SB Recommends SNES/Super Famicom Games

Nintendo's entry in the 16 bit console wars.

• Actraiser
  • aderack: Like the meeting point of Rastan and SimCity. It's actually got power!

• Axelay

• Biometal
  • swimmy: There's so much going on in the background of the first level that I can't see anything,

• Cacoma Knight in Bizyland / Cacoma Knight (JP)
  • The Blueberry Hill: A cute little Qix-alike by Datam Polystar, with great artwork by Ano Shimizu.

• Castlevania: Dracula X (NA) / Castlevania: Vampire's Kiss (PAL) / Dracula XX (JP)
  • NFG: Very underrated game. It's nearly as excellent as the PC Engine game it succeeded.
  • Diplocephalus: Castlevania ranges from mediocre to great. This is one of the mediocre ones. It essentially boils down to someone tracing a great drawing, but only the outlines. The level design and visuals are rotten, and there's even a hellish bit where one knock off of a platform can screw-up your plan to get the best ending - for good.
  • Sniper Honeyviper: Gotta disagree about it being almost as good as Rondo. While the graphics have been osmosed onto the Super Nintendo Entertainment System quite well from a technical standpoint, the levels have a certain dullness to them that Rondo's don't, where you don't always really feel motivated to progress further, and there's a serious lack of variety and creativity inherent within. With so many excellent other classic-style entries in the Castlevania to choose from, you shouldn't bother with this one until you've seen everything else.

• Chrono Trigger
  • Sniper Honeyviper: Unquestionably the greatest thing Square ever did. If JRPGs don't make you want to puke, you owe it to yourself to play this one. I personally prefer the DS version's re-translated script.

• Donkey Kong Country
  • Diplocephalus: Looking back, years ago, when I drooled over this game, and playing it now, I realize one thing: graphics. Yawn.
  • RobotRocker: Forget the original, get straight to the sequel and see why Rare were considered THE premier dev' house of the Late 90's.

• Clock Tower

• Darius Twin
  • aderack: Though not as interesting as Sagaia, still a pretty neat Darius. You don't lose your power-ups!
  • Sniper Honeyviper: A strictly average shmup, though it's got enough curiosities to be worth checking out. The music, while pretty bad, at least has a strange, buzzing presence to it; and the boss fights are just spectacular enough to be mostly on par with the rest of the series.

• Do-Re-Mi Fantasy

• Dragon Quest V
  • 108: In terms of story and general appeal, it's the best Dragon Quest game. Where Dragon Quest IV was “clever” by splitting the story into four parts that came together, Dragon Quest V is about one man's life, from his traumatic childhood as a poor boy, led around the world on a mysterious quest by his noble father. And before you know it, it's all about growing up, taking responsibility for one's legacy, and even starting a family. The Japanese version is as highly revered a Dragon Quest game as Final Fantasy VI is a Final Fantasy game. System-wise, it lets you capture and raise monsters as members of your party, which was said to be one of the inspirations for the Pokemon series of games. There is a PlayStation 2 remake by Arte Piazza and Matrix, and it looks wonderful and smooth, with a slowed down encounter rate and slightly better balanced experience and gold bonuses per battle. (Though there are some weird little issues, like being unable to adjust the message speed after starting the game.) As far as I'm concerned, Dragon Quest V is the best flat-out RPG experience on Super Famicom (not counting Mother 2, which is just something else), dated as the graphics might be. If you have an emulator, track down the English translation. Wonderful to play on PSP, that way.
  • Rud13: Tim nailed everything about this game system and storywise. I'll warn you that the encounter rate is absolutely obnoxious to a point that if I had been playing it on a real super famicom, I would have given up. The game also kind of falls apart in the final third. I enjoyed it but didn't *really* enjoy it.

• Earthbound
  • Sniper Honeyviper: The precise moment when the Japanese Role-Playing Game gained self-awareness. (game:mother|Mother 1 wasn't quite there yet, I think.) Far outclassed by its sequel, but still a precious artifact.

• Famicom Tantei(detective) Club Part II
  • kerobaros: If you've ever wanted to play a mystery game that was worth a damn? Hunt this one down. Good luck doing so, as it only ever appeared on NoJ's Nintendo Power flash-cart system, but hey, it's worth it. Also, Demiforce released a translation patch a while back. Maybe slightly easier to play it that way. Either way, the story is.. twist-a-riffic, in a way Law and Order wishes it could be.

• Final Fantasy IV (JP) / Final Fantasy II (NA)
  • BandanaBandelero: Between the emulation and Game Boy Advance routes, I am in the camp that doesn't see any need for the old american cartridge. The Game Boy Advance version's bugs, it seems to me, have been overstated. Sometimes a character will get a double turn. This happened to me maybe seven times in an entire 30-hour game. It has the best graphics of any version, though you might like some of the older character portraits better than the new ones. The translation is better for the most part. The challenge is just right. I also enjoyed the Sony PlayStation version for its accurate soundtrack emulation until my save file was somehow corrupted. On the Game Boy Advance the soundtrack just barely passes. Apparently the European Game Boy Advance version fixes some of the bugs, so you might want to try and nab that one if you go the portable route. The fan-translated hard type version is the best way to go if you want the nostalgic, more pure feel of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System version with a slightly better script and the added convenience/performance of playing on a PC or laptop.

• Final Fantasy VI (JP) / Final Fantasy III (NA)

• Fushigi no Dungeon 2: Furai no Shiren
  • dessgeega: Chun Soft's second sfc roguelike, and probably their most compelling. recently translated by aeon genesis.
  • kerobaros: Later rereleased on the DS. gogogo.

• Gradius 3
  • wourme: I much prefer this to the arcade version. Though it's not my very favorite shooter, I've probably played it through more times than any other.

• Hagane
  • NeoZeedeater: The SNES was lacking in terms of ninja action games compared to its competitors but Hudson/Red delivered a great one with Hagane. It reminds me of the Shinobi and Strider series'.

• Kirby's Dream Course

• Kirby's Dream Land 3

• Illusion of Gaia

• Laplace no Ma

• Legend of the Mystical Ninja

• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
  • Sniper Honeyviper: Your enjoyment of this game will hinge entirely on your nostalgic attachment to the series.

• Majuu Ou / King of Demons (Fan-Translated Title)
  • Loki Laufeyson: a pretty nice platform shooting game, with unusually dark themes for a Super Nintendo Entertainment System game, and great, tiny graphics in a similar style to a horror version of Ninja Cop or Elevator Action Returns.

• Magical Pop'n
  • NeoZeedeater: A game published by Pack in Video that's actually good? Yes, it's a quality platformer; it reminds me a bit of Sonic.
  • Loki Laufeyson: has a similar feel to the Sony PlayStation game, Adventure of Little Ralph. but not as good.

• Mario No Super Picross
  • The Blueberry Hill: My favourite Picross game, perhaps mostly because of the satisfying feel of marking the board; the game keeps the archaeological theme from Mario No Picross and those little squares are crunched off the board.

• Mega Man X
  • Now cheaply available for the PS2 and Gamecube in the Mega Man X Collection.

• Metal Marines

• Metal Warriors
  • NFG: Developed by Konami and LucasArts, some considered it a sequel to Cybernator (Assault Suits Valken in Japan) but it's not. Features a great 1P mode and as well as possibly the very best two-player action on the SNES. Exceptionally well balanced mech combat - no one mech is conclusively better against the rest in the hands of a skilled player.
  • 108: Great game. The two-player mode, which revolves around split-screen platforming/run-and-gunning duels between two equally matched robots, is something the videogame industry should have learned from. At any rate, the sense of scale and the expert handling of cross-sections makes this game a must for anyone who likes, say, Rolling Thunder, The Outfoxies, or Valken (though I reckon the game owes more to those other two games than Valken.)
  • Loki Laufeyson: probably the SNES's best versus mode outside of Bomberman and fighting games.

• Mystic Ark

• New Mobile Report Gundam W: Gundam Wing Endless Duel
  • The Blueberry Hill: The system's best fighter, behind Street Fighter II Turbo. The characters feel suitably heavy, and the fighting system is rich: there's a really satisfying meshing of the (extensive) air and dash systems, downed attacks, range attacks, and juggles. The game has large, well-drawn sprites; Capcom should have paid attention to this game when they were porting Street Fighter Alpha 2.

• On the Ball (NA/PAL) / Cameltry (JP)
  • dessgeega: it's cameltry with quadruple the stages. brilliant and probably easy to find. justifies mode 7's existence.
  • The Blueberry Hill: Uses the SNES mouse!

• Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen / Densetsu no Ogre Battle (JP)

• Panic in Nakayoshi World

• Picross NP (vols. 1-8)
  • The Blueberry Hill: A series of neat Picross games released via Nintendo's Nintendo Power service. They have a slightly colder feel than Mario No Super Picross, but compensate with two player modes (which vary between volumes).

• Pocky & Rocky / KiKi KaiKai: Nazo no Kuro Manto (JP)

• Record of Lodoss War

• Secret of Mana / Seiken Densetsu 2 (JP)

• Seiken Densetsu 3

• Shadowrun
  • The Blueberry Hill: An odd, atmospheric, RPG, that's a bit short. There's potential in the mechanics for something bigger. Made by Beam Software.

• Shodai Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun

• SimCity
  • ry0n: Fairly painful to play with a SNES controller, this was a slightly upgraded version of the computer game. A few features (gifts, music, Bowser attacking Godzilla-style) set it apart from SimCity Classic for the PC. Important because games of this type seldom appeared on consoles, and arguably still don't.
  • The Blueberry Hill: This is my favourite version of the game.

• Star Fox / Star Wing (PAL)

• Star Fox 2
  • The Blueberry Hill: This unreleased game is one of the highlights of the 16bit era. The map screen in now alive, and events will take place here as you play missions.

• Stunt Race FX

• Super Aleste (JP/PAL) / Space Megaforce (NA)
  • NeoZeedeater: The best shooter on the system.
  • wourme: A lot of fun, with some pretty interesting graphical effects in places.
  • Rud13: These two forget the mention that the levels are way too long.
  • Sniper Honeyviper: We're talking TEN-MINUTE LONG levels with the same backdrop and tilesets repeated in an endless cycle. It's a mechanically sound shooter, but kind of painful to put up with. You'd be better off with any of Hudson's Star Soldiers.

• Super Castlevania IV / Akumajo Dracula (JP)
  • Diplocephalus: Occasionally called a tech-demo (for prolific scrolling, I guess). Its levels aren't as specially observant as Castlevania 1, nor are they even close to being as downright artificial as Castlevania 3's. The whip feels more conscious than in any other game. A weirdly subterranean ambiance and bizarre soundtrack also help make this something unique.
  • BandanaBandelero: For me this is one of those weird games that can be quite difficult (in the later stages, and there's also a few tricky timed jumps), but when I get in the proper groove/mood I can make my way easily enough. Eh, perhaps the same could be said of all religions? But more than any other game I can think of this is one where I can really suck at in one attempt, but then play brilliantly in another instance as if I somehow spiritually meld with the whole thing. Oh christ, this is lame… Which brings me to my next point: Don't smoke crack. Uh, yeah, so…the soundtrack in this one is magic! The ending theme is how a fucking Castlevania ending theme should be. It's really emotional and cathartic.
  • Sniper Honeyviper: Worst Dracula battle in the series, otherwise a competent but rather unremarkable entry.

• Super Mario All-Stars
  • ry0n: Four classic mario games on one cart with reworked 16-bit graphics and sound. Being able to save progress kills most of the challenge. An amazing and fun bundle of Miyamoto.
  • wourme: The reworked graphics in this collection really bugged me—I couldn't stand to play these versions, and wished they had included the originals as well. It was nice to finally see the real Super Mario Bros. 2, though.

• Super Mario Kart

• Super Mario RPG

• Super Mario World
  • Sniper Honeyviper: Dumb bullshit. The floaty, mouse-cursor physics are a real downer after the high of SMB3. The (admittedly pretty) graphics would become the new standard for the franchise. But hey, it's Miyamoto, and it's still perfectly playable.

• Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
  • NFG: Very possibly the best platformer ever made.
  • RobotRocker: Unless Artoon preforms a miracle and the DS sequel rocks our socks, this is the definitive Nintendo game. Donkey Kong Country 2 runs it close for best platformer on the SNES but for sheer awesome, Yoshi's Island smokes everything in its path.
  • Diplocephalus: Simply wonderful stages. Even the forced scrolling ones are fun! Also, one of the best looking games ever made. This creation bursts with love. Or maybe spite, against DKC.
  • Sniper Honeyviper: Way too fiddly and gimmicky, and it all kinda feels the same. Some of the later levels are truly idiotic. Worth playing through once to see the bosses, though.

• Super Metroid
  • Sniper Honeyviper: Archaeology: The Game.

• Super Turrican

• Tetris Attack
  • Diplocephalus: I'm not a fan of puzzle games, but this one is oddly entertaining. A lot like Kirby's Avalanche, except maybe not as good.

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time

• Terranigma

• Umihara Kawase
  • dessgeega: possibly the most perfect game ever designed. one of the few games genuinely worth playing on the super famicom.

• Unirally (PAL) / Uniracers (NA)

• Wario's Woods

• Wayne's World
  • aderack: Perhaps the most amazing game in the universe. In a bad way.
  • kerobaros: So very not recommended at all. But whatever.
  • Sniper Honeyviper: “NOT WORTHY!”

• SB Recommends Game Boy Games - playable via Super Game Boy