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.^↩

One snowy weekend I rented and played The Secret of Evermore for SNES start to finish. A fan of its quasi-predecessor The Secret of Mana (unawares Nintendo of America screwed the pooch in deciding not to localize Seiken Densetsu 3), I played Evermore with a ravenous appetite for its every-boy protagonist and film-inspired levels. Battling through the prehistoric past, early civilization and the future, my sidekick ever-changing, seemed such a novel game.

No big deal, just attacking a bug with a bone.

Like a beta-test for
the Secret of Evermore.

Little did I know Konami had beaten SquareSoft to the punch by three whole years, releasing a little-heralded Action-RPG for the Famicom entitled Esper Dream 2 (エスパードリーム2 新たなる戦い) 1n 1993. Again a victim of Nintendo of America's asinine North American localization, Esper Dream 2 never saw release outside Japan. The plot-- boy travels through varied, book-inspired worlds, his companion ever-changing -- makes Secret of Evermore seem redundant. Obviously, being a Famicom title, the Esper Dream/Evermore ratio isn't 1:1 (Esper Dream's battle mechanics aren't as smooth as Evermore's), but a 11-year-old me (NERD!) would have much preferred Esper Dream's Library setting over Evermore's B-Movie bonanza.