Random Yes, Xeno Crisis For The N64 And GameCube Are The Real Deal

The real April Fools' here is that this game has been put on pretty much everything at this point other than SNES.

The SNES would be such a great fit for this game. I mean, if nothing else, the controller on SNES is kinda ideal for playing a game just like Xeno Crisis. And, make no mistake, there is plenty else: In some ways it could even add extra details that weren't in say the Genesis version, such as displaying far more colours, more background layers, potentially more sprites total on-screen, proper multi-coloured transparency effects, even use surround sound, etc.

And, before anyone talks out their bumholio about limitations this and slowdown that and other misguided/misinformed nonsense, the SNES could indeed handle this game. So, let's just use a couple of similar examples to make sure there's no doubt about that, less anyone try to convince you otherwise:

https://youtu.be/yXMNkIK4fI0?t=173 (running in SlowRom at 2.68 MHz, which is 75% of SNES' full CPU speed)

https://youtu.be/Duq8cv1QVP0?t=635

Also, there's literally zero doubt that the SNES has a bigger potential audience than basically every single retro console they've released it on thus far (Mega Drive/Genesis, Dreamcast, Vita, Neo Geo AES, Neo Geo CD, Evercade VS, Nintendo 64, GameCube)--or at least it would have, if it weren't dead last on the list, by which point most people would likely no longer care quite so much about another version of a game that's already been released on every other random system and would probably get a half-effort port that does nothing to actually take advantage of SNES' unique features anyway.

What's the deal here--do the people making this game just hate the SNES or something?

Pretty happy to get these to go with my Vita, MegaDrive, Switch versions. Sold the excellent Dreamcast version with my system last year.
SNES would make sense for sure - the music would be interesting to hear - though I would be concerned on slowdown as a potential issue. Super Aleste / R-Type 3 / Contra 3 all suggest it can handle a busy screen in the right hands, so maybe we will see it eventually. After the PC Engine and Gameboy ports, perhaps?

@RetroGames You know, every time something like this comes up, you bring on the SNES and how it's loved the most and how it's superior to the Mega Drive with all the extra things it can do.

I don't mean to be rude, but your posts in this vein really are one of the certainties of life, along with death and taxes. It's the same school-yard argument I've heard ad-nauseum since the 90s.

Literally nobody is out to get the SNES.

I am sure a port of Xeno Crisis for it will come out eventually. I mean, Bitmap Bureau are a small company, and they seem to be getting to each console in due time. I think the limiting factor will be a way to economically get the Mega Drive score onto the SNES. Going on all the other ports, they've been bringing it over to each version wholesale; I very much doubt the music will be redone to fit the SNES sound hardware.

I know you'll bring up that Streets of Rage example again, and yeah, it's very impressive, but has it been tried in-game, with all the other game-y things going on also? We shall see.

Once the development tools are out there, the games will come. I'd love to see them too.

See you in the next article about a homebrew game, or new Mega Drive game, or new Mega Drive port, or a port of a Mega Drive game to something else that isn't the SNES.

Why does the N64 need a different shaped shell?
Just make the lockout indentation extra-wide to support both JP/PAL and US consoles, as the GameShark cart did.

@AJB83 Each time I see the SNES being shafted [ignored/overlooked] for no good reason, I'll bring it up. And I'll do so until it gets its fair share of indie/homebrew support that it deserves in modern times relative to all those other retro systems. It's the least I can do.

And, if there is any slowdown in some future SNES port, that's on the developer at this point, not the SNES. If they use FastROM and optimize the code properly for the system, there should be no real issue there. You know about SlowROM vs FastROM on SNES (and just basic code optimization), right?

Here's a Time Extension article on FasROM, if it helps: https://www.timeextension.com/news/2023/03/dedicated-romhacker-converts-more-than-80-snes-games-into-fastrom

@Jimgamer8 And Rendering Ranger R2, which even runs in SlowROM at 2.68 MHz and 75% of the SNES' CPU's full speed, with no enhancement chips either, shows even better [imo] that SNES can handle a busy screen in the right hands:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl7D25I6yDc&t=734s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl7D25I6yDc&t=1180s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl7D25I6yDc&t=1367s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl7D25I6yDc&t=2833s

The rest of the game is just as technically impressive (it's all kinda mind-boggling actually), but I particularly like the shmup sections personally.

There's plenty of other dang impressive games on SNES too, and quite a few others that still run in SlowROM as well.

@RetroGames That's the thing, the SNES isn't being shafted, and it doesn't need a defence force. New games for old consoles is a relatively new thing, and don't forget, super niche at the moment.

Maybe you should learn to code? You've obviously got a passion for the hardware. Do something maybe a bit more pro-active; be the change you want to see, maybe?

@AJB83 Except it is getting shafted [ignored/overlooked] by the modern indie/homebrew community creating games for these old consoles. The instance above is a perfect example of that in motion. And it just has an army of one right now, it seems.

Trust me, I've tried to learn to code on SNES, but it's a total nightmare because the documentation for it is terrible, plus it's just a pretty convoluted system under the hood in the first place, what with eight different background modes to figure out and so on--which almost certainly goes to why it's taking longer to get a proper SDK up and running on it and then see a bunch of new AAA indie/homebrew games and that like.

I'm still very curious to see how this whole situation plays out if/when SNES finally gets the right tools and documentation to make developing new games for it as relatively easy as it is on Genesis right now.

Put it like this, if there was such as thing as SNESmaker, I'd have at least one or two working games in development for SNES as I type.

@RetroGames You just answered your own question then. SNES development right now is hard and doesn't have the tools that the others do. It's not being ignored, the right person just has to come along and crack the scene open.

@AJB83 Well, yes, but that still equates to getting shafted as I'm describing it. And it's for various reasons. One of them is that unlike with Genesis, no one has/is putting in the effort that's needed to create the stuff that needs to exist for the other stuff to happen. And I think part of that is because there's too much elitism and snobbery in the SNES dev community for the most part right now too, where the programmers control kinda everything and are just too concerned with yanking their own chains and staying in their little vacuums and echo chambers to see the bigger picture here. So I'm just pushing for the SNES development scene to get its butt in gear and for some geniuses in the community to give the creators the tools and guides they need to start making some brand new AAA tiles for this beloved system. And I'm also calling out those developers that could clearly make amazing new SNES games right now irrespective of the other stuff I just mentioned, the ones that clearly already have the ability to create games for just about any system they choose including the SNES, yet they're simply ignoring it and kinda only it. Either way, the market for new SNES content is absolutely out there--it just needs the amazing games for people to spend their money on.

@RetroGames Turning Bitmap Bureau into a villain is pretty unfair though. They only way they are doing this is by bringing on more and more people to port the game. They started with the Mega Drive version as a base themselves. Then they brought it to Dreamcast the modern platforms. From what I remember of the Kickstarter, help came in when the Neo Geo version was started, and more hands on deck appeared with the other platforms.

Maybe if the SNES dev community is as you say, there is nobody willing to heed the call, in which case Bitmap Bureau is blameless in your crusade.

I dare say if they could put it on the SNES, then it'd be there already, or on its way at the very least.

@AJB83 I'm just not buying that narrative. As soon as they decided it should be on some retro console from that era, SNES should have immediately been on the list too, and if not first, maybe second or third.

Again, SNES is the most popular console of that era and every single era before it [along with far more popular than many of the consoles they've ported it too that came after the SNES also] to modern audiences to the tune of multiple millions. If you don't very clearly and definitively get that from the relative sales of all the mini consoles as the best indicator of this we have, I'm wasting breath here. And Nintendo could have actually sold millions more SNES Classic Minis to keep up with demand it if had simply produced more units, but it clearly wanted to create a bit of a limited edition vibe to things.

Creating these modern indie/homebrew games is a business for companies like Bitmap Bureau. If they wanted to release a new game for some classic retro consoles from the likes of the 16-bit era, SNES actually really should be first in line if it's about hitting the largest and indeed clearly one of the most enthusiastic and passionate audiences imo--but it definitely should have been very close to top of the list if not the top, and certainly focused on before any total niche systems like the Dreamcast and Neo Geo, etc. That would be the most unbiased and indeed smartest business move right there as far as I'm concerned. Their actions thus far just don't speak to that imo.

What I see is a company that's very deliberately avoided SNES to date--maybe they even think there's legit reasons for doing so, like they buy into the same old misguided and ignorant fanboy-perpetuated narrative that the SNES couldn't handle it for example--so I'm calling a spade a spade.

@RetroGames And with that response, I see you are yet another unreasonable person on the internet with first world problems. There is no narrative here but the one you are spinning.

I look forward to not seeing any of your comments on these kinds of articles any more.

@AJB83 Lol We're all first-worlders. Even you are--or you're certainly privileged enough to waste your time on here with me. I don't give a crap about world peace or whatever. These first-world problems are my/our problems. And I simply want to see SNES get its fair share of new AAA indie/homebrew games.

Waiting for my Rendering Ranger cart from Limited Run....adjacent topic, but would be nice for the PC Engine to get some love. A machine I'd like to see some remakes on, and maybe a Contra port. Big miss for Konami to skip PCE with Contra, and Genesis with Gradius.

@RetroGames I think Super Nintendo is left behind because there's not the same level of tools and SDKs available for it that makes easy to develop for it in the same vein as other systems have. It's a shame, but actually is much hard for develop to Snes than for Mega Drive and other systems. I think eventually some kits, libraries, and methods, will appear and we'll see a huge rise on snes development. But until that, we have to wait for people to do really hard word when they decide to do something for snes.

@Madcore I think it really is a major part of it. And I really hope it does indeed change in the near-ish future. Because there's a lot left for the SNES to give, and all the people who want to make games on this thing [who aren't hardcore programmers] are waiting for is the more programmer-minded types to use their great genius to create the tools and development resources that will allow the game designers and artists and musicians and so on to create some awesome new SNES games. Think a SNES version of NESmaker, even as just the most basic way of allowing people into SNES development as a starting point, and I think we'd see a crap-load of new games for the system even at that. Yes, most of them won't be even remotely good, but that's still the exact kind of tipping point the SNES development community is waiting for imo.