''Super Play'' was a British Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) magazine which ran from 1 October 1992 to September 1996.

Overview

''Super Play'' covered in great detail the role-playing video game genre. Many of these games were never released officially in the UK or European games market, and therefore the magazine concentrated much effort in covering aspects of the American, and moreover the Japanese games markets. It also featured in-depth, intelligent and passionate coverage of all aspects of gaming. Given the close ties between the world of Japanese console RPGs and animation, the magazine also heavily featured information about manga and

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

by noted UK-based writer

Helen McCarthy Helen McCarthy (born 27 February 1951) is the British author of such anime reference books as ''500 Manga Heroes and Villains'', ''Anime!'', ''The Anime Movie Guide'' and '' Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation''. She is the co-author o ...

. It can be said that Super Play was one of the magazines that helped to push forward what was at the time a nascent market for anime in the UK. In this vein, the magazine itself was also notable as its cover illustrations (and many illustrations between the covers) were done in manga-influenced style by artist

Wil Overton Wil Overton is a British artist, specialising in manga styles. Career He has worked for a number of notable British video games magazines, including Super Play and N64 Magazine. He then worked at Rare and was an illustrator for NGamer mag ...

. Overton also caricatured many of the staff in chibi form, wearing various types of anime-related costumes - sci-fi armour, flying gear, RPG-style armour etc. The cover even had the name "Super Play" written in

katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived f ...

Logo

The logo for the magazine was designed by Jez Bridgeman in his first week on the magazine before the Art Editor arrived in the September before launch and at the last minute the 'PLAY' part of the logo was switched for a sans serif font and then stretched to fit the space.

Publication schedule and staff

The magazine was published monthly, and would regularly feature a monthly Fantasy Quest column about Japanese console RPGs in their native market. In the second half of the publication's life, there was a monthly

Final Fantasy is a Japanese video game, Japanese science fantasy anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and developed and owned by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and ...

Forum dedicated to playing tips and secrets for

Square In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90- degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length a ...

games, even despite the fact that none of the Final Fantasy game series had been released in Europe at that point. Some of the most recognisable names on the Super Play writing staff were Matt Bielby, Tony Mott (former editor of

Future Publishing Future plc is an international multimedia company established in the United Kingdom in 1985. The company has over 220 brands that span magazines, newsletters, websites, and events in fields such as video games, technology, films, music, photogr ...

stablemate

Edge Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed ...

), Jason Brookes, Jonathan Davies and Zy Nicholson. The magazine was based in Bath, England and published by Future Publishing. Despite its fairly short run (47 issues, just short of 4 years, and a one-off "Gold" special in 1993), and many years since its demise, it still enjoys a fan following on the internet.

Closure

Its end came with the declining popularity of the SNES itself, both among games publishers and the game-buying public, as the

Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and on March 1, 1997, in Europe and ...

was on the cusp of release, making way for the next generation of video game consoles. ''Super Play'' was succeeded in March 1997 by ''N64 Magazine'', which was initially edited by Jonathan Davies with Wil Overton as Art Editor, and frequent contributions by former ''Super Play'' writers, although the magazine was much less focused on import gaming and RPGs than its forebear. ''N64 Magazine'' in turn was renamed ''

NGC Magazine ''NGC Magazine'' (''N64 Magazine'' until October 2001 (issue 59)) was a British magazine specialising in Nintendo video game consoles and software. It was first printed in 1997 and ran until 2006. It was the successor to ''Super Play'', a magaz ...

'' to coincide with the launch of the

Nintendo GameCube The is a home video game console developed and released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in PAL territories in 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 (1996), and predecessor of the Wii ...

, and after closure of ''NGC'' in 2006 the publication was relaunched as ''

NGamer ''Nintendo Gamer'' was a magazine published in the United Kingdom which mainly covered Nintendo video game consoles and software. It was the successor publication to ''N64 Magazine'', later renamed NGC Magazine (1997–2006), and '' Super Play'' ...

''.

Revival

In September 2017, inspired by the announcement of a ''

Super NES Classic Edition The Super NES Classic Edition is a dedicated home video game console released by Nintendo, which emulates the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The console, a successor to the NES Classic Edition, comes with twenty-one Super NES titles pr ...

'', original staff, including Jason Brookes, Jonathan Davies, Tony Mott and Zy Nicholson, along with seasoned Nintendo experts Nathan Brown, Keza MacDonald, Damien McFerran, Jeremy Parish and Chris Schilling, produced a one-off issue 48 of ''Super Play'', which came bundled with ''

Retro Gamer ''Retro Gamer'' is a British magazine, published worldwide, covering retro video games. It was the first commercial magazine to be devoted entirely to the subject. Launched in January 2004 as a quarterly publication, ''Retro Gamer'' soon became ...

'' issue 172. Featuring all-new content it consists of the regular sections Super Express, Helen McCarthy's Anime World and a What Cart? guide. Also inside are new reviews of the games included on the ''SNES Classic'', a ''

Star Fox 2 is a shooter game developed by Nintendo and Argonaut Software for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It was completed in 1995 but did not see an official release until 2017 on the Super NES Classic Edition. Like the original ''Sta ...

'' preview and an interview with Dylan Cuthbert, one of the key developers behind the game. Cover art was created by

, illustrator of all 48 ''Super Play'' covers, with the internal visual style resurrected by Future's senior art editor Warren Brown, who ensured the design will be immediately familiar to fans of the '90s magazine.

References

External links

Feature: The Making of Super Play Magazine
at Nintendo Life
Archived Super Play Magazines
on the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

{{Future Publishing magazines 1992 establishments in the United Kingdom 1996 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Anime and manga magazines Defunct computer magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines disestablished in 1996 Magazines established in 1992 Mass media in Bath, Somerset Monthly magazines published in the United Kingdom Nintendo publications Video game magazines published in the United Kingdom