Hottest SNES Game (Ro64)

[Brantly B.]

I VOTED FOR FIRST-PARTY NINTENDO PROPERTIES HOW NOVEL

[Mothra]

Gradius III needs some serious love. That game is a delight.

[Büge]

Also, Yuzo Koshiro.

I forgot how masterful the original BGM was for Actraiser. They hardly needed to tinker with it for the symphonic version!

[Friday]

Advancing: LttP, Can't let you do that, Actraiser
Eliminated: Gradius III, Actraiser

Next up:

56. Robotrek
15. F-Zero
64. Sparkster
47. Breath of Fire

[Classic]

Is Sparkster one of those "definitive" platformers? I feel like it might be.
But I'm mediocre JRPG trash, so Breath of Fire and Slapstick it is.

[Rico]

Robotrek may be the game I most want remade ever. So many great, relatively underused concepts all through that game that are almost well-implemented.Curve the difficulty a little better, smooth out some of the mechanics and it could really go from good to one of the best.

Oh, and FALCON PUNCH

[Niku]

I have a real hard-on for inferior initial entries into SNES RPG series that I can't properly explain. I am inordinately fond of the original Breath of Fire despite it really not being all that good. Sparkster I don't think I ever played; only the Genesis Rocket Knight Adventures. I've also never been especially into F-zero. It's an alright enough mode 7 racer, but it's missing some of the bells and whistles of similar racers that I enjoy more due to its contribution mostly being the creation of the genre. Robotrek is pretty much what Rico said, a not great game that is brimming with creativity and fun.

Robotrek and Breath of Fire.

[Friday]

Advancing: F-Zero, Breath of Fire
Eliminated: Sparkster, Robotrek

Next up:

62. Pocky And Rocky 2
41. Sim City
58. Sunset Riders
4. Final Fantasy 2

[Esperath]

two groups after this, with SMW, FF3, SoM, and MMX to go. group of death inc

[Classic]

Pocky and Rocky is the series that eternally got away from me. The one that I always really wanted to like, but never quite craved enough to own or master by repeated rentals. Always kind of upset about that.

FF2(or maybe 4?) was my gateway into the torrid, plodding world of JRPGs. So... I feel obligated to vote for it, even though I think the original SNES version is the weakest incarnation of the game.

Also, simcity because I am a boring person.

[Niku]

Let's go ahead and add Pocky and Rocky 2 to the list of SNES game series where I loved the first one and then never so much as touched the sequel until emulation happened. That being the case, Pocky and Rocky 2 never grabbed me the way that the first one did. Sunset Riders is super fun and brings us the pinkest poncho in the West, but I don't think it quite stacks up to SimCity (the SNES version of which is my personal definitive version of the game, get out of here with your isometric 2000s and whatnot) or Final Fantasy 2. FF2 isn't my favorite game in the series by a long shot, and up against the first Pocky and Rocky I probably would have let it go, but it's still a solid, good time.

Also because

[Esperath]

Sunset Riders.

[Niku]

shit

that's a really good case

[Kishi]

Sunset Riders is good in any form, but unlike Turtles in Time, the SNES port doesn't have anything to make up for the loss of four-player and the hit to graphics and audio from the arcade version. My non-obvious (obvious being FFIV) vote goes to Pocky & Rocky 2, which is also great co-op fun and oozing with charm besides.

[pacobird]

First round I've participated in and I'm already wasting my vote by going for the two games tied in 2nd.

There was a time before the Tales games made superdeformed animes giving maudlin speeches about HOPE and FRIENDSHIP as they commit genocide to level up a running joke when FF2 represented a huge leap in storytelling that's hard to really grasp if you weren't playing RPGs in the 80s. In Dragon Warrior, you schlep all over the place to get the Staff of Rain and Stones of Sunlight because that's how you get the Rainbow Drop, duh. In FF2, you go to the Antlion Den to get the Sand Ruby because the hero's lover is dying. The game has a narrative flow where everything you do has a reason, and no matter how much flak JRPGs catch for their linearity the fact remains that it's really difficult to sustain that...emotional tenor for 30-40 hours of game. FF2 (and 3, for which it's a dry run) is a game people have been trying and failing to recreate for 20 years.

Sunset Riders has hasta la bye-bye goty all years

[Büge]

There was a time before the Tales games made superdeformed animes giving maudlin speeches about HOPE and FRIENDSHIP as they commit genocide to level up a running joke when FF2 represented a huge leap in storytelling that's hard to really grasp if you weren't playing RPGs in the 80s. In Dragon Warrior, you schlep all over the place to get the Staff of Rain and Stones of Sunlight because that's how you get the Rainbow Drop, duh. In FF2, you go to the Antlion Den to get the Sand Ruby because the hero's lover is dying. The game has a narrative flow where everything you do has a reason, and no matter how much flak JRPGs catch for their linearity the fact remains that it's really difficult to sustain that...emotional tenor for 30-40 hours of game. FF2 (and 3, for which it's a dry run) is a game people have been trying and failing to recreate for 20 years.

Thank you! I think Final Fantasy 2 represented the first exposure for a plot-based RPG with actual characters and not just ciphers jammed into four slots for a great deal of people on this side of the Pacific (I'm sure there were PC games that beat it to the punch, like some unwinnable AD&D abomination). Cecil and Kain were friends with a history, and the story made you want to believe that Kain was under Golbez's control when he kidnapped Rosa. As you say, there was emotional weight that hadn't been seen before in a console RPG here.

[LaserBeing]

The amount of lasting, probably irreparable damage Final Fantasy II did to my mental landscape cannot be understated.

Also I refuse to vote for the SNES port of Sunset Riders because we live in the age of MAME and there is absolutely no reason you should ever want to play the clunky-ass console port, and not just because they censored the hookers

[Friday]

SimCity puts up a surprising amount of fight, at one point being in the lead 7-5, but in the end, Sunset Riders and FF2 both beat it out, 9 to 8, with Pocky coming in a distant 4th.

Advancing: Bury me with my money, Lovin' Girls, Lovin' Girls
Eliminated: Pocky and Rocky 2, YOU CAN'T CUT BACK ON FUNDING YOU WILL REGRET THIS

ok so thats not actually a quote from the original SimCity w/e

Next up:

42. The Lost Vikings
52. Lost Vikings 2
2. Super Mario World
9. Mega Man X

[Niku]

Well it's a real shame to knock out all six vikings this early. If you need to be educated on why The Lost Vikings games are SO FUCKING GOOD then you should be firing up your SNES emulator of choice right now. But as good as they are, they are not One Of The Best Games In Their Respective Franchise (well, technically they are the best games in their shut up) and Super Mario World and Mega Man X are the obvious choices that I have to go with over the amount of joy they both have given me.

[pacobird]

I feel like we don't acknowledge just how huge SMW was by contemporary standards, and the controls are unbelievably responsive and tight, better than most platformers today. You could never, ever have a Kaizo Sonic.

I have to give the second one to Lost Vikings. To say MMX is just a Megaman game isn't really fair and it would clear anything other than the platformer group of death, but Lost Vikings was interested in trying something fairly new and succeeded beyond what you'd expect for a simple proof of concept.