SNES Recommendations

[Vincey Greene]

METAL MARINES is a very fun proto-RTS that nobody played back then but that is completely rad.

AEROBIZ SUPERSONIC is a fantastic strategy game wherein you run an airline.

[CastleVania Rey]

OoTW/Another World is one that I almost mentioned, but ended up not because, like Wing Commander (which I did mention but kind of disqualified), there are better versions available for modern consoles and PCs that can probably be had for the same price as the cartridge or less. It's an amazing game, but I'd say look up the Anniversary Edition. Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat are different enough from the arcade games in tiny ways that add up, to the point that they're still worth playing on their own (or used to be) because of the differences. OotW doesn't feel like that to me.

 

 

I mentioned it because I had fun with it, but you're right. Out of this World/Another World is the sort of game one really needs to play elsewhere for a better port. Somewhat like comparing the NES Metal Gear to the superior MSX2 one.

 

 

I want to add these side-scrolling beat-em-ups to the recommended list, because I neglected to mention enough of those and these are very good:

 

Brawl Brothers

King of Dragons

 

 

And I didn't mention any puzzle games, so:

 

Kirby's Avalanche (AKA Puyo Puyo)

Tetris & Dr. Mario (in a single cart... assuming you don't play these elsewhere)

Tetris Attack (AKA Panel de Pon)

 

 

If it's your thing, the SNES has a nice port of SimCity as well.

[Tabe]

 

If it's your thing, the SNES has a nice port of SimCity as well.

 

I considered mentioning that one.  My roommate in college spent a TON of time on that game.  It's based on the first PC game but is a lot better than that one. 

 

I am utterly flabbergasted that I missed Super Metroid AND Super Mario All-Stars.  The latter is simply an incredible game.  It blows away the original four games and it has set the "remastering" bar for all games to try and meet since.  The timing and controls are identical to the originals, the graphics are significantly improved, and they added multiple battery-backed saves.  PERFECT.

[Chaos]

Why do I remember Vectorman being on the SNES as a kid (I remember playing it and I never owned a Genesis), but I look it up to recommend it and its sequel to discover that it's not on there.

 

I honestly do not see many games left to recommend that have not already been suggested.

 

The only one I have not seen that I recall being really good is Toy Story.  SNES is the only console to have decent movie-based video games. Afterwards, the only two I can think of that I really enjoyed are Goldeneye (obviously) and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.

 

I know someone is going to point something out that i am obviously forgetting. Such is life.

[Death From Above]

Goldeneye is the generation after this one.

[Jiji]

He was talking about good movie-licensed games after the SNES. I was a little confused at first too.

 

NHL '94 is the shit and still one of the best sports games ever. I found NHL '96 too floaty and fast for my liking but some prefer it to '94 (heretics, I say).

Did anybody else play the shit out of the gimmicky SNES games like Battle Clash with the Super Scope and Mario Paint with the mouse? Fun times! I also really enjoyed SimAnt but I imagine that would be best played on an old school PC emulator. Ah, and WWF Royal Rumble was a game I would literally pray to God that the local rental shop had a copy available every other weekend (this is how much of a heathen I was/am - I didn't go to church, was skeptical at age 8 of God's existence - but prayed super sincerely for a wrestling video game rental). Playing it now is awesome just for the sound effects alone.

 

Final Fantasy III/VI is the best game of the generation in my opinion. Just incredible characters and sweet, sweet RPG gameplay. The strategy guide had the most bad ass art.

[Death From Above]

95 is better than 94 at literally every single thing. It's an absolute puzzlement people still hold 94 up as a holy grail based on it being the first non-ass hockey game.

 

Fuck I haven't played 94 in years and I can still name 3 spots on the ice that were bugged and you'd score from 99% of the time.

[Tabe]

I didn't much care for the SNES versions of the NHL games - the Genesis versions were better. 

 

I also agree that 95 was better than 94 but I definitely played 94 a lot more.  Sooooooo many glorious times with that game in our dorm room.  I was unstoppable!  I remember challenging a friend of mine, telling him I could beat him playing the entire game with no goalie.  I did!  Something like 9-8.  I talked crap the whoooooole time.  "Don't let me get the puck!  I'm gonna score every time I touch the puck!"  I actually had something like a 7-3 lead or something on him and then he switched to controlling his goalie manually to foil my breakaway move.  That worked and let him make a comeback but I still pulled it out.  And I never let him forget it either

[CastleVania Rey]

I also really enjoyed SimAnt but I imagine that would be best played on an old school PC emulator.

 

Final Fantasy III/VI is the best game of the generation in my opinion. Just incredible characters and sweet, sweet RPG gameplay. The strategy guide had the most bad ass art.

 

Re: SimAnt:

 

I also played the SNES one as a kid (I feared the spider!), and I remember it being pretty good, but the saving... THE ETERNAL SAVING. Life is too short for that, so PC is the way to go.

 

Re: Final Fantasy VI and its strategy guide:

 

That game is really the stuff legends are made of. No game collection is complete without it unless you somehow hate RPGs just that much. I went many years without playing it back in the day, because I played it via rental in 1994, when it was my first traditional RPG, but didn't own it until 2000. Six years is a long time to a kid (even though that time passes in a blink now that I'm old). I somehow had the guide despite this, and I used to study it constantly before going to sleep, preparing for when I'd play the game again. Next time I faced that Imperial Air Force, surely I'd win (especially if I'd, you know, actually buy weapons and armor...).

 

Sad to learn years later that the guide is FILLED with errors, most of it being stuff the guide writer's just pulled out of their asses. But hey, I still have that tattered old guide and it's still cool nostalgia anyway, and the maps are great.

 

I feared Shadow's first dream!

[Death From Above]

SimAnt is one of those totally obscure, random games I would actually like to play a 2014 fancy looking version of, believe it or not.

 

I mean, I'm not saying I'd put Skyrim hours into that, but it's got to be more interesting than three quarters of the stuff on Steam Greenlight.

[HumanChessgame]

I still have the SNES I've had since I was in 6th grade hooked up in my living room.  I'm mostly a platformer, shooter, and beat-em-up guy so here's my list-

 

Donkey Kong Country 2

TMNT 4

UN Squadron

Metal Warriors

Actraiser 1 & 2

Zombies Ate My Neighbors

Soldiers of Fortune

True Lies (really fun game once you get past the play control learning curve)

All 3 Star Wars games

Megaman X 1-3

Indiana Jones Trilogy (one game)

 

For a solid beat'em up I recommend The Peacekeepers. Its got a ludicrous story, a boss fight against the Steiner Brothers and fuckton of James Bond references!

It doesn't reinvent the Final Fight style game but its fun as hell

 

James

 

Wow, I get surprised whenever someone else has heard of this game.  I definitely recommend it, as it's nothing special from an idea standpoint, there's so much to it as far as secret stuff and alternate routes to take and such.

[twiztor]

i love the NES and N64 more than the Super, but my favorite games for it (i'm sure all have been mentioned already, but what the hell?) are, in no particular order:

Super Mario World

Donkey Kong Country

Super Metroid

Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Super Mario RPG

TMNT 4: Turtles in Time (still waiting on this to be released on the Virtual Console!)

Mega Man X

 

edited to add:

Mortal Kombat II

 

my friend got me a Super Nintendo and Turtles4 for my bday last week. 

i guess my recommended list just became my shopping list.

[James F'n X]

I replayed Earthbound a few months ago. Surprisingly, it has not aged well at all.

[BobbyWhioux]

If you can find Uncharted Waters:  New Horizons I recommend it.

 

Especially if you ride hard for other KOEI titles.

[Vincey Greene]

UNIRACERS is a totally awesome game. You are a unicycle with no rider. You go through crazy side scrolling courses. It's great.

 

I also really liked the SNES BATTLETOADS although Battletoads is a totally rat bastard series that probably broke as many controllers as any game ever. The SNES one is no exception.

 

 

CASTLEVANIA DRACULA X is a game everyone shit on back then, because it's named after a waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay superior PC Engine CD game, but on it's own merits it's a damn good game.

 

GRADIUS III is a really good port of a really good shmup. SNES is pretty ass for shmup games and that's my pick for the best.

 

Also FOR FUCKS SAKE nobody recommended F-ZERO. Go play F-ZERO.

[Bix]

Kirby's Dream Course is a lot of fun. Probably one of Nintendo's weirdest games and the difficulty spikes out of nowhere, but I've always loved it.

 

There are more great games from late in the console's life cycle than a lot of people remember, including DKC 3 (it's probably not as good as the first two games, but it's still a really high quality game), Super Mario RPG, Yoshi's Island, and Tetris Attack. I have no idea why Nintendo kind of gave up on reviving Tetris Attack/Panel de Pon/Pokemon Puzzle League, because it's probably their best puzzle game.

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters is rarely talked about anymore, but is a really solid SNES-exclusive (the NES and Genesis versions are actually different games and there was no arcade version) fighting game.

[Jingus]

For fighting games, World Heroes 2 was a lot of fun.  It had different gimmick matches right outta FMW with exploding thingies, a wide variety of characters who were fun cheesy ripoffs of Street Fighter characters, and the penultimate boss was a straight-up liquid metal T1000.  

 

And while you can chalk this one up to brand loyalty, I gotta mention Shadowrun.  It's an... frag, I dunno how exactly to describe it.  It's kind of an RPG, but there's a heavy point-and-click element to it.  It's set in a Blade Runner-ish future, only instead of replicants we've got a whole smorgasbord of fantasy and horror elements thrown into the mix.  Complete with the classic noir storyline, of a guy who's lost his memory... only this guy wakes up at the morgue.  (Side note: whose cock do I have to suck to finally get a truly great Shadowrun video game?  The Genesis version was better, but it still had a lot of flaws; and let's just shake our heads in pity at the XBox FPS version.  Done right, a true Shadowrun game would be a cross between Borderlands and Skyrim.)   

[TimLivingston]

Just replayed Earthbound and it's my favorite game ever and still is. 

 

Both Super Mario Worlds, Super Metroid, all three Donkey Kong Country games, Gradius III, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy III...god, the SNES was ridiculous.

[Matt D]

Just replayed Earthbound and it's my favorite game ever and still is. 

 

Both Super Mario Worlds, Super Metroid, all three Donkey Kong Country games, Gradius III, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy III...god, the SNES was ridiculous.

 

Which is a main reason why the Gameboy Advance (and therefore moreso the original DS that was backwards compatible) was so ridiculous. 

[Tabe]

For fighting games, World Heroes 2 was a lot of fun.  It had different gimmick matches right outta FMW with exploding thingies, a wide variety of characters who were fun cheesy ripoffs of Street Fighter characters, and the penultimate boss was a straight-up liquid metal T1000.  

Was in college when the arcade version of World Heroes 2 came out.  Me and another guy used to go to the arcade to kill time and that was the one game we played over all the other fighting games.  It was great!  I'm not crazy about the SNES version since it was cut down from the Neo Geo version (of course) and it seemed to suffer in the translation.

[Salads]

I bought World Heroes Anthology for PS2 recently as I've got a big soft spot for SNK fighters, but this the first time I've heard any entries in the series be described as anything better than pigshit. Thanks for the hype seeing as I've already paid for it.

 

If we're including shoddy arcade fighting game ports then I may as well give a shout out to Street Fighter Alpha 2. Have it on my shelf and can confirm that despite being a SNES cart it did indeed have loading times. Toady that'd be awarded extra marks for 'ambition'.

[TimLivingston]

Yeah, don't get Super Street Fighter II for SNES. Definitely not worth it.

[Death From Above]

I never had any problems with Alpha II on my SNES that I recall. But I never played the arcade version of it because I'd quit on those by then.

 

Gen is my favourite (relatively) obscure SF character. Dude was a badass.

[TimLivingston]

He won EVO last year in Super SF IV so he's not nearly as obscure as he once was, that's for damn sure.

 

Ya'll are gonna think I'm nuts, but I liked Cool Spot. I thought it was a really underrated platformer.

[Tabe]

He won EVO last year in Super SF IV so he's not nearly as obscure as he once was, that's for damn sure.

Ya'll are gonna think I'm nuts, but I liked Cool Spot. I thought it was a really underrated platformer.

Cool Spot is generally very well-regarded if not much remembered.