Super Mario World Nintendo EAD Super Famicom / Super Nintendo 1990, 1991

A Link to the Past

Final Fight 2 ad (Capcom, 1993)

I spent way too long on this.

Final Fantasy VI was first released for the Super Famicom in Japan on April 2, 1994. Happy 30th anniversary!

 Chrono Trigger (Super Nintendo, 1995)

Mega Man VII (1995) (Super NES)

Super Metroid ! (2023)

Todays rip: 17/01/2024

Because I Love You

Season 1 Featured on: GilvaSunner's Highest Quality Video Game Rips: Volume 6​.​66

Dedicated to Satoru Iwata

More than ever these recent days, I've been thinking a lot about the SiIvaGunner community - earlier this week with 2023! YEAR OF THE PORTAL RADIO! I unabashedly wrote more about that than the rip itself. Because I find it to be such an interesting fandom to be part of, due just to how...scattered, it feels, in a lot of ways. The main hub of discussion is the SiIvaGunner Fan Discord, which by the very nature of Discord servers themselves has a sort of, fleeting and temporary feel to it - its hard to get a feel of what's what around there when there's no real way to see "popular" posts or whatnot like on other social media. And even on Twitter, and the handful of people you'll find here on Tumblr like me, there's a big divide with SiIvaGunner fans, those who just like to keep up with the silly mashups, those invested in the lore, those far too invested in both like me, and so many other subfactions - it rarely feels like we're able to band together to form a unified voice.

But whenever we are, it tends to be within the one place we're all drawn to. The YouTube channel itself.

Throughout Season 1's wild lore progression with GiIvaSunner's termination, Chad Warden, Snow Halation, and The Reboot, it became clear to us in the audience that the best way to keep track of all that was happening and to share those news with others, was to simply do it in the comments of all the videos we were already watching. All the classic jokes, new jokes, sudden twists, and places with room to speculate on what it all could mean - no matter what a rip was about, there'd always be a community there, a crowd of people always awaiting what could be right around the corner. A crowd that, directly through the events of The Reboot, had now learned to actually respect one another, and to share their love of rips, music, and gaming with one another, unified as fans.

And its that knowledge of the community's growth, the way it manages to feel both bizarrely disconnected yet simultaneously unified, that makes Because I Love You hit all the harder than it already does. Because especially back then, we were all expecting SiIvaGunner to just play along as they always do, to keep making silly rips no matter the day, keep us in the community engaged in what's being made. Yet Because I Love You, neither in title nor contents holds no joke in sight - it's a beautiful, hand-played piano cover of the titular song, paying respects to the late Satoru Iwata who passed away a year prior to the video's upload. A community and channel otherwise known for its laughs, bits, and intricate lore, were suddenly faced with a piece of darkness from the real world - the lingering sorrow that followed Iwata's death.

Just a day after this post goes up, SiIvaGunner is set to appear at this year's MAGFest, represented by a bunch of its current team members. Members of the SiIvaGunner team are more recognized now than ever before, yet back during the days of following Season 1, it was quite easy to miss the fact that the channel was ran by a group of creatives to begin with - that it wasn't just an elaborate prank by some mysterious organization of employees, or just a shameless reposting page, or whatever other conspiracy floated around back in the day. For as much fun as SiIvaGunner likes to have, for all the absurdities and shitposts and takeovers - it is a channel ran by humans, humans who just like us, were brought together by a unified love for video games. A loss like Satoru Iwata's is one that was only truly felt by those who truly do love video games as an artform - to those who, for instance, have dedicated years of their life to following a channel all about celebrating all that the music of video games means to their players, old and new.

Because I Love You, much like Telling Fish Tales, is simply a beautiful reminder of all the human love, empathy, and community that exists within this silly channel. And even back in Season 1, the community knew to set their jokes and banter aside to pay their respects to Iwata, to all that he accomplished for the history of the medium, and for helping to rescue one of the most beloved, influential and downright legenary games of its time. All these years later, and as SiIvaGunner itself enters one more Season of running, I hope we can continue respecting and honoring those that craft the experiences we hold so dear.

United or scattered, those feelings remain.

Chrono Trigger (SquareSoft, 1995)

Kaybee Advertisement, Super Nintendo, Super NES, Nintendo Gameboy (1988)

Final Fight 3 ad (Capcom, 1995)

OMG........... GENO MARIO RPG..AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH