The greatest SNES titles
Friday, April 4th, 2008 - 12:33am
So, a pal of mine who discovered console gaming late in life has been recently struck by the bug, and he asked me to recommend to him the 10 greatest SNES games of all time, single or multiplayer. It's been so long that I'm sure that I've forgotten some of the great ones, but here's the list I have so far, in no particular order:
And for honorable mention I have King Arthur's World, Final Fantasy II, and Super Ghouls n' Ghosts. I know that I'm missing some there, help a brother out...
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My list would be (in no particular order):
Super Metroid
Earthbound
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy II
Final Fantasy III
Robotrek
Soul Blazer
Illusion of Gaia
Super Mario World
Actraiser
Breath of Fire II (first one was good, but not as good as the sequel)
E.V.O.: Search for Eden
LoZ: Link to the Past (also the greatest Zelda title ever, IMO)
Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals
Secret of Evermore
Secret of Mana
Super Mario RPG
The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang
Young Merlin
Zombies Ate My Neighbors
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Earthbound, Earthbound, EARTHBOUND.
Kirby Super Star is also major fun, as well as Actraiser and Super Metroid.
Oogaba.
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
StarFox
Final Fantasy 4 & 6
Super Mario All Stars
Super Mario RPG
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The only lists you'll need!
The Obvious Ten
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy III (VI)
Secret of Mana
Super Metroid
Super Mario World
Yoshi's Island: Super Mario World 2
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Super Mario Kart
Earthbound
Final Fantasy II (IV)
The Equally Obvious Next Ten
Super Mario RPG
Super Punch-Out!!
Street Fighter II Turbo
SimCity
Starfox
Super Castlevania IV
Tecmo Super Bowl
F-Zero
ActRaiser
Super Mario All-Stars
The Should-Be-Obvious Five
NHL '94
Zombies Ate My Neighbors
The Lost Vikings
U.N. Squadron
Ogre Battle
The Underdog Seven
Aerobiz
Aerobiz Supersonic
Desert Strike
Super Bomberman 2 (long held as the Bomberman benchmark)
Super Baseball Simulator 1.000
Super Tennis
NCAA Basketball
Average At Best RPGs That Actually Weren't That Great, But We Ate Them Up Because We Were RPG Crazy
Breath of Fire
Breath of Fire II
Secret of Evermore
Illusion of Gaia
Arcana
No
Donkey Kong Country (all)
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I only have two (and i only ever had about 6 SNES games):
Super Mario World
Starfox
Both are great games... unfortunately, a portion of the great games you guys list never made it out over here.... I hate the three game companies....
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Doomed - to - insidious -
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Super Castlevania 4
Dracula X
Donkey Kong Country
Diddy Kong Racing
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What happened to the list of essential games for numerous platforms that used to be on the old site? That had a great list of SNES games. Chances are they're all listed here though.
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The SNES might well be the greatest console system of all time. It's hard to select just a few must-have titles. I see most of the obvious choices listed already, so let me emphasize just a few:
Zombies Ate My Neighbors is awesome, and is one of the reasons why I always complain about local co-op now-a-days. Secret of Mana (which I'm in the middle of replaying via multitap) is outstanding as well.
Super Metroid gets replayed about once a year, and it's been that way since 1995. Incredible game.
The Lost Vikings is a top-notch puzzle/platformer, and one of Blizzard's earliest games I believe.
There are so many...
Kat on Cally wrote:
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Not much more I could add to this list, except to underscore a few of my favorites:
Super Metroid--arguably the best console game of all time
FFII,III--yeah, that's right, I refer to them by their english names
Zelda III--best of the series
Super Mario World--Not better than SMBIII, but damn good
and one other that I haven't seen:
Technically, Namco's Tales of Phantasia was never released in english, but it's, uh, more than possible to find and play fan translations. Odds are it's the greatest SNES game you've never played.
Ken Levine wrote:
Great to see some Lost Vikings love in this thread. Man, I really dug LV and its sequel.
While I remember fondly Nintendo's own Super Mario World, Zelda: Link to the Past, & Super Metroid and even more so Square's golden years of development with Final Fantasy II, III, Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger...
I'd still have to say without a shadow of a doubt, my favorite SNES titles is
This game is polish and fun defined. It's as though Lucas Arts wrote a love letter to the fans of 50's/60's Sci-Fi/Horror B-Movies, and wrapped it all up in a wonderfully humorous tone.
I recently started playing it again and the game is just as entertaining as it was back in the day. The graphics are still awesome, the music simply outstanding (I caught myself humming several of the tunes at work this week) and the gameplay as satisfying as ever. Hitting a zombie with your water pistol and watching the body explode as the skull drops to the ground remains as visceral as many of today's uber-tech'ed shooters.
I love how many references there are to the classics of cinema. Looking over at Wikipedia, the list is even larger than I remembered:
"The game makes several references to horror movies, including An American Werewolf in London, Child's Play, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Mars Needs Women, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" Dracula, Night of the Living Dead, Friday the 13th, Them!, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Day of the Triffids, and Tremors, as well as the classical novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
The final villain of the game is named "Dr. Tongue," first referenced in the level "Dr. Tongue's Castle of Terror". This is perhaps an homage to George A. Romero's Day of the Dead. The first zombie shown in the film was given the nickname "Dr. Tongue" during production because he is missing his jaw and has a protruding tongue. The name could also be based on the character of the same name portrayed by John Candy on the 1970s-80s TV series SCTV.
Another level is called "The Day the Earth Ran Away" which is a reference to the classic sci-fi movie The Day the Earth Stood Still There is also a level called "Dances with Werewolves", which is a parody of the movie Dances with Wolves,
There is another level called "Martians Go Home", which is reference to the Fredric Brown story of the same name and the 1990 film adaptation.
In Level 5, where the main character faces his own likeness emerging from giant seed pods in the ground. This an obvious reference to the the 1957 movie "Invasion of the Body Snatchers".
A hidden bonus level, Day of the Tentacle, is a reference to the LucasArts adventure game of the same name. The bonus level can be accessed using BCDF as the level code.
Level 5, titled "Weird Kids on the Block", is a reference to the boy band, New Kids on the Block.
Level 19, titled "Nightmare on Terror Street", is a reference to the movie, Nightmare on Elm Street.
Level 26, titled "Where the Red Fern Growls", is named after Wilson Rawls' novel Where the Red Fern Grows. It may also be a reference to the red weed from The War of the Worlds. Additional parodies include "Mars Needs Cheerleaders," a reference to the Sci-Fi film "Mars Needs Women," and "Seven Meals For Seven Zombies," which is a parody of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
Level 31, titled "Look Who's Coming to Dinner", is possibly named after the movie Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.
............................
I mean, how can you not love a game with a level titled, "Mars Needs Cheerleaders"?
Here's a nice little video review for those who may have missed out on this gem.
ToP is a really great game. It was rereleased for the GBA, for those who don't want to mess with the rather goofy (but fun) fan translation.
Kat on Cally wrote:
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Dude, what is wrong with you?
Wasn't there a Metal Gear for SNES?
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I believe Metal Gear only appeared NES and the next to show up was the PSX version.
Actraiser!
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I have to disagree that SNES is the best console of all time...I would say that it's the Wii since it has a large chunk of the games mentioned here for download anyways. However they do need to have a place to request games because then you could get more of the fun obscure titles.
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Elysium wrote:
Super Mario RPG
Street Fighter II
Mario Paint
Super Mario Kart
I liked my Sega Genesis more.
Elysium wrote:
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I hate to go the appeal to authority route, but Miyamoto was right when he ripped those games a new one.
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All the Donkey Kong Country games were great. Sure they were simplistic at times, but I still enjoy playing all 3.
A few of my favorite SNES games in no order:
Chrono Trigger
Zelda 3
Donkey Kong Country 2
Super Mario All Stars + World
Super Metroid
Yoshi's Island
Oh so many great memories coming back. I just wish I had some free time to play some of these old classics.
Here is my list:
The Obvious ones:
Final Fantasy IV and IV
Chrono Trigger
Super Mario Kart
Super Metroid
LOZ: Link to the Past
Secret of Mana
Not So Obvious ones:
Mystical Ninja
Secret of Evermore
Soul Blazer
Illusions of Gaia
Actraiser
EVO
Star Wars: A New Hope
Mega Man X
UN Squadron
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I never knew Miyamoto did that.
While they weren't brilliant, they were still fun, entertaining, and at times challenging platformers. I didn't care for the third game as much, but DKC and DKC2 were excellent. I have DKC2 on the VC for the Wii and it's still fun today.
Oh, how could I have forgotten Legend of the Mystical Ninja! Awesome game, great co-op.
Kat on Cally wrote:
Boötes's Photo Blog
Wikipedia pulls the story from Steven Kent's book as such: "Nintendo producer Shigeru Miyamoto once criticized Donkey Kong Country, stating that "Donkey Kong Country proves that players will put up with mediocre gameplay as long as the art is good.""
On various TV shows he's appeared on, Kent recalls the story with Miyamoto being rather fired up about it and much less calm and clinical than it appears in text.
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"Damn, your comedic timing is awesome." -- Spaz, *Legion* Fan #1437
It's pretty easy to say that the first 3 years of the SNES had some of the best games ever. Launch titles were awesome, Super Mario World was simply amazing, Contra 3 was great, Super Castlevania fan-effin-tastic, Actraiser, Final Fantasy 2, Zelda. Nintendo hasn't had such a fantastic line up in a very long time.
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This makes me want to bust out my SNES.
Ogre Battle was probably my favorite game for that console, followed by Final Fantasy III (aka VI).
Wow. I'd say Mr. Miyamoto has some high standards! Am I crazy here, or was the game play at least a bit innovative for its time? I seem to remember it flowing well and being a lot of fun. Most of all, I appreciated the challenge of finding ALL those secret areas, making the game last for a quite a few extra hours for me.
Maybe my memory is tainted by the fact I was pretty much a kid, and it was sooooo.... shiney.
Ah yes, Earthbound, can't believe I forgot that. And it looks like I'll have to try this zombie game before I pass the final list on to my buddy. Amazing how difficult it is to narrow it to 10.
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Wouldn't know. Other than Super Mario World I only played Tecmo Super Bowl I, II and III.
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That makes baby Jesus cry.
I don't think there was anything innovative about the gameplay... it WAS the graphics that sold the games. They weren't TERRIBLE or anything... but without those "cutting edge" graphics it would have been just another mediocre side-scroller.
The ironic thing for Miyamoto is that DKC/Rare really defined the look of Donkey Kong for the last 15 years.
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