Nes vs Snes LIBRARY QUALITY CHECK

[mikeweezer80]

I have a decent amount of both nes and snes games. I want to go the whole completist route but want to concentrate on one of the systems. in your opinion, which library has more "quality" games or less of the "junk games". I know both have crap, bt basically i want to know which have less crap according to the people who own the libraries.

[joshnickerson]

I would say it's more of an opinion which has the better library. One person's good game could be another person's crap game. Personally, I think the SNES had a better good-to-bad ratio than the NES, but that's just my opinion. And if you're going for a complete collection, the SNES might be the better route anyway, since with NES you have to not only deal with hard to find standard releases, but obscure unlicensed games as well, as well as games that could cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. You don't really have that with the SNES (not YET, anyway)

[theMot]

90% of the games on those systems (and pretty much every other system) are pure crap.

[Greg2600]

SNES was a big leap in technology, rendering many of the NES titles dull by comparison. That said, I own several more NES games than I do SNES, and I could own more NES that I like and do not have. You also had more sequels to hit franchises on NES.

[SonicMegaDrive]

I actually did do a Good to Bad comparison many, many moons ago.

NES - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37987

SNES - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40287


I'm sure the guides aren't perfect and need some severe updating, but you might be able to make use of them.

[Space-Ace-13]

I own about 160 more NES than SNES games... it started out of pure nostalgia (I had a NES as a kid but never a SNES) I love the games I have on both systems, both have a lot of great titles and it really comes down to opinion. The SNES is more advanced technology, looks better, and for the most part plays better, so for the average user I would say the SNES is the way to go. I think the average SNES cart is more expensive, but as someone said earlier NES has a bunch of rarities/obscurities that are either very hard to find/very expensive or both... not to say the SNES doesn't, but I don't think it has as many.

[BlastProcessing402]

There's no way around it. If you're a completist, then you're going to be buying a lot of crap no matter which system you go with, so just think about which one has more of your favorites and follow your heart.

[theclaw]

I'd have to say SNES. Better quality consistency, easier to play Japanese games (for a US console at least). Not to mention the original NES's unusual cartridge mechanism with direct impact on playability when its flaws surface.

Game design was less refined in the NES era too. You had a much greater range of creativity. For better or worse. For all the stunning new ideas, there were many innovative games arguably far too difficult or obtuse in some way.

[Tanooki]

Kind of opinion based, but if you figure there's a genera percentage of crap vs quality titles I think the NES had more releases in the US than the SNES so that works in the NES favor of having more turds. Also during the NES era with their monopoly and stuff, they weren't exactly high on caring how good a game was as long as it passed tests to get the seal for working. People knew less, experimented more, and a lot of garbage came out licensed and many of them not. The SNES people were more comfy in making ideas that worked or exploiting bad ideas fools still would buy into (like bad movie license games.) SNES also didn't have really much of an unlicensed market either. I mean there's like Noah's Ark 3D and very little else and the NES has all those god awful wisdom tree, color dreams, some tengen, panesian, sachen, ave, hes, action 52, cheetahmen, etc titles that more or less all collectively blow.

[BricatSegaFan]

Kind of opinion based, but if you figure there's a genera percentage of crap vs quality titles I think the NES had more releases in the US than the SNES so that works in the NES favor of having more turds. Also during the NES era with their monopoly and stuff, they weren't exactly high on caring how good a game was as long as it passed tests to get the seal for working. People knew less, experimented more, and a lot of garbage came out licensed and many of them not. The SNES people were more comfy in making ideas that worked or exploiting bad ideas fools still would buy into (like bad movie license games.) SNES also didn't have really much of an unlicensed market either. I mean there's like Noah's Ark 3D and very little else and the NES has all those god awful wisdom tree, color dreams, some tengen, panesian, sachen, ave, hes, action 52, cheetahmen, etc titles that more or less all collectively blow.

I know it's not the same but I can say the neogeo had the best ratio of good games vs bad games.

[samspade]

I know it's not the same but I can say the neogeo had the best ratio of good games vs bad games.

I'd agree there for sure. Lots of fantastic games on the MVS translated to the AES homecarts and the neo geo cd. It's a definate case of quality over quantity in that case. Even still, you got to realize that they were arcade games, how many bad arcade games have you ever played? By comparison, the nes and snes had to deal with some severe limitations in porting things over whereas SNK brought the arcade home. Big difference.

[BricatSegaFan]

I'd agree there for sure. Lots of fantastic games on the MVS translated to the AES homecarts and the neo geo cd. It's a definate case of quality over quantity in that case. Even still, you got to realize that they were arcade games, how many bad arcade games have you ever played? By comparison, the nes and snes had to deal with some severe limitations in porting things over whereas SNK brought the arcade home. Big difference.

Touche salesman.

[genesisguy]

I gotta pick the NES over SNES. But it's purely a personal thing.

I love Contra and Super C. You only get Contra III on the SNES.
Castlevania 1-3 IMO trump Super Castlevania and Dracula X.
I favor Mario 1-3 over Super Mario World and SMW2.
I prefer the NES Zelda titles to Link to the Past.

Then there's all the Capcom games. I like Mega Man in 8 bit best. Plus you get all those awesome titles like Duck Tales and Darkwing Duck. I know there were some Disney Capcom games on the SNES. But I don't think they are as good as the NES ones.

Even the random so called "bad" games are so diverse on the NES. Friday the 13th, Jaws, Star Trek 25th Anniversary, etc. Those games aren't GREAT. But they round out the diverse NES library.

NES fits my lifestyle better. I don't have time for some of the massive SNES games.

[A.C. Sativa]

I'd say the SNES has the better library. The NES has well over a hundred licensed games that are completely unplayable garbage, and a ton of unlicensed shit that's even worse. The SNES has quite a few games that are pretty crappy, but very few that are outright horrible. Plus the SNES has a lot of great sports and fighting games that just weren't possible with 8 bit technology. And all the NES Mario games were ported to the SNES.

[Zing]

Since I only own and collect "quality" games, let's take a look at my collection spreadsheet.

NES: 46 games
Super NES: 38 games
PlayStation: 41 games

[vrikkgwj]

The SNES has many more great games in my opinion, but that is mostly due to my nostaglia.

[rewindtimegames]

I chose NES because that is what I grew up with and had a stronger connection. If you saw an NES cart and a SNES cart on a shelf in a thrift store which would you grab first? Happy hunting which ever you choose.

[The Adventurer]

I chose NES because that is what I grew up with and had a stronger connection. If you saw an NES cart and a SNES cart on a shelf in a thrift store which would you grab first? Happy hunting which ever you choose.

I might be a bit of a strange case, but I had an NES growing up, but never got a SNES during its lifetime (skipped straight to N64). So while I have a lot of nostalgia for NES, I'd still pick up the SNES cart first. Why? Because my familiarity with SNES is still not 100% complete there's always the chance I'll find something I've never heard of (or have a vague memory of from an ancient issue of Nintendo Power), and the mystery of just what that game cart could be is overwhelming.


I'm honestly not sure which game library I'd put over the other, but whoever said 90% of any game library is crap is probably right. SNES probably has more REFINED games in that top 10% though. NES probably has more raw cutting edge originality in their top 10%.