Virtually Overlooked Week: Jason's picks

Secret of Mana, to this day, remains one of the finest action-RPG games ever released. Fans in North America clamored for a sequel, and eventually, they received titles such as Heroes of Mana, Legend of Mana, World of Mana ... but each and every one was met with critical distaste and disappointing sales. Little do many fans know, however, that the sequel for which they so fervently begged already existed in Seiken Densetsu 3, released in 1995. Though never officially localized, an extremely professional fansub makes the game highly playable for all English-speakers via ROM. We don't condone such things, of course.

The title is, quite simply, astounding. It improves on the original in almost every way: a far more developed and relatively nonlinear story, greater customization via a simple class branching system, some of the most impressive visuals ever seen on the SNES, and a wonderful score by Secret of Mana's original composer. The localization of this title will most likely bring far too much profit for Square Enix to ever release it on the Virtual Console at a mere eight dollars a pop, but there is no title for which this blogger longs more.

Though the concept of 2-D gaming has actually become far less taboo in the past half-decade, it was naught but anathema to gamers high on polygons in the mid-to-late nineties (even Yoshi's Story was ridiculously billed as "two and a half-D"). To forsake the technical advancements made by the PlayStation and N64 was just lazy, said they, but I disagree: Mischief Makers was anything but. A cult-classic even to this day, MM is a pure platformer starring cyber-lady Marina. Marina's primary method of attack is shaking pretty much anything and everything around her, and while the mechanic seems, for lack of a better word, lame, I assure you otherwise.

A rather novel gimmick within the title was the use of hidden yellow gems, one per level, which would extend the ending of the game by three seconds each. In addition, achieving the higher rankings in each level could be blindingly difficult, but gave the game a great deal of replay value. At ten dollars this title would be a steal, and though I generally try to avoid spoilers, I must mention that at least one major fight is fought via dodgeball. Amazing.

As you may have noticed by now, I tend to enjoy games in standard genres that employ clever, puzzle-like mechanics. Space Station: Silicon Valley is a quintessential example: though the title controls like a standard 3-D platformer, the title tends to flex your brain above brawn. As a tiny sentient robot aboard a massive space station with various simulated climate zones and robotic beasts, you might possess and control dozens of animals, each with a unique ability or two, to advance through levels and defeat your foes. A gem of a game, and one many gamers unfortunately missed.

Pipe Dream: Some of my picks are already highly unlikely, so I'll just shoot for one that has almost no chance at all: Mother 3. This title, as you may already know, is actually a GBA game, which is obviously not currently supported on the Virtual Console. However, as another potential source of revenue once the last remaining GBA releases keel over and die, it wouldn't be a terrible stretch to see portable emulation enacted via VC. Specifically, Mother 3 is the Japanese-only sequel to the wondrous Earthbound (starring Ness, of Super Smash Bros. fame), and we'd kill innocent sheep for the chance to play a localized version.