SNES News, SNES Features

Be very afraid

Those of you old enough to recall the 16-bit era will no doubt remember a fighting game for the SNES by the name of Shaq Fu. It took the famous basketball star Shaquille O'Neal and placed him in a fantasy world when he had to use his intense B-Ball skills to defeat the malevolent Sett-Ra. Despite being created by the respected French...

The RetroN5 has a challenger

It would seem that 2013 is going to be a big year for new gaming hardware — not only will we see the PlayStation 4 and Next Xbox, but we've got two new retro systems to look forward to as well. Hyperkin's RetroN 5 will be joined by the Retro-Bit Super Retro Trio, which plays SNES, Genesis / Mega Drive, NES and (with...

The full soundtrack will be included

EarthBound will soon be making its way to the Wii U Virtual Console, which incidentally will be up and running next week after the upcoming system update. It seems to have taken an absolute age for Nintendo to release a downloadable version of the game and several rumours naturally cropped up as to why it's...

"Thank you for all the requests. They made me very happy."

One of the most popular announcements that took place during the recent Nintendo Direct was the confirmation that EarthBound would be making its way to the Wii U Virtual Console. Fans of the game - known as Mother 2 in Japan - have been clamoring at Nintendo to release a downloadable...

The wait is finally over

Nintendo fans have been clamouring for a Virtual Console release of the SNES RPG EarthBound ever since the Wii launched, but during today's Nintendo Direct the happy news was finally delivered: Shigesato Itoi's seminal title is coming to the Wii U Virtual Console. Launched in Japan as Mother 2, a North American release...

Dylan Cuthbert reveals the magic of working with Nintendo

Star Fox is one of the Super Nintendo's most enduring classics, thanks largely to its ground-breaking use of 3D and tight, immserise gameplay. However, had Dylan Cuthbert — one of the game's key developers — had his way, it might have turned out very differently; something he now admits...

Wii U rival to offer ability to play ROMs on your TV

Ouya is one of the more high-profile Kickstarter campaigns, having raised a staggering $8.6 million in 2012. The system will run on Google's Android operating system and should retail for less than $100 when it launches in June this year. Although its primary objective is to host titles similar...

One of the best games ever in less time than it takes to eat a burger

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is unquestionably one of the best Zelda instalments, and quite possibly one of the greatest video games ever made. The games offers hours of top-notch entertainment, but YouTube user vgcuts has managed to cram all of that awesomeness into...

News of a new entry is sullied by the removal of the SNES version from the Virtual Console

The latest issue of German Retro Gamer magazine has revealed that a new entry in the Turrican series is on its way. Turrican Rebirth will be a 2D shooter with a heavy emphasis on customisation, allowing players to make their own weapons and stages to share...

Down on the farm

Hollywood reboots are pretty tiresome these days — it would appear that film-makers have run out of new ideas entirely. Still, every cloud has a silver lining, because the loathsome trend of pilfering ideas from the past has inspired the YouTube series Gritty Reboots, which parodies the process but uses video games for its...

$10,000 funding goal in place

A Kickstarter campaign has been launched to produce a Super 4-in-1 cartridge for the SNES. The cart will contain four homebrew titles: Mazezam, UWOL: Quest for Money, Skipp and Friends Unexpected Journey and N- WARP Daisakusen. The creators are looking to secure $10,000 to fund the project. At the time of writing, they...

Still super after all these years

To many, it's the greatest video game console ever made. The Super Famicom — or Super Nintendo Entertainment System as it is more commonly known outside of its native Japan — is host to some of the finest pieces of interactive entertainment ever made. It was on this console that Nintendo refined so many of the...

Game Counselors were mere mortals after all

Those of you in North America old enough to remember the days before the internet will no doubt recall the Nintendo Power Line. This telephone service offered gameplay tips and hints for struggling players, and was your only hope in a period where online FAQs and strategy guides didn't exist. The service...

It's bizarrely enthralling

Have you ever been sat at home watching an episode of the popular British TV series Downton Abbey and thought 'you know what, they should make a game out of this'. Well who hasn't, and that's exactly what YouTube user Bill Kiley must have thought, as he has created a brilliant fake trailer for what would be a 16-bit Super...

Tatsuya Minami explains how the SNES classic helped him out of a rut

The latest Iwata Asks focuses on Japanese studio PlatinumGames, which is currently hard at work creating Bayonetta 2 for the Wii U. In the interview, Iwata chats with PlatinumGames President and CEO Tatsuya Minami about his development past, and uncovers an interesting piece of...

Seven classic games incoming over the next seven months

During today's Wii U Direct Satoru Iwata announced the Wii U Virtual Console Trial Campaign, which has been devised to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the original Famicom. Eagle-eyed readers will note that the Virtual Console doesn't officially launch until after Spring, when the system...

Unlock your vintage games collection

We reported on the Retrode Version 2 last year, and have since been able to get our hands on one of these intriguing (not to mention controversial) devices. What follows is a straightforward review of the unit and an assessment of its functionality and usefulness to dedicated retro collectors. We're not going...

Nintendo bowing to pressure from EA?

According to a post on NeoGAF, the Super Nintendo version of SimCity is no longer available on the North American Virtual Console. No official line has been given for the removal, but we would imagine it has something to do with EA owning the SimCity license now. This isn't the first time that software has been...

Yours for just $24,999

Every now and then an eager retro collector raises eyebrows by offering something unique at an eye-watering price, which in the past has included items such as demo NES cartridges. This time around we have an entire collection of Super NES games up for sale, which includes all 721 retail releases for the system that hit the...