SNES Timeline - Part 9: Do You Even Zelda?

Games in this post:

-The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past-
-Raiden Trad-
-Home Alone-
-Super Off Road-
-Joe & Mac-
-Chibi Maruko-chan: Harikiri 365-Nichi no Maki-
-Lagoon-

Now we've almost hit December of 1991, by far the biggest month up to this point for the Super Nintendo. There are so many games released that I'm splitting it into three posts. Before we get there though, there are still two games released in November. One of them is arguably one of the best games in history. I mean who doesn't have fond memories of Raiden Trad? Uh, just kidding.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - Still a 10/10 if it released today

Genre:Action-RPG
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Released:
11/21/1991(JP)
4/13/1992(US)

The nice thing about doing my own Super Nintendo blog is that I can be totally biased. I can say things like, A Link to the Past is one of the best games ever made. It's execution is near perfect from start to finish. While many people hold a certain ocarina-themed entry up as the best in the series, for me this is the pinnacle of Zelda games. The graphics and animations are crisp and colorful. It's got one of the most recognizable soundtracks ever. The dungeons, enemies, and bosses are varied and excellently designed. The pacing of new skills and challenges is near perfect.

Finding all of these is still exciting.

I doubt anyone reading this is unfamiliar with how Zelda games traditionally work, but just in case you are, here it goes. The concept is for your character to explore a large world, finding the items needed to rescue Zelda. These items are in dungeons, which are really the meat of the game. Dungeons are equal parts action and puzzle, and it's this combination that makes them so fun. There were very few games in the NES and SNES eras that combined different types of gameplay. Combine that with lots of items and secrets to find, and you have a big game that never gets boring. A Link to the Past is superb, and you owe it to the gamer in you to play it. Check out the Virtual Console version here, or man up and track down a physical copy. It's worth every penny of the $35 - $50.

More info, and buying options:

My Grade: A+
Worth Playing: Yes, didn't you read that last paragraph?

Raiden Trad - Tradding familiar waters

Genre: Shooter
Developer: Micronics
Publisher:
Electro Brain (US)
Toei Animation (JP)
Released:
11/29/1991 (JP)
April, 1992 (US)

Really terrible puns aside, why do shmups tend to have such strange names? Raiden generally refers to thunder, and all I could find for trad is a shorthand way of saying traditional. So Tradition of Thunder? The Japanese title is Raiden Densetsu, which would be Legend of Thunder, so that's a little better I guess. Anyway, as to the slight joke at this game's expense at the beginning of this post, I'm sure there are people that remember it fondly. It's not a bad game, really. It's just that every part of it really seems like I've been seeing it since the NES days. It's the epitome of an average shmup. The challenge is certainly there, at least until you get homing missiles. It uses a "wait for the power-up to change" system where there is one power-up each for the main and sub-weapons, and they cycle through your options. The problem is that in a hectic game like this, waiting just isn't a working concept, and you often grab a power-up you didn't want. If you're a fan of the genre you'll probably have fun with it, but it's not going to be anything you haven't played lots of times before.

More info, and buying options:

My Grade: C
Worth Playing: Not really

Home Alone - They can make a platformer out of anything

Genre: Action
Developer:
Imagineering
Publisher: THQ (US)
Altron(JP)
Released:
Dec, 1991(US)
8/11/92(JP)

Ah, the notorious "licensed game". In the PS1-PS2 era a game based on a license was almost always bad. There were exceptions of course but it was true enough to be surprising when a game was good. It's turning around a bit nowadays with series like the Batman Arkham games and the LEGO licensed titles. Back in the 8 and 16 bit days it was kind of a mixed bag. Home Alone is an action platformer loosely based around the movie. You play as Kevin and need to collect enough valuables in each level to keep them from the Wet Bandits, who are a small army in addition to the two characters from the film. Other than the setting and main characters, there's not much in common to the movie, unless I just missed the part where Kevin battles a giant spider. The gameplay isn't bad, but eventually you're just jumping around trying to find hidden items. It's not bad though, especially if you're a fan of the film, and there are a couple nice touches like the classic Aaaaah! face every time you die.

More info, and buying options:

My Grade: C-
Worth Playing: No

Super Off Road - As seen from outer space

Genre: Racing
Developer:
Software Creations
Publisher:
Tradewest (US)
Pack in Video (JP)
Released:
Dec, 1991 (US)
7/3/1992(JP)

Super Off Road is a top-down racing game. I'm thinking a kind of spiritual successor to RC Pro-am on the NES, which was a great game. You can actually see the entire track at once, rather than from behind your car. The viewpoint works pretty well for this game since it allows a lot more bumps and potholes than would have been possible at the time, and the vertical changes are what makes off road racing what it is. The car controls pretty well, and 2 people can play at the same time. There are 4 cars, and you win money as long as you aren't last. If you lose you lose some money and upgrades and have to start over. I can't really say if there's an ultimate goal or not. The game seems to just keep throwing tracks at you. I was 20 races in and was seeing new tracks, when I had already raced on other ones three or four times. Everything looks and plays well, but it gets boring pretty quickly. As is often the case, playing with a second player greatly improves the fun factor.

More info, and buying options:

My Grade: C+
Worth Playing: No

Joe & Mac - Caveman Ghouls and Ghosts

Genre: Action
Developer:
Data East
Publisher:
Data East
Released:
Jan, 1992 (US)
12/6/91(JP)

The best way to describe the gameplay of Joe & Mac is Ghouls and Ghosts lite. You run and jump through tricky platforming levels while taking out re-spawning enemies with a variety of weapons. The game can be challenging, but no where near the level of Capcom's game. On its own, Joe & Mac is a solid game. Graphics are big and bright, giving it a cartoony feel. The controls are responsive and there aren't too many cheap deaths. The different weapons add variety, and you can switch between them as you get more. The biggest thing of note is that the game has 2-player simultaneous play, something very uncommon for platformers back then. The game isn't on Virtual Console, and it's pretty rare to find a cart, but its arcade version was released under the Caveman Ninja name in Data East's Arcade Classics for the Wii. From the list of included games in that set it's probably one of the better offerings.

More info, and buying options:

My Grade: B
Worth Playing: If you want some old-school platforming with a buddy

Chibi Maruko-chan: Harikiri 365-Nichi no Maki - What a 16-bit Mario Party might have been like

Genre: Board Game
Developer: SAS Sakata
Publisher:Epoch (JP)
Released: 12/13/91 (JP)

This is a Japanese Board game based on the manga/TV show of the same name. There's a Swedish translation, but no English, so I'm not sure what your options are. The board is a 2D side view, with numbered spaces underneath the characters. Events happen when you land on spaces, adding or subtracting to your score. There are items to use as well that can add to how many spaces you move. It's hard to say how much variety there is to the game. I'm thinking there are different modes but for the most part it's all luck of the spinner and what space you land on. Depending on the audience of the source material it might have been a good game for Japanese kids, but not much else.

More info, and buying options:

My Grade: N/A
Worth Playing: No

Lagoon - The little Zelda that couldn't

Genre: Action-RPG
Developer: Zoom
Publisher: Kemco
Released:
12/13/91

Lagoon was released in a really odd situation. It's a top down, action RPG. The comparisons to Zelda must have been immediate. In the US, Lagoon released first, so it probably fared better, but in Japan, Zelda was still fresh in gamers' minds and this game just comes up short in comparison. It's certainly not a bad game. It's just not as polished as is its Nintendo-developed cousin. The biggest issue is the size of the characters compared to the angle. It sometimes looks like your character is standing right on top of an enemy, but you still don't hit it with your weapon. On the plus side, your character regenerates health, and it helps to even out the times when you get hit due to the odd angle. The other thing is that nothing in the game is especially memorable. The graphics, characters and music are all simply "OK". It's unfortunate when a decent game is overshadowed this much by a superior game. If Lagoon had released at a different time, they might have been able to make improvements and come out with a sequel.

More info, and buying options:

My Grade: C
Worth Playing: No

There are still a lot of games to cover from December '91, but all the biggest games of that year have been released at this point. Thanks as always for reading and see you next time.

Spiritual Loading Screens - Waiting For Doors to Open

The screen above is a loading screen from the Resident Evil series of games. The door would slowly open as the next area of the game loaded, and simple as it was, it helped add some suspense to the wait, since it's a series where you never know what is waiting on the other side of the door. If you're familiar with modern gaming at all then you're familiar with loading screens. The wait for the next part of a game to load is a necessary evil in the age of disk-based games, but what does that have to do with waiting on God?

The parallel starts with the feeling of expectation of what's next. In games, as in life, there are moments when the next chapter seems just beyond the horizon, so close that we can't wait to reach it. Fortunately for gamers, all that's required is to wait for the disk to finish spinning and the game to load. Reality however, is different. There is no progress bar to tell you when you're at 100% and can proceed. Sometimes we aren't ready and are overwhelmed by the next stage of life. Other times we are so tired of waiting for that door to open that we barely appreciate it when it does. Maybe looking at how some games tackle the wait of loading screens can give us some insight on what we can do when we're waiting for God to move.

View Your Achievements (Dirt 2)

Developer Codemasters found a unique way of filling in the load times for the rally racing game Dirt 2. As you can see in the video below, you can view your progress and achievements while waiting for the race to load. It's a good way to give you a snapshot of some of your in-game accomplishments, and influence what you do in the race that's loading.

In life, we tend to constantly be straining our eyes to the horizon, stretching out toward that next thing we think we need to have or do. The only time we look back is to wonder what went wrong when things didn't go our way. When God seems to be saying "wait," we should use that time to take stock of how he's provided for us in the past. I guarantee the examples are there if you look.

Job 5:24 24 You will know that your home is safe. When you survey your possessions, nothing will be missing.

Job's friend has a point, even though his idea of how God works wasn't quite right. He thought that right living led to easy living. Do good and you get good things. While it's true that we can often rely on God for physical provision, the true guarantees we can have by waiting for and following God's direction are spiritual securities like peace, hope, and the assurance of salvation. When you look back at what you've already accomplished, along with everything else you will see that you've made it through, and God was certainly not missing.

Jeremiah 29:11 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

This is one of my favorite verses, and a much better interpretation of what Job's friend was trying to say. If you've been living within the will of God, you can look back and see you've been provided for, at least spiritually if not always physically. That history can reassure us that we can continue to rely on this promise. God was there before, and wants us to prosper, so we can trust his timing now.

Philippians 3:7-8 7I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. 8Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ

A lot of people don't realize that Paul was a very successful man when he still called himself Saul. He was respected, had a successful business, and a hobby he enjoyed of persecuting these silly Christians. All that changed after an encounter with Jesus. After committing to following Christ, all of his accomplishments were worthless compared to being able to live for God. How easy it would be to wait on the Lord if we were able to see any other options for the trivial things they really are. In Dirt 2, all those achievements are wonderful memories, but they only serve to point out you are looking forward to the race ahead.

Prepare (Bayonetta)

Proverbs 13:4 ESV The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.

Bayonetta is a violence heavy action game with fast paced, over-the-top action sequences. Developer Platinum Games and Sega came up with an interesting way to keep players interested during loading times. While loading the next scene, you can still move your character around and practice the games many moves and combos. It's a great way to make better use of the time than just waiting. It lets you prepare for the next area. Of course, you could just let the controller sit until the loading is done, but that would be wasting a chance to improve your skill at the game. We have the same option when waiting for God to move in our lives.

2 Peter 1:10(ESV) 10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.

What qualities are we to be practicing? Earlier in this chapter they are listed as goodness, understanding, self-control, patience, devotion to God, concern for others, and love. A nice list of qualities, and not restricted to any type of activities or events. These are internal traits that can be practiced no matter what our situation is. If we don't practice patience, for example, during the little day to day moments, how can we expect to have it during the big moments we're petitioning God about? It's like waiting until the boss in a game to try out a brand new combo or tactic. We need to make sure that we are ready for when God decides to move.

Take Inventory (The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim)

As anyone who has played it can tell you, Skyrim is a big game, full of lots of stuff and lots to do. Bethesda has crammed the world of Skyrim full of not just the usual weapons and armor found in RPGs, but also with crafting items, ingredients for potions, food items for cooking, and even dishes and utensils. With so much stuff to collect, it's important to sort through what you have from time to time. When you go to take on that dungeon, or are about to tackle another dragon, it's a good idea to know what you need and what you already have available. You might be seeing where I'm going to go with this.

Philippians 4:19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

We have a spiritual inventory that's far more important than the wheels of cheese and blue mountain flowers of Skyrim. The most important item in that inventory is our relationship with Christ. That relationship has a direct impact on the other things we carry with us spiritually as well as impacting what we have physically. I'm not suggesting a gospel of prosperity here. There are Christians in physical poverty and atheists with plenty of earthly riches. The effect our relationship with God has is on our attitude towards what is around us. In Christian circles it's called stewardship.

2 Peter 1:3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence

You see, everything we have, down to our very breath, comes from God, and he cares enough to let us choose how to use what he's given. The best choice is to basically give it right back so he can use our resources through us. Usually that involves loving our neighbors. I'll give you a bit of a hint here. Jesus called everyone our neighbor. Yes, even that guy. According to the verse above we have access to everything we need through God. Perhaps when we are waiting for that next step, we should take stock of what we've already been blessed with, and ask ourselves if we are using what he have to glorify God or glorify ourselves.

Exodus 4:2-5 2Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied. 3The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. 4Then the Lord said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. 5"This,” said the Lord, “is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.”

Moses tried to come up with excuses why he couldn't do what God wanted. God's answer was to ask him what he already had. God was able to use a stick to help Moses show the Egyptians who he was representing. If we take the time to look at what we have, and prayerfully give it up to God to use, we might find out we've already got what we need to do what we've been waiting for. It's oftentimes not really us waiting on God, but God waiting on us to stop focusing on excuses.

Self-reflection (Heavy Rain)

Quantic Dream was very proud of the faces in their detective adventure game Heavy Rain. They were so proud that their loading screens were always a close up of the character you would be controlling in the next section. The details and animation on their faces were certainly impressive, and considering how tense some of the scenes are, they are a good chance to compose yourself for what's coming. From a role playing perspective though, you were looking at yourself. This summarizes the last point of the post. We've essentially looked at 3 things; what we've done, what we can do, and what we have. Lastly I suggest looking at who we are.

Psalm 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

Even David, "a man after God's own heart" had to do some soul searching once in a while. He would basically invite God to take a walk through his soul and clear out what He didn't like. What do you imagine God would find if you fully opened up to Him? What does he look for to clean up when we take a real look at ourselves?

2 Timothy 3:2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy

A big misconception about Christians is that you need to be perfect to become one. The truth is that being a Christian starts with telling God that you are so far from perfect that you can't even hope to see it without His help. Then the salvation Jesus paid for with his life comes down and Jesus starts to clean things out and fix up the mess that we are without Him. It's not automatic though. We need to open who we are up to God to change how He wants. People tend to be like kids that were playing outside and having fun with all the dirt. Then when it's time for dinner we don't want to wash up. We meekly show our clean hand and hope that's good enough to be allowed to the table, all the while holding the other, still dirty one behind our backs.

If we really want to hear that dinner bell and get called to whatever it is God has planned, we need to look at what parts of our life we are still holding back. If you find something you are trying to keep for yourself, offer it up to God in prayer. Thanks for reading, and we are all able to start more actively waiting when it feels like God is just taking too long.

I'd like to list Ridge Racer as an honorable mention. The loading screen was actually a playable Galaga, which was an awesome idea, but just didn't quite fit what I was attempting to do.

SNES Timeline - Part 8: A Couple Monster Hunters You May Have Heard of

Games in this post:

-Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts-
-Super Earth Defense Force-
-Super Castlevania IV-
-Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball-
-John Madden Football-
-Paperboy 2-
-RPM Racing-
-True Golf Classics: Waialae Country Club-

The last SNES post, if you can remember that far back, covered a bunch of games that probably didn't spark much nostalgia. I was also horrible at them. October into November isn't much different, aside from a couple notable exceptions. The November games were released in the US either before they were released in Japan, or not at all in Japan. Release dates must not have been on people's minds much here in the states, since a lot of games are only narrowed down to the month. I'm covering these as though they were released on the first of the month because... well, because it's my blog. There isn't a scientific or historical reason for it. There are a lot of games to cover so let's get started with one that you've hopefully all heard of at least, if not played.

Super Ghouls and Ghosts - I hope you like boxers

Genre: Action
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Released:
10/4/1991(JP)
Nov. 1991(US)

A lot of people who have never played this game are still familiar with it due to one very specific feature, its challenge. You know when you're doing poorly in this game because instead of hearts or a life bar, you lose your armor when you get hit, and poor Arthur has to run around in his boxers. The premise is that an evil demon king has taken your girlfriend and you need to fight your way through levels of monsters and platforming to get her back. The controls are solid once you get used to them, and even though there are a lot of cheap deaths, it's not in a way that makes you stop playing. The sprites are well done and the variety of weapons let you toy around with different playing styles. The weapons also become upgraded forms and gain a special ability that really helps if you can get your armor upgraded a couple of times. Playing the original version and beating it gives you a great feeling of accomplishment... for about 3 seconds until you find out you have to play the whole game again. As hard as the game is, you have to do it AT LEAST twice. It turns out the princess informs you that you need a special weapon to truly save her, and the only way to find it is in a random chest somewhere in the world. So it's back to stage one, and the weapon drops randomly like all the others. If you happen to mess up and reach the final boss without that weapon, you'll need to do it AGAIN! It was certainly a frustrating setup originally but with the addition of save states for emulators and Nintendo's Virtual Console version, which you can view here, it's not as much of an issue. Even with the challenge, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts is an extremely polished game and well worth the 800 points to download and carts are reasonably priced.

More info, and buying options:

My Grade: A
Worth Playing: Yes

Super Earth Defense Force - More of an attack jet

Genre: Action
Developer: Jaleco
Publisher: Jaleco
Released:
10/25/1991(JP)
Jan, 1992(US)

Super Earth Defense Force (EDF) is a pretty standard side-scrolling shooter along the lines of Gradius and R-Type, but I mean that as a compliment. It's got the typical shmup setup of an invasion in progress and you're the ace pilot of the tiny ship that needs to save everyone. There are some shake-ups to the traditional gameplay for better or worse. First off, you have shields that can take 3 hits before you have to restart, the counter to that is you only get one life and 3 credits to continue with. Second, there are no power-ups in the game, instead you choose one of a handful of weapons and then that weapon levels up as you play. This is great in theory but there just isn't a lot of noticeable difference in power for how long it takes to level up. The game controls well and the sprites are well done. It's worth checking out if you're a fan of the genre. It's available for purchase on the Virtual Console and you can check out Nintendo's page here. On a side note, I'm curious if it's only a coincidence or if this is a franchise related to the recent bug shooting game of the same name and it's sequel being released this year.

More info, and buying options:

My Grade: B+
Worth Playing: Yes

Super Castlevania IV - Whips it good

Genre: Action
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Released:
10/31/1991(JP)
Dec, 1991(US)

Once again it's time for vampire hunter Simon Belmont to make his way to Dracula's castle and defeat him. Super Castlevania IV marked the series' first foray into 16 bit after 3 arguably successful games on the NES. Not everyone liked the second game, but I'll leave it to someone else to play through that library. Castlevania IV stays true to the previous games' style while upgrading in all the right areas. Characters are big, bosses are tough, and mode 7 is used just right. You can also hold the attack button down and use the d-pad to twirl and fling the whip around. It's useful for taking down hard to reach enemies and a lot more fun than it should be. Considering most of the critically acclaimed games in the series are done in this classic style, this iteration holds up very well to the test of time and is still a blast to play. You can pick it up for the Virtual Console or check out the Nintendo page here.

More info, and buying options:

My Grade: A+
Worth Playing: Yes

Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball - Do you even need to read this?

Genre: Basketball?
Developer:
Hudson Soft
Publisher:
Hudson Soft
Released:
Nov, 1991(US)

Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball has the distinction of being the first game released in the US but never in Japan. This fact could also be use as evidence that Japanese kids were more intelligent that US kids in 1991. The question mark next to basketball in the genre listing above is not a typo. I honestly don't know if it should be called that or not. It's a top-down futuristic version starring the pre-Rodman era bad boy of basketball, Bill Laimbeer. He was picked due to his reputation and the inclusion of armor, weapons, and full contact in the game. In concept this might sound fun but the execution is awful. The perspective ruins any feel of actual basketball, the controls are awkward, and the graphics are boring. I hope Bill was able to use the endorsement money to go to anger management or put a kid through college, as that's the only good that could have come from this game.

More info, and buying options:

My Grade: F
Worth Playing: No

John Madden Football - The start of a series

Genre: Sports
Developer:
Park Place
Publisher: EA(US)
Imagineer (JP)
Released:
1/17/1992 (JP)
Nov, 1991(US)

Let me preface this by saying I'm not a fan of sports video games. I could handle baseball games or arcade style versions but simulations just didn't interest me. That said, I'm going to try and be objective about it. This is a game from 1991 after all, and it's spawned a series that has had an entry every year since. As of this writing the latest is Madden 2013. That's over 20 games so far, including ports and offshoots like Madden 64, and I would guess that's a record for a single series. As for this version, it introduced a level of detail that wasn't seen up to that point. Madden himself would give some pre-game commentary. There was a large playbook to choose from, with options for audibles and time-outs. I'm not sure, but this might have been the first game to use real NFL teams. The biggest problem I ran into, and what makes it unplayable today, is that the player control is too loose. It feels like the players are skating across the field almost like an NHL game would control. Still, it's probably very cheap if you can find a copy and it's worth experiencing the series beginnings if you're a fan.

More info, and buying options:

My Grade: B-
Worth Playing: Only for historical value.

Paperboy 2 - Old school delivery

Genre: Action
Developer:
Tengen
Publisher:
Mindscape
Released:
Nov. 1991(US)

The original Paperboy was a unique arcade game where you played, obviously, a rookie paperboy whose route was a suburban street filled with crazy characters. This sequel follows the same system. The goal is to deliver as many papers into mailboxes as possible while avoiding obstacles like sewer grates, stray dogs, runaway tires, and ghosts. No, this certainly isn't your normal neighborhood. It's an old school game, as much as a game from 1991 could be. The graphics could pass for a later NES game, the gameplay is simple and repetitive, but enjoyable. I almost think it plays better now than it would have in 1991 when the NES was still in production. Consumers then were looking for new things and might not have liked a re-hash of something they've recently played. Still it's a solid game even if it didn't push the new system in any way.

More info, and buying options:

My Grade: C+
Worth Playing: No

RPM Racing - Someone turn this car around

Genre: Racing
Developer:
Silicon & Synapse
Publisher:
Victor Inter. (JP)
Interplay (US)
Released:
3/19/1992(JP)
Nov. 1991(US)

Radical Psycho Machine, or RPM Racing is only the third racing game released in over a year of the SNES life cycle. This might seem like good news to finally get another racer but it just doesn't compare to the launch title F-Zero. Graphically the game looks very similar to an older NES game called RC Pro-Am, only the NES game had better control and more interesting courses. You can buy upgrades for your car, but that requires winning races that your starting car can barely complete. There's a hill on the first course that if you are bumped by another car you can't make it over the top, and coast back down to the bottom. Being able to see the first place car is nice, but it limits your view of your own car. All in all it's a very forgettable game and I'm curious at what point another racer will show up that's even close to F-Zero.

More info, and buying options:

My Grade: D
Worth Playing: No

True Golf Classics: Waialae Country Club - Quality golf hits the US

Genre: Golf
Developer:
T&E Soft
Publisher:
T&E Soft
Released:
9/18/1992(JP)
Nov. 1991(US)

This is the second SNES golf game from T&E soft, although the first never came to the states. The gameplay and graphics are almost identical to the first game. I doubt most people would be able to tell them apart. The system is a solid one though, with options easily laid out, and lots of ways to tweak your shot. The combo of a power meter and dot placement for accuracy is very good even by today's standards. I had fun trying to perfect my shots, but like most sports games, graphical updates make this less appealing when compared to current options.

More info, and buying options:

My Grade: B+
Worth Playing: Yes

We're not done with 91 yet. There's still an amazing game left in November and December was a huge month that will take at least two posts to cover. Thanks for reading!