Super Nintendo Appreciation Thread

[Nathan Wind]

I'm sure there must be one of these already but I'm fecked if I can find it.....

 

I just bought a SNES, go me!  Then I looked at the price of games these days and almost fainted, so I bit the bullet and bought an SD2SNES to go with it, go me again!  Despite it being one of my favourite systems it's probably around a decade since I last owned one, so I'm after some recommendations of ace games to play and some general reminiscing about this most bodacious of consoles would be nice.  I know all the major titles that always crop up, but there must be a shed load of hidden gems for it.  The flash-cart is coming with an SD card pre-loaded with 800 ROMS so I'll be damned if I'm trying every game I haven't played or heard of.

 

I came late to the Super Nintendo back in the day.  I was still playing on an Atari ST well into the 90's having been a home computer gamer for a long time by that point, and it was around 1995 when I sold it and bought a SNES off my mate with about a dozen games.  I still remember paying him £70 for it. It blew my mind.  After playing on an ST for many years, seeing the gorgeous graphics of games like Super mario World and Street Fighter left my jaw on the floor.  The other thing which really impressed me was the ease with which you could play with your mates.  No one needed to slum it on the keyboard any more.

 

My fave games from back in the day are all the usual suspects and also some others like Mystical Ninja, Shadowrun, Super Double Dragon, Actraiser, Stunt Race FX and loads more.  I'm excited.

 

 

[Camel]

Man, I love the SNES.  Shame mine is out of action until I've finished sorting out our living room.  I use a Double Pro Fighter floppy device when I fancy playing something I don't own because I love old, weird things.  Recommendations:

 

Umihara Kawase

Battle Pinball

SD The Great Battle IV

Kirby's Dream Course

Cameltry

Macross Scrambled Valkyrie

Unirally

[merman]

The first console in my retro gaming collection.

 

It's 1994, I'm living in Cambridge and read a classified advert in the local paper. It's a student selling his SNES so he can import a PlayStation.

 

I got the console and Super Scope, two pads, two region converters and more than 20 games. That included some import titles, and three different versions of Street Fighter II (original, Turbo and US Super).

 

So many great games, kept adding to my collection over the years and still enjoy the odd blast. Looking to add an SD2SNES soon.

[watusi]

I never had a snes but I have fond memories playing sf and contra at my mates house as a kid.

Nowadays I often do a yearly play through of super metroid.

Aside from that super turrican and demons crest are ace and less obvious than the core first party titles.

[spanky debrest]

Demon's Crest definitely qualifies as a bona fide under-the-radar gem. I'd say the meat of the game is in the rock hard boss battles but the overall polish is fantastic - mid '90s Capcom in full, slightly experimental swagger.

 

I'd add Wild Guns as an A-grade balls out action title that plays like an early Neo Geo arcade game and looks really great. I need to pick it up again and hopefully finish the bastard.

 

And staying on the Natsume tip - the KiKi KaiKai / Pocky & Rocky games are beautiful blinders - but I only ever got anywhere with a second player as they're harder than they look. 

 

I know Assault Suit Valken / Cybernator parhaps isn't as obscure but it's worth playing the re-translated JPN original. It's a powerhouse of a game and really balanced, fair and accessible too.

 

Space Mega Force aka Super Aleste is the shooter that holds its own against the horde on other competing platforms. Pretty much every thing prime Compile produced on the 8-bit systems and PC Engine and Mega Drive was awesome - I'd say they were almost shooter auteurs with their consistency and class - but it's almost as if they went into production for this one with the explicit aim of making the meanest most technically dazzling and well designed shooter the system would ever see. It's really something else.

 

F1ROC II - aka F1 Exhaust Heat II - is my favourite mode 7 racer (after SMK of course). I think there's a special and unique gameplay aesthetic that was cultivated on the Snes. You just don't / can't race in such a focused way with and on polygons. Only the completely flat courses that the mode 7 racers sported could there be such crazed emphasis on the racing line, and F1 ROC II was - in my mind - the fastest, purest game of its kind.

[Camel]

Wild Guns is brilliant.  

[Nathan Wind]

45 minutes ago, merman said:

 

 

So many great games, kept adding to my collection over the years and still enjoy the odd blast. Looking to add an SD2SNES soon.

I got a good deal. It was listed at the usual £130 ish, but I made an offer at £115 which was accepted, but I also had a 10% off voucher about to expire so I used that up and it came in at about 103 quid! That's half a dozen cart only games nowadays. Last time I had a SNES you could still get most games for a fiver.

[Nathan Wind]

Yes, I love Super Aleste! Gonna get in on some UN Squadron sexy time as well.

[Soulstar]

I had a very similar situation to you then Nathan as I also grew up with an Atari ST and progressed onto the SNES Christmas 94 so it began for me properly from 95 onwards. I think I had a good run of the SNES exclusively until 96 when I eventually picked up a Saturn, although I used it for far longer than that. The good thing about my situation though was that I got a Super Wildcard DX32 from the go so I was playing all sorts of things including Jap and US releases. Can't believe though that I never ever did try Chrono Trigger and still haven't done to this day. Gameplay became an entirely different thing for me after the ST where most of those games were either permanently on cheat mode or just impossible to get anywhere. Loved Super Aleste and it was one of those I managed to eventually complete but still felt quite tough at the same time as I certainly didn't finish the first few times through. Axelay was another one I finished albeit most likely on easy . Then you have the likes of Pop n Twinbee which is excellent. R-Type 3 is great as well. This is a system with a lot of memories on it for me and got me into the RPG scene for the first time.

 

Oh and as for Pocky and Rocky, I remember renting that the night before Christmas day 96 where I'd wake up to a Saturn. It's a good arcadey game but the last time I went back to it even for a co-op, it was hard as absolute nails. Contra 3 has become a bit of a favourite of mine for co-op when going back to the SNES.

[Olly88]

Absolutely my favourite console of all time, just bloody love it. I've recently started buying games for it again regularly, not that I ever stopped, but had to slow down because of the prices. There's nothing like getting SNES games, IMO.

 

Some of my favourite games would be:

 

Yoshi's Island - My favourite game of all time. Just bloody love it.

Super Metroid - I played this for the first time in 2013 and loved it straight away. Everything about it combines perfectly to create the perfect atmosphere.

Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt/The Addams Family - Two games that probably don't get thought about much, which is a shame as they're two top platformers in my opinion. They're cheap still too, which is good.

Super Mario All Stars & Super Mario World - You've just got to have these.

Kirby's Fun Pak/Super Star - If you like cute and colourful platformers then this is a must, it can be summed up by the word "fun". I bloody love Kirby.

Super Castlevania - Another one I got to late, bought in 2011 and completed for the first time at the beginning of this year. Great gameplay, great music, great graphics, great atmosphere, great everything.

Super Ghouls n Ghosts - A really hard game, but one of the best on the SNES. Better than the Mega Drive version IMO which I played for the first time a few months ago. That one is still really good though.

Donkey Kong Country - Worth it just for the under water music. Ok, not really, it's worth it because it's a great game. Along with the other two.

Legend of the Mystical Ninja - A great mix of platformer and top down adventure game. I love the music.

 

I'm going to stop listing my favourites now, because I'm running out of things to say for them without getting repetitive.

 

For a few lesser talked about games I'd recommend:

 

Skyblazer

Super Adventure Island

The Flintstones - Treasure of Sierra Madrock

Out to Lunch

Pop'n TwinBee: Rainbow Bell Adventures

[Nick_L]

Super Metroid.

 

Best game ever made.

[Nathan Wind]

Never been able to get into it.

[gingerling]

I've got a modded snes with component ports. Love the console! What's the

difference between sd2snes and a everdrive?

I can pick a everdrive with full rom set for about £50

[Loada]

The main difference between a SD2SNES and EverDrive is that the SD2SNES hardware design means it can emulate all* of the SNES custom cart-based chips "out of the box" - not just the "classic" DSP ones as used by games like Mario Kart, PilotWings etc but also the more esoteric ones like the MSU1. The Everdrive can do just the DSP by soldering one into it (I believe?). I have a SD2SNES and its a great bit of kit but its pricey. It does just work though and the chip emulation does seem a bit like magic.

 

_{* apart from the SuperFX currently (which may not be possible?)}

[Nathan Wind]

Not a huge amount. SD2SNES has instant loading and saving times and support for a fair number of games that the SED can't run due to better enhancement chip compatibility. That's pretty much it. Auto region patching of ROMs is a pretty neat feature, I suppose. To play the likes of Super Mario Kart or Pilotwings you need to physically add a DSP1 chip to an Ever Drive, for example, or buy one with it installed at an extra twenty dollars, so there's that. But to be honest, if I hadn't been able to get it down to a hundred quid, I would have gone for a version 2 Ever drive.

 

[strider]

If you like super double dragon get return of double dragon instead. It has all the extra levels, is in the right order lets you do extended damage from whirlwind kicks and is a much better game than the enjoyable but cut down U.S. version.

If you like super double dragon get return of double dragon instead. It has all the extra levels, is in the right order lets you do extended damage from whirlwind kicks and is a much better game than the enjoyable but cut down U.S. version.

[Kebabilicious]

I played more four-player micro machines on the SNES than I think I played on any other game. The memories! The SNES has a few great gems hidden in the catalogue. Super Tennis is a smashing tennis game that I played a lot of with a mate. It's just a shame that it wasn't four-player.

Unirally is a bizarre uni-cycle racing game that I remember adoring, too.

[mushashi]

Retro Core did a shortish video highlighting some of the wonders of the Super Famicom recently. Out of the games Yakumo mentioned, Ninja Warriors Again is one I can attest to, very impressive, if fairly slow moving beat 'em up, probably the best single player one on the system, though nothing really beats the one series not available for the system

 

 

 

 

[F-zero]

The Super Nintendo is my favorite console of all time.

It still guts me that they included such an inadequate cpu which severely limited so many games.

Anyway here's my list of games to play.

 

Super Mario World

Super Mario World 2 Yoshis Island

Super Mario All-Stars

Super Castlevania 4

Super Ghouls and Ghosts

Super Aleste

Super Mario Kart

F-zero

Contra 3 The Alien Wars

R-Type 3

Pilot Wings

Donkey Kong Country

Super Metroid

Zombies Ate My Neighbors

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time

Gradius III

Actraiser

Axelay

Batman Returns

U.N. Squadron

 

I'm sure i'll think of a few more to add in the next day or two.

[Nathan Wind]

7 hours ago, strider said:

If you like super double dragon get return of double dragon instead. It has all the extra levels, is in the right order lets you do extended damage from whirlwind kicks and is a much better game than the enjoyable but cut down U.S. version.

 

That's the best advice I've read all day.

 

The SD2SNES has arrived already!  I only bought it yesterday.  Hopefully the SNES will be here tomorrow because it looks like I'm going to be rained off work on Friday....fingers crossed!

 

Edit - pozzes for everyone, because SNES, YEEEAAAHHHHHH!!!

 

[Nick_L]

Definately give Super Metroid another run out, it's really rewarding once you get into it. I'm pretty obsessed with it so of course I'm going to say that

 

The SNES had one the best game libraries of any console, you'll have a blast going through everything - It's probably still my most played console. 

[Nathan Wind]

Well....because you introduced my to the PC Engine I'm going to listen to you, but I'm not promising anything.

[Nick_L]

look at my car license plate (ignore the bike)

 

 

I need help 

[ScouserInExile]

The reason I got a snes is a simple one: Street Fighter II.

 

I'd first played it while on holiday in France and rapidly developed an obsession with it. Just about every penny from my paper round was spent on it in the arcades. Then a friend got a snes with it on and that was it, I HAD to have one.

 

I got one for my 14th birthday. Weirdly, I never owned my own copy of Street Fighter, though I did get a copy of Turbo put the local paper (I swear to god, the guy I bought it off had a perm, a 'tasche and a shell suit. I guess the stereotype came from somewhere).

 

This was m first console, having only had a C16 and C64 previously. I loved it. Loved it, loved it, loved it.

 

I've always been a one game at a time kind of guy and it coincided with me having plenty of time to game (as my gcse results illustrate). So I'd get a game and play it to death.

 

Games I can remember playing for hours and hours for days and days include:

Zombies Ate My Neighbours I loved the horror settling of this, the humour, the weapons, the varied levels. Just  fun, challenging game

Rock And Roll Racing Great game, great soundtrack, just great

Super Bomberman I actually think this is the first game I sat down and beat, start to finish, in one session. It might actually be the first game I beat, full stop.

Street Racer controversially, I liked this more than Mario Kart. Rinsed it with all characters

Striker Never been a football game fan, thought this was great, though. Loved the pace of it, loved the indoor football. A great game.

Star Wing / Fox The graphics! Oh my life, he graphics. Game was alright as well.

Mortal Kombat 2 Friendship! Friendship!

 

I've always much preferred the snes pad over the MD equivalent. The d-pad is better, it seems to fit my hands better and I like the feel of the buttons. I love the clunkiness of the on / off Switch and the eject button. Its just a great console all round.

 

 

[fat flatulent git]

I had a good long session on my Super Famicom today - great stuff.

I had a good long session on my Super Famicom today - great stuff.

[SeanR]

I keep meaning to try my sfc with my scart-hdmi upscaler. Using my jag psu.

 

But can I find a scart cable? Can I fuck.

 

What do I need?

 

 

I keep meaning to try my sfc with my scart-hdmi upscaler. Using my jag psu.

 

But can I find a scart cable? Can I fuck.

 

What do I need?

 

 

[Nathan Wind]

50 minutes ago, SeanR said:

 

What do I need?

 

 

Ummm.....a SCART cable?

 

[SeanR]

For a Japanese sfc, it'll just put out an rgb signal over scart, nae bother?

 

For a Japanese sfc, it'll just put out an rgb signal over scart, nae bother?

 

[Nathan Wind]

Yeah I think so. If you check out the SNES page on retrogamingcables.co.uk there's a useful paragraph at the top explaining it all.  They're a superb site btw. I've had a number of cables from them.

 

[ridgeracer]

Sorry if they have been mentioned but other classics are:

 

Actriser

Donley Kong Country 1/2

Contra Spirits

Valken/Cybernator

Exhaust Heat 2

F Zero

Final Fight 1/2/3 (3 is pretty good)

Final FIght Tough (JPN final fight 3)

The Firemen

Ganbare Goemon/Mystical Ninja

Ganbare Goemon 2/3/4 if you can handle some Japanese text

Gokujou Parodius

Parodius Da

Super Kirby Bowl

Mario Picross (simple but amazing!)

Mystery Circle

Rockman/Mega Man games (not really a fan personally)

Pilotwings

Sim City (even for the title screen music)

Star Fox

Wildtrax/Stunt Race FX

Bomberman 1/2/3/4/5

Super Castlevania

Super Chase HQ

Super G&G (not as good as the original on the MD/PCE imo)

Super Mario Allstars

Super Mario Kart

Super Mario World

Super Mario World 2 /AKA Yoshi Island

Super Metroid

Super Punchout

Street Fighter 2 Turbo

Super Tennis

Top Racer/Top Gear

Area 88/UN Squadron

Undercover Cops

Zelda: Lttp

Zig Zag Cat

 

 

There are loads of highly acclaimed titles but these are the ones I own/like alot.

 

I missed out all the RPG's as I have never really played them before but I hear they are very good too.