Image: Wil Overton
Super Play was one of the greatest SNES-focused magazines to come out of the 1990s, and its main artist has just reimagined what the debut issue’s cover might have looked like had it been published today.
Published by Future and spanning 47 issues (plus a special one-off 48th edition that was given away with Retro Gamer in 2017), Super Play was famous for its import focus, and this love of Japanese gaming would extend to the look and feel of the mag – right down to an extensive anime section and Overton’s unmistakable artwork.
“Thought I’d give it another go,” says Overton on Instagram, alongside an image of the updated issue one cover. “Now, what would I have picked for all the other issues? Coming soon to a Patreon near you.”
The original cover (left) and Overton’s updated 2026 variant (right) — Images: Future Publishing, Wil Overton
Over on BlueSky, the artist explains a little more about what the project might entail. Rather than a full-scape revival of the magazine, it seems that he intends to create unique cover artwork for a wide range of different subjects:
“Ok, this might be a daft idea, but I’m thinking of starting up an art Patreon for ‘covers’. Mags, games, comics, maybe even a VHS or two. Oh, and a new alt version of these each month. Vote for what you thought should have been on the cover. That kind of thing.”
I dropped Overton a line, and he went into a little more detail:
“Like many artists, I’ve thought about something like Patreon or Ko-Fi for a while but wanted a hook for it rather than just random illos. Hopefully, this has a bit of nostalgia combined with something new and it’s the stuff I’ve always loved drawing. Time will tell if anyone’s really interested and hopefully they won’t think that I’m going to one-man band an entire new mag each month.”
Overton’s career would later lead him to Rare, where he worked on games such as Perfect Dark Zero, Jetpac Refuelled and Sea of Thieves.
Damien has been writing professionally about tech and video games since 2007 and oversees all of Hookshot Media’s sites from an editorial perspective. He’s also the editor of Time Extension, the network’s newest site, which – paradoxically – is all about gaming’s past glories.