This Month in Retro July 2023

Hello all and welcome back to This Month in Retro! After a short vacation, we are back to see what July 1995 has to offer. And I'm going to be honest with you straight from the start... not much really. I usually have a random wheel decide what year to talk about, but surprisingly July is a month that in my first few results always ended up coming short. This month was cursed from the start as Nintendo decided to release an unholy artifact by the name of the Virtual Boy in Japan. Not that I will be talking about it though, as all of the five release games did make it's way west a few months later. Maybe once we talk about August in 1995, then I will give it slightly more attention.

Fear not though, I still have a selection of games to talk about for you! The western side was just extremely limited in choices, so the eastern side takes priority today--and the SNES specifically. I had like seven systems to choose from, but the SNES just towered over everything in terms of releases. As usual, I will be talking about the legacy the games have left behind, the reception from both critics and players, as well as an achievement set if applicable. So without further ado, let's check out some games!

Western Releases

As mentioned in the intro, there is a smaller selection of games to talk about. Granted, that could mean we have a quality over quantity case right? If the first game is anything to go by, absolutely!

Game
Wild Guns (SNES)


Release dates	JP: August 12, 1994
	NA: July ??, 1995
	PAL: October 30, 1996
Sales	N/A
Average score	79% (GameRankings, 4 reviews)
	81% (MobyGames, 21 reviews)

Wild Guns is a shooting gallery game set in the wild west, with a bit of sci-fi and steampunk thrown in there because why not. Avenging the death of her family, Annie and her bounty hunter Clint travel along a diverse set of levels based after each of the themes used for this game, like a desert town or a mechanical factory. Think of the game like a light gun one, where all the enemies and obstacles are in the background while you are moving around the crosshair to end their lives. Furthermore, the player needs to move around their own character at the same time to prevent them from getting the devastating blow. While this may sound complex to do with just one D-pad, the clever solution ended up being that holding down the fire button would move the gun reticle. Add to that the ability to shoot down the bullets of enemies, and you got an exciting shooter on your hands. This is exactly what the critics- and players thought of the game as well, with the game being more fondly remembered now than ever. I should mention it can be a difficult game however, even on the lower difficulties, but the satisfying high-speed action should keep you engaged and become better over time. Due to its cult classic reception, the original version has been digitally re-released on all main Nintendo systems from the Wii onwards, as well as receiving an enhanced remaster called Wild Guns: Reloaded in 2016 for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC. This version also comes with two new characters, a few new stages and modes to check out, and of course updated visuals and audio. And one of the new playable characters is literally a dog called Bullet so yeah, check it out if you liked the original.

Ignoring that remaster for a bit, we have a great RetroAchievements set on our hands. Developer Salsa has made sure that every level has an interesting achievement to come along with it, like finding all the valuables with only the default gun, or clearing a level without even shooting in the first place. Test your skill against the CPU by having more kills than them, as well as your evading techniques by not taking damage in levels and against bosses. Certainly a packed- and challenging set!

Though I did say we would mostly stick to the SNES today since, well, everything interesting released over there, I do have an Atari Jaguar title for you today! And it may actually just be one of the best the system has! Not a high bar to reach I know but hey.

Game
Super Burnout (Atari Jaguar)


Release dates	JP: July ??, 1995
	NA: July 5, 1995
	PAL: July 7, 1995
Sales	N/A
Average score	65% (MobyGames, 17 reviews)

Released exclusively for the Atari Jaguar, Super Burnout is a motorcycle racing game heavily inspired by arcade classics such as Hang-On. Choose from a total of seven motorcycles and tackles one of the classic four games modes that include a training mode, versus mode, a championship with eight races all across the world, and finally a time trial mode. All of this sounds pretty standard, but what made this game stand out at the time is its impressively smooth 3D graphics with no loss in framerate. Not at the cost of gameplay either, as it features high action on packed track design that also moves vertically pretty regularly. It truly is one of the more impressive racing games from its time... though it didn't get as much praise at the time from critics. The controls and high sense of speed were all praised, but the lack of originality is what held the game back for them. But as mentioned before, Super Burnout has retrospectively seen a lot of praise, now commonly seen as one of the best games on the platform. Players, albeit few given that it is still an Atari Jaguar game after all, are generally in agreement. Unfortunately for the developers however, even it was not good enough to save the Atari Jaguar, meaning that another product they were working on for the system got cancelled. Afterwards they had the horrible fate of working on two football games for the PlayStation, after which the doors of the studio were closed. Super Burnout, perhaps unsurprisingly, was never seen again either, making this a true exclusive for this ill-fated system. It does not have an achievement set yet however, so if this game does sound interesting to you, you know what to do!

Back to the SNES we go after that short diversion. This month would see only one turn-based RPG release, and perhaps one of the more unknown ones for the system too. That does have a very obvious reason though, but is it still a valid one?

Game
Tecmo Secret of the Stars (SNES)


Release dates	JP: November 5, 1993
	NA: July ??, 1995
Sales	N/A
Average score	45% (GameRankings, 5 reviews)
	53% (MobyGames, 9 reviews)

Secret of the Stars, more commonly referred to as Tecmo Secret of the Stars because they loved putting their name in big letters before all of their games released during this era, is a turn-based JRPG released exclusively for the SNES. The game follow a young boy named Ray, in a classic "save the world from an ancient evil force" scenario. Ray is the leader of the Aqutallion warriors, a clan consisting of four other friends who travel the world and undergo trials to prove they have what it takes to prevent world destruction. Along the way, they also meet a dozen other characters to assist them in battle, which is also the most important aspect of the game as the bond between companions results in new special techniques that can be utilized in battle. While aspects such as having two separate parties to control and switch between sounds cool, critics were not very kind to Secret of the Stars. It was very grindy and just not very impressive from a graphical- and gameplay standpoint when many classics already came out before this one. Players on the other hand tend to go to either extremes, calling it one of the worst RPGs they've ever played, or a solid enough underrated gem. Most of the comments on RetroAchievements are fairly positive however, citing it as a neat simple RPG. Do beware that the translation is also a bit on the simpler side however. Perhaps unsurprisingly do its negative reception, Secret of the Stars was never seen again beyond the initial rerun, and never re-releases either.

The game comes with a pretty cozy set of achievements, mostly focusing on progression as well as obtaining every item. Not much more to say about it as you know exactly what needs to be done, but that is certainly good enough for a game like this. Do beware that there are missable achievements, so preparation is advised!

Time for the final Western release. You know, maybe it wasn't quality over quantity after all. July 1995 just wasn't a kind month to the world of video games, as proven by the next game we're going to talk about.

Game
King Arthur and the Knights of Justice (SNES)


Release dates	NA: July ??, 1995
Sales	N/A
Average score	55% (GameRankings, 2 reviews)
	56% (MobyGames, 1 review)

I love the tales of King Arthur to death, but then I learned this game is actually about an American football team being transported to Medieval England to take on the roles of King Arthur and his knights, so now I hate it. Based on the cartoon by the same name, King Arthur and the Knights of Justice is a top-down action-adventure game that is cited to have been inspired in-part by The Legend of Zelda. The mission of this football team is to save the true King Arthur and defeat Morgan le Fay, by going through the lands of Britain as Arthur and two out of twelve knights to accompany him, each coming with their own stats and effectiveness against bosses. This does all sound not too bad... except that the game is extremely cryptic in that regard. It is impossible to know what character is effective before going deep into a dungeon and facing a boss, which is made even worse by slow gameplay that also requires every enemy on screen to be beaten before being able to proceed. While the score may not reflect it, the game had a very poor reception, with some mediocre reviews at best. Player opinions are hard to find, but the ones that I did find were also on the negative end. Just like the cartoon it is based on, King Arthur and the Knights of Justice ended up being forgotten, and probably for the better. But hey, I'm not going to stop you from requesting an achievement set!