Super Play Issue 48

Introduction

For over 20 years, Issue 47 was the swansong of the Super Play legacy, however as the Super Nintendo mini was launched in 2017 Future decided to do something radical, and bundled Issue 48 of Super Play free with issue 172 of the fantastic Retro Gamer magazine.

The comeback was something that's never really been seen before (at least with Video game magazines), and recreated the style of the previous 47 issues perfectly. The fact that Wil overton’s fantastic artwork featured on the cover was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to the magazines content.

Future stalwart Tony Mott took over the reigns for this one off issue, and with his experience dating all the way back to the 1995 issues of Super Play, he was the perfect man for the job. Accompanying him were many of the writers who had previously worked for the magazine such as Jonathan Davies, Jason Brookes, Zy Nicholson and Wil Overton, as well as (relatively) younger Nintendo contributors Mark Green and Chris Schilling.

One of the most interesting features of the magazine was their retrospective both on the Super Nintendo and the magazine itself. This looked back on the history of the Super Nintendo, it’s roots in Japan, and its traversal overseas, as well as the origins of the magazine, how it came to be and a bit of the thought into what happened after the magazine was cancelled in 1996.

As usual the team also took a look into the world of Anime, looking at the latest releases from Japan, as well as some of the “Fanzines” doing the rounds such as the excellent Switch Player and Nintendo Force.

The whole meat and potatoes of the magazine was as an accompaniment to the SNES mini. They re-reviewed all but one of the 21 games of the collection on the mini, that of Star Fox 2, due to legal reasons. They did give it a 2 page feature though - showing some of the features of the game, but there were no real opinions shared or scores given - they also interviewed Dylan Cuthbert from Q-Games, who was the lead programmer on Star Fox 2, and how the technical limitations were conquered.

With 20 games to fit into its pages, there was a bit of a size constraint on the reviews, but as usual the team did their best, and their excellent writing shone through. Each review was as true as could be to the style of the original including the usual Good, Bad or Ugly comment box, and brief tips in the firm of Mode 7 Tips . For many of the games there was also a traditional feature box, which showed off one of the lesser known features of the game.

Each game was compared to its original score, showing how well each of them had aged in the intervening years. Some games fared well, others not so well. The biggest winners from this process were Super Metroid, Mario World and Yoshi’s Island, both which are as playable as when they were released. Street Fighter II turbo wasn't so lucky, having a full 18 points taken off its original score of 96%.

They also looked at the 5 games that were exclusive to the Japanese version of the Super Famicom mini, with some classics in there. They also looked at 21 games they would have liked to be included on the SNES mini, enough for a volume 2. These include some classics such as Pilotwings and Turtles in Time.

The magazine ended off with a subscription offer, however sadly this wasn’t for Super Play, although there was a good offer for some of Futures’ other magazines of the time - including Games Master and Retro Gamer.

Overall this was a fantastic addition to the Super Play archives. The art and writing was so perfect, they made it feel like the magazine had never left our shelves. My only major complaint was that there was only one issue, and with space restricted the writers could never really let themselves go.I really hope that if a N64 mini ever comes along, we would have something similar for N64 Magazine. There’s definitely scope to be able to sell a magazine like this, even as a standalone concept.