Tag Archives: console

Super Nintendo Week

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

Super Nintendo Week 01

Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Super Nintendo

This brilliant single and multi-player overhead shooter by LucasArts is a parody of every single horror and sci-fi film you’ve ever seen.

Chainsaws, zombies, UFOs, mummies, werewolves, demonic babies, spiders, shopping malls – you name it, the game will throw it at you during at least one of its 48 different stages.

Continue reading Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Super Nintendo

Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO, XBox

The “EO” part of Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO means: “Easy Operation”. Basically, this is the same game as the classic arcade beat ’em up of 2001, but with controls better suited to a gamepad. So, rather than hitting buttons to perform special attacks, you can now move the right analogue stick in a certain direction to activate them instead.

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EarthBound, Super Nintendo

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.

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EarthBound Zero, NES

This classic NES game was initially released in Japan in 1989 under the title of Mother.

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King Arthur’s World, Super Nintendo

Argonaut Software‘s 1992 release (through Jaleco) – King Arthur’s World – is an interesting and challenging real time action game with strategic overtones.

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Mr. Gimmick, NES/Famicom

Known as Gimmick! in Japan and Mr. Gimmick everywhere else, this 1992 release was an attempt by Sunsoft to push the graphical powers of the Nintendo Entertainment System further than they’d ever been pushed before (in order to compete with the Super Nintendo, which was relatively new on the market).

In order to do this, Sunsoft used all kinds of clever programming techniques using graphical tilesets and colours, and the end result is very striking. But it wasn’t enough to compete with the newer consoles of the time and Mr. Gimmick sank without a trace, into relative obscurity.

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Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium, Megadrive/Genesis

For my money: THE best game on the Sega Megadrive/Genesis.

Sega‘s very own level-grinding RPG franchise comes to full fruition in this fourth instalment of the Phantasy Star series, first released in 1993.

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Phantasy Star, Sega Master System

For me: THE stand-out title on the Sega Master System.

Phantasy Star is a solid – if rather basic – level-grinding RPG/adventure, and it went on to spawn a whole series of other games afterwards.

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Super Aleste, Super Nintendo

The ‘daddy’ of Super NES shooters (in my opinion), Compile’s 1992 masterpiece Super Aleste made waves on consoles, and around the world.

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