Samus makes cover again with Super Metroid, her first cover since she was on the cover of Volume 31. Like Link, a new Metroid game was an event and she'd be there. Her future appearances would include back to back showings in Volume 162 and Volume 163 (for Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion, respectively), Volume 186 (Metroid Prime 2: Echoes), Volume 202 for Metroid Prime Hunters (yeah, that wasn't a REAL Metroid game, but...), Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Volume 219), and Volume 255 with Metroid: Other M. That doesn't count cameos in SSB issues.

Anyway, at this point in time the Sega Genesis is losing steam after dominating for a few years, while the Super NES will find new life with the "gross-out"/"Play It Loud" era starting later that year with a bunch of great new games (Donkey Kong Country, EarthBound, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island) with pushing the older games as well (Star Fox, Super Mario Kart, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past). The reason I bring this up is for the weird ad when you open up this issue. (It was a different time.)

While they never advertised the guide for The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening for whatever reason, it does mark the release of the thirteenth Player's Guide book for Super Metroid. To recap, we have four "generic" ones (Game Boy, Super NES, Top Secret Passwords, and NES Game Atlas), and seven for specific games, with "Mario Mania" being Super Mario World, the other games being The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Mario Paint, Super Metroid, Super Mario All-Stars, and Street Fighter II Turbo.

Player's Pulse talks about Volume 56 (the bonus issue), some liked it, and some didn't. Gail Tilden also talks about the lack of NES games being reviewed, despite some "great NES games in development". On one hand, she's right, it was 1994, there wasn't going to be much NES games (real, licensed NES games anyway) from here on out. With this being Volume 60 (May 1994), the only games released that year were Alfred Chicken (which they reviewed), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (also reviewed), Mega Man 6 (already discussed), Mickey's Adventures in Numberland (I don't think this was discussed but it's not worth talking about), Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II (covered in strategy, but never reviewed), Mario's Time Machine (boring), The Flintstones: The Surprise at Dinosaur Peak (already reviewed), The Incredible Crash Dummies (already reviewed), The Jungle Book (already talked about), and finally, Wario's Woods. Well, Wario's Woods was a good game (more on that later), but that's not much left in the pipeline at all, contrary to her projections. There are some older games that didn't get much coverage, though.

Super Metroid gets twelve pages with maps and through Crocomire, but ultimately the section is just an advertisement to buy the Super Metroid Player's Guide. This is the first time that they actually do this, using a limited strategy to sell the Player's Guide. In the past, when Nintendo covered part of games, there would be something like "You're about halfway through the game, at this point just stay alert and watch your ammo count, and you should be victorious" or some variation on that. If you actually take a look at the magazine I talk about, especially the early ones, you'll see what I mean. Heck, if you pass up the next game (The King of the Dragons, which gets six pages), Joe & Mac 2: Lost in the Tropics, they do something similar.

The Jetsons: Invasion of the Planet Pirates has a few maps, with the reverse side being for The Jungle Book (the Super NES version).

The Sports Scene comes around again early again with Barkley Shut Up and Jam! (Accolade), Bill Walsh College Football (Electronic Arts), MLBPA Baseball (Electronic Arts), Hardball III (Accolade), Super Bases Loaded 2 (Jaleco), ESPN Baseball Tonight (Sony Imagesoft...don't expect them to stick around for much longer), Suzuka 8 Hours (Namco), Natsume Championship Wrestling (Natsume), Champions World Soccer (Accolade), Super Goal! 2 (Jaleco), and Jeopardy! Sports Edition (Gametek...kind of a stretch). There's also a helpful chart comparing various baseball games released for Super NES over the years with comparisons. As far as Suzuka 8 Hours goes, I talked about that back in Volume 37 with its eventual Super NES port but lacking, for whatever reason, the Coca-Cola branding.

They cover Spectre and again talk about its Macintosh roots...but I did not care for the SNES version (as of this writing, the review for Spectre dates back over a decade ago...I'll get around to it at some point...) before six pages on Knights of the Round.

Coverage of the Nintendo Power Awards 1993 Winners is next. Starting with Best Graphics & Best Sound, the winners are Star Fox (Super NES), The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Game Boy), and Mega Man 5 (NES). Star Fox also takes the award for Best Challenge (Super NES), while Mega Man 5 and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening swept the other categories for their respective consoles. The SNES award for "Theme & Fun" went to Secret of Mana while Street Fighter II Turbo took Play Control. Kirby won Best Hero (The Lost Vikings were 2nd, and Link only took 3rd), Best Villain went with Mortal Kombat's Goro (Dr. Wily and Darth Vader were 2nd and 3rd, respectively), The Lost Vikings won for Most Innovative and Tecmo Super NBA won for Best Sports Game. Both of these categories, by the way, were SNES exclusives, Game Boy and NES didn't qualify.

The best Overall Super NES title was Mortal Kombat. I guess readers love their fighting games, seeing how Street Fighter II: The World Warrior swept last year, but it only beat Secret of Mana by five votes...and Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse took a surprise third. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening took first for Game Boy, followed by Mega Man IV and Yoshi's Cookie...but for Overall NES, it was R.C. Pro-Am II (a surprise hit). Battletoads & Double Dragon took 2nd and Kirby's Adventure took third. Not what I'd pick on some of those, but some interesting choices.

With the exception of Kirby's Pinball Land at the end, all the Classified Information games are Super NES titles...Soldiers of Fortune, Super Slap Shot, NBA Jam, Wing Commander: The Secret Missions, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters, SimAnt, and Mega Man X. Then it's part four of the Super Metroid comic strip.

Counselor's Corner has two questions on Mega Man X, three on Young Merlin, three on Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, and two on Game Boy Star Wars. Finally, four pages follow for part two of the Crystalis walkthrough.

The Game Boy section starts with four pages on the Super Game Boy, a new peripheral that will let you play your Game Boy games on the Super NES in full color! Well, sort of. More on that in a future issue.

There's two Game Boy games covered this time around, Interplay's Solitaire FunPak and Hot-B's Black Bass: Lure Fishing, a Game Boy version of The Black Bass, which Nintendo Power briefly covered way back in Volume 9.

Bonk's Adventure for the NES is covered as the only NES game covered this time around. The NES doesn't even get any games in Now Playing, a first. But first, the Player's Poll Contest and Top 20. The Player's Poll Contest is themed to Barkley Shut Up and Jam!, where the winner gets to play Charles Barkley himself in a game, along with "autographed Nike Air Force Max CBs in size 16—and a pair in your size, too!", an autographed basketball, and a trip to Disney World in Florida.

Five second prize winners also win Barkley Shut Up and Jam!, along with a "Rim' Rockin' Accolade Sports Jacket", and an autographed basketball, with fifty winners winning a Nintendo Power t-shirt (which I've dubbed "Version 4 for '94").

Over at the Top 20, Super Metroid premiers at #3 in the Super NES list, before the Dealer scores even came in (guessing that's carried by the "Pro" scores). The others in the Super NES list include Mortal Kombat at #1 (up from #2), Street Fighter II Turbo at #2 (from #1), The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past pushed down to #4 (from #3), Super Mario Kart holding #5, Super Mario All-Stars at #6 (down from #4), Secret of Mana at #7 (down from #6), NHL Stanley Cup at #8 (up from #9), Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball on the top 10 at #9 (from #12), and Mega Man X fittingly at #10 (it wasn't on the Top 20 last month). The games that dropped off the top ten list this time around included Disney's Aladdin (#7 to #12) and Star Fox (#8 to #16, another huge drop). Jurassic Park dropped to #18, but Mario Paint still keeps its #15 place.

The release of Super Metroid has helped Metroid II: Return of Samus, which is now back at #5 (from #9) on the Game Boy list. It doesn't hold a candle against The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, which leads by around 5,000 points, or second place Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (both of which were #1 and #2 last month and some months before), or #3 Kirby's Dream Land which topped its pinball spinoff Kirby's Pinball Land this month (Pinball Land was #3 and Dream Land was #4 last month). Beyond Metroid II, there's Mortal Kombat at #6 again, Super Mario Land in #7 again, Tetris 2 at #8 (down from #5), besting the original by less than 1,000 points (Tetris was #8 last month, it's moving down), while Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 is back to #10 (it was #9 two months ago). Looking at classic titles, there's Faceball 2000 (#11 from #10 last month), Dr. Mario at #14, and F-1 Race reappearing at #20.

Tetris 2 gets back to #1 (from #2), while The Legend of Zelda is at #2 (up from #4), Super Mario Bros. 3 at #3 (hold), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project at #4 (up from #5), Kirby's Adventure at #5 (down from #1), Mega Man 6 at, appropriately, #6 (hold), Tecmo Super Bowl at #7 (up from #9), Baseball Stars at #8 (it vanished from the list last month), Metroid at #9 (down from #8), and Final Fantasy (holding #10). Sadly, this means Dr. Mario seems to have disappeared entirely, having been on the list for a few years at this point.

Super Metroid (Nintendo) headlines Now Playing. Other Super NES games include The Jetsons: Invasion of the Planet Pirates (Taito), Knights of the Round (Capcom), Pinball Dreams (Gametek), Mega Man Soccer (Capcom—written as "Megaman's Soccer"), Spectre (Cybersoft—they do remark that the graphics are better on the Mac version), S.O.S. (Vic Tokai), Barkley Shut Up and Jam! (Accolade), Champions World Soccer (Accolade), Super Goal! 2 (Jaleco), King of Draogons (Capcom), Hardball III (Accolade), MLBPA Baseball (Electronic Arts), Jeopardy! Deluxe Edition (Gametek), ESPN Baseball Tonight (Sony Imagesoft), Joe & Mac 2: Lost in the Tropics (Data East), Mr. Nutz (Ocean—a rental exclusive), and Suzuka 8 Hours (Namco). The Game Boy has four games covered, Black Bass: Lure Fishing (Hot-B), Mickey's Ultimate Challenge (Hi-Tech Expressions), Sports Illustrated for Kids: Triple Dare (T*HQ), and Solitaire FunPak (Interplay).

t will let you play your Game Boy games on the Super NES in full color! Well, sort of. More on that in a future issue.

In Pak Watch, there's more unrealistic ideas about Project Reality, "you'll have the equivalent of an $8,000 graphics workstation dedicated to games for less than $250"; well, it was around $250 but not anywhere close to an $8,000 graphics workstation. They talk about a new joint venture with Williams ("Williams/Nintendo Inc.") with Rare Ltd. signed on to make a new game for the system, Killer Instinct.

Other than discussing the ultimately doomed Future Zone, the "Pak Watch Update" discusses that Ocean will be releasing Eek! the Cat, Soccer Kid, and Mr. Nutz as rental exclusives. Since Soccer Kid was renamed before release, I don't think they'll stay rental exclusives for long. They also discuss what was called Life Fitness Life Cycle at the time (the Life Fitness Extertainment System...we'll discuss that another time), and another look at Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill which was supposed to be released in 1994 (ultimately the game released as a ROM over twenty years later).

As far as Williams, Nintendo, and Rare goes, at the time Williams was known as WMS Industries and owned Bally/Midway, the arcade division of Bally Manufacturing, which they bought in 1988 (by 1994, Bally was involved in casinos and a chain of fitness centers, the latter of which would spin off a few years later with their name), but at some point in 1994 they bought Rare's old partner Tradewest (renamed to Williams Entertainment) before spinning off Midway entirely as Midway Games. It explains why Midway was such a big player in the N64 days. We'll continue to talk about Williams in the near future.

Next up: Volume 61 is when the Super Game Boy really shows off with the "flagship" game for it, Donkey Kong. Well, it's called Donkey Kong but not the same as the arcade game.

Written October 9, 2026

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