Capcom's Darkwing Duck for NES headlines Volume 36 (May 1992), the last Disney Afternoon Capcom game to make cover. Before we get into even the contents, there's an ad for the Game Boy touting it as a Father's Day gift (come on, we know who it's REALLY for). I don't remember seeing any ads prior to this. This may be the first time a real advertisement (if for a video game) showing up. Besides, kids can barely afford a Game Boy themselves. Also, if you like, this is on Archive.org here, but again, the scan quality is compressed.

In Player's Pulse, Gail Tilden mentions that there's more questions about the magazine's design in the Player's Poll questionnaire both in last month and this. However, because the scans I have don't have the cards in them, I don't know what they are.

Moving onto the games, there's aforementioned Darkwing Duck and RoboCop 3, which was more of an original title from Ocean and not based after the film that would be released in 1993, and Wacky Races between them. All three of them are licensed titles, though Wacky Races, based after the old cartoon in reruns and by Atlus) was actually in Now Playing last month but now it has a full feature so it will be in Now Playing again.

Counselor's Corner has stage warping in T&C Surf Designs II: Thrilla's Surfari, passwords for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, blowing up the house in Maniac Mansion (it relies on finding the unused keypad item, a leftover from porting and originally used as copy protection) to fast-track your way into losing, undoing bad scores in Ultra Golf (just reset your Game Boy), how to re-visit a castle in Super Mario World, exploiting multiplayer for a guaranteed win in Super Off Road, a few tips for The Legend of the Mystical Ninja, cheating in SimCity, some stuff for HAL's Hole in One Golf, and hidden 1-Ups and snapping along to the music in The Addams Family. Good stuff this time. There's the Zelda comic (also good stuff), then the Game Boy games: Batman: Return of the Joker (Sunsoft)...and for an inexplicable reason, 4-in-1 Funpak for the Game Boy (just has Chess, Checkers, Reversi, and Backgammon) gets a full feature, as well as two pages on the Workboy by Fabtek, which never made it to market.

The 1991 Nintendo Power Awards has Battletoads take Best Graphics and Sound (NES category), Best Theme & Fun (NES category), Best Play Control (NES category), Best Multiplayer Simultaneous, and Best Overall (NES category). Metroid II: Return of Samus wins Best Graphics and Sound (Game Boy category), Best Challenge (Game Boy category), Best Play Control (Game Boy category), and Best Overall (Game Boy category). Super Mario World wins Best Graphics and Sound (Super NES category), Best Challenge (Super NES category), Best Play Control (Super NES category), Best Overall Villain (with Bowser), and Best Overall (Super NES category). Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge wins Best Theme & Fun (Game Boy category), Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts wins Best Challenge (Super NES category), and Final Fantasy II wins Most Innovative.

It's telling that Super Mario World didn't get Best Challenge, and SimCity didn't win anything. It wasn't even a finalist for Most Innovative and the best it got was runner-up for Best Challenge - Super NES. (Pilotwings was #3, Super Mario World didn't even crack top three in that category).

After Super Mario Adventures (I wonder if younger readers didn't realize that "Princess Toadstool" was actually Luigi in disguise), Counselor's Corner features The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Adventures of Lolo III, Uninvited, and Final Fantasy Legend II this time.

The Super NES games features Xardion (Asmik), Super Adventure Island (Hudson Soft), Contra III: The Alien Wars, and two soccer games, Super Soccer (Nintendo) and Super Soccer Champ (Taito). The poster for Krusty's Fun House is in here...my print copy of Nintendo Power doesn't have it as the poster was put up in a different room, and thus I'm missing the strategy for Super Adventure Island on the other side. Nintendo hates Super Soccer these days, cut from the "Super NES Classic Edition" and then getting the privilege of getting removed from Nintendo Classics.

There's a new Developer Profile column, this one on Sculptured Software. The independent developer did contract work including Monopoly for Parker Bros., Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves for Virgin Games, and a few projects for LJN and Acclaim. They would ultimately be purchased by Acclaim in 1995 and then shut down in 2002. The Player's Poll Contest was themed to the Super Scope but the grand prize winner not only would get a Super Scope and a SNES but would go to Seattle and specifically Nintendo and specifically being a guest editor on Now Playing with George and Rob.

Nester's Adventures is on The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past...a little redundant due to the Zelda comic earlier on, and late anyway. Could've made a WWF-themed comic like last month as it used to, or at the very least T&C Surf Designs II: Thrilla's Surfari. So, Power Players then Now Playing. The two other NES games that didn't get cover features are Matchbox Racers from Matchbox (the ONLY game Matchbox actually published...in addition to Urban Convoy and Web World discussed back in Volume 9, there were others as well) as well as Mindscape's Paperboy 2, months after the Game Boy version. Game Boy's Now Playing section also relists Paperboy 2 (I'm positive they did it once before), along with Nail 'n Scale (Data East) and Jack Nicklaus Golf (Tradewest). Super NES games included True Golf Classics: Pebble Beach Golf Links (T&E Soft), Jack Nicklaus Golf (Tradewest), Raiden Trad (Electro Brain), and PGA Tour Golf (Electronic Arts).

On the Top 20, Super Mario Bros. 3 holds #1 while the "Pros" pull The Legend of Zelda up to #2 this month, pushing Battletoads to #3. Mega Man 4 holds #4. Final Fantasy moves to #5 (from #6), Tecmo Super Bowl went from #10 to #6, Tetris holds #7, Metroid (never left the Top 20 since its reappearance back in Volume 32) moves to #8 from #12, Dr. Mario fell from #5 to #9, and Super Mario Bros. 2 is now at #10 (from #13). Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game fell from #9 to #12, with Mega Man 3 falling from #8 to #13.

No movement yet from Volume 35, it's still the top four with Super Mario World, F-Zero, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and Final Fantasy II. SimCity jumps to #5 (from than #7),Super Castlevania IV is at #6 (down from #5), Final Fight is at #7 (down from #6), ActRaiser holds #8, Pilotwings improves to #9 (from #12), and Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts gets #10. But with Pilotwings returning to the list Contra III falls back to #11 (from #9).

Movement in the Game Boy list has Super Mario Land reclaim #1 (which means Metroid II: Return of Samus is back to #2), Dr. Mario is back in the top 3 (from #4), Battletoads falls to #4 (from #3), Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge holds #5 again, Final Fantasy Adventure moves to #6 (from #7), Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge moves to #7 (from #9), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan is at #8 (from #6), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back from the Sewers is at #9 (from #14), and The Final Fantasy Legend is back on the list at #10 (from #17). Super R.C. Pro-Am fell to #11 (from #8) and Operation C went from #10 to #16.

So what else this month.....Celebrity Player Profile interviews the stars of Nickelodeon's Clarissa Explains It All with Melissa Joan Hart but also Jason Zimbler...and Pak Watch mentions that Howard Phillips has already jumped to THQ from his stint at LucasArts/Lucasfilm Games. I don't think he did much for THQ, or spent much time there. Pak Watch lists Bio Force Ape still on the NES list (it would also appear in Volume 37, but drop after that) and on the Game Boy list M.C. Kids (not released in USA, Europe only).

Volume 37 will cover Lemmings and DragonStrike for NES, Star Wars for Game Boy, and Arcana for Super NES. The back page also discusses the dates for the Super Scope 6 Mall Tour, which featured the Super Scope 6 and new SNES games. The Houston one was in Memorial City Mall, a mall I've been to and is alive today (they got rid of the ice rink and lopped off one of the major wings, but otherwise okay) but the Super Scope 6 Mall Tour was a bit before my time. Do check out the Memorial City Mall article, I like what I write (generally).

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