Top 10 SNES Games

The SNES is the greatest console system ever created. Granted it had limitations on the graphics and the size of the games, but this only forced the designers to create stories that were truly captivating, and games that were just plain fun.  They had to push the limits of what they had. These days games are all about how real the graphics look, how much blood you can splatter, or all the other things that don’t matter. While we at OW agree that comparing these games is like comparing a Picaso to a cave painting, we ask which one was more impressive? Picasso had any color paint he wanted, stretched canvases, and didn’t have to fight for his food. The caveman had coals, berries, and had to avoid being eaten. The SNES is old, but it had some truly great games that have stood the test of time. They are continually hailed as the some of the greatest games ever made and few modern games, even with their pretty colors and 3D environments, can hold a candle to these classic titles. So here’s what we think are the best.

10. Super Punch Out! (SNES)

The progenitor to “Super Punch Out” was of course, “Mike Tyson’s Punch-out” for the NES which is one of the better games of all time in its own regard. But for all that the original offered, the Super NES version doubled in enjoyment adding more ingenious characters and circuits than the former. The playability increased more too with the controls responding seamlessly to your hand movements. All the fighters were endowed with iridescent colors and personality up the wazoo. Mad Clown was the most evil of evil clowns you have ever encountered in or outside any video game. Super Macho Man was the goofiest of bodybuilders you could ever encounter showing off his muscles at any chance he could get. Masked Muscle was so fun to look at that you actually enjoyed having to fight the nefarious Mexican heavyweight. While the personality and design of the characters were expedient for making all ages enjoy this game, it was the final boss in “Nick Bruiser” that appropriately scared the player into reconsidering the bout as Bruiser slowly walks to the middle of the ring to fight you. You hear each stomp as his boots traverse the canvass to meet Mac face to face. More additions to Super Punch Out include a time trial mode where you attempt to beat the best in the world by knocking down your opponents in record time, some fighters in 10 seconds or less like the infamous “Gabby Jay” who reminded the player of the weakness of Glass Joe. All these qualities combined to make Super Punch Out a slightly more enjoyable game than the original, and if we creating our top 100 list with this first and foremost in mind (enjoyment factor), than Super Punch Out must edge out the original, even if the original firstly brought in the great idea.

9. Illusion of Gaia

From the title screen, you hear a Wagnerian sweeping crescendo signifying an aggrandized adventure ahead. On top of that, you see a picture of the world from outer space. Yes, Illusion of Gaia was a game of world significance. You traveled the world seeking out myths that have been discovered throughout time in the real world, from Mayan culture to Chinese culture, in an investigation to the whereabouts of your journeymen father who was lost at the Tower of Babel. The story along the way is invigorating and often romantic with multiple people falling in love. You’re even cast out at sea for a prolonged period of a time with a princess who becomes stricken by the grandiose nature of the sea, where she stops becoming nagging and starts eating the fish you catch for her. Illusion of Gaia as an RPG is much more like “Zelda: Link to the Past” than a Final Fantasy three. There is no traditional experience build up and turn-taking battles, instead the protagonist “Will”, will gain experience by beating all the enemies in a room and will do so in real time fashion, something much preferred for adventure game players than the former style. Throughout the adventure, you have the option of changing into different warriors like “Friedman” and “Shadow” who you need to use to get past specific areas in the game. The towns are filled with a varied cast of interesting people who all are informed by their indigenous cultural “memes” that help you with information to pass on to new areas, and give you a sense of a Romanized world-view, that you will remember past completing this game. Illusion of Gaia is often overlooked within the great games in RPG history. This is a mistake as the story line and game play are absolutely superlative.

8. Super Mario World

Super Mario World was one of the first games developed for the SNES, and showed off all the new advantages of a 16 bit system. Bosses would fly at your screen taking up the whole screen, 3D imagery stood out from the world map showing much more depth in graphic technology at the time, and worlds were larger with more memory in the cartridges for the new system. Super Mario World utilized all these extras in the jump from 8 Bit to 16 bit. Super Mario World for SNES was mostly like Mario 3 for Nintendo, except there were even more hidden areas to uncover and much more radiant looking enemies to contend with. This game had a style and entertainment value of its own distinguished from previous Mario’s. Yoshi was a great new addition, as you could ride him around and gulp enemies Tony Robins style, along with spewing out fireballs in a quicker fashion than Mario ever could. Also conspicuous in this game was the stereo imaging of the sounds and the music utilized by the new 16 bit technology that made a drastic effect of the mono-auditory technology of the 8 bit NES. Bowser was bigger and better than ever with a massive helicopter shooting projectiles at Mario from all angles. In the end, Super Mario World was another great Mario game with the additions of the new systems technology. The importance of all new Mario games on new Nintendo systems though was that none of the greatness of the original Mario was ever lost, for all the spice and progression of technology. Nintendo understands that what first and foremost makes a good game is creativity and imagination.

7. Super Mario Kart

Mario Kart for the SNES made the Nintendo market even more massive then it had already become. Being able to take all your favorite characters from old school Mario and using them on intricate race tracks proved to be one of the more enjoyable moments for the SNES. Most people picked Mario to race with because he wasn’t weak in any category specifically. Using Bowser though was for only the best racers. His weight would make it hard to accelerate, but if you could avoid obstacles his acceleration speed was the best. The music was also a strong point in Mario Kart. This soundtrack would be sought after like the best SNES RPG’s. The Mario Kart legacy would first start with this SNES game.

6. Secret of Mana

Secret of Mana is without a doubt one of the top 5 RPG’s ever created and easily in the top 10 games ever created. It was a Squaresoft RPG for SNES, meaning it was going to be one of the greatest games ever created with the kind of thought put into it that a great philosopher would put into his magnum opus. Great RPG’s have the character of reading fiction, but having absolute real-time interaction with the book your reading. Playing this game is on par with reading “the lion the witch and the wardrobe” for the first time. Right away, from the cover of the game, you could tell that this game was going to be incandescent and massive in breadth. Three heroes overlooking a massive tree in the middle of a massive forest served as the game cover. The largeness of the theme would be equaled by the actual game itself that was huge, but never ever boring. The big advantage that Secret of Mana has over other RPG’s is the multi-player action that was never found in RPG’s afterwards. You could play this game with two other people and take it on habitually with them, after school, and even on Friday nights when everyone else was gearing up for banal pseudo social hour time. It’s unbelievable to think that no other RPG afterwards utilized this power, and understood that there are groups of people who want to go on massive RPG adventures together. For some reason, the RPG theme is understood as primarily single-player. This is a mistake by the creators of these games that “Mana” cashed in on. Every single tune in this game is memorable, which makes you wonder why every single tune in new games are never memorable. Every single land in this game is filled with beautiful, distinctive themes, which makes you wonder why RPG’s on new systems, with all the new technology involved, pale in comparison to the impact of this 16 bit installment. There’s a little saying that goes “It’s not the Arrow, it’s the Indian”. This may be the best example of that maxim in gaming history. One could write about this game forever, but it’s not to be understood by what others write about it…

5. Donkey Kong Country

Rare took the Donkey Kong brand name and transformed it into one of the strongest adventure games for the 16 bit medium. In DKC, you had the freedom to move back and forth between levels and play multifarious side games. Meeting your family along the way proved to be a creative and imaginative leap for the Donkey Kong. Getting to talk to DK’s cranky grandfather or his cool surfin’ buddy gave the DK brand name pizzazz and nuanced not seen in any adventure game before, let along the Donkey Kong series. DKC was also a big leap in terms of graphics. Rare took traditional 16-bit graphics and made them into the most innovative graphics for the 16-bit era. Donkey Kong looked as colorful and animated as ever throwing barrels and pouncing on chompers. Rare took an already successful series and made it even more successful, an accolade which is recognized in our top 5 video game developers of all time.

4. Super Metroid

The only bad thing about Super Metroid for the SNES are the hand cramps you will get from playing it so much. In Super Metroid, the successor to Metroid for Nintendo and Gameboy, we see Samus back on Zebes fighting old enemies from her prior outing; Craid and Ridely are back, not to mention the plethora of new space pirates trying to get a lock of Samus’s flowing hair. The suspense of this game has been unmatched by any other. As you are about to fight Craid, the music in the room before changes to the somberness of a Beethoven Sonata, and you come across a previous journeyman being eaten up by space insects. This type of engagement with the player is often lost in the “high-tech” musings of current video game makers. Between the valence of the soundtrack and the emotional ending where “you-know-who” comes to save you, you are in for a one of the most amazing video game experiences of your life. When playing this game for the first time, know that you will never be able to play ii for the first time again…

3. Final Fantasy 3
Final Fantasy 3, yes 3, is one of the greatest RPGs ever made. We here at OW refuse to adopt the Japanese numbering order. If anything Japan should have to re-write their numbering to fit the order of release here. You see OW bleeds red white and blue. And as any true American knows we are the greatest country ever, if you don’t think so we’ll invade you and force our culture on you. Japan should truly decide whether the numbering they use is worth it or not. We’ve invaded bigger countries for less. Anyway I digress. This game is awesome, it’s one of the first games where the bad guy actually wins and it has an incredibly interesting plot. You can all but pull yourself away when you have to return to the real world.

2. Chrono Trigger

The theme music for 600.AD is perhaps the most recognized RPG theme in RPG history. Hit up Youtube now and you will find variegated renditions, from the simple piano mimicry, to obscure oboe afflatuses. This is just the music though…There’s also the game…made by “Sqauresoft”, which means it’s impossible that it wasn’t a great game. The theme of Chrono Trigger was arguably the best, most thought out idea for any RPG ever made. Taking advantage of the idea of the chronology of actual world history, you were to adventure across every span of the world’s totality, even to the “end of time” which gave you goose bumps knowing you were on the brink of timelessness. The creators of this game must have been reading Hegel before and during the development in this game, as creating a game with the theme of personally following out the logic of history, was surely an ode to Hegel’s essential philosophical insights. Philosophy aside, this game was effulgent and munificent in its delivery. The entire game, you think that the last boss is Magus, until you beat him and realize that he becomes one of the members of your party. Its here you realize how much time you spent playing this game, and how much more time you will have to spend to get at the real ending. Like all great RPG’s, this game had a series of fake endings, where you could play the game 15 hours and get a bad ending with the world being destroyed, to be completely unsatisfied in your “accomplishment” up to that point. The realization that you have more times to explore with their own massive story lines in these lands led to a feeling of grandiosity, the hallmark of all square soft games. Chrono Trigger is up there with Final Fantasy 3 and Secret of Mana as some of the best accomplishments in gaming history. It’s with this knowledge that one then wants to understand what was going on in the minds of the creators of these games. To make games like this required inspiration and muse not needed in modern game making that merely requires “sex appeal”. Video games did have a golden age. Chrono Trigger represents that golden age…

1. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

The Legend of Zelda a Link to the Past is the perfect game. Its got the unlikely hero, the pretty princess, and the evil villain and his countless minions. As well as a great story, parallel universes, side-plots and quests, a place called Death Mountain, was one of the first games that would change the character when you got new weapons/armour, a boomerang, a better boomerang, chickens, a mysterious forest, a sword in the stone, a triforce, a secret society of underwater mermen, running, fighting, jumping, puzzles, more princesses, monsters, mayhem, graveyards, secret passages, bombs, better bombs, running shoes, magical wands, a tranquil town, you can catch butterflies, fairy babes, a simple map/with tons to explore, and on and on…

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