 Sometimes I just can't help but poke the bear and rile up some people, so I figure why not do a part 2 of the most overhyped and most underhyped Super Nintendo games. Once again, I should explain, by overhyped I do not mean bad. I just mean a game that either may not be as good as it appears on paper, may not be nearly as good as you may remember it to be, or maybe there are similarly themed games that are simply better. Of course, by underhyped I just mean games that should be held in a little higher regard, but aren't for whatever reason. To start out with overhyped, I'm coming out guns blazing with Illusion of Gaia. Again, no, I do not think this is a bad game. In fact, a couple of the dungeons are really cleverly designed, and the game absolutely has a lot of strong qualities, especially the music. But as an entire package, I don't think it's as good as a lot of other top-down adventure style games, that's mostly because the story keeps getting in the way. Normally that'd be fine and all, but there are these long, unskippable cutscenes that interrupt every so often, and the story is so strange and so out there that I have a really hard time caring about what happens. So now, of course, having said that, there will be three dozen comments explaining the story of Illusion of Gaia to me. Look, I get the story, and if you like it, that's totally fine. My point is, why are you playing a top-down action-adventure game like Illusion of Gaia? To explore the sky garden, to figure my way around Mu, and to fight huge bosses, I don't play it to sit through these cutscenes that barely make sense. And that brings me to Soul Blazer, a much more streamlined game that has aged really well, because it has a pickup-and-play style quality, with easy access save points. This is a no-frills hack-and-slash style game, and yet has its share of story elements too, but it's more gameplay-focused, and I just don't hear this game talked about in the same light as something like Illusion of Gaia for whatever reason, and I think it's aged much better, and I'd much rather play Soul Blazer, or Terranigma for that matter, rather than Illusion of Gaia today. Moving on, back to Overhyped, the Mortal Kombat series definitely falls into that category. These games serve their purpose back in their time, I suppose, since fighting like this had never been done before to this extent. Also, the rotoscoped characters were definitely a revelation back then, but these games have aged really poorly, movement is very stiff, and just about every character might as well have been the exact same guy, since everybody had the same size, speed, and range of motion, the same punches and kicks, the same uppercuts. It wasn't until the third game, when there was finally a little bit of variety in that regard, but yeah, not only did the games play poorly, but the single-player campaigns, especially in Mortal Kombat 2, are freaking impossible. You win the first few fights, and you practically hit a brick wall in terms of difficulty. The computer just decides you're done, and that's it, you ain't winning this fight. In my opinion, you'd be much better served playing something like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Fighting Edition, it's easy to ignore this game at first glance because it's licensed off the TV show, but it's a surprisingly fast and polished fighter that's a really fun playthrough, featuring 8 characters in versus mode, with lots of special moves that all look fantastic. This game also serves as kind of a makeshift prototype for an even better game, as developer Natsume went out to make Gundam Wing Endless Duel, which was exclusive to Japan. That's another game well worth looking into, and has aged much better than something like Mortal Kombat. Next, for Overhyped, there's Ninja Gaiden Trilogy. This game sounds like a cool idea, it's all three NES Ninja Gaiden games on one cartridge. Well, damn, that must be why it's worth almost $200 on eBay, right? Unlike Mario All-Stars, however, these three ports just don't click. One major problem is that they left jump and attack as A and B, and you can't change it. That may work on an NES controller, but it feels clumsy on an SNES controller, where you'd rather use Y and B, it feels much more natural. Also, the visuals and sound just seem garbled and half-assed. You're so much better off playing the original games on NES where they have a better look, feel, and sound. If you want a Ninja-style action platformer on the SNES, then check out Runsaver, a two-player co-op game that doesn't get the praise it deserves. It's one flaw is that it's really short, it's only five levels, but this game almost has a Contra 3 vibe going for it. Some of the bosses are just spectacular-looking, and I really like the huge level layout. Did I mention this game is two-player co-op? There's your reason to go play this right there. Runsaver is totally worth playing, and playing a lot. Last, let's dip into the Japan-only Super Famicom catalog with Bahamut Lagoon. In the early days of emulation, this game was seen as a pretty big deal since it was one of the first to receive an English patch back in the early 2000s. I remember being so intimidated by the fact that there were these huge games I'd never even heard of and hadn't had a chance to play yet, so when I first played Bahamut Lagoon way back when, I was really impressed. And don't get me wrong, this is a very good strategy, RPG, with a detailed battle system with maps that emphasize movement and terrain. The only flaw with Bahamut Lagoon might be the story, which gets a little incoherent at times. It's a boilerplate Empire vs. Resistance role-playing game story, but beyond that, it's a little tough to follow what's going on. The point is, if you're looking for a 16-bit strategy game, you shouldn't rest on the laurels of something like Bahamut Lagoon when there's better stuff out there. Like Tactics Ogre, Let Us Cling Together, man, oh man, this game is awesome, and it should be considered one of the very best games to never leave Japan. There's Knights, Mages, Dragon Trainers, Ninjas, you can recruit monsters, you control up to 10 allies at once, and it takes the environments and maps to a whole new level, to the point that each spell a character cast will differ based on where the battle is taking place. This game is nuts with the kind of detail it offers, but maybe its best feature, however, is that it hits a perfect balance between story and gameplay. It sets a nice pace, so you're not too overwhelmed with battle details, and you're not too bored by the long dialogue scenes. It moves right along very nicely. Really, I'm just using this space here to tell you, if you're into strategy RPGs and you haven't played Tactics Ogre, you gotta go check it out. It is awesome. Anyway, that's all I got for now. Thanks for watching. Have a great rest of your day.