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All-Time 16-Bit Classics: Our Comprehensive Guide to the Best Super NES Games (Update: 1994!)
The year 1994 arrives, and with it some of the greatest games ever made. Our year-by-year video guide to the best of Super NES continues!
List
by
Jeremy Parish,
02/16/2016.
Nintendo launched the Super NES in America in August 1991, and unlike its predecessor the NES, it got off to a roaring start. As the system approaches its 25th anniversary, we'd like to look back at its best releases year by year.
As with our massive video compendium of NES games, this isn't just a countdown. It's a collector's guide! In addition to telling you which games you need to track down, we also want to help you find them. Some games never made it beyond its original Super NES release, but quite a few of these greats can be dug up on Virtual Console, through remakes, and via compilations.
The Best Super NES Games of 1991
Super Mario World
Nintendo | August 1991
Where to find it: Game Boy Advance, Wii Virtual Console, Wii U Virtual Console
F-Zero
Nintendo | August 1991
Where to find it: Wii Virtual Console, Wii U Virtual Console
Pilotwings
Nintendo | August 1991
Where to find it: Wii Virtual Console, Wii U Virtual Console
SimCity
Nintendo | August 1991
Where to find it: Delisted from Wii Virtual Console
U.N. Squadron
Capcom | September 1991
Where to find it: Never reissued; only available via the original cartridge
ActRaiser
Quintet/Enix | November 1991
Where to find it: Wii Virtual Console
RPM Racing
Silicon & Synapse/EA | November 1991
Where to find it: Never reissued
Final Fantasy II
Squaresoft | November 1991
Where to find it: WonderSwan, GBA, DS, iOS, Steam, PSP/Vita, Wii Virtual Console
Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts
Capcom | November 1991
Where to find it: Saturn (import), PlayStation (import) Wii Virtual Console, Wii U Virtual Console
Super Castlevania IV
Konami | December 1991
Where to find it: Wii Virtual Console, Wii U Virtual Console
The Best Super NES Games of 1992
Contra III: The Alien Wars
Konami | April 1992
Where to find it: Game Boy port, Game Boy Advance remake, Wii Virtual Console, Wii U Virtual Console
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Nintendo | April 1992
Where to find it: Game Boy Advance remake, Wii Virtual Console, Wii U Virtual Console
Arcana
HAL | May 1992
Where to find it: Super NES version only
Super Star Wars
Sculptured Software/JVC | April 1992
Where to find it: Wii Virtual Console
Legend of the Mystical Ninja
Konami | June 1992
Where to find it: Wii Virtual Console, Wii U Virtual Console
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior
Capcom | July 1992
Where to find it: Wii Virtual Console (delisted), Wii U Virtual Console; arcade version appears in numerous collections, including PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PlayStation Portable/Vita
Mario Paint
Nintendo | August 1992
Where to find it: Super NES only
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time
Konami | August 1992
Where to find it: Super NES only; arcade remaster for Xbox 360 (delisted)
Super Mario Kart
Konami | September 1992
Where to find it: Wii Virtual Console, Wii U Virtual Console
Axelay
Konami | September 1992
Where to find it: Wii Virtual Console, Wii U Virtual Console
Soul Blazer
Quintet/Enix | November 1992
Where to find it: Super NES only
Musya
Jorudan/SETA | December 1992
Where to find it: Super NES only
The Best Super NES Games of 1993
Star Fox
Argonaut/Nintendo | March 1993
Where to find it: Original Super NES version only
The Lost Vikings
Silicon & Synapse/Interplay | April 1993
Where to find it: Game Boy Advance, Battle.net
Shadowrun
Beam/Data East | May 1993
Where to find it: Original Super NES version only
Super Bomberman
Hudson | May 1993
Where to find it: Original Super NES release only
Alien 3
Probe/Acclaim | July 1993
Where to find it: Original Super NES release only
Run Saber
Horisoft/Atlus | July 1993
Where to find it: Original Super NES release only
Goof Troop
Capcom | July 1993
Where to find it: Original Super NES release only
Super Mario All-Stars
Nintendo | August 1993
Where to find it: Wii (25th Anniversary Edition)
E.V.O.: The Search for Eden
Almanic/Enix | August 1993
Where to find it: Original Super NES release only
Zombies Ate My Neighbors
LucasArts/Konami | September 1993
Where to find it: Wii Virtual Console
Secret of Mana
Squaresoft | Dec. 1993
Where to find it: Wii Virtual Console, iOS/Android
The Best Super NES Games of 1994
Mega Man X
Capcom | Jan. 1994
Where to find it: iOS/Android, Wii & Wii U Virtual Console, PSP (as Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X)
Flashback: The Quest for Identity
Delphine/U.S. Gold | Feb. 1994
Where to find it: iOS
Skyblazer
Ukyotei/Sony Imagesoft | May 1994
Where to find it: Original cart only
Super Metroid
Nintendo | May 1994
Where to find it: Wii & Wii U Virtual Console
Uniracers
DMA Design/Nintendo | June 1994
Where to find it: Original cart only
Breath of Fire
Capcom/Square | Aug. 1994
Where to find it: Game Boy Advance, Wii U Virtual Console
Illusion of Gaia
Quintet/Nintendo | Sept. 1994
Where to find it: Original cart only
Super Punch-Out!!
Nintendo | Sept. 1994
Where to find it: Wii & Wii U Virtual Console
Sparkster
Konami | Oct. 1994
Where to find it: Original cart only
Final Fantasy III
Square | Oct. 1994
Where to find it: PlayStation Classics for PSP/PS3/Vita (as Final Fantasy Anthology), iOS/Android (as Final Fantasy VI), Steam (as Final Fantasy VI), Game Boy Advance (as Final Fantasy VI Advance)
Demon's Crest
Capcom | Nov. 1994
Where to find it: Wii U Virtual Console
Pocky & Rocky 2
Natsume | Nov. 1994
Where to find it: Original cart only
Donkey Kong Country
Rare/Nintendo | Nov. 1994
Where to find it: Game Boy Advance, Wii & Wii U Virtual Console
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Comments 79
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Is U.N. Squadron tied to a license that keeps it from appearing on VC?
Damn, I love Area 88! I have both the U.S. and Japanese carts.
I guess I don't love Final Fantasy IV that much, since I basically gave up by the time I got to the moon. Somehow the grindiness of the game just got to me, or I dreaded the story because of all that heartbreak.
Funny how Super Castlevania IV is the most expensive of all the games on this list, but Konami must've had small print runs.Edited 2 times. Last edited May 2015 by riderkicker
Despite that, a great starting list for my favorite game console of all time. It's crazy to look back and see at how great the launch lineup for the SNES was. I think it's safe to say no other system before or after has managed to get it that good.
Super Mario World was the first Mario game I ever owned and played through to completion. A great introduction for me into the Mario series proper.
Actraiser certainly "raised" an eyebrow from me (I'm sorry!). The soundtrack alone set the bar ridiculously high on the presentation scale (Yuzo Koshiro on his A-game).
Final Fantasy 2(4) was a heck of a transition for the series into the 16-bit era.
UN Squadron from what I heard ended up being a better game than the original arcade game it was ported from.
F-Zero and Pilotwings delivered a sense of visual immersion I had yet to have seen at that time. It also gave quite the challenge too!
The SNES version of SimCity is still my favorite version of SimCity to this day. The Nintendo references and rewarding gameplay I still find fun.
Super Ghouls N' Ghosts also my favorite entry in the Ghost N' Goblins series.
Seeing RPM Racing in action, it's easy to see how Blizzard later ended up developing Rock N' Roll Racing.
Super Castlevania IV is also among one of my favorite Castlevania games. Presentation was top notch (another game with a fantastic soundtrack to accompany the experience).Edited 3 times. Last edited May 2015 by InsertTokenz
The mediocre RPM racing needs to be replaced with Super Tennis, Final Fight and Gradius 3 though.
Also, I mentioned to Peter Molyneux once that I was mainly familiar with Populous through the Super NES version, and he said, "I'm SO sorry." I can't endorse a port that induces cringes in the game's original creator!Edited May 2015 by jeremy.parish
Good point, it was indeed missing some of the content, most importantly the two-player mode. However, they were able to in general faithfully port over the visuals and gameplay of the arcade hit, which was an impressive feat. Hence it received very positive reviews at the time. Your colleague Jaz Rignall for example gave it 92% in Mean Machines.
Not that my memories of that Xmas are unhappy. I loved Sonic, and I can even remember trying to convince my SNES owning friends that the Genesis was the better system ("Sonic is so much cooler than Mario!"). I don't think I ever really believed it though, and the games listed here are a good indication of why. Absolutely the best launch lineup of any system in history!
@SuperShinobi I'm with you on Final Fight. I totally understand the reasons for Jeremy to exclude it and point out that better versions are available. However, as an only child who almost always played solo and visited an arcade once or twice a year, none of that mattered, and I have a lot of nostalgia for SNES Final Fight. It seemed like a massive step up from the NES Double Dragons I was used to, and the graphics and sound were quite impressive.
I've never played RPM Racing - is it really that good, or is it included for historical significance? Not that there's anything wrong with that - I hadn't known about Blizzard's history until this list prompted me to look that game up. So it was sort of a stealth teaching moment, which I appreciate.
Everything else is great, though!
@jeremy.parish "Also, I mentioned to Peter Molyneux once that I was mainly familiar with Populous through the Super NES version, and he said, "I'm SO sorry." I can't endorse a port that induces cringes in the game's original creator!"
To be fair, Molyneux (from what I've read) comes across as having a bad habit of constantly throwing his previous works under the bus regardless of their quality, typically to build promise towards whatever he would be working on at that time. I could be wrong, but with someone like Peter Molyneux, it can be hard to tell. :)Edited May 2015 by InsertTokenz
The visual quality of the video is too low. I thought it was maybe youtube playing the video at less than 480 res, but apparently the recordings used to show the games (minus Super Castlevania 4), look very blurry and with JPG-like compression artifacts. Specially noticeable when played in full screen.
The Dark Cloud games were better follow ups to ActRaiser, especially Dark Cloud 2.
EDIT: I will note to say I've not played Quintent's post-Soul Blazer games. Illusion of Gaia is up next.Edited June 2015 by TotalHenshin
@TotalHenshin Flip it around for me. I love Soul Blazer - probably in my top 5 for the SNES - but hated everything about Dark Cloud.
I was 12 years old when Soul Blazer was released so, as with most of these games, my fondness is a product of memory. I can see its shortcomings now, sure, but in 1992? Pure magic. (Especially the soundtrack.)
Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma are lovely games but Soul Blazer is the only one I still revisit every few years.Edited June 2015 by Xemus80
I saw a demo for it at a local video store and said, "Damn, those are some nice tracks!" and straight bought the OST.
But I'm guessing...that it's fun? Lol.
@Avante I was thinking the same thing, though I can understand not including PC ports on a list like this (SimCity may be a bit of a special case, with its Nintendo-specific quirks). Still, '92 was a bumper year for PC conversions. Aside from the Lemmings and Out of This World ports you mentioned, the SNES also saw Wing Commander (compromised, but still fun) and a nice-looking rendition of Prince of Persia.
Also, no idea how best to play these games now, but the Super Scope was also released in '92, so that happened. That was the only time my dad ever bought something due to a hands-on demo at the mall - he loved that puzzle game that came as part of the Super Scope 6 (Blastris, I think?). Battle Clash was also pretty good.
1993 was a really weak year for the Super NES in the United States. (It might be easier to fill a top 10 for 1993 with games that stayed in Japan than games that were released here.)
I don't think there was a single Super NES game released in 1993 that I would wholeheartedly recommend, but my favorites are Secret of Mana, Metal Combat, Pocky & Rocky, The Lost Vikings, Sunset Riders, Super Bomberman, Run Saber, Goof Troop, and EVO. (I never really liked Star Fox, Super Mario All-Stars, Cybernator, Aladdin, Final Fight 2, Mortal Kombat, or Zombies Ate My Neighbors...)Edited June 2015 by Sturat
Some of the games I might perhaps add include Top Racer / Top Gear, Gradius 3, Super Tennis, Sunset Riders, Super Aleste and Super SWIW.
@SuperShinobi Thanks! The idea behind doing the year-by-year lookbacks is that the same games always show up in top 10/top 20 lists. This breaks things out and gives the less popular games room to breathe. Be sure to check out our NES list as well!
(The Genesis/Mega Drive doesn't get nearly as much love anymore as it should, though. The SNES is firmly cemented as "Best Console of All Time" for nerds of a certain age, but SEGA platforms feel like they're slipping away, despite still selling well and stuff.)
To be honest, I thought 1993 was the weakest year for SNES (only Secret of Mana appeals to me). 1994 changed everything...
I think Nintendo didn't take enough risks localizing Super NES games because the carts were more expensive to manufacture than any other game format at the time that didn't have the words "Neo" or "Geo" in the name, and the Super Famicom was dominating the Japanese market so well that most companies were reluctant to waste development resources localizing games. Plus, they were still making games for NES and Gameboy (although there weren't many releases besides Kirby's Adventure, Link's Awakening, and Kirby's Pinball Land) and Nintendo was spending a ton of R&D time on the Super NES CD-ROM, the Super FX Chip, Project Reality, and probably the Virtual Boy and Satellaview.
I was a Super NES owner in 1993 and I knew the other game systems were getting better games:
Turbo Duo had Lords of Thunder, Cotton, Bonk 3, Dungeon Explorer II, Dynastic Hero, and Super Air Zonk, giving us one more year of good support in the US before they outright told fans "you should just start importing our games."
Sega CD had Sonic CD, Lunar, Robo Aleste, Road Avenger, Silpheed, and Final Fight CD.
The Genesis had Gunstar Heroes, Shinobi III, Shining Force, Rocket Knight Adventures, Tiny Toon Adventures, Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, Ranger X, McDonald’s Treasureland Adventure, Rolling Thunder 3, Splatterhouse 3, and a lot of the games listed here as the best on Super NES in 1993.
If you like fighting games, you'd probably even say the Neo-Geo had a better 1993 line-up than the Super NES with Samurai Shodown and Fatal Fury 2 / Special.
I think most people would agree Nintendo pulled it together for 1994; I'm looking forward to US Gamer's top 10 list for that year. Hopefully the big hitters like Final Fantasy VI, Mega Man X, and Super Metroid can still leave room for games like Illusion of Gaia, Sparkster, Super Punch-Out, and Demon's Crest. (Maybe we'll even see some love for R-Type III, Skyblazer, and Firestriker? You could leave out Donkey Kong Country, Earthworm Jim, and Uniracers to make room for a weird Breakout/pinball/RPG/party game, right?)
Characters have to cast spells to level up. So the action is constantly being interrupted by pausing and going into ring menus to cast spells and heal. If you have any AI controlled party members they get hung-up on geometry with terrible pathfinding. Secret of Mana is one classic for me that does not hold up.
Zombies Ate My Neighbors is pretty great though. Except for the hard as hell difficulty.
Nice to see Shadowrun on this list, because to me it's one of the best hidden gems on the SNES. That and Equinox.
Granted at this point, I've got 20 years of nostalgia, but I remember Gaia having some amazing stages and locations that I still remember vividly. The sky aztec location was really quite amazing, the late game pyramid stage was really good, and some of the puzzles were really quite difficult to solve.
Gotta admit though, looking for all 50 red gems in Illusion of Gaia was infuriating as all hell.
FF3 was a very pleasant surprise for me. I had enjoyed the original Final Fantasy and replayed the heck out of FF2, but by late '94 I had started to drift away from the SNES. I'd canceled my Nintendo Power subscription and just wasn't informed about upcoming games, so I wasn't aware of FF3 until I saw it on store shelves. It cost something like $80 and I hadn't bought a cartridge in months, but I had birthday money burning a hole in my pocket so I figured, "The previous ones were good, so I'll give it a shot." As everyone knows now, it was shockingly good - best gaming decision I've ever made.
All those games still stand toe to toe with anything modern, and they all came out in 1994. A fantastic year.
Thanks for the series by the way!
Yes, the framerate was horrible, but somehow I hardly noticed that in '94. Guess I was too busy racing across actual mountains and through underwater tunnels with fish swimming on the other side of the glass. (Again: on a Super Nintendo!). I keep hoping Nintendo will rerelease it with a smoother framerate, but I guess we'll never see any Super FX-games on virtual console.
Flashback and Mega Man X as with many cross-continent localizations really stretched it by folding into '94, and this was mere months after their original homeland releases. Definite progress from the NES days nonetheless.
Great picks on the whole. Love me some Axelay. Space Megaforce/Super Aleste deserves an honorable mention. Ditto R-Type III. Too bad it was removed from VC following Irem's closing.
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Juan
Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Breath of Fire II (Ugh translation though) Killer Instinct, Metal Warriors (don’t even bother to try buying it) Ogre Battle (just buy the ps1 edition) Secret of Evermore (no it has nothing to do with Secret of Mana 2 not coming over) Super Adventure Island II, Yoshi’s Island, and Wild Guns. 1996 only has a few, including Lufia 2, the winner for most improved sequel, and Super Mario RPG. Maybe Terranigma if you’re lucky enough to have an Australian/UK copy with the ridiculously specific version of Pro Action replay (one of my few lucky purchases prior to the obscene retro game price market)