I am sure by now you have seen countless Top Ten articles and may be asking yourself why read another one? With Super Nintendo I could have easily filled up the list with the best games available like Super Mario World, Super Metroid, or even Donkey Kong Country. But how many times have you read that before? Boring. So what I have done is put together some of my favorite SNES games that could have possibly went under the radar. Enjoy
These are in no particular order
Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage
I remember the first time I set my eyes on the Maximum Carnage cartridge. I was standing at the counter of Book & Music Exchange trying to figure out what to spend my store credit on. Those days it was actually worth giving up old games due to the 2 for 1 trade in system. I never got an allowance, so trading in games that I was “done with” was the only source of income I had around that time. It was then that I noticed the blood-red cartridge in all it’s mystery. SNES – Check Red Cartridge – Check Spiderman – Check These were all of the elements needed to make a masterpiece, and what a masterpiece it was. With a rockin’ soundtrack by Green Jelly, The ability to play as both Spiderman and Venom, and a pretty high difficulty; there was a lot of replay value in this one for me.
Sim City
1991 was the year I was introduced to Sim City. I don’t remember what exactly lured me to this game in the first place, but once I took over the mayor’s office I never looked back. This game was just about as robust as they came. It featured all of the features that the PC version had, however it added a few new elements that would be later found in SimCity 2000. Since this was on a Nintendo console, there were also a few unique elements like Bowser attacking your city or a statue of Mario being earned. It was this version that sold me on the series and sparked an interest that would carry on for years.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time
My favorite cartoon when I was a kid was The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I wasn’t just a fan, I think my love for the turtles were close to being obsessive. I had just about every action figure (which I still have), all of the movies, posters, trading cards, I even begged my parents to buy me the Ninja Turtle Fruit Pies. Yes, they made those. (If you want more info on these, I found this site.) It was only natural that I made my way to play Turtles in Time. This quickly became one of my favorite SNES games.
This entry features the ability to play as any of the four turtles, ride on hoverboards (which became extremely cool after Back to the Future 2), and battle through time fighting a countless number of foot soldiers. This is a no brainer for anyone who is a fan of either beat’em ups or The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Wing Commander
Growing up in the 80’s had a lot of perks. One of which was enjoying a time when Top Gun was actually cool. Yeah I said it. But this was an age where Dog fighting, Val Kilmer and the term Wingman were things to be proud of. My first time playing Wing Commander seemed to really play into all of these elements. Yeah it was set in space, but with a killboard that kept real-time stats it seemed like you were always getting close to catching up with the pilot Iceman. Combine perfect timing with amazing gameplay and you get instant success.
Wing Commander was a great game not just because the space combat was a blast, but because the additions of an excellent story and stellar presentation really made it stand out from the crowd. Hell, I remember just shooting down my wingman so that I could attend their funeral. That was the cool thing about Wing Commander, you really had a sense that your choices and actions made a difference in the outcome of the story.
ActRaiser
What an interesting game this was. It was almost two separate games rolled into one. One half of the game you are floating above a world managing a civilization using “miracles” to help the population flourish, and the other half the game turns into a side scroller with you taking the reigns of a living statue battling demons. I remember renting this game over and over just to keep playing through the levels. I probably beat this game at least ten times, but it is still one of the most interesting titles I have come across.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
We all know the movie was awesome, but who would have thought the SNES game of the same name would be any good? Believe it or not this was an early example that licensed games can work well. You play as Jonathan Harker and while the game follows the film, it does so loosely. Things are slightly more exaggerated to help with the platform style gameplay. If you compare this to Super Castlevania, you will be disappointed. But if you want a fun alternative, this is a solid game that gave me hours of enjoyment.
Jammit
Jammit is quite simply a street ball game. You may ask why is this game so great? Well for starters the game is just downright fun. You play half court street basketball where the players foul, trash talk, and wager on matches. That’s right, you can bet on games in this one. There is also quite a few match types to choose from. The standard one on one match is the first to 21 points. Depending on the match type fouls and other variables come into play. The game also has another interesting feature as depicted in the screenshot above. Anytime a player goes up to the rim, you get a zoomed in view. This is still interactive and by today’s standards it may not be much, but back then it was awesome.
While my favorite basketball game for the SNES is NBA Jam TE, Jammit is a really great game that will keep you busy for quite some time. The ability to wager on games alone can add a lot of replay value if you are playing with your friends.
Rival Turf!
A poor man’s Final Fight? I think not! Ok fine, this game is just like Final Fight. I don’t know why so many beat’em ups were made for the SNES, but I am really glad they pumped them out. Rival Turf gave you the option of picking two characters. Jack Flak (a young detective) or Oozie Nelson (director of the LA police force) were the two options. They closely resembled the playable characters in Final Fight from a gameplay standpoint. There really isn’t anything that makes this game stand out to be honest. You have the ability to go into a rage mode if you take too much damage, and you can also perform the pile driver like in the above screen shot. Maybe that’s why I liked the game so much.
All of the similarities aside, Rival Turf! is one of my favorite SNES games. While it may not be completely original, there is a solid game here that can keep your palms sweaty.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
OMG! Another Beat’em up? Truth is, The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was probably one of the best games of the genre. You could pick from the five core rangers (sorry no White Ranger) each with their own move set. This was actually pretty important because a couple of the rangers had terrible attacks that could be used to increase the difficulty alone. The cool thing about this game is that you started each level as the civilian version of the character and as you reach about the halfway point….It’s Morphin Time!!! Once changed your attacks were stronger, quicker and you just looked more bad ass. Although I don’t think anything could help poor Billy.
One other really cool feature was the addition of the playable Megazord for the last few boss fights. Forget the fact that show is lame and give this one a try.
Mortal Kombat II
I know you have heard of this one, however this was hands down my favorite SNES game of all time when I was a kid. After the disappointment of Mortal Kombat 1 being censored, MKII came back with a vengeance bloodier than ever. I saved up money for months to buy this one. I remember after I had enough to buy it I asked my dad if he would go get it while I was in school. Longest school day ever! I was stressed all day on whether or not he actually came through for me. My heart wasn’t broken and MKII was on my bed when I got home from school.
The rest was history, I played this game nonstop for probably years. I beat it with every character, I would study the endings, the bios, everything that had to do with this game was my world for a big chunk of my childhood. I would watch the movie, then the animated movie, play the game, listen to the soundtrack, and put the game on two player just to do Fatalities. A lot of fond memories came from this title and if by some chance you skipped over this one, please find it and buy it. This is by far my favorite Mortal Kombat.
