24th May 2013, 6:09 PM
Game Review Summaries: SNES
Previous threads in this series: Odyssey 2, Game Boy (B&W), Sega Saturn, Playstation 1, Nintendo 64, and PC Racing Games.
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In the '90s, I only had PC and Game Boy/GB Color for gaming, until I got an N64 in late '99. I later got a GC, but I'd missed a lot, and eventually I wanted to go back and get those systems. The Super Nintendo was the first "classic" console that I bought -- that is, the first system that I got that wasn't currently on shelves when I got it. I'd gotten into classic gaming first through emulation, but what the emulators really did was make me want the real thing... so, after a while, I did. I got the system in summer 2005. It's a model-1 SNES, and it still works fine. Overall, the SNES is of course a great, great console, and it's one of my favorites; the N64 is my favorite console, and the SNES and Genesis (with its addons) are tied for second.
For accessories, I do have a Super Multitap, but I don't have a Super Scope, so I can't review the lightgun games. I have a SNES Mouse with mousepad, though. I do not have any import games for the system, yet at least. With so many US releases out there, I haven't needed them.
Top 10 (of games I own only) - don't take this list too seriously, it's nothing I've thought too deeply about. It's an okay list though.
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1. Super Mario World
2. F-Zero
3. Super Turrican
4. Gradius III
5. Illusion of Gaia
6. Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie's Double Trouble
7. Super Castlevania IV
8. Top Gear
9. Space Megaforce
10. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Honorable Mentions (in no order): Donkey Kong Country 2, Super Metroid, BlaZeon, Top Gear 3000, Jim Power: The Lost Dimension in 3D, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Kirby's Dream Course, GunForce, Street Racer, Tiny Toon Adventures: Wacky Sports Challenge, TMNT IV: Turtles in Time, Super Street Fighter II, TMNT: Tournament Fighters, Super Return of the Jedi, Mega Man X, Operation Logic Bomb, Uniracers, Super Nova
The two launch titles are my two favorite SNES games? Heh... but it's true.
List of Titles (in alphabetical order, except I keep some series in release order)
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ActRaiser, The Addams Family Values, Aero the Acrobat, Aladdin, Arkanoid: Doh It Again, Axelay, Battle Cars, BlaZeon, Breath of Fire, Bugs Bunny: Rabbit Rampage, Cacoma Knight in BizyLand, California Games II, Cannondale Cup, Carrier Aces, Choplifter III, The Combatribes, Cybernator, Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions, Darius Twin, Super Nova, D-Force, Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble, Doom, Drakkhen, Faceball 2000, Fatal Fury 2, FIFA Soccer '97, Final Fight 2, Final Fight 3, First Samurai, Full Throttle: All-American Racing, F-Zero, Gemfire, Gods, Goof Troop, Gradius III, GunForce: Battle Fire Engulfed Terror Island, Hal's Hole in One Golf, Hyper Zone, Illusion of Gaia, The Incredible Crash Dummies, Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventure, Inspector Gadget (1993), Jim Power: The Lost Dimension in 3D, Joe & Mac, Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park 2: The Chaos Continues, Justice League Task Force, Ka-Blooey, Kawasaki Carribean Challenge, Killer Instinct, King of the Monsters 2, Kirby's Dream Course, Kirby Super Star, Kirby's Dream Land 3, Knights of the Round, Kyle Petty's No Fear Racing, Lagoon, Lamborghini American Challenge, Legend of the Mystical Ninja, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, The Lion King, Magic Sword, The Great Circus Mystery Starring Mickey & Minnie, The Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse, Mario Paint, MechWarrior 3050, Mega Man X, Mohawk and Headphone Jack, NBA Jam: Tournament Edition, Newmann Haas' Indy Car featuring Nigel Mansell, NHL '96, The Ninja Warriors, Operation: Logic Bomb, Out To Lunch, Outlander, Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures, Paperboy 2, The Peace Keepers, Phalanx, Phantom 2040, Pilotwings, Pinocchio, Populous, Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday, Power Piggs of the Dark Ages, Power Rangers Zeo: Battle Racers, Prehistorik Man, Raiden Trad, Road Runner: Death Valley Rally, Robotrek, Rock 'n Roll Racing, Roger Clemens' MVP Baseball, Secret of Mana, Shadowrun (1993), Skiing and Snowboarding: Tommy Moe's Winter Extreme, Skuljagger, Smartball, Space Invaders, Space Megaforce, Spanky's Quest, Speedy Gonzales: Los Gatos Bandidos, Star Fox, Street Racer, Stunt Race FX, Sunset Riders, Super Adventure Island, Super Battletank 2, Super Bomberman, Super Bonk, Super Castlevania IV, Super Chase H.Q., Super E.D.F. -- Earth Defense Force, Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts, Super Mario All-Stars, Super Mario Kart, Super Mario World, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Super Metroid, Super R-Type, Super Star Wars, Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers, Super Turrican, Super Valis IV, Suzuka 8 Hours, T2: The Arcade Game, Taz-Mania, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters, Tetris 2, Tetris Attack, Thunder Spirits, Tinstar, Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose, Tiny Toon Adventures: Wacky Sports Challenge, Top Gear, Top Gear II, Top Gear 3000, Twisted Tales of Spike McFang, U.N. Squadron, Uniracers, Utopia: Creation of a Nation, Vortex, Wario's Woods, Warlock, Whizz, Wing Commander: The Secret Missions, Winter Olympic Games: Lillehammer '94, World Heroes 2, Yoshi's Cookie, Ys III: Wanderers from Ys, Zoop
Games in the above list that I cover below, but really have not played enough to say too much about: Gemfire, Kirby's Dream Land 3, NHL '96, Populous, Shadowrun, Utopia
[Games I mention in brief because I have them in other formats (modern remakes or rom collections), but not in their original SNES/SFC cartridges: Final Fantasy IV (II), Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy VI (III), Mega Man X2, Mega Man X3, Mega Man 7, Mega Man & Bass, Super Turrican 2.]
I start each game's listing with mentions of how many players the game supports, whether it supports saving (password or battery), and whether it supports any special controllers (mouse, Super Scope lightgun). Games are SNES exclusive unless noted (at the end of the review). I wrote something for every game, whether or not I've played it much. The following games are games I've barely played, so the below summary should not be considered to be anything other than very early impressions: FIFA '97, HAL's Hole in One Golf, Populous, NHL '96, Utopia: The Creation of a Nation. I also decided to italicize game names for titles I've finished in some way -- that is to say, gotten to the end and presumably seen the credits. I know that this is unfair, because a fighting game can be "finished" in half an hour while RPGs can take dozens of hours, but I'm going to do it anyway.
Reviews
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ActRaiser - - One player, battery save. ActRaiser is a hybrid platform-action and building sim game where you play as a god's avatar, sent down to the planet to save it from evil monsters and raise up the people's civilization. Yeah, the game has a good concept, and it's executed fairly well. A popular classic, ActRaiser well deserves its good reputation, and is indeed a good game. The game is divided into two modes. Most of your time in ActRaiser will be spent in the platformer game. Indeed, the harder second quest only includes the action parts, unfortunately (the same is true for ActRaiser 2). The game is a good but not great platformer, with early-gen graphics and extremely stiff controls, but some solid level designs and game design. At least the music is good. The controls definitely take some getting used to and could be better for sure, but still, the game looks nice enough and does play well once you get used to it. The difficulty level is balanced decently; the game is challenging, but not too hard. In between action levels, you play a basic sim game. Here, you have to build a town in each area. You can build housing blocks, send people to fight monsters, and more, as you fill each area with civilization. Unfortunately the sim part of the game is extremely easy and basic, so don't expect much of any challenge here. Still, it's fun, and it gives you a nice break between the action parts. It's too bad that they didn't put a tougher sim mode in the second quest. Also on Wii Virtual Console.
The Addams Family Values - One player, password save. The Addams Family Values is a top-down action-adventure game starring Fester of the Addams Family. It's based off of the movie of the same name. I've never watched the Addams Family movies, and didn't watch the TV show either really, but I know they were popular back in the early '90s. I got this game because I'd heard it was an action-adventure game, which sounded more interesting than the generic platformers that make up most of the movie-license library out there. It feels a bit like a Zelda game, which is cool. The game's not as good as Zelda, of course, but it's alright. You talk to people, get items, explore dungeons, fight monsters, etc. There are puzzles to deal with as well, of course. The game is unoriginal, but plays reasonably well. The cartoony art style is reminiscent of Link to the Past, crossed with The Addams Family of course. You attack with lightning, but as your health goes down your range decreases. Yeah, this game is hard, as you might expect from Ocean. Other than that attack system, it's also very easy to get lost with no idea what to do next; consider using a walkthrough with this game. It does have pretty good music, as expected from Ocean. This is one of Ocean's better games, though, and it even has password save! Amazing, why couldn't they have put that in Jurassic Park and JP: The Chaos Continues... they badly needed it. At least this game has it, though. The feeling that this is an LttP knockoff never fades, as the graphics and gameplay make it clear that that is exactly what it is, but at least it's a decently good knockoff. Try it if you like the genre.
Aero the Acro-Bat - One player, password save. Aero the Acro-Bat is a fairly generic mascot platformer from Sunsoft. The first of a three game series, this one is the only one of the three that's common, while the last one, Zero, is somewhat rare. This game's not too remarkable, though, and doesn't stand out from the crowd. Still, Sunsoft could make some pretty good games, and this one is okay at least. You play as an anthropomorphic bat, so yes, this is one of the Sonic-inspired games that were so common in the 4th generation. The game starts in a circus, as the name suggests. I don't find this game particularly interesting, but there are much worse games out there too. Run, jump, float, make your way through the levels, etc. Also on Genesis and Wii Virtual Console.
Aladdin - One player, password save. This is the Capcom Aladdin platformer, not the Sega one. Unlike that game, this one wasn't ported much (the Genesis game is also on GB, PC, and GB/GBC (black cart game)). I think that the Genesis game is quite a bit better than this one, but still, this is a decent, fun platformer. The game has good graphics and sound, as usual from Capcom. Aladdin doesn't do anything original, but it does have solid, standard platformer gameplay. You defeat enemies by jumping on them (no sword here, unlike Sega's game) or throwing apples at them (oddly, both games have apples as the main ranged weapon). I do like that this one has password save; Sega's doesn't save, and has limited continues too. This allows them to make this game a bit longer than the Genesis game, though the difficulty level is probably a little lower. However, the main problem I have with this game is that while it's decent fun, it's just not nearly as original, or great, as the Genesis game is, and while I love Aladdin the movie, and do like this game, it's far behind in second as far as Aladdin games go. SNES Aladdin is a solid but somewhat generic platformer. Also on Game Boy Advance.
Arkanoid: Doh It Again - One player, password save, has SNES Mouse support. Arkanoid: Doh it Again is, as you'd expect, a sequel to the classic arcade blockbreaking game Arkanoid. While early games in this genre like the original Breakout bore me, the original Arkanoid was a favorite arcade game of mine, and I've always loved the genre that it created as well. Arkanoid was an outstanding game -- it took Breakout's concept, but added in so many badly needed features, like vastly improved ball and block-hitting physics, enemies, powerups, better graphics, and more. This game is essentially more of the same, but with graphics a lot more like the arcade original's visuals than the NES version of the first game was. Unlike that game, however, there isn't a paddle controller (on the NES in the US, it's called the "Vaus Controller; it's rare, but awesome). However, the game does have mouse support, and it's really good -- I highly recommend playing this game with the mouse! With the mouse, you get good, smooth control, and the game plays great. This game is not particularly original; really, it's more Arkanoid, but with SNES-level visuals; but still, it's a great game. Plus, it does have passwords, so you don't need to play the whole thing at once. This was a very late release in the US (1997), but it did get here, and I'm happy that it did. Anyone who likes this genre should consider this game a must have for the SNES, along with a mouse of course.
Axelay - One player. Axelay is a shmup, and it was the second and last SNES Konami shmup released in the US, after Gradius III. In Japan they released four other titles, including one Twinbee game and three Parodius games, and Europe got two of those four games, but the US got none at all, sadly. Instead, we only got the two traditional space shooters, not any of the cute-styled ones. Unfortunate. Anyway though, Axelay is a pretty good shmup. It isn't one of my favorite SNES shmups, as I think the game has a bit more focus on its visuals than it does its gameplay, but still, it is a very good game overall. Axelay has six levels. Three are vertical-scrolling, and three horizontal. The vertical levels are visually amazing, with a really impressive "3d" effect that makes it look like the screen is curving upwards. Really impressive stuff. The scaling is well done as well. However, the side-view levels just aren't quite as interesting, and while they look good, they aren't amazingly impressive as the vertical ones are. More vertical levels in this game would have been great. As for weapons, in Axelay you have three weapons. They behave differently in the two different level types, but essentially you are working with these three guns. My favorite is the one with two streams of fire that you can sort of adjust (they go up the screen as you hold down the button, and back down as you let go). When you take a hit, instead of dying you lose your current weapon. Once all three are down and you're down to just the basic shot, the next hit will lose a life. Of course, crashing into things will lose a life instantly. The system works well. But with only maybe half as many levels as Gradius III, and levels that are similar in length to that game's levels or shorter, and with side-view levels that just aren't as good as either the other half of this game, or anything in Gradius III, Axelay disappoints me a bit. Even the vertical scrolling levels could have better level designs; they're great, but there are better vertical shooters on the system. Still, I like that there are obstacles in this game -- far too many vertical shooters have nothing you can run into other than enemies. This game has walls, rock faces, and more, which is great. Still though, overall, Axelay is a very good game, and the vertical levels are a real visual showcase, but the gameplay doesn't quite live up to the graphics.
Battle Cars - Two player simultaneous. I made a review thread for Battle Cars after playing it, and for good reason: this is a good, and very little-known, futuristic Mode 7 racing game. The game was made by a Namco of America internal team, and was a US-exclusive release. And yes, it's one of the SNES's few games that clearly was inspired by F-Zero crossed with Rock n Roll Racing, though that game actually released after this one. Though the visuals are good and highly reminscent of F-Zero, the game's not the same as F-Zero in gameplay -- this game is combat-focused. You have weapons in Battle Cars, and shooting at the other cars is one of the major focuses of the action. The game has no saving, so you need to play 20+ races in one sitting (or without turning the system off, because you do get infinite continues), which is a pain, but I found it more than fun enough to be worth it! There's even a co-op campaign, which is awesome. You get a better ending for each difficulty level from Easy to Hard, too. One player mode is fullscreen, two player splitscreen. There are two races on each of the ten planets, the first a cross-country race where your goal is to get to the end within the time limit, and the second a boss race where you must beat the boss to the finish line. You can also buy items and weapons for the three different weapon types in the shop accessible between races. Oddly enough you buy car upgrades with money from kills, and weapon upgrades with credits from finishing with extra time on the clock -- the two are not pooled. Odd. The game can be difficult, but the fun factor is high. The game has some flaws, including the uneven difficulty level, odd double money system, and the sometimes high challenge, but is pretty fun overall, and I highly recommend it for anyone with any interest in the genre, or SNES racing games. For more see my thread http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=469374 ; I recommend that you do, because this game is a forgotten classic of the futuristic racing genre. It has some issues, but it's a great game overall. (One final note: This game had both Chris Senn, later of Sega's STI, and Ken Lobb, later at Nintendo and then Microsoft, working on it. Huh.)
BlaZeon - One player. BlaZeon is a shmup from Atlus. While the game is generally regarded as average at best, I love BlaZeon, and in fact it's one of my favorite SNES shmups. BlaZeon has an incredible soundtrack that is one of the system's standouts, decent to good graphics, and little slowdown. Sure, that last one is because it's very slow paced, but still, it doesn't have much slowdown. The game also has some cool features like partially destructible ships -- many enemies have a couple of break points, so if you hit one on the lower part you'll knock out the lower gun first. But the biggest criticsm that the game gets is that it is slow, and this is true; Blazeon is at times a glacially slow-paced game, and there are parts where a full 30 seconds can go by without a single enemy appearing on screen, but don't mistake this for an easy game; while Blazeon isn't one of the hardest SNES shmups, it's a tough game that will present a good challenge. The game is pattern-based, and enemies come at you in pretty much the same way each time, so there's plenty to learn and think about. The core mechanic in Blazeon is that while there are no traditional powerups, instead your secondary gun can disable certain types of enemy robots ("Bio-Cyborgs", as the manual calls them) and if you then fly over that enemy, you will take over that ship. Each of the seven types of hijackable robots have a different weapon type, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. They also give you extra hits, as your main ship dies in one hit, but these can take several before they'll blow up, and even then your ship will survive, until it gets hit afterwards of course. Bio-Cyborgs start out at full attack power, but if you get hit once, it'll go to half strength. Some are better than others at this point, so be careful, and try to avoid damage! The ship you have will carry over from level to level, so if you want to keep one of the rarer ones, don't get hit, and you will. On that note, yes, some, weaker, Bio-Cyborgs are more common, while some of the better ones are rare. There's one that appears only once in the game, for instance. It's well worth the effort to take though, those mines are really useful. BlaZeon's levels are long, and most levels have several bosses. If you die, you will be sent back a long way. Sometimes it's a long, long way, with how long hte levels are and how slowly you travel through them. Apart from the last level, which is VERY long and extremely tough to finish, I don't mind this at all; the slow pace just gives me more time to listen to the great music. The levels mostly use familiar themes, such as an attacking giant battleship, a dump, asteroids in space, and more, but it's all well done and the game holds my interest, beginning to end. This is a game I keep going back to, as much for the quite good, somewhat strategic gameplay, and partially for the music. Recommended. Arcade port. Apart from those rare bits of slowdown, the only major change in the SNES version is that the arcade version's nice ending was cut out and replaced with a ... very basic ... one. Yeah, the arcade version is more satisfying to finish for sure. Still, otherwise it's a very accurate port of this great game.
Breath of Fire - One player, battery save. Breath of Fire is the first of a series of five RPGs from Capcom in a series that lasted from the SNES to the PS2. There's also a GBA remake of this game out there, though I haven't played it myself. This game is one of only a couple traditional, menu-based JRPGs that I own for the SNES, and I wasn't sure if I'd like it at all, given my frequent issues with the genre; I just do not like the constant, tedious grind that is your average JRPG. I'd rather actually be challenged (and not just by "will my store of healing items survive the flood of random battles"), and I much prefer strategic combat as well. Still, this game's okay; I got a ways into it, and was actually enjoying myself. It's a simplistic game, with a very simple combat system and nothing particularly original about the basic design, but the graphics are decent, the story a slightly original version of the average, and the battles straightforward. Things like the bird-people are cool too, you don't always see that. The gameplay is standard, as you wander around, explore the world and dungeons, and follow the story, but it works. Unfortunately this is one of a bunch of SNES games which now has a dead battery in the cart, but I would like to play it again sometime.
Bugs Bunny: Rabbit Rampage - One player. This game is a somewhat disappointing platformer from Sunsoft. For some reason, Sunsoft's Game Boy Looney Tunes games were almost all really good, but their SNES ones are much more mixed in quality. This game is one of the negative examples that shows that fact. The visuals are great in this game, but unfortunately, the gameplay is too flawed for me to have much fun here. But I should start with the positives. Bugs Bunny: Rabbit Rampage has pretty good graphics, nice animations, and a good amount of variety. There's plenty of classic Looney Tunes humor in this game too, which is great. The game and level designs are mostly standard stuff, with enemies to kill, platforms to jump between, etc. However, this game has large levels, and it can be a pain to explore them with the too-short draw distance; you just can't see far enough ahead to be able to really deal with the enemies. Your attacks have a short range too, and the hit detection has some issues. The overall results are annoying and not fun. The lack of saving is bad too, passwords would be great. This game is okay, I think, but certainly nothing more than that. I don't think it's really worth playing, even for a Looney Tunes fan like me. There are plenty of good 4th gen Looney Tunes games out there; weaker ones like this aren't worth the frustration.
Cacoma Knight in BizyLand - Two player alternating. Cacoma Knight in BizyLand is a not-too-well-known Qix clone, essentially. Like the classic '80s arcade game Qix, in Cacoma Knight you move around the edges of a single-screen-per-level playfield, while enemies move around inside. If you hold down the button, you can move across the field, cutting off a section and revealing the land underneath. You can only move on the edge, and can't be hurt when on the edge, but when moving through the field (while holding the button), if either you or the line you're leaving behind that still is only touching the edge on one side comes in contact with an enemy, you'll lose a life. You beat the level when a high enough percentage Yeah, it's Qix. The game also has some powerups and items to find, though in this game, they are hidden -- you'll only find them if you happen to take the correct parts of the screen where the items are you'll get them, otherwise tough luck. I wish that the items weren't so randomly placed. The game has a silly little fantasy story; you play as either a girl or a boy travelling through a fantasy kingdom, trying to get their wish granted by rescuing the princess that has been kidnapped by the badguys, or something like that. This game feels like it was made for kids in tone, title, and graphics, and isn't one of the harder Qix games for sure, but Qix fans should play it anyway, because it's something a little different, and is fun to play even if it isn't that hard most of the time. The game does get tougher farther in, and the last levels will take some practice to win, but overall Cacoma Knight is easy for a Qix-style game. Recommended, but you'll beat it quickly. Consider this Qix-lite.
California Games II - Two players. This is a somewhat mediocre sequel to the popular-at-the-time extreme sports compilation title California Games. I heard a lot about California Games, but rarely actually played it myself as a kid, so I don't have the advantage of much nostalgia here, and the games are a mixture of frustration and average or bad. There are four games in this collection. They tried to use the hardware here, so several of the games have "3d"-esque elements. Unfortunately, the results are mixed. The box shows four characters, each dressed for one of the activities, but you're stuck in that character in that mode -- there is no character choice, you just play as each character in their activity. Kind of lame. Some of the games are okay, but others aren't so good. There's hang-gliding (boring and short), skateboard racing down fake-3d tracks (decent, but tough), jetski racing against the clock with Mode 7 tracks (it's okay), and snowboard racing/half-pipe (not that great). Even the better ones aren't above average, and none are fun enough to make me want to play them enough to get good, or sometimes even to the end of the event. The jetski part is probably the best thing here, but there are much better Mode 7 games on the SNES. Play those instead of this disappointment.
Cannondale Cup - One player, battery save. Cannondale Cup is an odd, original, unique, and flawed biycicle racing game. The game uses Mode 7 with some interesting effects that make the game look like it has hills and slopes, instead of being all flat like Mode 7 usually looks. Unfortunately, this comes at a cost: the game runs slowly. Yeah, the framerate here is poor. But yes, even though it sort of doesn't look it, this game is indeed Mode 7. The battery will save your stats, progress, times, etc. too, which is great. This game is tough, though -- I find it very, very hard to do any good at all beyond the first race or two, so the game gets really frustrating, really fast. There's obviously more strategy to this game than I've had the patience to figure out. Course designs are challenging, too. The game does have a decent number of tracks though, and the unique style is worth a look. The high difficulty makes this game tough to get into, though; finishing last or next to last over and over doesn't make me want to keep playing... still, somewhat interesting game. It is ambitious, but it doesn't quite live up to that ambition; the concept is cool, but the framerate and difficulty hold it back.
Carrier Aces - Two player simultaneous. Carrier Aces is a forced-splitscreen, sprite-based 3d flight combat game. In the game, either two humans, or a human and a computer, take control of planes and shoot at eachother. There's a training mode and seven battles to choose from, though you can play them in any order; there's no saving or progression here. The focus is on the flying and the dogfighting combat. While this game isn't overly remarkable, it is decently well made, and is somewhat fun to play. Of course, it's better in multiplayer than single player; multiplayer was the obvious focus of design. Still, there is computer AI there to oppose you, if you have no one to play against, as I usually don't. The game has no map, but shows your speed, altitude, and fuel on screen, along with a compass heading and speed. The graphics are decent but somewhat choppy, and the fake scaling is about on par for the system. The plane and ship sprites look nice though. Since the game is in 3d space, hitting the other planes can be challenging, so it's satisfying when you hit. This is an okay game, and somewhat unique for the system, but newer consoles can do this kind of game better.
Choplifter III - One player, password save. Choplifter is a classic series of helicopter action/shooting games. In the series, you control a helicopter, and have to rescue prisoners and bring them back to your base. But be careful, if you get shot down with prisoners on board, those are lost and you'll have to find others to rescue. If too few remain to meet your quotia for the level, or if you run out of lives, you lose. Choplifter III is the second-to-last game in the ChopLifter series; after this, the only one is the current-gen Choplifter HD (PC/PS3/360 download title). The game plays like Choplifter, except with SNES-quality graphics, password save, some perhaps too-hard bosses, and nice variety. The graphics are good, and I like the various environments and weapons you have to use. As I said the game does get a bit too difficult, to the point of being quite frustrating at some points. The password systems relieves some of the frustration, but still, it's a tough game. Still though, it's fun and well designed. THe level designs are classic Chopflifter, with reasonably large side-scrolling levels to explore, lots of planes, helicopters, tanks, gun turrets, and soldiers to shoot at, and prisoners to rescue. Learning the levels will take time, as you try to learn how to avoid enemy fire and maneuver through teh sometimes tight spaces you have to fly through, but it's worth it. Overall, Choplifter III isn't for everyone, but shmup, side-scrolling action, and Choplifter fans should definitely check it out. It's more flawed than Sega's SMS Choplifter game, but it does have more content and saving, so it's well worth playing. (As a note, the GB/GG Choplifter III game actually is entirely different from this one; the only thing the two games really have in common is the name, and that they are decently good.)
The Combatribes - Two player simultaneous. Main game has no saving, but you get passwords to use the other teams in versus mode as you progress. The Combatribes is a beat 'em up from Technos. As such, it plays somewhat like other Technos beat 'em ups like Renegade or River City Ransom. The game is very short, with six three-screen levels making up the whole thing. Yes, each level plays in a single three-screen arena, and there are only six beginning to end. In each level you fight a large wave of enemies, then, once you beat them all, a boss. The game tosses a lot of enemies at you at once at the beginning of each stage. A few more are added once you beat some, but still, the game doesn't use a standard fighting game setup, for sure. The game has a nice variety of moves, with both punch and kick buttons and also some moves you can do like spins, throws, and more. There are three characters to choose from, though all three are quite similar , and all are male; no female characters (only a female main villain, naturally). The game is set in a futuristic, or alternate-world, New York City. In this version of New York it's still the '90s, it seems, but cyborgs exist. Your characters, and the main villains, are all apparently cyborgs. The game doesn't do too much with this outside of the storyline, though, so there's no character deformation as you take damage, revealing the cyborg parts under the "skin", as you see in, say, The Ninja Warriors. The graphics are decent, with average art design and graphics. At least it does have two player simultaneous, and a 1 or 2 player fighting versus mode too. There are some short story scenes between levels as well. The story's basic and not very good, but it's the amusing kind of not very good, and a game like this doesn't really need anything more. Overall The Combatribes is a fun, but short and simple, game. I wish it was a bit more substantial, but still, for what it is, it's okay. (Oh, the game defaults to Mono sound. Make sure to set it to Stereo in the options each time!)
Cybernator - One player. Cybernator is a cult classic, and was moderately popular. This game is the sequel, or side-quel, or something, to Target Earth on the Genesis. In Japan, both games are part of the Assault Suits series. This game was cut for its US release -- a large percentage of the conversation text was stripped out -- but the amount left still leaves this game with more talking than most action games on the SNES. That's fine, but I do find it disappointing that they cut it. There is a fan patch that fixed the issue, but obviously you can't use that with an official cart copy. Anyway, as for the actual gameplay, it's okay, but I like other games better. Cybernator does have very good graphics, and visually is hugely improved over Target Earth, but for gameplay, I think I might like that game more... I don't know, this is a good game, but I don't think it's a great game. I know this is just opinion, but somehow the controls and game design just feel a bit off, for me, and I don't enjoy myself enough to keep playing after a couple of missions. I think Target Earth has better controls. And though the graphics are a lot worse, I do like that you can see farther; Cybernator's beautiful big sprites come at a cost of short viewing distance. Still, this game is worth trying at least; it's popular for a reason. But I don't like it quite as much as some people.
Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions - One player, password save. This game is another okay-but-not-great Looney Tunes game from Sunsoft. As usual, while I love their Game Boy Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions game, I'm much less enamored of this SNES game. It's just not nearly as fun, and it's a whole lot more frustrating too. The two games are quite different -- that one's a linear, somewhat short but tough platformer with a jetpack and some really hard jumps, while this is a longer, free-roaming platformer with a jetpack and a too-high frustration level -- but while this game may be longer, it's not as good. In each level, you wander around looking for where to go; it's not made clear. The viewing distance and controls are average, as with several other of the Looney Tunes games Sunsoft published on the SNES. I wanted to like this game, as I love the Looney Tunes and think the Duck Dodgeers/The Marvin Missions stuff is really great, but... this game is kind of frustrating to play, thanks to the controls and level designs. Still, at least it does have passwords; that's nice. But overall, I recommend Sunsoft's GB Looney Tunes games.
Darius Twin - Two player simultaneous. Darius Twin is the first SNES Darius game, and like Darius Force/Super Nova below, it's a SNES exclusive, not a port of the Darius arcade games. Darius Twin is a somewhat bland game with average early-SNES graphics and sound, okay but unexciting level designs, and decent gameplay. Darius games always have mechanical-sea-life bosses, and this game is no exception. The bosses have nice designs, as usual from Darius. The rest of the graphics are average, though, the music is quite bland, and the level designs are repetitive and dull. The two player co-op mode is definitely the highlight here; otherwise, it's not particularly exciting. Also, unfortunately, the game has only one ending. Most Darius games have multiple endings, but this one is an unfortunate exception. Even so, it is an okay shmup with a fair amount of challenge, branching paths along the way, and more. The game is playable, controls decently well, and is a decent game, but gets repetitive, and I lose interest after a few levels. The level designs, graphics, and music just are not engaging most of the time. The sequel, below, is a much more fun game, even if it drops the two player mode. Darius Twin does have some slowdown as well, though it's not as bad as the most slowdown-affected SNES shmups, I think. Overall, Darius Twin is about average, I think. Play it for another two-player shmup option on the SNES, but otherwise, stick to the sequel.
Super Nova - One player. Super Nova, known as Darius Force in Japan, is the second and final SNES Darius game. It plays like Darius at its core, so the ship, weapon, powerup, and enemy systems and designs all are quite similar to other games in the series. You get powerups by killing all the enemies in certain waves of enemies. Make sure to get every one, they are badly needed. Darius isn't one of my favorite shmup series, but this is one of the better Darius games, along with Darius II (aka Sagaia) and Darius Gaiden. The game has very good graphics and music, a high difficulty level, fast play, a decent story with multiple routes and endings (as expected in the series), and more; this is a great SNES shmup. The game does unfortunately not have the two player co-op mode that the first SNES Darius game, Darius Twin, has, but otherwise is much improved over that title -- it's too bad about the multiplayer, but the graphics, sound, and level designs are much better and more interesting this time. For some reason though, this game is a bit under-appreciated. It's much cheaper than some of the other better SNES shmups, and has some okay-to-good-but-not-great reviews, too. Well, the game isn't perfect, but I do think it's pretty good. Other than the multiplayer, I really have only one complaint, and that's about how hard this game is. Seriously, Super Nova is HARD! The game is fast, there isn't much slowdown, and there's plenty of bullets to avoid, and you get only two continues and are sent back a long ways when you die, so the challenge here is quite high. This is a tough game, and even on "Easy" I can't get more than three stages into the game so far. I'll manage to do okay for a while, but one death and you're doomed... starting over, with no powerups, will lead to rapid deaths. This game can be frustrating. Oddly though, the early bosses aren't too hard; it's the levels where I keep dying. The game rewards memorization, and with time you learn the stages and obstacles and get better. The good graphics, graphical effects like the warping backgrounds, how the screen rotates at some points in some levels, or bosses which fly in from the background, are pretty cool, and the good music helps as well. Overall, Super Nova's tough but great. This is a very good game, and it's much better than I was expecting! Highly recommended.
D-Force - One player. D-Force is a shmup, and it is widely hated by the shmup community. Indeed, it'd be near the top of the list of worst SNES shmups on many shmup fans' lists. I do agree that it isn't that good of a game, but I don't completely hate it; while the game is subpar, there are worse games out there, and the game has a few interesting features. First, the visuals. D-Force has fairly bland graphics. The most unique thing here is that it can zoom in and out, so the ground is somewhat pixelated because of whatever technique they used for the zooming. However, in the main levels, you can't change levels at will. Instead, you'll simply be higher in the sky initially, then you'll go in low for the later part of the stage. It's disappointing, it'd have been cool if you could switch anytime. Every couple of levels there is a bonus-ish stage which does allow you to change levels, and these levels are by far the best in the game. There's actually a main menu option which plays only these levels. There aren't enough of them and they're definitely on the easy side, but still, this is the most fun part of this game. As for the main game though, expect average shooting. There are some powerups, generic-looking enemies to shoot at, the works. There's nothing too interesting here apart from the level-change mechanic which, again, they take away from you most of the time. But that's really how I see this: bland and generic, not actively awful.
Donkey Kong Country - Two player (alternating or simultaneous), battery save. DKC is one of the SNES's most important, and best-known, games. I don't know if I really need to say too much about this one -- released by Rare in 1994, this game was a massive hit, an instant classic, and became one of the system's best-selling games. The game also helped create the fad for scanned-in computer-rendered graphics. It is a bit more controversial today, as some people insist that this whole series is bad, but I do like it. I don't think that it's the best DKC game (in that I actually differ from the consensus; DKC3 is my favorite, not 2), though, for several reasons. Essentially, DKC1 is a simple game. You play as Donkey and Diddy Kongs, who have to rescue Donkey's stolen bananna hoard from the evil Kremlings. Donkey is large, Diddy small, and this matters in the gameplay. This game is a straightforward platformer most of the time. The graphics are great, though not quite as good as its sequels, but the level designs are mostly straightforward. There are a few levels which toss new ideas at you, like the mine-cart stages and the stoplight level, but most are much more straightforward than anything from either sequel. There's also much less to find in this game -- while DKC2 and DKC3 have you collecting quite a few different things, in this game, apart from actually beating the levels ofcourse, there is only one thing that affects your completion percentage: Whether you've found all of the hidden bonus areas in each level. There are several to find per stage, and they are often well-hidden, so finding all of them without using a guide would be a quite impressive feat. Also, the difficulty level is uneven, because the hardest parts of this game are often the beginning of each world: once you enter a world you're stuck there, and can't save right away but only after you reach a save point, so the challenge level of getting to the first save point or warp (so you can fly to a different level and save there) can be quite tough at times. I was stuck for a while at the snow world because of this, but once I got to the save point, the rest was easy. Still though, that's all there is to it. DKC1 is a great game, but I like the additional depth and variety the sequels added to its formula. The first game feels somewhat barebones in comparison to its sequels. Still though, this really is a must-play game, and it's one of the better platformers around. DKC has ports on the GBC and GBA, and the SNES version was on the Wii Virtual Console; the game was delisted in late 2012 for unknown reasons, but people who have it can still play it.
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest - Two player (alternating or simultaneous), battery save. DKC2 is the most popular game in the DKC trilogy. It isn't my favorite of them, as I like the third best, but it is a great, great game, and a definite classic. DKC2 has more content, more collectables, more secrets, better graphics, and more level variety than the first game has. The graphics here really are outstanding, and show off how impressive Rare's "ACM" technique could look. This time you play as Diddy and Dixie, as Donkey was kidnapped. The game abandons DKC1 and 3's "large character and small character" mechanic in favor of two small characters, which is too bad, but at least each one has a different move, so they aren't the same -- Dixie can float with her ponytail, for instance. I really like the added level variety in DKC2, particularly; you aren't just running to the exit every time here as you generally were in the first game, there's more different level types this time. Great stuff like the underwater and mine cart stages return, but now there are interesting new stage variations to face, including some where you control new animal friends such as a bird which you play as in some (flying-based) segments. Also expect even more barrel puzzles. Good stuff. Most levels are traditional platforming, but with level designs and controls this great, it's all extremely fun to play through. Unfortunately, the save system works exactly the same way as it does in the first game. Kind of annoying. DKC2 is certainly one of the best platformers of the generation. DKC2 is also on the GBA, and the SNES version was on the Wii Virtual Console; the game was delisted in late 2012 for unknown reasons, but people who have it can still play it. The GB game "Donkey Kong Land 2" tells the same story as this game, and has similar level themes, but the level layouts are not exactly the same, so it's not the same game, not quite (the other two DKL games are completely original.)
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble - Two player (alternating or simultaneous), battery save. DKC3, released in late 1996, was the final SNES DKC game. A somewhat under-appreciated title, DKC3 is usually considered to be in the shadow of its predecessor, but it's my personal favorite DKC game. DKC3 has Dixie as the small character, and Kiddy as the large one; Donkey and Diddy have both been kidnapped this time. Sure, why not. DKC3 has the most level variety in the series. No more is this a simple platformer made up of go-to-the-right-while-fighting-enemies levels, as DKC1 was. This time, you've got to do all kinds of things, from outrunning a sawblade in a giant tree, to dealing with a reversed-controls underwater level, to a quite tough level where you have to dodge lightning in a thunderstorm. I love the variety in this game, there's no other platformer quite like it. The overworld is enhanced here too -- instead of just being a simple level-select screen, this time you have an actual overworld to explore. Very nice! There is a lot more to collect this time, including bannana fairies in the overworld, a special enemy you must beat with a special barrel in each level, the usual hidden exits to find, and more; it's fun. I don't think they went overboard with the collecting, and anyway, a lot of it is optional, and challenges like trying to figure out how to beat that special enemy in each level are a nice addition. Also, this time you can leave a world at any time, which means no more annoying "can't save through the first four levels" stuff -- this time you can exit out to the overworld and save after every level, if you want. That is a very welcome change. So, overall, DKC3 is an absolutely exceptional game, and one of my favorite games on the SNES. The graphics are even better than the previous two games, the levels more varied and even more fun, and the general game design improved. DKC3 is platforming at its best. Also on the GBA, and the SNES version was on the Wii Virtual Console; the game was delisted in late 2012 for unknown reasons, but people who have it can still play it.
Doom - One player (the game once had two player multiplayer via the X-Band service, but that has been offline since, oh, 1997 or so), SNES Mouse support (alternate controls if you wish). SNES Doom is a Super FX 2 game that is a port of this all-time classic FPS. The SNES version was done by Sculptured Software, who also did Dirt Trax FX (the one US-released Super FX game I don't have), and while opinions on it are varied, I, at least, think it's really good. SNES Doom has some advantages versus other '90s Doom ports, but also some disadvantages. The biggest advantage is that SNES Doom isn't based on John Carmack's stripped-down Jaguar rendition of the game. Instead, it's based on the PC original. This means that things missing from the Jaguar version and all versions based on it (3DO, 32X, PS1, Saturn, GBA) ARE in this game. That means that SNES Doom has the map screen in between levels, the original three-episode division, the original ending text screens after each episode, the crushing ceilings, an impressive approximation of the original level designs (apart from transparent walls and grilles and such, virtually nothing is cut), the original changes in light level (ie, when a bright room turns dark, it turns dark in this version), and more. All of those things were removed from the Jaguar version and all of its ports. SNES Doom also has enemies display at the same brightness as their surroundings, unlike some other versions. This means that on the SNES, an enemy in a dark room will be dim and hard to see. On the 32X, for instance, however, enemy sprites in "dark" rooms are brightly lit, as if each enemy has a spotlight pointing at them at all times. It completely ruins some of the suspense, compared to a more accurate version like this one. The game also plays at an acceptable, if a bit low, framerate; this game is entirely playable and moves at a good clip for the system. The framerate is fairly stable, at least, even if it's not a bit slow. SNES Doom has the worst graphics of any released version of the game, but the gameplay holds up extremely well.
SNES Doom has a total of 22 missions, which is five less than the PC game -- yes, five levels were removed. Interestingly, Sculptured Software chose to remove five levels which ARE in the Jaguar game, while including all five levels that the Jag version had cut. Huh. Well, why not... it's too bad that some levels had to go, but it's cool that by playing both this and the Jag version, you can play all of the levels from the original game. It doesn't have any new exclusive levels, unlike the two new levels in the Jag version, so it has two fewer total levels than that game, but at least it has five more levels than the pitifully short 32X version, and you can play through the whole game here (32X Doom cut all of Episode 3 out). SNES Doom also has great music -- these are some fantastic versions of the classic Doom songs. Great stuff! It's worlds better than the pitiful audio of 32X Doom, or the no-music-at-all-ingame Jag Doom. Of course in graphics and framerate those are better (though the game does play in a window the same size as 32X Doom's), but in sound, this is. SNES Doom does have oen final limitation, though: which episodes you can start from depends on the difficulty level selected. On the lower two settings, you can only start from Ep. 1. From the mid setting (default), you can start from eps 1 or 2, but not 3. Only on the upper two can you start from ep. 3. This matters because this game has no saving or passwords, and no level select either. However, there is one unique element: when you die and start a level again, instead of being reset to the pistol and 50 bullets and 100 health as you would in most Doom versions, you will start with the exact loadout you started the level with, as if you'd loaded a save file at the start of the level. This is a unique feature in SNES Doom, andi t's pretty cool. It can make some levels hard, if you start with like 5 health and just a couple of bullets, but it's much more good than bad! 32X Doom also doesn't save, but at least has level select on the main menu for everything except for the two hidden levels, those you have to play to in one sitting to see. All other versions of Doom save. So yeah, this is a "leave the system on for quite a while" game if you want to beat it on Normal -- you'll have to play episodes 2 and 3 all in one go without turning off the SNES. Fortunately, it's more than fun enough to be worth the effort! PC port also on many other systems.
Drakkhen - One player, battery save. Drakkhen is a mediocre, and unpopular on the SNES at least, computer-port RPG. The game is a somewhat open-world title, where you create a party of four warriors, with gender and class choices, and then explore around a large world with them. The game has very bland, mediocre graphics and sound. It plays in first person 3d, except when you run into enemies the characters come out onto the screen and fight the enemies on that screen as a static screen. The game is an action-RPG, pretty much, as combat is real-time and you control one character during battle. You can switch characters during the fight, but this game isn't exactly strategic; it's fairly simple stuff. You can also go into castles, dungeons, etc, and have your characters explore around. Indoor areas are side-view isometric 2d, so you can't wander around as you can outside. You can only save outdoors. There is the usual stuff to find, equipment to collect, and stuff to set up, but this game is very plain and repetitious overall. This game is only for fans of classic RPGs where you spend most all of your time levelling and exploring, without really knowing where exactly you're supposed to be going a lot of the time (unless you use a walkthrough). There is a story, but it's basic stuff. The game has a sequel, Dragon View. I haven't played it but it has better graphics at least.
Faceball 2000 - Two player simultaneous. Faceball 2000 is a FPS, and one of the few that plays on the base SNES. The game's okay, but really isn't all that great overall. Honestly, I think I have to agree with the consensus I've seen that says that the Game Boy version is better than the SNES one... still, this game isn't awful, just ... meh. Faceball 2000 is a simple FPS game where you play as a smily face who is going around mazes, shooting other smily faces who are also shooting back at you. The graphics are fairly simple and the game plays windowed, but the framerate is iffy at best, and the game is slow. There are a couple of modes here, including a basic play-through-the-levels mode and a versus mode. The GB version has a more interesting mode than this one; this really is just a basic maze-based FPS, with no saving (that it badly needs!), plain graphics, and bland gameplay. Overall, this game isn't that recommended. If you want a great shooter on the SNES with one and two player support, get Spectre, not Faceball. However, it is great that the game does have a two player splitscreen mode, and that is the most interesting feature here by far. This is one of the only 4th gen (TV) console FPSes with a multiplayer mode; it's pretty much this, the Japan-only TG16 CD version of this game, and Spectre for the SNES if you count that Battlezone-esque game as a FPS, and that's about it. Also on Game Boy, and in Japan only on TurboGrafx-16 CD and Game Gear. The GB version is best. It even has 16 player support, with daisy-chained Game Boy multitaps!
Fatal Fury 2 - Two player simultaneous. Fatal Fury 2 is another one of Takara's ports of a SNK Neo-Geo fighting game. I like some of these, including King of the Monsters 2 and World Heroes 2, but this one isn't so great. Part of the problem is simply that I don't really enjoy any of the first seven Fatal Fury games. Mark of the Wolves is great, but before that? I don't know, the series just isn't for me. Fatal Fury 2 is at least better than the original Fatal Fury, but still, this is a fairly primitive fighting game, and it's nowhere near as good as either later SNK fighters, or Capcom games. As with all of the first seven Fatal Fury games, the game has a unique two-line system, where you can switch between two planes during combat. It makes the game more complex than some fighting games, but it doesn't make it better; I think I prefer standard, flat-plane 2d/2.5d designs. There are your usual selection of characters to choose from, including Mai Shiranui in her first appearance. In terms of moves, this is a fairly simple game with limited numbers of special moves and specials. The game is competent and a decent port of the arcade game, though the graphics certainly aren't nearly as good as they are in the arcade, but both Takara and SNK can do better than this. Port of a Neo-Geo and Neo-Geo CD game. Other ports of the game are on Genesis, Game Boy, X68000, and Turbo CD (the latter three in Japan only).
FIFA Soccer '97 - Five player simultaneous (with multitap), battery save. FIFA '97, the 1996 soccer game, was EA's last soccer game released in the US, though there was a FIFA '98 in Europe. I haven't played it much at all, but it is at least certainly much, much better than US Gold's World Cup Soccer '94, a game that I got for the PC back in the mid '90s and thought was quite poor. The game does have small characters, but at least the gameplay is competent, unlike that thing. FIFA '97 has much better graphics too. I like this game's isometric perspective more than that one's strict top-view angle, the isometric perspective makes the game easier, better looking, more accurate, and more fun. This game also has lots of options and modes, as you expect from EA Sports games. Oddly enough, FIFA '97 was simply called that on the box, but the title screen calls it "FIFA '97 Gold Edition". Apparently the SNES and Genesis versions both say that. There's no regular edition though, unless the PS1/Saturn versions are "regular" and the 16-bit versions "gold"... yeah, I doubt that. But yeah, this is a fine soccer game. I haven't played it very much, but it has obvious quality for its genre. Play is reasonably quick, and the game's fun. There's also a new indoor soccer mode, if you want to play in a smaller, wood-floor arena with hard walls, so the ball will bounce off instead of stopping for a throw-in. Fun stuff. Also on Genesis; other versions of FIFA '97 were available on GB, PS1, PC, and Saturn.
[I have Final Fantasy IV for PSP and Final Fantasy V and FF VI for GBA, so I have little interest in the original SNES cartridges. I'm not a fan of the series, for the most part, and have never found either game interesting enough to get very far in; in FFVI I stopped playing after a few hours in the one time I seriously tried to play it because I just wasn't very interested, and FFIV isn't better, for sure. I did get a good length into FFV for the GBA, but stopped playing at this one boss I couldn't beat without grinding, something I of course hate (hard fire or something boss in that metal ship), but I got that far at least, and found it somewhat fun, so I guess I like that the most of the three. I don't really like Square-style RPG menus, or their focus on "two lines of characters jump out and hit eachother" battle systems, though. Give me something more interesting like Lunar's menus and combat any day.]
Final Fight 2 - Two player. While the first Final Fight game on SNES gets all of the attention (note: get that game on Sega CD, not SNES), these sequels are far better games in many respects. This series never was anywhere near as good as Sega's Streets of Rage, but it is a decent beat 'em up franchise that's moderately fun to play. Though it's no Streets of Rage this game is better in several ways than the first Final Fight at least, with more moves, more characters than the previous SNES Final Fight game(s) (there are three: Haggar, and new characters Maki, and Carlos), and multiplayer that actually exists, Final Fights 2 and 3 are your better buys for SNES Final Fight action. Both games are SNES-exclusive titles, as well, not arcade ports; oddly enough, even though the original arcade game was a huge hit,its sequels were only on SNES, and aren't quite as well known as the original. In terms of gameplay, Final Fight 2 is similar to the original game, except, again, there are three characters this time. One is female, too; it's not all-male, like the first game. Maki, the female character, would later reappear in Capcom vs SNK 2. Final Fight 2 is a simple beat 'em up, like most of Capcom's that generation: you walk to the right, and hit guys as they appear. There are more moves here than the first game, but don't expect much in the way of complex level designs here; it's pretty much just new backdrops while you walk right, as with the original Final Fight. I prefer beat 'em ups to have more interesting level designs, as you'll find in, say, TMNT III on NES, or Golden Axe on Genesis. Final Fight 2 is not as good as those games, but still, it is a simple, enjoyable game that's well worth playing if you like the genre.
Final Fight 3 - Two player. A later SNES release from late 1995/early 1996, Final Fight 3 isn't always cheap. I was lucky to find a very cheap, complete copy, but it's worth a bit more than that anyway, though I highly doubt that I'd pay the ebay complete-copy price. Still, this game is well worth having. While for the most part Final Fight 3 is similar to the first two, it's improved enough that this probably is the best of the series this generation. There are four playable characters this time, including returnees Haggar and Guy, and new characters Lucia and Dean, so there's one more choice than before. I think Lucia's more interesting than Maki, probably, but she hasn't reappeared anywhere I think. But this game isn't just new level designs and new characters -- it's also got new moves. You see, this time the characters all have fighting game-syle move lists, all of which are listed in the manual (or online). Pulling off fighitng game moves while playing a beat 'em up can be tricky, but it's a cool option to have, and it's nice to have more variety than the usual punch, kick, jumpkick, maybe throw, and that's about it fighting game move list. Final Fight 2 had some of this, but this third game adds even more, and even has super moves and a super meter too, quite uniquely for this genre. Level designs are slightly more interesting here too, though Capcom still sticks to its usual "walk to the right on the lower part of the screen" style, without the more involved level designs you find in Streets of Rage or Golden Axe. Too bad. Even so, this is a good game. This game is by far the best of the three Final Fight games, and it's under-rated. It might even be better than the first Streets of Rage, though the second one's better than this of course. The arcade original may get all of the attention, but its SNES sequels deserve more than they get, and with more moves and better level designs, this game exceeds the original for sure. Just make sure to read up on the moves, and make use of them! It really adds to the game when you do.
First Samurai - One player (No saving, but there are level-select cheatcodes). First Samurai is a European platformer, and it was one of the earlier platformers that I got for the SNES. The game has a sequel, though it was on the Genesis, has gameplay changes, and was only released in Europe. This game, however, is a fairly conventional consolized Euro-platformer. It's not one of the most confusing and difficult Euro-platformers out there, and is definitely fun, but ...
Previous threads in this series: Odyssey 2, Game Boy (B&W), Sega Saturn, Playstation 1, Nintendo 64, and PC Racing Games.
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In the '90s, I only had PC and Game Boy/GB Color for gaming, until I got an N64 in late '99. I later got a GC, but I'd missed a lot, and eventually I wanted to go back and get those systems. The Super Nintendo was the first "classic" console that I bought -- that is, the first system that I got that wasn't currently on shelves when I got it. I'd gotten into classic gaming first through emulation, but what the emulators really did was make me want the real thing... so, after a while, I did. I got the system in summer 2005. It's a model-1 SNES, and it still works fine. Overall, the SNES is of course a great, great console, and it's one of my favorites; the N64 is my favorite console, and the SNES and Genesis (with its addons) are tied for second.
For accessories, I do have a Super Multitap, but I don't have a Super Scope, so I can't review the lightgun games. I have a SNES Mouse with mousepad, though. I do not have any import games for the system, yet at least. With so many US releases out there, I haven't needed them.
Top 10 (of games I own only) - don't take this list too seriously, it's nothing I've thought too deeply about. It's an okay list though.
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1. Super Mario World
2. F-Zero
3. Super Turrican
4. Gradius III
5. Illusion of Gaia
6. Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie's Double Trouble
7. Super Castlevania IV
8. Top Gear
9. Space Megaforce
10. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Honorable Mentions (in no order): Donkey Kong Country 2, Super Metroid, BlaZeon, Top Gear 3000, Jim Power: The Lost Dimension in 3D, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Kirby's Dream Course, GunForce, Street Racer, Tiny Toon Adventures: Wacky Sports Challenge, TMNT IV: Turtles in Time, Super Street Fighter II, TMNT: Tournament Fighters, Super Return of the Jedi, Mega Man X, Operation Logic Bomb, Uniracers, Super Nova
The two launch titles are my two favorite SNES games? Heh... but it's true.
List of Titles (in alphabetical order, except I keep some series in release order)
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ActRaiser, The Addams Family Values, Aero the Acrobat, Aladdin, Arkanoid: Doh It Again, Axelay, Battle Cars, BlaZeon, Breath of Fire, Bugs Bunny: Rabbit Rampage, Cacoma Knight in BizyLand, California Games II, Cannondale Cup, Carrier Aces, Choplifter III, The Combatribes, Cybernator, Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions, Darius Twin, Super Nova, D-Force, Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble, Doom, Drakkhen, Faceball 2000, Fatal Fury 2, FIFA Soccer '97, Final Fight 2, Final Fight 3, First Samurai, Full Throttle: All-American Racing, F-Zero, Gemfire, Gods, Goof Troop, Gradius III, GunForce: Battle Fire Engulfed Terror Island, Hal's Hole in One Golf, Hyper Zone, Illusion of Gaia, The Incredible Crash Dummies, Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventure, Inspector Gadget (1993), Jim Power: The Lost Dimension in 3D, Joe & Mac, Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park 2: The Chaos Continues, Justice League Task Force, Ka-Blooey, Kawasaki Carribean Challenge, Killer Instinct, King of the Monsters 2, Kirby's Dream Course, Kirby Super Star, Kirby's Dream Land 3, Knights of the Round, Kyle Petty's No Fear Racing, Lagoon, Lamborghini American Challenge, Legend of the Mystical Ninja, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, The Lion King, Magic Sword, The Great Circus Mystery Starring Mickey & Minnie, The Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse, Mario Paint, MechWarrior 3050, Mega Man X, Mohawk and Headphone Jack, NBA Jam: Tournament Edition, Newmann Haas' Indy Car featuring Nigel Mansell, NHL '96, The Ninja Warriors, Operation: Logic Bomb, Out To Lunch, Outlander, Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures, Paperboy 2, The Peace Keepers, Phalanx, Phantom 2040, Pilotwings, Pinocchio, Populous, Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday, Power Piggs of the Dark Ages, Power Rangers Zeo: Battle Racers, Prehistorik Man, Raiden Trad, Road Runner: Death Valley Rally, Robotrek, Rock 'n Roll Racing, Roger Clemens' MVP Baseball, Secret of Mana, Shadowrun (1993), Skiing and Snowboarding: Tommy Moe's Winter Extreme, Skuljagger, Smartball, Space Invaders, Space Megaforce, Spanky's Quest, Speedy Gonzales: Los Gatos Bandidos, Star Fox, Street Racer, Stunt Race FX, Sunset Riders, Super Adventure Island, Super Battletank 2, Super Bomberman, Super Bonk, Super Castlevania IV, Super Chase H.Q., Super E.D.F. -- Earth Defense Force, Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts, Super Mario All-Stars, Super Mario Kart, Super Mario World, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Super Metroid, Super R-Type, Super Star Wars, Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers, Super Turrican, Super Valis IV, Suzuka 8 Hours, T2: The Arcade Game, Taz-Mania, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters, Tetris 2, Tetris Attack, Thunder Spirits, Tinstar, Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose, Tiny Toon Adventures: Wacky Sports Challenge, Top Gear, Top Gear II, Top Gear 3000, Twisted Tales of Spike McFang, U.N. Squadron, Uniracers, Utopia: Creation of a Nation, Vortex, Wario's Woods, Warlock, Whizz, Wing Commander: The Secret Missions, Winter Olympic Games: Lillehammer '94, World Heroes 2, Yoshi's Cookie, Ys III: Wanderers from Ys, Zoop
Games in the above list that I cover below, but really have not played enough to say too much about: Gemfire, Kirby's Dream Land 3, NHL '96, Populous, Shadowrun, Utopia
[Games I mention in brief because I have them in other formats (modern remakes or rom collections), but not in their original SNES/SFC cartridges: Final Fantasy IV (II), Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy VI (III), Mega Man X2, Mega Man X3, Mega Man 7, Mega Man & Bass, Super Turrican 2.]
I start each game's listing with mentions of how many players the game supports, whether it supports saving (password or battery), and whether it supports any special controllers (mouse, Super Scope lightgun). Games are SNES exclusive unless noted (at the end of the review). I wrote something for every game, whether or not I've played it much. The following games are games I've barely played, so the below summary should not be considered to be anything other than very early impressions: FIFA '97, HAL's Hole in One Golf, Populous, NHL '96, Utopia: The Creation of a Nation. I also decided to italicize game names for titles I've finished in some way -- that is to say, gotten to the end and presumably seen the credits. I know that this is unfair, because a fighting game can be "finished" in half an hour while RPGs can take dozens of hours, but I'm going to do it anyway.
Reviews
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ActRaiser - - One player, battery save. ActRaiser is a hybrid platform-action and building sim game where you play as a god's avatar, sent down to the planet to save it from evil monsters and raise up the people's civilization. Yeah, the game has a good concept, and it's executed fairly well. A popular classic, ActRaiser well deserves its good reputation, and is indeed a good game. The game is divided into two modes. Most of your time in ActRaiser will be spent in the platformer game. Indeed, the harder second quest only includes the action parts, unfortunately (the same is true for ActRaiser 2). The game is a good but not great platformer, with early-gen graphics and extremely stiff controls, but some solid level designs and game design. At least the music is good. The controls definitely take some getting used to and could be better for sure, but still, the game looks nice enough and does play well once you get used to it. The difficulty level is balanced decently; the game is challenging, but not too hard. In between action levels, you play a basic sim game. Here, you have to build a town in each area. You can build housing blocks, send people to fight monsters, and more, as you fill each area with civilization. Unfortunately the sim part of the game is extremely easy and basic, so don't expect much of any challenge here. Still, it's fun, and it gives you a nice break between the action parts. It's too bad that they didn't put a tougher sim mode in the second quest. Also on Wii Virtual Console.
The Addams Family Values - One player, password save. The Addams Family Values is a top-down action-adventure game starring Fester of the Addams Family. It's based off of the movie of the same name. I've never watched the Addams Family movies, and didn't watch the TV show either really, but I know they were popular back in the early '90s. I got this game because I'd heard it was an action-adventure game, which sounded more interesting than the generic platformers that make up most of the movie-license library out there. It feels a bit like a Zelda game, which is cool. The game's not as good as Zelda, of course, but it's alright. You talk to people, get items, explore dungeons, fight monsters, etc. There are puzzles to deal with as well, of course. The game is unoriginal, but plays reasonably well. The cartoony art style is reminiscent of Link to the Past, crossed with The Addams Family of course. You attack with lightning, but as your health goes down your range decreases. Yeah, this game is hard, as you might expect from Ocean. Other than that attack system, it's also very easy to get lost with no idea what to do next; consider using a walkthrough with this game. It does have pretty good music, as expected from Ocean. This is one of Ocean's better games, though, and it even has password save! Amazing, why couldn't they have put that in Jurassic Park and JP: The Chaos Continues... they badly needed it. At least this game has it, though. The feeling that this is an LttP knockoff never fades, as the graphics and gameplay make it clear that that is exactly what it is, but at least it's a decently good knockoff. Try it if you like the genre.
Aero the Acro-Bat - One player, password save. Aero the Acro-Bat is a fairly generic mascot platformer from Sunsoft. The first of a three game series, this one is the only one of the three that's common, while the last one, Zero, is somewhat rare. This game's not too remarkable, though, and doesn't stand out from the crowd. Still, Sunsoft could make some pretty good games, and this one is okay at least. You play as an anthropomorphic bat, so yes, this is one of the Sonic-inspired games that were so common in the 4th generation. The game starts in a circus, as the name suggests. I don't find this game particularly interesting, but there are much worse games out there too. Run, jump, float, make your way through the levels, etc. Also on Genesis and Wii Virtual Console.
Aladdin - One player, password save. This is the Capcom Aladdin platformer, not the Sega one. Unlike that game, this one wasn't ported much (the Genesis game is also on GB, PC, and GB/GBC (black cart game)). I think that the Genesis game is quite a bit better than this one, but still, this is a decent, fun platformer. The game has good graphics and sound, as usual from Capcom. Aladdin doesn't do anything original, but it does have solid, standard platformer gameplay. You defeat enemies by jumping on them (no sword here, unlike Sega's game) or throwing apples at them (oddly, both games have apples as the main ranged weapon). I do like that this one has password save; Sega's doesn't save, and has limited continues too. This allows them to make this game a bit longer than the Genesis game, though the difficulty level is probably a little lower. However, the main problem I have with this game is that while it's decent fun, it's just not nearly as original, or great, as the Genesis game is, and while I love Aladdin the movie, and do like this game, it's far behind in second as far as Aladdin games go. SNES Aladdin is a solid but somewhat generic platformer. Also on Game Boy Advance.
Arkanoid: Doh It Again - One player, password save, has SNES Mouse support. Arkanoid: Doh it Again is, as you'd expect, a sequel to the classic arcade blockbreaking game Arkanoid. While early games in this genre like the original Breakout bore me, the original Arkanoid was a favorite arcade game of mine, and I've always loved the genre that it created as well. Arkanoid was an outstanding game -- it took Breakout's concept, but added in so many badly needed features, like vastly improved ball and block-hitting physics, enemies, powerups, better graphics, and more. This game is essentially more of the same, but with graphics a lot more like the arcade original's visuals than the NES version of the first game was. Unlike that game, however, there isn't a paddle controller (on the NES in the US, it's called the "Vaus Controller; it's rare, but awesome). However, the game does have mouse support, and it's really good -- I highly recommend playing this game with the mouse! With the mouse, you get good, smooth control, and the game plays great. This game is not particularly original; really, it's more Arkanoid, but with SNES-level visuals; but still, it's a great game. Plus, it does have passwords, so you don't need to play the whole thing at once. This was a very late release in the US (1997), but it did get here, and I'm happy that it did. Anyone who likes this genre should consider this game a must have for the SNES, along with a mouse of course.
Axelay - One player. Axelay is a shmup, and it was the second and last SNES Konami shmup released in the US, after Gradius III. In Japan they released four other titles, including one Twinbee game and three Parodius games, and Europe got two of those four games, but the US got none at all, sadly. Instead, we only got the two traditional space shooters, not any of the cute-styled ones. Unfortunate. Anyway though, Axelay is a pretty good shmup. It isn't one of my favorite SNES shmups, as I think the game has a bit more focus on its visuals than it does its gameplay, but still, it is a very good game overall. Axelay has six levels. Three are vertical-scrolling, and three horizontal. The vertical levels are visually amazing, with a really impressive "3d" effect that makes it look like the screen is curving upwards. Really impressive stuff. The scaling is well done as well. However, the side-view levels just aren't quite as interesting, and while they look good, they aren't amazingly impressive as the vertical ones are. More vertical levels in this game would have been great. As for weapons, in Axelay you have three weapons. They behave differently in the two different level types, but essentially you are working with these three guns. My favorite is the one with two streams of fire that you can sort of adjust (they go up the screen as you hold down the button, and back down as you let go). When you take a hit, instead of dying you lose your current weapon. Once all three are down and you're down to just the basic shot, the next hit will lose a life. Of course, crashing into things will lose a life instantly. The system works well. But with only maybe half as many levels as Gradius III, and levels that are similar in length to that game's levels or shorter, and with side-view levels that just aren't as good as either the other half of this game, or anything in Gradius III, Axelay disappoints me a bit. Even the vertical scrolling levels could have better level designs; they're great, but there are better vertical shooters on the system. Still, I like that there are obstacles in this game -- far too many vertical shooters have nothing you can run into other than enemies. This game has walls, rock faces, and more, which is great. Still though, overall, Axelay is a very good game, and the vertical levels are a real visual showcase, but the gameplay doesn't quite live up to the graphics.
Battle Cars - Two player simultaneous. I made a review thread for Battle Cars after playing it, and for good reason: this is a good, and very little-known, futuristic Mode 7 racing game. The game was made by a Namco of America internal team, and was a US-exclusive release. And yes, it's one of the SNES's few games that clearly was inspired by F-Zero crossed with Rock n Roll Racing, though that game actually released after this one. Though the visuals are good and highly reminscent of F-Zero, the game's not the same as F-Zero in gameplay -- this game is combat-focused. You have weapons in Battle Cars, and shooting at the other cars is one of the major focuses of the action. The game has no saving, so you need to play 20+ races in one sitting (or without turning the system off, because you do get infinite continues), which is a pain, but I found it more than fun enough to be worth it! There's even a co-op campaign, which is awesome. You get a better ending for each difficulty level from Easy to Hard, too. One player mode is fullscreen, two player splitscreen. There are two races on each of the ten planets, the first a cross-country race where your goal is to get to the end within the time limit, and the second a boss race where you must beat the boss to the finish line. You can also buy items and weapons for the three different weapon types in the shop accessible between races. Oddly enough you buy car upgrades with money from kills, and weapon upgrades with credits from finishing with extra time on the clock -- the two are not pooled. Odd. The game can be difficult, but the fun factor is high. The game has some flaws, including the uneven difficulty level, odd double money system, and the sometimes high challenge, but is pretty fun overall, and I highly recommend it for anyone with any interest in the genre, or SNES racing games. For more see my thread http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=469374 ; I recommend that you do, because this game is a forgotten classic of the futuristic racing genre. It has some issues, but it's a great game overall. (One final note: This game had both Chris Senn, later of Sega's STI, and Ken Lobb, later at Nintendo and then Microsoft, working on it. Huh.)
BlaZeon - One player. BlaZeon is a shmup from Atlus. While the game is generally regarded as average at best, I love BlaZeon, and in fact it's one of my favorite SNES shmups. BlaZeon has an incredible soundtrack that is one of the system's standouts, decent to good graphics, and little slowdown. Sure, that last one is because it's very slow paced, but still, it doesn't have much slowdown. The game also has some cool features like partially destructible ships -- many enemies have a couple of break points, so if you hit one on the lower part you'll knock out the lower gun first. But the biggest criticsm that the game gets is that it is slow, and this is true; Blazeon is at times a glacially slow-paced game, and there are parts where a full 30 seconds can go by without a single enemy appearing on screen, but don't mistake this for an easy game; while Blazeon isn't one of the hardest SNES shmups, it's a tough game that will present a good challenge. The game is pattern-based, and enemies come at you in pretty much the same way each time, so there's plenty to learn and think about. The core mechanic in Blazeon is that while there are no traditional powerups, instead your secondary gun can disable certain types of enemy robots ("Bio-Cyborgs", as the manual calls them) and if you then fly over that enemy, you will take over that ship. Each of the seven types of hijackable robots have a different weapon type, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. They also give you extra hits, as your main ship dies in one hit, but these can take several before they'll blow up, and even then your ship will survive, until it gets hit afterwards of course. Bio-Cyborgs start out at full attack power, but if you get hit once, it'll go to half strength. Some are better than others at this point, so be careful, and try to avoid damage! The ship you have will carry over from level to level, so if you want to keep one of the rarer ones, don't get hit, and you will. On that note, yes, some, weaker, Bio-Cyborgs are more common, while some of the better ones are rare. There's one that appears only once in the game, for instance. It's well worth the effort to take though, those mines are really useful. BlaZeon's levels are long, and most levels have several bosses. If you die, you will be sent back a long way. Sometimes it's a long, long way, with how long hte levels are and how slowly you travel through them. Apart from the last level, which is VERY long and extremely tough to finish, I don't mind this at all; the slow pace just gives me more time to listen to the great music. The levels mostly use familiar themes, such as an attacking giant battleship, a dump, asteroids in space, and more, but it's all well done and the game holds my interest, beginning to end. This is a game I keep going back to, as much for the quite good, somewhat strategic gameplay, and partially for the music. Recommended. Arcade port. Apart from those rare bits of slowdown, the only major change in the SNES version is that the arcade version's nice ending was cut out and replaced with a ... very basic ... one. Yeah, the arcade version is more satisfying to finish for sure. Still, otherwise it's a very accurate port of this great game.
Breath of Fire - One player, battery save. Breath of Fire is the first of a series of five RPGs from Capcom in a series that lasted from the SNES to the PS2. There's also a GBA remake of this game out there, though I haven't played it myself. This game is one of only a couple traditional, menu-based JRPGs that I own for the SNES, and I wasn't sure if I'd like it at all, given my frequent issues with the genre; I just do not like the constant, tedious grind that is your average JRPG. I'd rather actually be challenged (and not just by "will my store of healing items survive the flood of random battles"), and I much prefer strategic combat as well. Still, this game's okay; I got a ways into it, and was actually enjoying myself. It's a simplistic game, with a very simple combat system and nothing particularly original about the basic design, but the graphics are decent, the story a slightly original version of the average, and the battles straightforward. Things like the bird-people are cool too, you don't always see that. The gameplay is standard, as you wander around, explore the world and dungeons, and follow the story, but it works. Unfortunately this is one of a bunch of SNES games which now has a dead battery in the cart, but I would like to play it again sometime.
Bugs Bunny: Rabbit Rampage - One player. This game is a somewhat disappointing platformer from Sunsoft. For some reason, Sunsoft's Game Boy Looney Tunes games were almost all really good, but their SNES ones are much more mixed in quality. This game is one of the negative examples that shows that fact. The visuals are great in this game, but unfortunately, the gameplay is too flawed for me to have much fun here. But I should start with the positives. Bugs Bunny: Rabbit Rampage has pretty good graphics, nice animations, and a good amount of variety. There's plenty of classic Looney Tunes humor in this game too, which is great. The game and level designs are mostly standard stuff, with enemies to kill, platforms to jump between, etc. However, this game has large levels, and it can be a pain to explore them with the too-short draw distance; you just can't see far enough ahead to be able to really deal with the enemies. Your attacks have a short range too, and the hit detection has some issues. The overall results are annoying and not fun. The lack of saving is bad too, passwords would be great. This game is okay, I think, but certainly nothing more than that. I don't think it's really worth playing, even for a Looney Tunes fan like me. There are plenty of good 4th gen Looney Tunes games out there; weaker ones like this aren't worth the frustration.
Cacoma Knight in BizyLand - Two player alternating. Cacoma Knight in BizyLand is a not-too-well-known Qix clone, essentially. Like the classic '80s arcade game Qix, in Cacoma Knight you move around the edges of a single-screen-per-level playfield, while enemies move around inside. If you hold down the button, you can move across the field, cutting off a section and revealing the land underneath. You can only move on the edge, and can't be hurt when on the edge, but when moving through the field (while holding the button), if either you or the line you're leaving behind that still is only touching the edge on one side comes in contact with an enemy, you'll lose a life. You beat the level when a high enough percentage Yeah, it's Qix. The game also has some powerups and items to find, though in this game, they are hidden -- you'll only find them if you happen to take the correct parts of the screen where the items are you'll get them, otherwise tough luck. I wish that the items weren't so randomly placed. The game has a silly little fantasy story; you play as either a girl or a boy travelling through a fantasy kingdom, trying to get their wish granted by rescuing the princess that has been kidnapped by the badguys, or something like that. This game feels like it was made for kids in tone, title, and graphics, and isn't one of the harder Qix games for sure, but Qix fans should play it anyway, because it's something a little different, and is fun to play even if it isn't that hard most of the time. The game does get tougher farther in, and the last levels will take some practice to win, but overall Cacoma Knight is easy for a Qix-style game. Recommended, but you'll beat it quickly. Consider this Qix-lite.
California Games II - Two players. This is a somewhat mediocre sequel to the popular-at-the-time extreme sports compilation title California Games. I heard a lot about California Games, but rarely actually played it myself as a kid, so I don't have the advantage of much nostalgia here, and the games are a mixture of frustration and average or bad. There are four games in this collection. They tried to use the hardware here, so several of the games have "3d"-esque elements. Unfortunately, the results are mixed. The box shows four characters, each dressed for one of the activities, but you're stuck in that character in that mode -- there is no character choice, you just play as each character in their activity. Kind of lame. Some of the games are okay, but others aren't so good. There's hang-gliding (boring and short), skateboard racing down fake-3d tracks (decent, but tough), jetski racing against the clock with Mode 7 tracks (it's okay), and snowboard racing/half-pipe (not that great). Even the better ones aren't above average, and none are fun enough to make me want to play them enough to get good, or sometimes even to the end of the event. The jetski part is probably the best thing here, but there are much better Mode 7 games on the SNES. Play those instead of this disappointment.
Cannondale Cup - One player, battery save. Cannondale Cup is an odd, original, unique, and flawed biycicle racing game. The game uses Mode 7 with some interesting effects that make the game look like it has hills and slopes, instead of being all flat like Mode 7 usually looks. Unfortunately, this comes at a cost: the game runs slowly. Yeah, the framerate here is poor. But yes, even though it sort of doesn't look it, this game is indeed Mode 7. The battery will save your stats, progress, times, etc. too, which is great. This game is tough, though -- I find it very, very hard to do any good at all beyond the first race or two, so the game gets really frustrating, really fast. There's obviously more strategy to this game than I've had the patience to figure out. Course designs are challenging, too. The game does have a decent number of tracks though, and the unique style is worth a look. The high difficulty makes this game tough to get into, though; finishing last or next to last over and over doesn't make me want to keep playing... still, somewhat interesting game. It is ambitious, but it doesn't quite live up to that ambition; the concept is cool, but the framerate and difficulty hold it back.
Carrier Aces - Two player simultaneous. Carrier Aces is a forced-splitscreen, sprite-based 3d flight combat game. In the game, either two humans, or a human and a computer, take control of planes and shoot at eachother. There's a training mode and seven battles to choose from, though you can play them in any order; there's no saving or progression here. The focus is on the flying and the dogfighting combat. While this game isn't overly remarkable, it is decently well made, and is somewhat fun to play. Of course, it's better in multiplayer than single player; multiplayer was the obvious focus of design. Still, there is computer AI there to oppose you, if you have no one to play against, as I usually don't. The game has no map, but shows your speed, altitude, and fuel on screen, along with a compass heading and speed. The graphics are decent but somewhat choppy, and the fake scaling is about on par for the system. The plane and ship sprites look nice though. Since the game is in 3d space, hitting the other planes can be challenging, so it's satisfying when you hit. This is an okay game, and somewhat unique for the system, but newer consoles can do this kind of game better.
Choplifter III - One player, password save. Choplifter is a classic series of helicopter action/shooting games. In the series, you control a helicopter, and have to rescue prisoners and bring them back to your base. But be careful, if you get shot down with prisoners on board, those are lost and you'll have to find others to rescue. If too few remain to meet your quotia for the level, or if you run out of lives, you lose. Choplifter III is the second-to-last game in the ChopLifter series; after this, the only one is the current-gen Choplifter HD (PC/PS3/360 download title). The game plays like Choplifter, except with SNES-quality graphics, password save, some perhaps too-hard bosses, and nice variety. The graphics are good, and I like the various environments and weapons you have to use. As I said the game does get a bit too difficult, to the point of being quite frustrating at some points. The password systems relieves some of the frustration, but still, it's a tough game. Still though, it's fun and well designed. THe level designs are classic Chopflifter, with reasonably large side-scrolling levels to explore, lots of planes, helicopters, tanks, gun turrets, and soldiers to shoot at, and prisoners to rescue. Learning the levels will take time, as you try to learn how to avoid enemy fire and maneuver through teh sometimes tight spaces you have to fly through, but it's worth it. Overall, Choplifter III isn't for everyone, but shmup, side-scrolling action, and Choplifter fans should definitely check it out. It's more flawed than Sega's SMS Choplifter game, but it does have more content and saving, so it's well worth playing. (As a note, the GB/GG Choplifter III game actually is entirely different from this one; the only thing the two games really have in common is the name, and that they are decently good.)
The Combatribes - Two player simultaneous. Main game has no saving, but you get passwords to use the other teams in versus mode as you progress. The Combatribes is a beat 'em up from Technos. As such, it plays somewhat like other Technos beat 'em ups like Renegade or River City Ransom. The game is very short, with six three-screen levels making up the whole thing. Yes, each level plays in a single three-screen arena, and there are only six beginning to end. In each level you fight a large wave of enemies, then, once you beat them all, a boss. The game tosses a lot of enemies at you at once at the beginning of each stage. A few more are added once you beat some, but still, the game doesn't use a standard fighting game setup, for sure. The game has a nice variety of moves, with both punch and kick buttons and also some moves you can do like spins, throws, and more. There are three characters to choose from, though all three are quite similar , and all are male; no female characters (only a female main villain, naturally). The game is set in a futuristic, or alternate-world, New York City. In this version of New York it's still the '90s, it seems, but cyborgs exist. Your characters, and the main villains, are all apparently cyborgs. The game doesn't do too much with this outside of the storyline, though, so there's no character deformation as you take damage, revealing the cyborg parts under the "skin", as you see in, say, The Ninja Warriors. The graphics are decent, with average art design and graphics. At least it does have two player simultaneous, and a 1 or 2 player fighting versus mode too. There are some short story scenes between levels as well. The story's basic and not very good, but it's the amusing kind of not very good, and a game like this doesn't really need anything more. Overall The Combatribes is a fun, but short and simple, game. I wish it was a bit more substantial, but still, for what it is, it's okay. (Oh, the game defaults to Mono sound. Make sure to set it to Stereo in the options each time!)
Cybernator - One player. Cybernator is a cult classic, and was moderately popular. This game is the sequel, or side-quel, or something, to Target Earth on the Genesis. In Japan, both games are part of the Assault Suits series. This game was cut for its US release -- a large percentage of the conversation text was stripped out -- but the amount left still leaves this game with more talking than most action games on the SNES. That's fine, but I do find it disappointing that they cut it. There is a fan patch that fixed the issue, but obviously you can't use that with an official cart copy. Anyway, as for the actual gameplay, it's okay, but I like other games better. Cybernator does have very good graphics, and visually is hugely improved over Target Earth, but for gameplay, I think I might like that game more... I don't know, this is a good game, but I don't think it's a great game. I know this is just opinion, but somehow the controls and game design just feel a bit off, for me, and I don't enjoy myself enough to keep playing after a couple of missions. I think Target Earth has better controls. And though the graphics are a lot worse, I do like that you can see farther; Cybernator's beautiful big sprites come at a cost of short viewing distance. Still, this game is worth trying at least; it's popular for a reason. But I don't like it quite as much as some people.
Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions - One player, password save. This game is another okay-but-not-great Looney Tunes game from Sunsoft. As usual, while I love their Game Boy Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions game, I'm much less enamored of this SNES game. It's just not nearly as fun, and it's a whole lot more frustrating too. The two games are quite different -- that one's a linear, somewhat short but tough platformer with a jetpack and some really hard jumps, while this is a longer, free-roaming platformer with a jetpack and a too-high frustration level -- but while this game may be longer, it's not as good. In each level, you wander around looking for where to go; it's not made clear. The viewing distance and controls are average, as with several other of the Looney Tunes games Sunsoft published on the SNES. I wanted to like this game, as I love the Looney Tunes and think the Duck Dodgeers/The Marvin Missions stuff is really great, but... this game is kind of frustrating to play, thanks to the controls and level designs. Still, at least it does have passwords; that's nice. But overall, I recommend Sunsoft's GB Looney Tunes games.
Darius Twin - Two player simultaneous. Darius Twin is the first SNES Darius game, and like Darius Force/Super Nova below, it's a SNES exclusive, not a port of the Darius arcade games. Darius Twin is a somewhat bland game with average early-SNES graphics and sound, okay but unexciting level designs, and decent gameplay. Darius games always have mechanical-sea-life bosses, and this game is no exception. The bosses have nice designs, as usual from Darius. The rest of the graphics are average, though, the music is quite bland, and the level designs are repetitive and dull. The two player co-op mode is definitely the highlight here; otherwise, it's not particularly exciting. Also, unfortunately, the game has only one ending. Most Darius games have multiple endings, but this one is an unfortunate exception. Even so, it is an okay shmup with a fair amount of challenge, branching paths along the way, and more. The game is playable, controls decently well, and is a decent game, but gets repetitive, and I lose interest after a few levels. The level designs, graphics, and music just are not engaging most of the time. The sequel, below, is a much more fun game, even if it drops the two player mode. Darius Twin does have some slowdown as well, though it's not as bad as the most slowdown-affected SNES shmups, I think. Overall, Darius Twin is about average, I think. Play it for another two-player shmup option on the SNES, but otherwise, stick to the sequel.
Super Nova - One player. Super Nova, known as Darius Force in Japan, is the second and final SNES Darius game. It plays like Darius at its core, so the ship, weapon, powerup, and enemy systems and designs all are quite similar to other games in the series. You get powerups by killing all the enemies in certain waves of enemies. Make sure to get every one, they are badly needed. Darius isn't one of my favorite shmup series, but this is one of the better Darius games, along with Darius II (aka Sagaia) and Darius Gaiden. The game has very good graphics and music, a high difficulty level, fast play, a decent story with multiple routes and endings (as expected in the series), and more; this is a great SNES shmup. The game does unfortunately not have the two player co-op mode that the first SNES Darius game, Darius Twin, has, but otherwise is much improved over that title -- it's too bad about the multiplayer, but the graphics, sound, and level designs are much better and more interesting this time. For some reason though, this game is a bit under-appreciated. It's much cheaper than some of the other better SNES shmups, and has some okay-to-good-but-not-great reviews, too. Well, the game isn't perfect, but I do think it's pretty good. Other than the multiplayer, I really have only one complaint, and that's about how hard this game is. Seriously, Super Nova is HARD! The game is fast, there isn't much slowdown, and there's plenty of bullets to avoid, and you get only two continues and are sent back a long ways when you die, so the challenge here is quite high. This is a tough game, and even on "Easy" I can't get more than three stages into the game so far. I'll manage to do okay for a while, but one death and you're doomed... starting over, with no powerups, will lead to rapid deaths. This game can be frustrating. Oddly though, the early bosses aren't too hard; it's the levels where I keep dying. The game rewards memorization, and with time you learn the stages and obstacles and get better. The good graphics, graphical effects like the warping backgrounds, how the screen rotates at some points in some levels, or bosses which fly in from the background, are pretty cool, and the good music helps as well. Overall, Super Nova's tough but great. This is a very good game, and it's much better than I was expecting! Highly recommended.
D-Force - One player. D-Force is a shmup, and it is widely hated by the shmup community. Indeed, it'd be near the top of the list of worst SNES shmups on many shmup fans' lists. I do agree that it isn't that good of a game, but I don't completely hate it; while the game is subpar, there are worse games out there, and the game has a few interesting features. First, the visuals. D-Force has fairly bland graphics. The most unique thing here is that it can zoom in and out, so the ground is somewhat pixelated because of whatever technique they used for the zooming. However, in the main levels, you can't change levels at will. Instead, you'll simply be higher in the sky initially, then you'll go in low for the later part of the stage. It's disappointing, it'd have been cool if you could switch anytime. Every couple of levels there is a bonus-ish stage which does allow you to change levels, and these levels are by far the best in the game. There's actually a main menu option which plays only these levels. There aren't enough of them and they're definitely on the easy side, but still, this is the most fun part of this game. As for the main game though, expect average shooting. There are some powerups, generic-looking enemies to shoot at, the works. There's nothing too interesting here apart from the level-change mechanic which, again, they take away from you most of the time. But that's really how I see this: bland and generic, not actively awful.
Donkey Kong Country - Two player (alternating or simultaneous), battery save. DKC is one of the SNES's most important, and best-known, games. I don't know if I really need to say too much about this one -- released by Rare in 1994, this game was a massive hit, an instant classic, and became one of the system's best-selling games. The game also helped create the fad for scanned-in computer-rendered graphics. It is a bit more controversial today, as some people insist that this whole series is bad, but I do like it. I don't think that it's the best DKC game (in that I actually differ from the consensus; DKC3 is my favorite, not 2), though, for several reasons. Essentially, DKC1 is a simple game. You play as Donkey and Diddy Kongs, who have to rescue Donkey's stolen bananna hoard from the evil Kremlings. Donkey is large, Diddy small, and this matters in the gameplay. This game is a straightforward platformer most of the time. The graphics are great, though not quite as good as its sequels, but the level designs are mostly straightforward. There are a few levels which toss new ideas at you, like the mine-cart stages and the stoplight level, but most are much more straightforward than anything from either sequel. There's also much less to find in this game -- while DKC2 and DKC3 have you collecting quite a few different things, in this game, apart from actually beating the levels ofcourse, there is only one thing that affects your completion percentage: Whether you've found all of the hidden bonus areas in each level. There are several to find per stage, and they are often well-hidden, so finding all of them without using a guide would be a quite impressive feat. Also, the difficulty level is uneven, because the hardest parts of this game are often the beginning of each world: once you enter a world you're stuck there, and can't save right away but only after you reach a save point, so the challenge level of getting to the first save point or warp (so you can fly to a different level and save there) can be quite tough at times. I was stuck for a while at the snow world because of this, but once I got to the save point, the rest was easy. Still though, that's all there is to it. DKC1 is a great game, but I like the additional depth and variety the sequels added to its formula. The first game feels somewhat barebones in comparison to its sequels. Still though, this really is a must-play game, and it's one of the better platformers around. DKC has ports on the GBC and GBA, and the SNES version was on the Wii Virtual Console; the game was delisted in late 2012 for unknown reasons, but people who have it can still play it.
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest - Two player (alternating or simultaneous), battery save. DKC2 is the most popular game in the DKC trilogy. It isn't my favorite of them, as I like the third best, but it is a great, great game, and a definite classic. DKC2 has more content, more collectables, more secrets, better graphics, and more level variety than the first game has. The graphics here really are outstanding, and show off how impressive Rare's "ACM" technique could look. This time you play as Diddy and Dixie, as Donkey was kidnapped. The game abandons DKC1 and 3's "large character and small character" mechanic in favor of two small characters, which is too bad, but at least each one has a different move, so they aren't the same -- Dixie can float with her ponytail, for instance. I really like the added level variety in DKC2, particularly; you aren't just running to the exit every time here as you generally were in the first game, there's more different level types this time. Great stuff like the underwater and mine cart stages return, but now there are interesting new stage variations to face, including some where you control new animal friends such as a bird which you play as in some (flying-based) segments. Also expect even more barrel puzzles. Good stuff. Most levels are traditional platforming, but with level designs and controls this great, it's all extremely fun to play through. Unfortunately, the save system works exactly the same way as it does in the first game. Kind of annoying. DKC2 is certainly one of the best platformers of the generation. DKC2 is also on the GBA, and the SNES version was on the Wii Virtual Console; the game was delisted in late 2012 for unknown reasons, but people who have it can still play it. The GB game "Donkey Kong Land 2" tells the same story as this game, and has similar level themes, but the level layouts are not exactly the same, so it's not the same game, not quite (the other two DKL games are completely original.)
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble - Two player (alternating or simultaneous), battery save. DKC3, released in late 1996, was the final SNES DKC game. A somewhat under-appreciated title, DKC3 is usually considered to be in the shadow of its predecessor, but it's my personal favorite DKC game. DKC3 has Dixie as the small character, and Kiddy as the large one; Donkey and Diddy have both been kidnapped this time. Sure, why not. DKC3 has the most level variety in the series. No more is this a simple platformer made up of go-to-the-right-while-fighting-enemies levels, as DKC1 was. This time, you've got to do all kinds of things, from outrunning a sawblade in a giant tree, to dealing with a reversed-controls underwater level, to a quite tough level where you have to dodge lightning in a thunderstorm. I love the variety in this game, there's no other platformer quite like it. The overworld is enhanced here too -- instead of just being a simple level-select screen, this time you have an actual overworld to explore. Very nice! There is a lot more to collect this time, including bannana fairies in the overworld, a special enemy you must beat with a special barrel in each level, the usual hidden exits to find, and more; it's fun. I don't think they went overboard with the collecting, and anyway, a lot of it is optional, and challenges like trying to figure out how to beat that special enemy in each level are a nice addition. Also, this time you can leave a world at any time, which means no more annoying "can't save through the first four levels" stuff -- this time you can exit out to the overworld and save after every level, if you want. That is a very welcome change. So, overall, DKC3 is an absolutely exceptional game, and one of my favorite games on the SNES. The graphics are even better than the previous two games, the levels more varied and even more fun, and the general game design improved. DKC3 is platforming at its best. Also on the GBA, and the SNES version was on the Wii Virtual Console; the game was delisted in late 2012 for unknown reasons, but people who have it can still play it.
Doom - One player (the game once had two player multiplayer via the X-Band service, but that has been offline since, oh, 1997 or so), SNES Mouse support (alternate controls if you wish). SNES Doom is a Super FX 2 game that is a port of this all-time classic FPS. The SNES version was done by Sculptured Software, who also did Dirt Trax FX (the one US-released Super FX game I don't have), and while opinions on it are varied, I, at least, think it's really good. SNES Doom has some advantages versus other '90s Doom ports, but also some disadvantages. The biggest advantage is that SNES Doom isn't based on John Carmack's stripped-down Jaguar rendition of the game. Instead, it's based on the PC original. This means that things missing from the Jaguar version and all versions based on it (3DO, 32X, PS1, Saturn, GBA) ARE in this game. That means that SNES Doom has the map screen in between levels, the original three-episode division, the original ending text screens after each episode, the crushing ceilings, an impressive approximation of the original level designs (apart from transparent walls and grilles and such, virtually nothing is cut), the original changes in light level (ie, when a bright room turns dark, it turns dark in this version), and more. All of those things were removed from the Jaguar version and all of its ports. SNES Doom also has enemies display at the same brightness as their surroundings, unlike some other versions. This means that on the SNES, an enemy in a dark room will be dim and hard to see. On the 32X, for instance, however, enemy sprites in "dark" rooms are brightly lit, as if each enemy has a spotlight pointing at them at all times. It completely ruins some of the suspense, compared to a more accurate version like this one. The game also plays at an acceptable, if a bit low, framerate; this game is entirely playable and moves at a good clip for the system. The framerate is fairly stable, at least, even if it's not a bit slow. SNES Doom has the worst graphics of any released version of the game, but the gameplay holds up extremely well.
SNES Doom has a total of 22 missions, which is five less than the PC game -- yes, five levels were removed. Interestingly, Sculptured Software chose to remove five levels which ARE in the Jaguar game, while including all five levels that the Jag version had cut. Huh. Well, why not... it's too bad that some levels had to go, but it's cool that by playing both this and the Jag version, you can play all of the levels from the original game. It doesn't have any new exclusive levels, unlike the two new levels in the Jag version, so it has two fewer total levels than that game, but at least it has five more levels than the pitifully short 32X version, and you can play through the whole game here (32X Doom cut all of Episode 3 out). SNES Doom also has great music -- these are some fantastic versions of the classic Doom songs. Great stuff! It's worlds better than the pitiful audio of 32X Doom, or the no-music-at-all-ingame Jag Doom. Of course in graphics and framerate those are better (though the game does play in a window the same size as 32X Doom's), but in sound, this is. SNES Doom does have oen final limitation, though: which episodes you can start from depends on the difficulty level selected. On the lower two settings, you can only start from Ep. 1. From the mid setting (default), you can start from eps 1 or 2, but not 3. Only on the upper two can you start from ep. 3. This matters because this game has no saving or passwords, and no level select either. However, there is one unique element: when you die and start a level again, instead of being reset to the pistol and 50 bullets and 100 health as you would in most Doom versions, you will start with the exact loadout you started the level with, as if you'd loaded a save file at the start of the level. This is a unique feature in SNES Doom, andi t's pretty cool. It can make some levels hard, if you start with like 5 health and just a couple of bullets, but it's much more good than bad! 32X Doom also doesn't save, but at least has level select on the main menu for everything except for the two hidden levels, those you have to play to in one sitting to see. All other versions of Doom save. So yeah, this is a "leave the system on for quite a while" game if you want to beat it on Normal -- you'll have to play episodes 2 and 3 all in one go without turning off the SNES. Fortunately, it's more than fun enough to be worth the effort! PC port also on many other systems.
Drakkhen - One player, battery save. Drakkhen is a mediocre, and unpopular on the SNES at least, computer-port RPG. The game is a somewhat open-world title, where you create a party of four warriors, with gender and class choices, and then explore around a large world with them. The game has very bland, mediocre graphics and sound. It plays in first person 3d, except when you run into enemies the characters come out onto the screen and fight the enemies on that screen as a static screen. The game is an action-RPG, pretty much, as combat is real-time and you control one character during battle. You can switch characters during the fight, but this game isn't exactly strategic; it's fairly simple stuff. You can also go into castles, dungeons, etc, and have your characters explore around. Indoor areas are side-view isometric 2d, so you can't wander around as you can outside. You can only save outdoors. There is the usual stuff to find, equipment to collect, and stuff to set up, but this game is very plain and repetitious overall. This game is only for fans of classic RPGs where you spend most all of your time levelling and exploring, without really knowing where exactly you're supposed to be going a lot of the time (unless you use a walkthrough). There is a story, but it's basic stuff. The game has a sequel, Dragon View. I haven't played it but it has better graphics at least.
Faceball 2000 - Two player simultaneous. Faceball 2000 is a FPS, and one of the few that plays on the base SNES. The game's okay, but really isn't all that great overall. Honestly, I think I have to agree with the consensus I've seen that says that the Game Boy version is better than the SNES one... still, this game isn't awful, just ... meh. Faceball 2000 is a simple FPS game where you play as a smily face who is going around mazes, shooting other smily faces who are also shooting back at you. The graphics are fairly simple and the game plays windowed, but the framerate is iffy at best, and the game is slow. There are a couple of modes here, including a basic play-through-the-levels mode and a versus mode. The GB version has a more interesting mode than this one; this really is just a basic maze-based FPS, with no saving (that it badly needs!), plain graphics, and bland gameplay. Overall, this game isn't that recommended. If you want a great shooter on the SNES with one and two player support, get Spectre, not Faceball. However, it is great that the game does have a two player splitscreen mode, and that is the most interesting feature here by far. This is one of the only 4th gen (TV) console FPSes with a multiplayer mode; it's pretty much this, the Japan-only TG16 CD version of this game, and Spectre for the SNES if you count that Battlezone-esque game as a FPS, and that's about it. Also on Game Boy, and in Japan only on TurboGrafx-16 CD and Game Gear. The GB version is best. It even has 16 player support, with daisy-chained Game Boy multitaps!
Fatal Fury 2 - Two player simultaneous. Fatal Fury 2 is another one of Takara's ports of a SNK Neo-Geo fighting game. I like some of these, including King of the Monsters 2 and World Heroes 2, but this one isn't so great. Part of the problem is simply that I don't really enjoy any of the first seven Fatal Fury games. Mark of the Wolves is great, but before that? I don't know, the series just isn't for me. Fatal Fury 2 is at least better than the original Fatal Fury, but still, this is a fairly primitive fighting game, and it's nowhere near as good as either later SNK fighters, or Capcom games. As with all of the first seven Fatal Fury games, the game has a unique two-line system, where you can switch between two planes during combat. It makes the game more complex than some fighting games, but it doesn't make it better; I think I prefer standard, flat-plane 2d/2.5d designs. There are your usual selection of characters to choose from, including Mai Shiranui in her first appearance. In terms of moves, this is a fairly simple game with limited numbers of special moves and specials. The game is competent and a decent port of the arcade game, though the graphics certainly aren't nearly as good as they are in the arcade, but both Takara and SNK can do better than this. Port of a Neo-Geo and Neo-Geo CD game. Other ports of the game are on Genesis, Game Boy, X68000, and Turbo CD (the latter three in Japan only).
FIFA Soccer '97 - Five player simultaneous (with multitap), battery save. FIFA '97, the 1996 soccer game, was EA's last soccer game released in the US, though there was a FIFA '98 in Europe. I haven't played it much at all, but it is at least certainly much, much better than US Gold's World Cup Soccer '94, a game that I got for the PC back in the mid '90s and thought was quite poor. The game does have small characters, but at least the gameplay is competent, unlike that thing. FIFA '97 has much better graphics too. I like this game's isometric perspective more than that one's strict top-view angle, the isometric perspective makes the game easier, better looking, more accurate, and more fun. This game also has lots of options and modes, as you expect from EA Sports games. Oddly enough, FIFA '97 was simply called that on the box, but the title screen calls it "FIFA '97 Gold Edition". Apparently the SNES and Genesis versions both say that. There's no regular edition though, unless the PS1/Saturn versions are "regular" and the 16-bit versions "gold"... yeah, I doubt that. But yeah, this is a fine soccer game. I haven't played it very much, but it has obvious quality for its genre. Play is reasonably quick, and the game's fun. There's also a new indoor soccer mode, if you want to play in a smaller, wood-floor arena with hard walls, so the ball will bounce off instead of stopping for a throw-in. Fun stuff. Also on Genesis; other versions of FIFA '97 were available on GB, PS1, PC, and Saturn.
[I have Final Fantasy IV for PSP and Final Fantasy V and FF VI for GBA, so I have little interest in the original SNES cartridges. I'm not a fan of the series, for the most part, and have never found either game interesting enough to get very far in; in FFVI I stopped playing after a few hours in the one time I seriously tried to play it because I just wasn't very interested, and FFIV isn't better, for sure. I did get a good length into FFV for the GBA, but stopped playing at this one boss I couldn't beat without grinding, something I of course hate (hard fire or something boss in that metal ship), but I got that far at least, and found it somewhat fun, so I guess I like that the most of the three. I don't really like Square-style RPG menus, or their focus on "two lines of characters jump out and hit eachother" battle systems, though. Give me something more interesting like Lunar's menus and combat any day.]
Final Fight 2 - Two player. While the first Final Fight game on SNES gets all of the attention (note: get that game on Sega CD, not SNES), these sequels are far better games in many respects. This series never was anywhere near as good as Sega's Streets of Rage, but it is a decent beat 'em up franchise that's moderately fun to play. Though it's no Streets of Rage this game is better in several ways than the first Final Fight at least, with more moves, more characters than the previous SNES Final Fight game(s) (there are three: Haggar, and new characters Maki, and Carlos), and multiplayer that actually exists, Final Fights 2 and 3 are your better buys for SNES Final Fight action. Both games are SNES-exclusive titles, as well, not arcade ports; oddly enough, even though the original arcade game was a huge hit,its sequels were only on SNES, and aren't quite as well known as the original. In terms of gameplay, Final Fight 2 is similar to the original game, except, again, there are three characters this time. One is female, too; it's not all-male, like the first game. Maki, the female character, would later reappear in Capcom vs SNK 2. Final Fight 2 is a simple beat 'em up, like most of Capcom's that generation: you walk to the right, and hit guys as they appear. There are more moves here than the first game, but don't expect much in the way of complex level designs here; it's pretty much just new backdrops while you walk right, as with the original Final Fight. I prefer beat 'em ups to have more interesting level designs, as you'll find in, say, TMNT III on NES, or Golden Axe on Genesis. Final Fight 2 is not as good as those games, but still, it is a simple, enjoyable game that's well worth playing if you like the genre.
Final Fight 3 - Two player. A later SNES release from late 1995/early 1996, Final Fight 3 isn't always cheap. I was lucky to find a very cheap, complete copy, but it's worth a bit more than that anyway, though I highly doubt that I'd pay the ebay complete-copy price. Still, this game is well worth having. While for the most part Final Fight 3 is similar to the first two, it's improved enough that this probably is the best of the series this generation. There are four playable characters this time, including returnees Haggar and Guy, and new characters Lucia and Dean, so there's one more choice than before. I think Lucia's more interesting than Maki, probably, but she hasn't reappeared anywhere I think. But this game isn't just new level designs and new characters -- it's also got new moves. You see, this time the characters all have fighting game-syle move lists, all of which are listed in the manual (or online). Pulling off fighitng game moves while playing a beat 'em up can be tricky, but it's a cool option to have, and it's nice to have more variety than the usual punch, kick, jumpkick, maybe throw, and that's about it fighting game move list. Final Fight 2 had some of this, but this third game adds even more, and even has super moves and a super meter too, quite uniquely for this genre. Level designs are slightly more interesting here too, though Capcom still sticks to its usual "walk to the right on the lower part of the screen" style, without the more involved level designs you find in Streets of Rage or Golden Axe. Too bad. Even so, this is a good game. This game is by far the best of the three Final Fight games, and it's under-rated. It might even be better than the first Streets of Rage, though the second one's better than this of course. The arcade original may get all of the attention, but its SNES sequels deserve more than they get, and with more moves and better level designs, this game exceeds the original for sure. Just make sure to read up on the moves, and make use of them! It really adds to the game when you do.
First Samurai - One player (No saving, but there are level-select cheatcodes). First Samurai is a European platformer, and it was one of the earlier platformers that I got for the SNES. The game has a sequel, though it was on the Genesis, has gameplay changes, and was only released in Europe. This game, however, is a fairly conventional consolized Euro-platformer. It's not one of the most confusing and difficult Euro-platformers out there, and is definitely fun, but ...