SNEScapades

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!