SNEScapades

Welcome back to part two of the December 91 Playing with Power episode and it seems this is an issue featuring many returns. Last time we talked about the Return of the Joker, this time we’re talking about Return of Samus, aka Metroid II for Game Boy which features some really gross art (which we mean as a compliment.)

Another month, another two-part episode of Playing with Power. As we look at the December 1991 issue of NP, we couldn’t help but be kinda impressed with the various Nintendo-related works that some readers had made in their spare time.

We also get a look at Batman: Return of the Joker, which is an interesting game since it’s a sequel to the first NES Batman video game which was based on the movie despite not being based on the sequel to the movie.

Of course there’s a Nester comic, and this one is alright. There’s the usual suspects of Classified Information, Counselor’s Corner, and a very cool poster feature the Ninja Turtles. There’s also features about Actraiser for the SNES and The Addams Family for the NES.

There’s also an NES game based on Tiny Toons. Since that cartoon featured a boy and a girl protagonist, this is a great opportunity for NES gamers to get a female playable character… oh wait… no… Babs spends the game kidnapped. *sigh*

We were going to do another episode here, but the games ended up being so bad that we just put them into the wrap and decided to put February 1994 out of its misery.

Today, we are going to have to briefly talk about a lot of sports games and a very bad arcade port-turned Super Scope game. We also have the (quite aptly named in Emmy’s case) Turn and Burn: No Fly Zone, X-Kaliber 2097, and Super Troll Islands.

The games are bad, but luckily Chase and Emmy find ways to keep the conversation fun by talking about more interesting things, like Mr. Blobby and The New Grolier CD-ROM encyclopedia.

Things weren’t going swimmingly last time as far as February 1994 goes for the SNES. Sadly, this week isn’t going to be much better.

We have to talk about a very strange “edutainment” game called Mickey’s Ultimate Challenge. While this is a game for young children, will Emmy or Chase find any merit in it as a teaching tool? Or will they conclude that giving your little ones this game is more likely to end in tantrums?

Alfred Chicken is another game from the UK. Can its game play make up for its strange lack of any sense of place?

Those first two games weren’t amazing, but just like last week, there is one palette cleanser. This time it comes in the form of the fun arcade port Ninjawarriors.

Hope you enjoy listening more than they did playing most of these. And remember our important tip: DON’T put slide puzzles in your video game. Please.

Hey everyone! We're back and we're talking about some games that came out in February of 1994 on the SNES. Things aren't amazing this month, gonna put that out there right now.

We’re back again and we’re finally finishing up our commentary on the February 1994 issue of Nintendo Power. We start off talking about an interesting device that put Nintendo games in airplanes and maybe inspired the Wii, kinda? Who knows?

Also, quick behind-the-scenes note; the first musical break is from a game called Noughts and Crosses which was a title exclusive to certain Gateway Systems. It’s basically just fancy tic tac toe. There was also a Hangman game and a slide puzzle called Postcard Puzzle. Noughts and Crosses is the only one we have footage and music of.

We’re also talking about Metroid comics, politicians, X-Men, Simpsons, Startropics 2, and a whole lot more.

So thank granny, sit down, and listen to this podcast. You have been watching too much tv already.

Hey everyone! Sorry we've been gone for so long. It's been a hot summer and Chase doesn't have AC in his office. Also, stuff just kept happening so we decided to take a bit of a hiatus over the summer. We should be back to getting things out weekly for the foreseeable future (hopefully). In any case, the next few episodes were recorded well before the hiatus.

We've reached a new month in the chronology, and that means it's another episode of Playing with Power where we talk about that month's issue of Nintendo Power. It's February of 1994 which means a quick check-in with Newsie before we dive in. Bugs Bunny's on the cover, but we think NP dropped the ball by not giving it to SkyBlazer.

In this episode, we talk about cool things sent in by NP readers of the day. There's also Looney Tunes, SkyBlazer, Inspector Gadget, Sports, and more. So much more that we ended up splitting this one into two parts, and we even leave it on a bit of a cliff-hanger.

We've come to the end of November 1991 again and we're looking at the remainders. They're... not much to write home about. We have a lot of sports, which we don't really do much of any more (though one of them, we still enjoyed.) There's also RPM Racing and Paperboy 2.

Hey everyone! We're revisiting two games today. One we really liked the first time we reviewed, and another that we didn't like much at all from the outset, then maybe, kinda softened on it a bit? It's complicated.

Actraiser is one of the few games Chase finished for the first time while playing it for the show. Do he and Emmy still like it as much as they once did? And where will they ultimately land on Super Ghouls N Ghosts? Listen and find out.

We decided that there were four games worth talking about from November of 1991, so we've broken them down into two pairs. Today we're talking about Darius Twin and Final Fantasy II.

Darius Twin is a pretty solid shooter that lets you play co-op. We really liked it the first time around. Are we going to be as generous to it this time?

Okay, but seriously, we're mostly here to talk about Final Fantasy II, right? Known as Final Fantasy IV today, this is the Final Fantasy game with Cid in it. Oh, and Cecil, and Kain, and Rydia, and all those other folks. We like this one a whole lot and will break down a lot of elements we think are great (and a few that are less great) on today's episode of SNEScapades.