SNES Favorite 75

[Friday]

Hello, age 4, lists, Air Bud, have you ever been mountain biking.

I actually started this project a week ago with the intention of doing a SNES top 100, but in the end it turned out that I simply had not played enough SNES games to make a top 100.

Don't get me wrong, I've played over 100 SNES games, but not long enough for some of them to really feel qualified to give a fair assessment. The only exception to this is Killer Instinct for SNES, which I played a ton of, but I'm leaving off anyway because it's an arcade port of a fighting game and I only ever played it single player vs the CPU. As fighting games as not really built for single player, I don't consider that I have *played* KI as it was intended to be played by the devs.

So, also, I already did a top 100 favorite games thread, in which 28 games for the SNES appeared. I'll be getting those 28 out of the way first, because I want to be consistent! So really this is just 47 new games to talk about.

Here are the rules that I decided on for a game to appear on this list:

1. The game must originate on the SNES, or at least in that era, like an arcade or Genesis port. That means Super Mario All Stars and Ninja Gaiden Trilogy and the DQ3 remake are out, but Earthworm Jim is in. This is a fairly arbitrary rule and I could have gone the other way, but by excluding them I feel the list is "purer" because like, I already reviewed Mario 3 and Ninja Gaiden and DQ3 on my top games ever list.

2. I must have played the game enough to give a fair review. I don't have to have beaten it, but let's say, 6 hours or beaten it. For this reason, a lot of games that you might think deserve to be on this list won't be, simply because I either have never played them or only briefly. As an example, I have played Donkey Kong Country 3, but only for like an hour. I didn't make it out of the first world.

3. However, an exception may be made even if I have never played the game if I feel I have experienced the game well enough to review it. I did this with Suikoden 2 and Persona 4 on my top 100 all time games, because I read the whole LP here on the boards for Suikoden 2 and I've watched a full LP and all the anime for Persona 4. This will only apply to one game on this list, though. We'll get to it.

4. The criteria for a game's ranking here is favorite, not best. As such, I will not be allowing the general opinion of a game to affect my ranking. It's very easy to rank a game higher or lower based on what you know most people think of it. I will not be doing that to the best of my ability here. As I am rating games on how much I like them, I allow myself any and all reasons. Some games I might like even if mechanically they're trash based solely on the atmosphere or music or mood. Shadowrun is an excellent example of that. The controls are clunky, the combat is garbage, and the graphics are merely okay. But it's got such goddamn style and mood that I love it to death anyway.

5. As with my top 100 list, I do not believe it is possible to really rank games that precisely. The difference between 62 and 61 is so tiny as to be basically nonexistent. So as before, I will be doing tiers, where each game grouped in a given tier is basically considered roughly the same quality/liked by me roughly the same. Due to a smaller pool, I'll be doing tiers of 5 rather than 10, with 2 leftover at the very bottom as the worst SNES games I have played. Not to say these two are completely without merit, but yeah. I'll explain when I talk about them.

So let's get to it!

[Friday]

First up, let's briefly recap the 28 SNES games that appeared on my top 100 games of all time list. I'll be putting in a very brief review, but only a few sentences at most. I have also preserved the original tiers, as I still believe that is a better way to rank things than insisting that number 3 is better than number 4.

GOAT TIER
1. A Link to the Past

SSS++ TIER
2. Earthbound
3. Final Fantasy 6
4. Final Fantasy 4
5. Super Metroid

SSS+ TIER
6. Shadowrun
7. Yoshi's Island
8. Super Mario RPG
9. Chrono Trigger
10. Lufia 2

SSS TIER
11. Mega Man X
12. Super Mario World

SS TIER
13. Super Punch Out!!
14. Another World/Out of this World

S TIER
15. Secret of Mana
16. Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen

A+ TIER
17. Terranigma
18. Demon's Crest

A TIER
19. 7th Saga
20. Metal Warriors
21. Final Fight Guy
22. Contra III

A- TIER
23. ActRaiser
24. Super Castlevania IV
25. Ultima VI: The False Prophet
26. Wild Guns
27. Blackthorne
28. Zombies Ate My Neighbors

1. A Link to the Past: The definitive Zelda game. At number 5 on my all time, I consider this game to be the gold standard not only for Zelda but for game design in general.

2. Earthbound: What is there to say about Earthbound? It's weird, it's funny, it's emotional, it's great. People tend to write this game off sometimes for just being weird for weirdness sake but there's a very solid story with themes and shit here.

3. Final Fantasy 6: Aside from Tactics, the best Final Fantasy overall. It's held back by horrible combat mechanics and balance though. But Opera Scene.

4. Final Fantasy 4: Worse in every way except combat compared to 6. Still, solid. The combat is perhaps the best outside of Tactics.

5. Super Metroid: Hoo boy Super Metroid. You know why this game is this high. I actually don't like the controls, considering them overly sensitive and somewhat finicky, but even that isn't enough to hold this game back from everything it does right. Spawned a whole goddamn genre. Well, sort of. I guess Metroid 1 is the real original. Whoops I mean Rygar, which beat it by a few months. Hahaha yeah that's right, the next time someone argues with you about what game truly originated the Metroidvania, tell them we should all be calling that genre Rygarvanias. It's probably not accruate as I'm sure as usual there's some Atari or Commadore whatever that some nerd will inform me was the true first Metroidvania game, but Rygar is still more accurate than Metroid. Anyway Super Metroid did it the best and originated the automap, which was the final component that the genre needed.

6. Shadowrun: It's got style it's got grace, it's got a dog controlling your destiny. In my opinion, this game needs a full rework more than any other game on the SNES. Imagine this game with good combat and a good user interface and controls.

7. Yoshi's Island: Massively underrated in my opinion. I consider this the best Mario game ever made. I guess people really just hate the crying sfx that much.

8. Super Mario RPG: This game is a fucking miracle. Hilarious as fuck. Seriously, this game rules.

9. Chrono Trigger: Overrated in my opinion, but only slightly. Most people put this game up there on par with A Link to the Past, or even higher. It certainly was massively ahead of its time in terms of mechanics, and the combat is fun. But I dunno. Something about it has always bothered me. I think it's the lack of really any interesting characters outside of Magus. As much as I love Ayla, she's not exactly a well rounded character.

10. Lufia 2: You can tell how much I like this game based on how I put it in the same fucking tier as CT. It's inferior to CT in pretty much every measurable way, and yet I just love the simple charm is has. Also, the focus on puzzle solving is actually really fun and is legit something Lufia 2 has that CT lacks.

11. Mega Man X: Absolutely the best Megaman game ever made. Megaman 2 is a close second. I put this and MMX4 in the same tier in the previous thread, but only because I am 10,000% gay for Zero.

12. Super Mario World: One of the classic Mario games. Not really much to say here. Creative, fun, solid.

13. Super Punch Out!!: I greatly prefer this to the NES version, and I'm not really sure why. It's just a super fun game with a lot of depth. I guess you could say it's almost like a Dark Souls Boss Rush game. Learn everyone's telegraphs until you're good enough to say "actually Super Punch Out is easy".

14. Another World/Out of this World: Similar to Shadowrun, this game has sort of lackluster mechanics (they're not as bad as Shadowrun though) but its atmosphere and story (show don't tell) make up for it.

15. Secret of Mana: Another game with terrible combat and awesome everything else. I maintain this is an average game but a fantastic experience. I love the graphical style more than like almost any other game to this day.

16. Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen: My favorite game that I will never play again. I really should check out Tactics Ogre one of these days.

17. Terranigma: I feel like this game would have been up there with Super Metroid if it just had had more budget. A few balance problems in the late mid game aside, the combat is great. The story and themes are unique and powerful. I almost feel like I should reevaluate this game and rank it higher now that I'm thinking about it again, but oh well.

18. Demon's Crest: Speaking of unique games, holy crap. Gothic and amazing. The only reason really it's this low is how slowly you move and the action is. I shit you not, if everything was sped up by like 20% I'd probably rank this a lot higher. It just feels really sluggish.

19. 7th Saga: Sigh. Why am I like this

20. Metal Warriors: Fucking love this game. And I'm not even a mecha person. That's how good this game is. The two player 1v1 fighting mode fucking rules, and that's just a bonus.

21. Final Fight Guy: I love the original Final Fight and this version allows me to play my favorite character. One thing I have always noticed was how much better the sfx are in this game, even compared to the sequels. I still haven't found a beat em up that has as satisfying a punch noise. You really feel the bones crunch.

22. Contra III: I rate this lower than most people because I feel like it's almost a Treasure game. I want more levels like the first level, just solid run and gun platforming. Everything after that feels like a gimmick stage or a boss rush. It's still absolutely an all time great though.

23. ActRaiser: Actraiser might be another game along with Terranigma that on reflection should have been rated higher. I've really grown to appreciate it over the years. I just recently put in another playthrough and it's amazing how well it holds up.

24. Super Castlevania IV: Castlevania, but not ball-bustingly hard. So what if subweapons are less useful? It's still a great example of game design. I prefer CV3 to this, but this ain't a NES thread. Greatest Castlevania on the SNES for sure.

25. Ultima VI: The False Prophet: I maintain that this game is good despite the low reception it got. There's something about how detailed each NPC is and how little the world cares about you. You really feel like this is a living breathing world and not just a game that only exists around you. 95% of all the text in this game is completely irrelevant, but that's how a real quest would be, yeah?

26. Wild Guns: Love the graphics and the gameplay. If the movement and aiming was better, i'd put this up a lot higher. Still, a game that reaches for the stars and mostly hits.

27. Blackthorne: Press Y to shoot behind you without looking. Useless but a perfect example of how this game gets by on style over substance. The substance ain't bad either. The surprise final boss remains one of my all time favorite encounters in a video game.

28. Zombies Ate My Neighbors: Hard as balls and goofy to boot. This game is pure insanity in a good way. Best played with a friend. Don't bother with passwords. You'll need every weapon you've gathered over the course of the game to win.

All right! Next time, we start at the bottom, at 75. I know, it's a bit weird, because the "number one" on my list is actually going to be 29. Well, 29, 30, 31, 32, and 33. But hey, it is what it is, and this way we get to talk about some games that don't get the level of attention that the normal "bests" do.

[Niku]

I learned recently via YouTube recommendations that someone did a fucking Zombies Ate My Neighbors Doom TC that is just, exactly ZAMN but in first person and it fucking rules.

also of all the characters to say aren't well rounded we're going with ayla

[nosimpleway]

Ayla is surprisingly wise for a caveperson. She's the tribe chief, after all. It's just that all her profundity is filtered through her verbal tics into "Fight and live. Lose and die. Rule of life. No change rule."

[nosimpleway]

"Though we have not known her long, Leene understands. Children grow up, and as they grow into their own people, they forge their own paths in their lives. Even if you find yourself driven to argue with the king, he is still your father. The love that bonds family together is inviolable, despite the hardships we face day to day. Perhaps this is something you must be a mother yourself to understand..."
Ayla looks at Marle's boobs, because this is Japanese media, and wryly comments "...but it seems you're not quite ready to be a mother yet."

Dactyl grow old, leave nest.

[Thad]

I'll go to bat for Frog and Robo. Sure, they're tropes, but they get decent shading and character arcs. Not like...
...oh.
Oh hell.
It's just the female characters who are thinly-sketched, isn't it.

I mean, them and Silent Bob, obviously.

[sei]

Metal Warriors looked cool, but I could never get into it.

Notable games not listed yet:
- Breath of Fire series
- DKC series
- Dragon Quest 4-5
- E.V.O. (Thank you for the guide to, uh... I forget if it was R^2 or Newbie who had one on GameFAQs.)
- Final Fantasy V (i thought id seymour buttz in the list hur hur)
- F-Zero
- Illusion of Gaia & Soul Blazer (though Terranigma is on there)
- Mario Kart
- Romancing SaGa 3
- Seiken Densetsu 3
- Star Ocean
- Street Fighter 2 (Turbo or whatever version. Granted, fighting games really require a social element to be worth fucking with, and it has limited replay value 20 years later. Its impact was really significant at the time, though. Same for Mortal Kombat 2. Maybe also Killer Instinct. The OG SF2 felt like it kicked off a real revolution having that kind of arcade experience at home, though.)
- Super Bomberman series
- Tetris Attack
- Uniracers (More of a maybe, but it felt pretty unique.)

Curious to see where some of those land.

[nosimpleway]

- E.V.O. (Thank you for the guide to, uh... I forget if it was R^2 or Newbie who had one on GameFAQs.)

It was me. Turns out it was the precursor to that other thing I did for a while where I'd play a shitton of a video game and then talk about it a lot.

[Mongrel]

Star... fox?

Is there something I'm not noticing about why no one mentioned it yet?

It was literally the game that got us to ask our folks for a SNES.

[sei]

Star... fox?

I thought about mentioning it because of the 3D gimmick and how the IP had legs with Nintendo, but at the end of the day I just didn't enjoy the game all that much*. It's definitely more notable than Uniracers though, so that's a definite notable omission that I missed.

Played and enjoyed UN Squadron, though, and I didn't list it above.

* Also it was responsible for that Starfox Adventures bullshit on Gamecube.

[beatbandito]

I missed snes in its time and didn't come back around until emulators in the 2000s, so I mostly know the big names and a few small weird ones that ended up on my hard drive. The only standout not already mentioned:

Magical Pop'n: still what I think of instead of popful mail. Very fun for someone who started with Kirby games, and along with Bunny Must Die one of my first experiences thinking I should be embarrassed about something I enjoyed.

[Thad]

The OG SF2 felt like it kicked off a real revolution having that kind of arcade experience at home, though.

It definitely did. It wasn't an arcade-perfect experience but it was really the first time a contemporary arcade game got a console port that was close enough that the differences were inconsequential. (Aside from the controls, but obviously that's going to be an issue with any game that's designed for a controller that's different from a standard console pad.)

[Friday]

75. J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I



Did you watch/listen to that video? There. You've now experienced the best part of LoTR Vol. 1.

So, here's the thing. I played this game way, waaay more than it deserved because I am just that gay for Tolkien. It's a slow, unfun slog through endless featureless mazes. The combat is awful, the AI that controls your other party members is laughably horrible, and the whole game just reeks of bad design choices.

It is quite commonly listed as one of the worst games on the system. And I mean, I certainly would not recommend anyone play this ever, even if you were a diehard Tolkien fan like me.

However.

There's a few tiny nuggets of merit to be found here. I do enjoy how insanely large the world is, and how you don't have a map. It makes the player feel lost and alone, which, well, that's how the Hobbits really felt when they left the Shire. Some of the ambient bgm, especially the windswept plains bgm that plays when you're in the barrow downs, legitimately invokes a feeling of utter isolation and desolation.

It's just, it turns out that deliberately invoking emotions that make the player feel alone and desolate isn't really fun. Combine that with terrible combat, AI that constantly gets your party killed (and all death is perma-death) and slooooow movement and you end up with a game that just cannot really be saved. I put it on the very bottom of my list for a reason.

On the other hand, I don't regret playing it. It's not the worst game on the system, because it's still better than broken bullshit like Battletoads in Battlemaniacs, which is so fundamentally buggy and slipshod that it hardly even qualifies as a game. At least LotR is playable.

Do I recommend this game:
No. It might be worth it if you're an aspiring game dev just as an example of what not to do, though.

[Friday]

74. ActRaiser2



Ah, how the mighty have fallen.

Remember how I said the only thing holding Demon's Crest back from true greatness was how sluggish the movement and combat was? Yeah. Imagine if the whole game was worse and also it was even more sluggish.

For some reason, ActRaiser's devs decided that after the massive success of their first game, they should make the sequel be a strict action game only. To this day that remains one of the most puzzling design choices I've ever seen. Why would you purposefully gut the whole thing that made your first game so interesting and unique?

As far as graphics goes, ActRaiser 2 is actually very beautiful. Some of the most detailed spritework and backgrounds on the system, in fact. The sound and music are fine, even good.

But the combat is just so unfun. Slow is the name of the game. Combine that with a brutal difficulty, like seriously we're talking one of the hardest games on the system, and you end up with a game that just has hardly anything going for it. Hard games can be great if the combat is good, or games with bad combat can be great if they have other stuff going for them and they're easy enough to get through despite the combat being bad, but ActRaiser2 falls right smack dab into the place you really don't want to be. The player is given nothing. Just an endless parade of impossible stages and bosses while you struggle to sllllloooowwwllly move out of the way of enemies and enemy projectiles.

Like, okay. Imagine Megaman X, but without the dash. And also five times as hard. That's about what ActRaiser2 is.

Do I recommend this game:
Hard no. The graphics were impressive for the time, and still hold up, but that's about the only thing this game has going for it.

[nosimpleway]

Star... fox?

CAN'T LET YOU DO THAT, STAR FOX

[Friday]

Okay, that's the two worst SNES games I feel qualified to review. We now rank up a tier to "not completely awful." Hurray!

73. Lufia and the Fortress of Doom



Do you like this music theme? I fucking hope so, because you're going to be spending 90% of your playtime listening to it.

Lufia 1 is as bad as Lufia 2 is good. When someone says "bog standard JRPG" my mind goes straight to Lufia 1. An endless series of fetch quests, boring flat dungeons with nothing interesting to find in them, and fucking

encounter

after

encounter

after

encounter.

Seriously, this game's encounter rate is just bonkers. I have actually never finished this game because I just can't fucking take it. Me, the glutton for punishment. And you gotta fucking kill em all, because you will need that exp and gold to progress. The game ain't easy.

The characters are also boring and flat. The overall story is fairly interesting, with the Sinistrals and all, but the moment to moment story is just "some asshole in some town wants you to do some bullshit fetch quest so you can move on to the next asshole in the next town."

I've heard people defend this game but, like, why? There's just so many better JRPGs on the system, including it's vastly superior sequel. The best thing I'll say for it is that it does what it sets out to do.

Do I recommend this game:
No. If you're a huge fan of retro JRPGs and you have literally played every other JRPG from the 80s and 90s, then maybe. But that's it.

[Friday]

72. Drakkhen



"The storyline for the SNES game is the result of a broken translation and rewrite of the original, as well as lack of supplemental stories. Drakkhen was developed by a French team, which was then translated into Japanese for the Super Famicom, which was then translated to English and further rewritten with help from the original French developers. To exemplify the telephone effect of all this, the original game contained a French translation of an Emily Dickinson poem as quoted by a mysterious wizard, and that French translation of an English poem was then translated further into Japanese for the Super Famicom version, and then translated again back into English from Japanese. The version of the Dickinson poem that survived into the SNES version of the game is almost unrecognizable and difficult to comprehend."

Welcome to Drakkhen, a glorious mess of a game.

Where Lufia 1 sucks because it aimed for the ground and fucking hit it dead on, Drakkhen sucks because it aimed for the fucking Andromeda Galaxy and landed in a pile of mud before sliding into a swamp.

Fully 3D first person game world? Check. You can go anywhere in the world as soon as you boot up the game? Check. Tactical combat? Check. The stars come alive and fucking send massive terrifying dragons down to earth to kill you? Check. Bumping into random statues summons horrible panther demon heads to shoot lasers at you? Check.



My fucking shadow person sleep paralysis demon shows up to kill you? Check.

Notable for being the first RPG released for the SNES, Drakkhen is one of those games that must be seen to be believed. You won't know what the fuck is happening the whole time and the UI is equally obtuse and unfriendly. Your first experience with this game will most likely be walking into a puddle and drowning.

I'll say this for Drakkhen: it's memorable.

Do I recommend this game:
Actually, yeah. But not as a game, really. More of a spectacle to marvel at for a few hours or minutes before moving on with your life. What a glorious oddity.

[Friday]

71. Mega Man Soccer



I'll be honest with you guys. I played this game so long ago that I hardly remember anything about it. But, I do remember that it was kinda fun!

It's soccer but with all your favorite Megaman characters/bosses! Each has a themed special move!

I dunno, as ridiculous as the concept is, I think it's kinda cool as just a stupid mascot sports game. Spoilers, I don't like sports games and I think this might be the only one on this whole list. Unless racing counts as a sport, of course. FORESHADOWING

Do I recommend this game:
It's been so long that I can't really say. I should probably have booted it up and gave it a half hour, but I'm lazy. Anyway, I do remember it being fun in a goofy way.

[Thad]

If I'm going to play a 16-bit console RPG I've never played before...well, first choice is that I should really finish Earthbound.

But after Earthbound...maybe Lunar 2?

But Lufia 2's on the list.

So are the first two Breath of Fire games, though I'd go with hacks on those.

[Thad]

71. Mega Man Soccer

I'll be honest with you guys. I played this game so long ago that I hardly remember anything about it. But, I do remember that it was kinda fun!

It's soccer but with all your favorite Megaman characters/bosses! Each has a themed special move!

I dunno, as ridiculous as the concept is, I think it's kinda cool as just a stupid mascot sports game. Spoilers, I don't like sports games and I think this might be the only one on this whole list. Unless racing counts as a sport, of course. FORESHADOWING

Do I recommend this game:
It's been so long that I can't really say. I should probably have booted it up and gave it a half hour, but I'm lazy. Anyway, I do remember it being fun in a goofy way.

My copy is missing. It's the only SNES game in my collection I couldn't find when I went through them all a few years back.

I played through the whole damn thing. It's weirdly unfinished. There's no ending, and the sound test has several tunes that aren't in the game, like the Mega Man 2 Wily Castle intro music.