SUPER PLAY CORNER - DECEMBER 1993 / JANUARY 1994

Hey again. Only me.

Let's see some of the headlines in Issue 15...

Remember: If a picture is too small to read, just click it, and then click "Show Original" down the bottom-left to view it full-size.

This idea kind of reminds me of the Wii Remote and Classic Controller. Sure, technically it's wireless from the console but it still has to be tethered to the transmitter. Interesting that wireless gaming just didn't take off in the 16-bit era... Or the 64-bit era, for that matter.

In retrospect, this just seems ridiculous. It's amazing how across the decades people continue to be wowed by the simple phrase "3-D." From what I can gather from this article, the ONLY innovation in this "amazing" new idea is that the controller has two extra buttons. Whoop-di-doo! Besides which, I'm pretty sure playing Street Fighter and having to worry about which plane-of-depth you're currently on wouldn't be a lot of fun... It was annoying in LittleBigPlanet.

I got a laugh out of this. Imagine it! They used to print games hints on PAPER! LOL!

Poor Starfox 2. It seems unfair that it never got the release it was made for. Also some early hummings about ratings on games. I suppose titles like Mortal Kombat made people stop and say, "Wait a minute..."

This ia a great read right here. It's funny how many of the people try not to offend anyone by saying "No comment" to the worst game of the year. I also found it hilarious that the Ocean guy described Jurassic Park's interior level graphics as "smooth." ROFL!

So, there you have it once again. Hope that was an entertaining read. I'm still undecided whether or not I'll play all the way through Soul Blazer. I'm actually enjoying it, but these darn RPGs take up too much time! We're almost in November, time is precious!! I'm also eh... playing Batman... Can't help it, it's too awesome. Xenoblade has been temporarily shelved. I'm about 20 hours into it, but I think I need to wait until all the retro gaming is over so that I can really put some time into it. It doesn't seem to work that well as an occasional game.

EPISODE 38

Wow, I'm closing in on 6,000 hits to the blog. That's pretty amazing! Here's this week's episode.

Even though I played twice as much as usual for Aladdin, I think it took about three times as long to put the video together! Anyways, it's done now. Hope it kinda makes sense.

Oh, and I just learnt that I made a mistake in this video. The Mega Drive Aladdin wasn't made by Shiny, it was made by Virgin Interactive. However, Dave Perry was one of the main game designers, and after making Aladdin he went on to create Shiny, so it's kind of close...

I caved in and bought the new Batman game last week. (The retailers were all having an opening-week price war, so I thought I might as well get it while it's cheap) Damn, it's a pretty amazing game. So many millions of things to do at the same time! Errr... I mean, I won't be playing Batman, because there's too much retro goodness to play! Yeah... that's it... :-/

SUPER PLAY CORNER - NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 1993

Here we are again. I reckon I'm just about done with this week's games (kinda irate with Plok and Zombies, but anyway...) and in the meantime, here's some of the headlines from the November / December issue of Super Play.

(Click the picture below to enlarge it)

 

Yes, by this stage the poor old N.E.S. was pretty much extinct. There's only 2 more N.E.S. games left for me to play this year.

This was something that the Super Play crew did every month: quickly tell the readers what they'd been playing most recently, and why.

It was big business, this Street Fighter caper!

 (Click the next picture to enlarge)

 

Some of the Japanese happenings in the role-playing world. Notice the first pics of what would eventually become Illusion of Gaia / Illusion of Time. Looking forward to finally playing that one later in the year.

EPISODE 37

Only two games this week. They took a while to play though... Soz about that.

I'm pretty sure the next episode should be up sooner than this one. I've already finished one of the games. Ah, what a relief to have a short game to play!! (Aladdin, for those playing at home)

SUPER PLAY CORNER - OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 1993

I'm getting close to finishing this week's games. (... which means a whole lotta grinding in Lunar and a whole lotta backtracking in Jurassic Park...) But in the meantime, here's what was making headlines around October and November of 1993.

I've just gotta say, how awesome were Wil Overton's covers? They gave Super Play such a sense of class and awesomeness. So the big news of Issue 13 was that Nintendo made its first official announcement of the Super Nintendo's successor. Only a couple of months since the Super C.D. was officially scrapped, and now came the news of a partnership with Silicon Graphics, which would mean that Terminator 2-level special effects would be possible on the next Nintendo videogame system!!

(Footnote... it's possible that Terminator 2-level special effects might be possible on the NEXT Nintendo videogame system that's due out next year... 19 years late is better than never, I suppose...)

(Click the article to enlarge it)

So very early news, but at least it had a working title ("Project Reality") and some of the initial design specs had surfaced. Here's an interview with Silicon Graphics.

I love the comment: "Whatever happens, memory won't be a problem with Project Reality." What a laugh! If only he could have seen 5 or 6 years into the future...

So there you have it. Hopefully new episode will be up within the week. Ciao!

A NOTE ABOUT GRINDING

Just a little thought that I wanted to throw out there. I've played a few RPGs so far this year. There's definitely more to come. Not to mention that I'm (gradually) playing Xenoblade as well whenever I have a free second. (which isn't often)

Usually with RPGs I don't mind a bit of EXP grinding. It's just part of the experience, I guess. (heh... hehehe) But as I play through the early stages of Lunar and fight the same enemies over and over again, I can't help but just feel a little bit over it. It's probably because I know there's still about ten thousand other games waiting to be played this year, and grinding EXP just doesn't seem like the most enjoyable of endeavours. I just wish there was a way to fast-forward the EXP process. Oh well, enough whinging. Back to it...

/grind

EPISODE 36

Sorry about the delay. Super-busy time of year, added to the fact that Link's Awakening isn't exactly the shortest of Game Boy games, meant that this took a little longer than anticipated. Enjoy!

Catch ya on the flip-side!

I'M UP TO THE EAGLE'S TOWER

... which means I'm getting close to the end of Link's Awakening. As soon as I heard the music I remembered this dungeon... *shudder*

I have memories of going around in circles trying to find the stupid cannonballs to throw into the pillars to bring the tower crashing down... I reckon this one beats Ocarina of Time's Water Temple for frustration hands-down. I think I'll leave it for tomorrow...