I know that speculating about the SNES Classic is all the rage right now but I’ll be surprised if they make one at all. Despite being a publically-traded company, Nintendo has shown time and again that making money is not their primary concern. The NES Classic is a prime example. Demand for it still had not been met—there was a lot more money to be made off that thing!—but Nintendo discontinued it because money was never their goal. They had no big games for the holidays but needed to keep their name in the public mindshare. The NES Classic did the trick. Now that the Switch is selling gangbusters, they are probably prepping it for Virtual Console (or perhaps some new Classic-branded service). Why sell NES games for the equivalent of $2 a pop when you can sell them for $5 or more? They want you to buy a Switch. So while an SNES Classic would make a gob ton of money right now, that’s not what Nintendo is after and that’s why I don’t think we’ll see one at all.
STAGE SELECT
3. Hero’s village is destroyed—This is especially true in RPGs. I hope you don't have any beloved family members, little protagonist dude!
2. Elevator with no power—In any other medium the hero would just get in the working elevator...or take the stairs...but in games you always have to restore the power first. Dang those faulty but easily fixed generators!
1. Losing all abilities after opening—This is mostly true of Metroid but I know it happens in other games sometimes too. Though it sucks to go down to being a weakling, that opening taste of power is awesome.
CHRONO CROSSING—1994
We got our Super Nintendo between the release of the SNES Final Fantasies (let’s call them by their actual numerals for clarity’s sake). While we rented FFIV from the local grocery store quite a few times (and eventually acquired our own copy nearly a decade later), it was Final Fantasy VI that made such a lasting impact on my childhood. Thanks to Nintendo Power we knew the game was coming and we scrounged together all the money we could. We had $80 by the time the game came out but then couldn’t find a copy anywhere. My dad drove us to store after store to no avail. Finally we tried Service Merchandise, an overpriced big box electronics store that went out of business a few years later. They had one copy…for $90. My dad let us get it anyway, bless his heart. I can’t tell you how many times we played that game in the years that followed. Never had we seen a game with such an epic story fraught with drama, intrigue, and adventure. The cast was great. The soundtrack was fantastic (we totally recorded it on cassette tapes to listen to). I think I can safely say that no other game made a bigger impression on me as a kid. I haven't played it in years but I'd love to go back and join the Returners once again.
One other thing. I was wondering the other day what you'll do when you run out of years for Chrono Crossing and, hindsight being 20/20 and all, it occurred to me that maybe you should have alternated Chrono Crossing with Stage Select. And that would cut out an hour+ on most of the episodes, which I would certainly appreciate. Sometimes it's really hard to fit in listening to NWP because the episodes are so dang long! You could still start alternating but most of the years, especially those people really care about, are already behind us. But assuming you replace Chrono Crossing with something else eventually, I'd definitely urge you to consider an alternating schedule for the show segments.
Now, time to wait and see if my post actually makes it into the episode this time...
I know what you mean about wanting a back up blog though. If anything ever happens to mostly-absent site director Nick, all this will go POOF. There's no reason to think that will happen but it could. I've never found another place I like though, and I've been chatting with the folks here for years now.
