Top 10 Super Nintendo Titles

[kitsunebi]

I'm not making a list, since for the most part I find that I no longer enjoy console games from this time period nearly as much as I did when I was a kid, but I am shocked...SHOCKED...at how under-represented Yoshi's Island is on this thread.  Did everyone who excluded it from their list simply never play it?  I fail to see how it wouldn't make everyone's top 10, especially given how many people put Super Mario World on there.

[te72]

There were over 700 titles released for the SNES, and you expect me to be able to pick just TEN? Heathens, the lot of you!

 

Kidding aside, I honestly couldn't do it. Top 30, maybe, since most of my friends had the SNES, while I was one of maybe two or three that had the Genesis... I played a lot of SNES.

 

Kitsenubi makes a good point, Yoshi's Island is a fantastic game, very colorful, solid gameplay, and quite inventive with the graphical tricks they employed. Worth noting that it came out in 1996, well into PS1 and N64 hype, so it's probably a case of bad timing.

[dc2142]

Super Mario RPG

Super Mario World

Donkey Kong Country 2

Legend Of Zelda Link To The Past

Final Fantasy 2 

Final Fantasy 3 

Chrono Trigger

Earthbound

Street Fighter 2 Turbo

Breath Of Fire

 

I could probably put about 30 other games in there (including Yoshi's Island) but those are probably the 10 I played the most.  

[twiztor]

I am shocked...SHOCKED...at how under-represented Yoshi's Island is on this thread.  Did everyone who excluded it from their list simply never play it?  I fail to see how it wouldn't make everyone's top 10, especially given how many people put Super Mario World on there.

 

i, personally, have never played it. have heard lots of praise but never knew anybody that owned it.

[shinobi33]

My favorite SNES games are (not in particular order):

 

Super Metroid

Super Castlevania 4

Contra 3

Final Fantasy 3

Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past

Super Street Fighter 2 - New Challengers

Mortal Kombat 2

Killer Instinct

Secret of Mana

Super Mario RPG

[aloram]

Worth noting that it came out in 1996, well into PS1 and N64 hype, so it's probably a case of bad timing.

 

It came out in 1995.

[kitsunebi]

Whenever it came out doesn't change the fact that it's possibly the best platformer ever designed.  Certainly the best 2D platformer.  It's got more creativity in its little finger than (fill in the blank) does in its entire yadda yadda.  I look back fondly on lots of games that in all honesty contained large amounts of monotony (helloooo every JRPG ever!)  But Yoshi's Island is fresh from start to finish and is simply a joy to play.  It should be required playing for all students of gaming history.

[christian]

my top 10 list games of super famicom 

 

1. Zelda III ( ゼルダの伝説 神々のトライフォース )
2. Super Mario World ( スーパーマリオワールド )
3. Super Ghouls'n Ghosts ( 超魔界村 )
4. Chrono Trigger ( クロノ・トリガー )
5. Live A Live (ライブ・ア・ライブ ) 
6. Super Castlevania IV ( 悪魔城ドラキュラ )

7. Final Fantasy IV (ファイナルファンタジーIV )
8. Final Fantasy VI (ファイナルファンタジーVI )
9. Final Fantasy V (ファイナルファンタジーV )
10. Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem ( ファイアーエムブレム　紋章の謎 )

[te72]

It came out in 1995.

My mistake, I was thinking Super Mario RPG, that one came out in 1996.

 

Whenever it came out doesn't change the fact that it's possibly the best platformer ever designed.  Certainly the best 2D platformer.  It's got more creativity in its little finger than (fill in the blank) does in its entire yadda yadda.  I look back fondly on lots of games that in all honesty contained large amounts of monotony (helloooo every JRPG ever!)  But Yoshi's Island is fresh from start to finish and is simply a joy to play.  It should be required playing for all students of gaming history.

I can't disagree there. Shame Nintendo just HAD to go into the 3d world, imagine what they could have made using the N64 hardware, in a 2d game? It's not like the system (or the PS1) were overflowing with 2d games, which is unfortunate, as some of the very best 2d games were on the PS1...

[kitsunebi]

I can't disagree there. Shame Nintendo just HAD to go into the 3d world, imagine what they could have made using the N64 hardware, in a 2d game? It's not like the system (or the PS1) were overflowing with 2d games, which is unfortunate, as some of the very best 2d games were on the PS1...

 

Although the 32/64-bit gen's push for 3D at all costs resulted in a lot of terrible games (I still have nightmares about giant jaggy Playstation polys), I think Mario 64 was the right move for Nintendo at the time and it's a fantastic game in its own right.  Its creativity stemmed from the move into a 3D environment and it was executed extremely well for something that was still very new, technology-wise.  But Yoshi's Island was a completely different kind of creativity, in that they were creating something that people had ostensibly seen a million times before (a 2D platformer) on hardware where everyone had already seen most of what it could offer, and yet everything from graphics to level design seemed new and clever in such a way that going back afterwards and playing older classics like Super Mario World seems dull in comparison.

[te72]

Well said, Nintendo's first party titles were usually great. Rare also knocked it out of the park on the N64, my personal favorite being Blast Corps. If you look back though, on games of that era (say, 1995-2000), I would argue that the 2d titles have aged significantly better. Even games of the same series, for example:

-Castlevania

-Mario

-Zelda

 

Just a few examples, but I notice a trend there. All those started life as 2d games. A game like Resident Evil, for example, would not have worked nearly as well in 2d. Ridge Racer, same story. Metal Gear Solid, in so many ways similar to Metal Gear 2 (MSX), yet MGS was a better game in every way. Perhaps I just lean toward the simplicity of 2d, perhaps early 3d was just ahead of its time on the technology front...

 

You know what though? I think a Yoshi's Island in 3d might have worked, on the basis of Rare's work on the Banjo and DK games on the N64. Probably would have been better off waiting for the Gamecube though, to give it the graphical edge that Yoshi games should have.

[greenfoot2001]

All of these lists are pretty good top tens.

[danielgfm]

1. Chrono Trigger

2. Final Fantasy VI

3. Contra III

4. Rock 'n Roll Racing

5. Actraiser

6. Cybernator

7. Super Mario World

8. F-Zero

9. Top Gear

10. International SuperStar Soccer

[RetroDefense]

You're lucky I was able to stop at ten.   Such a great system, the SNES.  Probably my favorite system, actually, when only considering domestic releases.

• Super Metroid
• Starfox
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time
• Donkey Kong Country
• Super Mario World
• Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
• Super Mario All-Stars
• Contra III: The Alien Wars
• F-Zero
• Final Fantasy II (aka IV)

My honorable mentions list would probably run 30-40 titles, easy.

[GameReader]

1 Super Mario All Stars + SMW

2 Starfox

3 Actraiser

4 TMNT IV

5 Super EDF

6 Wild Guns

7 Zelda ALttP

8 Super SF2

9 Final Fight 2

10 DKC