Hmmm...well right now the most successful console FPS game is the SNES-CD version of DOOM. I'm sure Quake will show up on the Saturn or Ultra somewhere down the road and Doom II sometime as well. Then maybe Goldeneye if it remains as IOTL, so it remains to be seen how DICE could factor into all of this. I imagine FPS games won't become frequent on consoles until 1999 at the earliest. As for online gaming, aside from X-Band, which goes pretty much nowhere as IOTL, Nivek mentioned the Saturn's online service, so that may crop up at some point down the road. For now, online console gaming is in the future.
Player Two Start: An SNES-CD Timeline
- Thread starter RySenkari
- Start date
- Status
Hmmm...well right now the most successful console FPS game is the SNES-CD version of DOOM. I'm sure Quake will show up on the Saturn or Ultra somewhere down the road and Doom II sometime as well. Then maybe Goldeneye if it remains as IOTL, so it remains to be seen how DICE could factor into all of this. I imagine FPS games won't become frequent on consoles until 1999 at the earliest. As for online gaming, aside from X-Band, which goes pretty much nowhere as IOTL, Nivek mentioned the Saturn's online service, so that may crop up at some point down the road. For now, online console gaming is in the future.
Again, this was the time of Doom 'clones' rage, Duke Nukem 3D is coming, Power Slave/Exhumed is coming, some thing can change but again was till the goldeneye and medal of honor when fps genre take off, still a long wait.
And as Ry Say, DICE wasn't that big till internet gaming and that is still in infancy. Pacience but your ideas can are good, just wait when maybe how butterflies will unfold
(Ry what to do with hardcore, cancelled among the shuffled?)
Yeah, I think Hardcore is canceled as IOTL. I imagine DICE will be doing something else at the moment, probably developing something for Saturn.
Ok I can see that happening too. It could have went either way. Though they did make a pretty successful futuristic racing game for Playstation around this time 1998, Motorheads. I could see them still doing this for Nintendo and/or Sega if you insist. I see them flocking more to the console market ITTL either way. The way I see it a lot of OTL PC developers are going to the console market earlier ITTL. Either way I'm eager to see what you have in store for FPS. As your TL could keep it innovating more than OTL where it is beggining to stagnant.
Speaking old Mr. Sandman, does Neil Gaiman's seminal 1996 series still happen?
The Sandman series began in 1988, before the POD (it ended in 1995), so I'd assume so.
Oh, I thought it started in 1996. (In fact, in my TL, it starts in 1996.)Maybe I confused it with STARman.
( Checks)
Yeah Starman started in 1994, so I was close. Well, given James Robinson was mentioned, does he still write that series.
I've just finished reading this, and it's much better than anything I could have written myself. I guess I'll throw in the towel and maybe write something about a Sega/Sony alliance once my university exams (as well as several anime and TV series I'm watching, and the Tortall YA novels I'm reading) will be over.
I'm also playing Final Fantasy VII and Wipeout 3 on an emulator; since Japanese RPGs, in your ATL, were introduced in the western gaming mainstream by Secret of Mana in 1993 instead of Final Fantasy VII itself in 1997, the latter game might become even more popular there. And, it could be an even better game, since ATL's Final Fantasy VI, by your own admission, is somewhere between our FF6 and FF7 in everything from graphics to gameplay.
Wipeout, on the other hand... it sucks how it got canceled because there was F-Zero already but, the people who worked on Wipeout in OTL could end up working on a new F-Zero, or Sega could start working on a brand new vehicular combat series to rival F-Zero, Twisted Metal or both. I have some ideas about how such a series could look like, I could PM them to you.
I'm also playing Final Fantasy VII and Wipeout 3 on an emulator; since Japanese RPGs, in your ATL, were introduced in the western gaming mainstream by Secret of Mana in 1993 instead of Final Fantasy VII itself in 1997, the latter game might become even more popular there.
And, it could be an even better game, since ATL's Final Fantasy VI, by your own admission, is somewhere between our FF6 and FF7 in everything from graphics to gameplay. Wipeout, on the other hand... it sucks how it got canceled because there was F-Zero already but, the people who worked on Wipeout in OTL could end up working on a new F-Zero, or Sega could start working on a brand new vehicular combat series to rival F-Zero, Twisted Metal or both. I have some ideas about how such a series could look like, I could PM them to you.
I've just finished reading this, and it's much better than anything I could have written myself. I guess I'll throw in the towel and maybe write something about a Sega/Sony alliance once my university exams (as well as several anime and TV series I'm watching, and the Tortall YA novels I'm reading) will be over.
I'm also playing Final Fantasy VII and Wipeout 3 on an emulator; since Japanese RPGs, in your ATL, were introduced in the western gaming mainstream by Secret of Mana in 1993 instead of Final Fantasy VII itself in 1997, the latter game might become even more popular there.
Wipeout, on the other hand... it sucks how it got canceled because there was F-Zero already but, the people who worked on Wipeout in OTL could end up working on a new F-Zero, or Sega could start working on a brand new vehicular combat series to rival F-Zero, Twisted Metal or both. I have some ideas about how such a series could look like, I could PM them to you.
Final Fantasy VII IS looking to be a monster hit when it's released. It won't be the game-changing system pusher it was IOTL for various reasons (that will become obvious as the timeline enters 1997) but will be as good or even better than it was IOTL. And definitely feel free to give us your ideas on a Psygnosis vehicular game, I think it could definitely work as a new franchise for the Ultra.
March 1996 - Chrono Trigger
“At $399, the Saturn was already a bargain. At $299, it's a must-have gaming console, especially if you're a Genesis owner. There are too many great games coming out for it this year to miss.”
-Dan “Shoe” Hsu in an opinion article in the May 1996 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly
“And now we have the greatest Super Nintendo CD role-playing game ever made. It's Chrono Trigger, for a number of reasons. The graphics are pretty much the pinnacle of sprite art. The soundtrack is by far the greatest video game soundtrack ever. The animated cutscenes are done masterfully and there are so many of them, and the voice acting is superb, especially by SNES-CD standards. The SNES-CD was an RPG lover's dream device, and the cream of the crop, the jewel in the crown, the top of the mountain is and will always be Chrono Trigger.”
-GameTV's Alex Stansfield, in an article on his website on January 11, 2012
“This was the first time I'd ever done a project of this scope. It was the first time ANYONE had ever done a project of this scope. Nearly an hour of animation for a video game. This game had more animation than even the laserdisc games for arcade systems had! It was very intimidating but I knew we were making history. It was truly a Dream Project in every sense of the word!”
-Akira Toriyama
“Nintendo had not allowed any game for the SNES-CD to be more than one disc. They cited costs, consumer inconvenience, any number of reasons and at the time it was not a major problem, we'd had to reduce the sound quality for Final Fantasy VI but that was the only time we'd bumped up against the limit. From the beginning, Chrono Trigger was going to need two discs. We asked Nintendo at the very start of the project if we could do two discs and to our surprise they agreed immediately! I think they realized that this technology was advancing so fast that two discs would be necessary. Also, I imagine the Sega Saturn had a lot to do with it as well.”
-Yoshinori Kitase
“For Schala, we had nearly forgotten about her fate but when it came time to decide what to do with her, we were greatly torn. I initially wanted a tragic end for her, as such a delicate and kindhearted character I was planning to just have her disappear, another victim of Lavos' wrath. But among the writing staff, there was the opinion that perhaps her tragic fate would be overshadowed by the very violent death of Crono and that it wouldn't have the impact I'd intended. And then (Akihiro) Matsui-san showed how adding another playable character could add another layer of strategy to the game. So I relented and we then made Schala able to be found and added to the party. In hindsight, this is a decision that I think ended up being the right one to make.”
-Masato Kato
“MARLE!!”
-Crono, after Marle disappears in Guardia Castle in 600AD, it's his first words spoken in an animated cutscene. In TTL's Chrono Trigger, Crono has spoken dialogue and playable character names cannot be changed.
“Please go...I could not save Crono and I could not stop my mother. I deserve neither your time or your pity.”
-Schala, after the party comes to retrieve her after the Ocean Palace disaster in the optional sidequest to recruit her into your party
“Mother, for the first time in my life I will defy you....! I will NOT allow you to bring Lavos into this world!”
-Schala when the party faces down Queen Zeal at the Ocean Palace
“Wow, March 1996, hell of a month there. Chrono Trigger sorta overwhelmed everything but you also had Guardian Heroes and Frank Thomas for the Saturn, plus Major Hazard and Monster Wars sequels, Milon's Adventure, Belle Weather, that sweet WCW Nitro game...even had a fairly playable Donald Duck game. I can't imagine being a kid at that time with only five bucks a week allowance, must've been torture.”
-a comment on Kotaku.com's “TAY: Best Month For Video Games Of All Time?” post on June 24, 2013
-
*The main theme from Chrono Trigger begins to play as animated cutscenes from the game are displayed on the screen, including the launch of the Epoch, Crono, Marle, and Lucca fighting Zombor, Magus and Ozzie facing down Frog and Cyrus, and Marle disappearing in 600AD. Text flashes on the screen as the scenes play, the commercial features no narration.*
From the creators of Final Fantasy comes an adventure spanning millions of years.
*More cutscenes are displayed, showing off more footage from the game including Frog pulling up the Masamune, Lavos bursting up from the ground on the Day of Lavos, and Queen Zeal cackling wickedly.*
Featuring nearly one hour of film-quality professionally acted animated cutscenes
Over 50 musical tracks in full CD audio
Stunning high-definition characters and backgrounds
*The animated cutscenes give way to gameplay footage including a myriad of dungeons and locations and spectacular combination attacks.*
Team up to take down enemies with over 100 combination attacks
More than a dozen different endings
An adventure too big for a single CD – double the length of any previous SNES-CD game
*More cutscenes and gameplay footage is shown on the screen*
Squaresoft's Dream Project – Nearly three years in the making
CHRONO TRIGGER
*The screen goes black*
March 18
ONLY on Super Nintendo CD
*mechanical sound effect* Nin-ten-do
-the North American television advertisement for Chrono Trigger, which began airing in early March 1996
Chrono Trigger: The Basics
Squaresoft's Chrono Trigger is the first 2-disc game for the Super Nintendo. A large part of this space is taken up by the 47 minutes of animated cutscenes, the more than three hours of voice acted spoken lines, and the entirely CD-audio based musical soundtrack by Yasunori Mitsuda and Nobuo Uematsu. The game is so large, in fact, that it took up nearly all the space on two CDs and was nearly a 3-disc game. The game is mostly similar to OTL's Chrono Trigger in terms of plot, with most of the changes consisting of storyline details and the addition of a new playable character and three more endings. The game is fully voice acted, including the main character Crono who was mute IOTL. Because of this, none of the characters can be named, as they are named in voice acted lines and cutscenes and thus have to remain consistent. Character dialogue is featured in battle, characters do not call out their attacks but do speak as an attack is launched, this is context-based and sometimes a spoken line can vary depending upon how close an enemy is to dying or whether a character is targeting one enemy or multiple enemies. For example, when you launch an attack targeting three enemies, and one of them moves out of range of the attack, a character may express disappointment. This is seen as ground-breaking for the time, even surpassing the level of voice acting quality in Tale Phantasia, a game that would be compared to Chrono Trigger many, many times after that game's launch. The voice acting itself is considered to be quite good, though the cast is nearly entirely unknowns. The only two voice actors that go on to have highly successful careers after performing in Chrono Trigger are Moira Quirk, who voices Schala and Queen Zeal in the game, and Crispin Freeman, who voices Magus. Graphically, the game looks quite a bit better than IOTL, with sprite graphics comparable to those featured in games like OTL's SaGa Frontier and Legend of Mana. The highly detailed character sprites are considered among the very best 2-D graphics on the SNES-CD, only surpassed by certain titles on the Sega Saturn. In terms of gameplay, though the basic attack/tech/combo structure is unchanged from OTL, because of the addition of Schala as a playable character, the elemental scheme of the game is changed somewhat. Instead of a character having only a single element they're associated with, they're associated with both an element and an attack discipline, physical (known as Force in the game) and magical (known as Aura). Crono is Force-Light, Marle is Aura-Water, Lucca is Aura-Fire, Robo is Force-Shadow, Ayla is Force-Fire, Frog is Force-Water, Magus is Aura-Shadow, and Schala is Aura-Light. This also changes up some techs. Crono no longer has OTL's Luminaire, that instead becomes Schala's eighth and final tech. Instead, he has Tornado, a full-screen attack that does physical damage. Ayla's ultimate attack becomes Meteor Strike, where she leaps into space and returns to earth with the force of a meteor impact to damage foes with fire and physical damage (her Triple Kick becomes her seventh tech and she loses Dino Tail). Schala's magic consists of mostly healing techs with light-based magic attacks interspersed (Crono's basic lightning tech becomes Lightning Strike, where he uses his sword to deal lightning/physical damage). Also, the tech list is SIGNIFICANTLY expanded, with every single possible two-person team getting three dual techs between them, this makes for 84 dual techs in all. Triple Techs continue to require Crono, but Magus and Schala get Triple Techs with him as well. Along with nine bonus Triple Techs that don't require Crono (acquired with special colored rocks as IOTL), this makes for a total of 30 Triple Techs, for a grand total of 114 combination techs and 64 single techs (with a few repetitions among these) available in the game.
The plot remains identical for the most part to OTL's Chrono Trigger. It starts with Crono waking up and meeting a beautiful girl named Marle at the Millennium Fair, only to see her getting transported through time by an invention created by his friend Lucca. Crono pursues Marle through time, leading to a series of misadventures that leads to the three youths learning of a terrible apocalypse that ruins the future. The creature responsible for this apocalypse is Lavos, and the three of them, along with a robot they meet later on named Robo, decide to stop the apocalypse by any means necessary. They come to learn that a wizard named Magus in the Middle Ages may have created Lavos and team up with Frog to stop him. Once they defeat Magus, however, they learn that Lavos was merely summoned by Magus, and another time portal sends them back to prehistoric times to reunite with Ayla and witness Lavos' arrival on Earth in the form of the meteor that killed the dinosaurs. This creates a portal that sends the group to a mysterious ancient land called Zeal, where the true story finally comes into focus as the group confronts the evil Queen Zeal in an attempt to stop Lavos forever. This fails, and results in Crono's death (and ITTL the end of disc one). After the group then escapes Dalton's Blackbird, the game opens up as a possibility for reviving Crono is revealed. This second portion of the game, the sidequest portion, contains the biggest changes from IOTL's Chrono Trigger. Each of the game's eight playable characters has a quest. The Death Peak quest revives Crono, the Fiona's Forest quest allows Lucca to confront her past, the Ozzie's Fort quest gives Magus a chance to put his former henchmen down once and for all, the Geno Dome quest allows Robo to settle accounts with Mother Brain, and the Rainbow Shell quest allows Marle to reconcile with her father. The three quests that have the biggest changes from IOTL: The Cyrus' Tomb quest, in which Frog acquires his ultimate weapon the Masamune, also requires Frog to battle the ghostly Cyrus in a one-on-one showdown before receiving his prize. The Sun Stone quest requires a climb up Singing Mountain in 65,000,000 BC to place the Sun Stone before it can be charged, and this quest also sees Ayla confronting the last remaining Reptites and also marrying Kino. Finally, there is a remaining quest added from OTL, the quest to rescue Schala in 12,000 BC (which requires you to both revive Crono and spare Magus' life). After the fall of the Ocean Palace, Schala is sent to a place called Time's Wasteland, in which Lavos casts those who no longer fit into any time period. After Crono is revived, bringing Magus to the Last Village in 12,000 BC will prompt the cat Alfador to follow him. One of the villagers will comment on how Alfador was digging around for something in the village. Alfador will then run to a spot where Magus will dig up Schala's pendant. You must then take this pendant to all three Gurus, beginning with Gaspar, and then to Melchior who will mount it into a crest. Presenting this crest to the sleeping Balthasar Nu will stir him from his seemingly eternal slumber just long enough to use the crest to create a portal to Time's Wasteland, begging you to find and save Schala. Time's Wasteland is a curious dungeon, a mixture of environments with versions of monsters from all time periods (in terms of difficulty level it's a bit less than the Geno Dome and Giant's Claw). You MUST bring Magus into this dungeon in order to defeat its boss, Dalton, who is siphoning Schala's power in order to make himself an incredibly powerful sorcerer. If Magus is not with you, he won't be able to convince Schala to break free of Dalton's control and strike back against him, you'll be forced out of the battle and will have to put Magus in your party before trying again. If Magus is in your party, then after hitting Dalton to the tune of 15,000 HP, Magus will reveal himself as Janus to Schala and beg her forgiveness. Seeing Magus finally causes Schala to snap out of Dalton's energy sapping spell and fight back, allowing Magus to finish him off for good. After this, Schala joins the party, at Level 37 like her brother, with a full-party Heal spell, a Life spell, and a single-target Light magic attack spell. She later learns Haste 2, Cure 2, Lucent Array (a Light Magic attack that hits all enemies with the same power as Magus' Dark Mist), Life 2, and Luminaire. Her basic weapon is a staff. Following the eight side quests is the optional Black Omen dungeon, where Queen Zeal can be confronted (as IOTL, if you face Queen Zeal with Magus in your party, the normal “Boss Battle 2” theme will change to Magus' theme, or if you face her with Schala in your party, Schala's Theme will play during the battle, if you use both of them, Magus' theme takes priority), or you can go directly to 1999 AD using the time machine or the bucket, either way the final battle with Lavos plays out almost exactly as IOTL. The game then ends with the characters returning to their original timelines, the ending is a bit different if you've acquired Schala, who resolves to rebuild 12000 BC as the new Queen of Zeal, where Earthbound and Enlightened Ones will be treated the same, in this ending, Magus decides to return to 600 AD to atone for his crimes there. The game then ends with a beautiful panorama of the Epoch traversing the world (or a balloon if you've destroyed the Epoch by crashing it into Lavos). As IOTL, you're given the option of starting a New Game+ to fight Lavos earlier in order to acquire one of 16 possible endings.
March 18, 1996
Chrono Trigger is released in North America to the most positive critical reception for a video game since The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Dreams. The game is universally proclaimed as being Squaresoft's masterpiece, exceeding Final Fantasy VI and comparable to Secret of Mana in quality. The game breaks many of Secret of Mana's North American RPG sales records, with over 50,000 sales on the first day, 150,000 in the first week, and 250,000 by the end of April. With Sega's price cut on the horizon, the resounding success of Chrono Trigger further highlighted the significant “games gap” that remained between Nintendo and Sega, especially amongst the older demographic that Sega was attempting to court. It kicked off Nintendo's “Year of the RPG” in earnest and struck a major blow for Nintendo at a time that it was going to need to go on the offensive as the Saturn's price dropped and its library of games increased.
For Squaresoft, the release of Chrono Trigger further solidified the close relationship between the company and Nintendo. Final Fantasy VII had been formally announced for the Ultra Nintendo just a few weeks before, and while that game would not have a demo ready for Spaceworld, E3 was only two months away...
-
Chrono Trigger
Andrew: 9.5
Mark: 9.5
Mike: 9.5
Sushi-X: 9.5 (quote: “Squaresoft does it again! This RPG combines great gameplay, a beautiful soundtrack, and anime-like cutscenes into a complete package that tops even Final Fantasy VI.”
Fire Pro Wrestling Presents: WCW Monday Nitro
Andrew: 7.0 (quote: “The interface is pretty simple but that belies one of the most realistic wrestling games ever made.”)
Mark: 8.5
Mike: 9.0
Sushi-X: 6.0
Frantic Flea
Andrew: 5.0
Mark: 6.5
Mike: 5.0 (quote: “The graphics are decent but the gameplay leaves a LOT to be desired in this boring platformer.”)
Sushi-X: 5.5
Maui Mallard In Cold Shadow
Andrew: 8.0 (quote: “Donald Duck's latest adventure is a real treat and yet another fun title this year featuring one of Disney's classic characters!”)
Mark: 8.0
Mike: 8.0
Sushi-X: 8.0
Milon's Adventure
Andrew: 9.0
Mark: 9.0 (quote: “Pretty much everything that was dumb or frustrating about the NES game has been totally overhauled in this surprisingly sweet sequel.”)
Mike: 9.0
Sushi-X: 8.0
Major Hazard: FUBAR
Andrew: 9.5 (quote: “You'll be laughing your ass off when you're not gunning down enemy soldiers like a total badass in one of the year's best sequels.”)
Mark: 8.5
Mike: 9.0
Sushi-X: 9.0
Monster Wars II: Risen From The Grave
Andrew: 9.0
Mark: 9.0 (quote: “With even more monsters and an overhauled interface, Koei has made perhaps their best strategy game ever.”)
Mike: 8.0
Sushi-X: 8.0
Belle Weather
Andrew: 7.5
Mark: 7.0 (quote: “This quirky little action title where you control the weather to fight your way through a wacky world is pretty fun if somewhat generic. Belle's no Storm, but she's a great protagonist nonetheless.”)
Mike: 8.0
Sushi-X: 7.0
Maze Mice
Andrew: 6.0
Mark: 6.0
Mike: 5.5 (quote: “I tried to find more fun in this puzzler but it gets pretty tiresome after the first few stages.”)
Sushi-X: 7.5
-excerpted from reviews of March 1996's SNES-CD games in the April and May 1996 issues of Electronic Gaming Monthly
-
*Scene shows a boy at the toy store, looking at a Sega Saturn*
Boy: Oh man, the Sega Saturn is awesome!
*Footage of Sega Saturn games begins to play*
Boy: No other game system brings you realistic 3-D graphics, intense sports action, and the best home arcade ports like the Sega Saturn does! *looks at his mom* Mom, can we get it?
*The boy's mother looks at the price tag and shakes her head*
Mom: Sorry but it's just a little too much for us right now, maybe next year?
Boy: *looks disappointed* Okay...
*As the mom and her son are walking away, the boy catches a blue blur out of the corner of his eye*
Boy: Huh? *turns and looks but sees nothing*
*The blue blur streaks by again, followed by a bunch of store security guys*
Boy: Is that...Sonic? *watches as Sonic taunts the security guys who can't catch him*
Sonic: You're too slow! *flees out of the store*
Boy: ….*he goes back over to the Saturn display* ...MOM! MOM, COME QUICK!
*The mom rushes over to the Saturn display and sees the price tag has been changed from $399 to $299*
Boy: Can we get it now?
Mom: Well... okay. But don't tell your dad!
*It then shows Sonic rushing down the highway to another toy store with a big red marker in hand and a smirk on his face*
Narrator: Sonic is at it again! Now the Sega Saturn is just $299! With the latest graphics and the hottest arcade ports, now's the perfect time to Spring into Saturn!
*Footage of various Saturn games is shown on screen*
Narrator: Get the Saturn with Virtua Fighter and two controllers for just $299, or get the Virtua Arcade Set with everything shown here *shows the three Virtua games plus the light gun and steering wheel accessories* for a new low price of $399. And for a limited time with the purchase of any Saturn is a $20 off coupon toward the purchase of your next Sega Saturn game. With games like MagiQuest, Daytona USA, and Ridge Racer, plus all new games like Guardian Heroes and Frank Thomas' Big Hurt Baseball, the Saturn is the home for all of today's biggest hits!
*Sonic is shown running into the next store, the security guards try to follow him but end up tumbling into a big pile in the parking lot.*
Security Guard at the bottom of the pile: SEGA!
-excerpted from a Sega Saturn commercial that began airing on March 23, 1996
March 23, 1996
The price of the Sega Saturn is dropped from $399 to $299 in North America, while the price of the Virtua Arcade Set, containing Virtua Fighter, Virtua Racing, Virtua Cop, and a number of accessories, is cut to $399 from $499. The price drop is accompanied by a new marketing campaign for the Sega Saturn, highlighting the price drop and showing off games such as Guardian Heroes, Soul Edge, and Resident Evil. The price drop causes the first major price spike for the Sega Saturn, and though it still remains significantly behind the SNES-CD in sales, the Saturn passes the Genesis in North American sales for the first time during the month of April 1996. $299, though still expensive compared to the Super Nintendo CD and the Sega Genesis, is considered by the gaming media to be a more than acceptable price for the Saturn, and sales of hardware and software begin a steady rise that would continue throughout the remainder of the year.
Of the games that benefited from the Sega Saturn's price cut in the immediate short term, perhaps none did more than Guardian Heroes, a hybrid RPG/beat-em-up from Treasure that probably would've faded into obscurity had Sega and Tom Kalinske not chosen it to be the game that would be pushed heavily in promotional material accompanying the Saturn price drop. Having been released just twelve days before, Guardian Heroes was a fun game, and a gorgeous one too, with beautiful anime-style 2-D that looked amazing on the Saturn's high-powered processor (though Chrono Trigger's graphics were getting a lot of praise at the time, it couldn't compare to what the Saturn's 4x powerful processor could do with 2-D). The game starred four brave warriors who set out on a quest to fight an evil wizard Kanon. The game was highly praised for its four-player gameplay, it probably offered up the best multiplayer experience on the Saturn thus far, with chaotic fights that could take up the whole screen as enemies rushed in. It was beloved by critics, and though it didn't score as highly as Chrono Trigger, it's probably the second best regarded game to come out of that month (and competition was FIERCE!). Among people who used their $20 Saturn coupons, Guardian Heroes was one of the most purchased Saturn games and it ended up selling over 500,000 copies in North America. Tom Kalinske proudly cited the game as an example of how well Japanese games could do in the West if properly marketed, and the success of Guardian Heroes was a big reason why Treasure's 1997 action title Troublemakers (starring enemy-tossing cutie Marina Liteyears), received such a big promotional push. The other big Saturn game of the month, Frank Thomas' Big Hurt Baseball, was another big success, though it was outdone later on by Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run on the SNES-CD and was ultimately outsold by Guardian Heroes, the little Treasure game that could.
-excerpted from the article “The First Cut Is The Deepest: A History Of Console Price Cuts” on Kotaku.com
-
(Note: The information about Fire Pro Wrestling, including the entire roster for TTL's SNES-CD game, comes from the user Geaux. Thanks a lot for all of this info and for giving us the idea for the game!)
Coming to the SNES-CD, it's Fire Pro Wrestling Presents WCW Monday Nitro! The makers of Japan's most popular wrestling game series have teamed up with the hottest wrestling federation in the world to bring you the ultimate wrestling video game. Not only does it feature the most realistic wrestling action ever, it also features a mode to create your very own wrestlers! But with a roster this big, you may not need to.... here's a list of all the WCW wrestlers featured in the game!
Hulk Hogan
Randy Savage
Sting
Lex Luger
The Renegade
Jim Duggan
Dave Sullivan
Booker T
Stevie Ray
Johnny B. Badd
Marcus Bagwell
Scotty Riggs
Paul Orndorff
Diamond Dallas Page
Lord Steven Regal
Earl Robert Eaton
Squire David Taylor
Brian Knobbs
Jerry Saggs
Bunkhouse Buck
Dick Slater
Big Bubba Rogers
The Taskmaster
The Giant
The Shark
Meng
Kamala
The Zodiac
Ric Flair
Arn Anderson
Brian Pillman
Chris Benoit
Big Van Vader
Sabu
Road Warrior Hawk
Kensuke Sasaki
Hiroyoshi Tenzan
Jyushin Thunder Liger
The Great Muta
Scott Norton
-excerpted from an article in the April 1996 issue of EGM2
“Oh man, WCW Fire Pro Wrestling. That game was the shit back in the day and it's the game that actually got me into watching WCW. Pretty much EVERYBODY in the company was in that game. I was used to wrestling game rosters having 12, maybe 16 guys tops. To see so many guys AND to be able to add the new ones as they came, or even to put myself in the game? Yeah, it didn't have the story modes or anything like today's games do. It was just straight-up pro wrestling. Hell, you could make up your own stories if you wanted to, just act out the promos between matches like me and my friends did. ...yeah, we were dorks.”
-excerpted from the comment section on Rootalk's /wrestlinggames/ subroot on February 17, 2014
-
The Major's Back To Kick Some Ass
Major Hazard: FUBAR is one of the most anticipated sequels of the year, and for the most part, it lives up to the hype. Major Hazard and his band of misfit grunts, along with a couple of new characters, get stuck behind enemy lines and have to fight their way out. And fight they do, while getting into a whole lot of trouble along the way. Those of you who remember the last Major Hazard game know that it's a laugh riot along with being really fast paced and fun. This game takes the humor up to 11. There are tons of ridiculous weapons and lots of potty humor, which some fans might not appreciate, but it's not gratuitous like in certain children's TV shows, for the most part it's spaced out well and when it does occur it hits the mark and makes you laugh.
The graphics have been amped up from the previous title. Explosions are a lot more detailed as are the enemies, and there's a lot more going on on the screen at once. There's a lot more voice acting in this game (and the last one had plenty to spare), and everything just seems like a marked improvement over the previous title. The challenge is ramped up too, there are some really frustrating levels (and the Major himself expresses his frustration at times with some great one-liners). There's even two-player co-op and competitive modes for when you want to enjoy the game with a buddy. We wish you could play with four players at once, but the game already suffers from a tad of slowdown during particularly crowded segments, so a four-player mode might be too much for the SNES-CD to handle. Regardless, Major Hazard: FUBAR is one of the most fun AND funny games of the year so far.
Graphics: 4.5
Sound: 4.5
Play Control: 5.0
Fun Factor: 5.0
Challenge: Intermediate
-excerpted from the April 1996 GamePro review of Major Hazard: FUBAR
-
Brittany Saldita: Guardian Heroes is a really fun, really challenging beat-em-up that's best played with three friends but still quite fun when you're all by your lonesome.
John Walden: It's one of the most addictive Saturn games to date, taking cues from the awesome Golden Axe series and throwing in an RPG twist.
Brittany Saldita: While the plotline was a bit thin, it still had some good moments and for the genre, it's a pretty good story. Guardian Heroes keeps the action going in every stage, there's never a dull moment and it takes some serious strategy to beat some of the tougher bosses.
John Walden: And those graphics....damn. I mean, don't get me wrong, the Saturn is great at 3-D, but these amazing visuals look like something out of a storybook come to life.
Brittany Saldita: I love that they didn't try to force much 3-D in here. It looks beautiful the way it is. Colorful, vivid, fluid in motion, Guardian Heroes is not only one of the most fun video games I've ever played, it's also one of the most beautiful. I'm giving it a 4.5 out of five.
John Walden: And I give it a 4.5 also.
(…)
Kazzi DeCarlo: Monster Wars 2 is the only game where you can see Jack the Ripper get eaten by a horde of mutant pumpkins.
Ted Crosley: This game was a bit too weird for me. I wasn't a fan of the original and I really wasn't much of a fan of this, though I've never been a huge fan of Koei strategy games to begin with.
Kaz: Well, the fact that you can pick from some really obscure monsters is pretty neat. They got Cthulhu in this thing!
Ted: Ugggggggggghhhhh, Cthulhu.
Kaz: You don't like Cthulhu? You don't like Lovecraft?
Ted: I despise Lovecraft!
Kaz: Oh man, I thought you were cool.
Ted: What's cool about a bunch of weird stories with a bunch of weird giant space demons and a bunch of scared people running around and going crazy?
Kaz: Everything you just described is cool. C'mon, man, when the Great Old Ones rise out of the Earth, the end times will be upon us!
Ted: The only Great Old Ones I care about are my grandparents and they're pretty boring too.
Kaz: Well, Monster Wars 2 was a lot of fun. It wasn't perfect by any means, with quite a few repetitive missions, but the sheer variety of monster types had me entertained and I'm giving this game a 3.5.
Ted: I'm giving it a 3. Fans of Koei games will love it but it's nothing special.
-excerpted from the March 12, 1996 episode of GameTV
(…)
Alex Stansfield: Milon's Adventure wasn't what I expected at all. I was super frustrated with the NES game, but this game actually was a lot of fun.
Ted: Well, I never played the NES game.
Alex: And I'm glad you didn't, it was a mess.
Ted: But this game was pretty fun. It's a bit derivative of games like Castlevania and Andrekah but it works on most levels, the graphics are kinda cutesy and simple but I really liked the soundtrack.
Alex: I had tons of fun, the game fixed literally EVERYTHING wrong with the original NES game and it's one of the biggest sequel improvements I've ever seen.
Ted: HudsonSoft is known for their weird titles and this is no exception but I did have fun.
Alex: I'm giving Milon's Adventure a 4.5 out of 5.
Ted: I'm giving it a 3.5.
(…)
Ted: Wow. That's all I can really say about Chrono Trigger.
Alex: This game lived up to the hype and then some. And the replay value is just through the roof!
Ted: Yeah, going back and kicking ass with fully-leveled characters is something that should be in EVERY RPG from now on.
Alex: The soundtrack is the best I've ever heard in a game, hands down, bar none.
Ted: I'm gonna disagree with that, I thought the Sonic 3 soundtrack was bigger.
Alex: Yeah we are DEFINITELY disagreeing there.
Ted: The voice acting surprised me, I thought it was fantastic. Usually voice acting in games kinda sucks, even Lunar for Sega CD was really campy but this was pretty good. I can't say too much about the voice acting without spoiling a lot of the plot but it was really good.
Alex: Let us just say this, if you are a fan of Guts on Nickelodeon this game will blow your mind.
Ted: Yeah, they should've called the Mountain of Woe the Aggro Crag.
Alex: *laughing* That would have been appropriate.
Ted: I'm giving this game a 5 out of 5. I can't give it anything else.
Alex: Yep, 5 out of 5 for me. *sirens go off* Uh oh...uh oh, guess what time it is?
Ted: Time to change Kaz's dish?
Alex: It's time to add another game to the GameTV Hall Of Fame!
*A framed copy of Chrono Trigger is brought over to the wall where Ocarina of Dreams and Ballistic Limit are mounted.*
Ted: And let's put it up here, right next to Ballistic Limit, there you go.
Brittany: It looks pretty good up there.
Alex: And there is Chrono Trigger and when we come back we are going to be giving you all an EXCLUSIVE world premiere sneak peek at Sega's upcoming game NiGHTS Into Dreams.
-excerpted from the March 19, 1996 episode of GameTV
-
SNES-CD Power Charts: March 1996
1. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
2. The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Dreams
3. Ballistic Limit
4. Super Mario World 3
5. Twisted Metal
6. Donkey Kong Country
7. Super Mario World 2
8. Tales Of The Seven Seas
9. Doom
10. Killer Instinct
11. Front Mission
12. Rage
13. Street Fighter Alpha
14. Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego?
15. Final Fantasy VI
16. Gradius IV
17. Mortal Kombat 3
18. Victory
19. Toy Story
20. Secret Of Mana
-
“And it is with great excitement that we award our first perfect 40/40 score to a game that is not on the Super Famicom CD! Biohazard for the Sega Saturn simply blew us away with its cinematic graphics and terrifying atmosphere. It's absolutely worth checking out for anyone who owns a Sega Saturn and the perfect incentive to purchase one for those who don't own one already!”
-excerpted from an editorial in the April 1996 issue of Famitsu magazine
-Dan “Shoe” Hsu in an opinion article in the May 1996 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly
“And now we have the greatest Super Nintendo CD role-playing game ever made. It's Chrono Trigger, for a number of reasons. The graphics are pretty much the pinnacle of sprite art. The soundtrack is by far the greatest video game soundtrack ever. The animated cutscenes are done masterfully and there are so many of them, and the voice acting is superb, especially by SNES-CD standards. The SNES-CD was an RPG lover's dream device, and the cream of the crop, the jewel in the crown, the top of the mountain is and will always be Chrono Trigger.”
-GameTV's Alex Stansfield, in an article on his website on January 11, 2012
“This was the first time I'd ever done a project of this scope. It was the first time ANYONE had ever done a project of this scope. Nearly an hour of animation for a video game. This game had more animation than even the laserdisc games for arcade systems had! It was very intimidating but I knew we were making history. It was truly a Dream Project in every sense of the word!”
-Akira Toriyama
“Nintendo had not allowed any game for the SNES-CD to be more than one disc. They cited costs, consumer inconvenience, any number of reasons and at the time it was not a major problem, we'd had to reduce the sound quality for Final Fantasy VI but that was the only time we'd bumped up against the limit. From the beginning, Chrono Trigger was going to need two discs. We asked Nintendo at the very start of the project if we could do two discs and to our surprise they agreed immediately! I think they realized that this technology was advancing so fast that two discs would be necessary. Also, I imagine the Sega Saturn had a lot to do with it as well.”
-Yoshinori Kitase
“For Schala, we had nearly forgotten about her fate but when it came time to decide what to do with her, we were greatly torn. I initially wanted a tragic end for her, as such a delicate and kindhearted character I was planning to just have her disappear, another victim of Lavos' wrath. But among the writing staff, there was the opinion that perhaps her tragic fate would be overshadowed by the very violent death of Crono and that it wouldn't have the impact I'd intended. And then (Akihiro) Matsui-san showed how adding another playable character could add another layer of strategy to the game. So I relented and we then made Schala able to be found and added to the party. In hindsight, this is a decision that I think ended up being the right one to make.”
-Masato Kato
“MARLE!!”
-Crono, after Marle disappears in Guardia Castle in 600AD, it's his first words spoken in an animated cutscene. In TTL's Chrono Trigger, Crono has spoken dialogue and playable character names cannot be changed.
“Please go...I could not save Crono and I could not stop my mother. I deserve neither your time or your pity.”
-Schala, after the party comes to retrieve her after the Ocean Palace disaster in the optional sidequest to recruit her into your party
“Mother, for the first time in my life I will defy you....! I will NOT allow you to bring Lavos into this world!”
-Schala when the party faces down Queen Zeal at the Ocean Palace
“Wow, March 1996, hell of a month there. Chrono Trigger sorta overwhelmed everything but you also had Guardian Heroes and Frank Thomas for the Saturn, plus Major Hazard and Monster Wars sequels, Milon's Adventure, Belle Weather, that sweet WCW Nitro game...even had a fairly playable Donald Duck game. I can't imagine being a kid at that time with only five bucks a week allowance, must've been torture.”
-a comment on Kotaku.com's “TAY: Best Month For Video Games Of All Time?” post on June 24, 2013
-
*The main theme from Chrono Trigger begins to play as animated cutscenes from the game are displayed on the screen, including the launch of the Epoch, Crono, Marle, and Lucca fighting Zombor, Magus and Ozzie facing down Frog and Cyrus, and Marle disappearing in 600AD. Text flashes on the screen as the scenes play, the commercial features no narration.*
From the creators of Final Fantasy comes an adventure spanning millions of years.
*More cutscenes are displayed, showing off more footage from the game including Frog pulling up the Masamune, Lavos bursting up from the ground on the Day of Lavos, and Queen Zeal cackling wickedly.*
Featuring nearly one hour of film-quality professionally acted animated cutscenes
Over 50 musical tracks in full CD audio
Stunning high-definition characters and backgrounds
*The animated cutscenes give way to gameplay footage including a myriad of dungeons and locations and spectacular combination attacks.*
Team up to take down enemies with over 100 combination attacks
More than a dozen different endings
An adventure too big for a single CD – double the length of any previous SNES-CD game
*More cutscenes and gameplay footage is shown on the screen*
Squaresoft's Dream Project – Nearly three years in the making
CHRONO TRIGGER
*The screen goes black*
March 18
ONLY on Super Nintendo CD
*mechanical sound effect* Nin-ten-do
-the North American television advertisement for Chrono Trigger, which began airing in early March 1996
Chrono Trigger: The Basics
Squaresoft's Chrono Trigger is the first 2-disc game for the Super Nintendo. A large part of this space is taken up by the 47 minutes of animated cutscenes, the more than three hours of voice acted spoken lines, and the entirely CD-audio based musical soundtrack by Yasunori Mitsuda and Nobuo Uematsu. The game is so large, in fact, that it took up nearly all the space on two CDs and was nearly a 3-disc game. The game is mostly similar to OTL's Chrono Trigger in terms of plot, with most of the changes consisting of storyline details and the addition of a new playable character and three more endings. The game is fully voice acted, including the main character Crono who was mute IOTL. Because of this, none of the characters can be named, as they are named in voice acted lines and cutscenes and thus have to remain consistent. Character dialogue is featured in battle, characters do not call out their attacks but do speak as an attack is launched, this is context-based and sometimes a spoken line can vary depending upon how close an enemy is to dying or whether a character is targeting one enemy or multiple enemies. For example, when you launch an attack targeting three enemies, and one of them moves out of range of the attack, a character may express disappointment. This is seen as ground-breaking for the time, even surpassing the level of voice acting quality in Tale Phantasia, a game that would be compared to Chrono Trigger many, many times after that game's launch. The voice acting itself is considered to be quite good, though the cast is nearly entirely unknowns. The only two voice actors that go on to have highly successful careers after performing in Chrono Trigger are Moira Quirk, who voices Schala and Queen Zeal in the game, and Crispin Freeman, who voices Magus. Graphically, the game looks quite a bit better than IOTL, with sprite graphics comparable to those featured in games like OTL's SaGa Frontier and Legend of Mana. The highly detailed character sprites are considered among the very best 2-D graphics on the SNES-CD, only surpassed by certain titles on the Sega Saturn. In terms of gameplay, though the basic attack/tech/combo structure is unchanged from OTL, because of the addition of Schala as a playable character, the elemental scheme of the game is changed somewhat. Instead of a character having only a single element they're associated with, they're associated with both an element and an attack discipline, physical (known as Force in the game) and magical (known as Aura). Crono is Force-Light, Marle is Aura-Water, Lucca is Aura-Fire, Robo is Force-Shadow, Ayla is Force-Fire, Frog is Force-Water, Magus is Aura-Shadow, and Schala is Aura-Light. This also changes up some techs. Crono no longer has OTL's Luminaire, that instead becomes Schala's eighth and final tech. Instead, he has Tornado, a full-screen attack that does physical damage. Ayla's ultimate attack becomes Meteor Strike, where she leaps into space and returns to earth with the force of a meteor impact to damage foes with fire and physical damage (her Triple Kick becomes her seventh tech and she loses Dino Tail). Schala's magic consists of mostly healing techs with light-based magic attacks interspersed (Crono's basic lightning tech becomes Lightning Strike, where he uses his sword to deal lightning/physical damage). Also, the tech list is SIGNIFICANTLY expanded, with every single possible two-person team getting three dual techs between them, this makes for 84 dual techs in all. Triple Techs continue to require Crono, but Magus and Schala get Triple Techs with him as well. Along with nine bonus Triple Techs that don't require Crono (acquired with special colored rocks as IOTL), this makes for a total of 30 Triple Techs, for a grand total of 114 combination techs and 64 single techs (with a few repetitions among these) available in the game.
The plot remains identical for the most part to OTL's Chrono Trigger. It starts with Crono waking up and meeting a beautiful girl named Marle at the Millennium Fair, only to see her getting transported through time by an invention created by his friend Lucca. Crono pursues Marle through time, leading to a series of misadventures that leads to the three youths learning of a terrible apocalypse that ruins the future. The creature responsible for this apocalypse is Lavos, and the three of them, along with a robot they meet later on named Robo, decide to stop the apocalypse by any means necessary. They come to learn that a wizard named Magus in the Middle Ages may have created Lavos and team up with Frog to stop him. Once they defeat Magus, however, they learn that Lavos was merely summoned by Magus, and another time portal sends them back to prehistoric times to reunite with Ayla and witness Lavos' arrival on Earth in the form of the meteor that killed the dinosaurs. This creates a portal that sends the group to a mysterious ancient land called Zeal, where the true story finally comes into focus as the group confronts the evil Queen Zeal in an attempt to stop Lavos forever. This fails, and results in Crono's death (and ITTL the end of disc one). After the group then escapes Dalton's Blackbird, the game opens up as a possibility for reviving Crono is revealed. This second portion of the game, the sidequest portion, contains the biggest changes from IOTL's Chrono Trigger. Each of the game's eight playable characters has a quest. The Death Peak quest revives Crono, the Fiona's Forest quest allows Lucca to confront her past, the Ozzie's Fort quest gives Magus a chance to put his former henchmen down once and for all, the Geno Dome quest allows Robo to settle accounts with Mother Brain, and the Rainbow Shell quest allows Marle to reconcile with her father. The three quests that have the biggest changes from IOTL: The Cyrus' Tomb quest, in which Frog acquires his ultimate weapon the Masamune, also requires Frog to battle the ghostly Cyrus in a one-on-one showdown before receiving his prize. The Sun Stone quest requires a climb up Singing Mountain in 65,000,000 BC to place the Sun Stone before it can be charged, and this quest also sees Ayla confronting the last remaining Reptites and also marrying Kino. Finally, there is a remaining quest added from OTL, the quest to rescue Schala in 12,000 BC (which requires you to both revive Crono and spare Magus' life). After the fall of the Ocean Palace, Schala is sent to a place called Time's Wasteland, in which Lavos casts those who no longer fit into any time period. After Crono is revived, bringing Magus to the Last Village in 12,000 BC will prompt the cat Alfador to follow him. One of the villagers will comment on how Alfador was digging around for something in the village. Alfador will then run to a spot where Magus will dig up Schala's pendant. You must then take this pendant to all three Gurus, beginning with Gaspar, and then to Melchior who will mount it into a crest. Presenting this crest to the sleeping Balthasar Nu will stir him from his seemingly eternal slumber just long enough to use the crest to create a portal to Time's Wasteland, begging you to find and save Schala. Time's Wasteland is a curious dungeon, a mixture of environments with versions of monsters from all time periods (in terms of difficulty level it's a bit less than the Geno Dome and Giant's Claw). You MUST bring Magus into this dungeon in order to defeat its boss, Dalton, who is siphoning Schala's power in order to make himself an incredibly powerful sorcerer. If Magus is not with you, he won't be able to convince Schala to break free of Dalton's control and strike back against him, you'll be forced out of the battle and will have to put Magus in your party before trying again. If Magus is in your party, then after hitting Dalton to the tune of 15,000 HP, Magus will reveal himself as Janus to Schala and beg her forgiveness. Seeing Magus finally causes Schala to snap out of Dalton's energy sapping spell and fight back, allowing Magus to finish him off for good. After this, Schala joins the party, at Level 37 like her brother, with a full-party Heal spell, a Life spell, and a single-target Light magic attack spell. She later learns Haste 2, Cure 2, Lucent Array (a Light Magic attack that hits all enemies with the same power as Magus' Dark Mist), Life 2, and Luminaire. Her basic weapon is a staff. Following the eight side quests is the optional Black Omen dungeon, where Queen Zeal can be confronted (as IOTL, if you face Queen Zeal with Magus in your party, the normal “Boss Battle 2” theme will change to Magus' theme, or if you face her with Schala in your party, Schala's Theme will play during the battle, if you use both of them, Magus' theme takes priority), or you can go directly to 1999 AD using the time machine or the bucket, either way the final battle with Lavos plays out almost exactly as IOTL. The game then ends with the characters returning to their original timelines, the ending is a bit different if you've acquired Schala, who resolves to rebuild 12000 BC as the new Queen of Zeal, where Earthbound and Enlightened Ones will be treated the same, in this ending, Magus decides to return to 600 AD to atone for his crimes there. The game then ends with a beautiful panorama of the Epoch traversing the world (or a balloon if you've destroyed the Epoch by crashing it into Lavos). As IOTL, you're given the option of starting a New Game+ to fight Lavos earlier in order to acquire one of 16 possible endings.
March 18, 1996
Chrono Trigger is released in North America to the most positive critical reception for a video game since The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Dreams. The game is universally proclaimed as being Squaresoft's masterpiece, exceeding Final Fantasy VI and comparable to Secret of Mana in quality. The game breaks many of Secret of Mana's North American RPG sales records, with over 50,000 sales on the first day, 150,000 in the first week, and 250,000 by the end of April. With Sega's price cut on the horizon, the resounding success of Chrono Trigger further highlighted the significant “games gap” that remained between Nintendo and Sega, especially amongst the older demographic that Sega was attempting to court. It kicked off Nintendo's “Year of the RPG” in earnest and struck a major blow for Nintendo at a time that it was going to need to go on the offensive as the Saturn's price dropped and its library of games increased.
For Squaresoft, the release of Chrono Trigger further solidified the close relationship between the company and Nintendo. Final Fantasy VII had been formally announced for the Ultra Nintendo just a few weeks before, and while that game would not have a demo ready for Spaceworld, E3 was only two months away...
-
Chrono Trigger
Andrew: 9.5
Mark: 9.5
Mike: 9.5
Sushi-X: 9.5 (quote: “Squaresoft does it again! This RPG combines great gameplay, a beautiful soundtrack, and anime-like cutscenes into a complete package that tops even Final Fantasy VI.”
Fire Pro Wrestling Presents: WCW Monday Nitro
Andrew: 7.0 (quote: “The interface is pretty simple but that belies one of the most realistic wrestling games ever made.”)
Mark: 8.5
Mike: 9.0
Sushi-X: 6.0
Frantic Flea
Andrew: 5.0
Mark: 6.5
Mike: 5.0 (quote: “The graphics are decent but the gameplay leaves a LOT to be desired in this boring platformer.”)
Sushi-X: 5.5
Maui Mallard In Cold Shadow
Andrew: 8.0 (quote: “Donald Duck's latest adventure is a real treat and yet another fun title this year featuring one of Disney's classic characters!”)
Mark: 8.0
Mike: 8.0
Sushi-X: 8.0
Milon's Adventure
Andrew: 9.0
Mark: 9.0 (quote: “Pretty much everything that was dumb or frustrating about the NES game has been totally overhauled in this surprisingly sweet sequel.”)
Mike: 9.0
Sushi-X: 8.0
Major Hazard: FUBAR
Andrew: 9.5 (quote: “You'll be laughing your ass off when you're not gunning down enemy soldiers like a total badass in one of the year's best sequels.”)
Mark: 8.5
Mike: 9.0
Sushi-X: 9.0
Monster Wars II: Risen From The Grave
Andrew: 9.0
Mark: 9.0 (quote: “With even more monsters and an overhauled interface, Koei has made perhaps their best strategy game ever.”)
Mike: 8.0
Sushi-X: 8.0
Belle Weather
Andrew: 7.5
Mark: 7.0 (quote: “This quirky little action title where you control the weather to fight your way through a wacky world is pretty fun if somewhat generic. Belle's no Storm, but she's a great protagonist nonetheless.”)
Mike: 8.0
Sushi-X: 7.0
Maze Mice
Andrew: 6.0
Mark: 6.0
Mike: 5.5 (quote: “I tried to find more fun in this puzzler but it gets pretty tiresome after the first few stages.”)
Sushi-X: 7.5
-excerpted from reviews of March 1996's SNES-CD games in the April and May 1996 issues of Electronic Gaming Monthly
-
*Scene shows a boy at the toy store, looking at a Sega Saturn*
Boy: Oh man, the Sega Saturn is awesome!
*Footage of Sega Saturn games begins to play*
Boy: No other game system brings you realistic 3-D graphics, intense sports action, and the best home arcade ports like the Sega Saturn does! *looks at his mom* Mom, can we get it?
*The boy's mother looks at the price tag and shakes her head*
Mom: Sorry but it's just a little too much for us right now, maybe next year?
Boy: *looks disappointed* Okay...
*As the mom and her son are walking away, the boy catches a blue blur out of the corner of his eye*
Boy: Huh? *turns and looks but sees nothing*
*The blue blur streaks by again, followed by a bunch of store security guys*
Boy: Is that...Sonic? *watches as Sonic taunts the security guys who can't catch him*
Sonic: You're too slow! *flees out of the store*
Boy: ….*he goes back over to the Saturn display* ...MOM! MOM, COME QUICK!
*The mom rushes over to the Saturn display and sees the price tag has been changed from $399 to $299*
Boy: Can we get it now?
Mom: Well... okay. But don't tell your dad!
*It then shows Sonic rushing down the highway to another toy store with a big red marker in hand and a smirk on his face*
Narrator: Sonic is at it again! Now the Sega Saturn is just $299! With the latest graphics and the hottest arcade ports, now's the perfect time to Spring into Saturn!
*Footage of various Saturn games is shown on screen*
Narrator: Get the Saturn with Virtua Fighter and two controllers for just $299, or get the Virtua Arcade Set with everything shown here *shows the three Virtua games plus the light gun and steering wheel accessories* for a new low price of $399. And for a limited time with the purchase of any Saturn is a $20 off coupon toward the purchase of your next Sega Saturn game. With games like MagiQuest, Daytona USA, and Ridge Racer, plus all new games like Guardian Heroes and Frank Thomas' Big Hurt Baseball, the Saturn is the home for all of today's biggest hits!
*Sonic is shown running into the next store, the security guards try to follow him but end up tumbling into a big pile in the parking lot.*
Security Guard at the bottom of the pile: SEGA!
-excerpted from a Sega Saturn commercial that began airing on March 23, 1996
March 23, 1996
The price of the Sega Saturn is dropped from $399 to $299 in North America, while the price of the Virtua Arcade Set, containing Virtua Fighter, Virtua Racing, Virtua Cop, and a number of accessories, is cut to $399 from $499. The price drop is accompanied by a new marketing campaign for the Sega Saturn, highlighting the price drop and showing off games such as Guardian Heroes, Soul Edge, and Resident Evil. The price drop causes the first major price spike for the Sega Saturn, and though it still remains significantly behind the SNES-CD in sales, the Saturn passes the Genesis in North American sales for the first time during the month of April 1996. $299, though still expensive compared to the Super Nintendo CD and the Sega Genesis, is considered by the gaming media to be a more than acceptable price for the Saturn, and sales of hardware and software begin a steady rise that would continue throughout the remainder of the year.
Of the games that benefited from the Sega Saturn's price cut in the immediate short term, perhaps none did more than Guardian Heroes, a hybrid RPG/beat-em-up from Treasure that probably would've faded into obscurity had Sega and Tom Kalinske not chosen it to be the game that would be pushed heavily in promotional material accompanying the Saturn price drop. Having been released just twelve days before, Guardian Heroes was a fun game, and a gorgeous one too, with beautiful anime-style 2-D that looked amazing on the Saturn's high-powered processor (though Chrono Trigger's graphics were getting a lot of praise at the time, it couldn't compare to what the Saturn's 4x powerful processor could do with 2-D). The game starred four brave warriors who set out on a quest to fight an evil wizard Kanon. The game was highly praised for its four-player gameplay, it probably offered up the best multiplayer experience on the Saturn thus far, with chaotic fights that could take up the whole screen as enemies rushed in. It was beloved by critics, and though it didn't score as highly as Chrono Trigger, it's probably the second best regarded game to come out of that month (and competition was FIERCE!). Among people who used their $20 Saturn coupons, Guardian Heroes was one of the most purchased Saturn games and it ended up selling over 500,000 copies in North America. Tom Kalinske proudly cited the game as an example of how well Japanese games could do in the West if properly marketed, and the success of Guardian Heroes was a big reason why Treasure's 1997 action title Troublemakers (starring enemy-tossing cutie Marina Liteyears), received such a big promotional push. The other big Saturn game of the month, Frank Thomas' Big Hurt Baseball, was another big success, though it was outdone later on by Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run on the SNES-CD and was ultimately outsold by Guardian Heroes, the little Treasure game that could.
-excerpted from the article “The First Cut Is The Deepest: A History Of Console Price Cuts” on Kotaku.com
-
(Note: The information about Fire Pro Wrestling, including the entire roster for TTL's SNES-CD game, comes from the user Geaux. Thanks a lot for all of this info and for giving us the idea for the game!)
Coming to the SNES-CD, it's Fire Pro Wrestling Presents WCW Monday Nitro! The makers of Japan's most popular wrestling game series have teamed up with the hottest wrestling federation in the world to bring you the ultimate wrestling video game. Not only does it feature the most realistic wrestling action ever, it also features a mode to create your very own wrestlers! But with a roster this big, you may not need to.... here's a list of all the WCW wrestlers featured in the game!
Hulk Hogan
Randy Savage
Sting
Lex Luger
The Renegade
Jim Duggan
Dave Sullivan
Booker T
Stevie Ray
Johnny B. Badd
Marcus Bagwell
Scotty Riggs
Paul Orndorff
Diamond Dallas Page
Lord Steven Regal
Earl Robert Eaton
Squire David Taylor
Brian Knobbs
Jerry Saggs
Bunkhouse Buck
Dick Slater
Big Bubba Rogers
The Taskmaster
The Giant
The Shark
Meng
Kamala
The Zodiac
Ric Flair
Arn Anderson
Brian Pillman
Chris Benoit
Big Van Vader
Sabu
Road Warrior Hawk
Kensuke Sasaki
Hiroyoshi Tenzan
Jyushin Thunder Liger
The Great Muta
Scott Norton
-excerpted from an article in the April 1996 issue of EGM2
“Oh man, WCW Fire Pro Wrestling. That game was the shit back in the day and it's the game that actually got me into watching WCW. Pretty much EVERYBODY in the company was in that game. I was used to wrestling game rosters having 12, maybe 16 guys tops. To see so many guys AND to be able to add the new ones as they came, or even to put myself in the game? Yeah, it didn't have the story modes or anything like today's games do. It was just straight-up pro wrestling. Hell, you could make up your own stories if you wanted to, just act out the promos between matches like me and my friends did. ...yeah, we were dorks.”
-excerpted from the comment section on Rootalk's /wrestlinggames/ subroot on February 17, 2014
-
The Major's Back To Kick Some Ass
Major Hazard: FUBAR is one of the most anticipated sequels of the year, and for the most part, it lives up to the hype. Major Hazard and his band of misfit grunts, along with a couple of new characters, get stuck behind enemy lines and have to fight their way out. And fight they do, while getting into a whole lot of trouble along the way. Those of you who remember the last Major Hazard game know that it's a laugh riot along with being really fast paced and fun. This game takes the humor up to 11. There are tons of ridiculous weapons and lots of potty humor, which some fans might not appreciate, but it's not gratuitous like in certain children's TV shows, for the most part it's spaced out well and when it does occur it hits the mark and makes you laugh.
The graphics have been amped up from the previous title. Explosions are a lot more detailed as are the enemies, and there's a lot more going on on the screen at once. There's a lot more voice acting in this game (and the last one had plenty to spare), and everything just seems like a marked improvement over the previous title. The challenge is ramped up too, there are some really frustrating levels (and the Major himself expresses his frustration at times with some great one-liners). There's even two-player co-op and competitive modes for when you want to enjoy the game with a buddy. We wish you could play with four players at once, but the game already suffers from a tad of slowdown during particularly crowded segments, so a four-player mode might be too much for the SNES-CD to handle. Regardless, Major Hazard: FUBAR is one of the most fun AND funny games of the year so far.
Graphics: 4.5
Sound: 4.5
Play Control: 5.0
Fun Factor: 5.0
Challenge: Intermediate
-excerpted from the April 1996 GamePro review of Major Hazard: FUBAR
-
Brittany Saldita: Guardian Heroes is a really fun, really challenging beat-em-up that's best played with three friends but still quite fun when you're all by your lonesome.
John Walden: It's one of the most addictive Saturn games to date, taking cues from the awesome Golden Axe series and throwing in an RPG twist.
Brittany Saldita: While the plotline was a bit thin, it still had some good moments and for the genre, it's a pretty good story. Guardian Heroes keeps the action going in every stage, there's never a dull moment and it takes some serious strategy to beat some of the tougher bosses.
John Walden: And those graphics....damn. I mean, don't get me wrong, the Saturn is great at 3-D, but these amazing visuals look like something out of a storybook come to life.
Brittany Saldita: I love that they didn't try to force much 3-D in here. It looks beautiful the way it is. Colorful, vivid, fluid in motion, Guardian Heroes is not only one of the most fun video games I've ever played, it's also one of the most beautiful. I'm giving it a 4.5 out of five.
John Walden: And I give it a 4.5 also.
(…)
Kazzi DeCarlo: Monster Wars 2 is the only game where you can see Jack the Ripper get eaten by a horde of mutant pumpkins.
Ted Crosley: This game was a bit too weird for me. I wasn't a fan of the original and I really wasn't much of a fan of this, though I've never been a huge fan of Koei strategy games to begin with.
Kaz: Well, the fact that you can pick from some really obscure monsters is pretty neat. They got Cthulhu in this thing!
Ted: Ugggggggggghhhhh, Cthulhu.
Kaz: You don't like Cthulhu? You don't like Lovecraft?
Ted: I despise Lovecraft!
Kaz: Oh man, I thought you were cool.
Ted: What's cool about a bunch of weird stories with a bunch of weird giant space demons and a bunch of scared people running around and going crazy?
Kaz: Everything you just described is cool. C'mon, man, when the Great Old Ones rise out of the Earth, the end times will be upon us!
Ted: The only Great Old Ones I care about are my grandparents and they're pretty boring too.
Kaz: Well, Monster Wars 2 was a lot of fun. It wasn't perfect by any means, with quite a few repetitive missions, but the sheer variety of monster types had me entertained and I'm giving this game a 3.5.
Ted: I'm giving it a 3. Fans of Koei games will love it but it's nothing special.
-excerpted from the March 12, 1996 episode of GameTV
(…)
Alex Stansfield: Milon's Adventure wasn't what I expected at all. I was super frustrated with the NES game, but this game actually was a lot of fun.
Ted: Well, I never played the NES game.
Alex: And I'm glad you didn't, it was a mess.
Ted: But this game was pretty fun. It's a bit derivative of games like Castlevania and Andrekah but it works on most levels, the graphics are kinda cutesy and simple but I really liked the soundtrack.
Alex: I had tons of fun, the game fixed literally EVERYTHING wrong with the original NES game and it's one of the biggest sequel improvements I've ever seen.
Ted: HudsonSoft is known for their weird titles and this is no exception but I did have fun.
Alex: I'm giving Milon's Adventure a 4.5 out of 5.
Ted: I'm giving it a 3.5.
(…)
Ted: Wow. That's all I can really say about Chrono Trigger.
Alex: This game lived up to the hype and then some. And the replay value is just through the roof!
Ted: Yeah, going back and kicking ass with fully-leveled characters is something that should be in EVERY RPG from now on.
Alex: The soundtrack is the best I've ever heard in a game, hands down, bar none.
Ted: I'm gonna disagree with that, I thought the Sonic 3 soundtrack was bigger.
Alex: Yeah we are DEFINITELY disagreeing there.
Ted: The voice acting surprised me, I thought it was fantastic. Usually voice acting in games kinda sucks, even Lunar for Sega CD was really campy but this was pretty good. I can't say too much about the voice acting without spoiling a lot of the plot but it was really good.
Alex: Let us just say this, if you are a fan of Guts on Nickelodeon this game will blow your mind.
Ted: Yeah, they should've called the Mountain of Woe the Aggro Crag.
Alex: *laughing* That would have been appropriate.
Ted: I'm giving this game a 5 out of 5. I can't give it anything else.
Alex: Yep, 5 out of 5 for me. *sirens go off* Uh oh...uh oh, guess what time it is?
Ted: Time to change Kaz's dish?
Alex: It's time to add another game to the GameTV Hall Of Fame!
*A framed copy of Chrono Trigger is brought over to the wall where Ocarina of Dreams and Ballistic Limit are mounted.*
Ted: And let's put it up here, right next to Ballistic Limit, there you go.
Brittany: It looks pretty good up there.
Alex: And there is Chrono Trigger and when we come back we are going to be giving you all an EXCLUSIVE world premiere sneak peek at Sega's upcoming game NiGHTS Into Dreams.
-excerpted from the March 19, 1996 episode of GameTV
-
SNES-CD Power Charts: March 1996
1. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
2. The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Dreams
3. Ballistic Limit
4. Super Mario World 3
5. Twisted Metal
6. Donkey Kong Country
7. Super Mario World 2
8. Tales Of The Seven Seas
9. Doom
10. Killer Instinct
11. Front Mission
12. Rage
13. Street Fighter Alpha
14. Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego?
15. Final Fantasy VI
16. Gradius IV
17. Mortal Kombat 3
18. Victory
19. Toy Story
20. Secret Of Mana
-
“And it is with great excitement that we award our first perfect 40/40 score to a game that is not on the Super Famicom CD! Biohazard for the Sega Saturn simply blew us away with its cinematic graphics and terrifying atmosphere. It's absolutely worth checking out for anyone who owns a Sega Saturn and the perfect incentive to purchase one for those who don't own one already!”
-excerpted from an editorial in the April 1996 issue of Famitsu magazine
Last edited:
Very good games for March 1996, not many rubbish ones as previous months. Is Major Hazard a TTL IP? Because it looks like one of those sandbox do whatever you want shooters, with tons of enemies, companions and tons of weapons, vehicles & comedy.
Also, I noticed that the Saturn Price drop is later than OTL. The price drop for the Saturn in OTL happened on October 2, 1995, while in TTL it happened on March 18, 1996. What did Sega say the reason for the price drop is for TTL?
Also, I noticed that the Saturn Price drop is later than OTL. The price drop for the Saturn in OTL happened on October 2, 1995, while in TTL it happened on March 18, 1996. What did Sega say the reason for the price drop is for TTL?
Major Hazard is Fully Original IP, And as you say, ry conceptualized a lot based in shooter of the era(2d ones and the one like smash tv) the focus was pure action with the classic over the top humor.
A lot of factor, first if you count month, may to october are 5 month difference, when September to March were 6 almost 7, but the reasons are clear, Saturn is not being outsold that badly by PS1 like OTL(But SNES-CD like NES before, is something they still not beat even being a new generation) and the reason you can see, move saturn and install base before Nintendo released their new system. Sega plans is to growth more and more their userbase and have good base to fight nitny more equally.
So, Sega's strategy is to build up their user base, games library and sold consoles before Nintendo releases the UNES to fight them on a equal footing? If it's true, it sounds very similar to the way that Xbox 360 OTL outsold the the PS3 in the early phase of the 7th generation, with the afromentioned strategy.
However, that could backfire on them as the the 5th generation drags on, since Nintendo has more time to counter the Saturn, with a new GPU, CPU, and disk space technology. As seen in the 7th generation OTL, the Xbox 360's limitations in hardware are becoming quite obvious. Like for example, the CD vs Blu-Ray, with major games such as GTA V requiring 2 discs on X360, while the PS3 just needed one, like pretty much all of the PS3 game library.
Well, as Nivek said it's a lot like Smash TV (but with bigger environs, like Zombies Ate My Neighbors). It's an Activision game and very tongue in cheek, it's one of the most popular original franchises on the SNES-CD.
Yeah, pretty much. Sega's got a big head start and they're trying to bring in as many of the Genesis user base as they can. Will it backfire? Perhaps. We'll get a look at Nintendo's Ultra hardware for the first time at next month's Spaceworld.
Dont you mean Duel Layer DvD's thats what the X360 uses becuase GTA V would take up at least 20 CD's.
Chrono Trigger sounds awesome!
I really want to see that Saturn commercial!
Yeah, I'd forgotten about Major Hazard, when the first one came out I actually thought he was supposed to be TTL's Duke Nukem.
I really want to see that Saturn commercial!
Oh my god I'm so glad I wasn't taking a drink! That would've made me do a legit spit-take!
There's a sentence you don't hear every day!
Yeah, I'd forgotten about Major Hazard, when the first one came out I actually thought he was supposed to be TTL's Duke Nukem.
- Status