New year, new news recap!  The end of 2022 means it's time for us to look back on the biggest video gaming news of the year and put it all in context one last time.  We have everything from Embracer embracing everyone to Sony relaunching PlayStation Plus with new tiers to FIFA and Electronic Arts parting ways and much, much more.  Join us for a supersized episode.  Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, find us on Stitcher, subscribe via iTunes, Amazon Music Podcasts, and Google Podcasts, toss this RSS feed into your podcast aggregation software of choice, and be sure to catch up on past episodes if you're joining us late. Remember that you can reach us via , you can leave a message on the Power Button hotline by calling (720) 722-2781, and you can even follow us on Twitter at @PressTheButtons and @GrundyTheMan, or for just podcast updates, @ThePowerButton. We also have a tip jar if you'd like to kick a dollar or two of support our way. 

Longtime PTB readers will remember how much I love the two Aero the Acro-bat games for the Super NES, and even though the Game Boy Advance port of the first game isn't quite up to the original's level of quality (particularly the amazing music), it has enough going for it that it's worth a play (especially for the bit of new material).  I missed this news when it was new, but Forest of Illusion has recovered a very early version of that GBA port which apparently represents only a few days of work.  The Aero character's sprite set in use comes from the first game, while the final GBA port would use Aero's sequel sprites, for instance.  Hard4Games has created a playthrough video on YouTube so we can see the early progress and it's an interesting watch for those of us familiar with the game.

Check out this vintage piece of Nintendo merchandise from my collection.  I've held on to this Mario Christmas decoration over the years; it hung on my childhood game room door each December when I was a kid and as a teen, and now it hangs on my game room door of my adult home.  Dating back to 1989, this decoration sports the Super Mario Bros. 2 style of character artwork with the classic red overalls and blue shirt for Mario instead of today's modern color swap.  The pop-out tree was originally held in place with a small plastic clip that has gone missing since last year, so now a twist tie does the job.  It's also a little banged up from over thirty years of use and storage, but there's no way I would part with it.  I love the artwork on this decoration.  While I still love Super Mario games and the modern incarnation of the franchise, this version of the character was my Mario and always reminds me of those comforting holiday memories from when my biggest concern was wishing that I'd find a Super NES and Super Mario World under the tree.

Konami and Digital Eclipse teamed up to bring a collection of all of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games released by the publisher between 1989 and 1994 to modern platforms this year entitled The Cowabunga Collection, but since the Sega Dreamcast fans were feeling left out (as the console was discontinued over twenty years ago), they decided to do something about it.  I expect the lawyers will be working overtime this Christmas, but in the meantime here is a Dreamcast take on The Cowabunga Collection that includes all of the official collection's NES, Super NES, Genesis, and Game Boy games along with bonus games not found on the retail collection including titles for the ZX Spectrum and the Dreamcast itself.  There's even a homebrew take on the official version's museum materials with the inclusion of VHS versions of the pilot episode of the 1987 TMNT cartoon, behind the scenes promotion video of the Coming Out Of Their Shells tour, music videos from Vanilla Ice, and much more.  Homebrew coder Ian Michael spent five months refining this collection and working out the technical kinks on the emulator, and now the result is available to download, burn to a CD, and play on your Dreamcast.  I love it when fans take on a "because we can" attitude to homebrew conversions and hacks of familiar games (even if the copyright owners do not), and while the official version is the best way to play these games today, this Dreamcast version is worth a look for the sake of curiosity.

More and more development builds and assets from classic Nintendo video games have found their way to the Internet in the past few years, but it's still a nice surprise to see in-progress versions of beloved favorites pop up.  Today's game under the magnifying glass is 1991's Super Mario World for the Super NES, as Forest of Illusion has acquired and documented an October 1990 localization prototype used to prepare the game for its North American release.  This version contains a different title screen logo, different fonts, a few script changes, a slew of enabled debugging tools, and some other interesting changes.  Check out the video for the full set of documented differences. It's an interesting peek behind the curtain.

As the holiday season is upon us and people are planning to spend time with family, we thought it was the perfect time to recommend video games perfect for some family multiplayer fun time.  Gather the kids, your siblings, your parents, and everyone in your circle who enjoys controllers to spend some time with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection, Kirby's Dream Buffet, and many more.  Join us! Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, find us on Stitcher, subscribe via iTunes, Amazon Music Podcasts, and Google Podcasts, toss this RSS feed into your podcast aggregation software of choice, and be sure to catch up on past episodes if you're joining us late. Remember that you can reach us via , you can leave a message on the Power Button hotline by calling (720) 722-2781, and you can even follow us on Twitter at @PressTheButtons and @GrundyTheMan, or for just podcast updates, @ThePowerButton. We also have a tip jar if you'd like to kick a dollar or two of support our way. 

Sega experimented with content for older audiences beyond the teen market in the 1990s, from allowing Mortal Kombat's blood code on the Genesis version of the arcade smash to creating the Deep Water series rating for games with mature themes.  The company was ready to go beyond those markers though through a subsidiary with the development of its erotic thriller title The Sacred Pools.  Planned for release on the Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation, PC, and Mac back in 1997, Sacred Pools was one of those underwhelming full motion video games from that era.  Dylan Mansfield at Gaming Alexandria has the story of the multimillion dollar game that was never released until now, and you can download and try the unfinished version of the game if you want to be, y'know, erotically thrilled.

“If you crave mystery, power, and seduction, step into the world of Sacred Pools,” read SegaSoft’s original press release. “The once secure, safe, and beautiful island of Amazonia is now a land of temptation and danger. […] Sacred Pools exploits today’s technology creating a new level of gameplay so unreal you have to feel it to believe it.”

The game’s story revolves around the mystical sacred crystals on the far-off island of Amazonia. The island was once a safe area but has now become a dangerous spot littered with lust and desire. On your way to the titular sacred pools, you’ll encounter a plethora of far-out sci-fi enemies, who you’ll need to navigate past to get to the crystals.

Although the game featured many scantily clad women, none of the footage contained any fully naked bodies (and certainly no “hardcore sex scenes,” as some websites claim). Sega of Japan actually announced in August of 1996 that no future Saturn games would feature nudity of any kind.

The United States Congress already didn't like Mortal Kombat and Night Trap.  Can you imagine their reaction if this game had actually made it out?  Just the hint of a "sex video game" produced for mainstream consoles where children play would have sent the politicians running for both their committees and 60 Minutes.  It doesn't matter how titillating Sacred Pools was or whether or not there was any nudity in the game.  Just look at how everyone reacted to the Hot Coffee mini-game in Grand Theft Auto: Andreas in 2005, and that was supposed to be deleted content.  I think overall the industry was better off without it.  That said, I'm also glad that pieces of it survive for curious players to examine today as part of the historical record.

Nintendo's Star Fox for the Super NES is fondly remembered today despite aging terribly.  It runs at twenty frames per second if you're lucky, its polygons are very basic, and it lacks the refinements found in its sequels.  Aiming to make the game a better modern experience without sacrificing what still makes it fun, kandowontu has created a hack of the game called Star Fox EX that adds a ton of improvements and refinements.  There's seventeen new levels, a model viewer, support for the Super NES mouse and Super Scope, multiplayer mode for up to five players, wingmen controlled by the player, and much more!

The Mario Bros. have decided that the Star Fox franchise no longer has a place within the grand Nintendo universe, and has set out to destroy the Lylat System forever, with the help of characters from more successful Nintendo IPs! They have also posed as Andross in order to hire the infamous Star Wolf team, a rival band of mercenaries led by Wolf O’Donnell, to distract Star Fox while they pull off their plans! Can Fox and his team put aside their former friendship with the Nintendo All-Stars to save both the Lylat System and everything associated with their franchise?”

I love hacks that build something entirely new out of the original content.  Watch for appearances from Mario and Luigi, Metroids, and many other familiar faces from the Nintendo universe.  Better yet, if you have the right accessories, you can play this hack on original Super NES hardware.  It's exciting stuff.

Nintendo's Game Boy Pocket does a lot of things right when it comes to handheld gaming, but the one thing you cannot do with it is fold it in half (and expect to be able to use it again afterward, anyway!).  Programmer Allison Parrish set right what once went wrong by taking the best aspect of the successor Game Boy Advance SP in terms of folding, the hinge, and applied it to the Pocket hardware.  The result is a Game Boy Pocket SP, and with a little engineering knowledge and access to the proper resources, you can build one of your own.

Over the summer I dug in deep with Game Boy modding and made this: the Game Boy Pocket SP. It’s a Game Boy Pocket motherboard that I cut in half and then put into a custom-designed shell with a hinge, a la the Game Boy Advance SP. The build has a pair of custom-designed flex PCBs to make routing signals between the two halves of the board easier. Along the way I taught myself CAD (with FreeCAD), PCB design (with KiCad) and 3D printing. The 3D models and PCB layouts for the Pocket SP are available on GitHub.

In this post, I’m going to talk about why and how I made the Pocket SP, and how you can make your own.

At first I couldn't figure out why anyone would want to do this.  After all, the GBA SP already plays Game Boy games right out of the box and then some.  The Pocket cannot play Game Boy Color or Game Boy Advance games.  Why go through all this trouble just to end up with a piece of hardware that does less than its more advanced counterpart?  Then I saw the photos of the GBP SP and understood completely.  Sometimes these kinds of things are worth doing just to accomplish them.  I have no need for a GBP SP, but damn if it's not a beautiful little device.

(via MetaFilter)

Sony and Insomniac Studios are marking the twentieth anniversary of the Ratchet & Clank franchise with streaming re-releases of the Ratchet titles for the PlayStation 3 for PlayStation Plus Premium members and an article of remembrances from Insomniac staff.  Oh, and some free DLC nostalgia armor for last year's Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.  Seems kind of lackluster, but it's poor fate that led to a landmark anniversary year falling just a year after the most recent game in the series released.  Maybe something larger will happen for the twenty-fifth anniversary.  Anyways, here's Insomniac President Ted Price remembering when he knew they had something big cooking with these characters.

"I remember a bunch of us crowded around an old CRT TV watching our first test cinematic. It was the ad for Al’s Roboshack where Captain Qwark (voiced by the great Jim Ward) states in his typically snarky tone “There’s nothing worse than staring down a Blargian Snagglebest…from the inside”. Even though I knew the script by heart, after watching the scene I laughed out loud. The lines, the delivery, the animation, the subtle social commentary – everything fit. To me, that ended up being the scene that set the comedic tone for the entire franchise.”

I came to the PS2 Ratchet titles late enough that I picked up all three used from GameStop after I bought my console and was immediately taken in by the strongly-written characters and explosive humor.  I've come back for more ever since.  If you've somehow missed out on these games, you absolutely have to try them.  While the PS2 trilogy (plus one, Deadlocked) was remade for the PS3, I'm surprised that the PS3 Future trilogy (also plus one, Into the Nexus) was not remade for PS4 or now PS5.  Still, there is that twenty-fifth anniversary coming up and I suppose it's never too late...