Despite the Sega Genesis having a two-year head start in the States, theSNEScaught up in sales by releasing a steady stream of high-quality games nearly every year of the console’s lifespan, starting from 1991. The SNES started strong right away, pairing every console with Super Mario World, one of the most iconic titles in Nintendo’s gigantic library. Nintendo produced some of its best work during the SNES lifespan, but what makes the SNES one of the strongest Nintendo consoles is its strong alliance with third-party developers like Capcom, Square, and Konami.
The SNES saw a steady stream of amazing titles in genres ranging from platforming to RPGs to action-adventure. Every type of gamer had a plethora of options with the SNES, and it was only late in the console’s lifespan, when the world had moved on to the N64 and PlayStation, that the SNES couldn’t provide a variety of games for its fans.
The first year of the SNES had a ton of competitive games during its launch window, ranging from famous sequels such as Super Castlevania IV to niche classics like F-Zero and Super R-Type. However, Nintendo’s mascot was the star of the best game for the SNES that year: Super Mario World. Along with fellow Mario game Super Mario 64, Super Mario World is among thegreatest launch titles of all time.
Super Mario World introduced iconic power-ups like the superhero cape and riding Yoshi, both of which provided more mobility, durability, and new attacks. Compared to its predecessor, Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World’s world was more expansive and had a stronger emphasis on exploring and finding secrets.
The SNES kept up its momentum in the second year with popular third-party titles such as Contra III: The Alien Wars and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time. Nintendo launched Super Mario Kart, which changed the way many racing games were made. However, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was the Zelda game that fans had been longing for since 1986.
The first sequel in the Zelda series, Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link, was a 2D platformer that felt different from the bird’s-eye view of the original. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past felt like the first true sequel to the original hit for Nintendo. It improved on The Legend of Zelda with omnidirectional controls, a concrete plot, and less vague directions. A wide variety of swords, puzzles, and cinematic boss fights elevated The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and helped cement the Zelda series as a Nintendo staple.
Nintendo and its third-party allies like Konami, Capcom, and Square didn’t have many big hits in 1993. Nintendo launched Star Fox, which amazed people graphically at the time for being 3D, but it felt like a prototype as it didn’t have the smoothest gameplay. Niche RPG titles like Shadowrun, Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen, and Secret of Mana were among the higher-quality titles from this year.
There were many different games with the same name on the Genesis and SNES, and Shadowrun is a prime example. Shadowrun for the SNES was a less accurate adaptation than the Genesis RPG, as the SNES opted more for action than the text-heavy approach. Shadowrun immerses you with its cyberpunk lore and mystery-solving narrative. Compared to other Western RPGs of its time, the gameplay is more twitch-oriented, demanding that you have fast reactions to deal with ambushes from enemies.
This was the SNES’s peak year in terms of first-rate video games. Donkey Kong Country, Super Punch-Out, and Mega Man X were titles that action-oriented gamers wanted, while Final Fantasy VI satisfied RPG fans with the best entry in the series. However, similar to the Zelda series, Super Metroid felt like the true successor to the original Metroid that older NES fans had been waiting for.
No game from this era could capture the eerie vibe of exploring an isolated alien base like Super Metroid could. Super Metroid’s world felt massive, featuring some of the largest rooms in the series. In addition to perfecting the Metroidvania formula that started on the NES, Super Metroid introduced iconic power-ups like the charge beam, super missiles, and grappling hook, ensuring precise controls.
Many of the best-looking SNES games started to come out around 1995. The Donkey Kong Country and Yoshi’s Island series launched this year, dazzling fans with their use of techniques like pre-rendered graphics and Mode 7 3D graphics,but the best game that year was the best RPG on the console:
While Chrono Trigger is not as graphically impressive as the aforementioned titles, its art direction is by Akira Toriyama, who gave Chrono Trigger the same whimsical aesthetic as his hit manga, Dragonball. Chrono Trigger’s strength lies in its story, especially in how its characters consistently evolve due to their actions throughout the game. It is astonishing how many different endings and ways there are to face the final boss in an RPG that came out decades ago.
1996 – Tetris Attack
In 1996, Nintendo launched the N64 along with the influential Super Mario 64. This was the last year in which the SNES was supplied with a variety of high-quality titles like Mega Man X3 and Super Mario RPG. Tetris Attack, which is not a Tetris game but a reskinned version of Panel de Pon, ended up being the best puzzle game on the SNES.
Compared to Tetris, Tetris Attack is more fast-paced. Blocks of different colors drop, and you have to swap them horizontally to create combos of three or more of the same color. The single-player mode progresses at the perfect rate, culminating in a battle against Bowser, where your reflexes and decision-making must be at their best to defeat him on the hardest difficulty.
By 1997, most major publishers had moved on to the PlayStation or N64, but Hal Laboratories decided to launch one of their better games on the SNES. A major studio releasing a game on a platform it has years of experience with is a recipe for a good-looking game, which is exactly what Kirby’s Dream Land 3 delivers.
There is a powdery, colorful aesthetic in Kirby’s Dream Land 3 that makes it feel like you’re walking through a coloring book. The game offers co-op gameplay as you team up with Kirby’s animal buddies, like Rick and Gooey; the latter can also absorb powers and utilize them differently than Kirby.
1998 – NBA Live 98
One of the greatest years in gaming was not so great for the SNES. Only a couple of games came out in 1998 for the SNES, with NBA Live 98 beating out its competition, a port of Frogger, due to Frogger’s poor hit detection and low-quality music.
There isn’t much difference between NBA Live 98, NBA Live 97, and NBA Live 96, which can be both a good thing and a bad thing. The downside is that, ideally, sports games should add new features as the years go by. The upside is that the NBA Live series was already a good basketball game that didn’t need improvements since it introduced an isometric camera perspective. This camera angle allowed for better depth perception and was a staple in most basketball games since the 16-bit era.
