Hebereke's Popoitto

This was localised. Honest.

Hebereke's Popoitto, also known as Popoitto Hebereke. Not something to challenge your voice box with but apparently something UK citizens should buy, accroding to Sunsoft circa 1995.

Hebereke no Popoon

So how do you follow up an interesting, if badly timed non-linear platformer? By creating a falling block puzzle game of course! That's sensible!

Yes it's the return of the world's favourite intoxicated penguin; Hebereke no Popoon, a 1995 puzzle game released for the Super Famicom in Japan. It's a rare case of the arcade version being the lesser choice - treasure this moment, it doesn't happen often.

Jaki Crush

"I wonder what Squirrel will post next..."

Surprise! It's an obsolete pinball game from twenty years ago! Jaki Crush, for the Super Famicom, built by Naxat Soft. We're living it large, friends.

Pokemon Gold Silver

An elusive unlicensed Super Nintendo game, supposedly titled "Pokemon Gold Silver" has been recently dumped. Joy of joys.

Rap Jam: Volume One

Look kids, another game designed by marketing departments

"Rap Jam: Volume 1" a household name no less for the Super Nintendo. Developed by our good friends at 64WD Corporation (..?) and published by Mandingo (...?!) exclusively in the US, it's a half-baked basketball game that nobody remembers. But wait, there's more - there's a selection of rappers and hip hop artists to play as. Yes, you heard that right - the music industry is in on this. What could possibly go wrong?

Jikkyō Oshaberi Parodius

Sounds... chatting

Say what's better than Gokujō Parodius?.. I'm not too sure. Jikkyō Oshaberi Parodius, or "Chatting Parodius Live" is the fourth game in the series and gives it a go. This one has a running commentary... in Japanese. Perhaps you can see why I'm not as thrilled with this one.

Kirby's Star Stacker

Something Nintendo related?! Could it have something to do with their E3 performance?

This is (wait for it), "Kirby no Kirakira Kizzu" (カービィのきらきらきっず) for the Super Famicom, affectionately called "Kirby's Star Stacker". The western world saw this game show up for the Game Boy, but the SNES port/update didn't make it across the waters for whatever reason, meaning it's one of the only Kirby games to be held captive by the Japanese. Make sure you wash your hands after you touch this one - don't want to catch something with all that kanji in the air.

Speedy Gonzales: Los Gatos Bandidos

I've been re-writing my Sonic the Hedgehog 4 page on tORP, which requires actually playing the Speedy Gonzales game it was based off rather than just making guesses about the game like before. I suppose it's a bit sad, because more people on the internet seemed to have played the pirate hack featuring Sonic than the official, untouched Speedy Gonzales game.

Developed by Sunsoft and published by Acclaim for the Super Nintendo, Speedy Gonzales: Los Gatos Bandidos is a platformer involving the cartoon mouse on his quest to save other cartoon mice from some cartoon cats. As you can guess, it's a "fast" platformer and takes a few ideas from Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog series, hence why it was such a good match to throw Sonic in and market it as Sonic 4 for the SNES.

Michael Jordan in: Chaos in the Windy City

Following the trend of basketball stars in video games, here's another underrated Super Nintendo classic of days gone by:

Michael Jordan in: Chaos in the Windy City. Like Shaq Fu people dismissed this game from the get go because it was a platforming game featuring Micheal Jordan. As such, the game has been buried and forgotten about, which to be honest, must be some sort of crime. Though then again digging up a grave probably is as well.

Released for the Super Nintendo in 1994 by Electronic Arts, Micheal Jordan is set up with the task of saving all his team-mates so that an all star charity basketball game can continue (just like Shaq Fu!). In order to do this he must overcome the evil scientist "Maximus Cranium" who wants a perfect basketball team for some reason. Because this is clearly more important than curing cancer or whatever.

When I see basketball players in derelict buildings surrounded by floating eyes and zombies, I can't help but think of Scooby Doo's friends the Harlem Globetrotters. The concept of those guys helping to solve mysteries is a bit strange, but that didn't stop Hannah Barbera making several Scooby Doo specials devoted to them. In CitWC, Michael Jordan fits the role quite nicely as he runs about with a basketball attacking these creatures and opening doors with keys. If I were to write "one of the main parts of this game is opening doors", chances are you'd be turned-off, but don't be, because this game is a fine example of how to make the platforming genre more interesting. You have a colourful array of basketballs to deal damage to your enemies and the SNES manages to deliver a well polished, good looking (and pretty good sounding) title.

Though it's unwise to compare it to what could be considered the king of SNES platforming, Super Mario World, CitWC isn't as far behind as you may imagine. Its main problem is that it doesn't adapt to a PC keyboard that well. Granted, it's not supposed to, but with little chance of it ever being re-released it means you have to hunt down a real SNES (or a gamepad... whatever floats your boat) to get the true feel. Also because for whatever reason ZSNES isn't a fan of my keyboard, any gameplay flaws I may see many not actually be gameplay flaws. All I know is that it's got quite a bit of depth and is pretty damned fun. One thing EA could have done with is a saving feature instead of passwords (I mean come on it WAS 1994) but I suppose this is made up by the fact you can attack the press on your train journeys. In fact, this makes up for every flaw this game has.

Though you wouldn't make the album charts with the selection of music presented here, it's not too bad either. It fits the mood nicely, just a shame some of the tracks were re-used quite a bit. Then again how many EA games have noticeable soundtracks nowadays? Outside of the film licensees that come equipped with them, probably not too many.

But yeah, you can't go too wrong with Michael Jordan here. The real tragedy is that games such as these will likely never see the light of day again.

Arkenstein 3D

For whatever reason, the Super Nintendo was largely pirate free. Despite all the famiclones and piracy surrounding its older sibling, the NES, the SNES's library was pretty clean. Oh except for Super Noah's Ark 3D.

Games involving religion don't generally work and this is no exception. But it didn't stop Wisdom Tree from making these titles again and again. This one is quite famous because it's built off the SNES version of Wolfenstein 3D. Now to be fair, Wolf 3D on the SNES is pretty bad because for some amazing reason Nintendo of America decided it was in their best interests to censor everything. They took out the blood, the references to Hitler and the Nazi party and the... dogs, replacing these things with sweat, made-up dictators and GIANT RATS. Shoot at all the Germans and Rats you want, just leave those dogs alone!

There's an urban legend that Super Noah's Ark 3D was made in "revenge", because the censorship policies of the time were so stupid. It's not true, but it should be.

And as it's built on a nice engine, it's probably one of the only decent religious games ever created. Putting animals to sleep with food makes no sense, and it even goes against what was in the bible by having far more than two goats, but nevertheless, it's quite entertaining. Nothing new, but who cares.

The game is actually quite brutal in many different ways. Unlike Wolfenstein 3D, enemies hide around corners and jump on you (probably because goats can't hold guns). The SNES couldn't do 3D that well so like its port of Doom things are pixellated. Tie this with the fact that most of the scenery is brown and the music is dreadful... and you've got a pretty bad mix.

Contrary to popular belief it's not just Wolfenstein with a coat of paint however. The levels are completely different as well. It's certainly no-where near as fun as shooting nazis but as far as religious games go, it's quite high up the charts. I can't really recommend it - the SNES struggles far too much with FPS games and the SNES Wolf 3D wasn't quite up to spec either. Eventually someone will probably mod the DOS version of Wolfenstien to give a better Super Noah's Ark 3D experience (if they haven't already)... probably best to seek that out instead.