Spider-Man and Venom: Separation Anxiety (Super NES, 1995)

 

Here's a game that NOBODY knew existed, it seemed like, back in 1995. That's right, Maximum Carnage actually has a sequel. As popular as that game was, this one is not fondly remembered...or remembered at all. It's nearly impossible to even find information about it online outside of a meager amount of coverage at GameFAQs. So I don't know what I'm getting into here, but expectations are set reasonably low.

Prehistorik Man (Super NES, 1995)

Time for a BLAST FROM THE PAST. They made Game Boy and SNES versions of this game, but it's safe to say the SNES version is the one to play. While the Game Boy version has five levels, this one has 23. In other words, this is Prehistorik Man: Definitive Edition.

Been wanting to check it out for a while, so let's get a look at it.

Virtua Fighter (Sega 32X, 1995)

Since I played the second game in the series, why not the first? Besides that I'll take any chance I can get to play something on the 32X.

Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game (Sega 32X, 1995)

It's time to save this year's WrestleMania Day by covering a classic fighting game with outlandish arcade-style action. Shawn looks so hip here. When I was a kid, I saw this game and went "Who are all those guys? Where are Hogan and Macho?"

I saw the WWF New Generation as a bunch of midcarders, even when I wasn't even watching wrestling yet. Now I've got a much greater appreciation of this 1995 era of rasslin'.

Virtua Fighter II (Sega Saturn, Arcade, 1995)

It's about time I covered a game that was on Sega Saturn. Or played a Virtua Fighter at all. It's pretty sweet.

Mega Man (Sega Game Gear, 1995)

Interesting portable Mega Man game here. As it came out after Mega Man IV for the Game Boy, it had the potential to tie up any loose ends that the Game Boy series didn't cover...and it kinda did. Problem is, only kinda. I can't tell if this was supposed to be a follow-up to MMIV or a remake, because it's about half and half.

Seiken Densetsu 3 (Super Famicom, 1995)

The aptly-named Legend of Holy Sword 3 is the final part of our Mana journey, at least until the remake comes out. This is something I wanted to cover on here ten years ago. Now that it's got a Switch port, better late than never.

Tekken (Playstation, 1995)

 With Tekken 7 finally releasing, I figured it'd be a good time to check out the game that started it all. I never played this when it was current (started with Tekken 2). Join me as I play the origin story of the Mishima family, that cat wrestler, and whatever the hell Yoshimitsu is.

Mega Man X3 (Super NES, 1995)

The end of the Super NES trilogy arrives with a bang. This is by far my least favorite of the three as it fixes a lot of what wasn't broken to begin with (while breaking the boss AI). Join me as I slog through it for your amusement.

Mega Man: The Wily Wars (Sega Genesis)

One of the best games on the Sega Genesis, Mega Man: The Wily Wars includes the first three games in the series with revamped graphics and sound. When I heard that the game has additional content in the form of Wily Tower, I had to check it out. This post is all about Wily Tower; join me for a look at this exclusive and forgotten part of the Mega Man universe.

Mega Man 7 (Super NES, 1995)

The series debuts on the Super NES with a bang! ...that is, if you don't count the two (superior) Mega Man X games already on the system by the time this came out. I actually thought they were done with the original series after the sixth game and had moved on to exclusively Mega Man X. So it was pretty weird when we got this game, and even weirder when we got Mega Man 8 a few years later. The last two weren't quite so weird, probably because a decade had gone by and now we'll take anything we can get from this series.

Castlevania: Dracula X (Super NES, 1995)

Here's a game that I've never covered before. It got somewhat of a bad rep over the years, and a lot of that is probably because Super Castlevania IV was a much better game. This despite Super Castlevania IV being years earlier in the Super NES's lifespan. In short, this was a fairly unnecessary addition to the Castlevania-verse, but it's a decent game regardless.

Kirby's Dream Land 2 (Game Boy, 1995)

Here's a game I was dying to play for a while in 1995. As the sequel to my first game, this had me super-hyped. I beat the game in a day once I finally had it, though it took me a week or so to unlock the true final boss.

I think it'd be something else if one of these Kirby games pulled a Metroid and revealed that Kirby is a woman at the end.

Super Adventure Island II (Super NES, 1995)

The best of the Adventure Island series, in my humble opinion, is this little-known gem. It's a vast departure from the side-scrolling Mario clones that make up the rest of the series, integrating RPG and adventure game elements. It's sorta like Zelda II: Adventure of Link, but vastly better.

Wrestling Games

Today I'm going to do something that I haven't done since I took a look at Love Hina games: An ensemble post where I look at a number of different games. Originally it was going to be a post looking at one game in-depth, until I realized I can't actually beat any of these games. Let's have a look.

Dragonball Z: Ultimate Battle 22 (Playstation, 1995)

 The next game doesn't even bother having non-Gokou characters on the cover. This one is ALL GOKOU, ALL THE TIME! It's also a pretty bad game, but we'll get to that. Ultimate Battle 22 is so-named because it features 22 characters, the largest roster in a DBZ game yet. It actually has 27 characters if you punch in a code, so I don't know why they didn't just unlock those characters from the start and call it Ultimate Battle 27.

Romancing SaGa III #1 - Ringwraith Avenue

Romancing SaGa is a venerable series in Japan, brought to us by Squaresoft. For the most part, it hasn't fared too well outside of Japan; in the U.S., the portable entries were renamed to become the Final Fantasy Legend trilogy, the Super NES trilogy wasn't even released, and we didn't really get an  unchanged SaGa game until 1998's SaGa Frontier.

Out of the three Super NES installments, Romancing SaGa III is the best... and, to my knowledge, the only one to get a full English translation at this point in time.

The Donkey Kong Land Trilogy

Today I'm looking at a trilogy of games that are both sub-par and antiquated. But...they're only sub-par with the Donkey Kong Country trilogy to compare them to. Taken on their own, they aren't bad for the original Game Boy.

Note: This post will be featured in Banana Yellow, much like the cartridges for these games.

Mystic Ark, Part 1 - Reincarnation

Time for a classic Super Famicom RPG that never made it over here, like many great RPGs of the mid-90s. This is the game that would have been known as The 7th Saga II, had it gotten a North American release. It fixes many of the problems of the original game, and lets you have a three (!!!) person party.

Legend says that this was one of Enix's better efforts of the 90's. Thanks to the folks at Dynamic Designs (formerly Magic Destiny), we eventually got a fan translation of the game. If Lennus 2 was any indication, it'll be a great translation. Hell yeah, I'm excited for this.

Yoshi's Island (Super NES, 1995)

Nintendo was in an interesting position in 1995. With the Sega Genesis more or less vanquished, Nintendo could have easily phoned things in that year... However, they were faced with new threats in the form of the Sega Saturn and the Sony Playstation. These spiffy new 32-bit systems threatened to make the Super NES look old and outdated. With the N64 a year away, Nintendo had to do something to keep their fans from jumping ship and spending their money on the competition - something plenty of them did regardless. They did their best to stave off the enemy at the gates by continuing their parade of high-quality games throughout 1995, with titles like Chrono Trigger, Donkey Kong Country 2, and this one... the aptly-named Yoshi's Island.