WHAT WAS THE FIRST game you ever recall that verbally spoke the game title in the intro?

[Emperor Megas]

It's all about making enough bombs to kill Sinistar, and even then, it's tough as nails.

That's the thing. I just feel like it's not very good game design. The game basically makes it all or nothing, and it's usually nothing unless you're fucking AMAZING at the game. If you don't manage to make enough bombs in the first few minutes of play there's just no way win the fight with Sinistar. You can't even run to harvest more crystals when he's after you. At least in my experiences.

I suck at Popeye, too. I even have a cabinet, but I can barely break 100,000. I'm just not great at it.

Yeah, the shit is just tough. I haven't played it since I was a teenager, and not much even then, but the gameplay seemed a little more complicated than it needed to be. It was straight up cryptic when I was a kid.