Miscellanea of 1992
(This chapter is for games released in 1992 that don’t have a significant amount of butterflies to justify a stand-alone update.)
“In the world of Mardias, an evil force named Saruin has broken out of its thousand year long imprisonment. The only thing that could possibly stop him are the ten Fatestones, which are scattered across Mardias. Who, then, will rise to the challenge and defeat Saruin once more?
The heir to a noble lord? A pacifistic nomad?
A thief from a large city? A woman raised by a witch?
An infamous pirate? A warrior molded by the cold of snow?
A treasure hunting adventurer? A bard from a band of entertainers?
That’s for you to decide. Because in Squaresoft’s Mystic SaGa
, the choices you make are more important than ever. In this role-playing game adventure, choose one of eight heroes, who each have personal missions that end up leading them towards the Fatestones, and explore the world of Mardias with the new Free Scenario System. The FSS lets you choose which quests you’d like to take on or not, and tasks can be completed in any order you want. The story will change due to a number of factors, including who you play as, who you recruit, what quests you complete, who you talk to, and even how strong you are. And it’s all playable on Super Nintendo.” - A print ad for
Mystic SaGa, seen in gaming magazines of the time.
“GO BACK HOME TO YOUR FAMILY!” - One of Guile’s win quotes in the SNES port of
Street Fighter II. [1]
All About Super Mario Kart [2]
Platform: SNES
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: August 27th, 1992 (Japan); September 1st, 1992 (NA); October 12th, 1992 (EU)
Super Mario Kart is a Mode 7 racing game for the Super Nintendo, and progenitor of the “mascot racer” genre. It takes the Mario cast and throws them into go karts, with tracks that take inspiration from the Mario setting. However, it also features items that you can find in races, which can turn the tide in your favor. Items actually function a bit differently in this timeline; specifically, the way CPU item rolls are handled. Despite making use of the DSP-1 math co-processor expansion chip, the SNES still wasn’t powerful enough for CPU racers to have truly random item draws. Therefore, each CPU has a specific item that they will always get, and can use it infinitely.[3] In TTL, the faster SNES processor means it can actually calculate item odds for all the CPU’s. This helps the game’s notorious rubber-banding issues quite a bit. Additionally, the character-specific items are usable by any character now, including the player. The Poison Mushroom is a stationary object that shrinks racers on contact, Fireballs move in a small circular motion when dropped on the track, and Yoshi’s Egg is a larger version of the banana.
Of course, in addition to Grand Prix and Time Trial modes, there’s Battle Mode, where two players can duke it out head-to-head. There are two distinct battle modes present: Balloon Battle, which is the same as in OTL, and Coin Battle, which is a race to see who can collect the most coins within a time limit.[4] Getting hit by items in this mode will make you lose coins, and new coins are periodically spawned in over the course of a round. Both of the battle modes are incredibly fun, though there have been heated discussions among fans over which mode is better…
Super Mario Kart is received as well as it was in OTL. It’s a very fun racing game that’s incredibly easy to pick up and play, and anyone has a chance at winning regardless of skill level thanks to item boxes. It single handedly created a new genre of racing game, and should certainly be remembered for that alone. Going back to it in the modern day, however… there are better, more polished Mario Karts you could be playing. It’s not bad from a modern lens, of course; it’s just that every game afterward is miles better. Speaking of which, a direct sequel,
Super Mario Kart 2, would be released in 1995 for the SNES-CD.
All About Street Fighter II: The World Warrior
Original Platform: Arcade (Capcom CPS-1 Arcade Board)
Ported To: SNES
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Released: March 1991 (Arcade, Worldwide); May 6th, 1992 (SNES, JP); June 10th, 1992 (SNES, NA); August 21st, 1992 (SNES, EU/AU)
The SNES port of
Street Fighter II takes the arcade smash-hit fighting game into your home for the first time. This port was completed about a month earlier compared to our timeline, as the SNES and CPS-1 arcade board share the exact same processor, down to the clock rate. The SNES version is now an almost arcade-perfect port, with any sprite-related slowdown being largely eliminated. However, this is still the original version of SFII, which means that the gameplay is not as fast paced as later versions like
Turbo. It’s great for the time, but not very many people are going back to the
World Warrior incarnation of SFII in the modern day.
All About Mario Paint
Platform: SNES
Developers: Nintendo R&D1, Intelligent Systems
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: July 14th, 1992 (JP); August 1st, 1992 (NA); December 10th, 1992 (EU)
Mario Paint is less of a game and more of a creation tool for the SNES. Developed as a response to parents wanting more games with an educational aspect to them,
Mario Paint lets players create drawings, incredibly simplistic animations, fill in a digital coloring book, make pixel art stamps, compose some simple music, and even play a fly-swatting mini-game, all using the SNES Mouse accessory (which it was bundled with alongside a mouse pad.) Not much is different compared to our timeline; save and load routines are a little bit faster (the compression step doesn’t take quite as long, though the process of actually saving to SRAM takes just as much time.) The right mouse button has some additional functionality - most of the time, it will simply activate Undodog, though in the Stamp Editor it functions like the dropper tool in many image editors, and it adds 4 new rotation options when selecting an area (alongside the preexisting horizontal/vertical flip options.)[5]
All About Mystic SaGa
Also Known As:
Romancing SaGa (Japan)
Platform: SNES
Developer: Square
Publisher: Square (JP); Squaresoft (International)
Released: January 28th, 1992 (JP); August 31st, 1992 (US); October19th, 1992 (EU)
Romancing SaGa, released internationally as
Mystic SaGa, is an RPG for the SNES developed by Square, and the first game in the
SaGa franchise for the system (after the first three games, localized as
Final Fantasy Legend, were all on the Game Boy). At the beginning of the game, players choose one of eight characters to play as, with each one having different reasons to find the Fatestones and defeat the evil god Saruin. Unlike other RPGs of the time, you don’t earn traditional experience points for winning battles. Instead, individual stats like HP, Attack, Speed, and proficiency with different weapons level up independently of each other, and you must perform certain actions to increase their level (like using a particular weapon repeatedly.) Also, the game features a more nonlinear plot and open world exploration, with quests being completable in any order and what quests you choose to partake in affecting the game’s ending.
For the game’s Western release, Squaresoft decided to rename the game
Mystic SaGa, taking the “Mystic” part from a beginner-friendly
Final Fantasy game which had only ever reached early planning stages before being scrapped.[6] Notably,
Mystic SaGa was the first game localization that Ted Woolsey worked on for Square, following the formation of an American localization department after
Final Fantasy IV was released in the US. Much like with that game, Philips would produce French, German, and Spanish translations based on the original Japanese script for Europe, and a UK English version based on Woolsey’s script.
Upon its release overseas,
Mystic SaGa received a generally positive reception. The game’s open-ended narrative and world was met with wide acclaim, as it was very different from other games at the time, especially on console. However, there were people who believed that the game had some questionable and confusing battle mechanics, as well as there being some issues with the way the world is laid out. The game’s graphics are also a small step down from
Final Fantasy IV. Overall, while the game did make some major innovations in the RPG genre, some of its ideas weren’t executed well, which brought the game down a bit. Reviews are generally in the mid to high 7’s. As Square’s big holiday title for 1992 in the West, it manages to sell decently, holding over some
Final Fantasy fans until
Final Fantasy V makes its way overseas in the summer of 1993.
All About Video Speedway
Platform: SNES
Developer: ISG Productions
Publisher: Philips Interactive Media
Released: July 21st, 1992 (US); September 29th, 1992 (EU); November 10th, 1992 (JP)
Video Speedway is a Formula One simulation racing game, developed by Interactive Support Group (ISG) Productions and published by Philips. It takes place from a first person perspective, and players can choose tracks from several different real-world locations like New York, Monument Valley, and Geneva. Additionally, money earned from races can be used to upgrade your car’s stats, including your top speed, acceleration, traction, and body strength. Unlike the OTL CD-i game, TTL’s
Video Speedway is actually fairly playable, making use of Mode 7 graphics, having better controls, and reaching a smoother framerate. As a cartridge game, it does lose out on the digitized photos, voice acting, and small FMV clips, with it using a more conventional pixel art style.
Video Speedway is a pretty alright game when it comes out. The first person perspective does set it apart from some of its contemporaries, but outside of that, there isn’t anything that special about the game. It’s not bad, but it’s not great either. A decent 7/10. It sells the best in Europe, where Formula One is most popular. Making a game for a successful console does mean that ISG Productions doesn’t go out of business after one game, releasing
Plunderball and
Tox Runner not long after.
Video Speedway wouldn’t be completely forgotten by ISG, though; a spiritual successor would end up being released later on in the 90’s during the fifth generation of consoles. But that is a story for another time…
Footnotes:
[1] Sorry, no “GO HOME AND BE A FAMILY MAN!” here, though the replacement is somewhat-more accurate to the Japanese script. There, he says “Go home. You have a family too…” No mention of men at all there!
[2] This game in particular is part of the reason this update took so long. Out of all the games with content found in the Gigaleak, I’d argue that Super Mario Kart definitely has some of the most. Multiple compiled and uncompiled prototypes, with lots of graphics, sounds, tracks, code, and even developer tools, too! Wading through all of it and figuring out what to or what not to include took quite a bit of time. I’d definitely recommend checking out its TCRF page if you’re at all interested.
[3] Specifically, Mario and Luigi always get Stars, Peach and Toad get Poison Mushrooms, Koopa Troopa rolls Green Shells, DK Jr. has banana peels, Yoshi naturally has Yoshi Eggs, and Bowser rolls Fireballs.
[4] It’s kinda like the Coin Runners mode introduced in Mario Kart Wii in OTL, just without the teams. This isn’t a backport, though; a prototype of Super Mario Kart found in the Gigaleak features a battle mode like this!
[5] These exist in the OTL game, but are locked behind an esoteric set of steps to activate them. Click the N on the title screen to activate the credits, then when “PROGRAMMER NORIAKI TERAMOTO” appears, hold down the right mouse button and click the N on the title screen once more. You now have that extra right click functionality! Oh, and you can now restart the game by pressing L+R+Start+Select on player 2’s controller. You’ll have to enter the code again after that, though.
[6] OTL Final Fantasy Mystic Quest.
Up next is a look at the part-remake, part sequel to The Mysterious Murasame Castle on SNES. I can't wait to see you then!
