Why does a future-noir brawler starring a sword named after a Camelot heirloom exist on the Super Nintendo? (Because the ’90s were legally obligated to ship at least one game per fiscal quarter containing the letters X and K side-by-side, obviously.) From its first splash screen X-Kaliber 2097 looks like someone stuffed Final Fight, a stack of Marvel comics, […]
X-Kaliber 2097 (SNES) – The Weirdest Beat-’Em-Up You Skipped Read Post »
We already know the SNES vault teems with genre classics, Super Metroid’s atmospheric isolation, Chrono Trigger’s time-bending epics, Street Fighter II’s button-mashing ballet, but every once in a while, a title sneaks in, flings open the Danger Room doors, and dares you to survive a pixel-perfect mutant meltdown. Enter X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse, Capcom’s 16-bit love
X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse (SNES) – Capcom’s Danger Room Odyssey on the SNES Read Post »
We already know the Amiga catalogue is a kaleidoscope of demo-scene flexes, bedroom curios, and at least three different chrome-teapot tech demos, so why does Abandoned Places: A Time for Heroes still feel like that oddball cousin who shows up to the family reunion in chain-mail, quotes Dragonlance at the snack table, then politely asks if anyone can resurrect
We already know early-’90s adventure games either delighted in murdering you for mis-clicks (hi, Sierra), drenched everything in self-aware snark (hello, LucasArts), or protected their secrets with novellas of lore that doubled as copy-protection (looking at you, Ultima VII). But what about a title that looked like Disney concept art, sounded like an Amiga demo-scene mixtape,
We already know the SNES is stuffed to the brim with heroic quests and sprawling RPG sagas, but then there’s Wonder Project J, Enix’s audacious venture into robotic child-rearing that somehow slipped through Western localization nets (no “please import me” stickers included). Is it a bizarre oddity, a quietly brilliant classic, or just another overpriced
Wonder Project J (SNES) – Nurturing Empathy in a 16-Bit Pinocchio Read Post »