The Super Nintendo Entertainment System was the golden goose of 90s-era gaming, the king of 16-bits, the last man standing in the fourth-generation console war. It was a big deal, to put it mildly.
TheSNESshowed us the pinnacle of what 2D games were capable of at the time, far more advanced than its sibling, the NES, and more focused and efficient than the mildly awkward transition to 3D that would come after.
10 Underrated SNES Games You Need To Play
The SNES had a massive library, with a more than a few games that may have gone beneath your notice.
It was on the SNES that many beloved classics were born into the world, games that were not just wildly successful in their time, but maintained enduring appeal even decades later. Not every game that was released on the SNES is still up to today’s standards of gameplay norms and quality of life, but a select few are still just as fun to play as they were all those years ago.
That’s probably why the SNES Classic sold out immediately and ferociously, come to think of it. Anyway, whether you’re hankering for a classic or just want something fun in general, these games still maintain their exquisite vintage.
10Super Metroid
The Gold Standard Of Its Genre
Super Metroid
Do you know why the name for nonlinear 2D platformers with wide-open exploration is called “Metroidvania?” Half of the equation is Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, but the other half isSuper Metroid. It wasn’t the first game in the Metroid series, but boy howdy did it ever set the standard for the series, and an entire newborn genre, going forward.
Compared to other action platformers on the SNES, Super Metroid’s lack of linearity is a massive outlier. There are no levels to conquer, merely areas to explore and secrets to uncover at your own pace. It was a new kind of freedom for its time, one that both encouraged systematic adventuring and, in a select few, single-minded pursuit of speedrunning perfection.
I’ve been obsessed with Metroidvania games for a good chunk of my life, and I lay the blame for that almost exclusively at Super Metroid’s proverbial feet. All these years later,its mechanics and progression are still borderline pristine, to the point that even some new Metroidvania games still can’t step to it.
9Chrono Trigger
A Timeless Tale, Literally
Chrono Trigger
Square Enix, formerly just Square, has always had two tentpole JRPG franchises: Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. In 1995, Square decided to throw a Hail Mary by combining the creative powers of both series creators, alongside the timeless artwork of the late Akira Toriyama. The result wasChrono Trigger, a JRPG that remains largely in a class of its own.
Chrono Trigger cribs a bit from both Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, stylistically, resulting in a story, setting, and characters that are equal parts traditional sword and sorcery and charmingly tongue-in-cheek.
Your lovable cast is full of traditional JRPG tropes on a quest to save the world, but the setting is vibrant, colorful, and even funny at times, thanks in no small part to Toriyama’s artwork. It was this lighthearted tone that helped make the game’s serious moments all the heavier.
To this day, the sentence “but the future refused to change” still sends a chill down my spine. Frankly, it’s kind of remarkablewe’ve never gotten a modern remake of Chrono Trigger, just upscaled ports. If one ever manifests, I know I’d cough up for it.
8Super Mario RPG
One Of The Most Accessible JRPGs
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Speaking of Square, the JRPG giant wasn’t opposed to an occasional bit of experimentation in its SNES heyday. One particularly ambitious creation was the aptly-namedSuper Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, which brought the plumber into a genre that, at the time, he had never even set foot near.
If you’ve got a friend or relative who’s curious about the JRPG genre, Super Mario RPG remainsone of the absolute best games to introduce them to it. In addition to the inherent recognizability of Mario and his associated characters, the game is far less technically dense than other JRPGs released around this time. Stats are less complicated to manage, and the action command system helps keep you engaged in a fight.
I remember in the advertising for the 2023 Switch remake, the game was billed as an accessible RPG experience, and that still holds true. Though, as much as I enjoyed that remake, the original will always have a special place in my heart for getting me into one of my favorite genres.
7Super Mario World
Put A Spin On It
Super Mario World
Every Nintendo console needs its patron Mario game, a straightforward platformer to make you want to buy the console, preferably in a bundle. For the SNES, that game was also one of its all-time bestsellers:Super Mario World.
Super Mario World wasn’t just another Mario platformer, although it was an excellent example of that. It was also a showcase of everything the SNES was capable of as a console, from parallax scrolling to Mode 7 rendering. To play Super Mario World today is to crack open a time capsule of console hardware and experience the wonders of the 2D pinnacle all over again.
For its time, Super Mario World was also very accessible. Where the original Super Mario Bros. needed to be finished in one sitting, Super Mario World could be saved and suspended for later.
I can’t even begin to explain to you my palpable relief the first time I realized I didn’t have to finish the entire game in one go, especially considering how big this game actually is.
6Yoshi’s Island
Bright, Colorful, Creative
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island
The interesting thing about truly classic video games is that, even if it’s not a universally positive experience, everyone who played it is united in their feelings about both the good and bad. For example, most everyone loves Yoshi’s Island, even if we all absolutely despise the sound of Baby Mario crying.
Compared to the mainline Mario games, Yoshi’s Island is a much slower, more methodical experience, giving you more time to properly revel in its colorful and creative levels and backdrops. It’s that very particular style of pastel that remains timeless no matter how far graphical technology advances.
Since it’s a slower game, it’s also a little more user-friendly. For as much as I liked playing Mario games in my youth, Yoshi’s Island was the game to play when I wanted to relax a little more. At least until the crying started. I am sincerely glad that the crying sound has never appeared in another game, and hope it never will ever again.
5Super Punch-Out
The Ideal Blend Of Spectacle And Mechanics
Super Punch-Out!!
It still saddens me how under-represented Punch-Out is amongst Nintendo’s many franchises, because I love all three of its entries.Super Punch-Out, in particular, actually represents some of my very earliest gaming memories, with a vague, yet fond recollection of watching someone fight Mad Clown, of all opponents.
Compared to the NES original, Super Punch Out is a slightly more technical game, placing a greater emphasis on blocking and building up momentum. The boxers and their patterns are also a lot more distinct from one another (despite most of them being palette swaps), with nearly every boxer having some manner of unique attack or tactic.
Super Punch-Out’s Secret Multiplayer Would’ve Been a Great ‘Invasion’ Mode
Every game could use a little invadin'
If there’s one thing I love about Super Punch Out, it’s that visceral sense of satisfaction you get after finally making a breakthrough and seeing through an opponent’s patterns. Once you’ve finally got their number and go all Ultra Instinct on them, it makes the accumulated sweat and losses all worth it, every time.
4The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past
Positively Massive For Its Time
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
The original Legend of Zelda duology on the NES were great games for their time, but due to design limitations, they were kind of hard to wrap your head around. By contrast, the SNES’ patron Zelda game,A Link to the Past, is equal parts massive and cohesive, something you weren’t getting a lot of back then.
While modern game worlds are proportionally much larger these days,every individual screen of A Link to the Pastfelt like it belonged there.
Even if you were just scrolling maps, manually trekking across the entirety of Hyrule made the game feel appropriately gigantic, with secrets to find around every corner. This also carried over into dungeon design, with several classic dungeons that both delight and frustrate to this day.
To put it another way, A Link to the Past felt like the first Zelda game I could reasonably pick up and play on its own. This is as opposed to the NES games, which I tried to play without reading an instruction manual and got hopelessly lost in.
3Street Fighter 2
The First True Fighting Game
Street Fighter 2
Obviously,Street Fighter 2is not the first fighting game ever made. It’s not even the first Street Fighter game. Why, then, is the game still held up to this day as genre royalty? That’s simple: it’s the game that canonized many of the trappings of the Street Fighter franchise, not to mention fighting games as a whole.
Street Fighter 2 was one of the very first fighting games to utilize a combo system, which, as the legend goes, came about due to a design accident. Due to a quirk in the timing of hits, you could string attacks together into a cohesive combo that prevents your opponent from escaping or fighting back. Every combo string-based fighting game to release afterward has Street Fighter 2 to thank for it.
Something I personally appreciate about the SNES version of Street Fighter 2 is that it taught me the basics of D-pad inputs. I remember the first time I pulled off a Hadouken by accident, I was wide-eyed and fascinated. Those inputs have remained consistent throughout the entirety of fighting game history.
2Donkey Kong Country 2
Brilliantly Punishing
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest
Themodern Donkey Kong Country games, for a given degree of “modern” considering when they actually launched, are fairly accessible, player-friendly experiences. But what if that’s not what you’re actually looking for? Some games are best remembered for being punishing, andDonkey Kong Country 2is one of them.
Donkey Kong Country 2 elevates the mechanics introduced in the original game, like jumping and throwing stuff, and mixes in a variety of new levels, secrets, and powerups. It’s also hair-pullingly difficult, but less in an artificial way and more in a proper way. It’s hard because it was designed to be hard, rather than because it was designed poorly.
Streamers still play Donkey Kong Country 2 to test their platforming skills, often resulting in a not-insignificant amount of screaming. But that’s what makes this game fun – I had plenty of crashout-inducing fails when I first played it, but when you finally make those jumps, it tastes all the sweeter for it.
1Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time
The Sleepover Classic
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time
Any 90s kid worth their pizza knows just how huge theTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtleswere in that era. You couldn’t look in any direction without spottingat least one iteration of the lean, green teens. I think a major contributing factor to that was the franchise’s enduring presence in the gaming scene, and especially games like Turtles in Time.
While Turtles in Time was originally released for arcades, the SNES port has actually managed to gain quite a dedicated following all its own.
While you may’t play it with all four players, the overall experience is much tighter, properly rebalanced for a home console instead of a quarter-munching arcade machine. It’s a beat ‘em up you could conceivably beat in an afternoon, which is not something all of them can claim.
Even putting all the technical stuff aside, though, it’s just a baseline excellent sidescrolling beat ‘em up, and still one of the best ones on the SNES. I have more than my fair share of fond memories playing it on sunny afternoons with friends. I always picked Michelangelo.
10 Best SNES JRPGs, Ranked
There’s a reason why SNES is often considered the golden age for JRPGs.
