SNES games that have aged well?

[KWKBOX]

We recently played Star Fox and had a great time. We think this game has aged well and still holds up today. What games do you think have aged well for the SNES and still enjoy today?

[Flojomojo]

Wow, I don't think SNES Starfox holds up nearly as well as the better 2D games on the system. That game has a nice unique orchestral soundtrack and I always like flat shaded polygons, but it's letterboxed on four sides and runs at a low frame rate.

Pretty much any Nintendo-published title holds up well today though. There's. I thing that equals Super Mario World, Pilotwings, or the first F-Zero. It's amazing to remember that these were launch games.

[KWKBOX]

Wow, I don't think SNES Starfox holds up nearly as well as the better 2D games on the system. That game has a nice unique orchestral soundtrack and I always like flat shaded polygons, but it's letterboxed on four sides and runs at a low frame rate.

Pretty much any Nintendo-published title holds up well today though. There's. I thing that equals Super Mario World, Pilotwings, or the first F-Zero. It's amazing to remember that these were launch games.

Launch games usually age well because the focus was to show what the system had to offer for better sales. I understand your Star Fox gripes but I am blinded by nostalgia and they never bother me when I play it.

[celerystalker]

Too many to name, really. A large majority of SNES games are good and competent. A few favorites:

Earthbound
Super Metroid
Super Mario World
Final Fantasy III
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
The Illusion of Gaia
Soul Blazer
Pop'n Twinbee
Pocky & Rocky
Super Mario Kart
F-Zero
Super Bomberman 2
NBA Jam
Gussun Oyoyo
Super Castlevania IV
Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts
Magic Sword
King of Dragons
TMNT IV: Turtles in Time
Sunset Riders
Street Fighter II Turbo
Super Variable Geo
Super Nazo Puyo
Super Mario RPG
Contra III: The Alien Wars
Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose
FIFA International Soccer
Super Baseball 2020
Super Baseball Simulator 1.000
Battle Dodgeball
Kishin Korinden Oni
Biker Mice from Mars
Mario & Wario

I'll stop there, but seriously, too many 16-bit games represent quality design and/or refinement to list all of them.

[Tanooki]

You know I don't even need to watch that video to agree. The reason it holds up well is that you can look back upon it as a game of the period, but also because the way they did it had this neat artistic value to the polygonal models and how they clashed with the sprites, mumbling talking heads and text, and the rest. The framerate isn't as terrible as people make it out to be, the ships fly smoothly and the stages don't stutter and sputter, it works. You combine the quality of the varying stages, tight controls, and the very nice sound track and it's a winner.

I can concede though given that polygonal look it could turn some off who would turn their nose to it given being more used to textured polygons and the rest (like Star Fox 2 even has) and later 32bit systems. In that case one would only have to look towards the other 1st party 1st year titles, even the launch trio of Mario, Pilotwings, and F-Zero and they hold up insanely well even being nearly 25 years old. They were made with such love and care, and given the capabilities of the system hardware, they have this level of quality to them that is common place among tablet games, indie productions, and download games even on consoles made now so they don't feel dated in the least bit. SNES lucked into that window where they put so much into the colors (256 on screen of 32K total), transparencies, scaling and rotation, plus the 33khz near CD (44khz) quality audio output with emphasis on music/sfx being sample based it stays relevant with the times.

By the way going by your comments as I had it in the background. % is only based on knocked down targets, you really do need to barrel roll a lot more, and that core, you can go on either side to have it turning towards you as you hit those 3 targets. The 1UP you get from those red/gray/blue gates which all 3 have to be shot, then flown through. And to repair the wings, you need the twin blaster pick up as it's also a repair, and if you had kept the blaster, a 2nd pick up makes the shots round and do heavy damage.

[Gentlegamer]

What won't age well is cross posting topics at different forums to fish for content for your youtube channel.

[Tanooki]

That's why you don't subscribe and definitely only answer to it here and not on youtube so some credit builds up over it with posts and thumb counts going up.

[celerystalker]

I never watch the videos, but I do like to talk about games. Not once have I clicked the links, though.

[Tanooki]

I rarely click, but I did on that one and I hate to say but it was pretty painful to watch. You'd think after the first stage or two you'd get that you can't just fly around incoming fire that you need to 'do a barrel roll!' to survive, but no, that didn't happen, a lot, and finally ended up running out of lives due to it.

Also the middle row is considered easy, then the next two on the outside, one is medium, the other is considered hard.

[Flojomojo]

What won't age well is cross posting topics at different forums to fish for content for your youtube channel.

, what a lame thing to do!

[bb_hood]

What won't age well is cross posting topics at different forums to fish for content for your youtube channel.

Yeah, its pretty obvious who is here to talk about games and who is here to promote their youtube videos.
KWKBOX should post his videos in the 'videogame demonstration video' thread at the top of the forums like everybody else does. Creating a new topic for every video aint foolin anybody.

[Steven]

What won't age well is cross posting topics at different forums to fish for content for your youtube channel.

Haha, ouch. Yeah I saw his posting of this on another board as well. I don't mind, as people are free to do what they like... hopefully as long as it's tasteful. In this case... meh. I'll reserve judgment for now one way or another.

To answer the question, as I did elsewhere, pretty much most games have aged well on SNES. It's another reason why it's so awesome. The majority of the games hold up as well today as they did 20-25 years ago.

You're much better off asking "what HASN'T aged so well?" because the list would be much shorter.

[Alianger]

That's kind of funny seeing as SF is one of the games I'd really like to see remade in higher res and with a higher framerate. It still plays OK in emulation though since the framerate is a bit better there, and the mechanics and level design are of course still good.

Anyway, plenty of SNES games still hold up well to me. It's easier to list the ones that didn't.

Super Metroid
Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island, Super Mario All-Stars
Chrono Trigger
Earthbound, Final Fantasy V & VI, Lufia II - If random encounters bother you, there are GG codes to remove them at will
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - Only minor complaint from me is that it's more linear and less challenging than the first one
Terranigma
The Illusion of Gaia - The translation's a bit of a mess though, and the pacing can get slow with several long dungeons in a row
Soul Blazer - Just a tad repetitive and with some esoteric elements here and there
Pop'n Twinbee
Pocky & Rocky
Super Bomberman 3 & 5 (IIRC 2 and 4 are somewhat disappointing with some odd design decisions and missing features)
Super Castlevania IV
Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts - Might want to play it on PS1 or Saturn instead though to remove the slowdown, which there's a lot of
TMNT IV: Turtles in Time - Great port, only missing the 3/4 player modes and with a couple fewer sprites on screen at any one time
Street Fighter II Turbo
Super Mario RPG
Contra III: The Alien Wars - Only the rotating top down levels didn't hold up too well, and it is a bit short.
Battle Dodgeball
Super Puyo Puyo 2
Super Aleste
UN Squadron
R-Type III, Macross - These are really hard though
Mega Man X 1-3 - 3 has fairly tedious levels though until you learn how to deal with enemies quickly, and 1 and 2 both have pretty frustrating final bosses
Rock 'n Roll Racing
Biker Mice from Mars - It's no fun having to wait after a crash but it's almost as good as R'nR racing
Front Mission: Gun Hazard - Starts off a bit slow but stick with it, it's and awesome blend off FF-like story and customization heavy mech action
Secret of Mana, Secret of Evermore - I recommend getting the fan made mods/hacks for these for CD music (SoM), better balance (both), and 2-player (SoE)
Hamelin no Violin Tamaki
Wild Guns
Ninja Warriors

I see a couple of not so great ones mentioned so I'll comment on those as well.
Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose - Sonic clone with overly large sprites, odd control quirks and a lot of trial & error.
King of Dragons - Not bad but you might as well play one of the D&D beat 'em ups or Golden Axe 2 Arcade instead.
Super Mario Kart, F-Zero - The pixelation is pretty severe, everything's flat looking and turning feels awkward
Final Fantasy IV - The GBA game has a better battle system and translation, some bug fixes and you can mod it to restore the music quality
Super R-Type, Gradius III - Slowdown and unforgiving mechanics

[kupomogli]

Final Fantasy IV - The GBA game has a better battle system and translation

The GBA game is garbage. There are multiple issues with the game. The US and Japanese version despite as many bugs as they have still aren't as bad as the PAL version. The PAL version fixed some framerate issues and some bugs the original GBA versions had, others that aren't as frequent, but the button latency is ridiculous. I'd take the SNES version over the GBA version any day. The PSX version of FF4 though is technically the superior version what with it being the original Japanese release. FF4 has the rare bug where the music from battle comes in a second late, but the loading times are actually superior to the SNES version. FF5, FF6, and Chrono Trigger have worse load times, but not FF4.

The PSP version is the best version of FF4 though. It has all the content the GBA version has and none of the bugs, no button latency, etc, on top of the extremely well done graphical updates of the dungeons, world, and monsters. The sprites could have been better, but not a major issue. The only problem that it does carry over from the GBA release is the speed of the monsters at the beginning of the game. For some reason one of the edits to the GBA version was a reduced speed of the monsters early in the game. The beginning of the game was easy enough, but with this change it was even easier, and this was carried over to the PSP.

For those that are fans of FF4 though and would like a hard mode. Get Final Fantasy 4 DS. Now the menu system in combat is pretty bad, the graphics suck, each single block in the first game is now increased to around 10-20 times the size due to the 3D environment which wouldn't be bad if not for the high encounter rate and the fact that the devs felt the need to zoom the game all the way so you saw like maybe 10 feet around the character(basically a little more than the size of one block in the original SNES environment. With all the issues that it does have, the stuff it brings to the game are nice. Enemies have different AI, do more damage, have higher HP, etc. There's a lot of gameplay aspects that people don't take advantage of in FF4 but for people who know what spells and status effects work well, it makes FF4DS a lot more manageable in difficulty. Also you can customize each character with special abilities, allowing characters to double cast, counterattack, auto potion, use special skills they wouldn't be able to otherwise, etc. There's no additional content after the end game like the GBA version had, but what's added still makes it worthwhile.

[Tanooki]

I'd take the DS version last of FF4 if for no reason other than the fact they turned it into a crappy game of simon says with the battles on bosses and random certain few monsters in longer dungeons. You attack out of turn, you attack the wrong way, attack with the wrong person, it automatically has 1 if not all monsters in a party to fire off some death blow attack that will finish the game then and there and that's beyond cheap and annoying. FF4 up until that point was about either exploiting weakness or whittling an enemy down in a fight, and then it got stupid cheap and FF4 is my favorite of the line of titles yet I refuse to even touch that mess. The android/ios version supposedly made it somewhat less cheap but it still is present.

I don't see the problems with the GBA game though and the translation is sound, but I really don't think complaining about a second of latency before making an action from a button press is hardly worth complaining about. Legitimately though I think it's fair to ding the PS1 release with the broken mode7 effects throughout and the save/load routines being painfully slow and annoying. Mind you all this nitpicking isn't really fair as this is a SNES thread, not a which version of FF4 sucks the most thread.


That said since we're taking this serious while attacking the starter of the topic for trolling for youtube hits, the point about the SNES on the whole is sound. Alianger brought up a fine list of games. I could throw some more in the mix that shouldn't be missed, though in the case of SOM I don't feel talking about hacks is fair as that game is stunning on its own including the ports it has had by Square to mobile platforms. That one has aged like a nice fine wine.

If we're keeping Japanese stuff in the mix too, the trilogy of Parodius titles are a big must, and if you're not gamer elitist about a little slowdown Gradius III is stunning too. Also from Japan the 2nd Goemon game is amazing, kills the one we got hands down, and also in the vein of anime stuff DBZ Super Butoden 2 and Zenki are amazing games that should be tried out.

As far as others...
ActRaiser
F-Zero
Pilotwings
Donkey Kong Country trilogy
Street Fighter Alpha 2 (nuts this even works)
Disney's Aladdin (and others like Lion King)
Magical Quest Starring Mickey MOuse (and the sequel Great Circus Mystery)
Final Fight 2 and 3
Indiana Jones Greatest Adventures
King of Dragons
Kirby Super Star
Kirbys Dream Land 3 (both kirby's are a must)
Ninja Gaiden Trilogy (basic coloring, but aged well still)
Ogre Battle March of the Black Queen
Sid Meier's Civilization (w/mouse)
Sim City (may look basic but looks good still)
Sunset Riders
Super Punchout

I think that works, trying not to copy other lists here. All these have aged well and still stand up by todays standards of quality.

[Aussie2B]

I don't believe in the concept of games "aging" in the first place, as any game is the same today as it was the day it was released, but in terms of SNES games that younger/modern gamers would most likely be able to enjoy, I think Star Fox is just about at the bottom of the heap. I mean, it's a fun and perfectly playable game, in fact I played through it for the first time myself just a few years ago, but I think a lot of people would have a hard time accepting the low frame rate, low polygon count, and flat shading. 2D games may seem old school too, but I think more people are accustomed to them these days, like with indie games, mobile games, handheld games, what have you, than rudimentary 3D games.

[BlastProcessing402]

I'd rather look at Vectrex games than Star Fox 1.

[Alianger]

The GBA game is garbage. There are multiple issues with the game. The US and Japanese version despite as many bugs as they have still aren't as bad as the PAL version. The PAL version fixed some framerate issues and some bugs the original GBA versions had, others that aren't as frequent, but the button latency is ridiculous. I'd take the SNES version over the GBA version any day. The PSX version of FF4 though is technically the superior version what with it being the original Japanese release. FF4 has the rare bug where the music from battle comes in a second late, but the loading times are actually superior to the SNES version. FF5, FF6, and Chrono Trigger have worse load times, but not FF4.

The PSP version is the best version of FF4 though. It has all the content the GBA version has and none of the bugs, no button latency, etc, on top of the extremely well done graphical updates of the dungeons, world, and monsters. The sprites could have been better, but not a major issue. The only problem that it does carry over from the GBA release is the speed of the monsters at the beginning of the game. For some reason one of the edits to the GBA version was a reduced speed of the monsters early in the game. The beginning of the game was easy enough, but with this change it was even easier, and this was carried over to the PSP.

Huh, well I've only tried the GBA ver. briefly so far and mainly went on what I've read about it so you're probably right. I'm not sure I agree about the visuals of the PSP version being the best, it kind of loses that simplistic and uniform charm the previous ones had and looks more like an iPhone game. Anyway, sounds like we agree about the US released SNES version not having aged all that well though.

[Gentlegamer]

Huh, I played GBA FFIV and I didn't notice anything wrong with it. I thought it was cool how it had a "post-game" dungeon you could play with different parties.

[Tanooki]

The GBA one, as with any, it comes down to not the actual facts people list which are opinion, but just how they prefer the experience on one system over another. The GBA release is pretty solid as far as all the versions go since the original and it did add some nice content and a really solid translation with a few side jokes back to the old stuff (like the spoony bard bit.)