It's December 1993 at this point, and concluding this year is a cover feature on Aladdin, a Super NES game by Capcom based on the Disney film of the same name. There's a reference to Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al" in there. World 4 of the game has a section inside Genie's lamp...probably to add another theme where there otherwise wouldn't have been one...and then following that there's a level set in a pyramid (Egypt is a ways away from the Middle East where Aladdin is set), though Nintendo Power doesn't cover the pyramid stages, it just has a brief preview of it, the bonus flying game, and Jafar's Palace.
But for M. Bison, it was a Tuesday.
Then after that we get other Super NES games like NHL Stanley Cup (by Sculptured Software and published by Nintendo), ClayFighter, Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions, Battle Cars, "Super Scope Roundup" (covering Yoshi's Safari, T2: The Arcade Game, and Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge, as well as describing a feature in Lamborghini American Challenge that uses the Super Scope).
Among these is a poster for Mega Man X (in the Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions section) and Nester's Adventures. The Nester's Adventures this issue, on Jurassic Park for the Super NES, would be the last comic, after over 50 comics ranging from kinda decent to completely terrible. Of course, if you know the ending, Nester's not gone for good...but Nester's Adventures is. After reading all these comics I finally figured out one of the reasons why Nester's Adventures (at least the later ones) sucked so much, they were just non-endings. The original Howard & Nester comics (for the most part) had definite endings, and the more common newspaper comics I was used to at the time had the final punchline panel (even in comic strips that aren't funny, at least I understand it), but Nester's Adventures always had these non-endings that weren't even setups to a bad joke...Nester's Adventures as a whole was a bad joke.
Anyway, Classified Information covers Yoshi's Safari (hard mode without playing through the game first), Wings 2: Aces High (a radar), Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge (change your name), Street Fighter II Turbo (turn off special moves), Mortal Kombat (just a weird glitch), Kendo Rage (stage select), Super Turrican (sound test), Dragon Warrior III (start with spells...and a NES game appearance!), and more fun stuff in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. A lot of this stuff (here it's saving money by quitting the game, the "bomb and bow" combo, and how Marin tries to win the Trendy Game). Most of this stuff and last was in the Player's Guide for the game, but it's not out yet at this point in time. The Star Fox comic concludes after 11 sections (why not twelve...?) with the Game Boy games starting after Power Player's Challenge. The first game covered is Tom and Jerry: Frantic Antics! which seems to be based on the ill-fated 1992 film. After that there's Mega Man IV for the Game Boy (not to be confused with the NES Mega Man 4), which immediately segues into coverage for NES games with Mega Man 6, giving Capcom's favorite blue robot (no, not the android in the blue coat) 14 pages between the two of them. Counselor's Corner has questions for E.V.O.: Search for Eden, Dungeon Master, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, and Battletoads & Double Dragon. The Link's Awakening question involves a notorious puzzle from the second dungeon, where the game tells you to "defeat the imprisoned Pols Voice, Last, Stalfos". The "imprisoned" is a hint to which enemy you should defeat, but unless you had an original manual from The Legend of Zelda, you wouldn't know what a Pols Voice is (it's those bunny things).
Captain Novolin looked even stupider in sketches.
I spoke too soon regarding Captain Novolin and Raya Systems (see Volume 52) as there's a four page feature on their games. I do think it's a bit of irony that Rex Ronan: Experimental Surgeon (and later, Bronkie the Bronchiasaurus are anti-tobacco, but Captain Novolin was financed and named after a product of big pharma. They also discuss a second diabetes-themed game in the works, Camp Insulin (tentative title, this was actually released as Packy & Marlon). After this embarrassing piece on some of the Super Nintendo's worst games, they cover Tetris 2 for the NES.
Player's Poll Contest takes readers to Bozeman, Montana to meet Dr. Jack Horner, a consultant on Jurassic Park, with the winner to go on a "real dig" with the paleontologist as well as visiting the Museum of the Rockies and its laboratories (a VIP tour, even), visiting Yellowstone (on a llama), and, of course, "A Jurassic Park Game Pak from Ocean for the system of your choice".
The runner-up prize was a prize package from the Museum of the Rockies, winning a casting of a T-rex tooth, a casting of a troodon egg, an "official museum patch", and an autographed copy of Digging Up Dinosaurs, which Dr. Horner co-authored...and the copy of Jurassic Park (system is your choice). Third prize wins a Nintendo Power t-shirt (back to t-shirts again). It's the same design with Nester ("Version 3" as I've called it), though that run is coming to an end. There's also an address to send a check to the Museum of the Rockies if you wanted to support their non-profit.
There's major shakeups in Top 20 for Super NES. Mortal Kombat premiers at #1. Street Fighter II Turbo is now #2 (from #1), Super Mario All-Stars is #3 (from #10), The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past at #4 (from #2), Star Fox at #5 (from #3), Super Mario Kart is now at #6 (from #5), Street Fighter II: The World Warrior is at #7 (from #4), Aladdin premiers at #8, Final Fantasy II holds #9 as it has dropped to in recent months, and Mario Paint has fallen from #10 from #6. WWF Royal Rumble is now gone entirely (#8 last month). Alien3 is back to #18 (briefly #9). Other games to note include the return of Secret of Mana at #11 (that will rise), F-Zero back on the charts at #13, SimCity at #14, Super Mario World at #16, The Lost Vikings making a return at #17, and Bubsy in Claws Encounter of the Furred Kind returning to #19 as it was two months ago. Mario is Missing! is gone and don't expect it back.
Over in the world of Game Boy, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening has triumphed over Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. Both will remain around the top 10 for the next several years.
The NES list is also changed up a bit. The Legend of Zelda is back at #1 (up from #3), Super Mario Bros. 3 is #2 by less than 400 points (same as last month), Kirby's Adventure is #3 (down from #1), Jurassic Park is #4 (up from #6), Tecmo Super Bowl is at #5 (up from #8), Final Fantasy is #6 (down from #5), Metroid is #7 (up from #10), Mega Man 6 premiers at #8, Mega Man 5 is #9 (down from #4), and Dragon Warrior IV is at #10 (new to list). Battletoads & Double Dragon went off the top 10 (#9 to #12) as did Dr. Mario (#7 to #14). Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles did reappear at #16.
There's quite a spread in Now Playing this month. The Super NES games include Aladdin (Capcom), Battle Cars (Namco), BioMetal (Activision), Championship Pool (Mindscape), ClayFighter (Interplay), Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions (Sunsoft), Inspector Gadget (Hudson Soft), Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge (Nintendo), NHL Stanley Cup (Nintendo), Nobunaga's Ambition (Koei—it's a port of the NES version), Out to Lunch (Mindscape), Pink Goes to Hollywood (TecMagik), SkyBlazer (Sony Imagesoft), Lamborghini American Challenge (Titus), Steel Talons (Left Field), Sunset Riders (Konami), Time Slip (Vic Tokai), Total Carnage (Malibu), We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story (Hi-Tech Expressions), and World Heroes (Sunsoft). NES has Mega Man 6 (Capcom), Tetris 2 (Nintendo), Bonk's Adventure (Hudson Soft—they complain the play control is worse than the Game Boy version, but unlike the Game Boy version, the NES version is a port of the TurboGrafx-16 original), and The Ren & Stimpy Show: Buckeroo$ (T*HQ—"If you're expecting hilarious hairball antics, go watch your cat"). Game Boy has Mega Man IV (Capcom), Tom and Jerry: Frantic Antics! (Hi-Tech Expressions), and The Ren & Stimpy Show: Veediots! (T*HQ).
In Pak Watch Update, Nintendo Power reports that Speedy Gonzales by Sunsoft (see Volume 51) will be getting a SNES port as "Sunsoft continues [its] cartoon crusade to convert every Looney Tunes character into great gaming action" and that "Word from Sunsoft is that after Bugs and Speedy, Porky Pig may be next." That game, Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday, ended up being published by Acclaim after Sunsoft closed its North American options. (Don't expect a Foghorn Leghorn title). It also mentions the new "Nintendo Gateway System" which allowed Nintendo games to be played in hotels and airplanes (I'm sure they'll talk about that later). The magazine also talks about Howard Phillips again, at this point, he had left Nintendo for Lucasfilm Games (LucasArts), then moved to T*HQ, and now in late 1993 was working with Absolute and David Crane on a new studio.
Taking a step back, however, Pak Watch was surprisingly bleak as far as new SNES games went, with no first-party titles or big exclusives. (The NES list was even more grim). After all, the few big games that the SNES had were Star Fox and Secret of Mana, the latter was a sleeper hit with no hype. The SNES sold well, but the Genesis was better (they won 1993). Luckily, for the Nintendo faithful, this would change by the end of 1994, and through 1995 the SNES would pick up a second wind as the Genesis quickly faltered and replaced with the Sega Saturn, which didn't exactly recreate the success of the Genesis.
The Domino's ad from last issue also shows up at the end. With that, this concludes this issue and 1993. Perhaps next year will be better.
Written September 10, 2026. The scans inside are from Retromags but the cover is mine!
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