Nintendo‘s fun motocross racing game on the NES, Excitebike, was designed by legendary Nintendo game designer Shigeru Miyamoto.
Excitebike was a launch title for both the Japanese and American release of the Nintendo Entertainment System video game console, in 1984 and 1985 respectively.
Hamtaro is a series of video games based on a successful anime series for kids.
Ham-Hams Unite! is the first game in the series to receive an official English translation.
F-Zero is an extremely fast and memorable futuristic racing game from the early days of the Super Nintendo. 1990 to be precise.
F-Zero – and Super Mario World – were the only two games available for the SNES on the day of its launch in Japan.
I would argue that the original 1992 Super Mario Kart on the SNES is still the greatest Mario Kart game of all time.
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES for short) was first released in Japan as the Super Famicom in 1990.
After the success of the NES, any follow-up console from Nintendo would really have to be “super” to keep the ball rolling, and the SNES certainly was just that.
Countless great video games were released for the Super Nintendo and the system stands out in retro gaming history as something unique and powerful – compared to what had gone before it.
We’re spoiled now. Modern consoles can render a hundred thousand polygons in an instant. But back in 1990 you were lucky if you got hardware sprites and smooth-scrolling backgrounds. Thankfully the Super Nintendo had all of that. And it had “Mode 7” too – a now legendary graphics technique that allowed flat textures to move around in 3D space. Later on it had a special chip, called the Super FX Chip, that gave it more power and better 3D graphics capabilities.
The Super Nintendo played host to thousands of games overall, and a percentage have gone down in video gaming history as some of the best ever. The allure of the Super Nintendo is still strong. Be that in real hardware, which is still quite easy to get hold of, or via the magic of emulation.
This week I’m going to be celebrating the brilliance of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System by adding a collection of grabs from great SNES games. Well, ones that we haven’t featured already, anyway. 🙂
Here’s a list of links to what was published that week:
Addams Family Values,
Super Mario Kart,
International Superstar Soccer Deluxe,
Sim Ant,
F-Zero,
Dungeon Master,
E.V.O.: Search For Eden,
The Lost Vikings,
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles In Time,
Super Bomberman,
Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals,
Krusty’s Super Fun House,
Pocky & Rocky,
Smash TV
Click here to list all the Super Nintendo games we’ve featured so far.
Enjoy!
The King of Grabs
The third and final game in the Mother series, Mother 3, was released in Japan only in 2006 for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance.
Nintendo published the game, with development by Brownie Brown and HAL Laboratory – directed by Nobuyuki Inhoue and written by series creator Shigesato Itoi.
This 1994 cult classic Super Nintendo level-grinder was originally titled “Mother 2” in its native Japan – later changed in English-speaking territories to EarthBound.
This was due to the fact that no one outside of Japan had seen the first Mother (released in 1989 on the NES) and the bigwigs at Nintendo of America worried that it might confuse people.
I’m going to use the Japanese and North American name for this game – Star Fox – rather than the European name (Star Wing, which was chosen because the name “Star Fox” was apparently too similar to a German company called “StarVox”!).
Which came first? Oracle of Seasons or Oracle of Ages? The answer: neither. They were both released at exactly the same time (February 2001), and both games are companion pieces to each other.
Continue reading The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons, Game Boy Color
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages was released as a twin title with The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons for the Game Boy Color in 2001.
Both games were developed simultaneously by Flagship (a division of Capcom) and both games are essentially companion pieces that can be played separately, or linked, so that what you do in one affects what happens in the other.
Continue reading The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages, Game Boy Color
The King of Grabs 