Love this it's looking great.

It's the conversion I dreamt of back in the day that they might just try and pull off.

Also reminds me of the type of thing CVG would do as an April's Fool article with doctored photos: unlock the Daytona track in Virtua Racing if you race backwards around the first track twice but still come first or some kind of tomfoolery... and yet here it is! 😅

But they're seemingly still ploughing ahead using everything Antstream did and releasing the collection with Gen AI in it, so it feels like hollow words.

If they truly want to atone for this, postpone the release, get rid of all the Gen AI crap slop, and hire a reputable studio that uses and pays artists.

Of course they'll say they can't afford this, but you can't have your cake and eat it; claiming it was nothing to do with them and apparently not aware of what Antstream have produced, and yet still releasing this collection with Gen AI assets which Mark Cale seemingly doesn't agree with! Which one is it?

What a cock up. All they simply had to do was put all the James Pond games in a collection with basic menus and I would have bought it. I don't need anything else. As is, in main due to the use of Gen AI but also this lame arsed damage limitation campaign, it's a very easy pass for me.

So yeah - reputation sufficiently damaged and minus one sale. Try owning it and fixing it rather than making all these hollow statements. Actions speak louder than words.

Crikey that's friggin cool.

Ofc if Mario FX had ever come to fruition it wouldn't have been as ambitious as SM64 ended up - the play areas would have been far smaller and more appropriate for the hardware. I mean even the Saturn and 3DO struggle to recreate SM64 so it makes this SNES port even more impressive all things considered.

Played Croc for the first time a couple of months ago and it really struck me how you can see it's SNES origins in the level design. It's very limited in it's scope: corridor based with a few medium sized areas dotted between, but this does make more sense if it was a Yoshi racing game as reported. Can see this type of 3D environment being much easier to transfer to the SNES than the more open worlds of SM64.

Good to see these get a physical release but....

...all I want is Sunsoft's Batman games! Esp the NES ones. If only they could sort out the licensing issues that no doubt surround them...

Bloody hell was gonna preorder you can only get it delivered within the US.
RUBBISH! BOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! 😥😣

Brilliant article @JackGYarwood
I bought this on release before it was pulled and considering it had such a small print run and the fact it's a great unique racer, I'm amazed it's still available at a fairly decent price! Had a great summer playing this but sadly couldn't get my sister into the 2 player mode like we enjoyed on MarioKart.
Must get my copy out and have a race soon!

McCloud TV branding - nice.

@Futureshark I remember reading about this when the game was released: the puppet makers didn't intend for the models to ever be shot lower than the knee so these metal feet and lower limbs were not meant to be seen. They were made of metal purely to hold the puppets in place and weigh them down.

So it was just an accident. Nothing more than that. Have to say I think they look rather cool regardless. Fun conspiracy theory too.

Bloody hell walked down Charing X last night if only I'd known I would have popped in. Post pandemic sadly don't get into the West End as much these days but will definitely make a point of checking this out ASAP, hope it does well and finds an audience!

Would love a database of games that use GenAI so I can avoid them like the plague.

I presume the SNES PAL version runs at 50mhz and the NTSC at 60mhz....?!

Saw John Linneman post about his Bonk 2 HuCard not working any more and seems to be an issue with more than one of them from other stories and posts...

Been thinking for a while I would one day offload my physical collection and cash in on it as a bit of extra retirement cash. It feels like choosing the right moment to do it before disc rot sets in could be key and it all becomes worthless...

@Sketcz It just looks so fun, and I've never played it! I first saw tiny pics of it in Edge and always liked the look of it as it had Pilotwings vibes.
I agree would have been great if it had been ported to PS1 and extra content added.
Insta buy for me if it ever gets a release! 🙏

Really hoping this means we're one release closer to a port of Prop Cycle coming out...

@cawley1 Ahh v interesting thanks! Yes I agree quite why selling old retro games should affect them selling the GCN is v odd - but then this is Nintendo so they're just gonna Nintendo on.

I wonder why the entire retro staff vanished as well though? There was a young guy with long hair who ran the department - his name eludes me now. He along with a couple of others were there one week but not the next?!

@Jimgamer8 Yeah it was a great scene and such fond memories. I used to regularly haunt the CEX Rathbone Place basement in the early 00's. They had the best collection of imported Nintendo stuff - it was an Aladdin's cave. Having just left Uni and started working around the area, I gleefully bought as much as my first pay cheques would allow including a US SNES console and many many SFC and US SNES games.

Then suddenly one day the imported stuff was all gone. And not just that - the staff members whom I'd built up a bit of a relationship with vanished as well and I never knew why. I remember asking another grey importer off Carnaby St what had happened and he remained tight lipped for whatever reason!

Would be great if CEX open some retro stores, I always enjoy window shopping their retro wares and even the odd purchase. But I do wonder that their prices would be v high indeed!

Fantastic! Assume my preorder is being packaged and winging it's way towards me as I type. Happy days!

Congrats @Damo! Doing essential work there and what an amazing trajectory you've been on since.

The biggest compliment I can give to Hookshot Media is that it very much evokes the same enthusiastic vibe and energy from the classic gaming mags of the 90s so many of us enjoyed reading growing up such as Mean Machines, CVG, Super Play, EDGE! 👏😄

Even though the development of Doom to Quake is well documented, it's both fascinating and sad to hear the stories of development issues from games we played at the time. Especially as we had no idea what was really going on behind the scenes.

Both Masters of Doom and DoomGuy are brilliant reads about the early days of iD and beyond.

Remember back in the day the hype for Quake was the equivalent of GTA6. I'll never forget getting the Ep1 shareware on the cover CD of PC Gamer, and it ran like a dream on my P133! Good times, and whilst I really loved Quake 2 (OMG real time lighting effects!!), it didn't feel the same after Romero left.

Great fun looking through these - the early ones were particularly nice to see and took me right back!

But Leonel Messi? It's LIONEL! 😁🤣

GODDAMNIT.

Why on earth did I open and play with my games as a child and not have the foresight to keep them cellophane wrapped and pristine in a box for 40 years?! 😂

@h3s That's your POV and it has to be respected, but I can imagine many others including myself who don't feel the same and if their jobs and means to survive in this world are taken over by AI, and they don't have the option to do a phd and hopefully find a job through this, what next for them? Jobs and careers are going to vanish; how are people meant to survive and do a job which can pay the way?

Playing devil's advocate, maybe new jobs opportunities are opened up through AI but I personally can't see that as all the current evidence points to jobs being lost and needing fewer people.

I'm an artist. Two things;
1- My industry and means to earn a living are under direct threat and I'm seeing it first hand. Never mind the fact that the AI is trained on stolen artwork/literature/films etc without their creators permission. This blatant daylight theft is going to put the people whose art was stolen out of work. Do I really need to say how this is completely unacceptable?
2- I can imagine being an artist and doing the same thing for my whole life.
I love it - it's a passion.
It's about the journey, learning and improving and taking personal pride in overcoming one's initial limitations. Don't take shortcuts and really learn your craft. If I compare where I was 20+ years ago, it's night and day difference and I'm so proud of how I've grown artistically and as a person in this time.
But now we have AI evangelists proclaiming that the 'gatekeepers' of ART have been destroyed and anyone can do it.
No.
There were never gatekeepers preventing people from becoming good at something pre-AI. Only people's laziness and wanting to take shortcuts, which AI is a solution to. All humans (myself included) are lazy to a certain degree, and it's so much easier to take shortcuts rather than spend years trying to get better at something. And then pretend they've created something when they are simply piggybacking off the back of other people's talent and ability.
AI artists are not really creating anything. It's not their work - it's regurgitated from other people's creations. Typing prompts into a program where you don't have 100% granular control over what you're doing is not being an artist. Granted - it's a new different type of art, but it's formed on theft. 'Proper' art that comes from a human being - and that can be something hanging in a national gallery or a scribble by a 5 year old on a piece of paper - has value and worth because it reflects that person's personal ability, views, flaws, experiences. It has soul. AI cannot do that.

But in a capitalist world, where profits matter most, all companies are interested in is making more money and AI enables that. Unless governments step in to regulate this, swathes of people are going to be (and back to your post) out of work and the divide between rich and poor will only get greater as more and more people struggle.

I wonder if all these people saying it doesn't matter and it's inevitable will say the opposite when it affects them personally and takes their jobs?

Not all jobs will be affected - but too many are already being lost through companies chasing greater profits. Because that's what this is really all about. When did creating art become about the quickest route possible and ignore the journey and individualistic expression of each creator? Everything will become the same slop regurgitated.

Then we get onto the fact that GenAI is trained on stolen artwork and people are OK about this? And the environmental impact this is having?!

Even if it is 'simply' background assets, they're still assets which would have previously been designed by a person. That opportunity to work and earn an living, maybe an entry level job to get your foot in the door, is now being taken away all in the name of companies making more money.

Wow that sounds brilliant.
Love these exposés of stories from gaming's past.
Makes me wonder what revelations from today's gaming landscape will be exposed and written up in 15-20+ years?!

SEGA's advertising for the Megadrive was fantastic - in your face and pushing boundaries. Same for the Genesis in America.

I was initially a Nintendo fanboy but I always loved SEGA's ads and they made Nintendo's look so tame in comparison. The Rik Mayall ones were fine but these were far cooler. SEGA's ads must have worked cos I ended up buying a Megadrive a couple of years after my SNES!

Also @Damo - 'The swave and handsome Jimmy' - surely that's suave!? But then he's so cool he has his own spelling... 😆

I love em both and the original cover is a classic, perfectly capturing the excitement of a new machine and mag launch - although I only just noticed the girl's eyeline isn't looking at the monitor lol.

Super Play up there with the original Mean Machines and Paul Davies era CVG for me. I still have a copy of Issue 1 with the badge attached!

Great to reread this - I'd have loved them to put the SFX chip into every SNES console - that would have really opened the doors to different styles of games that any developer could have made. And solved the SNES' pesky slow processor tsk....

@Lordplops Remaster of Starfox 64 good enough on Switch 2?! Considering how SF64 is a reimagining of SNES StarFox I assume it might be?

A lot of ppl don't seem that happy with this S2 StarFox announcement and it being a remake, but personally I think it looks v cool - played the OG SF64 back in the late 90s and loved it, didn't play the 3DS one so I'm primed and ready!

V cool - fantastic game I adored playing it on Switch. Even my sister liked it as she recognised the Donkey Kong arcade single screen inspiration and it took her back to playing Killer Gorilla on the BBC Micro when we were kids! 😅

Hope they're planning a Playstation port down the line as well.

Total stone cold classic and an early pace setter showing what the Super Famicom could do. That soundtrack!!! 💥💥💥 Those CRT screenshots are burned into my mind (the desert landscape BG in particular), and I also have memories of Rob Swan in CVG eulogising over the game and how he must purchase a SFC!!

+1 for not knowing what wonders awaited in each issue of Mean Machines and CVG and how exciting it was... Once a month a new issue would come out and it was a genuine surprise to see what amazing new games had been released in Japan. The fact that many of these games were more unattainable by being released in other countries sometimes years before they reached our shores made it all the more magical and exciting.
Not having instant access to everything every minute of every day and having to wait a whole month for the next issue was, amazingly, more fun.
Waiting for a game to release or maybe getting it on grey import made it a real event. Good times that ppl of a certain age will never understand!

@PKDuckman Excellent - thanks! I would have bought it regardless but great to have both of em! 😁

Do we get the option of both the Japanese and NA versions of Ninja Gaiden 3?
The Japanese version is much more balanced and fair!

Still really want one of these - are they available in Europe/UK in any official capacity?

Slightly funny they are saying the last year has been a challenge for production - when hasn't it been a challenge for them?

Love this. When you just didn't know any better, these LCD games were a lot of fun.

Was a big fan of Nintendo's Oil Panic, Mario Bros, Donkey Kong II and Bombsweeper (still got em, and apart from MB boxed and mint! 🤑)

Lower expectations, simpler times.

Love how they've managed to cram so many of the villains into every millimetre of screen estate! Dr Wily, the dragon, the alien, variations on the Robot masters... Good stuff!

The snake oil salesman returns! Grabs popcorn bucket. Again.

I wonder if Daniel Ibbertson has put in an order... 😲😉

@Guru_Larry No - Super Soccer was called Super Formation Soccer in Japan and was made by Human Entertainment. Completely different game but they do look v similar!

I was semi-drunk when I bought mine from what I think was Electronics Boutique on Oxford Street in London? Or was it GAME by then? It was the one next to the 100 Club.

Left a pub early one night (probably the Blue Posts in Soho), EB were still open, I was just the right amount of intoxicated to lose my inhibitions about spending money on a luxury 'naughty' item and some games, and sober enough to know what I wanted and use my credit card!

Good times and no regrets! My eyesight was a lot better then and could see the small dark screen much more easily...

Played it to death on the tube on my daily commute - apologies to the people sitting next to me as I got a bit carried away with MarioKart leaning left and right... 😁

...discontinuing support for the "Sega Forever"...

Quite the contradiction in there lol! 😉🤣

Visually the SNES should be able to do a very close copy of this with it's impressive colour palette and array of native hardware tricks. But I wonder if they will incorporate a DSP chip to help with some of the more taxing sections and avoid slowdown?

@SegaAges The appeal for me and no doubt others is the involvement and views of Jazza and hopefully other members of the team from C+VG/Mean Machines/MegaTech etc. We know he's been speaking to Rich Leadbetter about a possible project so have to assume it's this new magazine and hopefully he and people like Paul Glancey, Gary Harrod, Rad Automatic, Paul Davies and others will get involved.

Whilst you have a collection of 90s gaming mags, it sounds like this will be a retrospective view on games from then with the benefit of 25+ years passing. So it'll be completely different to the mags from back then. Views and opinions change so what might have been considered a great game back then, might not be now and possibly even vice versa.

I'd actually want them to cover games and systems from after 2000 as well...

For me, Jazza leaving for America was the start of a decline in EMAP's magazines as him and others like Rich Leadbetter moved on. There was ofc that brief brilliant Paul Davies era CVG as well before they shot themselves in the foot redesigning the mag. I would love to hear Jazza's and others views on games from the latter part of the 90s and before (yes there's his book but there's always room for more) and hopefully rekindle some of that old Mean Machines magic. I sub to Retro Gamer and enjoy it but a bit of competition can't harm, especially when it's written by the guys who were around at the actual time covering the industry.

Wow.
YES PLEASE.
I'd 100% be up for this and back it.
(Hope he reads this as I'm not on social media...!)

There wasn't enough popcorn in the world to ram into my mouth watching this farce unfold.

Disappointing to hear that people are out of pocket, but it always smelt incredibly fishy and suspect from the very start.

What sad news - I especially enjoyed watching him in Man in the High Castle (fantastic show).
RIP and condolences to his friends and family.

The range and quality of games EA produced back in the early 90s was off the chart, especially on Megadrive. It wasn't just updates of sports sims each year either (although this of course started during this period!): Road Rash, F22 Interceptor, Desert Strike, The Immortal, Robocod...

It seemed like every month in Mean Machines the team would be raving about yet another Megagame from EA! A time when companies were willing to take risks and costs weren't so prohibitive it allowed them to do so!

WOW that looks seriously impressive. What an effort, bravo! 👏 Will definitely try this out!
Dreams seems like such a massive missed opportunity. It should have come preinstalled on PS5s allowing everyone access to it's creations and tools.

What devastating news. I sub to RG and this will leave a big hole for the team and readers.
RIP and condolences to his family.

@Neotext Crikey how impatient are you?
20 seconds is nothing. I just booted up my PS5 as a comparison and it was just over 20 seconds from pressing the PS button on the joypad to being able to access the XMB.

Hoo hoo baby.
Great review!
So glad I kept my preorder and hoping I take delivery before Christmas. Time to purchase some Jap N64 games - I snagged a copy of Diddy Kong Racing yesterday in preparation and now I'm even more excited!

I would love them to do a Simpsons 8 and 16-bit collection, including NES Bart vs Space Mutants and SNES Bart's Nightmare.
I know these games have their (justifiable!) detractors but I had fun with them back in the day, particularly Space Mutants which I was given Christmas '91 (along with Ninja Gaiden!) Despite it's many flaws - hey let's map run and jump to the same button?!? - I love it!

Interesting... this might have happened but I'm slightly sceptical? My spidey sense is tingling that this is just hot air to sound impressive - 30 years on who's going to really question this?!

I just flicked through my copy of Like a Hurricane by ROM and I couldn't see any mention of this in there either. Prior to the SFC release the only rumours I read in the gaming press were reports of SF2 coming to the Mega CD.

Unless very large sums of money were exchanged why would Capcom lock down their biggest hitting title to a machine that didn't have the largest user base in 91/92 and was only succeeding in Japan, failing in American and barely registered in Europe?!

According to Wiki, by 1992 the PC Engine had sold 5.4m units in Japan, whereas the SFC had already sold 7.9m units despite releasing 3 years later. Plus Nintendo completely dominated Japan back then and had a stranglehold over many publishers so them getting temporary exclusivity makes sense. Then again, maybe Capcom used NEC as a pawn to get a higher fee out of Nintendo for this?!

A big reason I hear about Rare Replay not being on consoles other than XBox is that it uses emulation? Is it the same case here and wondering if this has released on Evercade (and sounds bloody brilliant!) could this collection or similar come out on Switch and PS?

I don't own an Evercade and this is the first release on the platform which has piqued my interest but can't justify buying one just for this!

When MS first announced going multi platform, my first thoughts were Rare Replay, having grown up with those games and loving them. As cool as Halo and GoW et al coming to non XBox consoles is, Rare Replay is the one I wanted the most!

Very Cool! I actually preferred the SMS version of Sonic 1 over the Megadrive game!