Secret of Mana joins SFII:SCE on Virtual Console today

by Justin McElroy { Oct 13th 2008 at 11:30AM }

You have to feel a little bad for WiiWare. Just when it manages to mount a decent effort with the completely solid-looking World of Goo, here's what the Virtual Console answers back with:

Secret of Mana (Super NES, 1-3 players, 800 Wii Points) -- Oh, you remember Secret of Mana, it's only one of the very best role-playing games ever, with two million copies shipped worldwide. It's also got one of the best pieces of box art in history, not that you'll get to enjoy that.

Oh, and...

Street Fighter II: Special Championship Editon (Sega Genesis, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points) -- In case you have as hard a time keeping SFII games straight at we do, allow us to remind you that this is the one that blends Turbo, Hyper and Champion editions and adds the Group Battle mode. (P.S. Do yourself a favor and check out that video we linked to, it's a treat.)

Wow, WiiWare, that's gotta hurt. At least Art Style: Cubello is there to soften the blow.

Tags: secret-of-mana, virtual-console

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Zertoss @ Oct 13th 2008 11:38AM

"It's also got one of the best pieces of box art in history, not that you'll get to enjoy that."

What are you talking about, I'm enjoying it right now!

Roddie @ Oct 13th 2008 12:26PM

Yup, great boxart; the uncropped version for the Japanese box is even nicer.

Vidikron @ Oct 13th 2008 12:30PM

Didn't the US version come with a small foldout poster of the full artwork? I seem to remember something like that. It was either in the box or maybe it was a foldout ad in a magazine.

Mark C @ Oct 13th 2008 12:47PM

@Vidikron
I remember that as well. Could have been a foldout or part of the Nintendo Power issues. Anyone remember those? They were fantastic.

This site has some scans:
http://secretofmana.planets.gamespy.com/nintendopower.html

Mark C @ Oct 13th 2008 12:49PM

Here's the foldout:

http://secretofmana.planets.gamespy.com/images/mapart.jpg

ZaxCG2 @ Oct 13th 2008 1:06PM

Wow that really is beautiful Mark. Now if someone could just photoshop out the fold lines. :(

KingOfGods @ Oct 13th 2008 4:42PM

here you go

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3206/2939525156_c58bc0a204_o.jpg

Vidikron @ Oct 13th 2008 11:41AM

SoM is a great game. It was the first RPG I played where you could do co-op. Loved it.

dramasetter @ Oct 13th 2008 11:42AM

snes RPG's cant be touched...even in this time and day games like secret of mana, secret of evermore,lufia,breath of fire series, super mario rpg, chrono trigger, etc....are even better then most of the RPG's avaiable now.....keep bringing these classics

Jihad Germ @ Oct 13th 2008 11:45AM

EarthBound.

Josh @ Oct 13th 2008 11:52AM

Only if you have the nostalgia necessary to enjoy them today.

Otherwise, they're really hard to get into, compared to today's RPGs.

BigD145 @ Oct 13th 2008 12:06PM

Secret of Mana had two things going for it: great RPG and one of the rare multiplayer RPG's.

Yourself @ Oct 13th 2008 12:37PM

@Josh

Really? I was sort of thinking the opposite. Sure, sometimes they can get a little aimless (Secret games), but the better ones don't really suffer from that, and I find they're usually a lot more focused and engaging than today's JRPGs. These days, a lot of RPGs don't even actually start until 2 or 3 hours in (the Final Fantasy series has become nasty with this), and then tend to love wresting control from the player for more than 10 minutes at a time.

zkey14 @ Oct 13th 2008 1:13PM

I agree with Josh on this one. The reason I still find most of these games appealing is the inevitable nostalgia that comes with having grown up playing them.

If you measure classic JRPG's against modern JRPG's, that's another story, since the genre has barely moved forward over the years. If you put them up against mostly any RPG though, they get demolished.

Josh @ Oct 13th 2008 2:11PM

I'm in the minority here, but I don't care. Old turn-based RPGs are pretty boring to me. If they had better storytelling, that might make up for the outdated gameplay, but with poor scripts and antiquated gameplay, I really can't enjoy most old RPGs.

Secret of Mana is an action RPG, though, so it might still hold up today. I may check it out later...

t_m @ Oct 14th 2008 12:19AM

I dunno. I played Chrono Trigger for the first time about 3 years ago... and its in my top 5 games of all time list for sure.

On the other hand, I tried playing Final Fantasy 6 and I couldn't get past the freakin annoying random battles. Does this have random battles??

Morgon @ Oct 13th 2008 11:47AM

I loved Secret of Mana! The enemies were a little off-the-wall (then again, this is oldschool Square we're talking about), but had a great overall environment.

The inclusion of co-op was a genius move, and is something sorely missing from modern RPGs.

Too bad they followed that up with that weird Secret of Evermore thing (with no co-op, of course.)

TwentyHourDrive @ Oct 13th 2008 11:53AM

Secret of Evermore wasn't a 'follow' up game. It was it's own entity. Secret of Mana 2 was it's follow up game that never made it stateside (at least not on the SNES).

BPMOmega [gamertag] @ Oct 13th 2008 1:15PM

There is no "Secret of Mana 2"... There's Seiken Densetsu 3 (Legend of the Holy Sword 3).

Oh, and Final Fantasy Adventure was the first entry in the series. In Japan, it was known as Final Fantasy Gaiden: Seiken Densetsu.

The more you know
――――════≡≡≡≡☆

bm @ Oct 13th 2008 2:56PM

Don't you fucking diss Secret of Evermore. Every close minded idiot always bashed that game because ohmygod different setting oh nooooo! while completely ignoring the fact that it was actually completely fucking awesome.

TwentyHourDrive @ Oct 13th 2008 11:51AM

I don't care what anyone has to say ever... the SNES era was hands down the best era for RPGS/JRPGS. I still own the original copies of Chrono Trigger, FF2, FF3, SoM, SoEevermore, Lufia 1 and 2, Breath of Fire 1 and 2, Illusian of Gaia, Robotrek, Soul Blazer, and the best (IMO) RPG of all time... Earthbound.

I can come back to these games easily than any other RPG around today (not including FF7).

Thanks Squaresoft / Enix you guys are alright now in my book again for bringing this to the Wii.

samfish @ Oct 13th 2008 11:58AM

Damn straight. I can't play RPGs these days anymore because they bore me, but you sit me down in front of any number of SNES-era RPGs and I find I'm able to sit there and play the ever lovin' Hell out of them!

MasterInsan0 @ Oct 13th 2008 1:12PM

At one point in time, I used to own all of these games too (except for Robotrek). Alas, I didn't learn the value of nostalgia until long after I had traded them in for newer games.

The point: don't ever sell games you like, even if you're certain you'll never play them again. You will. You'll hate yourself for selling them years down the road.

Bucket @ Oct 13th 2008 11:53AM

I never had the time to finish SoM but I'd always meant to. Considering I'd played the prequel, Final Fantasy Adventure (and it's still my favorite GameBoy game), I should do that sometime.

Chin-Poh @ Oct 13th 2008 11:53AM

I've been able to enjoy many SNES RPGs thanks to emulation since I discovered it back in 2000. : )

One thing that stood out for me in Secret of Mana was the fantastic soundtrack, especially the overworld music.

Erwos @ Oct 13th 2008 11:53AM

This gives me hope for Earthbound. And maybe even the translated version of Mother (aka, Earthbound Zero).

serotoninzero @ Oct 13th 2008 6:14PM

Not to mention they really should be releasing Mother 3 translated as a special Wiiware release. Of course it will never happen. Luckily there is a team of dedicated people translating it right now and it's almost finished.. but I think all of us fans would be more than willing to pay up for such a great game. I don't know why NoA doesn't realize that.

Just Mr ESC. @ Oct 13th 2008 11:56AM

Did anyone else watched the SF Promo?

"You are not a Street Fighter until you dominate the Tiger Handheld"

Ha ha ha.

Those were the times before all teh Haloz and teh Blu-rayz and all the "Zs"

D_Average @ Oct 13th 2008 12:20PM

Wow, who is that host, and where is he now?

dukerayburn @ Oct 13th 2008 11:57AM

AAAAAGHHHHGRGH! MY DICK JUST EXPLODED!

Hyams @ Oct 13th 2008 12:01PM

Wow, you must be the greatest gamer ever. Even the premature ejaculators can't stand up to you.

jimmygotsmack @ Oct 13th 2008 12:01PM

One of the few rpgs back in the day that allowed you to dodge attacks, BY MOVING OUT OF THE WAY! Yet at the same time kept you involved with the story.

It's a shame that later games of the series seem, can't seem to capture that same magic.

BigD145 @ Oct 13th 2008 12:04PM

Seiken Densetsu 3 (what could have been Secret of Mana 2 in US) held the magic fairly well. Too bad it only got a fan translation.

jimmygotsmack @ Oct 13th 2008 12:14PM

Indeed, that one was pretty good, I hope they release it over here viva VC or a DS remake. Another one was sword of mana, but that was technically a remake of the original game, so that doesn't count (great game though)....

Everything from legend of Mana (great game mind you) and up seems to pull it self further and further away from what made they first few so good.

BigD145 @ Oct 13th 2008 2:05PM

Everything after Secret of Mana was dominantly experimental. The company kept playing with game mechanic tweaks and seemed to spend less and less time on fleshing out the story.

Haon @ Oct 13th 2008 2:25PM

I just found my legend of mana (plus my vagrant story and ff7 discs, jackpot) yesterday. Is it worth trying to play again? I remember playing it for about 30 mins then being pissed because it wasn't like SoM.

jimmygotsmack @ Oct 13th 2008 2:44PM

Well, legend of mana was like DarkCloud, you make the world you play in. every "location" you "unlock" can be arranged in a different way, which effects what you fight, and what happens in the location. The story goes at your pace, in fact, I can't remember if it actually had a main plot, I haven't played it in years. The game was a very "open world" type of game. You completed quests in any order you wanted to. Some might effect others, and so on and so forth.

The combat of the game however, is what got me mad. By no means was it bad, it actually was very deep, and was in "real time" similar to SoM, but instead of it being "activated" the whole time, combat would only "activate" when you went near an enemy.

Still, if you only played it for 30 minutes, I would suggest trying longer then that.