The SNES Omnibus, Vol. 2

Today marks the release Brett Weiss' stunner of a book, The SNES Omnibus, Vol.2. A companion to Vol.1, The SNES Omnibus, Vol.2 is a complete encyclopedia of Super Nintendo games N-Z. This includes most of the SNES' immortal, all-time games: 'Super Mario World,' 'Super Metroid,' 'Street Fighter II,' and 'The Secret of Mana¹.' It's a wonderful coffee table title, full of tidbits and illustrations. Each entry includes a brief overview of the game in question, as well as essays by noted (and some less-noted) video game journalists.

Which brings me to...me. Through my work at TecmoBowl.org and (the now defunct) TecmoBowlers, I was referred to Brett as a possible writer for parts of the book. I pitched two essay ideas and Brett was gracious enough to accept.

If you pick up The SNES Omnibus, Vol.2 (and you really should, its a hell of a title), you'll see my byline under entries for 'Super Bomberman' and 'The Secret of Mana.' That I got to write about The Secret of Mana, one of my all-time favorite video games, was a treat beyond words.

And because Brett is such a mensch, he was kind enough to promo the book using my essay for 'Super Bomberman.' You can read it over at his blog.

Read my 'Super Bomberman' essay on Brett Weiss' website.

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1 Okay, okay, I realize these are all just the letter S, but I assure you there are other great titles for the SNES that begin with other letters N-Z. Like... Uh...'Shadowrun.' Crap. 'Sim City?' Shit, no, that's an S, too. Uh, about about...Pilotwings! Yeah. Pilotwings.^2↩

2 Whoa. There are a LOT of great SNES games that begin with the letter S.^↩

Q*Bert Lost on Jeopardy!

 

 Q*Bert Lost on Jeopardy 

Jeopardy! (NES - 1989) 

Jeopardy! 25th Anniversary Edition (NES - 1990) 

Jeopardy! Deluxe Edtion (SNES 1993) 

Q*Bert 3 (SNES - 1992)

Let's open with an analogy:

Question #45 on the MAT for nerds.

Cover photo courtesy of
videogamesarerad.com.
(Don't ask how this relates
to Zelda even one iota.)

If you've solved the riddle, you realize: 1) LouizVitton.com is NOT an authorized Vuitton dealer; and 2) we're again dealing with a pirated Famicom game. As the above sprite should make clear, this (slightly less animated) entry into the 8-Bit Encyclopaedia elucidates "塞尔达传说众神的三角力量," which translates to: Zelda: Triforce of the Gods. The game is a Famicom de-make of A Link to the Past for SNES (which was originally titled, Triforce of the Gods), and was produced sometime in the late 1990's by Waixing Computer Science &Technology Co. It should be noted before we dig into Triforce of the Gods that the majority of Waixing's games are utter rubbish. What else would you expect from Chinese Pirates (編曲!*)?

I don't read Chinese, but I'm pretty sure he's
telling Link to destroy all the filthy Capitalists.

That said, Waixing's reimagining of A Link to the Past on NES hardware is [Vader] Impressive.[/ Vader] Right from the start its clear Waixing's pirates, unlike other companies, put serious effort into this cart. The spites, despite the limited color palette, are taken pixel-for-pixel from the SNES game. The hit direction is a bit wonky and Link has WAAAAAAYY too much health, but despite having roughly only 25% of the processing and memory of A Link to the Past, Waixing's Triforce of the Gods--despite a few exceptions--follows it's SNES progenitor step for step. Link...dying uncle...Zelda...questing for magic pendants... it's got sharp... it can leap...LOOK AT THE BONES!