Player Two Start: An SNES-CD Timeline
- Thread starter RySenkari
- Start date
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Oh yes, I forgot to figure that out!
Well....I think I'll go ahead and have the owners vote for Willie Davis as his replacement, his tenure begins with the 1995 season.
BONUS - The Nintendo Power Covers Of 1995
I'm going to go ahead and post this now since 1995 is almost over...
Nintendo Power Covers Of 1995:
January 1995: Pulseman (was Adventures Of Batman and Robin IOTL)
February 1995: Justice League: The Battle For Earth (was Mega Man X2 IOTL)
March 1995: Final Fantasy VI (was NBA Jam: Tournament Edition IOTL)
April 1995: Stargate (same as IOTL)
May 1995: Kirby's Dreamland 2 (same as IOTL)
June 1995: The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Dreams (was WeaponLord IOTL)
July 1995: Donkey Kong Land (same as IOTL)
August 1995: Super Mario World 3 (was Virtual Boy IOTL)
September 1995: Killer Instinct (same as IOTL)
October 1995: Yoshi's Island (same as IOTL)
November 1995: Ballistic Limit (was Mortal Kombat 3) IOTL)
December 1995: Donkey Kong Country 2 (same as IOTL)
Nintendo Power Covers Of 1995:
January 1995: Pulseman (was Adventures Of Batman and Robin IOTL)
February 1995: Justice League: The Battle For Earth (was Mega Man X2 IOTL)
March 1995: Final Fantasy VI (was NBA Jam: Tournament Edition IOTL)
April 1995: Stargate (same as IOTL)
May 1995: Kirby's Dreamland 2 (same as IOTL)
June 1995: The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Dreams (was WeaponLord IOTL)
July 1995: Donkey Kong Land (same as IOTL)
August 1995: Super Mario World 3 (was Virtual Boy IOTL)
September 1995: Killer Instinct (same as IOTL)
October 1995: Yoshi's Island (same as IOTL)
November 1995: Ballistic Limit (was Mortal Kombat 3) IOTL)
December 1995: Donkey Kong Country 2 (same as IOTL)
Heh. Almost to 1996.
Just a couple of thoughts that came to mind:
1. Thinking back to Sailor Moon, I considered that if Saban doesn't bring the S season, maybe they could have brought over the Sailor Moon R movie to TV as a special?
2. In regards to Mario RPG, Super Mario World 2 already introduced Toad City and Peach's castle. Will they make city/town separate from the castle as well in the RPG? Considering you used Barrel Volcano, a dungeon in OTL Mario RPG, as a level in Mario World 2....
Just a couple of thoughts that came to mind:
1. Thinking back to Sailor Moon, I considered that if Saban doesn't bring the S season, maybe they could have brought over the Sailor Moon R movie to TV as a special?
2. In regards to Mario RPG, Super Mario World 2 already introduced Toad City and Peach's castle. Will they make city/town separate from the castle as well in the RPG? Considering you used Barrel Volcano, a dungeon in OTL Mario RPG, as a level in Mario World 2....
Good Timeline so far.
There is another butterfly that can affect Star Trek.
With the end of Deep Space Nine's third season, there is a potential for a change, as the producers were initially going to have a cliffhanger ending to the finale, but the studio executives didn't want one.
The butterflies could affect these events so that the producers would write the story they originally wanted (that eventually became the 'Homefront/Paradise Lost' two parter in the middle of the fourth season OTL).
There is another butterfly that can affect Star Trek.
With the end of Deep Space Nine's third season, there is a potential for a change, as the producers were initially going to have a cliffhanger ending to the finale, but the studio executives didn't want one.
The butterflies could affect these events so that the producers would write the story they originally wanted (that eventually became the 'Homefront/Paradise Lost' two parter in the middle of the fourth season OTL).
Ry, any idea when some of the stuff I sent via Nivek for the arcade stuff will get used? I really want a arcade focused update.
That is a game always popped TL,but seems people did were more patient here, GTA/DMA Design Fate will be pretty interesting here,remember DMA started as pc developer and worked with Nintendo in a few games before going full gta, so anything is possible.
We're waiting the moment to do it, mostly end year stuff would be, and try to organized, as arcade fans would notice, no PS1 make a MASSIVE change in arcades.
The idea for the concept of GTA is still there though, so it could evolve into something big in the future.
I doubt you guys are gonna tip your hand so early, but what's gonna happen to our favorite ocd exploitation? Because in otl, pokemon red and green was greenlit and about to wrap up development by Christmas 95.
We'll definitely explore the origins of OTL's Grand Theft Auto series. Will it become GTA ITTL too? That has yet to be determined.
I'm actually thinking they make it a theatrical film similar to OTL's Digimon: The Movie. It gets released in July 1997 and does mediocre numbers (I'm thinking an $8 million opening which in 2015 dollars is about a $15-20 million opening).
Well, Toad City is a huge stand-alone metropolis, it's not a smallish city like it is in OTL Super Mario RPG. So potentially Super Mario RPG could just feature the same Mushroom Kingdom as IOTL. Most likely it will but that could change.
Hmm, maybe. You're free to write up some Star Trek stuff and send it to us if you'd like, I'm not a huge Trekkie myself ^_^
Well, there might not be an arcade focused update BUT Ridge Racer is coming to the Saturn next month so there might be a bunch of your arcade stuff in the November 1995 update, we'll see.
Since (a) we're past the time it would've been introduced and (b) it used the expansion port that went unused IOTL, I assume the Satellaview has been butterflied away?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellaview
Some of the games made for it could (and IMO should) show up on SNES-CD/NPS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Satellaview_broadcasts
What do you think, sirs?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellaview
Wikipedia said:
Some of the games made for it could (and IMO should) show up on SNES-CD/NPS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Satellaview_broadcasts
What do you think, sirs?
Awesome story so far. I found this thread on TV Tropes and binged the entire thing over the last week, and the reread the whole thing from the beginning.
Also, since you guys have been talking about Star Trek Voyager, I've got a little something related to that to contribute. If you're interested I can give you more details.
Also, since you guys have been talking about Star Trek Voyager, I've got a little something related to that to contribute. If you're interested I can give you more details.
I've actually thought quite a bit about Satellaview games and my thought on them is that Satellaview still exists and some of the more popular games did make it to CD, but only in Japan. Even ITTL, where localizations happen a lot more often, there are still some great games that remain Japan-only.
Absolutely! Any contributions related to Star Trek are highly welcome.
As ry say, remember.... SNES was popular for a while before being remplaced for snes-cd and that allowed the system keep support, and with that, i think satellaview would be the 'last hurah' for old snes-cd, using their special flash cartidge for keep those DL games and later in SNES-CD life, as ry say, Special Editions of those game with the recorded audio(except one game will be butterfly away, guess which one), and as full japanese dialogue, the game would keep japan only.
Yeah, Satellaview was like Mega-charger here, a solution for a problem
November 1995 - Diddy's Kong Quest
Authors' Note: Starwarsfan has given us a TON of Sega and Namco arcade information and ideas that we'll be using in this TL going forward. We didn't have much to include this time around but as the TL goes on we'll be using a lot more! Thanks very much for all the fantastic ideas!
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“My Sega Venus story ended in tears. I got it for Christmas in 1995 along with Lords of Skylein. So one day soon afterward, I'm playing Lords of Skylein and having a blast, I'm really getting sucked into the game and not really paying attention to much else. Any time the Venus runs out of juice (which is quite often), I replace the batteries, six at a time, not really paying attention to how many I'm using. Well, that evening, I'm playing through the fourth dungeon when suddenly I hear my mom downstairs yelling 'who used all the batteries?'. So you know, I just go down there and tell her I did, and she says 'you used 40 batteries in one day?', and when I tell her I did she says 'do you have any idea how much those batteries cost?' Turns out, 40 batteries cost about 40 bucks. I had gone through forty dollars worth of batteries in about six hours of playing. When I tell her how I went through so many batteries, she goes ballistic, she takes the Venus away and I never ever see it again. Five or six months later I asked her what she did with it and she told me she sold it to a pawn shop to replace that forty dollars. I never had a Sega Venus again until I bought one on Ebay a few months back for eighty bucks. I should've just used the damn AC adapter.”
-A post on Rootalk.com's /segamemories subforum on December 18, 2014
“Was that good luck or what? We didn't even imagine pirates would be a big thing when we came up with the theme for Donkey Kong Country 2. We all just thought pirates would be a cool, adventurous thing to use for our game. Then Tales Of The Seven Seas came out and I'm sure we got a big boost from it!”
-Tim Stamper, producer of Donkey Kong Country 2
“It has been a really busy time for me! But I am always thinking of new ideas for games. I'm already thinking of games for the next Nintendo system as well!”
-Toshiro Tsuchida, creator of Front Mission and Arc the Lad in the January 1996 issue of Famitsu magazine
“By the time the Saturn had been released worldwide, Sega was essentially the number one arcade game company. We knew that would be our best asset going forward, something Nintendo didn't have and would be trying to replicate. As long as we kept our advantage in the arcades, we would always be competitive in the console market.”
-Yu Suzuki
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Donkey Kong Country 2: The Basics
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest is the sequel to 1994's Donkey Kong Country. The graphics are largely similar to its predecessor, using the same multi-layer rendering techniques as the first game to provide very detailed background and character animations, with a slight bump-up in animation detail from the first game and improved presentation quality. The soundtrack is expanded from the first game with 48 different music tracks spanning a variety of genres but largely consisting of adventurous orchestral music to fit in with the game's pirate motif. Gameplay remains largely the same, though the player now controls Diddy Kong and his girlfriend Dixie Kong after the abduction of Donkey Kong by Kaptain K. Rool and his pirate Kremlings. The two Kongs must traverse eight worlds and 61 levels to save Donkey Kong, and there's also a hidden ninth world with seven levels that becomes available if enough bonus Krem Coins are collected. Here are the eight worlds.
Gangplank Galleon: A world taking place on a giant pirate ship, largely the same as IOTL with a couple extra levels. The boss is Krow, the same boss as OTL.
Crocodile Cauldron: A volcano-themed world similar to OTL's, the boss is Kleever, a giant spinning sword, again identical to OTL.
Krem Quay: A swamp-themed muck world similar to OTL, with a huge muscular Kremling boss named Kudgel, again the same as IOTL.
Zinger's Domain: The first world that's majorly changed from IOTL, instead of Krazy Kremland, an amusement park level (TTL's Donkey Kong Country already featured an amusement park level), this world is entirely beehive-based, and a couple of the worlds even show Kremlings fighting Zingers. The huge bee boss King Zing remains from IOTL.
Port Kremtuga: The first truly original world from TTL, Port Kremtuga is based on a bustling Caribbean port city. Levels featured include a stage depicting a huge Kremling bar fight and a stage featuring a large earthquake. The boss is Krench, a busty female pirate Kremling who wields two swords.
Gloomy Gulch: A spooky ghost forest world, the same as IOTL. The boss is Kreepy Krow, a resurrected ghost version of World 1's Krow, again the same as IOTL.
K. Rool's Keep: A climb up a huge tower castle with dungeon-themed levels, similar to OTL's version of this world. ITTL, Kerozene (from OTL's Game Boy Advance remake) again appears at Stronghold Showdown, though his attack pattern is much more complex and difficult and he's animated with a lot more detail.
The Flying Krock: ITTL, this world has six sky-themed stages instead of just one stage before the final boss. Screech's Sprint is still the final level before reaching the showdown with Kaptain K. Rool.
Lost World: The ninth secret level, accessed by acquiring all the Krem Coins from the bonus stages. It features seven levels that must be completed before reaching the bonus showdown with Kaptain K. Rool at Krocodile Kore. This showdown is different from OTL's, after hitting him once, he doesn't die as IOTL, but instead hops on board a giant K. Rool robot that must be hit several times to defeat, this robot is by far the toughest challenge in the game.
November 20, 1995
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest is released for the Super Nintendo CD. Reviews are as stellar as the first game's, in some cases even better, and it's named an immediate contender for Game of the Year. Its release isn't accompanied by quite as much anticipation and hype as the first Donkey Kong Country, but it sells nearly as well upon its debut and continues to be a strong seller throughout the holiday season, helped along by its great reviews, good will from the previous game, and a wave of popularity of pirate-themed media. It becomes Nintendo's biggest hit of the holiday season, even moreso than Ballistic Limit, and contributes massively to Nintendo's enormous sales victory over Sega that Christmas.
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Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest:
Ed: 9.5 (quote: “Even better than the original? Absolutely. From the variety of levels to the graphics to the amazing music, Donkey Kong Country 2 builds upon everything from the first and raises the bar yet again.”)
Danyon: 9
Al: 9.5
Sushi-X: 9.5
Front Mission:
Ed: 9
Danyon: 9
Al: 8.5 (quote: “Squaresoft's tactical RPG is deep, challenging, and highly addictive. This might be the best strategy game of the year.”)
Sushi-X: 7.5
Street Fighter Alpha:
Ed: 7
Danyon: 8
Al: 8
Sushi-X: 8 (quote: “The excellent graphics and gameplay are par for the course in this Street Fighter side story.”)
Super Detective Club 2:
Ed: 8.5
Danyon: 6.5 (quote: “It's largely more of the same but fans of the genre will still want to check this out.”)
Al: 7
Sushi-X: 8
The Simpsons: Itchy And Scratchy:
Ed: 6
Danyon: 6
Al: 5.5 (quote: “Repetitive levels and rather bad music make this Simpsons game somewhat inferior to the previous two.”)
Sushi-X: 5.5
Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego?:
Ed: 6.5 (quote: “It doesn't have the charm of 1993's excellent title, but it's still a solidly made mystery game.”)
Danyon: 7.5
Al: 6.5
Sushi-X: 8
The Endless War:
Ed: 8.5
Danyon: 9.5 (quote: “A truly incredible strategy game that gives the player so much customization.”)
Al: 9
Sushi-X: 9
Rage:
Ed: 9 (quote: “This game takes beat-em-ups to a whole new level. You'll definitely want to play this game more than once.”)
Danyon: 8
Al: 9
Sushi-X: 8
The Jade Cat Museum Heist:
Ed: 4.5
Danyon: 4 (quote: “While it's not a truly terrible FMV game it's still extremely boring and I found beating it a real chore.”)
Al: 5
Sushi-X: 6
Ferrari Worldwide Rally:
Ed: 7.5 (quote: “It's no F-Zero but it's probably the best simulation-style racing game on the SNES. I liked the graphics and the variety of cars to choose from.”)
Danyon: 7.5
Al: 7.5
Sushi-X: 7
-reviews of November 1995's Super Nintendo CD games in the December 1995 and January 1996 issues of Electronic Gaming Monthly
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Though the Sega Saturn had been the biggest hardware launch of 1995, the holiday season saw a pair of launches from Nintendo and Sega that gave gamers more options concerning their current-gen game systems.
Free At Last: The Stand-Alone SNES-CD
Even since the middle of 1993, Nintendo fans had been clamoring for a Super Nintendo CD that wasn't dependent upon the purchase of a cartridge-based Super Nintendo. Eager to keep their beloved fourth-generation system going, Nintendo stood firm and refused to release a stand-alone SNES-CD to market, instead continuing to sell its CD peripherals and Playstation Combo Sets, which meant that if you wanted to play Nintendo's rapidly growing library of CD-ROM games, you had to purchase the “vanilla” SNES. Once Donkey Kong Country was released at the end of 1994 to major commercial success, Nintendo and Sony began working on a stand-alone version of their popular CD peripheral, and it launched on November 27, 1995, one week after the release of Donkey Kong Country 2.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rcrywzt1yu...azine.png?dl=0 (Author's Note: This is an SNES-CD mock-up taken from OTL's Super Play Magazine.)
The new Super Nintendo CD was a sleek, compact device with the ability to play the entire library of SNES-CD games, and it included four controller ports right out of the box. It was one of Nintendo's better-designed devices, much smaller than the original peripheral had been, and at $129.99, it slashed the price of entry for Nintendo's CD-ROM games by more than a third, the price was also just under a shade of one-third the price of Sega's $399 Saturn. Combined with across-the-board price cuts for Nintendo's cartridge-based SNES (to $59.99 from $69.99), Nintendo's SNES-CD peripheral (to $129.99 from $149.99), and the Playstation Combo Set (to $169.99 from $199.99), Nintendo had positioned itself to be the budget alternative to Sega's high-priced marvel, the Sega Saturn.
I'm Your Venus, I'm Your Fire...
For the past five years, the Sega Game Gear had flagged behind Nintendo's lower-tech but significantly more economical Game Boy. On November 14, 1995, Sega released the Venus, a handheld Sega Genesis with the Mega Charger internals built right in. The Venus was by far the most powerful handheld game system that had ever been released up to that date, and it launched at $249.99, more than twice the price of Sega's Genesis (Sega would begin selling the Mega Genesis, a Genesis with a Mega Charger built in, for $99.99 around that time as well). The Venus launched with quite a bit of fanfare, including a slickly produced commercial featuring Bananarama's classic “Venus” song interspersed with scenes of people looking like they were having a ball playing Genesis and Mega Charger games on a handheld. The Venus had a pair of pretty nasty Achilles heels. The price was one (it was slashed to $199.99 within a couple of months and then slashed further to $149.99 a couple months after that), and the other was the battery life. When playing Genesis games, battery life was just under three hours on six AA batteries. That was bad enough, but when playing certain Mega Charger games (Star Wars Arcade and Lords of Skylein were the biggest culprits), battery life could be as short as 45 minutes. The thing consumed batteries at a prodigious rate, someone once calculated that playing the 50-hour Lords of Skylein could cost nearly $400 in batteries. You could buy a Saturn for that much! Though the Venus wasn't a complete flop (the slickly produced commercial and price cuts drove the Venus to 3.5 million in sales by the end of 1996), it failed to achieve the lofty success of Nintendo's Game Boy.
-”The History Of Console Gaming: Year-By-Year (Part 6)”, Wired.com, June 12, 2012
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*A husband and wife are out walking on the boardwalk on a date.*
Wife: Are you sure it's okay to leave our son home alone?
Husband: Oh, he's a responsible boy, I think we can trust him.
*The two of them see a group of teenagers walking by, talking about something.*
Teenage Boy: Hey, did you hear about that sweet new video arcade?
Teenage Girl: Yeah, I heard it just opened up, I can't wait to go over there and play.
Husband: *to his wife* A new arcade? I bet our son would love it. *walks over to the teens* Hey guys, you mind telling us about that new arcade? We've got a kid your age, he loves video games, where's it at?
Teenage Boy: Sure thing dude, it's at 1724 Spruce Street!
Wife: Huh? Say that again?
Teenage Girl: 1724 Spruce Street. It's the hottest arcade in town, all the kids hang out there.
Husband: Wait a minute, that's our house!
Teenage Girl: It's a house all right and it's an awesome arcade, there's dozens of games!
Wife: Our son put an arcade in our HOUSE?
Husband: *looking panicked* We gotta get home....
*The husband and wife rush home to see lights flickering inside their house and tons of kids hanging out around it*
Wife: *pushes through the crowd and opens the door* You put an arcade in here? You're in big trouble!
Husband: *looking around* Wait, where are all the arcade machines?
Son: *sitting by the TV with a Saturn controller in his hand with his friends around him* There aren't any machines, it's just the Sega Saturn!
*The son and his friends are shown to be having a blast playing Virtua Fighter while his parents sigh in relief. The screen switches to show Sega's arcade lineup including Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA, Virtua Cop, and Ridge Racer.*
Announcer: With dozens of the hottest arcade games, including the newest hit from Namco, Ridge Racer, who needs the arcade? Stay home, save your quarters and bring the arcade home. Only the Sega Saturn brings you the biggest arcade hits, and with dozens more on the way, you'll never need to leave your living room again.
Husband: *sitting down by the TV with his wife* So, can we have next game?
Son: No way!
Wife: You're grounded.
Son: .... *nervously hands a racing wheel to his mom*
Wife: *has a smirk on her face as she begins playing Ridge Racer*
Playing Is Believing
*cue the SEGA! scream*
-excerpted from a Sega Saturn commercial that aired in late 1995 and early 1996
Without question, the Sega Saturn's biggest early successes were their arcade ports. The Virtua Trio of Virtua Fighter, Virtua Cop, and Virtua Racing drove Saturn sales more than anything else during that rough 1995 holiday season, but it was their November 1995 release of Ridge Racer that proved to lay the foundation for the relationship that Sega and Namco would form throughout the latter half of the 90s. Namco's deal to produce arcade games with Sega was regarded as the biggest coup in the history of the arcade industry. Indeed, it was around this deal that the entire arcade game industry would orbit starting with the release of the Saturn. The Saturn's technology became the benchmark for arcade cabinets throughout its lifetime. Using their combined negotiating power, Sega and Namco were able to reduce costs and enable arcade chip technology to progress far more rapidly. Their lucrative contract with military contractor Lockheed Martin to produce these high-tech arcade chips gave the two companies the inside track on becoming the leaders in arcade cabinets. This greatly increased the longevity of Sega's Model 2 arcade platform and enabled Sega and Namco to take their time with Model 3, which wouldn't see release until 1997.
Though Ridge Racer's release provided only a minor bump to Saturn sales, it was still a critically acclaimed and highly desired game throughout the 1995 holiday season. Sega had initially feared that the game might fall by the wayside in the wake of their big racing game releases at the Saturn's launch, but Namco had distinguished Ridge Racer from other games on the market and the port became the Saturn's best selling non pack-in game of 1995, outselling even Daytona USA. Namco's next arcade port to the Saturn would be the 3-D fighting game Tekken, which was set to release in February 1996 in North America. Tekken would be followed up by Soul Edge in June 1996, and the two games were only part of a very promising Saturn lineup for the year. While Nintendo continued to prosper with its strong lineup of SNES-CD games, Sega's near monopoly on major arcade hits would prove to be a huge selling point for the Saturn going forward.
-excerpted from the article “Bringing The Arcade Hits Home: The Sega/Namco/Arcade Symbiosis” on
GoldenAgeArcade.com, September 18, 2013
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“Front Mission Preview: An exclusive promotional video for Squaresoft's new strategy-RPG Front Mission, only available to Nintendo Power CD subscribers!”
-excerpted from the October 1995 issue of Nintendo Power CD, describing a special 5-minute promotional video for Front Mission that only aired in Japan IOTL (Author's Note: This video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kidzS-EkVY8 only with English narration and text replacing the Japanese)
In this month's big Epic Center feature, we're taking a look at Squaresoft's newest hit game, Front Mission! When it released back in April in Japan, it became one of the fastest-selling video games ever! Now it's here in the West and Nintendo Power's got tips and strategies to help you through the first few missions of the game.
-excerpted from Nintendo Power's Epic Center section in the November 1995 issue
Were Front Mission's North American sales a disappointment to you?
Toshiro Tsuchida: I knew we weren't going to sell half a million copies in the first week like we did in Japan! I believe the first week in North America, we ended up selling about 40,000 copies which really was not bad considering just how many excellent games were released that month.Our total North American sales were...somewhere just under 200,000 I think? Not as big as Final Fantasy but certainly all right for any other game.
Did you begin work on Front Mission 2 immediately after the first?
Tsuchida: Not immediately after but after sales were so high in Japan, we did. We quickly realized that the game would not be possible on the Super Famicom CD and that is why it did not release until later on the Ultra.
I remember there being considerable controversy after the release of Front Mission 2 for the Ultra Nintendo in North America, there was a lot of really controversial content and some of those concerns also came up with the first game.
Tsuchida: Well, it was not my decision to localize it! Certainly it helped that the Super Famicom CD had opened a lot of doors in North America. Square was a big factor behind pushing those envelopes. I was glad to see all the Front Mission games localized and to see the reception to them from around the world.
-excerpted from an interview with Toshiro Tsuchida with RPGamer.net, June 10, 2010
Front Mission for the Super Nintendo CD releases on November 13, 1995, and it's somewhat similar to Enix's earlier strategy game Ogre Battle, though unlike Ogre Battle you have much more control over your soldiers as you march them across the battlefield. Gameplay is somewhat linear, the cut-scenes (despite not being voiced) are beautifully depicted with animation for certain very important scenes and the battles themselves are full of very detailed animation and realistic graphics. Customizing your battle mech (known as a “wanzer”) is a very complex affair but once you get the hang of it you'll have trouble stopping.
The plot is quite complex but very engrossing and we loved the option to play a special second scenario after the completion of the main plot, we won't spoil any more than that but it was essentially like getting two games in one and it added lots of extra play time to this already epic game. Squaresoft has outdone itself in a big way with Front Mission and this just makes us more excited to see what they have in store for what looks like a very jam-packed 1996.
Graphics: 5.0
Sound: 5.0
Play Control: 5.0
Fun Factor: 5.0
Difficulty: Advanced
-excerpted from GamePro's December 1995 review of Front Mission
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Sort of lost in all the holiday hype of 1995 was the two big detective game sequels released that November. Nintendo was localizing the long-awaited sequel to 1993's Super Detective Club, while we also got Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego?, which at the time was actually one of the more hyped games considering the reception the first one got.
Super Detective Club 2 was designed for the Super Nintendo CD from the ground up, it contained four all new cases along with cut scenes and voice acting to dramatize the cases. The fourth case was linked to each of the first three cases which could be solved in order. The game was a bit more dramatic and mature than the Famicom games, it got a Teen rating in North America and even featured a bit of mild language which was almost unheard of in a Nintendo game up to that time! The first case of the first three was a murder, a miserly businessman is found dead and his five grandchildren, who also attend the school that the protagonist and his friend Ayumi Tachibana attends, are the prime suspects, you have to figure out which of the grandchildren is the murderer. Ayumi's friend Michuri is one of the suspects and the evidence actually points to Michuri but a smart player will see the hidden clues that actually implicate the businessman's youngest grandson Banko in the crime. The second case is a kidnapping, Ayumi Tachibana is kidnapped and it's a race against time to save her (though she eventually escapes on her own and helps the protagonist implicate the criminal). The third case is another murder, this time of a female racehorse jockey, it's a very complex case to solve, probably the toughest of the three. The prime suspect at first is her jealous rival but it turns out that she and her rival were actually lovers and about to elope, it was the rival's manager that ends up being the murderer. The fourth and final case ties in to the other three. Ayumi's friend Michuri is kidnapped by the culprit from the second case (who escaped from jail), Michuri happens to be the owner of the murder victim's racehorse from the third case and not only do you have to stop the kidnapper but you have to find out who hired them, which turns out to be a dangerous crime syndicate. The game does have a happy ending (assuming you solve the mystery in time) and despite the serious material, it does have plenty of lighthearted moments. The game was largely well recieved and sold even better than the first, even in North America. That brings us to that month's second game...
Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego? was the sequel to one of the best selling video games of 1993. Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? was the first real post-release hit for the Super Nintendo CD and the sequel was expected to perform just as well...so why didn't it? For one thing, the critical reception to the game just wasn't quite as good as the first. It replaced the rather charming live-action cutscenes from the first game with animated cutscenes somewhat similar to the animation found in the Fox Kids series Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?, with Rita Moreno even reprising her voice acting role from that show. In fact, the game borrowed considerably from that show, including Carmen's history with ACME and her sympathetic background. The game would also include elements that would be featured in the later PBS game show series Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego? including the theme song (which was decent but nowhere NEAR Rockapella's legendary theme song for Where In The World) and the Chronoskimmer. The result was a somewhat disjointed amalgam of elements that made the game somewhat...confused compared to the first game's significantly more focused effort. That's not to say the game wasn't good, which it largely was, but it was ultimately forgettable. The second reason it didn't succeed to the degree the first one had...the competition. It came out just one week after Donkey Kong Country 2, and was largely ignored in favor of that game. Ultimately it was outsold even by Super Detective Club 2, and other games such as Rage, Front Mission, and The Endless War also outperformed it both criticially and commercially. The disappointment that was Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego proved that the franchise was largely past its peak in the public eye, and that the detective game genre itself was past its prime as well, despite Nintendo's success with Super Detective Club 2.
-excerpted from “Dueling Detectives”, an article on Nintendo Digital Digest, November 19, 2012
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The Many Faces Of Rage
Rage, coming November 6th to the Super Nintendo CD and coming in early 1996 to the Sega Saturn, is the latest beat-em -up from Capcom. It features nine fierce brawlers who are geared up to pummel their way through endless waves of enemies. Depending on your chosen path through the story, you can obtain one of four different endings. Here's a quick look at all the brawlers you can chose from.
Jason Gurds: A captain in the United States Marines, Jason is seeking revenge for the ambush and deaths of his comrades in a war. Upon hearing that the warlord Blackstone is responsible for the deaths of Jason's comrades, Jason resolved to punch, kick, throw, and bodyslam his way through everybody that gets in his way.
Adam Crasher: With superhuman strength gained from a nuclear accident, Adam is equipped to beat down legions of criminal thugs. There's no way he's going to let Blackstone or anyone else steal the loose nuclear material that's already caused him so much pain. Adam moves somewhat slowly but his punches pack more power than anyone else in the game.
Kitsuko Atsuri: Kitsuko may look like a harmless geisha girl but don't be fooled, her swift kicks and fierce leaps can devastate much larger foes. She seeks to protect her friends from Blackstone's criminal empire.
Icarus Lowell: The youngest of the brawlers in Rage, Icarus is a 14-year-old boy who's had wings grafted onto his back by Blackstone's evil scientists and doesn't need much motivation to pick a fight with the evil mastermind. He can float above enemies for a short time to land fierce blows from above!
Artemis Night: Artemis is a private detective who failed to stop Blackstone from murdering his beautiful lover. Now he seeks only revenge and he's brought his trusty pearl-handled pistol along for the ride.
Savage Paul: Though he's got a scary name and an even scarier appearance, Savage Paul is mostly a gentle giant, he runs an orphanage but he's not going to let Blackstone threaten his beloved orphans without bearhugging him and his minions into submission first.
Kim McIntosh: A fiery redhead with a positive attitude, Kim doesn't have anything personal against Blackstone, she just likes beating the crap out of people. With a reckless style that emphasizes charging in rapidly and bashing enemies, Kim's the definition of a glass cannon but if you like to live dangerously, she's your girl.
Lord Masters: Lord Masters is an old man who has been kicked out of his hard-earned mansion by Blackstone. Now he uses his remaining fortune to train himself into a fierce martial artist, while sometimes getting his butler Jenkins to do some of his dirty work.
XCR-333: XCR-333 is a rogue combat robot who got a mind of his own after being given an order to slaughter a bus full of children by Blackstone. Instead, he fought off ten other robots and moved the children to safety. Now his uses his programming to fight back against his evil creator.
-excerpted from the December 1995 issue of EGM2
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John Walden: Ridge Racer is just a great game, I say it's better than Virtua Racing and Daytona USA, the graphics are awesome and the racing action is a ton of fun.
Alex Stansfield: It's close for me between the three of them. I think Ridge Racer is definitely the closest to an authentic arcade experience but the other two games have their good qualities too. Not a knock against Ridge Racer by any means, it's a ton of fun, such a beautiful game and the racing is top notch.
John: If you can get a friend over to play this, you'll definitely want to go head to head. Hook up a couple racing wheels and you're absolutely golden.
Alex: Plays so good with the wheel, I mean the controller's fun too but if you use the Sega racing wheel it's just like it is in the arcade. And I can't stop talking about the graphics, it looks really pretty with great draw distance.
John: The graphics are what most impressed me about Ridge Racer, can't get over how good this game looks. I'm giving it a 4.5.
Alex: And I'm giving it a solid 4, this is definitely a GameTV recommended title.
(...)
Brittany Saldita: Squaresoft's Front Mission is a decent game but it did get somewhat repetitive toward the end, the later missions I felt were kind of a grind.
Ted Crosley: I agree, I'm not quite sure if maybe they ran out of ideas or what?
Brittany: But the plot was terrific and I liked the added USN scenario, that added some replay value to the game at least.
Ted: For me, Front Mission definitely pales in comparison to say, the Final Fantasy games.
Brittany: Agreed.
Ted: But for what it's worth it's still a good game.
Brittany: I feel like it laid the foundation for a great game and that it had a lot of good ideas but the execution could've been better. If they find a way to make longer missions not such a drag, this could be a real masterpiece. I give Front Mission a 3.5 out of five.
Ted: I give it a 3.5 too, it's definitely got a lot going for it but it's not a classic like Final Fantasy VI.
-excerpted from the November 14, 1995 episode of GameTV
(...)
Ted: So let's wrap this up, what did you think of The Endless War?
Kazzi DeCarlo: Well it's not endless, the game DOES have an ending! So that's ONE strike against it. But to be honest, I feel like this game was trying too hard. I'm all for having options but it seemed like it turned into a LOT of micro-management. Even Civilization managed to make a really complex strategy game easy to get into.
Ted: I LOVED all the customization options, I just wish there were more nations to pick from. There were only eight and even though they gave all of them a lot of story details and gameplay quirks, I felt like they could have included a lot more or even let you make your own.
Kaz: Why'd all the countries have to be fictional? I wanted to kick France's ass.
Ted: *laughing* But yeah, the customization for individual soldiers and units added a ton of strategy. This game is the deepest war game I've ever played, it's deeper than Koei's great games, deeper than Civilization, it's a game all about planning battles and strategy and it works on a ton of levels. And the music was awesome.
Kaz: The music was the ONLY redeeming factor I thought, when I was muddling through menus at least I had good music to listen to.
Ted: This game did come with a huge instruction book.
Kaz: You mean I have to read INSTRUCTIONS?!
Ted: It helps to read instructions, yeah.
Kaz: *groans*
Ted: I give The Endless War a 4.5 but you really do need to read the instructions.
Kaz: I give it a 3. I just didn't have much of a clue when it came to planning out my attacks.
Ted: The instruction book helps!!!
(...)
Ted: Donkey Kong Country 2 is pretty much everything we expected a DKC sequel to be. Beautiful, challenging, and lots of platforming fun.
Alex: Yeah, make no mistake about it, this is one of the best games of the year and even better than the original.
Ted: I'll definitely give it that even though I thought the original Donkey Kong Country was a bit overrated. I loved the adventurous feel of this one, it felt like you were going on a real pirate quest and the enemies were really creative compared to the first.
Alex: Any flaws the first Donkey Kong Country game had, this one fixes.
Ted: A word of warning, it's blisteringly hard. I enjoyed the challenge but you will be frustrated at times.
Alex: Oh yeah, this one definitely beats out the first. The bosses are a LOT tougher.
Ted: The music was beautiful especially in the thorn stages, though most of the time I couldn't hear the music over my loud swearing.
Alex: Screech can go right to hell!
Ted: Oh, (expletive) that bird. I got a bird to give him.
Alex: Birds aside, Donkey Kong Country 2 gets a 5 out of 5 from me.
Ted: I'm gonna give it a 4.5, it's definitely one of the best platformers around and sets a new bar for the series.
-excerpted from the November 21, 1995 episode of GameTV
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SNES-CD Power Charts: November 1995
1. The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Dreams
2. Super Mario World 3
3. Doom
4. Donkey Kong Country
5. Super Mario World 2
6. Victory
7. Final Fantasy VI
8. Ogre Battle
9. Earthbound 2
10. Deadman Sam 2
11. Treasure Hunters
12. Madden 96
13. Andrekah
14. NFL Quarterback Club '96
15. Super Squadron X: Critical Dawn
16. Five For Fighting Hockey
17. Pig Wars
18. Primal Rage
19. WWF Wrestlemania
20. Mega Man X2
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December 2, 1995
At Sony's headquarters in Japan, chairman Norio Ohga was monitoring an event in North America with great interest. Not the success of Donkey Kong Country 2, or the continuing strong sales of Ballistic Limit, or anything having to do with video games at all. Instead, Ohga and his fellow Sony executives were tracking the performance of Pixar's computer-animated film Toy Story, which had been highly lucrative at the North American box office for the past two weeks and had generated critical praise like few animated films before it. The technology used in Toy Story was exceptionally advanced, and Ohga knew that no video game console would be able to produce visuals like it for at least a decade and probably much longer.
“This new computer-generated animation is the future of the industry,” said Ohga, who could see nods of agreement from those seated at the table. “And, as we've done in the video game industry, we should be involved in this.”
Ken Kutaragi looked over at new Sony president Noboyuki Idei, seated to the left of Ohga. Ohga's fellow executives had been skeptical of the choice to pick Idei as Sony's new number-two man, but Idei represented a new wave of thinking within Sony, a tendency to take risks, to look for opinions outside the company, ideas that could drive Sony forward into a new era of business. That kind of thinking had gotten Sony into perhaps its most successful business endeavor to date, its partnership with Nintendo on video games, and now it seemed that Ohga wanted Sony to forge another partnership.
“It's not likely that we'd be able to make a deal with Pixar,” said Idei, “though I am certainly open to working with them if it's possible.”
“Not Pixar,” said Ohga, knowing that Pixar already had a strong relationship with Disney, yet another entertainment titan. “But there are many other movie studios who may wish to utilize this new animation technology, and will be looking for a company like Sony to provide the hardware.”
Ohga had big plans for Sony going forward. It would already be making itself more visible as a partner to Nintendo once the Ultra was released, and Ohga hoped to use this visibility to form a unified front across the entertainment industry. Wherever big ideas were formed, Sony would be there to bring them into reality. The company already had an advertising campaign that would begin launching in Japan in 1996 and across North America hopefully later that year. The Ultra Nintendo was just one part of Sony's business strategy...and with luck, its partnership with an animation company would be another. Ohga already had a few potential partners in mind...
“Do you already have someone in mind?” asked Idei, his mind already searching for potential partners for Sony in this new endeavor. “Because...there's a former Disney executive who's just built a new animation studio and he has some very powerful partners.”
Ohga's lips curved into a smile. The two men had the same idea.
“I've been looking into that possibility,” said Ohga. “They've been looking into partnering with a company called Pacific Data Images, but the deal's not done yet.”
“Is there any way for us to arrange a meeting with them?” asked Idei. “Or should we go looking elsewhere?”
“We should have many potential options,” Ohga replied, “but if you'd like to arrange a meeting I'd be in full support of it.”
Within the week, Idei was placing the call... he'd just started at Sony and already he'd be discussing a partnership with one of the most powerful men in show business...perhaps one of the most powerful men in the world.
“This is Mr. Noboyuki Idei from Sony... I'd like to speak with Mr. Spielberg, please."
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“My Sega Venus story ended in tears. I got it for Christmas in 1995 along with Lords of Skylein. So one day soon afterward, I'm playing Lords of Skylein and having a blast, I'm really getting sucked into the game and not really paying attention to much else. Any time the Venus runs out of juice (which is quite often), I replace the batteries, six at a time, not really paying attention to how many I'm using. Well, that evening, I'm playing through the fourth dungeon when suddenly I hear my mom downstairs yelling 'who used all the batteries?'. So you know, I just go down there and tell her I did, and she says 'you used 40 batteries in one day?', and when I tell her I did she says 'do you have any idea how much those batteries cost?' Turns out, 40 batteries cost about 40 bucks. I had gone through forty dollars worth of batteries in about six hours of playing. When I tell her how I went through so many batteries, she goes ballistic, she takes the Venus away and I never ever see it again. Five or six months later I asked her what she did with it and she told me she sold it to a pawn shop to replace that forty dollars. I never had a Sega Venus again until I bought one on Ebay a few months back for eighty bucks. I should've just used the damn AC adapter.”
-A post on Rootalk.com's /segamemories subforum on December 18, 2014
“Was that good luck or what? We didn't even imagine pirates would be a big thing when we came up with the theme for Donkey Kong Country 2. We all just thought pirates would be a cool, adventurous thing to use for our game. Then Tales Of The Seven Seas came out and I'm sure we got a big boost from it!”
-Tim Stamper, producer of Donkey Kong Country 2
“It has been a really busy time for me! But I am always thinking of new ideas for games. I'm already thinking of games for the next Nintendo system as well!”
-Toshiro Tsuchida, creator of Front Mission and Arc the Lad in the January 1996 issue of Famitsu magazine
“By the time the Saturn had been released worldwide, Sega was essentially the number one arcade game company. We knew that would be our best asset going forward, something Nintendo didn't have and would be trying to replicate. As long as we kept our advantage in the arcades, we would always be competitive in the console market.”
-Yu Suzuki
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Donkey Kong Country 2: The Basics
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest is the sequel to 1994's Donkey Kong Country. The graphics are largely similar to its predecessor, using the same multi-layer rendering techniques as the first game to provide very detailed background and character animations, with a slight bump-up in animation detail from the first game and improved presentation quality. The soundtrack is expanded from the first game with 48 different music tracks spanning a variety of genres but largely consisting of adventurous orchestral music to fit in with the game's pirate motif. Gameplay remains largely the same, though the player now controls Diddy Kong and his girlfriend Dixie Kong after the abduction of Donkey Kong by Kaptain K. Rool and his pirate Kremlings. The two Kongs must traverse eight worlds and 61 levels to save Donkey Kong, and there's also a hidden ninth world with seven levels that becomes available if enough bonus Krem Coins are collected. Here are the eight worlds.
Gangplank Galleon: A world taking place on a giant pirate ship, largely the same as IOTL with a couple extra levels. The boss is Krow, the same boss as OTL.
Crocodile Cauldron: A volcano-themed world similar to OTL's, the boss is Kleever, a giant spinning sword, again identical to OTL.
Krem Quay: A swamp-themed muck world similar to OTL, with a huge muscular Kremling boss named Kudgel, again the same as IOTL.
Zinger's Domain: The first world that's majorly changed from IOTL, instead of Krazy Kremland, an amusement park level (TTL's Donkey Kong Country already featured an amusement park level), this world is entirely beehive-based, and a couple of the worlds even show Kremlings fighting Zingers. The huge bee boss King Zing remains from IOTL.
Port Kremtuga: The first truly original world from TTL, Port Kremtuga is based on a bustling Caribbean port city. Levels featured include a stage depicting a huge Kremling bar fight and a stage featuring a large earthquake. The boss is Krench, a busty female pirate Kremling who wields two swords.
Gloomy Gulch: A spooky ghost forest world, the same as IOTL. The boss is Kreepy Krow, a resurrected ghost version of World 1's Krow, again the same as IOTL.
K. Rool's Keep: A climb up a huge tower castle with dungeon-themed levels, similar to OTL's version of this world. ITTL, Kerozene (from OTL's Game Boy Advance remake) again appears at Stronghold Showdown, though his attack pattern is much more complex and difficult and he's animated with a lot more detail.
The Flying Krock: ITTL, this world has six sky-themed stages instead of just one stage before the final boss. Screech's Sprint is still the final level before reaching the showdown with Kaptain K. Rool.
Lost World: The ninth secret level, accessed by acquiring all the Krem Coins from the bonus stages. It features seven levels that must be completed before reaching the bonus showdown with Kaptain K. Rool at Krocodile Kore. This showdown is different from OTL's, after hitting him once, he doesn't die as IOTL, but instead hops on board a giant K. Rool robot that must be hit several times to defeat, this robot is by far the toughest challenge in the game.
November 20, 1995
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest is released for the Super Nintendo CD. Reviews are as stellar as the first game's, in some cases even better, and it's named an immediate contender for Game of the Year. Its release isn't accompanied by quite as much anticipation and hype as the first Donkey Kong Country, but it sells nearly as well upon its debut and continues to be a strong seller throughout the holiday season, helped along by its great reviews, good will from the previous game, and a wave of popularity of pirate-themed media. It becomes Nintendo's biggest hit of the holiday season, even moreso than Ballistic Limit, and contributes massively to Nintendo's enormous sales victory over Sega that Christmas.
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Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest:
Ed: 9.5 (quote: “Even better than the original? Absolutely. From the variety of levels to the graphics to the amazing music, Donkey Kong Country 2 builds upon everything from the first and raises the bar yet again.”)
Danyon: 9
Al: 9.5
Sushi-X: 9.5
Front Mission:
Ed: 9
Danyon: 9
Al: 8.5 (quote: “Squaresoft's tactical RPG is deep, challenging, and highly addictive. This might be the best strategy game of the year.”)
Sushi-X: 7.5
Street Fighter Alpha:
Ed: 7
Danyon: 8
Al: 8
Sushi-X: 8 (quote: “The excellent graphics and gameplay are par for the course in this Street Fighter side story.”)
Super Detective Club 2:
Ed: 8.5
Danyon: 6.5 (quote: “It's largely more of the same but fans of the genre will still want to check this out.”)
Al: 7
Sushi-X: 8
The Simpsons: Itchy And Scratchy:
Ed: 6
Danyon: 6
Al: 5.5 (quote: “Repetitive levels and rather bad music make this Simpsons game somewhat inferior to the previous two.”)
Sushi-X: 5.5
Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego?:
Ed: 6.5 (quote: “It doesn't have the charm of 1993's excellent title, but it's still a solidly made mystery game.”)
Danyon: 7.5
Al: 6.5
Sushi-X: 8
The Endless War:
Ed: 8.5
Danyon: 9.5 (quote: “A truly incredible strategy game that gives the player so much customization.”)
Al: 9
Sushi-X: 9
Rage:
Ed: 9 (quote: “This game takes beat-em-ups to a whole new level. You'll definitely want to play this game more than once.”)
Danyon: 8
Al: 9
Sushi-X: 8
The Jade Cat Museum Heist:
Ed: 4.5
Danyon: 4 (quote: “While it's not a truly terrible FMV game it's still extremely boring and I found beating it a real chore.”)
Al: 5
Sushi-X: 6
Ferrari Worldwide Rally:
Ed: 7.5 (quote: “It's no F-Zero but it's probably the best simulation-style racing game on the SNES. I liked the graphics and the variety of cars to choose from.”)
Danyon: 7.5
Al: 7.5
Sushi-X: 7
-reviews of November 1995's Super Nintendo CD games in the December 1995 and January 1996 issues of Electronic Gaming Monthly
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Though the Sega Saturn had been the biggest hardware launch of 1995, the holiday season saw a pair of launches from Nintendo and Sega that gave gamers more options concerning their current-gen game systems.
Free At Last: The Stand-Alone SNES-CD
Even since the middle of 1993, Nintendo fans had been clamoring for a Super Nintendo CD that wasn't dependent upon the purchase of a cartridge-based Super Nintendo. Eager to keep their beloved fourth-generation system going, Nintendo stood firm and refused to release a stand-alone SNES-CD to market, instead continuing to sell its CD peripherals and Playstation Combo Sets, which meant that if you wanted to play Nintendo's rapidly growing library of CD-ROM games, you had to purchase the “vanilla” SNES. Once Donkey Kong Country was released at the end of 1994 to major commercial success, Nintendo and Sony began working on a stand-alone version of their popular CD peripheral, and it launched on November 27, 1995, one week after the release of Donkey Kong Country 2.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rcrywzt1yu...azine.png?dl=0 (Author's Note: This is an SNES-CD mock-up taken from OTL's Super Play Magazine.)
The new Super Nintendo CD was a sleek, compact device with the ability to play the entire library of SNES-CD games, and it included four controller ports right out of the box. It was one of Nintendo's better-designed devices, much smaller than the original peripheral had been, and at $129.99, it slashed the price of entry for Nintendo's CD-ROM games by more than a third, the price was also just under a shade of one-third the price of Sega's $399 Saturn. Combined with across-the-board price cuts for Nintendo's cartridge-based SNES (to $59.99 from $69.99), Nintendo's SNES-CD peripheral (to $129.99 from $149.99), and the Playstation Combo Set (to $169.99 from $199.99), Nintendo had positioned itself to be the budget alternative to Sega's high-priced marvel, the Sega Saturn.
I'm Your Venus, I'm Your Fire...
For the past five years, the Sega Game Gear had flagged behind Nintendo's lower-tech but significantly more economical Game Boy. On November 14, 1995, Sega released the Venus, a handheld Sega Genesis with the Mega Charger internals built right in. The Venus was by far the most powerful handheld game system that had ever been released up to that date, and it launched at $249.99, more than twice the price of Sega's Genesis (Sega would begin selling the Mega Genesis, a Genesis with a Mega Charger built in, for $99.99 around that time as well). The Venus launched with quite a bit of fanfare, including a slickly produced commercial featuring Bananarama's classic “Venus” song interspersed with scenes of people looking like they were having a ball playing Genesis and Mega Charger games on a handheld. The Venus had a pair of pretty nasty Achilles heels. The price was one (it was slashed to $199.99 within a couple of months and then slashed further to $149.99 a couple months after that), and the other was the battery life. When playing Genesis games, battery life was just under three hours on six AA batteries. That was bad enough, but when playing certain Mega Charger games (Star Wars Arcade and Lords of Skylein were the biggest culprits), battery life could be as short as 45 minutes. The thing consumed batteries at a prodigious rate, someone once calculated that playing the 50-hour Lords of Skylein could cost nearly $400 in batteries. You could buy a Saturn for that much! Though the Venus wasn't a complete flop (the slickly produced commercial and price cuts drove the Venus to 3.5 million in sales by the end of 1996), it failed to achieve the lofty success of Nintendo's Game Boy.
-”The History Of Console Gaming: Year-By-Year (Part 6)”, Wired.com, June 12, 2012
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*A husband and wife are out walking on the boardwalk on a date.*
Wife: Are you sure it's okay to leave our son home alone?
Husband: Oh, he's a responsible boy, I think we can trust him.
*The two of them see a group of teenagers walking by, talking about something.*
Teenage Boy: Hey, did you hear about that sweet new video arcade?
Teenage Girl: Yeah, I heard it just opened up, I can't wait to go over there and play.
Husband: *to his wife* A new arcade? I bet our son would love it. *walks over to the teens* Hey guys, you mind telling us about that new arcade? We've got a kid your age, he loves video games, where's it at?
Teenage Boy: Sure thing dude, it's at 1724 Spruce Street!
Wife: Huh? Say that again?
Teenage Girl: 1724 Spruce Street. It's the hottest arcade in town, all the kids hang out there.
Husband: Wait a minute, that's our house!
Teenage Girl: It's a house all right and it's an awesome arcade, there's dozens of games!
Wife: Our son put an arcade in our HOUSE?
Husband: *looking panicked* We gotta get home....
*The husband and wife rush home to see lights flickering inside their house and tons of kids hanging out around it*
Wife: *pushes through the crowd and opens the door* You put an arcade in here? You're in big trouble!
Husband: *looking around* Wait, where are all the arcade machines?
Son: *sitting by the TV with a Saturn controller in his hand with his friends around him* There aren't any machines, it's just the Sega Saturn!
*The son and his friends are shown to be having a blast playing Virtua Fighter while his parents sigh in relief. The screen switches to show Sega's arcade lineup including Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA, Virtua Cop, and Ridge Racer.*
Announcer: With dozens of the hottest arcade games, including the newest hit from Namco, Ridge Racer, who needs the arcade? Stay home, save your quarters and bring the arcade home. Only the Sega Saturn brings you the biggest arcade hits, and with dozens more on the way, you'll never need to leave your living room again.
Husband: *sitting down by the TV with his wife* So, can we have next game?
Son: No way!
Wife: You're grounded.
Son: .... *nervously hands a racing wheel to his mom*
Wife: *has a smirk on her face as she begins playing Ridge Racer*
Playing Is Believing
*cue the SEGA! scream*
-excerpted from a Sega Saturn commercial that aired in late 1995 and early 1996
Without question, the Sega Saturn's biggest early successes were their arcade ports. The Virtua Trio of Virtua Fighter, Virtua Cop, and Virtua Racing drove Saturn sales more than anything else during that rough 1995 holiday season, but it was their November 1995 release of Ridge Racer that proved to lay the foundation for the relationship that Sega and Namco would form throughout the latter half of the 90s. Namco's deal to produce arcade games with Sega was regarded as the biggest coup in the history of the arcade industry. Indeed, it was around this deal that the entire arcade game industry would orbit starting with the release of the Saturn. The Saturn's technology became the benchmark for arcade cabinets throughout its lifetime. Using their combined negotiating power, Sega and Namco were able to reduce costs and enable arcade chip technology to progress far more rapidly. Their lucrative contract with military contractor Lockheed Martin to produce these high-tech arcade chips gave the two companies the inside track on becoming the leaders in arcade cabinets. This greatly increased the longevity of Sega's Model 2 arcade platform and enabled Sega and Namco to take their time with Model 3, which wouldn't see release until 1997.
Though Ridge Racer's release provided only a minor bump to Saturn sales, it was still a critically acclaimed and highly desired game throughout the 1995 holiday season. Sega had initially feared that the game might fall by the wayside in the wake of their big racing game releases at the Saturn's launch, but Namco had distinguished Ridge Racer from other games on the market and the port became the Saturn's best selling non pack-in game of 1995, outselling even Daytona USA. Namco's next arcade port to the Saturn would be the 3-D fighting game Tekken, which was set to release in February 1996 in North America. Tekken would be followed up by Soul Edge in June 1996, and the two games were only part of a very promising Saturn lineup for the year. While Nintendo continued to prosper with its strong lineup of SNES-CD games, Sega's near monopoly on major arcade hits would prove to be a huge selling point for the Saturn going forward.
-excerpted from the article “Bringing The Arcade Hits Home: The Sega/Namco/Arcade Symbiosis” on
GoldenAgeArcade.com, September 18, 2013
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“Front Mission Preview: An exclusive promotional video for Squaresoft's new strategy-RPG Front Mission, only available to Nintendo Power CD subscribers!”
-excerpted from the October 1995 issue of Nintendo Power CD, describing a special 5-minute promotional video for Front Mission that only aired in Japan IOTL (Author's Note: This video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kidzS-EkVY8 only with English narration and text replacing the Japanese)
In this month's big Epic Center feature, we're taking a look at Squaresoft's newest hit game, Front Mission! When it released back in April in Japan, it became one of the fastest-selling video games ever! Now it's here in the West and Nintendo Power's got tips and strategies to help you through the first few missions of the game.
-excerpted from Nintendo Power's Epic Center section in the November 1995 issue
Were Front Mission's North American sales a disappointment to you?
Toshiro Tsuchida: I knew we weren't going to sell half a million copies in the first week like we did in Japan! I believe the first week in North America, we ended up selling about 40,000 copies which really was not bad considering just how many excellent games were released that month.Our total North American sales were...somewhere just under 200,000 I think? Not as big as Final Fantasy but certainly all right for any other game.
Did you begin work on Front Mission 2 immediately after the first?
Tsuchida: Not immediately after but after sales were so high in Japan, we did. We quickly realized that the game would not be possible on the Super Famicom CD and that is why it did not release until later on the Ultra.
I remember there being considerable controversy after the release of Front Mission 2 for the Ultra Nintendo in North America, there was a lot of really controversial content and some of those concerns also came up with the first game.
Tsuchida: Well, it was not my decision to localize it! Certainly it helped that the Super Famicom CD had opened a lot of doors in North America. Square was a big factor behind pushing those envelopes. I was glad to see all the Front Mission games localized and to see the reception to them from around the world.
-excerpted from an interview with Toshiro Tsuchida with RPGamer.net, June 10, 2010
Front Mission for the Super Nintendo CD releases on November 13, 1995, and it's somewhat similar to Enix's earlier strategy game Ogre Battle, though unlike Ogre Battle you have much more control over your soldiers as you march them across the battlefield. Gameplay is somewhat linear, the cut-scenes (despite not being voiced) are beautifully depicted with animation for certain very important scenes and the battles themselves are full of very detailed animation and realistic graphics. Customizing your battle mech (known as a “wanzer”) is a very complex affair but once you get the hang of it you'll have trouble stopping.
The plot is quite complex but very engrossing and we loved the option to play a special second scenario after the completion of the main plot, we won't spoil any more than that but it was essentially like getting two games in one and it added lots of extra play time to this already epic game. Squaresoft has outdone itself in a big way with Front Mission and this just makes us more excited to see what they have in store for what looks like a very jam-packed 1996.
Graphics: 5.0
Sound: 5.0
Play Control: 5.0
Fun Factor: 5.0
Difficulty: Advanced
-excerpted from GamePro's December 1995 review of Front Mission
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Sort of lost in all the holiday hype of 1995 was the two big detective game sequels released that November. Nintendo was localizing the long-awaited sequel to 1993's Super Detective Club, while we also got Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego?, which at the time was actually one of the more hyped games considering the reception the first one got.
Super Detective Club 2 was designed for the Super Nintendo CD from the ground up, it contained four all new cases along with cut scenes and voice acting to dramatize the cases. The fourth case was linked to each of the first three cases which could be solved in order. The game was a bit more dramatic and mature than the Famicom games, it got a Teen rating in North America and even featured a bit of mild language which was almost unheard of in a Nintendo game up to that time! The first case of the first three was a murder, a miserly businessman is found dead and his five grandchildren, who also attend the school that the protagonist and his friend Ayumi Tachibana attends, are the prime suspects, you have to figure out which of the grandchildren is the murderer. Ayumi's friend Michuri is one of the suspects and the evidence actually points to Michuri but a smart player will see the hidden clues that actually implicate the businessman's youngest grandson Banko in the crime. The second case is a kidnapping, Ayumi Tachibana is kidnapped and it's a race against time to save her (though she eventually escapes on her own and helps the protagonist implicate the criminal). The third case is another murder, this time of a female racehorse jockey, it's a very complex case to solve, probably the toughest of the three. The prime suspect at first is her jealous rival but it turns out that she and her rival were actually lovers and about to elope, it was the rival's manager that ends up being the murderer. The fourth and final case ties in to the other three. Ayumi's friend Michuri is kidnapped by the culprit from the second case (who escaped from jail), Michuri happens to be the owner of the murder victim's racehorse from the third case and not only do you have to stop the kidnapper but you have to find out who hired them, which turns out to be a dangerous crime syndicate. The game does have a happy ending (assuming you solve the mystery in time) and despite the serious material, it does have plenty of lighthearted moments. The game was largely well recieved and sold even better than the first, even in North America. That brings us to that month's second game...
Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego? was the sequel to one of the best selling video games of 1993. Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? was the first real post-release hit for the Super Nintendo CD and the sequel was expected to perform just as well...so why didn't it? For one thing, the critical reception to the game just wasn't quite as good as the first. It replaced the rather charming live-action cutscenes from the first game with animated cutscenes somewhat similar to the animation found in the Fox Kids series Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?, with Rita Moreno even reprising her voice acting role from that show. In fact, the game borrowed considerably from that show, including Carmen's history with ACME and her sympathetic background. The game would also include elements that would be featured in the later PBS game show series Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego? including the theme song (which was decent but nowhere NEAR Rockapella's legendary theme song for Where In The World) and the Chronoskimmer. The result was a somewhat disjointed amalgam of elements that made the game somewhat...confused compared to the first game's significantly more focused effort. That's not to say the game wasn't good, which it largely was, but it was ultimately forgettable. The second reason it didn't succeed to the degree the first one had...the competition. It came out just one week after Donkey Kong Country 2, and was largely ignored in favor of that game. Ultimately it was outsold even by Super Detective Club 2, and other games such as Rage, Front Mission, and The Endless War also outperformed it both criticially and commercially. The disappointment that was Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego proved that the franchise was largely past its peak in the public eye, and that the detective game genre itself was past its prime as well, despite Nintendo's success with Super Detective Club 2.
-excerpted from “Dueling Detectives”, an article on Nintendo Digital Digest, November 19, 2012
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The Many Faces Of Rage
Rage, coming November 6th to the Super Nintendo CD and coming in early 1996 to the Sega Saturn, is the latest beat-em -up from Capcom. It features nine fierce brawlers who are geared up to pummel their way through endless waves of enemies. Depending on your chosen path through the story, you can obtain one of four different endings. Here's a quick look at all the brawlers you can chose from.
Jason Gurds: A captain in the United States Marines, Jason is seeking revenge for the ambush and deaths of his comrades in a war. Upon hearing that the warlord Blackstone is responsible for the deaths of Jason's comrades, Jason resolved to punch, kick, throw, and bodyslam his way through everybody that gets in his way.
Adam Crasher: With superhuman strength gained from a nuclear accident, Adam is equipped to beat down legions of criminal thugs. There's no way he's going to let Blackstone or anyone else steal the loose nuclear material that's already caused him so much pain. Adam moves somewhat slowly but his punches pack more power than anyone else in the game.
Kitsuko Atsuri: Kitsuko may look like a harmless geisha girl but don't be fooled, her swift kicks and fierce leaps can devastate much larger foes. She seeks to protect her friends from Blackstone's criminal empire.
Icarus Lowell: The youngest of the brawlers in Rage, Icarus is a 14-year-old boy who's had wings grafted onto his back by Blackstone's evil scientists and doesn't need much motivation to pick a fight with the evil mastermind. He can float above enemies for a short time to land fierce blows from above!
Artemis Night: Artemis is a private detective who failed to stop Blackstone from murdering his beautiful lover. Now he seeks only revenge and he's brought his trusty pearl-handled pistol along for the ride.
Savage Paul: Though he's got a scary name and an even scarier appearance, Savage Paul is mostly a gentle giant, he runs an orphanage but he's not going to let Blackstone threaten his beloved orphans without bearhugging him and his minions into submission first.
Kim McIntosh: A fiery redhead with a positive attitude, Kim doesn't have anything personal against Blackstone, she just likes beating the crap out of people. With a reckless style that emphasizes charging in rapidly and bashing enemies, Kim's the definition of a glass cannon but if you like to live dangerously, she's your girl.
Lord Masters: Lord Masters is an old man who has been kicked out of his hard-earned mansion by Blackstone. Now he uses his remaining fortune to train himself into a fierce martial artist, while sometimes getting his butler Jenkins to do some of his dirty work.
XCR-333: XCR-333 is a rogue combat robot who got a mind of his own after being given an order to slaughter a bus full of children by Blackstone. Instead, he fought off ten other robots and moved the children to safety. Now his uses his programming to fight back against his evil creator.
-excerpted from the December 1995 issue of EGM2
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John Walden: Ridge Racer is just a great game, I say it's better than Virtua Racing and Daytona USA, the graphics are awesome and the racing action is a ton of fun.
Alex Stansfield: It's close for me between the three of them. I think Ridge Racer is definitely the closest to an authentic arcade experience but the other two games have their good qualities too. Not a knock against Ridge Racer by any means, it's a ton of fun, such a beautiful game and the racing is top notch.
John: If you can get a friend over to play this, you'll definitely want to go head to head. Hook up a couple racing wheels and you're absolutely golden.
Alex: Plays so good with the wheel, I mean the controller's fun too but if you use the Sega racing wheel it's just like it is in the arcade. And I can't stop talking about the graphics, it looks really pretty with great draw distance.
John: The graphics are what most impressed me about Ridge Racer, can't get over how good this game looks. I'm giving it a 4.5.
Alex: And I'm giving it a solid 4, this is definitely a GameTV recommended title.
(...)
Brittany Saldita: Squaresoft's Front Mission is a decent game but it did get somewhat repetitive toward the end, the later missions I felt were kind of a grind.
Ted Crosley: I agree, I'm not quite sure if maybe they ran out of ideas or what?
Brittany: But the plot was terrific and I liked the added USN scenario, that added some replay value to the game at least.
Ted: For me, Front Mission definitely pales in comparison to say, the Final Fantasy games.
Brittany: Agreed.
Ted: But for what it's worth it's still a good game.
Brittany: I feel like it laid the foundation for a great game and that it had a lot of good ideas but the execution could've been better. If they find a way to make longer missions not such a drag, this could be a real masterpiece. I give Front Mission a 3.5 out of five.
Ted: I give it a 3.5 too, it's definitely got a lot going for it but it's not a classic like Final Fantasy VI.
-excerpted from the November 14, 1995 episode of GameTV
(...)
Ted: So let's wrap this up, what did you think of The Endless War?
Kazzi DeCarlo: Well it's not endless, the game DOES have an ending! So that's ONE strike against it. But to be honest, I feel like this game was trying too hard. I'm all for having options but it seemed like it turned into a LOT of micro-management. Even Civilization managed to make a really complex strategy game easy to get into.
Ted: I LOVED all the customization options, I just wish there were more nations to pick from. There were only eight and even though they gave all of them a lot of story details and gameplay quirks, I felt like they could have included a lot more or even let you make your own.
Kaz: Why'd all the countries have to be fictional? I wanted to kick France's ass.
Ted: *laughing* But yeah, the customization for individual soldiers and units added a ton of strategy. This game is the deepest war game I've ever played, it's deeper than Koei's great games, deeper than Civilization, it's a game all about planning battles and strategy and it works on a ton of levels. And the music was awesome.
Kaz: The music was the ONLY redeeming factor I thought, when I was muddling through menus at least I had good music to listen to.
Ted: This game did come with a huge instruction book.
Kaz: You mean I have to read INSTRUCTIONS?!
Ted: It helps to read instructions, yeah.
Kaz: *groans*
Ted: I give The Endless War a 4.5 but you really do need to read the instructions.
Kaz: I give it a 3. I just didn't have much of a clue when it came to planning out my attacks.
Ted: The instruction book helps!!!
(...)
Ted: Donkey Kong Country 2 is pretty much everything we expected a DKC sequel to be. Beautiful, challenging, and lots of platforming fun.
Alex: Yeah, make no mistake about it, this is one of the best games of the year and even better than the original.
Ted: I'll definitely give it that even though I thought the original Donkey Kong Country was a bit overrated. I loved the adventurous feel of this one, it felt like you were going on a real pirate quest and the enemies were really creative compared to the first.
Alex: Any flaws the first Donkey Kong Country game had, this one fixes.
Ted: A word of warning, it's blisteringly hard. I enjoyed the challenge but you will be frustrated at times.
Alex: Oh yeah, this one definitely beats out the first. The bosses are a LOT tougher.
Ted: The music was beautiful especially in the thorn stages, though most of the time I couldn't hear the music over my loud swearing.
Alex: Screech can go right to hell!
Ted: Oh, (expletive) that bird. I got a bird to give him.
Alex: Birds aside, Donkey Kong Country 2 gets a 5 out of 5 from me.
Ted: I'm gonna give it a 4.5, it's definitely one of the best platformers around and sets a new bar for the series.
-excerpted from the November 21, 1995 episode of GameTV
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SNES-CD Power Charts: November 1995
1. The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Dreams
2. Super Mario World 3
3. Doom
4. Donkey Kong Country
5. Super Mario World 2
6. Victory
7. Final Fantasy VI
8. Ogre Battle
9. Earthbound 2
10. Deadman Sam 2
11. Treasure Hunters
12. Madden 96
13. Andrekah
14. NFL Quarterback Club '96
15. Super Squadron X: Critical Dawn
16. Five For Fighting Hockey
17. Pig Wars
18. Primal Rage
19. WWF Wrestlemania
20. Mega Man X2
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December 2, 1995
At Sony's headquarters in Japan, chairman Norio Ohga was monitoring an event in North America with great interest. Not the success of Donkey Kong Country 2, or the continuing strong sales of Ballistic Limit, or anything having to do with video games at all. Instead, Ohga and his fellow Sony executives were tracking the performance of Pixar's computer-animated film Toy Story, which had been highly lucrative at the North American box office for the past two weeks and had generated critical praise like few animated films before it. The technology used in Toy Story was exceptionally advanced, and Ohga knew that no video game console would be able to produce visuals like it for at least a decade and probably much longer.
“This new computer-generated animation is the future of the industry,” said Ohga, who could see nods of agreement from those seated at the table. “And, as we've done in the video game industry, we should be involved in this.”
Ken Kutaragi looked over at new Sony president Noboyuki Idei, seated to the left of Ohga. Ohga's fellow executives had been skeptical of the choice to pick Idei as Sony's new number-two man, but Idei represented a new wave of thinking within Sony, a tendency to take risks, to look for opinions outside the company, ideas that could drive Sony forward into a new era of business. That kind of thinking had gotten Sony into perhaps its most successful business endeavor to date, its partnership with Nintendo on video games, and now it seemed that Ohga wanted Sony to forge another partnership.
“It's not likely that we'd be able to make a deal with Pixar,” said Idei, “though I am certainly open to working with them if it's possible.”
“Not Pixar,” said Ohga, knowing that Pixar already had a strong relationship with Disney, yet another entertainment titan. “But there are many other movie studios who may wish to utilize this new animation technology, and will be looking for a company like Sony to provide the hardware.”
Ohga had big plans for Sony going forward. It would already be making itself more visible as a partner to Nintendo once the Ultra was released, and Ohga hoped to use this visibility to form a unified front across the entertainment industry. Wherever big ideas were formed, Sony would be there to bring them into reality. The company already had an advertising campaign that would begin launching in Japan in 1996 and across North America hopefully later that year. The Ultra Nintendo was just one part of Sony's business strategy...and with luck, its partnership with an animation company would be another. Ohga already had a few potential partners in mind...
“Do you already have someone in mind?” asked Idei, his mind already searching for potential partners for Sony in this new endeavor. “Because...there's a former Disney executive who's just built a new animation studio and he has some very powerful partners.”
Ohga's lips curved into a smile. The two men had the same idea.
“I've been looking into that possibility,” said Ohga. “They've been looking into partnering with a company called Pacific Data Images, but the deal's not done yet.”
“Is there any way for us to arrange a meeting with them?” asked Idei. “Or should we go looking elsewhere?”
“We should have many potential options,” Ohga replied, “but if you'd like to arrange a meeting I'd be in full support of it.”
Within the week, Idei was placing the call... he'd just started at Sony and already he'd be discussing a partnership with one of the most powerful men in show business...perhaps one of the most powerful men in the world.
“This is Mr. Noboyuki Idei from Sony... I'd like to speak with Mr. Spielberg, please."
Well, Sony would be contributing the computer tech for Dreamworks' CGI features.
Ooh, update.
I've spent a good 4 hours reading the TL, and it's brilliant! Keep it up!
I've spent a good 4 hours reading the TL, and it's brilliant! Keep it up!
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