Plays Like Summer

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School’s out, the pool’s open, and I made a list: the ten Super Nintendo games that actually play like summer. One rule, and I am holding myself to it: the release calendar does not get a vote. A summer game FEELS like summer. The beach, the backyard, the road trip, nowhere to be.

Donkey Kong Country leads, because Aquatic Ambience sounds like warm water and David Wise built it on hardware that had no business doing it. EarthBound is the great American road trip. Zombies Ate My Neighbors is the sleeper, the summer movie marathon in cartridge form. Super Mario Kart, Yoshi’s Island, Secret of Mana, Harvest Moon and more fill it out, and some very famous cartridges did not make the cut. The full ranked ten is on the site. Go argue with it.

Nintendo Month starts here: SNES this week, the N64’s 30th summer next week, Game Boy to close July. Plus a new segment, What It Plays: the ANBERNIC RG CubeXX, the $60 square-screen handheld whose comfort zone covers every game on this list. Bought with my own money, no affiliate links, full review on the site.

In the news: Nintendo Month opens with an ending. The original Switch gets a European end date under the EU’s new battery rules, Mario Kart Tour and FFVII Ever Crisis get shutdown dates, the world’s largest public game archive loses its funding in Germany, and Xbox cuts 3,200 jobs while John Carmack says his old faith in Microsoft “isn’t aging well.”

Playing Out of Control Gaming. Retro and classic game reviews, PC to Nintendo, every system. Since 1998. No bought scores. No filters. Just opinions.

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(0:00) Cold Open · (1:32) The News · (14:47) This Month in POCG History · (17:15) What It Plays: RG CubeXX · (22:35) The SNES Summer Ten · (34:10) Your Question

Every site does a summer games list, and most of them are lying to you: whatever shipped in August with a beach towel on the header.

Episode 5 of Playing Out of Control is live with one rule: a summer game PLAYS like summer. Ten SNES cartridges, ranked by the vibe. Donkey Kong Country's warm water, EarthBound's road trip, and a sleeper pick from 1993 I will defend forever.

Nintendo Month begins. Since 1998. No bought scores. No filters. Just opinions.

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