This Month in Retro April 2023
Hello all and welcome to This Month in Retro! The year is 1992 and we are faced with April, a... surprisingly uneventful month when it comes to company happenings. Usually I start an article like this with the start-ups, mergers, and defuncts, but nope, nothing like that happened during April. Which would make for a pretty short introduction... but there was at least something that happened. This month, our favourite pink puffball was born! Or at least, in Japan. Kirby's Dream Land released this month and was the first in a beloved ongoing franchise that still very occasionally sees multiple games per year. Although we won't be covering this game today due to the western release being later in the same year, it goes without saying that Kirby is a very important franchise to Nintendo that is often in the spotlight, and for good reason as it is a high-quality franchise that consistently pumps out hit after hit. It's a franchise I too love a lot, marking this as an important month to me.
And Kirby wasn't the only important game that released this month--although to find out what I mean by that, feel free to continue on reading. This month has seen a plethora of games, so as usual, I will be covering the games that released for the first time in the West, as well as games released that have never left Japan to this day. If applicable, I'll also cover the reviews and sales numbers, but do keep in mind early 90s documentation can be relatively poor and not too accurate. Also uh, MobyGames changed their website and it's too much of a hindrance to make an average of reviews only made around the time so I just grab the average instead. Initially I didn't want to include reviews from at least 10 years and later, but it is what it is. Regardless, the most important aspect is covering the games themselves and their achievement sets, so let's get on with it!
So remember reading that introduction 1 minute and 32 seconds ago? Where I mentioned that there was another important game release? Yeah, that's coming up right now. In total I have three favourite games of all time that usually take first place depending on my mood. What the other two of them are, wait and see I suppose as they are all very much possible to appear on This Month in Retro. Regardless, one of them we'll be talking about today, and that honour goes to none other than...
| Game |
|---|
 Legend of Zelda, The: A Link to the Past (SNES)
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| Release dates | JP: November 21, 1991 |
| NA: April 13, 1992 | |
| PAL: September 24, 1992 | |
| Sales | 4.610.000 |
| Average score | 92% (GameRankings, 15 reviews) |
| 94% (MobyGames, 43 reviews) |
My first ever The Legend of Zelda game, and one that remains the undefeated champion that I don't ever see being surpassed. I absolutely adore this game--so much so that, including the awesome LTTP Randomizer, my total playthroughs are far closer to the triple digits than to the single. That's because it simply lends itself to a lot of freedom with a vast open world to explore that keeps delivering new secrets every time items from dungeons have been obtained. While the route to the end goal is fairly straightforward, there is so much to do that makes it feel like no playthrough is ever the same. And even then, most of the latter dungeons don't even have to be done in the order the game wants you to--although it will certainly make your life easier. My love for this game knows no limits, and I am clearly not alone. Not only does this game often contest its own entire franchise as the best game of it, but also for being one of the best SNES games... or even games in general. And don't just take my word for it either; critics- and players alike have an almost universal acclaim for this game, with practically no scores lower than a 7 to be found... anywhere. It simply is that good.
The achievement set doesn't really need an introduction as it is one of the most mastered games on the website. It's simple yet effective, and yours truly here has made an Achievement Guide if necessary. Talks about a subset have been going around and a revision is wanted by many players to include even more, but that's something future Nepiki will tell you about. In the meantime, there are also a bunch of hacks based on the game that you can try out, and although it has no RetroAchievements implementation, I highly highly HIGHLY recommend giving the LTTP Randomizer a go. It has been one of my most favoured fanmade experiences ever, and it truly would be a dream for me to ever see this on RetroAchievements in one way or another.
And The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past wasn't the only NES franchise to make the jump to the SNES with a critically acclaimed debut. Next up, we have a popular Run and Gun video game series that may have torn some hairs out back in the day!
| Game |
|---|
 Contra III: The Alien Wars (SNES)
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| Release dates | JP: February 28, 1992 |
| NA: April 6, 1992 | |
| PAL: November 19, 1992 | |
| Sales | ??? (130.000 in Japan) |
| Average score | 86% (GameRankings, 10 reviews) |
| 87% (MobyGames, 24 reviews) |
Contra III: The Alien Wars, known as Super Probotector: Alien Rebels in PAL regions, is the third home console entry in the Contra franchise. The aliens defeated in the previous entries were tired of it and decided to launch an all-out war against earth, with two bad dudes being the only defense Earth needs. And if you've seen a particular boss battle from this game where the heroes jump between missiles high in the air while shooting the enemy and avoiding incoming hazards, yeah, I think Earth will be safe. That is, if you are able to get past this boss given how tough the Contra games usually are. Featuring a total of six stages with a boss at the end, what may sound like a short journey could become the complete opposite depending on your skill. The game mostly features side-scrolling run and gun gameplay, but does sometimes alternate it with a top-down perspective that takes advantage of Mode 7. This clever us also saw a lot of praise from critics, as well as the gameplay overall with a good challenge provided. Nowadays it is still seen as one of the best Contra games, as well as ranking on the higher end of many SNES lists. Players overall agree, with a few negative opinions here and there that mostly apply to the GBA re-release named Contra Advance: The Alien Wars. No surprise then that whenever this game got ported, which in recent years has been pretty frequently, the SNES version is used. That's also the only really good thing to come out of Contra anymore because, y'know, Konami.
While the GBA port also has a set, I'll only cover the SNES version today given that's what we were talking about. And the set developer has made sure that, despite there being only six stages, that the set would still be loaded with challenges. Complete every stage on any difficulty, without taking hit, and do the same but on hard difficulty. If you love dopamine, try to do all four at once for those sweet unlocks! But your skill is going to be a requirement, as the hardest achievement of them all wants you to beat the game without getting hit even once. Good luck with that!
Let us do one more SNES game and then move on to other consoles. This month was absolutely packed with outstanding games, so narrowing it down to only a few games was really tough to do. And the best part is that fans of almost every genre got their money's worth this month. Case in point, racing game fans!
| Game |
|---|
 Top Gear (SNES)
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| Release dates | JP: March 27, 1992 |
| NA: April 16, 1992 | |
| PAL: November 19, 1992 | |
| Sales | ??? |
| Average score | 78% (GameRankings, 2 reviews) |
| 82% (MobyGames, 7 reviews) |
Not to be confused with the TV series by the same name, Top Gear is the first game in the franchise by the same name, and also one of the earlier Racing games for the SNES. This series is preceded by another franchise by the same developers called Lotus, which made its name on the Amiga and Mega Drive. Similarities between the two are very apparent, with most of the music tracks being remixed from these games as well. In Top Gear, your goal is to become the fastest driver across several nations, with the ability to choose between an automatic or manual transmission over four unique cars. To add some realism™ into the mix, players must also refill their fuel at pits because if they run out, the race is over. Critics- and players alike received this game very positively, with it having high speed while keeping great performance. The only annoyance some players had was that the split-screen will always be on even when alone, similar to what we've seen with Super Mario Kart, though the developers' excuse was to give the sense of competition with the other racer displayed always being just a bit faster than you are. Although most people know the franchise for the first few SNES games, it did make it all the way to the GBA and PlayStation 2. The series has not received new games since then, but it, alongside other racing games at the time such as OutRun, have been incredibly important to racing games as a whole, with awesome indie titles such as Horizon: Chase Turbo taking the helm.
As expected, in a game where you are meant to become the best driver, the achievement set also wants you to end up in first place. Consider my shock. There are a surprisingly good amount of race tracks though, so this goal is still a good one to work towards. Furthermore, there are challenges for the highest difficulty, as well as some tackling the game's unique mechanics, like winning a race while out of fuel. And of course, there are leaderboards accompanying this set as well, so don't just try to become the best driver in-game, but also the best driver in general!
| Game |
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 [Devilish: The Next Possession |
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| Game |
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 Fullmetal Alchemist: Stray Rondo (Game Boy Advance)
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| Release dates | JP: March 25, 2004 |
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