• Tag Archives Super NES

  • GamePro (October 1993)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    gamepro_issue_051_october_1993_001

    Source: GamePro – Issue Number 51 – October 1993

    There were tons of video game magazines from the late 1980s through the late 1990s. GamePro wasn’t my favorite (I preferred EGM and VG&CE) but there is no doubt that it was one of the most popular. The October 1993 issue includes the following:

    • Letters from the GamePros – The GamePro editors explain their rating system.
    • The Mail – Letters from readers with comments and questions on video game violence, playing NES games on the SNES, taking the Turbo Duo on the road, converting Japanese RPGs, obtaining back issues, choosing games to create strategy guides for, baseball games, and more.
    • Cutting Edge – A detailed look at the upcoming Atari Jaguar, including some of the first games. It’s a shame Atari didn’t put more effort into games development and courting 3rd party developers. This could have been a great system.
    • Special Feature: Hot at the Arcades – Part 2 of a Slam Masters Strategy Guide, an arcade wrestling game from Capcom that plays a bit like Street Fighter II.
    • Role-Player’s Realm – Hints and strategies for RPGs including Shining Force for the Genesis, The Seventh Saga for the Super NES, Final Fantasy Legend III for the Game Boy, and Defenders of Oasis for the Game Gear.
    • Special Feature: 3D0 Games – A look at some of the first 3DO games including Battlechess, Crash ‘ Burn, Intelliplay Football, Mad Dog McCree, Oceans Below, Out of This World, San Diego Zoo, Total Eclipse, and Star Trek: The Next Generation.
    • Cover Feature: Super Street Fighter II – It seemed like there were endless variations of Street Fighter II. Street Fighter II: The New Challengers was released after Turbo Street Fighter II Champion Edition and its main changes include four new fighters plus new and improved moves for existing characters.
    • Special Feature: Disney’s Aladdin – Aladdin was near the pinnacle of 2D gaming on 16-bit systems in terms of graphics, animation, sound and music. This is a preview of Aladdin on the Genesis.
    • Special Feature: Star Wars – A look at recent and upcoming Star Wars games, including Super Empire Strikes Back (SNES), Rebel Assault (Sega CD), and Star Wars (Game Gear). Plus, a behind the scenes look at the making of some of these games.

    • ProReviews
      • Genesis – Reviews of Aero the Acro-Bat, Haunting Starring Polterguy, Dashin’ Desperadoes, Dinosaurs for Hire, Gauntlet IV, The Adventures of B.O.B.; Plus previews of Street Fighter II Special Champion Edition, Robocop Vs. Terminator, Robocop III, Pink Panther: Pink Goes to Hollywood, and Sonic Spinball
      • Sega CD – Reviews of AH-3 Thunderstrike and Spider-Man vs. Kingpin plus a preview of Stellar-Fire
      • SNES – Reviews of Terminator 2: Judgement Day, SimAnt, Legend, Battle Cars, Super Aquatic Games, Incredible Crash Dummies, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, Mr. Nuts; Plus previews of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighter, ActRaiser 2, Captain America and the Avengers, and Cliffhanger
      • Nintendo – Reviews of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Mario is Missing!
      • Neo Geo – A strategy guide for Samurai Showdown
      • Game Boy– Reviews of DuckTales 2, Ring Rage, Lemmings, Tumble Pop, and WWF: King of the Ring
      • Game Gear – Reviews of WWF Steel Cage Challenge, Strider 2, Cave Dude, and Off the Wall
      • Lynx – Review of Gordo 106

    • Overseas ProSpects – A look at Jim Powers for the Super NES and Genesis.
    • The Sports Page – Reviews and previews of sorts games including NHL Hockey ’94 (Genesis and SNES), Legends of the Ring (Genesis and SNES), Riddick Bowe Boxing (SNES), Evander Holyfield (Game Gear), Madden NFL ’94 (Genesis and SNES), Football Fury (SNES), Top Gear 2 (SNES), and Nigel Mansell’s World Championship Racing (Genesis, NES, Game Boy). Plus news about upcoming sports releases.
    • GamePro Lab Report – A look at the Dual Turbo wireless controllers for the SNES and Genesis, the Naki Pro Control Pad for the Genesis, and more.
    • Short ProShots – Brief looks at Formula 1 World Championship (Genesis), Prince of Persia (Genesis), Pit-Fighter II (Genesis), WWF Royal Rumble (Genesis), Super Baseball 2020 (Genesis), Dune II (Genesis), Wizzy ‘n’ Lizzy (Genesis), Puggsy (Genesis), Incredible Hulk (Genesis), Bubba ‘n’ Sticks (Genesis), Microcosm (Sega CD), EA Sports Soccer (Genesis), The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (Genesis), F-1 Pole Position (SNES), Lester the Unlikely (SNES), NBA Showdown (SNES), Redline: F-1 Racer (SNES), Super Battletank 2 (SNES), Turn and Burn (SNES), Super Putty (SNES), Super Off Road: The Baja (SNES), Kirby’s Pinball Land (Game Boy), John Madden Duo CD Football (Duo), James Pond II (Game Gear), and more.
    • S.W.A.T.Pro – Hints, tips, codes and passwords for Alien 3 (Super NES), Mario is Missing! (SNES), Time Gal (Sega CD), Spy vs. Spy (Game Boy), Muhammad Ali’s Heavyweight Boxing (Genesis), The Lost Vikings (SNES), Side Arms (Duo), WWF Royal Rumble (SNES), Panic Restaurant (NES), Green Dog (Genesis), Mutant League Football (Genesis), R.B.I. BAseball (Genesis), Bomberman ’93 (Duo), Gates of Thunder (Duo), Mousetrap Hotel (Game Boy), Cotton (Duo), and more.
    • GameBusters: X-Men (Genesis) – A more detailed strategy guide for X-Men on the Genesis.
    • ProNews – AT&T acquires Sierra Network, new SNES bundle featuring Super Mario All-Stars for $149, a new handheld video game featuring barcodes, Double Dragon: The Movie coming soon, Pitfall Harry: The Mayan Adventure delayed, and more.

    …and more!


    📂This entry was posted in Retro Games 📎and tagged

  • ActRaiser and Dragon Warrior III (Enix)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    ActRaiser and Dragon Warrior III Ad

    http://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/165973401923/videogameads-actraiser-and-dragon-warrior-iii-ad

    The above ad for two classic Enix games is from circa 1993. At this time, the NES was seeing some of the most technically impressive releases in its life but even with extra hardware in the cartridges, it was no match for the graphics and sound capabilities of the recently released Super Nintendo.


    ActRaiser

    ActRaiser was a rather unique game and being released only a few months after the introduction of the Super Nintendo, was one of the earliest games available for it. The game combines the city/world building genre of games like Populous with side-scrolling platform action/adventure. This was one of the best early releases for the Super Nintendo. Not only did it have excellent gameplay but it did a good job showing off new graphics and sound capabilities of the SNES.

    Dragon Warrior III though it was released fairly late in the life of the NES was one of its best selling games ever. Dragon Warrior III is a role-playing game played from an overhead perspective with turn-based combat. As far as RPGs on the Nintendo go, The Dragon Warrior series was second only to the Final Fantasy series in popularity. Although the NES didn’t have the technical capabilities of the new SNES, Dragon Warrior III graphics, sound and music were still well done and it offered many hours of excellent gameplay. Enix (now Square Enix) had a reputation for producing very good games and these are two examples of why that is so.


    Dragon Warrior III

    There was a very limited port of ActRaiser for mobile phones in 2004 and there was a Virtual Console release for the Wii in 2007. There was also a sequel, ActRaiser II, developed for the SNES and released in 1993.

    Dragon Warrior III had several remakes over the years. The first was in 1996 for the Super Famicom though it was never officially released in the U.S. However, a Game Boy Color version based on the Super Famicom remake was released in the U.S. in 2001. It was the largest Game Boy Color game released in the U.S. at 32 Mb. There were other remakes for cell phones and the Wii that were only released in Japan. Most recently, an Android and iOS version was released in 2014.





    📂This entry was posted in Nintendo (NES) Retro Games Super Nintendo (SNES) 📎and tagged

  • Brandish (Super Nintendo)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    BRANDiSH
    Koei
    Super NES
    1995

    http://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/165513774884/videogameads-brandish-koei-super-nes-1995-ask

    Brandish is an action RPG that was released by KOEI for the Super Nintendo in 1995. It had other contemporary releases, including for the PC Engine CD-ROM2 (TurboGrafx-CD), NEC PC-9801 and FM Towns but these were Japan only releases. The U.S. release was censored due to some revealing costumes and the plot also had significant changes.

    Brandish is played from a top down perspective like many similar action RPGs of the time. I won’t go into the plot but it’s safe to say it is a suitable fantasy storyline for a video game RPG. The sound wasn’t much to speak of and the music was fairly repetitive. Even the graphics were not spectacular but they were good enough not to detract from the game play which is what counts. As far as action RPGs go, it is actually a pretty decent game despite some of the shortcomings it has. It was quite a popular series of games in Japan.

    While several sequels were made, none saw a U.S. release. There was a remake for the PSP titled Brandish: The Dark Revenant that was initially released in Japan in 2009. It was finally released in downloadable form in the U.S. in 2015. To play the original you will need a Super Nintendo and an original cartridge or be willing to emulate. As far as sequels, you will probably have to learn Japanese or perhaps track down a fan translation if there are any. If you like action RPGs of that era then this is one worth playing.





    📂This entry was posted in Retro Games Super Nintendo (SNES) 📎and tagged