welcome to the first installment of fred's adventures in 8-bit gaming. i've been discovering (and in some cases re-discovering) some really fantastic NES games (and emulators greatly aid in my obsessiveness by letting me come back to the middle of a game that otherwise wouldn't have any save state). 8-bit games are so classic b/c w/ the limited platform video game creators were forced to rely on their creativity to keep the game interesting. the result? games that on the surface are simplistic in terms of graphics and options but are incredibly addictive and oftentimes incredibly hard. adventures of lolo is a puzzle game that in many ways reminds me of MIT's teaching philosophy. in each room there are only a very tiny number of options: blocks can be pushed but not pulled, and some enemies can be stunned and then pushed and used as rafts or to block other enemies. however, the game stays entertaining throughout its many levels b/c each puzzle requires you to move just beyond your knowledge of what you've seen and done before, and to re-evaluate your assumptions to think a bit outside of your comfort zone and figure out how to accomplish the new goal. highly recommended. it'll be interesting to see how the sequels are.