theguyfawkesretro

[theguyfawkesretro]

First Super Nintendo Game You Finished?

Remember the first game you finished on the Super Nintendo? I do. But, it’s not what you may think or what I would have considered a priority considering the wealth of titles the SNES had. I owned a tiny proportion of the wealth the Super Nintendo was dishing out in the early nineties that included such giants Super Mario World, Super Bomberman and Super Castlevania 4 – it was something completely different that I managed to clock first.

I’d come off the back of owning the Amiga 500 with pretty much every game imaginable for the system, whether that be original or a back up copy kindly provided to me by a strange man at a bus stop in Collier Row wearing a Star Trek TNG tee and grey joggers, so I was accustomed to dull, lifeless platform games. I’m not saying all Amiga platformers were lifeless imitations of other games, lazy and unplayable – but most were. So when I discovered Lethal Weapon the Super Nintendo, I just had to give it a go. OCEAN made some absolutely astonishing games followed by some absolutely astonishing terrible games fro all systems in the nineties era of film licenced software. One thing is most certainly confirmed and that’s these games do not follow the script, plot or substance that the film dictates to. That’s not a bad thing.

I mean, look. If you are going to make a game out of the film ‘The Untouchables’ with Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro and Sean Connery then sticking to the script would be implausible. You can’t open the game with stage one opening boxes looking for bottles of Scottish whiskey or moonshine only to stumble on a shipment of five thousand umbrellas. Stage two would be talking about doings stuff. Stage three would be to help the Irish cop who’s been injured in his apartment to raise the alarm for help.

It doesn’t work. With Lethal Weapon, the hardware limitations factor into how the games story diverts form the films script.

But, I had fun with it. It’s sturdy, reacts well and has some challenging elements. Mel Gibson walks funny. It has no tie to the film what so ever. One of the levels makes you jump over giant crocodiles in a sewer. So that’s fun.

Why did I finish this game first? Honestly I can’t remember. But I do recall having some issues with Super Mario World towards the end and it’s a pretty big game.

I must have just decided to take a break and focus on something else. I had a habit of playing based SNES games consistently. Crash Dummies, Trolls and Jurassic Park to name a few, but for whatever reason Lethal Weapon has stuck with me.

It was the first game I finished on the system. That’s probably why it has stuck in my mind al this time, but then again it could be that it’s not that bad of game after all.

[theguyfawkesretro]

The School Playground.

The school playgrounds were a dangerous arena to discuss anything as a kid. Primary school playground’s were ruthless. A year before I started secondary school in 1994, I had warmed up to the prospect that I was the only kid at school with a Super Nintendo. Ok, there may have been a few others but too my knowledge, I was alone. Battle hardened by Premier League 92/93 album stickers and trading fine wares such as large gummy cola bottles and the occasional Garbage Pal Kid stand off, I was prepared for secondary school.

An all boys secondary school. Full of idiots.

Everybody knew someone who knew an aunt’s boyfriend that had a daughter form a previous marriage who’s boyfriend worked at Nintendo or SEGA.

Primary school was rough when it came to discussing the finer points of Nintendo Vs SEGA, but secondary senior school was insufferable.

If getting your tie ‘peanutted’ by a 5th grader and having your mint Kickers scuffed by a more than worn out Mitre Delta Pro Ultima Premier League Fusion ball wasn’t bad enough, you had the gaming types who were literally dedicated to whatever system they owned and challenging them within the hours of twelve and one, lunch, would almost mean a certain fight that was only determined by rolling around on the playground floor screaming out Street Fighter two moves like some kind of early nineties cosplayer prototype.

Before late 94’, when the PlayStation made it’s debut into the mind of already sugar induced teens, the battle was all about Super Nintendo and SEGA. Oh, also Amiga, but they were on a higher level than anyone, like gaming monks that have survived the corridors of time by using X-Copy to provide for their Panda Pop’s and Wham Bar addiction.

The argument was rife. Who was better. What was better. What system had the best games. You always had that one kid with a Neo-Geo.

Growing up with the SNES and The Mega Drive, but owning the SNES outright, I opted to take the sides of the Nintendonites. It was a challenge to say the least, most kids had the Mega Drive from the start and conjuring up arguments to lay claim to why Super R-Type was better than Arrow Flash was a bloody chore.

The thing is – it mattered. Massively.

It predetermined your friend circle. Made you popular. Made you less popular.

Worst of the lot was if a new game had ‘dropped’ that week, sorry, I mean ‘come out’ and you didn’t have it.

For example, Mortal Kombat wasn’t my thing. So when the second game came out on SNES, I didn’t have it. I had the first one that I didn’t really play. So when kids found out I didn’t have it and I only had MK1 without any blood, kids literally walked past me rubbing there chins and quietly whispering ‘gutted’.

If school wasn’t hard enough to fit into, then not owning the latest game and being outcast because some rich Walter Softy’s parents who bought them anything was taunting you in front of his other posh mates was the worst thing ever.

Until home time. Then you were free to kick Walter Softy in the balls whilst he waited for the 294 bus, whilst contemplating how fast you are going to clock Donut Plains 3, knocking back a Tizer.

Mint.

[theguyfawkesretro]

The First Ones.

All of us remember , to an extent at least , what game or games we first played on a new system as a kid. With me, it was a varied experience. I knew what games were going to propel my imagination and what games were going to be fillers. Judging a game by it’s name and cover back in the early 90’s was a key factor, a common denominator to which you stuck by unless tipped off by the playground or at least a review in a magazine.

To be absolutely fair, the results were quite different. In my head, the way I predicted it, if I played the least best looking game or the game that was an afterthought in comparison to what I knew was going to be better , then that’s them out of the way. There’s no need to put down Super Mario World or Starwing. They would keep me company.

So I played the games I imagined I’d be least appealed with.

First up. Nigel Mansell’s World Championship Racing. In my head this was going to be a ten minute blast. Blaze around Imola for a bit, lap a few generic cars and onto the nest game.

Never judge a game by it’s un-diverse and lack lustre generic F1 box.

Fast, appealing soundtrack and multiple tuning options. Amazing levels settings according to factual landscapes and track dimensions. Amazing speed. Astute handling. Glorified only by being a bit realistic on the corners. Rear mirrors that work allowing you to swerve, slowdown and block opportunistic AI drivers. It had me hooked. Race after race, season after season. Beating my best or coming no where near. I spent two days on this game. The first game I ever played on my SNES. It’s just a shame that’s its one of five three games that I don’t have anymore that I originally owned and to be honest with you I am pretty upset about.

After ploughing nearly two solid days into Nigel Mansell, I had to play something else. I knew now that I’d made a mistake in assuming Nigel’s game was going to be a poor choice, it was quite the opposite.

So I opened up a fresh smelling Lethal Weapon. Coming from a background of Amiga, MD and SMS platform games, I was always weary of anything third party to the dedicated system I was playing. The Amiga ports were mainly shoddy. In my mind, if it wasn’t Capcom or Konami then what was the point?

I wasn’t exactly blown away with OCEANS Lethal Weapon, but it was expected. The intro music was cool and that’s about it. Revisiting the game this year, it’s not as bad as I remember it but stil, everything is rather dull, compressed, unimaginative. I moved on.

I love a football game. Coming off the back of Sensible Soccer v1.1 & v1.2 respectively was not going to be an easy feet. So I decide to slam into the cartridge slot World Cup Striker.

First impressions, it wasn’t Sensi. There was no flow. Aspect ratio had been replaced with a parallax semi-effect mind inducing spiralling system that always tricked the brain to thinking that you were playing on hill. I had two controllers, so I handed my Dad one. That’s when I discovered the indoor option and that was when this game actually became fun. I destroyed my Dad and to be honest with you, until I got ISS Deluxe (imported from Japan), I didn’t really rank the SNES football games. Kick Off 3 was pretty cool. FIFA (the SNES edition) was too polished, slow. I flirted with Fever Pitch a year later, but that fell flat too. I played Sensi on Amiga over the SNES every time until ISS Deluxe at least.

Next up was something completely different and this was last ‘outsider’ game I played just before Super Mario World and Castlevania 4 sucked me in.

Super Mario Kart.

Ok, I know what you are thinking. Outsider? Jog on. But no, seriously, I considered this game to be a flash in the pan, money grabbing exercise before we were introduced to Super Mario World 2 ( A proper SMW2)

I didn’t like the look of it. In my head, it was some crappy looking sprites with a overly bright go kart track spinning around the player, not the other way round, as it should be.

Well, boy I was wrong. If any game has captured my imagination more than this (Probably Donkey Kong Country) then I’ve simply forgotten about it. Fast. Sprawling. Hard. Addictive. It’s exactly what I wanted and to this day, I’ll stand by these comments, it’s the best Mario Kart game and the only karting game that felt like you were in a go-kart, in control and wanting to go faster.

I can’t explain how many hours I have put into this game over the years. I play this game weekly, without fail and I have done this since 1993. There’s no other game that I have invested so much time in and to this day I still have not beaten my 1997 Ghost Valley 1 record of 58 seconds on 150cc (I have probably mentioned that before once or twice).

Let’s face it - the SNES library is varied, very varied.

[theguyfawkesretro]

Super Action & Play

I once purchased an N64 without any games and begged my best friend for Goldeneye until I had enough money to buy the game outright. That’s how much I wanted the N64. I actually have a Switch with the same dystopian outlook except my best friend is now my wife and I fully understand that it’s January and I have a mortgage today along with everything else.

Pre dating both these ridiculous and audaciously annotates of mistaken and misguided repurchases and panic buying, I also did it back in 1992 on a much smaller scale. Hype was rife and if I couldn’t have the SNES anytime sooner than I wanted it, I’d at least be involved if I purchased some magazines to read to ad to the dreams and dilemmas what I was missing out on before June 1993.

At least with a magazine I could discuss to a fair point in the playground regarding up and coming games that I might be able to own one day at least.

It was like a preparation ritual. I would look at the glossy covers and read all about the games that I would inevitably be talking about right now. The only rule I had was that if I was reading one of these fine publications, I couldn’t play the machines that I had currently plugged into my television.

The first dedicated Super Nintendo Magazine that caught my actually made up my mind to berate my parents for eight months until I favourably got my own way. Anything brightly lit up like an 1980’s Christmas tree in the gaming magazine section in my local newsagent’s was always going to catch my eye and put me of my train of thought (notably how many cola bottles I could get with fifty pence, amazingly, it was always fifty).

Super Action was it’s name and it predated Super Play by an entire month in October 1992. Highly colourful and impcting to the eye, it covered nothing but the Super Nintendo and proclaimed that Probotector ‘Kicks Ass!’

Inside the magazine it covered Super Battletank, Super Smash TV, Turtles In Time and Street Fighter II including many more games that I have sunk my teeth into over the years. Europress Interactive were kind enough to price this magazine at £1.95 too, later dropping down to only 99p – and here’s why.

Super Play Issue 1 November 1992, also £1.95

Super Action really caught my imagination and I continued to purchase the publication until it’s death in 93/4.

But for all it’s colourful variants and pretty decent reviews, including an import section, it struggled with an identity crisis, changing it’s layout, colour scheme and logo font and design several times. It felt like it was supremely misleading and was aiming at early to late teen years. Super Play got it right from the word go, mature aimed audience based with a strict regime of telling us how it is from the off.

I was hooked. I continued to buy Super Action along side Super Play out of slight pity, I can only assume this is what I was feeling at the time, loyal to two magazines. But Super Play had the edge and to this day is the most comprehensive, system dedicated magazine that’s very been on the shelves.

No doubt I’ll cover more on both magazines over the next few blogs.

[theguyfawkesretro]

Wanting The Super Nintendo.

June 93, I became a very lucky 10 year old. I’d been wanting the Super Nintendo for around a year and my birthday was fast approaching. I’m not going to delve into the facts of why or how I received quite a few SNES game with the console, I was just lucky and thus my parents were after, quite out of pocket. Either way, kudos for my parents on choosing the games since only six months earlier I received a Game Gear and some new SEGA console and Amiga games. I think they knew, dep down that one day I’d be writing a blog about it and amazingly, ended up in a few books talking about the games they bought for me.

I kind of remember the full line up of games, still owning all of them bar three. One I traded in, one an ex-girlfriend took a long time ago and one that simply just went walkabouts.

Instead of remembering the games I got with the system, I thought I’d talk about the lead up to wanting the SNES and how how I met one for the very first time.

It was around Christmas 92’ when I saw my first ever grey box of joy. I was dragged out in the snow to do some mid December Christmas shopping. The usual. BHS, C&A and al the other giants of UK consumerism along the way which sadly are now defunct. I’d always ask to go into Dixons in Romford. Back then, apart from VHS players and Hi-Fi’s, Dixons were actually a leading force in the main high street video & computer game sector. I remember seeing the Amiga 500 in the window running Speed ball 2 Brutal Deluxe in the Dixons Store in Clacton-On-Sea high street if my memory serves me correct.

Walking into the Romford store, I remember the constant heat emitting from everything, the smell of electronics working over time whilst the latest AKAI Hi-Fi blared out Simply Red’s Stars compact disc on loop. Towards the back of the store, near the till were a group of teens and adults making a fuss over a TV.

Aw I got closer, I could here the noise. The music. Then I saw it. On a grey, metal shelve, tilted forward slightly, with a signal beaming red light, staring at me. No noise, just sleekness, coolness. It was the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, because that’s what we called it back then.

I spent more time looking at the heavily displayed console, with all it’s surrounding hot top touch glowing red Nintendo logo lit up on each side of the shelve. The staff in the store had even taken the time to place two chairs in front of it and removing the halogen light above the displayed SNES form the ceiling for added, extra dramatic effect. You’d think the second thing I’d look at was the TV screen, but no. I traced the wire from the joy-port to a young fellows hands and there, comfy and snug, laid in the palm of his hands, the most detailed, smooth and intricate looking controller I’d ever seen. The colours, red, blue, green & yellow glared back at me. It was right then, that precise moment in time that before I’d even looked at the screen, I decided I needed one.

I needed it.

First thing that came to mind was that after all the hype in magazines, all those pictures of that ugly grey and purple US version I’d seen in Mean Machines, it suddenly dawned at me that we got the Japanese version. I had to tell my Mum & Dad. ‘Mum, Dad, we got the Japanese one’ I said.

They had no idea what was going on. I was a rambling mess of a kid in an electronics sweet shop.

That’s when I see, for the first time in action, F-Zero. To use the now common phrase of ‘My mind was blown’ is in no way an underestimation. I was gone. With the fairy’s. I instructed the bemused parents to leave me in the shop whilst they naff off and continue to shop.

Forwarding on from this life changing event, quite literally as I’m still talking about it to this day, June 93. I got one. Did I care it was PAL? Nope. I’d already done my research and decided how best to spend future pocket money, if any, on a converter.

I didn’t care. I had a Super Nintendo. Height of Summer in 1993.

It seems my next post will no doubt remember the first games I played on my own.

[theguyfawkesretro]

Hello there, Super Nintendo.

Starting a blog about a specific system is not easy. Before I fell in love with the no introduction needed Super Nintendo in the very early 90’s, I was and still am an hard-core affiliate to the Amiga, the Master System and the Amiga. There’s no love loss with those machines, epically the Amiga 500.

But, thinking ahead into 2019, I’m determined to muster up a feeling of joy that will keep me occupied and busy during a year that I know, deep down, will be long but formidable one for me and my family. To get me through the DIY, job changes and unexpected turns that 2019 is no doubt about to throw at me, I needed a personal escape that wasn’t gaming. So naturally, I chose the other thing I’m not that bad at – talking about gaming.

That’s when I dawned on me, like a vast array of Viking ships appearing on the horizon as you eat your breakfast, I thought to myself, ‘You know what, just give it a go. Grab chance and write about Super Nintendo’.

So, I’m here. New blog. New year. New waffling.

Where to start, however, was the real issue. Diving into a review about a game that’s been covered five hundred times this week most likely isn’t my forte. I’m going to bore you with something else.

We all know the system and if you didn’t own one, you still know about it. The hype was literally real. In the days of pre-in-your-face advertisements for games and new systems, developers and console manufactures would used anything they could get their hands on.

Games magazines. Flyers. Billboards. Fizzy drink bottles. Newspapers. Busses. TV.

It was an in your face market that needed impact to promote thus to survive. If you didn’t see it whilst crossing the road to school on a poster in the bus shelter or whilst looking through that games magazine you wasn’t going to buy at the sweet shop at Romford train station, then you didn’t know.

The fact that, in the early 90’s in the gaming industry at least, there was seemingly no barriers or political correct boundaries to follow or adhere to, it was open game.

From SEGA promoting the Master System, Game Gear and the Mega Drive with seemingly the most basic of black and white cartoons with a mans hairy bollocks sticking out of his trunks to a bit later in the decade with Nintendo promoting the Gameboy as a secondary option to having sex with a female, the 90’s had it all. Obviously, being in the UK, the brashness of the 90’s had no realms of subtle limits, even for Nintendo – they allowed it, appealing to what my generation of British youngsters to the rest of the world must have been freighting – with green hair, running around shouting that we are fire starters and we’d like to smack our bitches up.

Apart from the garish yet slightly amusing advertisements that we were al so accustomed to during the era of rave and don’t behave, we in the U.K. seemingly had the best of three different, amazing and sparse worlds of Nintendo, four, if you would like to include the pocket monster that was, what my elder cousin referred to, his ‘second dick’, the Gameboy.

Those threes amazing worlds were, The Super Nintendo in good old Britannia, The Super NES in the Americas and of course the Super Famicom in Japan.

There was choice. Massive choice form other areas of the world map of gaming. Whilst we all feel we got bummed out and had over with the PAL Super Nintendo (I’ll convey some thoughts on that merciless issue at some point in this new blog), if we were lucky, we could literally of have the pinnacle of gaming in the palms of our hands through importing systems or, more to the cusp of the most realistic option, importing games and using converters.

This was conveyed massively throughout the early to mid 90’s in independent, yet abundant, gaming publications. Independent shops, traders and PLC companies importing individually select titles for the SNES on demand or buying in bulk to distribute to the mass of underground hard-core gamers of all ages that needed the latest from America and Japan that too often and none, never got a release officially in the United Kingdom or Europe. The Grey Import scene had a massive advertisement push – none more so than the legendary Super Play (take a swig) which was and still is a quite literal religion to gamers of a certain age on these shores.

It’s the old age saying of ‘sex sells’ that gets thrown around often that reminds me so much of those early days of the Super Nintendo. Anything was allowed. Nothing wasn’t tried, said or put into image that wasn’t a shock. Waiting for the adverts to, as kids these days would say ‘drop’ was a past time for me and many others that was almost as good, or a lot of the time better than playing the actual game. It crept up on you. You couldn’t dial up a modem on demand or suddenly see the trailer on twitter – you had to go and find it. Leave the house. Purchase a magazine or if you were lucky enough, see a poster or a billboard with the game splashed across it. That was the hype. The hype of waiting. The hype of anticipation. The hype of not knowing what the game was like, but shit, the poster was amazing.

The hype was for once, actually real.