61 Frames Per Second

Browse by Tags

• Earthbound's Secret Evil

  Earthbound may be one of the most heartwarming and beloved RPGs out there, but beneath its seemingly innocent surface beats the pitch-black heart of the devil.  Thanks to a friend who pointed me in the direction of this EDGE article, I'll think twice the next time I invite Earthbound into my apartment and/or bedroom. So why, pray tell, is Earthbound so evil? To be fair, the game's dark nature only exposes itself to those who would dare bootleg--and they probably deserve it. Essentially, Earthbound does a series of checks throughout the game to make sure you're playing on a legit cart. But if you've purchased yours on the cheap from a sleazy bootlegger, well--maybe I should let this video explain the rest. Obvious spoilers for anyone who hasn't made it to the end of Earthbound: You've gotta admit, there's no revenge better than that when it comes to video game pirates. It kind of makes me wonder why companies don't secretly "leak" copies of their games to the Internet that would do irreparable harm to the computers of would-be pirates. It could be something as simple as a hard drive wipe, or complex as the polygonal head of Ken Levine levitating around your desktop, screaming at you while exploding icons with his laser eyes. Gentlemen, you can only fight piracy with creativity. Read More... Posted Oct 02 2008, 08:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 8 comment(s) Filed under: snes, earthbound, piracy, bob mackey, drm

• The Kirby Game That Deserved To Die

  Everyone loves Kirby. He's sweet, happy, bouncy and he looks like a big Dramamine pill. His platforming games are consisently fun and nobody wants to run afoul of him in a Smash Bros game. However, when Kirby falls, he falls down hard. It's kind of a funny thing, given that his body is made of nothing but whipped creme and fibre glass insulation, but his few misteps leave the pink guy pretty bruised. 2003's Kirby's Air Ride sold poorly and caused friction between Nintendo, Hal Labs and Kirby's daddy, Masahiro Sakurai. It hurt, but Kirby bounced back. How could he not. But Kirby floated over another potential pitfall in the SNES era. Read More... Posted Sep 24 2008, 04:56 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: snes, super smash bros, retro, kirby, nadia oxford, siliconera, kid kirby, dead games

• The E.V.O.lution of Spore

  Yahtzee recently mouthed off in his charming British way about Will Wright's Spore. Does he like it much? Short answer: "Nooooooooooooooo..." I haven't played Spore. My computer is from the Stone Age (2002) and completely useless for gaming. It's especially useless right now because it's been infected with the digital equivalent of late-stage syphilis and I do believe it's going quite mad. As for Spore, I might pick up the Wii version once it receives all the necessary castrations. But I have to admit that Yahtzee's weekly snark-a-thon woke up an otherwise oblivious bit of my brain that's telling me, "Hey...you played Spore. On the Super Nintendo. It was called EVO." Now kids, don't you all yell at Granma Nadia like that. I know Spore is far more complex than the 16-bit prehistoric gorgefest that captured my heart when I was fourteen-ish. But the idea of eating and growing appendages as a result of eating (wouldn't that make the obesity crisis a lot more interesting) took me back to a happy place. When we were kids, we wanted to genetically engineer nail-studded dragons with teeth like Ginsu knives and scales like tank armour. Oh, and they had to be able to fly, of course. Completely impossible by Nature's hoity-toity standards, but typical of the animals that rattle around in a kid's imagination. When Enix made EVO, it remembered the pencil crayon drawings that adorn every boy's school binder. Read More... Posted Sep 18 2008, 05:22 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: snes, PC, will wright, spore, super nintendo, 16-bit, nadia oxford, evolution, evo

• The Dividing RPG: Secret of Mana

  Squaresoft's Secret of Mana will be coming to Virtual Console this September, probably as Seiken Densetsu 2. It's probably a good thing Square-Enix didn't try to reshuffle the Mana titles when they came to America. Re-numbering Final Fantasy already requires more math than I want to do outside a school setting. (Yes, I was a dunce, and I still am according to expert testimony.) Secret of Mana's VC revival got people a-muttering on message boards and IRC. And I was shocked and appalled to learn that there are people out there who care not for Randi's pastel-coloured adventure to find a giant tree. They called it dated. They called it boring. They called it buggy, and "buggy" is actually being generous. By all programming logic, every copy of Secret of Mana should have imploded on the store shelves. I might be biased. Secret of Mana was my first RPG outside of the Dragon Warrior/DragonQuest series, so it wasn't too hard for me to be blown away by the harrowing story of an orphan who was fathered by a sword. Read More... Posted Sep 02 2008, 04:00 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 8 comment(s) Filed under: snes, rpg, japan, square-enix, 16-bit, nostalgia, nadia oxford, virtual console, computer ai, seiken densetsu 3, seiken densetsu 2, secret of mana

• Whatcha Listening To: The Earthbound Soundtrack

  I'm in an Earthbound frame of mind these days, which is a good place to be. With the release of the Mother 3 fan translation inching closer and some very pleasant message board conversations that remind me why I actually sacrificed precious naps to play through Itoi's masterpiece, I've taken to thinking about what makes Earthbound special. I could sit here for hours relaying all the reasons (okay, twenty minutes--I type fast), but one of the main reasons warrants its own entry: the music. Earthbound is probably the most underappreciated title in video gaming's short but passionate history. Everything was overlooked: the expressive graphics, the innovative battle system, the emotional story that perfectly balances bizarre fun with a deep, subtle story about growing up and leaving home...and, of course, the music. Earthbound is not a game that can be appreciated with a glance ("God, what baby graphics. Who made them, Crayola?") or a quick listen ("This music is too cutesy"). You're required to experience it from beginning to end. Admittedly, the music took a while to grow on me, but when it did, it hit me like a Mr Saturn to the face. Read More... Posted Aug 25 2008, 07:01 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: snes, earthbound, game music, super nintendo, 16-bit, nostalgia, nadia oxford, whatcha listening to, soundtrack

• Know Your Final Fantasy IV Trivia. It Could Save Your Life.

  For such a seemingly primitive game, Final Fantasy IV is pretty damn difficult to talk about. There are so many incarnations, I don't know who I'm going to offend if I let slip a "Final Fantasy II" instead of saying "Final Fantasy IV." (My maternal grandmother has already written me out of the will. It's a goddamn shame; I really wanted that Donkey Kong doll.) Back when the Internet had that new car smell and it still belonged to Trekkies instead of macro cats, there was a good deal of information to be found on the SNES version of Square-Enix's classic. Specifically, we discovered that "Final Fantasy II," henceforth referred to as Final Fantasy II US, was a dumbed-down Final Fantasy IV. Items were homogenised, character skills were missing (what, would a crowded command menu make us quiver in confused terror a second before our heads exploded?) and enemies were nerfed. It was enough of a shock to learn that Square-Enix was holding out on Fantasies, but discovering that we had the version of the game that had been cut into small pieces for Japan's "special" players was especially insulting. It was a kick to our souls' asses. So for years we scorned the fact that we'd been given Final Fantasy IV's "Easytpe". Or...had we? Read More... Posted Aug 19 2008, 07:53 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with no comments Filed under: nintendo ds, snes, japan, final fantasy iv ds, final fantasy ii us, easytype, zeromus, trivia, hardtype, nerfed

• Play It Again, Sam

  How many times have you bought the same game? I don't mean full on remakes like Metroid: Zero Mission or sports games sequels where they dusted off the old engine and updated the roster. I mean how many games did you repurchase because it was a special edition with some new features, or it was released for a different home system, or it was the hand held version? Read More... Posted Aug 08 2008, 11:00 AM by Amber Ahlborn with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: metroid, remake, wii, snes, amber ahlborn, chrono trigger, ps2, ds, okami, super mario advance, gba, special edition

• Super Mario World is Terrifying!

  Games are as varied as movie genres, meaning there are plenty of titles out there that exist for the purpose of making us poop our pants in fear. Silent Hill, Half-Life, Super Mario World... Wait, Super Mario World is frightening? It is if you're this guy. He's "never played Super Mario World before, and he's ready to bid farewell to his virginity while the world watches him (scream in horror). Obviously he's faking it, but it's still a pretty amusing watch. Especially if you know enough about the game to anticipate his reaction to Banzi Bills and half stepped-on Rex dinosaurs. But why act superior. We all freaked out a little at Super Mario World, right? My best friend's father jumped behind the couch when Bowser came soaring at the television screen during his last stand against Mario. Read More... Posted Aug 04 2008, 03:44 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with no comments Filed under: snes, super mario world, super nintendo, fan video, scary, humor

• Alternate Soundtrack: Uniracers vs. Think About Life

  Video and words by Derrick Sanskrit My fellow 61FPSers know that I'm a big fan of the quirky 1994 SNES racer, Uniracers. Aside from starring self-aware, unmanned unicycles and having appropriately psycho-geometric backgrounds, the game ran at Sonic the Hedgehog speeds. It pioneered the whole doing-tricks-earns-points-and-makes-you-go-faster mechanic later popularized by the Tony Hawk: Pro Skater series and borrowed by every racing game from SSX to Mario Kart Wii. A lot of Uniracers' charm is explained by looking at the other work by its developer, DMA Design Limited. They broke onto the scene with the wildly popular Lemmings in 1990. That, along with Uniracers, won them some favor with Nintendo, who helped DMA with Body Harvest, a 3D vehicular action game for the Nintendo 64. DMA took everything they'd learned from Body Harvest to build the extremely controversial, unexpected hit Grand Theft Auto. Soon enough, DMA was bought out and renamed Rockstar North, where they continue to make Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt games to this day. So yeah, Uniracers is the senseless SNES racer by the people who made Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto 4. Interested yet? Read More... Posted Jun 17 2008, 11:00 AM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: alternate soundtrack, derrick sanskrit, rockstar, snes, grand theft auto, manhunt, uniracers, lemmings, think about life

• Personal Firsts: My Gaming Scrapbook, From A to Wii

  Written by Amber Ahlborn At some point in the 1980s, the year nebulous in my memory, my mom bowled with her team every Thursday night. I loved Thursday nights because dad let me stay up late to watch M.A.S.H. and Benny Hill. Sometimes he and I would hop in the car and go visit mom at the alley, and that was the best. Dad would sit and watch mom bowl. Me? I would squeeze every last quarter I could get out of him. With a fist full of change and dollars soon to be converted into change, I’d walk down to the alley’s hamburger bar, snag a stool, and drag it through the glass doors into the arcade. Without deviation, I’d position my stool in front of the “Ostrich Game” and stay planted there until I ran out of money. I’m speaking of Joust of course, but at that age I could neither reach the controls without a stool to sit on nor read very well. Read More... Posted Jun 02 2008, 01:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: pac-man, metroid, wii, legend of zelda, snes, nes, ico, mega man, atari, gamecube, amber ahlborn, kaboom, katamari damacy, chrono trigger, firsts, pikmin, Playstation, joust, pitfall, star fox, ps2, frogger, super mario bros, ds

• Chiptune Friday: LUNGE!

  Written by Derrick Sanskrit It's friday, which means it's time for some chiptune! Shake your tail feathers to this funky beat, and hit the jump for a little bit of history. Read More... Posted May 30 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: derrick sanskrit, snes, chiptune friday, tetris attack, panel de pon

• Fortune and Glory, SNES-Style

  So, we here at 61FPS had some YouTube clips bookmarked for a special occasion. The clips were an in-depth review of Indiana Jones Trilogy for SNES by a die-hard Indy fan who had some choice things to say about the game's faithfulness/lack-thereof to the films; the occasion was the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Well, the occasion has come (Crystal Skull is terrible, by the way), and, go figure, the clips are gone. The best we can do is offer you this, which at least gives a sense of the game's handsome treatment of the series: Read More... Posted May 20 2008, 02:00 PM by Peter Smith with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: peter smith, snes, indiana jones' greatest adventures, indiana jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull, disappointments, indiana jones, indiana jones trilogy

• Whatcha Playing: BS Zelda

  Let's say, hypothetically, it's Monday evening and you wake up at midnight after passing out on the couch for a couple hours. You're too restless, headachy, drunk and sexually frustrated to go back to sleep. Hypothetically. And you've beaten The Legend of Zelda so many times in the past month, in an attempt to push your completion time under fifty minutes (final score: 49:58.13) that it doesn't have much to offer in the way of comforting distraction. For a cosy mix of the familiar and new, do what I did. . . Read More... Posted May 14 2008, 03:00 PM by Peter Smith with | with no comments Filed under: whatcha playing, bs zelda no densetsu, snes, darknuts, satellaview, the legend of zelda, zelda