SNEScapades: Recent Episodes
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SNEScapades is a show in which two friends embark on a chronological journey to play, review, and rank every Super NES game that was released in North America.
Hey everyone! We're revisiting two games today. One we really liked the first time we reviewed, and another that we didn't like much at all from the outset, then maybe, kinda softened on it a bit? It's complicated.
Actraiser is one of the few games Chase finished for the first time while playing it for the show. Do he and Emmy still like it as much as they once did? And where will they ultimately land on Super Ghouls N Ghosts? Listen and find out.
We decided that there were four games worth talking about from November of 1991, so we've broken them down into two pairs. Today we're talking about Darius Twin and Final Fantasy II.
Darius Twin is a pretty solid shooter that lets you play co-op. We really liked it the first time around. Are we going to be as generous to it this time?
Okay, but seriously, we're mostly here to talk about Final Fantasy II, right? Known as Final Fantasy IV today, this is the Final Fantasy game with Cid in it. Oh, and Cecil, and Kain, and Rydia, and all those other folks. We like this one a whole lot and will break down a lot of elements we think are great (and a few that are less great) on today's episode of SNEScapades.
Have you ever imagined what it would be like to have Stopless Power? Well imagine no more, cuz we're diving into the pages of yet another issue of Nintendo Power to tell you what all that power felt like back in the early 90s. We've got a lot to discuss here, like Final Fantasy II (and the somewhat dubious art NP made for it), Tom and Jerry (and they're amazing 90s garb), Nester's more sociopathic tenancies, The Flintstones, Freddy Krueger, Faceball, and more. So come join us, won't you?Of course you haven't. "Stopless" isn't a word. I know it isn't because my note app is putting red squiggles under it.
It's time for another edition of Playing with Power. We've covered a lot of really exciting magazines with interesting features. This isn't exactly one of the more exciting magazines we've covered. The most interesting part of this magazine is a cool feature on Metroid (which was a pretty old game by that point) and a celebrity profile for a cast member from Murphy Brown who doesn't actually seem all that interested in video games (not more than the average adult at that time). They can't all be winners, but we're going to try to make the most of it anyway.
It’s perhaps never been more dire than it is today folks. January 1994 was a pretty light month to kick off what will end up being the most packed year of the SNES’s lifespan. And while we had two absolute bangers to talk about this month, we’ve reached the end and it’s time to talk about everything else that released, and sadly, it’s a lot of sports titles, cops, military, and a game that even Nintendo Power suggested was a poor investment considering how cheap it would be to buy a deck of playing cards.
We don’t have a lot of nice things to say about this group of games, so this one’s a little on the short side.
We’re discussing Riddick Bowe Boxing, Brett Hull Hockey, Super Battletank 2, Super Solitaire, Lethal Enforcers (barf), and Choplifter III. Um… yeah. That’s it. Sorry.
The hits keep on coming as we venture further into January 1994. But first, we gotta talk a little bit about British Candy.
On this week’s episode of SNEScapdes, we’re talking about quirky British platformer Zool: Ninja of the Nth Dimension. It’s about a ninja, it had Chupa Chup branding in the UK, that’s pretty much all you need to know.
We’re also talking about Lester the Unlikely. This is a game with a bit of a reputation. Will Chase and Emmy find this one to be as bad as that reputation would suggest or is there anything redeeming about it?
And finally, we’re talking about Skyblazer. This is a game that was not on Chase’s or Emmy’s radars before, but they both really loved it. Did you know about this one from back in the day?
All of this and a deep(ish) dive on Gremlin Graphics on today’s SNEScapades.
Hey everyone! This is a big episode for a lot of reasons. First of all, we’re finally in 1994 (the biggest year for the SNES in terms of quantity of games released). Second, we’re talking about one of our favorite games ever made. Third, this is our first “SNEScapades Special” of season two. Finally, and most importantly, we’re talking with our good friend Trevor from Catching up on Cinema. Oh, it’s also almost two hours long.
For this new version of SNEScapades Special, we’re letting our guest craft an episode by selecting any 3 Super NES games to talk about. So before we get to Megaman X, Trevor gives us a bit of a lesson on one of the Super Scope games (which we haven’t really been able to engage with) and helps us find a place on our list for Metal Combat: Falcon’s Revenge.
We also talk about Knights of the Round, an interesting and fun little brawler that was ported to the SNES from arcades in which you play as King Arthur and various other famous Knights of the Round. Lots of swords, big guys in armor, and moonwalking horses await.
Finally, it’s time to discuss Megaman X. We talk about it a lot! I don’t feel the need to write much here, other than to say, we like this one and we really enjoyed talking with Trevor about all the things we loved about this game.
We hope you enjoy this special, and remember if you’re a content creator and want to join us for a SNEScapades Special of your own, reach out!
It’s part 2 of Playing with Power for January 1994. We’re getting the this one started with a bang as we discuss… AN INDEX! Thrilling stuff.
But don’t worry, we’ve also 1993 Game of the Year (according to Nintendo Power), some Magic Eye pictures, Batman, more Ninja Turtles, an article all about music on the SNES, and plenty of Dog Action!
We also get into the reviews and previews at the end of the magazine. This particular issue was unique with how much Nintendo peeled back the curtain for its audience, but it’s also unique in that it’s editorial team seems uncharacteristically harsh toward some of the products that they were meant to be advertising. Not that quite a few of them didn’t deserve it.
Hey everyone! It’s a new Playing With Power episode. This one is very special, not just because we’re finally in 1994, not just because Megaman X is on the cover, but because this is a big ol’ bonus issue. Which means Chase and Emmy have a LOT to talk about.
Megaman X is a huge game for the duo and is going to give them plenty to talk about by itself. But the duo also find time to discuss some other game features that they haven’t gotten to play yet, let Flashback and Claymates. Both of these games are built on the legacies of other games made by their respective studios. Only time will tell if either of them lived up to their spiritual predecessors.
We got Soldiers of Fortune, Bugs Bunny, Ninja Turtles, Classified Information, solitaire, a really cute Mario & Wario comic, and some forbidden knowledge in the form of games that never made it over to America.
We have come to the end of September 1991 once again. Chase and Emmy played these games so long ago, how have they held up? For the most part, not great.
In this episode, we talk about Hal’s Hole-in-One, Super Bases Loaded (featuring Ryne Sandburg… kinda), The Chessmaster, HyperZone, Populous, Final Fight, and a special guest appearance by Ultraman: Towards the Future.
A lot of these games are somewhat unique on the system and some of them take some pretty big swings, but most of them fall flat. How will that effect their placement in the SNES rankings?
Hey everyone. Welcome to another episode of SNEScapades. We’re talking shooters today. Oh, and I guess Drakkhen’s here too.
The early days of the SNES had plenty of shm’ups to play. Chase and Emmy were a little less kind to Gradius III than they were the first time they encountered it due to all of its slowdown. Today they’re talking about Super R-Type, which is a similar kind of shooter with classic arcade roots. Will it drop in the ranks like its contemporary or will it stay its original charted course? Hell, will they actually like it more? Who’s to say? Well, they are, but you have to listen to the episode to find out.
Drakkhen is a strange game in the SNES library. It was rewarded for its uniqueness the first time around but Chase and Emmy’s opinion on the game sullied a bit over time. Find out where this strange RPG ultimately ends up.
And finally, we’ve got a re-review of UN Squadron, a Capcom shooter that Emmy and Chase have thought highly of in the past. Listen to find out if they still hold it in such high regard on this episode of SNEScapades!
Hey everyone. Welcome back! It's time for the second part of Playing with Power for September 1991's issue of Nintendo Power. We talked about a lot of Mario World last week. This week we're talking about a whole lot of stuff. We've got Game Boy stuff (like Final Fantasy Adventure), NES stuff (like Kick Master), and more SNES stuff (like Castlevania.) There is so much stuff. Emmy talks about her encounter with American Gladiators, Chase ponders if anyone from The Simpsons actually signed off on Bart Simpson's "interview", and there's even some POGs in there. Er... sorry, they're "milk caps". POGs is a registered trademark. You won't wanna miss all this, come listen and feel free to follow along! You can read the magazine here (we start on the Smash TV feature).
Here we go again! It's time to discuss another issue of Nintendo Power. If you want to follow along, you can do that by checking out the Internet Archive's copy of the issue here!
And we have a LOT to talk about in this issue. This is the issue that properly introduced its readers to Super Mario World. That alone makes this a very special issue for Chase, but it's even more special because for him because his had a fun marketing gimmick on the cover. To get readers to renew their subscriptions, NP would occasionally wrap the magazine in an additional cover.
But Emmy and Chase aren't only going to be talking about Super Mario World (though that is a pretty big chunk of what they'll be talking about) but there's also Star Wars, Power Animals, REM, another one of these freaking Nester Comics, a check in with Newsie, and more. There's so much stuff to talk about, that we're just going to break this up into two episodes. So please be sure to check back next week for the conclusion of this episode.
We've reached the end of another month. And that means it's time to wrap things up with another edition of The Wrap. But before we get to that, we just want to let you all know that we'd love to have folks come on our show to discuss thier favorite SNES games. If you're a fellow content creator, feel free to reach out on Instagram, Youtube, or even Bluesky. Links to all of those are on our website Snescapades.show. You get to pick three SNES games to form the episode around and chat with us around them. If you're nice, we might even let you help us rank them!
Alright, with all of that out of the way. It's time to talk about what we're doing on December 1993's edition of The Wrap. We've got sports games, Koei strategy games, and a Super Scope game. But there's also games that we're going to talk about.
In sports, we've got ABC Monday Night Football, Dig & Spike Volleyball, and World Soccer '94. There's also F1 Pole Position and Side Pocket in games that are kinda sports. Somehow three freaking Koei games came out in the same month, Nobunaga's Ambition, Romance of the Three Kingdom's III, and Genghis Khan. The Super Scope game is Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge, which we don't have a way to play right now, but have it on pretty good authority that it's the best of the Super Scope games.
And, of course, there's the licensed stuff. We've got Beethoven: The Ultimate Canine Caper, Barbie Super Model, Dennis the Menace, and Mario's Time Machine. We're going to talk about them all and rank them. Will there be any surprises? I'm not gonna say. You'll have to listen to find out.
It's a little bit of a mixed bag today as we reach the final proper episode for the games released on the SNES in 1993.
We start with the top-down, Gauntlet-like shooter Soldiers of Fortune (aka Chaos Engine). Not much to say about that one here. There's mutants in it. That's neat.
Is that a Gundam? Yes! But they aren't allowed to call them that, so let's just call them Metal Marines. That's the second game on tap for today.
Finally, we have a JRPG to cap things off. It's Lufia and the Fortress of Doom. Lufia doesn't carry the same weight as a Final Fantasy or Breath of Fire, but does it deserve to be just as loved as those franchises? We'll let you know.
Put on your gi, sharpen those sai, and do whatever the heck you were supposed to do in Battle Blaze because it's time to get into the ring! We've got three fighting games to talk about today. And this just might be the batch of games that redeem this less-than-stellar month in SNES games.
We're talking about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters. It's a fighting game starring the ninja turtles which seems like a combination as obvious as pepperoni and cheese. We'll tell you why we liked it and how it stacks up to the other fighting games on the list.
We're also talking about Art of Fighting, the second SNK fighter on the system. This one is a huge improvement over the first fighting game SNK ported from the arcades. Is it as good as TMNT? Better? Which tier will it end up in?
Turtles and SNK fighters? We're on a roll. Sadly, Battle Blaze also came out this month. Look, they can't all be winners.
All of this and an SNK deep dive on today's episode of SNEScapades!
Hey folks. We're gonna tell you about a trio of 2D platform games on today's show. We're not going to lie to you. Things start out a little bit dire on today's episode. The first two games feature franchises that didn't last very long.Dr. Franken is a game that answers the question "What if a bunch of boring people tried to make Frankenstein's monster a cool dude?" You get a pretty bland video game. Jim Power: Lost Dimension in 3D seems to ask the question "Can we make gamers motion sick with a 2D game?" Both of these games are technically playable, but will that be enough to save either of them from the "F" tier?Our last game for today is Inspector Gadget, which is based on the popular 80s/90s cartoon. The titular Inspector is mostly known for being a witless buffoon on that show, but could he be the hero we need to come back from this dire episode? Or is "best game of the episode" a very relative term this week?
Buckle up, because we've got a need to go really fast in various vehicles. Spiky car? Sounds like fun. Space ship that shoots lasers? Sign me up. Cool cop car? Eh... maybe not that one.
We're starting the show talking about Battle Cars which is another Mode 7 racing game where you drive around and try to use weapons to knock the other cars off the road. It's also very Mad Max inspired. Find out if we think this game is off to the races, or if it's just a pile of scrap.
Then we're chatting about Super Chase HQ, a game in which you get in your car and take off after criminals. Yup, you're playing a cop so you know Chase is going to have a few things to say about that. And no, he's not happy that this game has his name in the title.
Finally, we're talking about Super Nova, which is another entry in the Darius series which strangely left the "Darius" part out of the title. Will this game rise to the heights of Darius Twin before it? Listen and find out.
All of this, and a Taito deep dive on today's episode of SNEScapades.
It's time for another Playing with Power episode where we crack open the very last Nintendo Power issue for the year 1993. Aladdin is on the cover, so that's pretty cool.
In this episode, we tackle all the hard-hitting questions: What is the political leader of Ireland called? Why don't my special moves work in Street Fighter II? Did the idea for the Wii Remote start with an obscure Nintendo system for planes and hotels? What does Bad Mr. Frosty want? Which SNES games were the most awkward? Will the Star Fox comic ever move past the fact that Fox's new girlfriend looks like his mom? Does Chase understand the difference between Jay Leno and David Letterman?
Answers to all of these questions and more on this (kinda long) episode of SNEScapades Playing with Power. We hope you enjoy.
We're finishing up August 1991 again, and we're really excited because we get to talk about SimCity again, and we're pretty big fans of SimCity.
But first we need to discuss Gradius III and Pilotwings, and we end up making our first shifts in the list. But what where will they end up? Do you think their re-evaluations are fair?
Then we get to talk about the SNES's quirky take on the classic game, SimCity. Not only is SimCity a pretty important game, but it's got some interesting history behind it. We'll be discussing that and some other early "god-sims" in today's deep dive.
All of this, a fun easter egg Emmy found in early SNES instruction manuals, and more in today's SNEScapades!Check out show notes on our website at SNEScapades.show
Here we are, back where we started. We're talking about two of the most prominent launch titles for the Super NES. Also, our website is back up at snescapades.show. Check it out for show notes, references, and more!
First up is F-Zero, which was an amazing showcase of what the SNES's Mode 7 graphics were capable of. We placed it in the A tier when we first talked about it a few year back. Will we be a charitable to this impressive game, or will its lack of features cause it to slip a little in the rankings?
And finally, we gush a little bit more about Super Mario World. Look, you don't need me to leave you in suspense, we love this game and it's position at the top of the list is really not in any danger (that is, if we were still doing individual numerical rankings).
Also, we do a deep dive into the founding family of Nintendo, the Yamauchis. Happy listening!
Hey everyone. We're going back to the start of this whole crazy thing and talking about the issue of Nintendo Power that came out the same month the SNES hit the market. And it may surprise you to learn that there actually wasn't a lot about the SNES in that issue, but a whole lot about the Game Boy.We're talking about great Ninja Gaiden art, a better Nester's Adventures format, unwieldy (and likely unwanted) contest prizes, Mega Man on Game Boy, and lots more.Oh, and there is SOME talk about the Super NES (and how unlikely it was that the average kid was going to be able to get their hands on one at launch.) Also, listen and find out how many times we can say "Bio Force Ape" in a single segment.
Welcome, one and all, to the very first edition of The Wrap. This is an episode of SNEScapades where we look at all of the leftover games from a particular month that we didn’t feel was worth one-third of an entire featured episode.
Why did we decide to start doing this? Well the first two games on the docket have a lot to do with that. Actraiser 2 is the game that nearly broke Chase and Biometal was so dull that Emmy questioned whether she could continue talking more than a few minutes about every single game on the system. So congratulations Actraiser 2 and Biometal for being so awful and bland respectively that we changed the entire format of our show.
We also discuss (briefly) Championship Pool, International Tennis Tour, Lamborghini American Challenge, NHL Stanley Cup, Steel Talons, Super Battleship, Super Putty, Super Tecmo Bowl, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Time Slip, Tony Meola’s Sidekick Soccer, and We’re Back: A Dinosaur’s Story.
Whew, that’s a lot of games, and we still managed to keep this episode a pretty typical length. We hope you enjoy this rapid-fire format for getting through the less-interesting stuff.
Happy new year, everyone. Sorry our release schedule was so spotty last year. We're hoping to make up for it by starting to go weekly again. Expect these episodes to be recorded FAR in advance, so apologies if we make references that are far out of date. Case in point, this was recorded in October of last year. We know we're making these for at least a month out now so they should get less dated moving forward.
So, we're talking about Out to Lunch, Ranma 1/2: Hard Battle, and Clay Fighter in today's episode. Out to Lunch just barely escapes being relegated to the wrap-up for being an odd curio that neither Chase nor Emmy had really ever heard of before digging into the library for this show. But does that mean it's any good? We'll tell ya.
Ranma 1/2: Hard Battle is based on the manga and anime Ranma 1/2. It's kind of amazing that a manga-based game made it to America so early (the first game in the series was turned into the disappointing "Street Combat"). If you want to hear Chase talk about this game more in-depth (back when he was still SteampunkLink), you can check out this episode of Play Comics.
Finally, we're talking about Clay Fighter, a game that looks really cool and obviously had a lot of work go into it. But does this one reach the hights of say "World Heroes" or does it sink to the depths of "Power Moves". Look, we already know it's no Street Fighter II, right?
All of this and a deep dive into Interplay. Thanks for sticking with us and we hope to bring you more SNEScapades than ever this year!
References
Barton, Matt. "The Burger Speaks: An Interview with an Archmage", GameDeveloper.com, 16 Dec 2020
Williams, Mike. "Interplay Selling Off Its IP, Putting Earthworm Jim and Descent in Play"(via Internet Archive), USGamer.net, 8 Sept 2016
It's Thanksgiving weekend and you know what that means? It's time for our yearly (usually yearly) movie review podcast. We decided to watch Five Nights at Freddy's in the hope that we could spare any of you having to watch this boring, nothing-burger of a movie. So consider this your warning because we're spoiling everything about this movie.
Are you spending the weekend with some relatives that are, let's say, not politically aligned with you? Well, this movie might give you something we can all hate together.
Will our wooden protagonist manage to keep his little sister out of his evil aunt's clutches? Will the antagonist end up being the guy played by the most recognizable actor in the movie? Who was that girl at the food court? Wait, how do these animatronics work? How does this compare to Willy's Wonderworld? We'll (try to) answer all these questions and more.
Hey everyone, we thought we'd do something a little bit different for Halloween. We wanted to talk about horror games and our experiences with horror media in general. All of this builds up to a discussion of the Super Famicom game Clock Tower. It may not have made it stateside, but we decided we'd give this one the SNEScapades treatment anyway.
We hope you'll enjoy this little chat about our favorite horror games, Halloween's past, and this wonderful SNES game that we in North America had to miss out on back in the day. And maybe stick around for a little Zombie Jamboree on this episode of SNEScapades!
Oh, why hello there. We've got another episode for you today. We're talking about Robocop vs. Terminator, Total Carnage, and Disney's Aladdin. What do they all have in common? Not really anything. I'm not sure why I asked.
Robocop vs Terminator is the best SNES adaptation of either of those properties up to this point, but that's a low bar. Does that mean it's actually good, or simply not awful?
Total Carnage has nothing to do with Spider-Man villains, but is a pseudo-sequel to Smash TV. And what's this? Did this game cause an actual disagreement between our hosts? Find out who liked it, who didn't, and where it ultimately landed in our ranking.
We wrap things up with Capcom's take on Disney's take on Aladdin. Is it any good? Yes. How good? C'mon, you have to listen to find that out.
All this, a deep dive about Shinji Mikami, and more on this episode of SNEScapades.
We're back, everyone. Welcome to season 2 of SNEScapades! Why season 2? Well, we're going to be making a few changes to the way this all works going forward and we felt like this was a good time to do a soft reboot. We're not starting over, we're still talking about games in November 93 and moving forward, but not every game is going to get the kind of treatment they usually got in the past.
Don't worry, we explain it in the episode and it's really not a drastic change. We hope you like this new format.
As for today's episode, we are talking about three franchise games. We've got Pink Goes to Hollywood starring the Pink Panther, The Lawnmower Man, and Jurassic Park. Do any of these games live up to their respective franchises? Are any of them perhaps better than what you'd expect given their source material.
All that, and our first formalized Deep Dive segment featuring UK developer/publisher Ocean (how apropos) on this episode.
We had a tiny mix-up today, so we're only reviewing two games. We're discussing Actraiser 2 and Biometal. And you'll be sure to want to hear who won in the first four preliminary match ups of the 2023 SSMP Showdown.
Biometal is another horizontally scrolling shooter. But unlike other shooters on the SNES, this one is powered by Eurodance! Specifically, MIDI versions of songs by the 90's own 2 Unlimited.
And we'll just let ya know right now, that Actraiser 2 does not live up to the original. Actraiser is still sitting pretty high in the A tier. So how far does the sequal fall? B-tier? C-tier? Something worse than that? You'll have to listen to find out.
Thanks to everyone who voted, and check us out on social media to cast your vote for the next three rounds.
We decided we wanted to spice things up just a bit as we head down that road toward episode 100. Emmy and Chase are both picking 16 of their favorite Super NES tracks and pitting them all in a tournament to see which one is the best. And you're going to help us decide! We hope, please?
We'll announce who's moving on in different match-ups every episode starting with the next one. So be sure that you're following Chase on social media to let us know which tune you think is your favorite.
Check out Chase's Instagram account @snescapades to vote for your favorite. Also, you can reach out to him on Mastadon @snescapades@mstdn.social. Tumblr @chase-keys. Even Cohost, why not? @snescapades. Share this with your friends! We really hope we get a good turn-out. This'll be a pretty boring tournament without your help.
Another month is in the books and that means we're cracking open another issue of Nintendo Power. This time we're taking a look at the November 1993 issue.
This issue contains some interesting information about Secret of Mana (which we already played) and a lot of maps of the SNES Jurassic Park game (which we have not yet played.) There's also some info for SimAnt, Aero the Acrobat, the penultimate issue of the Star Fox comic, and a Nester comic that was gasp kinda good?
Most excitingly, we got what was a very early look at some renderings by some (at the time) very powerful CGI workstations which Nintendo hoped would be indicative of the visuals that its next console would deliver. But looking back on it all, was it a lot of wishful thinking, or was it accurate to the sorts of experiences the N64 would deliver?
All this, a check-in with Newsie, and a whole lot more on this edition of SNEScapades Playing with Power.
We made it just under the wire to celebrate Pride and wrap up the month of October 1993 with a nice, rainbow-colored bow. Today we're talking about The Wizard of Oz, True Golf Classics: Wicked 18, and Troddlers.
Wicked 18 takes the True Golf Classics series in a new direction with impossible courses. But is it par for the course, or do these courses get a bit too silly for their own good?
The Wizard of Oz on the SNES has a bit of a reputation and we're sad to say, it lives up to them.
And finally, Troddlers is a Lemmings-like that you may not have heard about. Can it live up to the lofty heights of its inspiration? All of this and more on today's episode of SNEScapades!
Hey everyone! We're still here, I promise. And we're talking about destructible toy lines, awful British fish things, and a really gross duo of cartoon animals. I guess you could say, this episode is about a bunch of dummies.
First we're talking about The Incredible Crash Dummies, and how a PSA pleading with stubborn Americans to buckle up in the 80s lead to a toy line that would become the bane of many a vacuum cleaner in the 90s.
Then we're talking about the Aquabats; an obscure spin-off to the somewhat already obscure James Pond franchise. We don't have quite as much to say about that one.
But we have plenty to say about the early Nickelodeon Nicktoon Ren & Stimpy. How well does the strange and off-putting world of Ren & Stimpy work in the video game Ren & Stimpy: Veediots? Better than you'd expect.
So buckle those seat belts, put on your running flippers, and sit down with your favorite tooth beaver. It's time for SNEScapades!
We've got cowboys, Jedi, and gambling. What more could you possibly want? Do you like really good arcade ports about colorful gun-slingers shooting capitalists? We got it! Do you like playing casino games but without the money or actual casino? We got that too! Do you like Star Wars? Oh boy, we got it!
We've got some history behind the company that made Super Caesars Palace, but not much to talk about concerning the game, cuz there isn't much to talk about. But is it at least as good as that other SNES casino game?
The Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back has a lot to live up to after the first game. The fact that it's not on the cover of this one should probably give you an idea of what we thought of it. But you can listen to our opinions anyway. May the Force be with you and all that jazz.
Finally, we've got Sunset Riders. This is a really enjoyable arcade port and we can't wait to tell you what we like about it. So please give this one a listen, won't you? Hee Haw!
Hey everyone! Chase and Emmy are back to discuss ants and rpgs. First up is the Maxis game SimAnt, another PC sim port. Emmy has a lot of love for this game, but Chase isn't a huge fan of bugs. Give this one a listen and find out if Emmy's nostalgia will win the day over Chase's entomophobia.
Then we have two games all about magic. The first is a traditional RPG called Paladin's Quest. It's certainly not one of the better known SNES RPGs. Is there a reason for that, or is Paladin's Quest a hidden gem? Finally, it's time to talk about Secret of Mana and it's well-documented troubled development.
Your hosts Chase Keys and Willie Martindale are back to discuss another three strange games in the short library of an equally strange system.
First, we're talking about Inca and wondering, is the gameplay any good? Who wrote that amazing theme song? Is this game problematic? These are just a few questions we'll ponder as we discuss this FMV puzzle game/shooter/space combat about an ancient people fighting Space Spaniards. Totally normal game that still somehow manages to be more educational than the History Channel.
Next, it's The Joker's Wild; a game based on an American game show that every elder-millennial and (maybe gen-xers) who stayed home sick watching TV all day in the early 90s. We'll talk a bit about the history of the TV show and the video game before deciding if this game still holds up.
And finally, a game that needs no introduction, the infamous Zelda: Wand of Gamelon. You almost certainly know about this game if you're listening to this? But how many of us have actually played it? Is it as bad as everyone says? Is it better or worse than it's sibling game Link: Faces of Evil? We'll tell you.
All this and Tetris music on this episode of CD-iSCAPADES. And be sure to listen to Willie's other show Grand Rapidians Play Video Games.
Today we've got three games that are fine. These are fine. They're fine. Well, two of them are fine. Well, Emmy thinks two of them are fine. Chase thought one of these games wasn't worth his time. But they both agree on one thing: one of these games is very bad. The others... they're fine.
Emmy was pleasantly surprised by Lock On and found it's gameplay similar to parts of Star Fox 64 while Chase didn't care for it very much. Who will have more sway when it comes to placing it on the list, though? Well, if I wrote that in the description, you'd have less reason to listen to the episode, wouldn't you?
Pac-Attack is a falling-block puzzle game that adds some Pac-Man... and it's fine. It's totally fine.
You know what's not fine, the game based on Last Action Hero. It's bad. Give us a listen and we'll tell ya just how bad we thought it was.
Classic Looney Tunes shorts, American game shows, 90s anime; these are just some of the topics we talk about in this episode. We're talking about Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions, Family Feud, and Kendo Rage.
Marvin Missions is based on the classic Duck Dodgers and the 24th 1/2 Century short (that's really funny, you should go watch it.) Is this game worthy of the classic short, or is it as useful as a disintegration pistol?
We also go into a brief history of the game show Family Feud before discussing the game. Did the SNES need a game based on Family Feud? Does something like this work in a world before the internet and easily accessible 4+ multiplayer? Are these questions hinting toward our overall opinions of this game? They probably should be.
Finally, we've got Kendo Rage. It's a bit amazing we got a game like this without it getting westernized to hell and back. We'll tell you what we thought of it and Emmy will even talk a little bit about the OVA based on the game.
All of this and a special message from Emmy at the end that we hope you'll stick around for. Enjoy!
Okay, Chase and Emmy were a little cranky on this one. But you would be too if you had to play these three games back-to-back. Cliffhanger is a boring game that plays acceptably, until it doesn't. Battletoads and Double Dragon isn't fit for either of those franchises (and that's saying something because we already kinda don't like Battletoads.) And Aero the Acrobat is kinda like if a DM went through the trouble of crafting a really excellent story, and was then just hell-bent on wiping the party and ending the game early.
I wish I'd thought of that metaphor on the show.
In any case, don't expect us to be kind at all to these games. If you really cherish any childhood memories of these games... it'll be okay if you want to give this one a skip. We also talked about the movie Cliffhanger (a first time watch for both of us) and we didn't like that either. So, you've been warned.
We are sorry about all the negativity today. We really don't like to be that kind of a show. We do discuss the brief history of Malibu Comics, and that's kinda interesting. We hope you still enjoy the episode more than we did playing the games we talked about.
We have made it to another month in our chronology, so it's time to talk about an issue of Nintendo Power. Our guests for this episode are two-thirds of the amazing team from the Gateleapers podcast. Jason and Matt might have been too young to have read this issue when it was new, but they have a ton of hilarious commentary to offer anyway. If you're into fonts, early 90s CGI, Yoda feet, Plok, or wrestling then we've probably got something for ya. Also plenty of humorous US/UK misunderstandings.
This issue was a bit lackluster, but we had so much fun chatting with these jokers, that I don't think mind. But if you take away one thing from this podcast, it's this: Don't EVER suggest your girlfriend dress up like your mom, please.
Happy New Year, everyone! We're kicking off 2023 and saying goodbye to September 1993 with a trio of pretty all-right games.
We start with Wing Commander: The Secret Missions. It was, perhaps, a bold move to release what was an expansion for the computer versions of this game as a stand-alone game on a system that was already a bit ill-suited to it. Despite that (and not being a genre Chase enjoys all that much) maybe Chase and Emmy are feeling a little more fond of this game than they were with the original. I dunno. Listen and find out.
Then it's time to talk about World Heroes, and it's strange place amongst SNK fighting games. Is this one tough enough to rival the likes of Tuff E Nuff, or is this another poor fighting game that's not fit to wash Street Fighter II's gi?
And finally, it's Zombies Ate My Neighbors. Yes, we're going to talk about LucasArts. Yes, the game is amazing? How amazing? You're going to have to listen to find out just how high this one moves up the rankings.
It's a few days before Christmas, and we just have a regular episode that's been in the can for a week. Sorry about that. But the games are pretty interesting. We're talking about Tuff E Nuff and Top Gear 2. Also we briefly mention Utopia: Creation of a Nation.
Tuff E Nuff is a goofy fighting game taking place in a dystopia where society has collapsed and the majority of its roster is locked behind a cheat code. But other than that, this one actually isn't bad for a fighting game of this vintage. We'll tell you what we think it learned the right lessons from Street Fighter, and what it could have improved on... ya know, if Jaleco had ever given us a sequel to this one.
Top Gear 2 as a big legacy to live up to, as it's predecessor was a racing game that really took us by surprise. Does this one rise to the heights of the original, or will it be a disappointment? Listen and find out.
Well folks, it's finally happening. We've talked about wanting to make some changes to the list for some time and we're finally doing it. We're not just potentially re-ranking, we're changing the way ranking works. Basically, we're changing things to a tier list. We'll explain more in the episode. Is your favorite game getting a more or less favorable position on the new list? Listen and find out.
And there's one more little change that's going to be talked about at the end, so don't check out early or else you're gonna be confused when the next episode drops.
Hey everyone. Sorry for the delay. We're back and we're recording again. But before that, we need to get this episode out there that we recorded months ago but never got to actually edit and put up. So here it is! We're talking about two classic children's franchises that were adapted to the Super NES.
Actually, that's a lie. One of them is Super Widget, based on the cartoon Widget the World Watcher. Will this game be a pleasant surprise, or is it as forgettable as the cartoon on which it's based?
But we're also talking about Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. Perhaps a timely game given that we recorded it in the moments before that railroad strike almost happened. Was... timely... Maybe we should stop talking politics, we are really dating these things. Anyway, it's a game for very young children so of course two childless adults are the perfect people to review it.
Finally, we're talking about The 7th Saga, a JRPG that doesn't get mentioned like other classic JRPGs on the system like Final Fantasy III or Chrono Trigger. Is there a reason it's not as beloved or is it something of a hidden gem? Listen and find out.
Hey everyone, sadly there won't be any SNEScapades in October. But here's a quick announcement about why and what the future might hold for the show and other stuff.
It's time to talk about a certain rodent who likes to go really fast, has attitude, and tends to get kissed by human ladies. We're talking, of course, about Rocky Rodent, the infamous dine-and-dasher. Emmy and Link are a bit divided on the game's quality, but Rocky himself makes for such a strange specimen, that they can't stop talking about him. It's a wonder that he never got a single other game other than this debut outing. It's a crime! There's so much more Rocky Rodent lore to be told.
Also they played Super Off-Road: The Baja. It was pretty good. And Super Bomberman. It's Bomberman.
We've got, not one, but two racing games for you today... kinda.
Redline F-1 Racer really isn't much to write home about, but Rock N' Roll Racing has become one of our favorite racing games on the system. We hope you'll enjoy rocking out to some midi versions of classic rock songs while we talk about this strange spiritual successor to RPM Racing.
Also, Plok is here. He's alright. Has some neat ideas. Shigeru Miyamoto seems to have really liked it so that must count for something.
We also have some history to dive into with Plok, so we hope you enjoy that.
It's time to talk about Koei for the very last time. Yup, we're calling it a day on covering Koei games (with possibly a few exceptions) as we just can't wrap our heads around them. We'll explain more in the episode.
But, for games we are going to talk about, we've got Mortal Kombat and Operation Logic Bomb. Mortal Kombat is a port of the classic arcade game that looses the blood. Is there anything that can redeem this defanged fighting classic? Well... you'll just have to give it a listen.
We also discuss Jaleco's Operation Logic Bomb. It's a top-down shooter with... something going on. We'll talk about this one and whether or not we think it's worth your time. Enjoy!
Today, Link and Emmy play a port of an arcade brawler from 1991 based on the Avengers. Will this be as good as other licensed arcade brawlers from the same era (like TMNT, The Simpsons, and X-Men)? Well... You'll just have to listen and find out.
Also, is it possible that a game ostensibly built as a playable commercial for a soft drink go beyond what is normally required of product placement and be an amazing game in its own right? Well... we have the answer for you. Listen and find out.
And finally, what's going on with the golfing robot? I can't actually promise any definitive answers to that one. But we'll have fun talking about it anyway.
It's an episode full of surprises, as we discuss Mecarobot Golf, Captain America and the Avengers, and Cool Spot. We had a lot of fun with this one and we hope you'll have just as much fun listening.
SNEScapades: It's an UP thing!
We're starting September off with a big ol' dull thud. Looking for uninspired brawlers, sports games we can't figure out, and hastily thrown together licensed games? No? Well we got them anyway. We're talking about Boxing Legends of the Ring (which you may know as Chavez II if you're from Latin America or the southwest US.) It's an impressive looking game, but completely incomprehensible to our hosting duo and raises the question, should they even keep doing sports games?
Then we've got Alien vs Predator. You might remember a really great Capcom brawler from the arcades around this time that had that name. Well this isn't that, sadly. It is a brawler but not a great one and Link and Emmy will tell you why.
Finally, it's off to Transylvania to talk about Bram Stoker's Dracula, based on the film of the same name. Let's just say, 16-bit Keaunu deserved better.
Hey there! It's us! We're back! We're talking about another issue of Nintendo Power. This time it's issue 52 which came out in September of 1993. We listen to Newsie tell us about a movie, a song, and some tv shows that debuted that month. Then it's on to talking about more Super Mario All-Stars, more Final Fight 2, SNES RPGS, Rock N' Roll Racing, Mortal Kombat posters and so much more.
There's also a pair of comics. This month features a somewhat weak Star Fox and an uncharacteristically good Nester's Adventures. Speaker of Nester's Adventures, if you're reading these on the Internet Archives along with us, you might have noticed that the copy of the magazine that's up there is missing it's Nester's Adventures comic. Fear not, for Link still has this issue in his personal collection and you can see what all the fuss was about on his Instagram @snescapades (you are following him on Instagram, right?)
And speaking of social media, you can follow Link again on Twitter @snescapades because he just couldn't stay away from that hell site. Please follow him on Twitter again. He lost all of his followers because he didn't crawl back fast enough.
Two Capcom classics make a huge statement on the SNES to cap off August 1993. First, Link and Emmy talk about Final Fight 2, a huge improvement over its predecessor after denying gamers what they really wanted, to punch in the faces of Mad Gear goons with a friend. Co-op makes a huge difference (even if you can't turn off friendly fire) and three characters who all feel very different to play means there's some good variety to boot.
But, of course, the real star here is Street Fighter 2 Turbo. Like Final Fight 2, it's also a big improvement over its earlier installment on the SNES. But unlike that game, this one already started out really great and just got more characters, more moves, and faster play speed. This might have some interesting implications for vanilla-flavor SFII on the list. But you'll have to listen to see what Link and Emmy end up doing.
Here we are! The final episode in our "Month of May-rio" specials discussing the games contained within the Super Mario All-Stars collection. We're talking about the big one this time around: Super Mario Bros. 3. SMB 3 probably doesn't require much introduction, to this day it's regarded by many as the best game to be released on the original NES and one of the greatest video games ever made.
And after our trip down memory lane, we'll finally be ranking Super Mario All-Stars. So where will it go? Top 10? Top 5? Could we have a new number 1 on our hands? You'll have to listen to find out.
We're off to the land of Subcon to throw some vegetables into an evil frog's mouth.
We hope you enjoy this, the second of our three-part series about Super Mario All-Stars and the four games contained within. Today, we're talking about Super Mario Bros. 2. It's a very strange entry in the Mario series due to being a re-skin of a different game called Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic. As a result, it's often regarded as the black sheep of the Mario series, but is that warranted or does this game have even closer ties to the Mario series than most of us believe. We'll discuss that and more as we go into the history of this quirky game.
Welcome to the (slightly delayed start) of the Month of May-rio. We are talking about Super Mario All-Stars all month. Today's episode is about the original Super Mario Bros. and The Lost Levels.
We'll not only be talking about these games as they exist in the Super Mario All-Stars compilation, but we'll also discus the history of these two games on the Famicom and NES back in the 80s.
And don't forget to tune in next week (hopefully) where we'll be talking about Super Mario. Bros 2 (the North American Version).
On this extra special (and quite long) episode, Brandon from the Namely 90s podcast sits down with us to chat about the August 93 edition of Nintendo Power. We talk about good bad Street Fighter II art, Star Trek, Aliens, and much more.
Which Looney Toon character is the most problematic? How's that Star Fox comic going? What's up with the purple goo in Zombies Ate my Neighbors? Did some random NP reader speedrun TMNT IV faster than anyone else in history? And what games introduced at CES 93 not make it to market? We'll get to the bottom of some of those questions.
We want to shout out a few folks today. Of course the Namely 90s Podcast, listen to Brandon and Andrew talk about what happened in a different month from the 90s in every episode. Also check out The Weekly Cooldown, on which Link was a guest recently. And give a listen to all the shows Brandon recently guested on: Everything 90s, The Nostalgia Test, and All 90s Action All the Time. OH, and the Prime Nostalgia Podcast.
It's a baseball game and a formula 1 game. Um... we're not sure what else to tell ya.
Obviously talking about these sorts of games are always hard for Emmy and Link as neither of them are fans of either of these activities in real life and don't enjoy playing simulations of them. But they try to keep it lively anyway, and hey, maybe they'll find enough in these games to rank at least one of them.
We've got some pretty fun games today, and two of them are pretty weird. We discuss Goof Troop, E.V.O., and First Samurai. Goof Troop is a fun, puzzle-based, action game that can be played co-op. E.V.O. is different and requires a lot of grind, but has plenty of redeeming qualities, and First Samurai is a 2D action-platform game that sings "Hallelujah" when you pick up food.
This is probably one of the better trios that Link and Emmy have encountered in awhile and they're really happen to talk about them, and Link is happy to tell you a bit about the guy behind the company behind First Samurai as well. We hope you enjoy the episode and we hope you're doing okay.
Hey everyone! Sorry this episode didn't end up being the bonus episode we planned. Things are kinda bad IRL right now and we just didn't have the energy to record.
On that note, if you're in a position to do so right now, we'd really appreciate it if you could donate some money to a worthy cause right now, like humanitarian aid in Ukraine, or to civil rights advocacy groups who are fighting the numerous anti LGBT+ bills that seem to be popping up in state governments all over the country, or shoot a message to some of your representatives and ask them to stop the GOP's attempts at trans genocide. That would be really awesome of you.
Anyway, this is still a podcast about SNES games and this is part 2 of the last episode that went up, so you'll probably want to listen to that one first. Big thanks to Trevor once again for joining us to record this VERY long episode with us and for all of his insight he brought to the table on the games discussed in issue 50 of Nintendo Power.
We hope to be getting back to the regular episodes very soon. Thanks for sticking with us.
Hey everyone. Welcome to the month of July 1993. We decided to use Playing with Power episodes as an excuse to have guests on the show and will continue to do this going forward. Our special guest for this one is Trevor from Catching up on Cinema. It's actually fortunate that we had him on because he had a lot to say about many of the games featured in this issue of Nintendo Power, like WWF Royal Rumble, Run Saber, and E.V.O.
We had such a good time talking about all the content in this issue that this ended up being our longest episode to date and as a result, we're just going to break this up into two parts. Part two will come out next week, so it's not even interfering with the regular episodes coming out. You're just getting a bonus episode!
And I guess you can thank Trevor for that that, so go follow him on twitter (@CatchingCinema) and listen to his show (Catching up on Cinema) as a way of saying "thank you!"
In this episode, we're talking about WWF Royal Rumble and Yoshi's Cookie. Two games that couldn't be much different from each other.
Link and Emmy gave Royal Rumble a real shot and came away mostly impressed, despite the fact that neither of them have much nostalgia for wrestling. But was it impressive enough to crack the top 100?
Then it's off to the bakery to talk about the interesting history behind Yoshi's cookie, its connections to Tetris, and the history of the guy who founded the company that made it, Bullet Proof Software. And, of course they'll talk about the Nintendo-branded puzzle game itself. Will this be the new king of the mountain as far as SNES puzzle games are concerned? Listen and find out!
We're getting to the end of June 1993 (finally) and we're talking about two of the final four games.
First up, we're talking about Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, a topic we've discussed already back in our Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego episode. How does this port of the classic 80s piece of edutainment hold up to the already-released port of it's older sibling? We'll tell you.
And then we discuss Wolfchild by Core Design. This is the second, and final, game from the company so we discuss their history just in case we didn't when we talked about Chuck Rock.
We'll be frank, the games in June 93 aren't getting much better. But listen to the episode anyway. SteampunkLink has a little surprise for you if you listen all the way to the end.
All this and we didn't even make any jokes about how this is episode 69. Cuz we're classier than that.
After taking a holiday break, Emmy Zero and SteampunkLink are back. We wish we could tell you that they've got some real bangers for the first episode back, but they don't. We're talking about three games based on other franchises and those tend to be a bit spotty. Today, it's all about games based on The Blues Brothers, Rocky & Bullwinkle, and Where's Waldo.
We start with The Blues Brothers. We'll talk a bit about the movie it's based but we'll mostly be discussing the history of Titus, the little French company that wasn't quite as little as you might have thought. We can't tell you why they made a movie based on a decade-old movie, but we can tell you what we thought of that game.
Next, we tackle the world of cartoons with a brief history of Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends. Can this game be an accurate representation of its source material AND be a fun game to play? We'll tell you.
Finally, we discuss the history of Where's Waldo (or should we say, Where's Wally?) and discuss the SNES game The Great Waldo Search. This game's NES version is pretty infamous, and we'll tell you if there is any redemption for it's SNES sibling.
We're happy to be back and hope you all had a great holiday. If you want to hear more of us, we had been keeping busy over the break.
You can listen to SteampunkLink on a recent episode of the Drinkipedia Podcast. And you can follow them on twitter and keep up with all of their shows @gateleapers.
SteampunkLink and Emmy Zero were on the final episode of Namely 90s 12 Days of Christmas Specials for 2021 talking about Power Rangers Zeo. You can follow them on twitter @Namely90s.
Catching Up on Cinema was kind enough to watch a really bad movie from 1972 with SteampunkLink and let him talk about it on their show last November. Listen to that and follow them on twitter @CatchingCinema.
Finally, Emmy and Link competed on a fun new gameshow hosted by Kamijace called The Greatest Gaming Gameshow Ever. Follow the show on twitter @GGGameshow. And follow Kamijace himself cuz he tends to do a lot of cool things @Kamijacegaming.
It has BEGUN! Emmy and Link welcome Trevor from the Catching up on Cinema podcast to talk (for a very long time) about the 1995 film "Mortal Kombat." All of your favorite characters are here. Johnny gets a few great lines, Sonya... falls down while trying to throw a kick, and Lu Kang is the most special boy. Trevor, Link, and Emmy will discuss all of their amazing battles against Kano (chump), Sub-Zero, and Scorpion who really just should have been using a regular spear.
Also the Goro animatronic is impressive, but is he wet enough?
Mortal Kombat was regarded as one of the most faithful adaptations of a video game when it was released, but how does it hold up? In the course of breaking down the movie, the trio talk about the filmography of Paul WS Anderson, speculate how last-minute casting resulted in a few issues for some of the fight scenes, wonder what it must be like to be beaten up by two different Lu Kangs, and ask "Why didn't Robin Shou have more of a career?"
We can't thank Trevor enough for joining us and sharing his knowledge of all things cinema with us for this episode. You can listen to more of him, and his co-host Kyle, on the Catching up on Cinema podcast which you can find on all of the podcast apps. You can also follow them on Twitter @CatchingCinema.
Not too long ago, we had an idea of a way we could get through sports games on the SNES. That idea was just to do them all in chunks to help get them over with faster. Unfortunately, we don't really think we nailed it with that one.
So we close the book on "Sports Desk" episodes with all the 1993 football games. Going forward, sports games will just go back into the regular chronology and we will reserve the right to put any sports game we don't find interesting enough to talk about into the "unranked" pile. I wish we really could rank every single game, but doing it this way is just going to make covering sports games a chore that won't be fun for us to do or for you to listen to.
So enjoy this final (and short) sports desk and find out which of the seven football games that came out in 93 Link and Emmy found noteworthy enough to add to the list.
We celebrate another milestone with a bunch of great guests. We talk SNES games, Super Scope games, general 90s nostalgia, our dream 90s-themed podcast convention, music, and more. Also it seems that Link and Emmy REALLY like talking Power Rangers and Link will find any excuse to bring up St. Louis pizza.
Our first guests are Andrew and Brandon (not Brendon) from the Namely 90s podcast. We talk jobs, Power Rangers, games we remember (and ones we don't despite playing them), and discuss the New York-ness of the pizza shown in the opening of TMNT II: Secret of the Ooze.
You can check out Namely 90s on your favorite podcast app. And follow them on Twitter @Namely90s
Then we chat with Kamijace who not only hosts The Weekly Cooldown podcast, but is working on a game show podcast as well. He talks about The Greatest Gaming Game Show Ever and a traumatic SNES experience from childhood before we give him a taste of his own medicine with a quick impromptu quiz show of our own.
The Weekly Cooldown can be found on your favorite podcast app. And make sure you follow him on Twitter so you know when his other projects are dropping @Kamijacegaming
Up next is Big Joe from SNES is Life who, like Link and Emmy, is on a journey to experience every game the North American SNES library chronologically (he's just doing it on Twitch.) Joe's got something that we don't though, and that's original hardware and a Super Scope. So he gives us his ranked list of all of the games compatible with the device.
You can watch SNES is Life on Twitch and follow Joe on Twitter @SNES_is_Life
Finally, we are joined by Shaleena from the Everything 90s podcast for one last hit of that sweet 90s nostalgia. Gaming isn't as big of a thing for her, but that's okay because we had a really fun time talking 90s R&B and Space Jam among other things.
Listen to Everything 90s on your favorite podcast app, and follow Shaleena on Instagram @everything90spodcast
A huge HUGE thank you to Andrew, Brandon, Kamijace, Joe, and Shaleena for joining us. It was so much fun talking to all of you. And a huge thanks to all of you listening and helping us get over a ten thousand listens. We really appreciate you and we hope you'll stick around for the next 500-something games we're gonna talk about.
Here it is, folks. By the end of this episode, there will be 200 games on our ranked list. Not only that, but two of these games are going to shake up the upper portion of the list. Perhaps even a top ten contender? Two top ten contenders? I'm not saying here. You're just going to have to listen.
While Run Saber and Pocky & Rocky are some pretty great games, Link and Emmy also have to talk about Mario is Missing, which is less good. But it gives Link a chance to talk a LOT about Software Toolworks.
Is there any redemption this odd piece of Mario branded edutainment? Where the heck did Run Saber even come from? Can Emmy convince Link that Pocky & Rocky is good actually? Some of these questions will be answered in this episode!
The theme of today's episode is "Who thought this was a good idea?" Who thought it was a good idea to release a 6-year-old western computer RPG on a system that had some of the best RPGs for consoles? Who thought it was a good idea to make a game based on an imperiled animated sitcom that no one seemed to want? And who thought it was a good idea to release a minimal-effort, top-down racing game on a system that already had Top Gear and Mario Kart on it?
We can't tell you the "why", but we can tell you the how as we do some deep-dives into the creation of the original Atari ST smash Dungeon master and the dumpster fire that was the production of Family Dog. Also, we remember that we played Kawasaki's Caribbean challenge this week.
Not the best crop of games, but listening to us talk about them has to be better than playing them.
We have the good, the bad, and the indifferent today, and you might be a little surprised to find out which one is which.
Cacoma Knight is the one Emmy and Link don't have strong opinions one way or another about. It's not terrible, but it's basically just another version of Qix, an arcade game that goes back to the 80s. We talk about the flaws and the things that make this version stand out a bit.
As for the bad category, well, that would be Battletoads. Link and Emmy discuss the series' promising roots and what makes this one such a let down for them.
And then there's BOB, which is a solid run-and-gun platformer that our hosts rather enjoyed. And Link will tell you a bit about the sequel to this game that sadly never was.
The Battletoads may have usurped BOB for the cover of the last Nintendo Power they discussed, but Link and Emmy are making BOB the cover boy he was meant to be in this episode of SNEScapades.
Another month down, another Nintendo Power issue to talk about, and another episode of SNEScapades that goes on longer than an hour. In this episode, Link and Emmy discuss Jurassic Park, interesting controllers, cute teenage robots, iffy Nintendo science, and games you can play with your dad (or maybe your imagined younger self as the mid-life crisis sets in?)
This issue also marks a somewhat abrupt end to the Star Fox comic. Is an opinionated NP reader to blame? Probably not, but they'll drag him anyway.
Battletoads appeared on the cover of this one which was fitting as they were also appearing in games on every Nintendo system at the time. Your hosts will talk about their experience with the toads that do battle and talk about why such a promising franchise never really grabbed them and why (in their opinion) the series was MIA for such a long time.
All this and a French fox who may or may not have once been a French comedian on today's Playing with Power episode of SNEScapades!
It's the last episode for May of 1993 and we're talking about two firsts. The first casino game compilation and the first of two Carmen Sandiego games that ended up on the Super NES.
First we discuss Vegas Stakes, a compilation of several popular casino games that add a little flavor in the form of AI friends to join you and random events that can bring good or bad fortune. Is it enough to put it in the upper echelon of the list? Or is this game more crap than craps?
Then we hop in our Acme Chronoskimmer, and take a journey through history with our trusty desk encyclopedias to track down Carmen Sandiego and her VILE henchmen. How does this port of Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego fair in the Google era? And why didn't PBS get Rockapella back for the history-based sequel series? We discuss all this and SteampunkLink's 4th grade Halloween costume on today's episode.
As we start to wind down May of 93, we've only got a few games left to talk about. On today's show, Link and Emmy are talking about Super Turrican and Taz-Mania.
Taz-Mania was a strange game on the SNES, using racing game-like mechanics in an action game. They game isn't amazing, but it is kinda unique and worth talking about. Also worth talking about is the strange popularity of the Taz character in the 80s and 90s despite being a pretty seldom-used character in the Looney Tunes pantheon at that point.
There's also Super Turrican, which has an interesting history all its own. It's a pretty decent run-and-gun shooter that keeps coming back.
We hope you enjoy.
It's giant robot tanks, fishing, and cyberpunk rpgs. Three games that couldn't be more different. Despite not being your typical SNES games, both Emmy and Link walked away mostly positive on these games.
Both MechWarrior and Shadowrun are based on tabletop games by a company called FASA, so this episode starts with a quick rundown of that company before going into the games themselves. MechWarrior is a bit complex, but not overwhelmingly so, and Shadowrun is a pretty fascinating RPG hindered by a few poor design choices.
And finally, there's fishing. It's fine.
Will MechWarrior's complexity keep it out of the top 100? Will Shadowrun join the upper echelon of SNES RPGs? Will Link land that big bass that's hiding at the bottom of the lake like a coward? Listen and find out!
We've got three 2D, sidescrollers today. Some are alright, some aren't very good. None are amazing. None are awful. One has some cool things that make it stand out, another is interesting in the ways it falls short, and the last isn't really interesting at all, but won't ruin your day.
We start with Alien 3, and though proper horror isn't really something that Nintendo of America seemed interested in bringing stateside, games like this were about as close as we'd get.
Then it's off to Bubsy: Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind, a game that we will address as Bubsy 1 from here on out. We discuss the rather infamous, and persistant franchise that began with this game before talking about what works and what doesn't. Was Bubsy doomed from the start, or was there some potential that was just never realized?
Finally, we talk about Congo's Caper. It's fine.
There is so much to talk about in this May 1993 issue of Nintendo Power, that we needed a super-sized episode cram it all in. We're gonna talk Batman Returns, The Wonder Years, Dave, the Mario Bros. movie, Kawasaki jet skis, defunct comics! What more could you ask for?
Oh, I guess we could talk about some games as well. We'll be discussing Batman Returns, The Lost Vikings, Kirby's Adventure, and more. Do you like your games with a clumsy environmental message? We have at least two of those! There's also a sneak peak at the original Game Boy version of Link's Awakening and the Super NES version of Shadowrun. As if that weren't enough, we'll break down that month's Star Fox comic and tell you who Nintendo Power readers voted as their favorite games from 1992. All this and more.
Give it a listen!
It's finally here! The final episode for April 1993 contains a classic. The Lost Vikings may not be a name that carries quite the legacy of a Mario or a Halo Chief (that's the character's name, right?) but it ought to be up there because this game is pure 2D puzzle-platforming bliss.
It's a shame then that we didn't get to talk a little more about it despite having only one other game to discuss today. That game being Tom & Jerry. We dug into the history of the Tom & Jerry cartoon and it's almost like once we start talking cartoons, it's hard to get us to shut up about them.
But it's nice that April 93 gets to go out on a high note.
SNEScapades is going to the movies today. We're discussing three games that were based on movies.
First up we talk about the very strange Robin Williams movie Toys. The game it's based on isn't very good, but it gives us the chance to talk about Absolute Entertainment and to talk once again about prominent devs like David Crane and Garry Kitchen. Crane and Kitchen have some important games under their belts, so it's a shame that all of their games for the SNES haven't been amazing.
Then we talk about Wayne's World. This is a game with something of a reputation for being pretty bad. Surprisingly, this one is actually a lot better than we'd been led to believe.
NOT!
Finally, we talk about the Terminator; a strange movie to be getting a game given that the movie was pretty far in the rear view mirror by the time it came out, but perhaps with T2 on the horizon, Mindscape thought they could cash in.
Not gonna lie, none of these are particularly great games. Which one of these is the best of the worst and will there be any bottom 10 contenders? Listen and find out.
On today's show, Emmy and Link talk about a pair of games that merge genres together in interesting ways that produce less than stellar results. First up is Super Ninja Boy. It's a game that combines the dungeon-crawling of an RPG and swaps out the turn-based battle mechanics for a belt-scrolling brawler; an idea that sounds good on paper.
Then it's time to drive into an apocalyptic wasteland to talk about Outlander; a game that combines driving combat with on-foot resource-gathering excursions.
Finally, we need to talk about Street Combat. It's a fighting game that has roots in a popular manga series that was completely washed out of the American release, leaving us with characters that are... a bit strange.
And speaking of strange, have you heard the stories about defunct game developer Culture Brain? Whoo boy!
On today's show Emmy Zero and SteampunkLink talk about the sequel (kinda) to Rival Turf. Can Brawl Brothers improve upon the janky but fun foundation laid by its predecessor, or does it fix little and add a bunch of frustrating mechanics no one ever could have wanted in a brawler?
They also discuss the humble beginnings of the franchise that would become King of Fighters with Final Fi- I mean Fatal Fury. Link also discusses some of the early history of the company that created the classic fighting game series, SNK.
And Finally, Link and Emmy discuss Cybernator. It's a game that got their attention in an issue of Nintendo Power they discussed recently, but neither of them were aware of at all. Is Cybernator a Cinderella story or does it fail to live up to the hype? Tune in and find out.
The time has come! SteampunkLink gets to talk about and not shut the hell up about American Gladiators! Emmy and Link talk about the old show and and review this game which... isn't very good.
Speaking of things that aren't very good, Link and Emmy also talk about Battle Grande Prix. A game as generic as it's title would suggest. I'm not even sure I remembered the title correctly as I type this and I refuse to type it up.
Oh, and there's also Batman Returns which gets a pretty good spot on our list despite its flaws. That one's alright. It's a pretty fun Batman game based on a Batman movie which makes it kind of a big deal. Honestly, the episode probably should have been called Batman Returns Edition, but SteampunkLink just loves those American Gladiators so freaking much.
We're entering a new month in video game history and that means it's time for another Playing with Power episode featuring the April 1993 issue of Nintendo Power. Star Fox is on the cover as Nintendo continues it's absolute deluge of Star Fox content. Not only does the issue contain a little information about every Star Fox stage across all three difficulty levels, but it's the subject of Nester's Adventures as well, along with the continuation of its own comic.
There's mediocre fighting games, secret Skulljager levels, clowns, cookies, rollerblades, sloppy posters, contests, and more!
It's the end of March 1993, and since the final game for the month happens to be Tecmo Super NBA Basketball, it's time to get another sport out of the way for the year. Luckily for Emmy and Link, there were only two of them (the other being EA's NBA Showdown.) Despite having little knowlege of and no interest in the game of basketball (or professional sports in general), Link and Emmy found one of these games to be alright. Which game is a slam dunk, and which is a missed free throw? Find out in this (kinda brief) episode of SNEScapades!!
Two military games and a brawler. The games aren't great, but the conversation is still interesting.
What every became of Microprose and the folks who founded it? Does Super Strike Eagle take flight sims on the SNES in a bold new direction? Can Link learn to love Super Conflict despite the hexagonal tiles? Does The Combatribes live up to its spiritual predecessor, Renegade? Did we really need another Renegade when Double Dragon was already out? Will Link and Emmy find out something about the creator of those games that will make him seem really problematic in hind-sight?
Find out the answers to these questions and more by giving the episode a listen.
Can you call something a mini-episode when it's still 45 minutes long? I dunno, but that's what we're calling this anyway because we're not ranking any new games. Instead, we're re-ranking some games based on suggestions from our guests on the Holiday episode. Derek felt that Mario Kart should be higher than Top Gear and Kamijace felt that Soul Blazer should be higher than Final Fantasy II. Upon repeat playing, will SteampunkLink and Emmy Zero agree?
And Trevor feels that both Axelay and Final Fight are too low on the list. Will one or both of them get a bump in the standings?
Big thanks again to Derek of Rolling Misadventures, Kamijace of the Weekly Cooldown, and Trevor of Catching up on Cinema for their suggestions.
If you want to make suggestions about changes to our list as well, you can reach SteampunkLink on Twitter @snescapades.
Finally, one more big thanks to our guests from the Holiday Episode. Follow all of them on Twitter...
@RMisadventures, @Kamijacegaming, @LoreTogether, @playcomicscast, @gkwordsmith, and @CatchingCinema
And speaking of Catching up on Cinema, Emmy and Link were on that show last month and you should go listen to that. They all talked about the Super Mario Bros. movie and it was a lot of fun.
Today's episode of SNEScapades puts a big ol' spotlight on Star Fox. If you're not familiar, it's a game about animals in space. I'm sure that explains everything.
So how is this one? Does it hold up? Can long-time Star Fox fan Emmy Zero convince newcomer Steampunk Link of the game's greatness? Does the debut Super FX chip-enabled SNES game still impress today. Or does it come off as a glorified tech demo for decades-old tech?
Come for the lengthy discussion of this (at the time) new Nintendo franchise and stay for the lovely Star Fox tunes.
Good Luck!
March of 1993 starts out with a thud as Link and Emmy discuss two games with UK roots that landed on the SNES.
First, they discuss Spindizzy Worlds which is a follow-up to the 1986 computer game Spindizzy. What does the creator of the original game think about this unsanctioned sequel? Does it work at all on the SNES? Could this game possibly have ever been fun on it's original hardware. Emmy and Link have answers to some of those questions for you.
And finally they discuss King Arthur's World. This one was so close to being a real banger. Link and Emmy take no pleasure in tearing this game down over its huge Achilles' heel.
It's a week that left our hosts pretty disappointed. Here's hoping StarFox can pick them back up next time.
Let's face it. It's been a rough year. We thought it would be fun to get a bunch of other podcasters to talk about some of their favorite holiday memories involving video games. It's a long one, so pull up a chair, grab a mug of hot chocolate, and settle in for some pleasant conversations.
If you aren't already listening to them and/or following them on Twitter, you really should be. A HUGE thanks to all of these people who helped make this possible...
Mystic and Saphy from Lore Together (@LoreTogether)
Kamijace from The Weekly Cooldown (@WkCooldown)
Chris from Play Comics (@playcomicscast)
Trevor from Catching up on Cinema (@CatchingCinema)
Derek from Rolling Misadventures (@RMisadventures)
Greg from Nerds from the Crypt and Starlite among other things (@gkwordsmith)
And thanks to you for listening. From SteampunkLink and Emmy Zero, we want to wish you all Happy Holidays and a happy (and hopefully healthier) New Year!
The first two games of March 93 aren't leaving us with the best impression. We get a substandard (but functional) fighting game and a Koei game that's not as hard to parse as some of their strategy games, but is incredibly slow to get started. Link and Emmy were so disappointed with Inindo: Way of the Ninja that they have decided that the rest of the Koei library on SNES will get its own episode in the future so they can just be done with it.
Doomsday Warriors is a fighting game with a few interesting characters but lacks the gameplay to back it up.
Is there anything to redeem these two games at all? And where will they land on the list? Listen and find out.
And keep an eye out, because the SNEScapades Holiday Special is just around the corner!
This is a big one folks! We do some deep dives on all sorts of topics while flipping through the pages of Nintendo Power from March 1993. We talk more about the art, specifically the covers from this era of Nintendo Power. We also chat about the Storm of the Century, Canadian media review shows for kids, obscure cartoons only SteampunkLink seems to remember, Capcom, Tiny Toons, the poorly chosen Nintendo Power award nominees, and lots more. Schedule yourself some time and have yourself a listen.
Welcome to Talkin' Toons. This episode of SNEScapades is going to feature a lot of talk about cartoons because both games being discussed today are adaptations of cartoons from the early 90s.
We're discussing The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt which is based on the 90s Hanna Barbara cartoon (not to be confused with the 70s Addams Family cartoon also made by Hanna Barbara) and acts as a sequel of sorts to the first Addams Family SNES game which Emmy and Link enjoyed quite a bit. Will they like this one as much? Well... no. But listen anyway and find out why.
Then it's time to talk about a much better game which is based on a much better cartoon. At least we assume Tiny Toons is a better cartoon. We've never actually watched that Addams Family show. But Buster Busts Loose is a surprisingly good licensed platform game. We'll tell you what we like (and a few things we didn't) about this colorful game. So come and join the fun.
And now our description's done.
It's been a rough year and the salt in the wound that is 2020 is that most of us have to spend Thanksgiving alone or at least can't gather with our extended families like we have in the past. So if you're doing the responsible thing and staying home, maybe this podcast can help you pass the time.
This year for our Quick, Change the Channel special, we're talking about 1994's Double Dragon. We went into this one expecting a fun cheese fest like the Street Fighter movie, but sadly this was a much less-fun cheese fest. Bad dialogue, mostly unimpressive fight scenes, and uninspired sets (with the exception of the slime factory) topped off with unintentional (we hope) bad politics make this a mess that even Alyssa Milano's cute pixie cut couldn't save.
So don't watch this movie, but do enjoy our fun(?) breakdown as we clumsily try to remember what happened in this thing since we both refused to watch it more than once.
Stay safe out there!
WHOO HOO! EPISODE 50! We didn't really do anything special for this one other than talk about Super Valis IV and Sonic Blast Man, but they were fun to talk about!
Sonic Blast Man has nothing to do with a certain blue hedgehog, but is instead a belt-scrolling brawler adapted from an arcade game that people were meant to literally, physically punch! Is this game any good when removed from its novel arcade accessories? Can it's fun presentation overcome the fact that it's a one-player game? We'll tell you what we think!
And we have Super Valis IV. It's a game with some really good controls and graphics. But does it do anything with its strong foundations? The fact that I would even ask that question should probably suggest that it does not. But listen anyway? We also talk about the history of the Valis series.
That's about it. We hope you enjoy it!
If you listen to the show at all, you know that Link and Emmy aren't really sports people. They say it every time they have to review a sports game after all. So to make the sports games a bit easier to handle, they will be cramming every game by sport and year into their own episodes as they come across them.
Today, the duo are talking about three hockey games that came out on the SNES in 1993. Those games are the brutal Hit the Ice, the lackluster Super Slap Shot, and the fairly impressive NHL 94.
Expect these episodes to be a bit on the shorter side when they happen.
So put on your mouth guards, offer your prayers to Mr. Hockey, and get the puck outta here!
Continuing the streak of 1993's "Games that are fine"; we have three more games that are perfectly, astonishingly okay.
We've got Harley's Humongous Adventure, a game we were fully expecting to be awful and turned out to be a fine and competent run and jump platform game.
We've got Shanghai II: Dragon's Eye. If you love Mah Jong Solitaire, but wish it cost $49.99 rather than nothing, you will love this one!
Finally, there's SimEarth which is another complex sim but a better one of those than any of the Koei games have been.
Look, it's been a long week. Why not stop doom-scrolling and settle down with us for an hour and let us tell you about some 30-year-old games that are fine?
SteampunkLink and Emmy Zero were faced with a licensed game attached to a fairly loathed license, a platform game who's previous console iterations are infamously bad, and another Koei game. They prepared for the worst. But in the end were pleasantly surprised with what they got.
Aerobiz is perhaps the hardest sell among all the Koei games talked about up to this point, but does the best job at explaining itself for new players. Dragon's Lair is a huge improvement upon the NES version. Cool World was actually kinda cool. Were any of these games amazing? Of course not. But were far from the disasters expected.
So give it a listen and find out what the two thought worked and didn't work about these three games as they kick off February 1993's SNES library.
So this magazine might not be quite as packed to the gills like the previous month's bonus issue was, but Link and Emmy still find plenty to talk about in this issue. The prospects of a less-than-stellar February lineup are somewhat alleviated by the promise of more exciting things to come (like Cybernator) and they further speculate on the reason's why certain NES games might not have sold as well as Nintendo hoped they would. This episode features talk of 90s cartoons, horror franchises marketed to children, and forgotten franchises that just fizzled out. Remember the comic series Zen: The Intergalactic Ninja or the band Trixter? Neither did they, but they talk about them anyway.
Honestly, there was so much ground covered here, that I don't even remember everything as I write this. I think there was a thing about Eric Clapton. OH! And a Star Fox comic!
Shiver me timbers, it's time for some adventuring on the high seas (or low seas depending on the vehicle.) We start with a review of The Hunt for Red October, a SNES game based on a movie based on a book. It also gives us a chance to do a deep dive (heh heh) into the somewhat short-lived Hi-Tech Expressions.
Then we trade our high-tech sub for a 16th Century Galleon as we set sale in Uncharted Waters. It's another Koei game and we've got a lot to say about it despite our limited time with it.
How well does Red October follow the book? Is this finally the Koei game that gets us hooked? What was the deal with that strange Mega Man game for DOS back in the day? What do we think of Tom Clancey? Should you feel bad about... you know... that one thing that happened? We'll answer all of these questions and more on today's episode!
1993 is officially starting now! We're done with the specials for a bit and kicking off January 93 with Power Moves and California Games II.
Power Moves is perhaps the first (but certainly not the last) fighting game that wants to be Street Fighter II but falls well short of that lofty goal. Still, it's not a complete flop and we'll tell you where we think the game succeeds and where it fails. It may be a long way from Street Fighter, but it's certainly no Pit Fighter either.
We also discuss California Games II, a mini-game compilation that originated on personal computers and probably should have stayed there. It's not great, but at least it gives us a chance to talk about Epyx, the company that started the project that would become the Atari Lynx.
As far as we know, January 93 only saw the release of four games on the SNES, so we're only covering two in this episode. We'll see ya next week to talk about the other two.
Our first Playing With Power episode of SNEScapades has us taking a long trip down memory lane as we explore the big January 1993 bonus issue of Nintendo Power. We'll talk about games we've already discussed on the show (like Magical Quest: Starring Mickey Mouse), some that we haven't gotten to yet (like Shanghai II), and at least one we won't actually see of a while (Equinox).
We'll also talk about all of the fun bonus features that this magazine had to offer, like Mario Paint ideas, Star Fox papercraft, and strange eye spy games featuring the very messy room of a very rich kid.
This issue also features a lengthy article about the state of gaming and the future of games which is even more interesting when contextualized with Nintendo's failed relationship with Sony and the Philip's CD-ROM add-on for the SNES that never bore fruit.
Finally, we'll talk a little bit about the history of the magazine itself and what we're missing out on starting as late as we are in the magazine's run.
This was SO much fun to talk about and we hope you'll have fun listening. If you want to check out the magazine for yourself, look for issue 44 of Nintendo Power (Jan 93) on the Internet Archive. For the time being, all of the issues are available there, and hopefully that won't change.
WARNING: THIS EPISODE CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE!
With another year of SNES games behind us, we decided that this was a good opportunity to have Willie and Ginger (The Grand Rapidians Play Games Podcast) on to talk about their history with the SNES and other games and consoles they played in the 90s. We also talk beverages, strange video game peripherals, and... a whole lot of random stuff. They also give us suggestions for games we ought to re-litigate in a future episode.
This was a pretty fun and mostly free-form conversation. We hope you all enjoy listening. Maybe this will cause you to think back to some of your favorite 90s games.
Also, make sure you're listening to the Grand Rapidians Play Games Podcast which you can find on your favorite podcast app or right here: https://linktr.ee/GrandRapidians
And follow them on Twitter: https://twitter.com/grand_video
We've come to yet the end of another year. And once again, we conclude the year with a racing game on the cover. I wonder if that's going to keep happening?
Regardless, the last two games we're covering for 1992 are Test Drive II: The Duel and WarpSpeed. Neither of these are amazing, but Accolade published both of them, so that'll make the history segments a little easier for this episode.
We have a special to get to next time but after that, it's time to tackle 1993. We'll see you then.
Link and Emmy breath a sigh of relief today as we begin the end of December 1992 off on the right foot. First, we need to talk about the simply-named Pro Quarterback. It's a football game. It's probably an okay one of those if you're into football games. Link and Emmy are not.
Next, it's time for another one of those block-toppling beats as Link and Emmy discuss the snack food-peddling (in the UK at least) domino puzzle game Push-Over. You'll hear a pretty rare split from Link and Emmy on this one. But at least they can both agree that G.I. Ant is a bad name for a character.
(Please note, having just spelled out the name G.I Ant, I suddenly realized what they were going for there. G.I.Ant? GIANT? You get it?)
Finally, it's time to talk about the far less simply-named The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse. Mickey will get magical powers turning him into a magician, a fire-fighter, and Bionic Commando. This one was flawed but a ton of fun and a huge breath of fresh air after the last several games.
December 1992 is winding down, but the games have not been great and they really start fraying Link's nerves in this episode.
Link and Emmy talk about Gemfire which was a more approachable strategy game for the duo than Romance of the Three Kingdoms before it, but still not their cup of tea.
Then it's on to Gods, a janky sidescroller that seems ill-suited to the SNES. Can Emmy and Link come up with something nice to say about it?
Finally they talk about Goal! a soccer game that pales in comparison to the soccer games that have come before it on the system. It's a rough trio of games in a month that's had a lot of rough an mediocre-at-best games.
We have sports and Cheetos. What more could you ask for?
We start with Cal Ripken Jr. Baseball to see if SNES baseball gets any better. This was fares better than most but it's still not amazing. We also talk about Bulls vs. Blazers and the NBA playoffs. We didn't think basketball could get much worse than last week's All Star Challenge (by virtue of not really being a basketball game) but this one sure wants to challenge that assumption.
And yes, we talk about Chester Cheetah: Too Cool to Fool, a platform game starring Cheetos mascot Chester Cheetah. We also go into the company that made it and two of their unfinished games based on Fido Dido and the cat of then-president Bill Clinton.
In this episode we're diving into the worlds of sports-games and game-show games. We talk about Jimmy Connors Pro Tennis Tour which boasts some forward-thinking accessibility options but isn't terribly impressive otherwise when compared to some of the other games on the system.
NBA All-Star Challenge is a huge let down in the sense that isn't not actually a basketball game as much as it's a basket-ball themed mini game collection featuring one player from each team. It looks nice, but we can't figure out who this is actually for.
Finally, we talk about Jeopardy! which fares better than Wheel of Fortune on the system despite the fact that typing out answers with a d-pad really slows the game down.
Not a terribly impressive line-up of games that left us using the word "basic" a lot.
A lot of today's games have something in common in that they represent a leap in quality over similar games that we may have seen on past systems, but still fail to be truly recommendable today.
Lethal Weapon is a 2D platform game that's based on a license that's playable and presented well, but still isn't amazing enough to shake the stigma of being a cynical cash-in.
Musya is a game that we'd never heard of before researching it for this show and comes to us from a handful of obscure and short-lived Japanese game companies. And yet, it's close to being amazing but a few unfortunate design choices prevent it from getting into "hidden gem" territory.
Finally, NHLPA (which arguably fairs the best of all of these games today) is almost accessible enough to bridge to gap for non-sports folks like us, but doesn't quite reach that lofty goal. It's still a solid hockey game if that's what you're looking for.
We like to talk history as it relates to the games we play on this show. Usually the topics are confined to video game creators and companies, or franchises attached to the games. Today's episode covers something a little different.
But we find time to talk about Wordtris, a word-based puzzle game that's not terribly similar to Tetris. Then we go into a long discussion about Wing Commander, a well-known video game franchise with origins that were much more humble than we expected. Does this PC port bring enough of the game's action to the SNES, or does the console's limitations do this game a disservice. Do Link or Emmy even like space shooters enough for any of that to matter? You'll have to listen to find out.
Two more big properties means two more deep dives into company histories. This time we're talking about Broderbund and Lucasarts.
Of course we have a lot to say about the Prince of Persia and Super Star Wars, two games that are almost really good but are maybe too frustrating to elevate them to that status by today's standards.
Also there's Road Riot 4WD, but we don't spend too much time on that one.
Looney Toons! Spiderman! X-Men! All in one place! Wow! What could possibly go wrong.
It turns out a lot. Though both Arcade's Revenge and Road Runner's Death Valley Rally have their high points, we're gonna discuss the flaws that ultimately prevent these games from being classics. But the calamities aren't relegated to the games themselves as both of these games are tied to some disastrous events for the developers that made them. We'll talk about that too.
This one was a bit hard for SteampunkLink as he loved Arcade's Revenge as a kid, but acknowledges it doesn't hold up.
This rather interesting trio of games gives us a chance to talk about some fairly obscure video game companies (or at least what little we know about them in Raya's case).
We talk about Best of the Best: Karate Championship which is an interesting but frustrating kickboxing sim. Please note that this game with the word "Karate" in the title doesn't actually feature any karate.
Then we talk about Firepower 2000. It's another scrolling shooter but this one plays a bit differently than its peers. Will it be enough to put it in the upper echelon of shooters on the list?
Finally, we discuss Captain Novolin. This game has already been featured in so many articles about strange and/or bad video games that it likely needs no introduction. This strange quasi-educational game about diabetes is given a fair shake here and we have quite a bit to say about it.
If you like butt-ugly cavemen, then have we got the game for you!
But before we get to that, we need to talk about John Madden Football '93. It's more American football! Yay if you're into that sort of thing! We are not!
We also discuss Cyber Spin. It turns out that Cyber Spin is not a tennis or golf game, it's a pretty bland F-1 game that's meant to be kinda futuristic. What isn't bland is the company that made the game, Arc System Works. Maybe you've heard of them?
Last and possibly least, we have Chuck Rock. A game that would be merely uninteresting if it didn't feature such a repellent protagonist.
Not the best lot we've ever tackled but some there are at least some interesting facts about the companies that made them.
The games on tap for today don't reach nearly the highs of last week, nor are they (collectively at least) as bad as the trio before that. We kick off the episode with an fun and simple labyrinth-style game. It's certainly different as far as SNES games are concerned. Then we move on to Imperium which is another scrolling shooter. It's not bad, but it doesn't do a lot to stand out either. Finally we look at GunForce; a game whose mediocrity steps the line into "just kinda bad" territory.
So the games aren't amazing, but we do have a lot of history to dive into!
We only got to two games today, but they are both huge! First we talk about Soul Blazer, another game from studio Quintet and Publisher Enix. This is the same pair that brought us Actraiser and you can see a lot of Actraiser DNA in this game. Will it surpass its spiritual predecessor?
Next, we talk about Out of This World, a game that seems to get somewhat overlooked these days, but made a huge impact on the industry and inspired a lot of folks who would go on to make other classic games. We talk the history and the game itself as SteampunkLink and Emmy Zero try to contain their amazement at how well Out of This World works on the Super NES.
The games are bad. We actually found one that is worse than Pit Fighter!
But let's not focus on the bad, let's look at the positive instead.
We want to shout out some great folks, all of whom you should follow on Twitter:
If you like spooky things, then you need to follow @NerdsFTC
If you enjoy in-depth movie analysis, you should absolutely follow @CatchingCinema
If you just like 90s nostalgia, then you'd be remiss if you didn't follow @knvgprimetime
if you like Drunk History but wish it covered more topics, then I'd be very sad if you didn't follow @DrinkipediaPod
Finally, if you like what we do, then I imagined you'd like what @SNES_is_Life does as well.
Thanks to all of those folks for being friends of the show.
It's been while, but we're back doing what we do best; talking about and ranking SNES games. We're finally winding down October of 1992, but first we decide to go back and talk about some games our guests brought up a few weeks ago in our special and re-rank them on our top 100.
We also talk a LOT about SNES golf. We briefly reflect back on all the golf games that came out on the SNES before diving into Irem Skins Game. Does this game come close to the pin, or is it way out in the rough?
Finally we talk about Skuljagger, a swash-buckling video game that expected you to read a small book before playing. Good luck with that.
It's our pilot episode of Quick, Change the Channel, a podcast talking about movie and tv adaptations of video games. We decided that the first movie we talk about should be the one we're took the podcast's name from. So, we're breaking down 1994's Street Fighter starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raul Julia.
Join us for this over two hour breakdown as we comb through every crumb of camp this movie has to offer. We'll discuss how well (and mostly how poorly) this movie adapted the characters from the game, all of Bison's plots, the surprising amount of white extras in this movie taking place entirely in southeast Asia, and more!
Oh, you want crossovers? We got crossovers! SteampunkLink and Emmy Zero are joined by Trevor (@CatchingCinema) as well as Greg (@NerdsFTC) to talk about some of their favorite SNES games and offer challenges to how the rankings could be adjusted in the future. We cap everything off by playing SNES multi-cart draft! We all had a lot of fun, it was a blast recording this with Trevor and Greg and we think you'll enjoy listening.
If you like fun movie analysis, you can hear more of Trevor on Catching Up On Cinema on your favorite podcast app.
If horror is your bag, you can here more of Greg on Nerds From the Crypt on your favorite podcast app. Greg is also one of the creators of the graphic novel series Junior Braves of the Apocalypse, and check out his new project Starlite on Kickstarter.
Game numbers 99 and 100 go on the list! How exciting! We decided to talk about Q*Bert 3 first since we wanted number 100 to be special and Space Megaforce is an amazing game.
We also go into the history of the original arcade classic QBert, as well as talk about Space Megaforce developer Compile, and.. checks notes* publisher Toho? As in Godzilla-creator Toho, am I reading this right?
We hope you'll join us in celebrating this milestone. And remember, only on SNEScapades will you hear Time Killers and Square One TV brought up in the same episode.
This was a fun episode to record! It was fun to research the games. It was even kinda fun to edit. The only thing not fun about this episode was playing Super Batter Up.
Luckily we also played Super Double Dragon, which disappointed but wasn't unpleasant. Super Buster Bros. was the standout this week, though. A really fun port of a Capcom arcade game that took SteampunkLink and Emmy Zero by surprise. Give it a listen. We think you'll enjoy it!
Today, we're talkin' Tennis. And a lot of other things. In fact we didn't actually care for the tennis all that much. But that David Crane guy is pretty noteworthy, so we talk about him for a little bit before touching on his so-called "Amazing Tennis".
Then we get a little bit political as we talk about Desert Strike, Return to the Gulf. SteampunkLink talks about Gulf War trading cards. Literally everything had a trading card in the 80s and 90s.
Finally, we talk about Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest, a good-intentioned yet flawed attempt to broaden the RPG fan base in the west. It's far from the failure many make it out to be, and did manage to achieve at least one convert as Emmy Zero will attest to.
Really, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest probably should have been the cover for this one. But that jacket though...
If you're looking for "hidden gems" on the SNES, then this episode is for you because we have a trio of fantastic, yet seldom talked-about games today! First we take a trip to Nevernever Land as we discuss the film and game adaptation of Hook. The movie may not be terribly well-loved, but the game is a lot of fun. Next we get into the city-sized ring to throw down in King of the Monsters. Finally, learn this one neat trick to turn your bland scrolling shooter into something that stands out as we play Blazeon: The Bio-Cyborg Challenge. These games were fun and we had a lot of fun talking about them! Hope you have as much fun listening.
Another episode and another impromptu new segment as SteampunkLink can't help but tell Emmy Zero about some obscure imported French cartoons from the early 90s. But there's no time to linger on that for too long, we got games to discuss.
The first basketball game leaves a good impression on the duo. It's one of the better sports games on the system so far. Perhaps the best?
Then it's on to James Bond Jr. and all the hilarity that was making children's entertainment out of very adult properties. Also, SteampunkLink and Emmy Zero discuss the mystery of JBJ's parentage.
Finally they discuss Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. It's uh... better than the first game. That's something, right?
Coming off of our Simpson's extravaganza, we turn our attention to the other two games which give us less to talk about, but are more fun to play than Bart's Nightmare. We talk about the first bowling game on the SNES; the simply titled Super Bowling. It's fine, if you like bowling and really want to do it exclusively on the Super NES. Then we talk about Phalanx, which is another freaking horizontally-scrolling shooter. Does it do anything to elevate itself above all the other shooters on the system? Listen and find out!
And yes, OF COURSE, we talk about that cover!
Okay, okay, I know what you're thinking. "The Turtles game had to share it's space with other games, but you dedicated an episode exclusively to this trash?" Yeah, kinda. It's because we really love talking about the Simpsons and this was a great excuse to discuss the wonderful Simpson's arcade game that came out the year before.
Also, Bart's Nightmare isn't trash. It's actually six games of varying quality that average out to be trash, so we do have a lot of ground to cover. We hope you'll enjoy this episode anyway.
We're back with America's games; baseball and Wheel of Fortune. Also Robocop. We lead off with Roger Clemens MVP Baseball to answer the question "Can the floor for SNES baseball get lower than it already is?" Luckily this game gives us an excuse to talk about the strange history of the infamous LJN company. Then its on to Robocop 3, a game that seems to have come out about a year earlier than the movie it's based on. Another year of development time certainly couldn't have made the game any worse. Finally, we talk about Wheel Of Fortune, a game that didn't quite live up to SteampunkLink's memories of the version that came out on older consoles. The games ain't great but the topics and conversation are lively, so don't miss it!
Steampunk Link uses his "Science Device" (a microphone) to do a deep dive into Dinocity, discussing the company that made the game and the strange direct-to-tv movie that it's based on. Then he chows down with George Foreman and finds that rigging a boxing match is much easier than he ever would have thought. Finally, he spins his wheels playing some Super Mario Kart, a fantastic game that sadly has been left behind by all the Mario Kart that has come since.
Sadly, Emmy Zero couldn't join me for this one due to some technical issues, but everything is being ranked according to discussions that the two of us had in the original recording. And sorry for the delay on this one. Things should be getting back to normal next week.
A horizontal/vertical shooter hybrid, an F1 racing sim, and a first-person-shooter all on today's show. What a line-up! We start with a discussion of Axelay. It's a vertically scrolling shooter with some horizontally scrolling levels as well. But good luck getting to them. Then we talk about F1 ROC: Race of Champions. And if you're a huge fan of F1.... there are probably better ways to get your F1 fix than this game. Finally, get ready to blast some faces with your balls. We discuss Faceball 2000, a descendant of one of the earliest first-person-shooters in gaming.
Have a nice day!
Cowabunga dudes! It's pizza time! Let's kick shell! Engage!
You know what all of those silly phrases means; we're talking about the Ninja Turtles. Specifically, we're talking about the really great turtle game TMNT IV: Turtles in Time. It's amazing, and you should stop whatever you're doing right now and play it.
We also dive into Rampart, which is pretty great. At least it's probably great on systems that have a trackball or mouse. On the SNES, it ain't great.
We also play Super Play Action Football which is more football, and Monopoly which is pretty much what it says on the tin. But hey, at least Monopoly is more justified on the SNES than Clue.
And we debut our new show within a show, "Talkin' Trek". Give it a listen, will you?
After tackling the Capcom classic that was Street Fighter II, there's something a bit deflating about covering another Capcom arcade port that's not nearly as well-remembered or well-loved. Despite that, Magic Sword is an alright game. Ka-Blooey on the other hand is a pretty terrible one. Then we have Strike Gunner STG which is somewhere in the middle. It's also a game that Steampunk Link and Emmy Zero have pretty different feelings about.
This one was so big that it needed it's own episode. We talk the original version of Street Fighter II: The World Warrior for the SNES. Seeing as how we know there are updated versions of this game coming, we really didn't expect to be quite as hot on the original as we were. But even in its unupdated form, Street Fighter II is such a monumental achievement on the system in 1992 that we couldn't help but sing its praises for well over half an hour.
But this will work out well for you too, dear listener. It means you'll get to hear samples of every character's stage theme. We also end the episode by talking about the list as it stands as we approach the SNES's first birthday!
We're opening this episode with another soccer game. In fact, its another soccer game that has "Super" in the title. In fact, it''s another soccer game that has "Super" in the title that is quite good. It's Super Soccer Champ. Next we have Thunder Spirits which is a scrolling shooter that made SteampunkLink question if he actually hates the whole genre. Then we closely examine the video game adaptation of Clue. Is it worth playing over the board game? No. Is it worth playing at all really? Eh... Finally, we look at the questionably named Spanky's Quest which is charming and pretty fun. Enjoy!
Hey hey kids! It's time to tackle our first (and likely best) Simpson's game on the SNES. And because this is a game published by Acclaim, we finally get to do our deep dive into the company!
We also talk about Super Soccer which is considerably better than the previous soccer game we played. We get a bit political talking about Garry Kitchen's Super Battletank: War in the Gulf. And we look at the very strange Argonaut-developed game, Space Football: One-on-One. Star Fox this isn't, but it's still fascinating nonetheless.
Well... they can't all be winners. In this episode we look at an unimpressive golf game (Jack Nicklaus Golf), an unimpressive RPG (Arcana), an impenetrable - to us at least - strategy game (Romance of the Three Kingdoms), and finally a complete piece of garbage (The Rocketeer). We played all of these so you don't have to suffer through them. You're welcome.
After a brief hiatus, we are back! And we're starting off with a surprisingly great racing game that neither of us had heard of before. Spoiler alert, we think it's the best racing game we've played so far. Then we dive into some World League Soccer which is the first soccer game we've played and... eh, it ain't great. Speaking of things that aren't great, we look at Xardion next. Finally we look at Mario Paint, and Steampunk Link learns that sometimes nostalgia isn't a good thing.
Wow! This is a big one, folks. Not only do we add our 50th game to the list, but we're going to be talking about one of the most beloved games of all time in one of gaming's most revered franchises. That's right, it's Raiden Trad!
Okay okay, of course I'm talking about The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Somehow, neither of us had played this one before and we get to see what we'd been missing out on.
We do talk about Raiden Trad too. Also the gloriously bizarre Rival Turf.
Oh, and True Golf Classics: Pebble Beach Golf Links, which is the first sequel to a game we've already covered on the show. So that's cool too!
In this episode, we're taking a look at a licensed game that's actually not too shabby. The Addams Family is proof that not all movie tie-in games belong in the garbage. And then we take a brief look at WWF Super Wrestlemania, the first wrestling game on the SNES. We also talk about the first SNES installments of two well-known series of side-scrollers with Contra III: The Alien Wars and Super Adventure Island. One of them is great and the other... not so much. Which is which? I guess you'll just have to listen to find out!
We've got more golf! But it's okay, it's actually pretty good golf. The series that would become Tiger Woods PGA Tour makes its debut as we play PGA Tour Golf. Then we play some Lemmings and it turns out, that's also pretty good. So good, in fact, that we're both a little surprised that neither of us had ever played it before now. Then we've got more baseball and that pretty.... eh... it's alright I guess. And if golf balls and base balls weren't enough for you, we end the episode with Smart Ball which is... not great.
But hey, Lemmings is pretty darned good!
Sadly, our review of Super Scope Six will have to be put on hold for now. But we do break down Super Smash TV (for big money and big prizes!), Legend of the Mystical Ninja, and... uh... Pit Fighter.
In this episode, we kick off 1992 with a completely bug-free Earth Defense Force. Then it's time to hop in our time machines to rescue some cave babes (shudder) with Joe & Mac. Then we dive into a somewhat overlooked SNES RPG with Ys III: Wanderers from Ys, which takes the popular Ys formula and literally flips it on its side. Finally, we look at Nolan Ryan's Baseball and realize that, yup it sure is more baseball.
We've come to the end of 1991. There are just two games left to talk about and instead of jumping into the games of 1992, Emmy Zero and SteampunkLink decide to look back on the first year (well half of a year) of the SNES's life. So after some lively discussion about Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 and Super Off Road, they chat a bit about how the list stands as 1991 draws to a close and some of their favorite games, or just games they found fascinating.
Thanks for listening, and we'll see you in 1992!
Today, SteampunkLink and Emmy Zero team up to talk about Lagoon as Emmy Zero just wishes she was playing a proper Ys game instead. Then we it's time to get into John Candy's van in a hasty trip to check on Kevin in Chicago. They're talking about Home Alone, in case you missed the reference there. Then it's off in their helicopter for D-Force. It's a rough trip but it's all worth it as they finish up with Super Castlevania IV.
In this episode, SteampunkLink and Emmy Zero have to endure what are easily the worst group of four games they've had to review so far. First they get a little controversial with their declaration that Capcom classic Super Ghouls N' Ghosts is a bad game. Then it's off to the races with RPM Racing; a game with noble technical ambitions that ultimately turned into an astoundingly bad final product.
The second half of the group are a pair of decent sports games with Super Tennis and True Golf Classics: Waialae Country Club. You know things aren't great when the sports games are highlight for these two.
In this episode, we discuss Darius Twin, Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball, Actraiser, and Final Fantasy II.
Wow, we have a pair of real classics in this one. We had so much to say about Actraiser and Final Fantasy II, that this is our longest episode ever. We talked for nearly two hours, but because we love you, we managed to cut it down to just under an hour.
Will we actually end up with a new number one? Maybe! That's not us being coy. We honestly don't know. We couldn't decide and had to discuss it more off-mic. Spoilers? Maybe, but I thought I'd just let you know up-front that this one is going to end on a bit of a cliff-hanger.
We talk a lot about the history of a popular manga series in Japan, a long-running Japanese TV superhero, an arcade classic, and an old tabletop game about football. We discuss a lot of things that happened in the 80s! And I guess we talk about some Super NES games as well.
Do you enjoy baseball, chess, old arcade games, or being god? If so, then have we ever got an episode for you. Emmy and Link start with a chat about the SNES port of the PC god-sim Populous. Then it's on to the dubiously licensed Super Bases Loaded. Super R-Type is up next and rounding everything out is The Chessmaster. What's better than a game of chess against a tough but slow computer opponent while the same piece of music plays over and over again?
Things get a bit strange today, as SteampunkLink and Emmy Zero dive into the month of September 1991. They examine rail-shooter Hyperzone which features double the Mode 7 (Mode 14?) Then it's double the Hal with Hal's Hole in One and SteampunkLink explains his issue with golf video games. Then they look at Drakkhen, one of the strangest RPGs to release on the system. Finally, they talk about the SNES's Final Fight port and learn that sometimes two players are better than one.
On this episode Emmy Zero and SteampunkLink cover the non-Super Mario World games that came out in the first month of the Super NES's lifespan. On the whole, it's a pretty solid lineup boasting quality that any video game system would be lucky to have in its first month of life.
In this zero(th?) episode of SNEScapades, Emmy Zero and SteampunkLink talk about their goals for the series and go into a lengthy chat about the title that came packed-in with the system in North America, Super Mario World.