This is not a drill!
If you could hear my screaming voice after the remake announcement while reading this, you might be partially deaf now. Thankfully, I will just try to convey my joy via this article that you will be reading with your eyes. I mean, I could try to turn the brightness up on the page so you could avert your eyes due to the sheer awesomeness, but let’s not take things that far….
Secret of Mana(or Seiken Densetsu 2 in Japan) was a game for the Super Nintendo(Super Famicom) that many, myself included, will tell you was hands down one of the best games on that system. But for me personally, I will tell you it is tied as my favorite game of all time(Final Fantasy VI being the other game)! Right when you turn the game on, You hear this beast roaring, and a wonderful scenery of green presents itself to you, as three young characters are looking at the biggest tree in the world. Then these three note harmonies start picking up that go onto an amazing opening by composer Hiroki Kikuta. This game was a top down open world adventure rpg. It was all real time, and it fully utilized Nintendo’s Mode 7 texture engine, allowing some really nice detail and animation. And to wrap it all nice in a bow(cartridge), it was three players!
This game would go on for years being usually one of the top -what ifs?- of remakes. Especially with that multiplayer, it would go great with the online gaming we have today. But there would be no love for the Mana series save for a remake of the first game titled Sword of Mana, but never any localization of the third game being brought stateside. Add in the PS1 Legend of Mana, and a not so great PS2 game Dawn of Mana, and the beloved series just goes dark over here. But never forgotten.
Then we hear whispering of a Mana collection being brought to the Nintendo Switch. Fans jump at this, and beg for it to be brought over here. Secret of Mana will also be on the very-hard-to-get-for-no-reason-but-Nintendo SNES Classic being released soon. Now SquareEnix drops an entire Secret of Mana remake on us for PS4, PS Vita, and PC, and it will be releasing over here too, February 15! And with online multiplayer!
So if you are like me, you will be clamouring at the chance to grab this, and experience the colorful world all over again, paired with one of the best soundtracks of all time, with some real time hack and slash action with friends. If you have never played this gem before, follow the voice, and pull out that rusty sword at the bottom of the waterfall. Was it trying to tell you something? But you can’t quite make it out……
