This article is about Super Play the UK video games magazine. There is a different article on the Swedish gaming magazine Super PLAY

Super PLAY

Super PLAY was a Swedish video game magazine. Started in March 1993 with the name Super Power, it was the first independent video game magazine in Sweden. Despite its independence, it initially only covered Nintendo games, but the coverage was extended to all major consoles in 1995...

.

Super Play was a UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 based Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...

 (SNES) magazine which ran from November 1992 to September 1996.

Super Play was notable for a number of reasons. Firstly, it covered in great detail the console role-playing game genre. Many of these games were never released officially in the UK or European games market, and therefore the magazine concentrated much effort in covering aspects of the American, and moreover the Japanese games markets.

It also featured in-depth, intelligent and passionate coverage of all aspects of gaming. Given the close ties between the world of Japanese console RPGs and animation, the magazine also heavily featured information about manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 and anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 by noted UK based writer, Helen McCarthy

Helen McCarthy

Helen McCarthy is the British author of such anime reference books as 500 Manga Heroes and Villains, Anime!, The Anime Movie Guide and Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation. She is the co-author of The Erotic Anime Movie Guide and the exhaustive The Anime Encyclopedia with Jonathan Clements...

. It can be said that Super Play was one of the magazines that helped to push forward what was at the time a nascent market for anime in the UK. In this vein, the magazine itself was also notable as its cover illustrations (and many illustrations between the covers) were done in manga-influenced style by artist Wil Overton

Wil Overton

Wil Overton is a British artist, specialising in manga styles. He has worked for a number of notable British video games magazines, including Super Play and N64 Magazine. He currently works at Rare and is an illustrator for NGamer magazine...

. Overton also caricature

Caricature

A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...

d many of the staff in chibi

Chibi

is a Japanese slang word meaning "short person" or "small child". The word has gained currency amongst fans of manga and anime. Its meaning is of someone or some animal that is small. It can be translated as "little", but is not used the same way as chiisana [小さな] but rather cute...

 form, wearing various types of anime-related costumes - sci-fi armour, flying gear, RPG-style armour etc. The cover even had the name "Super Play" written in katakana

Katakana

is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet . The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji. Each kana represents one mora...

.

The logo for the magazine was designed by Jez Bridgeman in his first week on the magazine before the Art Editor arrived in the September before launch and at the last minute the 'PLAY' part of the logo was switched for a sans serif font and then stretched to fit the space. It never quite looked right for its entire life!

The magazine was published monthly, and would regularly feature a monthly Fantasy Quest column about Japanese console RPGs in their native market. In the second half of the publication's life, there was a monthly Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy

is a media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, and is developed and owned by Square Enix . The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and science-fantasy role-playing video games , but includes motion pictures, anime, printed media, and other merchandise...

 Forum dedicated to playing tips and secrets for Square

Square (company)

was a Japanese video game company founded in September 1983 by Masafumi Miyamoto. It merged with Enix in 2003 and became part of Square Enix...

 games, even despite the fact that none of the Final Fantasy game series had been released in Europe at that point.

Some of the most recognisable names on the Super Play writing staff were Matt Bielby, Tony Mott (former editor of Future Publishing

Future Publishing

Future plc is a media company; in 2006, it was the sixth-largest in the United Kingdom. It publishes more than 150 magazines in fields such as video games, technology, automotive, cycling, films and photography. Future is the official magazine company of all three major games console manufacturers...

 stablemate Edge

Edge (magazine)

Edge is a multi-format computer and video game magazine published by Future Publishing in the United Kingdom. It is known for its industry contacts, editorial stance, distinctive anonymous third-person writing style, yearly awards and longevity....

), Jason Brookes, Jonathan Davies and Zy Nicholson.

The magazine was based in Bath, England and published by Future Publishing. Despite its fairly short run (47 issues, just short of 4 years, and a one-off "Gold" special in 1993), and many years since its demise, it still enjoys a fan following on the internet.

Its end came with the declining popularity of the SNES itself, both among games publishers and the game-buying public, as the Nintendo 64

Nintendo 64

The , often referred to as N64, was Nintendo′s third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit CPU, it was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in North America, March 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1997 in France and December 1997 in Brazil...

 was on the cusp of release, making way for the next generation of video game consoles. Super Play was succeeded in March 1997 by N64 Magazine, which was initially edited by Jonathan Davies with Wil Overton as Art Editor, and frequent contributions by former Super Play writers, although the magazine was much less focused on import gaming and RPGs than its forebear. N64 Magazine in turn was renamed NGC Magazine

NGC Magazine

NGC Magazine was a British magazine specialising in Nintendo created consoles; which was first printed in 1997 and ran until 2006. N64 Magazine was the successor to Super Play magazine after it ended in 1996 as it retained many of the staff and the style of that publication...

to coincide with the launch of the Nintendo GameCube

Nintendo GameCube

The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...

, and after closure of NGC in 2006 the publication was relaunched as NGamer

NGamer

NGamer is a British magazine which mainly covers Nintendo video game consoles and software, and also to a much lesser extent, Sony and Microsoft consoles. The first issue was released on 13 July 2006...

.