My Thoughts on Xeno Crisis for SNES

Since the game has now started shipping to Kickstarter backers and is also available on the Bitmap Bureau online store too, I figured I’d share my thoughts.

Now, I don’t have an original SNES console anymore, which is currently the only way to play the game for this particular system (no digital version), so I can’t play it directly myself, but it certainly looks and sounds great from everything I’ve seen and heard with my own eyes and ears. And the controls in particular seem to be a real highlight in this version too according to all the previews/reviews thus far from people who actually own it, which makes sense, as the SNES’ controller is particularly well-suited to this type of dual 8-way moving and 8-way shooting gameplay.

What is Colour Blasting on SNES?

Yes, this image has been Colour Blasted

Colour Blasting is a term I coined on New Year’s Day 2024 that I like to use to describe all the awesome things you can do on SNES due in part to its amazing colour capabilities, especially for a console of its time. My original idea was to use it as a “cool” back-of-box marketing name for the feature otherwise known as direct colour (bit of a boring name for a feature that allows the SNES to display a massive 2040+1 visible colours on background 1 alone), which I didn’t think would really excite people and capture their imaginations if they saw “uses direct colour” on the back of a new SNES game box. Thus, Colour Blasting was born.

Using SNES offset change per column horizontally

Note how it says that each column can be controlled separately and can be scrolled horizontally in 8 pixel increments. . . .

Is Gunstar Heroes Possible on SNES?

Continuing with my idea for a series of articles looking at both old and new Sega Genesis games and analysing whether they could run on SNES or not–I’m here to prove they can by providing examples of similar feats being achieved in actual SNES games, both old and new titles, plus any modern demos and the like where necessary–the next game I want to look at is Gunstar Heroes.

Is The Cursed Knight possible on SNES?

I’ve heard a lot of people claim in recent times that the SNES couldn’t run this Genesis game or that Genesis game because it’s too complex for the system or it would just suffer slowdown on SNES because of its “slow” CPU, etc, which simply isn’t true in 99% of cases. And, not only are these assertions coming from hadcore Genesis fans, they’re even coming from SNES fans at times too, which is just very disappointing.

So, here’s an idea for a series of articles looking at both old and new Sega Genesis games and analysing whether they could run on SNES or not–I’m here to prove they can–by providing examples of similar feats being achieved in actual SNES games, both old and new titles, plus any modern demos and the like where necessary.

The first game I want to try this with is The Cursed Knight, just because I was watching a playthrough of it when this idea popped into my head.

Modern SNES Games and Demos

Note: Some of these examples may be a few years old, but they’re still new games for SNES that came out decades after it was no longer officially on the market. And some of them may be barely more than simple concept tests, or possibly just glorified ROM hacks, but I still think they’re worth covering here.

So, without further ado, let’s begin:

The 16-bit War

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