Populous retrospective: Foster the Papal | Super NES Works

A look at Nintendo's very own console conversion of Peter Molyneux's god-sim, Populous. Wedged in between the superlative SimCity and the excellent ActRaiser, Populous admittedly struggles a bit to hold its own among its peers. But all credit goes to developer Infinity, who did a bang-up job with the conversion and used this as the cornerstone of a brief but well-intended career transforming Western PC games into forms suitable for Japanese gamers.

[@HyperRoboTenguris1984]

Kazuo Sawa did some amazing work on the music of this convertion of Populous, especially his take on the title theme, as well as the eerily atmospheric ambient basic creation theme.

[@ChrisGorski]

My dad picked this up with Sim City and Super Mario World when he bought our SNES. I never saw him play it, but I'm sure glad he got it. I played this plenty.

[@MaidenHell1977]

I spent countless hours playing this game back in the day and still own it today.

[@mbe102]

Honestly, seeing what are essentially demakes from a pc to lower end hardware, when done right, is especially impressive. This, which I didn't know was on the SNES, is equally so.

[@CarozQH]

Populous was also ported to the Master System - now that's an impressive port to lower end hardware!

[@AFnord]

@@CarozQH And the Game Boy which... well... it was ambitious?

[@BrightSpark]

@@AFnord ...but rubbish?

[@AFnord]

@@BrightSpark I was trying to be kind to it, but yes, it was very much rubbish :P

[@o_o_o_o_o-o_o_o_o_o]

I loved this game. I imagine it's not super inspiring to somebody who knew the other versions but for somebody who only had Nintendo stuff it felt very unusual and special.

[@M4R14NO94]

What's notable is that this SNES version is what was partially used as a basis for the DS adaptation of Populous (which, like this one, was also a Japanese-developed joint, albeit by EA Japan and Genki instead), down to having the Yamato world and the Nintendo-themed one (in an updated form; the settlements/buildings now include pretty much every Ninty console and handheld up to that point)

[@JeremyParish]

Well I guess I need to play that version now.

[@massivepileup]

It didn't get very good reviews though I don't remember whether that was due to the quality of the port or the basic game design simply not holding up anymore.

[@tcironbear21]

I remember this game. My favorite strategy was to build about one or two levels higher than the enemy and then flood the world. That always rocked the AI's little mind.

[@AFnord]

it worked against the AI on earlier levels, but later in the game the AI developed the ability to instantly raise the land under anyone who was about to drown, so it got a lot less effective then.

[@scottgrasser9475]

@@AFnord still ruins there civilization setting it back so far you basically have won

[@WrathOfNolla]

Your tagline here is a pun straight from the gods, Jeremy.

[@sbi168]

Played this allot as a kid. Loved it at the time. Haven't been back to it and a loooong time

[@James-cb9bb]

Yes! Ha ha i have been waiting for this one. The SNES was magic. Great stuff Jeremy! A+

[@johnsimon8457]

I always remembered this game being sold for super cheap at our local Babbages.

[@Fattydeposit]

I loved the Master System version as a kid and that one satiated me enough to never try out Amiga and other 16-bit versions. That one had an enormous level count too (in the thousands) and with the same kind of progression (do well, skip a bunch of levels). Molyneux's dismissal of the Snes port sounds like typical bombast; instead of 'worst' perhaps 'least impressive' is would be more accurate.

[@spacemeng]

Populous was mind-blowing to me at the time because there was nothing else like this. I played the Genesis version, but since the SNES version came out a year and a half later, I would hope that it was a better version with more to do.

[@MattHall]

Great work, as always!

[@welding_guy7524]

This was my second snes game..at first I never understood how to play, I had traded my snes for a tg16 and a genesis..when donkey Kong country came out, I had bought another snes, I still had populous, I learned how to really play and I fell in love

[@Yuuretsu]

I always wondered how Populous ended up on PC Engine in Japan. With the console port license going to a Japanese developer it starts to make sense. The weird thing is that the PC Engine version is apparently still fully in English.

[@SatoshiMatrix1]

I had the Master System version when I was young. I think the SNES version blows it out of the water all things considered.

[@LizardDude]

The soundscape of this game is nightmarish.

[@JAMJR84]

I regularly rented this for SNES as a kid, even though the atmosphere creeped me out and the evil god's face scared the crap out of me. Still loved the game though. Nothing quite like toiling away on your side of the map and then suddenly hearing the knighting sound effect play.

[@CSGraves]

Yes, and I loved it.

[@sunstruck]

god i love the music so much

[@mackerelphones]

Very nice work. I didn't realize there was a SNES version. Somehow I expect I'd still prefer ActRaiser if I tried Populous, but then that's because of the narrative thrust.

[@massivepileup]

I always found it satisfying how you create a road and then the little people swarm out and cover it in houses. That was probably the best part of the botched SimCity too.

[@tylisirn]

You probably would. I don't think Populous has aged all that well. It was highly novel at the time, but there isn't all that much game to it once the novelty wears off.

[@joeyservo]

I loved Populous, played it endlessly. It was a fucked up game too. I loved building my civs land up at least 3 levels, then building up enough mana to flood my enemies to death, then sending knights to finish off the stragglers.

[@sunnohh]

I figured you were going to to slide in the molyneux effect as his greatest work ever!

[@0palheart]

8:17 was that a twin famicom? don't see that everyday

[@evenmorebetter]

Did Populous SNES fuel my ongoing curiosity in Japan-only Nintendo hardware?

[@jamesmoss3424]

I know about populous for years and I will play the snes version. 😀👍🎮

[@uljk5699]

God sim RTS at its prime.

[@MalevolentDivinity]

I remember loving this game, yet having no idea how the loving fuck it worked.

[@kevinbowyer7205]

10/10 just for any excuse to put Battle of Olympus and Actraiser footage in an episode.

[@erika_fuzzbottom]

Hoping that nostalgia hasn't clouded my enjoyment of the next game.

[@kalythgaming]

I was too young when I got it on Mega Drive and I always felt it was too complicated and haunting for me. =)

[@Padoca]

Have you got in trouble yet for using the Evangelion song?

[@KuraIthys]

It's funny seeing a video series like this, especially once that's several years old, because without realising this existed (though I wasn't particularly surprised it did), I had been contemplating a similar, though less elaborate attempt to show off the entire SNES + Super Famicom library for all regions just sort of as an interlude between other content (if and when I actually got back to making any.) To be fair, my idea was to just show each game briefly, and not get into actual history - something that's just a quick reference point to give a vague idea of what each game is like. Thus, while sharing the same broad concept it's not really all that similar in intent to this series... Still, that has yet to get off the ground, and this has been going for years, so... Eh.

[@SharpCinema]

You really called out nerds in this review - I respect that

[@JeremyParish]

...did I?

[@SharpCinema]

lol yes - you refer to 'an obnoxiously smart kid who skips a grade at school' who is a 'little nerd' who 'can expect to get roughed up' because they jumped ahead - I laughed

[@jlc992]

There's a November 1994 Edge Magazine interview where he talks about how much he hated the two consoles at the time. i.imgur.com/LU4ji4E.jpg So him gasping at your first take on Populous with the SNES makes sense. As for him being a bullshiter or not I don't really know. I feel he honestly want to make bigger than life things. But just can't ever make it either because of the limitations of the tech or the cost of what he wants is way too big. I do feel he's now at a point where few people listen to him so whether or not he means doesn't matter right now.

[@tangentofaj]

What is the name of the song used in the end card? The introduction of the next episode? It’s so cute!!

[@digamejh]

tangentofaj it's the next-episode teaser music from "Neon Genesis Evangelion"

[@zombiechow9974]

heres my strat for this game: raise your ground leve for civ as high as it can go. then flood repeatedly. your AI opponent wil drowned out.

[@elvistwatty]

Never played this

[@sailorvenusfan6527]

Was that Battle of Olympus game a Zelda 2 clone?

[@hemangchauhan2864]

One of the underrated Zelda 2 clones.

[@niespeludo]

Out of Faxanadu, Zelda 2 and Battle of Olympus... Battle Olympus is the best game in the Zelda 2 clone genre.

[@childofcascadia]

Hes not a bullshit artist. Hes a bullfrogshit artist. Only old gamers are going to get that one...cuz EA gonna EA. Also, SNES populous. Ooooof. Didnt know that existed but even before watching the entire vid I can imagine the problems of a console

[@ClexYoshi]

I think both are true to an extent. Molyneaux has the passion for the business and does WANT to do all the grand things that he sets out to do, but that's only because his entry INTO the business and use of (UK) College level interns to stimulate design worked so incredibly well that he began to believe in his own bullshit even as the industry around him RAPIDLY warped into something he could no longer handle effectively. He effectively scammed his way into the business by stealing Amigas, and roped in young folk by making the office just as much of a party zone as it was a place of work and things just happened to form in a way where he came out time an dtime again with his games at bullfrog, and the good will was just there with his work with lionhead and Microsoft.

[@derekwashuck7691]

What about populous 2 for pal snes and arguably a much better game that you can use the snes mouse for ?

[@otakubullfrog1665]

One of EA's many sins was buying and killing a solid and creative frog-themed development studio. That one hurt.

[@adamking6645]

Good video but I'm surprised you didn't at least mention the Genesis version. There were quite a few titles that hit both 16-bit consoles and you should at least touch on how it compares to its Sega counterpart.

[@JeremyParish]

The key to good editing is to know when to cut an extraneous tangent that does nothing to support the central discussion. Console wars nonsense, for example.

[@redandblue323]

Poopulous

[@emmastarr5242]

Bro, I don't think you've played Actraiser enough yet ( or you just haven't played it with the translation patch for the original Japanese script). In the translated Japanese version, whenever you're done helping a town, they pretty much declare they no longer need God, and tell him to help someone else, and in the final dialogue of the game, your angel assistant straight up mentions how silly he thinks religion is. Despite making Jesus into a platformer with Satan as the final boss, if you get to the ending of the game, it's actually very oddly anti-religion, which is why I seriously implore anyone whose thinking of playing Actraiser to play it with the Japanese translation patch, even just to see all the people telling God what to do. :P

[@JeremyParish]

Kid, I beat ActRaiser on a rental while you were still in diapers.

[@emmastarr5242]

Have you ever played the Japanese re-translation, though?