I finally beat this for the first time a few years ago. I never could get very far as a kid because I sucked at these kinds of games, but I still played it all the time.

I just wish I knew other people playing this stuff when I was a kid. I could have seen myself loving having friends swapping secrets we'd find and giving each other hints. Unfortunately, things had moved on to the snes/genesis and even ps1 era when I was able to talk games on the playground and such.