''Super Play'' was a British

Super Nintendo Entertainment System The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in No ...

(SNES) magazine which ran from 1 October 1992 to September 1996.

Overview

''Super Play'' covered in great detail the

role-playing video game Role-playing video games, also known as CRPG (computer/console role-playing games), comprise a broad video game genre generally defined by a detailed story and character advancement (often through increasing characters' levels or other skills) ...

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. Given the close ties between the world of Japanese console RPGs and animation, the magazine also heavily featured information about

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

and

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

by noted UK-based writer Helen McCarthy. 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 a manga-influenced style by artist Wil Overton. Overton also

caricature A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, ...

d 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 fr ...

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 fantasy Anthology series, anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi which is owned, developed, and published by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fanta ...

Forum dedicated to playing tips and secrets for

Square In geometry, a square is a regular polygon, regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal si ...

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 a British publishing company. It was started in 1985 by Chris Anderson. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History 1985–2012 The company was founded by Chris Anderson a ...

stablemate Edge), Jason Brookes, Jonathan Davies and Zy Nicholson. The magazine was based in

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

, 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 and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on June 23, 1996, in North America on September 29, 1996, and in Europe and Australia on March 1, 1997. As the successor to the Super Nintendo E ...

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 mag ...

'' to coincide with the launch of the

GameCube The is a PowerPC-based home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002, and in Australia on May 17, 2002. It is the suc ...

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

Revival

In September 2017, inspired by the announcement of a '' Super NES Classic Edition'', 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 Retrogaming, 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'' ...

'' 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'' preview and an interview with Dylan Cuthbert, one of the key developers behind the game. Cover art was created by Wil Overton, 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 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

Archived issues
at Video Game History Foundation {{Future Publishing magazines Future plc 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 Magazines about Nintendo Super Nintendo Entertainment System Defunct video game magazines published in the United Kingdom