Video length: 20:09

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Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough with Ryu and Zangief, featuring Shin Akuma as a bonus boss. This game has a reputation for being Capcom's worst fighter, what with the small roster of fighters (nearly all of which have had their sprites taken from other games), terribly animated backgrounds, poor music and unbalanced gameplay. It was also a game I never got to play online simply because nobody seemed to play it on Xbox Live.

Video length: 23:05

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Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough of the 3 on 3 mode, with Ken, Terry and Haohmaru using the a groove. Ultimate Rugal is the final boss in this run. The "E.O." stands for easy operation, which lets you use the right thumbstick to do special and super moves easily. I don't use this.

The true final bosses (Shin Akuma or Ultimate Rugal) are the only hard part of the game, since their moves do huge damage if you get hit by them.

Video length: See below

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Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

Playthroughs of all three cities in the game, getting S ranks using arcade rules. The European version of this game features a stupid bug where customer speech becomes garbled noise most of the time, how this managed to slip through is beyond me.

The first and third cities are from the first and second games in the series, whilst Glitter Oasis was a brand new city created for Crazy Taxi 3.

West Coast playthrough (12:50)

Glitter Oasis playthrough (12:18)

Small Apple playthrough (13:17)

Video length: 10:37

Game region:

Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

Rather than being a port of the arcade version, the Xbox version of the first game in the Dead or Alive series is a port of the SEGA Saturn version. I wish they'd put more effort in as the Xbox would have been able to handle the arcade version easily, plus the arcade version had superior graphics to the Saturn port. Oh well.

The CPU gets more difficult very early on, but I didn't find it that difficult to clear this on one credit. As long as you don't keep using the same move several times in a row and try and keep using moves that'll knock the opponent down, you'll be alright.

For those who don't know, this game was included in a collection called Dead or Alive Ultimate, which also included the game below.

Video length: 13:34

Game region:

Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

Playthrough with Ein. This game is included in Dead or Alive Ultimate, which also includes the first game. However, this game had a lot more effort put into it, as the graphics are superior to any previous version of Dead or Alive 2, and it has some extras, such as a new intro and the ability to unlock Hitomi.

The game is easier than the first one, but towards the end the CPU opponents start spamming counters in a really annoying fashion. The boss is bad for this too, but overall he still isn't too hard so long as you back off every time you knock him down.

Can I just say that the kid versions of Kasumi and Ayane seen in the intro are some of the creepiest CGI I've ever seen. Thanks.

Video length: 9:02

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Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough with Hitomi, who made her debut in this game. This has got to be the easiest game in the series so far, with only Omega, the game's final boss, being difficult. There's a number of things to hate about the boss fight -from the fact that your health is constantly draining away slowly, to the strange camera angle used in the fight -but overall he's not too bad and as long as you remember to block every time you knock him down, the fight can be over pretty quickly.

Video length: See times on playlist

Game region:

Difficulty level: 5 out of 5

Playthrough of the campaign on normal difficulty. This is also the PAL version of the game. Surprisingly the PAL version of the first Halo game lacks a 60hz mode, so it's at 50hz instead. So if you're wondering why it looks so choppy, there you go.

The original Halo is quite difficult to do a no death run on, especially when the Flood come into play. It isn't helped by some levels dragging on for too long, like "Two Betrayals". There is also a glitch in this version where, in the final level, you'll pass through an elevator, forcing you to kill yourself if you want to continue.

Video length: See times on playlist

Game region:

Difficulty level: 5 out of 5

Playthrough of the campaign on normal difficulty. I would say that this game is slightly easier than the first one, but is still a difficult game to get through without dying once.

Video length: 23:51

Game region:

Difficulty level: 5 out of 5

Playthrough with Ryu, using the version included on Street Fighter Anniversary Collection. Hyper Street Fighter II lets you pick any version of any character who was playable in Street Fighter II, I've gone with Super Turbo Ryu. I fight M. Bison for the last boss, if you want to see me fight Akuma, see my playthrough of the PS2 version.

From a single player point of view, this is one of the worst Street Fighter games ever released. The entire point of the game was to let players choose different versions of characters, but the CPU always picks the Super Turbo versions, making this feature pointless. But worse than that is the CPU is completely obnoxious, blatantly cheating to win. It'll read your inputs to avoid your moves perfectly and counter them all the time. CPU opponents also do far too much damage with their attacks, making the arcade mode incredibly frustrating to play.

Video length: 24:16

Game region:

Difficulty level: 1 out of 5

Playthrough with Terry, Robert and Rugal. This was the only King of Fighters game to be released in Europe for the original Xbox. Publisher Ignition Entertainment and a lot of online retailers listed Euro Xbox versions of KoFs 2003, Neowave, and Maximum Impact, but they kept getting delayed. And then they went and got cancelled.

Anyway, Xbox KoF 2002. The main problem with this version -and I take it this only effects the European version -is that it runs slow. There is no 60 hz mode, and the game always runs in 50 hz. I have no idea how this effected the online mode. I did manage to play a few games online several years a go, but I can't remember if online matches ran slow or if the netcode was any good.

The only difficult part about this game is the boss, but if you've got Rugal on your team, you can easily beat him.

Video length: 28:08

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Difficulty level: 1 out of 5

Playthrough with Guile, Sakura and Thanos. Compared to the first game this is a lot easier to get through. And even though the boss has three forms, he's nowhere near as difficult to beat as Onslaught.

Video length: 18:17

Game region:

Difficulty level: 5 out of 5

Playthrough of the version included on Midway Arcade Treasures 2. This version has an issue where it runs too fast compared to the original arcade version, and given how brutal the CPU is in this game, it makes it tougher to beat. The jump back, jump forward and air throw strategy does work, but the timing of it is stricter. Shao Kahn is still laughably easy to beat, at least.

Video length: 15:57

Game region:

Difficulty level: 5 out of 5

Playthrough with Smoke. This version of the game is included on Midway Arcade Treasures 2. Like with the previous game, this runs too fast when compared to the arcade version, and has some extra problems like music glitches (such as during fatalities). Also you cannot permanently unlock Smoke, even though it has an option to save settings -if you want to use him you'll have to enter the ultimate kombat kode every time, hence why I picked Sub-Zero and lost the first fight on purpose.

The standard opponents are too difficult to beat in this game, but the bosses are famous for being awful. Motaro is just absurd, a prime example of how to not make a boss fight. I have no idea how you're supposed to beat him with any of the regular characters, the best I could do with Smoke was to do the teleport uppercut, if Motaro gets hit, do it again, if he blocks it, do a two hit kick combo, then try the teleport uppercut again.

Shao Kahn is also another appalling mess of a boss. If you can land just one spear on him, you should be good to go, but even getting that can be a pain. The plan is when the spear hits, wait for about 2 seconds, then do an uppercut, then do the spear again. It should hit Shao Kahn as he gets up, so just repeat this over and over until he's dead.

Video length: See below

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Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

Two playthroughs for this game: one using the version included in OutRun 2, the other using the version included on Shenmue II. I've always found this game really hard to beat, as you can maybe have just one major crash, any more than that and it's unlikely you'll have enough time to beat the game.

The Shenmue II version of OutRun made some alterations to the game, most notably, the sprites for the car were changed to make it look less like a Ferrari. Annoyingly, the arcade games in the European version of Shenmue II only run at 50hz.

OutRun 2 version (7:01)

Shenmue II version (8:15)

Video length: 8:13

Game region:

Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

OutRun 2 is quite a bit easier than the first one, and it also features drifting, which you've got to master to get around the longer corners. And that's just about all I've got to say about it!

Video length: See below

Game region:

Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

This is a playthrough of the two different circuits in the game: the Special Tours course, and then the course featured in the original version of OutRun 2.

The main difference with this game is that you can now gain speed by slipstreaming behind other cars, and you'll get more points by doing this as you go past them. I would say that the Special Tours courses are easier than the OutRun 2 courses.

Special Tours playthrough (7:48)

OutRun 2 playthrough (7:55)

Video length: 49:52

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Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

Playthrough of the game on normal, using the version you can unlock on Panzer Dragoon Orta. This was also played on my Xbox One.

I found this game to be quite challenging at first, even on normal difficulty. But what you need to make use of is both the fire buttons -A and B fire standard shots, but if you alternate button presses (eg A, B, A, B etc) you fire much faster than you would if you just mash one button only. This makes the game much easier, and in some cases you need to do it -the green slime the sand worms vomit at you in the second level can only be shot down if you use this method. If you do this and make good use of the lock on laser, it's not that hard to clear the game without using a continue, at least on normal. It's also important to try to take as little damage as possible throughout each level, as you don't get a full health bar refill between them.

Video length: 58:54

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Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough with Knuckles, using the version of the game included on Sonic Mega Collection Plus. I got the bad ending since I didn't get all of the emeralds.

Video length: 47:26

Game region:

Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

Playthrough of the version of the game included on Sonic Mega Collection Plus. Everything was going fine until Scrap Brain's third act. The second death was on purpose, I didn't want to fall down there, especially as I had pressed the jump button before I fell... but Sonic didn't jump. I don't know how bad the input lag is but sometimes it feels like the controls aren't as responsive as they were on the original Mega Drive/Genesis versions of these games.

Video length: 59:00

Game region:

Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough of the version of the game included on Sonic Mega Collection Plus. This game is not too difficult until near the end of the game, Metropolis Zone is lengthy, and you can't make any mistakes in Death Egg Zone since you have no rings.

Video length: 1:05:24

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Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

Playthrough of the version of the game included on Sonic Mega Collection Plus. I didn't bother getting all the emeralds, so I got the bad ending.

Video length: 1:56:56

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Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough with Knuckles, using the version of the game included on Sonic Mega Collection Plus. For some reason my Xbox didn't auto switch to 60hz like it usually does, so it's at 50hz.

I got all of the chaos emeralds in this playthrough, but not the super emeralds. You still get a good ending for doing this though.

Video length: 16:35

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Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough with Xianghua. I'd say the CPU is more difficult in this game than the first one, but not by that much. The final boss is somewhat tricky because it's a single round fight.

Video length: 21:03

Game region:

Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

Playthrough with Ryu. This version of the game is included on Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 1.

Picking Ryu (or Ken) basically easy mode in this game, since they've got several easy to do 3 hit combos, which usually results in a dizzy. It's easier to dizzy your opponent in this game too, and usually the CPU refuses to block the hurricane kick, letting themselves get hit by each strike, even though it's possibly to block.

The only hard parts are with the bosses, who are much cheaper in this game than in the later ones. M. Bison in particular has some nasty tricks with his scissors kick, but if you want to take it slowly, just throw out fireballs and then dragon punch him when he jumps over them.

Video length: 27:34

Game region:

Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

This version of the game is included on Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 1. Fed up repeatedly beating these games with Ryu or Ken, I set myself a challenge: beat it with Zangief. It wasn't too bad but you've really got to use his throws a lot, and I couldn't get his spinning piledriver to come out consistently at all. It probably wasn't the best idea to do this on the Xbox version since the controller isn't very good for 2D fighters.

Video length: 21:41

Game region:

Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

This version of the game is included on Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 1. Playthrough with Ken. I don't like this update too much as I just don't like how fast it plays. Whilst the extra moves are nice, they were lazily implemented, with no truly new animations, but then this game was quickly put together (look it up). The CPU really know how to spam their new moves (like Honda and Blanka) plus their insane reaction times in the new speed get too much sometimes.

Video length: 24:39

Game region:

Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough with Ken. This version of the game is included on the Street Fighter Anniversary Collection, which also includes Hyper Street Fighter II. This run shows the secret challenge battle against Q.

Gill, the final boss of the game, is the only difficult thing about it since he's strong and also has a super art which can bring him back to life. He's easier to beat with Ken as if you can time your dragon punches right, you can keep spamming them every time Gill gets up from being knocked over.

Video length: 20:50

Game region:

Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

Playthrough with Shin Akuma. The sub and final bosses for this game are way too hard, I don't know why SNK had to make them so powerful. Shin Akuma and Mr. Karate have both got unlimited supers for one thing. Playing as Shin Akuma is good, since it means you get to use supers whenever you want, but the player-controlled versions of the bosses are much weaker than the CPU versions in terms of how much damage they can do.

I really wanted to use a non-boss character to beat the game with, but not this time. Maybe I'll try and do it for the PS2 version one day.