Sound Novel Tsukuru is one of those weird, late-era SNES gems that most people outside Japan never got to play. It’s basically a stripped-down tool for making your own interactive sound novels—think visual novels, but with way more focus on text and atmospheric sound design. The interface feels a little clunky now, but back then, having this much control over branching stories and audio on a console was kind of wild.

ASCII packed it onto a chunky cartridge with Satellaview support, so you could save your creations (or download others’ work if you had the satellite add-on). Not gonna lie, it’s niche—more of a creative toy than a game—but there’s something charming about piecing together your own eerie mystery or cheesy romance with those crunchy SNES soundfonts. If you’ve ever messed with RPG Maker, this is like its moodier, more minimalist cousin.