Before being outsourced to other developers and turned into a first person shooter, Metroid was one of Nintendo’s most celebrated franchises of both the 8 and 16-bit era. Come to think about it, it’s still one of Nintendo’s most celebrated franchises even after being outsourced to other developers. Its exploration heavy gameplay has made it a hit among gamers, and its heroine Samus Aran is one of the most recognizable female protagonists in gaming. Super Metroid represented the series at its best.
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This episode of Rewind centers around of the the best Disney games created for the 4th generation of consoles and handhelds – Disney’s Aladdin. In a day when Epic Mickey and Kingdom Hearts put Disney high up on the gaming food chain, does this older gem stack up for it’s age?

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It’s not often that Mario’s brother gets the spotlight. The most notable times he was the primary playable character was Luigi’s Mansion, and it’s upcoming sequel. However, the Gamecube cult classic wasn’t the first time Luigi was the star of the show. Nope, that honor belongs to this clunkfest, although many would rather forget about it. Yeah, it has an educational value, but it’s repetitive action and boring gameplay will put kids to sleep.
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Welcome to the Powet Top 5, where we explore the top (and bottom) 5 items we think are relevant to any of a variety of topics that span the imagination. Sit back, read, and respond

Difficulty in a video game is a tough thing. Make it too easy, and there’s no challenge to it. Make it too hard, and if the player gives up on the game, it’s failed them. You pretty much want to make a game as hard as possible, so long as the player likes the game enough to push through and triumph, ultimately feeling satisfied for their win. This list is about games that, for better or for worse, are just too damned hard. There’s always a certain amount of shame associated with admitting that you find a game too hard, but I have no shame in saying that I am not able to beat any of the games on this list, and if you’ve been able to conquer any of them yourself I’d love to hear about it.

I’m sure you’ve all got your own games which make you so angry you could whip a gamepad at the wall, so feel free to leave a comment with your own list. With that, here are my 5 most difficult video games.

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Many younger Poweteers recognize Factor 5 from their PS3 disappointment Lair. A few older poweteers remember them for their awesome N64 and Gamecube Rogue Squadron games. Before those however, they created the equally awesome, yet severely overlooked Turrican games, which hit the Sega Genesis, Commodore 64, Amiga, and the Super Nintendo. Super Turrican 2 for the Super Nintendo is actually the third Turrican game released on 16-bit systems, with Super Turrican being released on SNES and Mega Turrican being released on Genesis. Like its predecessors, Super Turrican 2 is a side-scrolling platformer in the vein of Metroid (although the stages are linear). However unlike other games, Super Turrican frequently incorporates other styles of play, mainly vehicles. Many levels you’ll take control of a tank or jeep. Sometimes you’ll even engage enemies in a Mode-7 sequence. When he is on foot, your character has several weapons, including a grappling hook straight out of Bionic Commando. While Super Turrican 2 was nothing groundbreaking, it was still an excellent game that exemplified what was great about SNES platformers back then. All three Turrican games are available on Virtual Console, so check them out.

Your eyes do not deceive you. This is an actual Sonic game on the Super Nintendo. “But Sonic is a Sega game!” Yes I know. So how is this possible? Did Tengen get another Sega license? Did Sega know that they were going to fail as a console manufacturer and decided to test the waters as a third party developer years early? Is this the second coming of Color Dreams? Nope. This Super Nintendo game is a product of the wonderful world of foreign bootlegging! A Peruvian-based organization known as Twin Eagles Group hacked a Super Nintendo game called Speedy Gonzales: Los Gatos Bandidos, stripped out all the good stuff, and replaced the main character with Sonic. Basically, you run through each stage repeatedly freeing Mario from cages. While it’s fun for all of 3 minutes, the charm of having a Sonic game on the SNES wore off and players would realize how shitty this game was compared to the Sega titles. It wouldn’t be until Sonic Adventure 2 hit GameCube that gamers would get an actual Sonic game on a Nintendo system. As bad as this game was however, it was nowhere near as bad as the NES Sonic the Hedgehog.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and we certainly have a lot to be thankful for, such as our friends, family, jobs, health, and fortune. We as gamers especially have cause to be thankful. With all the games being canceled throughout the years, we’ve had several classic games that have made to store shelves. On the flip side, we should also be thankful for all the crappy titles that were not released. This is a follow up to this past summer’s article about canceled games. As you read this list, be thankful for all those triple A titles you enjoyed that were released.
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