puzzles

[PC] Escape the Barn (2012)

How:
Got with the AGS Bake sale.
Pros:
- Nice country mood
Cons:
- Very short and trivial

[PC] RAM Ghost (2012)

How:
Got with the AGS Bake Sale.
Quiz:
Where is the ghost in the picture above?
Pros:
- Rather addictive
- Couldn't find any use for the treasure chest in the attic
- Decorating the house with wallpapers and new furniture is naively fun
- Nice pixel graphics
Cons:
- Becomes repetitive pretty soon
- Starts difficult, ends easy
- The spook minigame is not a game at all
- Some items (e.g. the cow) feel a bit out of place
- No music

[PC] Retina (2012)

How:
Got with the AGS Bake Sale.
Pros:
- Nice roguelike graphical choice
Cons:
- The game feels not fully realized, it is not clear whether the player is actually supposed to do something or not
- Even if the purpose is purely atmospheric, it lasts too long

[PC] Fragment (2011)

How:
Got with the AGS Bake Sale.
Pros:
- Very good character design and animations, as usual
- Suggestive and emotional
- Longer than previous games from the same developer
Cons:
- Backgrounds tend to be too simple and abstract
- Puzzles are trivially easy (except perhaps one)
- Starts rather slow
- Sometimes too much philosophical

[PC] Entrapment (2012)

How:
Got it with the AGS Bake Sale.
Pros:
- Very good, consistent graphics and animations
- Nice puzzles
- A cool cutscene
- Compelling (if clichéd) murder setting
Cons:
- Many typos
- The second half of the game is all dialogues with little interaction

[PC] Abner the Amazing (2011)

How:
Got with the AGS Bake Sale.
Pros:
- Fun dialogues
- Nice story idea
Cons:
- Music style is out of place
- Very poor to no animations at all
- Some very simplistic puzzles
- Very unpolished graphics

[PC] The Rail (2012)

How:
Got with the AGS Bake Sale.
Pros:
- Excellent graphics and animations
- Nice setting
- Good puzzles
Cons:
- Music and sound effects are barely audible
- A couple of graphical glitches
- Too bad it's so short

[PC] King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder (1990)

How:
Bought the King's Quest 4+5+6 collection from GOG after playing King's Quest II.
Additional comment:
Not nearly as unbeatable as it is usually depicted.
Pros:
- Excellent graphics and animations
- Very nice music all throughout
- A cool adventure with lots of travel and a compelling story
- Nice, challenging puzzles
- Some puzzles are solvable in more than one way
- Connections with previous games of the series (e.g. Manannan cat) is rewarding for fans
- Fun and slick gameplay
- Nice graphical choice for the windowed interiors
Cons:
- Packed full of dead ends
- Cedric the owl has no use except at the very end
- Voice acting is generally mediocre
- The final part is very frustrating
- Must resort to save scumming in order to finish the game
- A couple of illogical puzzles (e.g. the moldy cheese to activate the machine)
- Some graphical and sound glitches
- The game annoyingly interrupts with a warning message every time a cutscene is going to start
- The desert maze is uncalled for

[Amiga] Dungeon Master (Psygnosis release) (1992)

How:
Had the game on Amiga as a kid but never figured out how to play it. Finally decided to give it a go after reading CRPGAddict's posts on the game.
Pros:
- Favors exploration and discovery
- Immersive and suspenseful
- Nice balance between strategic and real-time elements
- Concocting potions is a cool idea
- Excellent pacing near the end
- Combat can be challenging and rewarding
- Cool magic system, memorizing and using spells makes the difference between a good wizard player and a bad one
- Some cool spells (e.g. see through walls, invisibility)
Cons:
- Throwable weapons (arrows, shurikens) must be picked back up one by one after usage, and the space allotted for them in the inventory is limited to 5
- No music, few sound effects
- Very repetitive graphics
- Slow movements due to overloaded inventories are a real pain
- Items, weapons and armor do not have any description, except for their name and weight
- No NPCs whatsoever. Would have been nice to meet somebody at some point
- The game gets very repetitive after a while, the elements added in each dungeon are not enough to motivate progress
- Probably one or two dungeon levels too many

My winning party:

Bad ending:

Good ending:

[Amiga] Arazok's Tomb (1987)

How:
Found while randomly browsing my Gamebase Amiga collection.
Pros:
- Very good graphics
- Moderately challenging puzzles with lots of red herrings and limited inventory
- Cool fantasy/sci-fi hybrid setting
Cons:
- Rather short
- Many showstopping bugs (crashes, glitches)
- Many typos
- No dialogue
- The few speaking characters can be heard only via the optional synthesized speech, otherwise what they say is not reported on screen
- Confusing descriptions
- Weak parser
- Some annoying time-based puzzles (eating, drinking, fighting)
- Very weak and abrupt ending

[PC] Back to the Future: The Game - Episodes 1-5 (2010)

How:
Read about it on Adventuregamers.com, bought the series during a Steam sale.
Pros:
- Very nice in-game animations
- Excellent voice acting
- Great writing, dialogue and characters
- Well-balanced puzzles overall, with some fun semi-arcade parts
- Some very good humour
- Compelling story and nice setting
Cons:
- Occasional graphics, sound, gameplay and camera glitches break the game flow
- Facial animations are of alternating quality
- Music, sound effects and voice overs are out of balance
- The movement mechanism is sometimes annoying and rather buggy
- Feels a bit isolating at times
- The built-in hint system gets too much in the way (can be disabled though)

[Android] Strange House (2011)

How:
Looked for the "best" escape-the-room game for Android out of curiosity and just picked the most popular free game with a nice icon.
Pros:
- Nice graphics and mood
Cons:
- No music
- Figuring out puzzle solutions earlier doesn't work (e.g. typing the correct telephone number before letting the character reach the same conclusion)
- Some aggravating pixel hunting
- Gameplay is very clunky and the need to precise tapping soon gets annoying

[PC] Mystery Legends: Beauty and the Beast (2011)

How:
Read about it possibly on Adventuregamers.com forums, tried the demo and enjoyed it immediately (purchased from BigFishGames).
Pros:
- Excellent voice acting
- Superb graphics and animations, totally on another level with respect to any other HOG/light adventure I've ever played
- Nice puzzles and hidden object scenes
- Some light arcade sequences (e.g. playing darts)
- Backtracking is not painful at all
- Overall very enjoyable light adventuring with well integrated hidden object elements
Cons:
- Some hidden object scenes are used many times

[PC] Dark Parables: Rise of the Snow Queen (2011)

How:
Played the demo from BigFishGames after reading about it somewhere (possibly just browsing through the website after playing some Mystery Case Files episode).
Pros:
- Very nice in-game animations
- Voice acting
- Abundance of cut-scenes
- Generally better graphic quality with respect to previous episodes
- Story is somewhat interesting and connecting to previous episodes
Cons:
- Quality of cut-scenes is very inconsistent and generally mediocre
- Very similar to previous episodes of the series, with the usual arbitrary collection of medallions, shields and goblets to collect, statues to activate, and doors to open
- Graphics quality feels heterogeneous (e.g. some items are evidently re-painted photos, some characters are cartoony while others are more realistic)
- The children sound way too mature for their age (having a little child scream "Help, detective!" is quite unnatural)
- Very little variety in puzzles
- Voice-overs,  although abundant, are generally mediocre

[Browser] Duck Quest (2013)

How:
Read about it on Adventuregamers.com monthly indie feature.
Pros:
- A cute little game with C64 inspired graphics
- Nice music and sound effects
- Very good animations and cutscenes
Cons:
- The duck moves very slowly

[Browser] A small talk at the back of beyond (2013)

How:
Appeared in Adventuregamers.com monthly freeware feature.
Pros:
- Nice atmosphere
- Good parser
Cons:
- Too short
- Very few puzzles

[PC] The Visitor 2 (2012)

How:
Visited Screen7 website after finishing The Visitor, found out about this second episode and downloaded it.
Pros:
- Very good puzzles
- Very good pace and rather lengthy
- Fun and rewarding
- You get to play as a laboratory slime!
- Nice animations, a good improvement over the first episode
- Nice setting
Cons:
- An annoying reaction puzzle at the beginning of the game (avoiding to get ran over by a car)

[PC] 11-11-11 (2011)

How:
Probably heard about it on Adventuregamers.com monthly freeware feature and downloaded it right away.
Pros:
- Very cool graphics and cutscenes, in general very good production values
- Nice story
Cons:
- Way too dark
- Just a few puzzles
- Very few interactive items
- Some interface glitches

[PC] Spaceman in Space (2012)

How:
Got to know about it by following Francisco Gonzales on Twitter, downloaded it when he announced the release.
Pros:
- Amusing little comedy with moderately challenging puzzles
- Very nice graphics and animations
- Humorous sound effects (all made by voice, for example when the spaceman walks he says "left-right-left-right...")

[PC] The Visitor (2011)

How:
Probably read about it on some best-of AGS list and downloaded right away.
Pros:
- Very good puzzles
- A simple and fun story
- Great attention to detail (everything has a description)
- Some well done red herrings
- Nice and coherent graphics overall
Cons:
- Very few, unbalanced sound effects
- Very sparse animations
- Clunky character design

[PC] Dark Parables: The Exiled Prince (2011)

How:
Tried the demo and liked it, bought it right away on BigFishGames.com, together with other two episodes.
Pros:
- Neat graphics
- Good pace and well integrated cutscenes
Cons:
- Heavy on the HOG side
- Overabundance of inventory items and collectables (jars, tiaras, potions, etc)
- A lot of backtracking
- Boring and repetitive music

[PC] Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh (1996)

How:
Had as a Christmas gift by my brother from my GoG wishlist.
Pros:
- Cool music fitting the b-movie atmosphere
- The final part (the alien planet) is nice and more adventure-like
- Some cool cut-scenes, especially at the end (meeting the alien, etc.)
- Decent special effects
Cons:
- Dull story even for a b-movie
- Very unlikable characters, the main character in particular
- Boring and very repetitive gameplay, consisting on clicking on everything everywhere
- Very few puzzles
- Only 5 places to visit on the map

[PC] Dark Parables: Curse of Briar Rose (2010)

How:
Tried the demo of the second episode on BigFishGames website, liked it and bought the whole series.
Pros:
- Beautiful graphics, fitting music
- Some amount of non-linearity
Cons:
- Adventuring elements are limited to very repetitive inventory puzzles, the rest is pure HOG
- Shallow storytelling
- Lots of backtracking
- The diary gives away some puzzles
- The puzzles per se are trivial, one specific puzzle appears at least three times (place colored balls on colored tile)
- Only a few events, no character interaction (starts with the princess appearing, to never see her again) 

[DS] Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates (2007)

How:
Found at a reasonable price while browsing games at Gamestop. Never heard the game before, but decided to go for it since it has Final Fantasy in the title.
Pros:
- Nice setting with good scene variety
- Likable characters
- A simple, yet well paced story
- Excellent graphics and fitting music
- Playing characters can wear/carry many different clothes/weapons with the graphics changing
Cons:
- The accessory/weapon/armor creation system is somewhat overwhelming
- Starts too easy, very linear
- Not enough motivation to switch characters and use special moves or buy special stats-enhancing items
- Diagonal movement is very uncomfortable with the console d-pad
- Easy to get lost, the ingame map has marginal utility and the game perspective does not allow to see the current level clearly
- The game can be saved only in special areas (at crystals), which are not even frequent. This sacrifices mobile gaming and quick games a lot.
- Items easily fall on the characters head and are annoying to retrieve
- Having obligatory multiple characters makes gameplay confusing and cluttered

[PC] King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella (SCI version) (1988)

How:
Bought the 4+5+6 bundle on GoG during sales after finishing King's Quest II.
Pros:
- Very nice graphics and fluid animations
- Nice, short music punctuates the main events
- Very logical puzzles, some of which are rather challenging
- Some lightweight creepy moments and night scenes
- The game changes to zoomed-in visuals in interiors
- Very likable main character
- You get to play as a frog!
Cons:
- It's sometimes hard to see where is the main character due to screen clutter (e.g. when appearing behind a tree), and it's easy to get stuck
- No sound effects
- Some extremely annoying arcade sequences (e.g. the usual narrow paths and climbing the whale's tongue)
- Some dead ends
- Unpredictable random events make puzzles more difficult than they should be (e.g. cupid taking a bath in the pool, the cave monster appearing at times)
- The parser is sometimes very strict (e.g. play sheet music), sometimes very forgiving
- Unnecessary items have just the standard description

[FC] 月風魔伝 (1987)

How:
Found it mentioned a couple of times on hg101 forums, then read the review on the same site and immediately went out to play (and beat it in two days).
Pros:
- Fast-paced and addicting gameplay
- Cool setting
- Some levels can be rather challenging
- Nice variety of weapons and items
- Colorful and evocative levels and monsters
- The varied gameplay (side-scrolling action, dungeon crawling, boss fights, map exploration) strikes a good balance
Cons:
- Requires a good amount of backtracking
- Easy to exploit in order to max out the character stats
- Boss fights are too easy
- A bit short

[PC] Diablo (1996)

How:
From the old days of double-blind game swapping with friends. Couldn't understand the gameplay at first, but a second re-evaluation got me nailed down to the chair for days.
Pros:
- Immersive world
- Cool isometric graphics
- Excellent music
- Very good replayability value due to the random generation of dungeons and side-quests. Playing with three different characters also provides rather different experiences
- Immediate and fun gameplay
Cons:
- It's too easy to max out characters and beat the game
- Gets repetitive after a while
- Role-playing elements are rather limited