SUPER PLAY CORNER - JUNE / JULY / AUGUST 1993

Welcome once again, young and old (if you're reading this, most likely the latter...) to the Super Play Corner. I really love reading these old magazines. I've bought a few more issues off eBay recently, and I reckon I've got about 3/4 of the entire set now. Super Play really was a great magazine to read. Let's see what was cooking over in Issue 9...

(You'll need to click on the below picture to enlarge... it's quite big)

The above is a report on the state of RPGs in Europe & Australasia at the time. Things weren't that great. We didn't even get a Final Fantasy until FF7... Except for the crappy Mystic Quest... Go figure.

(Once again, you'll have to click the picture below to embiggen)

Game Music. (Careful when you say that phrase to people... it might sound like something different... I've got some funny looks in my time...) Even back then there was a small group of people who really appreciated how these musicians enhanced our gaming experience.

Now let's have a look at Issue 10.

This issue had lots of really cool stuff in it. The Consumer Electronics Show had just happened in Chicago (this was the E3 of its day) which meant lots of exciting new game announcements. It almost seems unthinkable that people didn't have the internet to see all the news as it happened. But we would just have to wait a month or two for the magazines to report on it all.

The big news that Super Play seemed to be getting from everyone was that the Super Famicom C.D. drive was pretty much dead. (This would be confirmed in the following issue of the magazine) After a year of oohing and aahing, Nintendo finally decided that it just wasn't worth it, and in doing so created its biggest rival ever in the PlayStation. I think Nintendo definitely made the right decision to can it. But I'd love to go to an alternate universe and see what the games would have been like!

(Click to make the below picture readable)

This is an interview with the general manager of Konami. Interesting what he had to say about Eastern audiences vs. Western audiences. (It's an issue that's still being raised today)

And here's the full report on the C.E.S. event. Have a look at that top-loader N.E.S... They changed the design of the controller before they shipped it to stores!

Hope you've enjoyed another trip down memory lane. How are people going with their own retro-game-playing? Anyone else playing Aero / Mario Is Missing / Gunstar Heroes / Rondo of Blood this week?

EPISODE 32

Whoa! Just logged in today to see that I've passed 4,000 hits! Nice!! Me am happy little blogger. This week's games took a long time to play. This is the last time I'll ever attempt to play 5 video games at the same time! That was dumb.

My cat Peggy had been pestering me for ages to make an appearance on the blog, so I finally agreed, as long as she could sit still next to the Super Nintendo Mousie. Here's the results: Agree? Disagree? Other?

It would have been so easy for Nintendo to do a re-release of Mario & Wario using the Wii Remote instead of the mouse. But that would make sense, and as we all know, Nintendo NEVER makes sense. Oh well, at least Xenoblade should be arriving any day now. *grin*

SUPER PLAY CORNER - APRIL / MAY / JUNE 1993

Let's see what was cookin' over in Issue 7 and 8...

 

Here's an article about role-playing games. (You'll need to click to see the full article, it's quite large)

 

In issue 7 a character called Neko was introduced. (He's the cute tiger) The idea was that if people subscribed to Super Play, poor Neko wouldn't have horrible things happen to him. It was kinda funny and kinda cute. Poor Neko...

 Here's the official confirmation of Starfox becoming Starwing.

And the official unveiling of Super Mario All-Stars. I won't be covering that in the Year of Retro Gaming (for obvious reasons... I've already covered it!) but All-Stars was one of my most prized carts ever.

Still playing through this week's five games. Shouldn't be TOO long (I hope) before the next episode. Oh, and my copy of Xenoblade should be arriving any day now. Squee!

EPISODE 31

Three Super Nintendo games this week, including the almighty Star Fox... er... Starwing... er... whatever.

 

If you'd like to make me a really happy little blogger, play one of the next five games sometime this week and let me know what you think.

EPISODE 30

The 30th episode!! I feel like I should have some balloons and cake or something.
(The cake is a lie.)

Only 2 games played this week.

Here's the full picture that I showed in the video of "the year so far." (Click to enbiggen)

 

Crazy. I'm looking forward to the next week of gaming! A couple of classics in there! Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a National Census to fill out tonight... :-/

SUPER PLAY CORNER - MARCH / APRIL 1993

Let's see what was news back in March / April of 1993.

Super Mega Man... Considering that Mega Man 5 was the most recent game released in America, little did the blue-bomber fans realise that there was still another N.E.S. game to come before the series would be reinvented for the 16-bit generation. That was still a ways off though... And the true "Super Mega Man" - Mega Man 7 - was even further away.

Capcom really loved to tease, hey? Back then people were imagining that within a year they'd be playing Street Fighter III on their Super Nintendos. Again, they were WAY off the mark. They still had Turbo, New Challengers, Super Ultra Ridiculous Edition, Alpha, etc. etc... By the time the real SF3 came along, hardly anyone cared anymore.

(You'll need to click these pictures to view them full-size... they're pretty massive)

This is an interesting insight into the creation of Star Fox / Starwing.

Next episode's not far off at all. Watch this space.

EPISODE 29

Another week, another 4 retro games played! (Well, a week and a half, really, but... c'mon, cut me some slack! Four games!)

;-)

What do you think? Are you one of these Streets of Rage 2 lovers that will probably now hunt me down? In all honesty, I prefer Streets of Rage 2 over Final Fight. I think there's more variety in the gameplay, I think the graphics are nicer, and the 2-player mode is nothing to be sniffed at. But seriously, you fight the same dudes about 5,000 times each! It's just shallow, shallow, shallow. So there's my rationale. Take it or leave it. ;-p

Here's this week's ratings...

Any hints or suggestions on how to play Another World or Super Turrican? I've dabbled in both before, but can't say I've ever got very far. There seems to be a lot of debate about whether the Mega Drive or Super Nintendo version of Another World is the superior one. I might try them both out. Ciao for now!