Tag Archives: Nintendo

Dragon Warrior, NES

Developed by Chunsoft and released for the Famicom by Enix in 1986, Dragon Quest was a landmark moment in video game history.

Dragon Warrior is the American NES release of Dragon Quest, translated into English and tweaked here and there (I say “tweaked here and there” but the US version had battery back-up saves and the Japanese version used password saves, so there was a big difference there), and released by Nintendo in 1989. These grabs are from the later North American English language release.

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Excitebike, NES

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.

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Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite!, Game Boy Color

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.

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F-Zero, Super Nintendo

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.

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Super Mario Kart, Super Nintendo

I would argue that the original 1992 Super Mario Kart on the SNES is still the greatest Mario Kart game of all time.

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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

Astro Boy: Omega Factor, Game Boy Advance

Astro Boy: Omega Factor is a fun and visually spectacular scrolling beat ’em up on the Nintendo Game Boy Advance.

The game was created by famous Japanese development house, Treasure – in association with Hitmaker – and was published by Sega in 2003.

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Adventures of Lolo 3, NES

HAL Laboratory‘s Adventures of Lolo 3 is a fantastic, cute and extremely playable puzzle game, first released for the Nintendo Famicom in Japan in 1991 (actually December 26th 1990, but we’ll say 1991).

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Mother 3, Game Boy Advance

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.

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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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