 The Super Nintendo had quite a few PC ports that probably had no business existing. Look no further than stuff like Ultima 7 the Black Gate, where it's barely even a port since the game had to be redone almost from scratch and even then the game is just kinda not that great. There's also games like Populus, Rockin, Lagoon, SimCity 2000 And that game in particular is amazing and one of my personal favorites, but the Super Nintendo port is just not good. And for all those titles I listed, you're better off playing the PC version. The same could be said of Syndicate, made by Bullfrog for PC and Amiga back in 1993, before it was ported to DOS, Mac, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, 3DO, FM Towns, and Super Nintendo. It was also ported to a computer called the Acorn Archimedes. Just thought I'd throw that in there for any Brits listening. And yes, I said Bullfrog. This is a Peter Molyneux produced game, coming from the same studio that created games like Populous, Theme Park, and Magic Carpet. And right away when you turn this game on, you realize it's a what the hell do I do kind of a game, and the game itself tells you nothing. You really need the manual if you're gonna get into this one, but I'll try and sum up how this game works as best I can. The idea here is that you're the head of a criminal syndicate in a post-apocalyptic world where every government has somehow collapsed and it's up to you to expand your territory. And the game is split up into 50 different missions that have you taking out other factions, rescuing hostages, retrieving items, that sort of thing. And you do all that in this isometric viewpoint, kind of like the Super Nintendo version of Shadowrun. I should mention, however, that this game is not compatible with the Super Nintendo mouse, so you gotta use the D-pad. So you start a new game and immediately you're taken to a map. Each section you select here gives you a mission briefing when you press the Y button. For example, this one here for Scandinavia says the son of a judge has been kidnapped by free market extremists. Oh god, John Stossel has really gone too far this time. It says to persuade these extremists to do something else, I guess, and to rescue the kid. Press the Y button again and you're taken to this screen. And if you're not already confused, this screen should do the trick. This is where you pick your four characters that take on this mission, who all apparently went to the same barber and said that they want to look like a character from Dragon Ball, except for this person who wants cornrows like Carmelo Anthony in 2003, except Green. But yeah, at this point you're gonna want to look at the manual to see what the heck is going on. And when it comes to the manual, I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that the manual is 30 pages long and shockful of good stuff. The bad news is that it's like 300 words per page and many people are gonna find that's just too much of an ask for what's ultimately an average at best Super Nintendo game, especially when there's much better versions of this game around. So this is a classic case of a game that was probably good enough to get by at the time, but playing it now might seem kind of silly. Still, I will say for its time for a port of a PC game on the Super Nintendo, it's not that bad, and it would have been totally adequate to play back when it was first released. Like I said, there's 50 different missions here with the idea being to pick the appropriate party members for whichever mission and equipping them with the appropriate gear. So how do you do that? Well, you can prepare for each mission by using the tech research management option on the main menu. After you complete the most basic missions, like shooting secret agents or escorting someone someplace, you'll earn money, which allows you to level up all your stuff. What's kind of neat is that the game really leans into its cyberpunk motif by allowing you to upgrade body parts. Legs make you faster, torsos give you better armor. You can even give your party drugs to improve their skills. Eat your heart out, Barry Bonds. The basic gameplay has you scuttle around as this group of sprites wandering around in an isometric viewpoint with the ability to either walk around as one dude or as a group by pressing the select button. And that's a key thing that you'll be doing often, since you have to protect certain party members at times because you need to utilize a specific skill that they have or a specific weapon. Plus, I mean, you're investing tons of money that you earn into these agents, and if they die, they're permanently dead. You've got an unlimited number of agents, but you'll lose out on all those skills you've built up for each of those characters. To the game's credit, it does have a couple different game modes, a single player campaign, as well as a versus mode versus the computer or a second player, so that's kind of cool. Ultimately though, the gameplay here is pretty limited, and each mission feels like kind of the same thing over and over. Also, I should mention that the story here gets really bleak and cynical. Hey, 1993 was a different time, man. Still, it's kind of fascinating seeing such a dark and brutal game get released on a Nintendo platform. So yeah, Syndicate is a pretty good game overall, but on Super Nintendo, it's okay at best. It's one of those games where the learning curve is really steep, to the point that if you're going to invest the time into learning it, then you're just better off getting the game on a better platform, as well as checking out the sequel titled Syndicate Wars for PC and PlayStation. The Super Nintendo version does try its little heart out, but the game is slowly paced, barely explains anything, and has the most pathetic looking cutscenes I've ever seen. I mean, what the heck am I even looking at right here? I would have gotten into this game at the time, but playing it right now just isn't worth it. All right, I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.