Secret of Mana

Square Enix is releasing a 3D remaster of Secret of Mana this week so I grabbed some scans from Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) about the original game released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1993. Secret of Mana is actually the second game of the Mana series, the first being the Game Boy's Final Fantasy Adventure. It's a Final Fantasy game? No but it is a spin off of that series. Only the first game uses Final Fantasy in its title while every subsequent release in North America has the word mana in the title.

Secret of Mana was originally developed for the SNES CD add-on but Nintendo ended up canceling that so during development the game had to be altered in order to fit the cartridge format. Another interesting thing about the game is that it supports up to three players at the same time which was unusual for a role-playing game at that time. To take full advantage of the multiplayer option players needed Hudson's Super Multitap adapter that also happened to be released in 1993; the adapter was originally designed for Hudson's own Super Bomberman.

I've got scans of EGM's two-page preview from the November 1993 issue and the review from the December 1993 issue.

EGM #52

EGM scored the game quite highly which earned it game of the month. For comparison, other games in that issue that received Editors' Choice Gold recognition include Lufia (SNES), Aero the Acro-Bat (SNES), and Cool Spot (Game Gear).

EGM #53

The new version of Secret of Mana is releasing February 15th for PlayStation 4 and PC (on Steam). A physical version for the PlayStation 4 will be available exclusively at GameStop stores.