This week’s news post is a day early, because of Thanksgiving on Thursday. If you’re feeling grateful for YPB this year, give back via our Amazon link. ❤ It won’t add anything to your Black Friday purchase! Shop by using it here.

– The AV Club’s Annie Zaleski has an incredible roundtable interview with three Nintendo game counselors. It’s really long, but totally worth reading. Highlights: Nintendo would pay for limos and tons of booze at the annual Christmas party, counselors got free systems and discounts on games, and it was hell to answer the phones the entire day.

– One of the newest Rifftrax movies is vidya game “classic” The Wizard! You can purchase it here. It has Fred Savage, Rilo Kiley and others in full glory.

– From a Reddit user, it’s an old school ad from Electronics Boutique! At one point, Donkey Kong Country 3 was $69.99. A new SNES with Killer Instinct? $79.99.

– John Markley of The Escapist has a feature on the history of Nintendo’s religious censorship in games.

– Rollin Bishop of Tech Times has an oddly named feature, Licensed to Kill, although he has a nifty review of Chip ‘N Dale Rescue Rangers here.

ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…

– Depending on what country you’re in, Donkey Kong Country came out for the SNES either on Nov. 21, Nov. 24 or Nov. 26 of 1994. It’s renowned as one of the best vidya games of all-time, and re-established the vibrancy of the series. It is yet another strong game released by Rare. (Past YPB episodes on their games include Goldeneye and R.C. Pro Am.)

– Speaking of Rare… Killer Instinct Gold, the Nintendo 64 version of the arcade game Killer Instinct 2, came out this day in 1996. While the first game was seen as revolutionary because of automated combos, the sequels had diminishing returns.

– Chrono Trigger came out in 2008 for the Nintendo DS. The re-release added a bonus dungeon, and made the game much easier to play and purchase than past versions for the SNES and PSX.

Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.