SNES News (Page 5)
Random SNES Title HyperZone's Hidden 3D Mode Can Be Played With 3D Glasses
Anyone got a spare Famicom 3D System they don't need?
HAL's HyperZone is one of those SNES titles which didn't set the world alight at the time of release but has nonetheless built up a cult following in the years following its release. Much of the game's appeal is down to its innovative use of Mode 7 effects to present a realistic impression of 3D...
News The Designer Of The NES And SNES Has Retired From Nintendo After Almost 40 Years
"I am retiring and moving onto 'other' projects"
Lance Barr, the man who famously designed the NES and SNES consoles, has retired from Nintendo. Barr has made the announcement via his personal LinkedIn account, stating that "after almost 39 years at Nintendo, I am retiring and moving onto 'other' projects." He has served as Design & Brand...
Anniversary The SNES Launched In North America 30 Years Ago
Excuse us while we crumble to dust
On this day 30 years ago, the Super Nintendo launched in North America. Does that make you feel old? Because we feel positively ancient. The release followed hot on the heels of the Japanese launch of the Super Famicom in November 1990, with American gamers getting a redesigned console which swapped the lush...
News Street Fighter II Doc 'Here Comes A New Challenger' Gets New Trailer And Crowdfunding Drive
Now available to pre-order on Indiegogo "due to demand from fans"
Street Fighter II documentary Here Comes A New Challenger raised over £27,000 when it was crowdfunded on Kickstarter recently, but the team behind the project have now announced that another funding dr
Gallery Nintendo Shares Absolutely Stunning High-Res Super Metroid Artwork
Take a trip back in time
Samus will return this October in an all-new outing on the Nintendo Switch titled Metroid Dread. It's being co-developed by the talented team over at MercurySteam - the same developer who worked on Metroid: Samus Returns for 3DS. In the lead-up to this new adventure, Nintendo has been sharing Metroid history on a special we
Feature 20 Super NES Classics Nintendo Should Bring To Switch Online
16-bit gems we'd love to see on Switch
Nintendo has been steadily adding to its Nintendo Switch Online NES and SNES offerings since the service launched, and although it was a slow start, we have to say we're impressed with the breadth of titles available to anybody paying for a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. It's pleasing to see lesser-known...
News Analogue Is Restocking The Super NT And Mega SG Later Today
Set your alarms, retro fans
Analogue — the company behind luxurious retro consoles such as the NES-based Analogue NT Mini and the upcoming Analogue Pocket and PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 console, the Duo — have announced a restock of two previous systems, plus its DAC converter which makes a digital signal play nice with analogue displays. The...
Video Remembering The Super Game Boy For SNES
Look at all those custom borders!
Back in the days of the SNES era, there was a device known as the Super Game Boy. If you're as old as some of us are here at NL towers, you might have some fond memories of the device. Basically, it was an adapter cartridge for the SNES that allowed you to play Game Boy and dual-mode GBC titles on the big screen...
News Limited Run Games Is Publishing SNES And Virtual Boy Retrospective Books
Download samples now
Well, this is a surprise. Limited Run - the company known best as a physical game distributor - has announced it will be publishing two retro gaming books. Both are by Jeremy Parish and will be available to pre-order on 10th August. Super NES Works Vol. 1 Hardcover Book Super NES Works Vol. I looks back at the early days of...
News Nintendo Expands Its Switch Online SNES Service With Three More Titles
Update: Out now!
Update [Wed 28th Jul, 2021 08:25 BST]: These games are now available on the Switch Online SNES service. An SP version of Super Mario Bros. 3 has also been added to the NES library. Original article [Wed 21st Jul, 2021 02:45 BST]: It's now the month of July and that means Nintendo is adding even more classic games to its Switch...
News Some Of The Original Terranigma Team Want To Revive The Classic SNES RPG
Digital re-release or remaster, we don't mind...
Despite only seeing release in Japan and Europe, 1995's Terranigma is regarded as one of the highlights of the SNES RPG library, and copies change hands for startling prices on the secondary market these days. Sadly, the game has never been re-released in any form, but that's something that some of...
News Four Lost NES, SNES And N64 Games Have Been Brought Back To Life, Pre-Orders Now Open
But only for a limited time
If you're big on your video game preservation and history, this latest batch of pre-orders will be right up your retro-collecting street. Piko Interactive, an American publisher that specialises in grabbing the rights to forgotten, never-released games from years gone by and giving them the development time they...
Random Fancy A 'New' Copy Of F-Zero On The SNES? PixelHeart Has You Covered
500 units only
We're pretty used to seeing retro games getting reprints these days, but if you have a craving for 100% authenticity, then you might be more excited by the news that French publisher PixelHeart has 500 'new' copies of F-Zero on the SNES for sale. While some overly optimistic individuals might assume these are officially sanctioned...
News Chip's Challenge Is Making Its Console Debut On SNES And SEGA Genesis
It's never too late
Though many gamers are focused on the latest shiny new games from Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, there's a market for 'new' releases on retro systems too. Now another one is going up for pre-order, in this case a game that'll be making its console debut on Super NES and SEGA Genesis / Mega Drive; yes, it is indeed 2021! This time...
News Nintendo Plugs Its NSO Zelda Games Ahead Of Skyward Sword HD's Release
Experience Link's classic adventures while you wait
Next week sees the release of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD on the Switch. Although it's only an updated version of a 2011 Wii title, Nintendo has been promoting it non-stop since it was originally announced. It's now using the lead-up to the game's release to promote Link's classics...
Soapbox Super Metroid Showed Me I Had The Right To Exist
Samus & Me
My first experience with the Metroid series was relatively unremarkable: I just bought Super Metroid for my SNES, back when a brand new SNES game was something you could just walk into a local shop and buy. I took its oversized box home, flipped through the glossy Player’s Guide, and noticed something odd — Samus Aran, the...
News After Almost 3 Decades, You Can Finally Read The Comic For SNES Classic 'Skyblazer' Online
Originally published in UK magazine 'Manga Mania'
Skyblazer is one of those 'AA' SNES titles that no one seems to talk about enough these days. Developed by Ukiyotei – the same studio which produced the equally underrated Hook for the same console and would later create the two excellent Metal Slug games for the Neo Geo Pocket Color – Skyblazer...
News EarthBound YouTube Videos Keep Getting Flagged For Copyright By Sony
"I find it horribly disheartening"
If you're a YouTube content creator hoping to share let's plays or other videos on EarthBound, SNES' cult classic RPG, you might want to think twice. Over the past couple of weeks, reports have come flooding in from YouTube users who say that their EarthBound-based videos are being flagged for copyright by Sony...
News Tributes Pour In For Near, The Developer Behind One Of The World's Best SNES Emulators
"They always wanted to help others and show them a path to the future"
It has been reported that Near, the developer behind the excellent SNES emulator BSNES (also known as Higan), has tragically taken their own life. Near – who also went by the names 'byuu' and 'Dave' in the past and identified as non-binary – posted a Twitter thread over the...
Random SNES Hacker Working On Widescreen Support For Super Mario World
Doing what Nintendon't
As much as we appreciate Nintendo's efforts with the Switch Online SNES and NES service, these games are for most parts basic emulations of the original classics. While there are some enhancements, we're still stuck with a 4:3 screen display. If you've always dreamed of what older games like Super Mario World would look like...
News Super Mario Kart Hacker Restores Nintendo's Official Track Editor
Code uncovered in recently leaked prototype
A "hacker guy" known as ‘MrL314’ has successfully restored the track editor used by Nintendo to construct Super Mario Kart. The original discovery stems from last year's Nintendo leak which contained an early prototype of SMK from 1991. Here, he found references to a track editor in the code -...
News What Are Your Favourite Switch Online SNES And NES Games? Nintendo Wants To Know
There are now over 100 classics to enjoy
At the end of last month, Nintendo rolled out another batch of retro games for the SNES and NES Switch Online service. Japan also got another Fire Emblem game and a bonus for everyone was
Never-before-seen content, cut ideas and much more...
New secrets about the SNES game EarthBound have been uncovered thanks to efforts of the Video Game History Foundation. In 2018, former Nintendo of America employee Marcus Lindblom (and the guy responsible for the English-language script in EarthBound) discovered an old floppy disk which were...
News Nintendo Reminds Us The Switch Online Service Now Has Over 100 Classic Games
We're ready for Mother now, Nintendo
Nintendo has just added five more games to the Switch Online SNES and NES service for the month of May, as well as a bonus version of Super Mario Kart. Interestingly, this means there are now more than 100 retro games available in North America and Europe. As a reminder of this milestone, Nintendo has shared the...
Reminder Five NES And SNES Games Hit Switch Today, Plus A Special Version Of Super Mario Kart
A retro wonderland
As promised, five new games have arrived on Nintendo Switch Online's NES and SNES apps today. But hang on a minute... What's this bonus game we see before us? Yes, as we shared last week, SNES titles Caveman Ninja (otherwise known as Joe & Mac), Magical Drop II, Spanky's Quest, Super Baseball Simulator 1.000
News 30 Years Later, SNES Street Fighter II Confirms One Of The Franchise's Biggest Myths
You spin me right round
Another of video gaming's greatest myths has been confirmed, 30 years after it first did the rounds in a pre-internet world. The myth relates to Capcom's insanely popular Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, and the notion that the original version of the game, first released in arcades in 1991 and later ported to the SNES,...
Hands On Book4Games "Precision Game Storage" - Fancy Warehousing For Your Loose SNES Carts
We go hands-on with the fanciest alternative to a shoebox yet
Many years ago, some wise penny-pincher at Nintendo decided that shipping games in flimsy cardboard boxes was a sound business decision, and as a result, NES, Game Boy, SNES and even N64 owners had to endure packaging that was annoyingly delicate when compared to that seen on rival...
News A Rare SNES SA1 Demo Cartridge Has Been Found And Preserved
Power preservation
The Bit Wars were an intriguing time in gaming, particularly in the era of one-upmanship between the Super NES and the SEGA Mega Drive / Genesis. While there could be arguments over sound chips, BLAST processing etc, we also saw special enhancement chips produced that'd go within the game cartridges to improve performance or make...
Random Someone Really Wants Ant-Man To Sign Their Super Nintendo
Will donate $1000 to charity, if anyone can make it happen
Long before the American actor Paul Rudd joined the Avengers as Ant-Man, he actually starred in a commercial for the Super Nintendo - showcasing games like F-Zero, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Pilotwings and even SimCity. With this in mind, Twitter user
Random If You're Curious About How They Made SNES Music, This Is Worth A Watch
It was a free-for-all
Many of us have favourite SNES-era soundtracks, especially as they have that distinct sound of Nintendo's 16-bit machine. Of course, the actual technicalities of how those soundtracks came together can be fascinating, as composers and sound designers were working with resources a thousand miles removed from the range of tools...
News Super Coder Speeds Up Yet Another SNES Classic
Konami's Axelay benefits from the FastROM treatment
Remember Brazilan coder Vitor Vilela? He's been making it his quest to fix SNES games that are plagued with slowdown, and he's already worked his magic on titles such as Contra III, Super R-Type and Super Mario World. The issue is that th
News PlayStation's Ken Kutaragi "Never" Considered Nintendo To Be A Competitor
"We were workmates"
Before the existence of the PlayStation, Sony worked with Nintendo on a CD-ROM drive for the Super Famicom. Nintendo decided to pull the plug on the device, and so Sony entered the console business by itself - becoming a direct rival and industry powerhouse. With this in mind, “The Father of PlayStation” Ken Kutaragi...
Guide Best SNES / Super Nintendo RPGs
Flame spells at the ready!
The expansive software library of Nintendo’s 16-bit powerhouse wasn’t short of any of the most popular genres of the '90s, and perhaps least of all RPGs. Intense strategy, whimsical adventure, tear-jerking goodbyes to characters you’ve spent months with… the SNES has it all. And that makes compiling a list of ten...
Anniversary It's Super Mario RPG's 25th Birthday!
Don't get too excited - Nintendo likely won't do anything for this one, either
Let's just ignore the woeful approach of the end of Mario's 35th anniversary, or the completely-ignored 35th anniversary of the Zelda series for a moment. 2021 is also a big year for Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
News Store Your SNES Games In Style With These Rather Fetching Book-Like Cases
"No more shoeboxes or shady repros"
Ah, the SNES. What a machine, eh? Home to some of the greatest video games of all time, this legendary 16-bit console still gets plenty of action in the Nintendo Life office – but, after more than 30 years, we have to admit that many of the games we load up are loose carts, largely because SNES software...
Random Talented Hacker Bumps The Frame Rate Of SNES Race Drivin' From 4fps To 30
A significantly improved experience
Race Drivin' is considered an arcade classic in some quarters, which made its SNES port extremely disappointing back in 1992. Offering a meagre 4 frames-per-second, that edition was widely slated, but now, one software engineer has reverse-engineered it to run at a significantly enhanced 30fps. This comes from...
Mini Review Prehistorik Man (SNES) - The Stone-Age Platformer That Time Forgot
You're in real Barney Rubble now
For a brief, shining period, the video game industry seemed to become obsessed with cavemen. We’re not sure why this is – the Flintstones remake can’t have accounted for all of it. Bonk’s Adventure, Caveman Games, BC Racers, Joe & Mac, Bignose the Caveman and more absolutely flooded the market with...
Mini Review Doomsday Warrior (SNES) - A Street Fighter II Clone That's Doomed From The Start
Welcome to your doom
The Super Famicom port of Street Fighter II was released in June 1992. Telenet’s Doomsday Warrior then hit the market later that year in November. It’s unknown how long it was in development, but based on the final product, one could easily surmise that it was slapped together as quickly as possible to capitalize on the...
Review Psycho Dream (SNES) - The Flawed Yet Fascinating Cult Classic Finally Comes To The West
Import Inception
To best understand Psycho Dream – which has finally come to the west thanks to its addition to the Nintendo Switch Online SNES line-up – you first need to understand Nihon Telenet. It was a prolific company throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, and while its games often had some interesting concepts (and some legitimately...
News Irem's SNES Brawler Undercover Cops Is Getting A New Physical Release
And it comes with loads of goodies, too
One of Irem's 1990s classics is getting a fresh physical release this year, thanks to American company Retro-Bit. Undercover Cops originally launched in arcades in 1992, and built upon the legacy of Kung-Fu Master, which Irem had released way back in 1984. Set in a post-apocalyptic 2043, it's a...
Random Dataminers Use Original Uncompressed Samples To Restore Super Mario World's Soundtrack
And it sounds glorious!
The Super Nintendo game Super Mario World is already amazing, but what might have changed if there were no file size limitations back then? For starters, the iconic music might have been even better. The truth is, we've been listening to "heavily compressed" music in this game for many years now. Today, though, we can...
Video 27 Years Later, Early Donkey Kong Country Concept Sketches Are Revealed To The World
Rambi, Kremlings, and other characters also shown
Back in the '90s, Rare had quite a reputation for being secretive about its internal practices. Though it has opened up significantly since being acquired by Microsoft, it's one of the reasons why we get interesting stories still
News The SNES Almost Got A Zelda-Style Back To The Future II RPG
Great Scott!
The Back To The Future movie franchise is one of Hollywood's most famous products of the '80s, and it should come as no surprise to find that it had its fair share of licenced video games. The original movie got a home computer adaptation in 1985 for the likes of the C64 and ZX Spectrum – as well as a later NES game in 1989 – and...
News Arcade1Up Is Releasing Its Very Own Killer Instinct Arcade Cabinet
Includes Killer Instinct 1 & 2, Battletoads and Battletoads & Double Dragon
Arcade 1Up - known for recreating classic arcade cabinet titles such as Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam - has revealed a cabinet for Rare's 1994 release, Killer Instinct. This is the same game that was ported to the Super Nintendo a year later - although there are notable...
News How One Man Is Fixing The SNES' Biggest Weakness
Slowdown, be gone
The SNES is a legendary console, of that there can be absolutely no doubt. However, it did have one considerable weakness when compared to its main rival, the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis: the clock speed of its CPU. The Ricoh 5A22 which powers the console runs at 3.58 MHz, while Sega's 16-bit system has a Motorola 68000 running at...
Poll Box Art Brawl #72 - Tuff E Nuff
Had E Nuff yet?
Welcome all to the Box Art Brawl, our regular contest where we vote on regional cover art variants from the dim and distant past when you could only buy games in physical form. Last time, we observed an old-fashioned Pokémon battle with Pokémon Stadium 2 for the N64 in honour of its
News Super Mario RPG Character Designer Shares Original Concept Art For Geno
To celebrate the return of his Mii Fighter costume in Smash
Geno, as you've likely heard by now, has returned to the Smash Bros. series once again as a Mii Fighter costume. It might not necessarily be the news every Geno fan wanted to hear, but hey - some acknowledgment is arguably better than nothing. To celebrate this special occasion, Super...
Anniversary ActRaiser Turns 30 Today, And There's Still Nothing Quite Like This SNES Classic
Raise this game!
Another day, another significant anniversary for another celebrated video game. The Super Famicom launched in Japan three decades ago last month and knowing the incredible catalogue of classics birthed in the bloody 16-bit console wars, you should brace yourself for a barrage of 30th anniversaries over the next few months/years (all...
Random Watch Out Next-Gen, Real-Time Ray Tracing Is Now On The SNES
Well, with a little bit of extra help...
Ray tracing is more than a buzzword, it's actually a big deal for next-generation gaming. Although we likely won't be seeing it on a Nintendo platform any time soon, game developer and software engineer Ben Carter has at least found an unofficial way to get this rendering technique up and running on Super...
News Yuzo Koshiro's Sumptuous ActRaiser Soundtrack Is Getting A Vinyl And CD Release
Includes previously unreleased tracks
The gorgeous soundtrack for Quintet's ActRaiser – one of the SNES' most unique and iconic third-party releases – is getting a special re-release on vinyl and CD, courtesy of Paris-based Wayô Records. Composed by the legendary Yuzo Koshiro, who has also created the music for Streets of Rage,
