Affordable SNES games?

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

So, I'd really like to beef up my 16 bit game collections, but everything, everything that's pretty good is just ridiculous, are there any great games that are actually affordable?? I don't have too much just cuz the prices are just frustratingly high.

I've been collecting NES and N64 games hardcore cuz they're way cheaper, all the best and well-known games sell for around $20, more or less, but SNES games are just ridiculously expensive, $50 or more for common games like Contra and Ninja Turtles, and forget about the RPG's.

Is there anything people would recommend for a decent price? I refuse to pay $50 for Turtles in Time or $65 for Kirby's Dreamland 3. As much as I really want those games.

[ZP3]

I have run into the same problem; I have found around 50 NES carts in the wild for cheap, but SNES is either super rare or super expensive. I too would be intetested in what more experienced collectors have seen in the price trends.

[theclaw]

I'm not going to count the boxes but...

Tetris Attack
Donkey Kong Country games
Super Mario All Stars
Super Mario Kart
F-Zero
Super Mario World
Super Mario World 2 Yoshi's Island
Kirby's Avalanche
Illusion of Gaia
Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past
Star Fox
Tetris & Dr. Mario
Super Game Boy (useful enough I may as well list it)

Keep in mind a method to play Japanese games will pay for itself immediately. Such as Kirby Dreamland 3 for under $25...

[celerystalker]

Sure, for under $15 for a loose US cart:

Gradius III
Legend of the Mystical Ninja
Brawl Brothers
Any Street Fighter other than Alpha 2
Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose
Darius Twin
Brain Lord
Illusion of Gaia
ActRaiser
Super Castlevania IV
Super Star Wars games
King Arthur's World
Cybernator
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest
Super Mario World
Donkey Kong Country
F-Zero
Super Ghouls & Ghosts
Kendo Rage
SimCity
Lagoon
Paladin's Quest
The Addams Family
Arcana
The 7th Saga
Firepower 2000
On the Ball
Rampart
Uniracers
Earthworm Jim 2
NBA Jam
Wanderers from Ys
Xardion

There are a lot more, but most of these are outstanding and can be had on ebay and retro stores for under $10 even.

[ZeroCool]

you must have a real cheap store near you then

[celerystalker]

St Louis does have a pretty decent retro market, but those are readily available on ebay for cheap as well. Just check recent sold listings for confirmation.

[dra600n]

What kind of games do you enjoy the most? A lot of great titles have been listed, but there may be something outside of the popular titles.

Secret of the stars is a decent rpg that hasn't been mentioned yet, as well as spike mcfang, goof troop if you like puzzles, and last I knew ff 2 and 3 were under $45 each, though I haven't kept up with prices for quite some time.

[Tanooki]

What do you consider the cut off for reasonable pricing? $20? $30? Clearly $50 is touching a high mark as is $65 or more and I do not blame you one bit. Also where would you be going to buy these thing because sometimes on ebay, accidents happen and one off games get missed or a lot of games can have some goodies inside where the average makes it worth it too (or selling duplicates make the stuff you want cheap/free.) I'd love to have more SNES games but the pricing has become fairly out control on a mix of first party and third party noteworthy franchise games along with some randomness as well that's not so easily explained.

At the $25 mark there is a LOT of games you can get if you're just shooting for the game alone (no paper.) Any of the first party games are all on the table pretty much (even Mario World+Allstars combo) other than Super Mario RPG and perhaps Super Metroid. Here's a list of good 3rd party games off the top of my head using the wikipedia listing I know would fit the mark, leaving off the trendy RPGs, and some fall so short of the $25 you could even get them CIB for that.

ActRaiser
Aero the Acrobat 1 or 2
Arkanoid
Blackthorne
Blazeon
Brandish
Civilization
DOOM
Dragon View
Faceball 2000
Firepower 2000
Firestriker
FInal Fight 2
Gradius III
Indiana Jones Greatest Adventures
Joe & Mac 1 (and 2)
Kendo Rage
Lemmings 1 and 2
Lost Vikings
Magic Sword
Magical Quest Starring MIckey Mouse (and it's sequel the Great Circus Mystery)
Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow
Mech Warrior (and MW 3050)
Micro Machines 1 and 2
Phalanx
Rock n Roll Racing
Shadowrun
Super Adventure Island
Super Castlevania IV
Super Empire Strikes Back (also Star Wars and Jedi)
Super Valis IV
Top Gear (1, 2, 3000)
UN Squadron
Wing Commander (and WC: Secret Missions)
Wolfenstein 3D (for comedy purposes, no nazis, giant rats, all new stages.)
Zombies Ate My Neighbors

All the fighting games on the system (SNK 'Takara' ports of Neo Geo stuff, Capcom fighters all fit, even SF Alpha 2 eeks in under $30.) Also you can luck into Turtles in Time for around the $30 mark on ebay with some patience still. Also any of those Virgin licensed Disney games from various movies would be cheap good pickups.

[Dashopepper]

Snes collecting is brutal right now. Ya sure a game you're going to play and you really want you can spend $40 and that's OK. But COLLECTING is a different story. If you had all of celerystalker or Tanooki's list you would still have under 40 games, 80% of them you would never play for more the 5 minutes and they would cost you at least $500. My go to cheep game has always been Goof Troop as it was at the $5 mark forever but even that has crept up. ( ah crap I see now it has already been mentioned, well I second it.)

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

I don't mind spending $20-$30 on a game I'm gonna enjoy, at all. I didn't have Legend of Zelda for NES so I got it for $20 on Amazon, and beat it, loved every minute, it was worth every penny. Same with Contra, Kirby's Adventure, Metroid, all those popular NES games.

I also don't mind spending $50 or more if the game is actually rare, but Turtles In Time and Kirby's Dreamland 3, correct me if I'm wrong, are not rare at all. Probably about as common as Legend of Zelda, and just as desirable, maybe not as desirable cuz Zelda is, well, Zelda. Contra III is like $50, Castlevania IV is around the same price. U could get the first 2 NES Contra games for that price, and they have at least as much demand, I would think. Maybe more.

I'm not a huge RPG guy, but I'm a big platforming nut, love Zelda games, I do like puzzle games also, I also love schmups as well, so I'm easy to please.

Is it that the demand for NES games is dropping now? N64 games aren't all out of hand, price-wise.

Idk, I'm just bitching. I do have most of the ones mentioned, like F-Zero and Super Mario World, and I do plan on getting some of the other good/cheaper games as well.

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

Idk if it was mentioned tho, Mega Man X, at least the first one, is also around the $20 range, and the games awesome.

[celerystalker]

If you're patient and don't jump at buy it now prices, you can still get out cheap on a lot of the games you're talking about on ebay. In the last year I've pulled a ton of good buys that way, and on harder to get stuff. You just have to be okay with letting a game go when it's more than you want to pay, and be wary of shipping cost gouging. It's the "gotta have it right this second" that'll get you. I always just look at what money I have to spend on games, and then poke around to see what's out there at that price instead of targeting one specific game, and that has saved me a lot of money.

[goldenband]

A few haven't been mentioned that I enjoy:

AD&D: Eye of the Beholder
B.O.B.
Drakkhen (YMMV, most people hate this but I liked it a lot, and there's nothing else like it)
Flashback
Mortal Kombat II
Out of this World
Pilotwings
Prince of Persia (gorgeous music)
Rival Turf
Sküljagger (absolutely must have the manual to beat this)
Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade's Revenge (mindblowing soundtrack)
Super Battleship (goofy, but oddly engaging once you get into it)
Super Tennis

Some of these are multi-platform but I still favor the SNES port, especially B.O.B. and Prince of Persia.

Also, I'm shocked Pilotwings didn't get a mention yet -- I know some people think it's a glorified tech demo, but I found it completely addictive.

[Tanooki]

I don't mind spending $20-$30 on a game I'm gonna enjoy, at all. I didn't have Legend of Zelda for NES so I got it for $20 on Amazon, and beat it, loved every minute, it was worth every penny. Same with Contra, Kirby's Adventure, Metroid, all those popular NES games.

I also don't mind spending $50 or more if the game is actually rare, but Turtles In Time and Kirby's Dreamland 3, correct me if I'm wrong, are not rare at all. Probably about as common as Legend of Zelda, and just as desirable, maybe not as desirable cuz Zelda is, well, Zelda. Contra III is like $50, Castlevania IV is around the same price. U could get the first 2 NES Contra games for that price, and they have at least as much demand, I would think. Maybe more.

I'm not a huge RPG guy, but I'm a big platforming nut, love Zelda games, I do like puzzle games also, I also love schmups as well, so I'm easy to please.

Is it that the demand for NES games is dropping now? N64 games aren't all out of hand, price-wise.

Idk, I'm just bitching. I do have most of the ones mentioned, like F-Zero and Super Mario World, and I do plan on getting some of the other good/cheaper games as well.

You and I have similar tastes as far as how much punishment one is willing to take in buying an old game. I'm fine with the $1-30 range for most games if I know I'm certain to enjoy it the higher I go. I'm cool spending $50 too, the original retail concept, but over that market I'm almost surely not going to unless it really is legitimately good and rare, otherwise it can wait or never happen. Kirby's Dream Land 3 actually is legitimately semi-rare I suppose, it was the last 1st party Nintendo game for the SNES out after the N64 came out so it didn't get as many pressed or many bought as other games. It's kind of odd it gets as high as it can yet something like DKC3 (a third in a trilogy too) does not and it's as late almost. TMNT4 was mass produced as it was an earlier release, it's just slimy tactics and sheeple mob mentality propping it up but as I said you can get it still for around or a little under $30 with a little luck and perseverance.

I"m not sure where you're buying your games if you think Super Castlevania is a $50 game. Last night I cross referenced ebay using a $5-25 price range lock, US region, good/acceptable listings only wnilte ignoring ripped up labeles, and I was able to pop that one up for that price. Sure many won't sell that low, but some do, so it's not really a $50 game. Super Contra seems to get a little more, not sure why as it's not the better game, but it's still good and it is Konami, but again it's the sheeple manipulation factor on that one too.

NES games I would disagree they're dropping. I wish they really would, they need to fall back to reality, but I think it's more of a plateau because the heat is now on with the SNES stuff. N64 should be higher than it is right now due to the age of the buyers of the system being right for it, but when you factor its unfavorability against the period with the PS1 in play, the general lack of releases (297 if I remember), the wonky to some controller, and how that generation of games tends to be hit and miss being nice on a non-CRT it probably harms the value. Some of them are ugly though if you find a real rarer cart on that system like your Turok Rage Wars gray, Conker, Worms, and a few others so maybe it just never will sail high, or at least until someone makes a cheap idiot friendly mod or after market system that'll do those titles justice in HDMI like the Retron5 does.

[goldenband]

Kirby's Dream Land 3 actually is legitimately semi-rare I suppose, it was the last 1st party Nintendo game for the SNES out after the N64 came out so it didn't get as many pressed or many bought as other games. It's kind of odd it gets as high as it can yet something like DKC3 (a third in a trilogy too) does not and it's as late almost.

One big difference is that KDL3 uses the SA-1 enhancement chip, which hasn't yet been transplanted onto or emulated by a flash cart, so you need an original to play it on real hardware.

It's for that reason that all my SNES buying revolves around enhancement chip games (except for chance finds at flea markets) -- though unfortunately KDL3 is one of a few US enhancement chip games I still don't have, along with MMX2, MMX3, SF Alpha 2, and Super Mario RPG.

[Gatucaman]

One big difference is that KDL3 uses the SA-1 enhancement chip, which hasn't yet been transplanted onto or emulated by a flash cart, so you need an original to play it on real hardware.

It's for that reason that all my SNES buying revolves around enhancement chip games (except for chance finds at flea markets) -- though unfortunately KDL3 is one of a few US enhancement chip games I still don't have, along with MMX2, MMX3, SF Alpha 2, and Super Mario RPG.

You'd need to get the US Super Mario RPG for obvious reasons, you can buy the japanese versions of the other games tough

(i find a Rockman X3 at $24 but with a faded label, and that game usually goes around for $40 and i meant the japanese version)

[Steven]

A few haven't been mentioned that I enjoy:

B.O.B.

Some of these are multi-platform but I still favor the SNES port, especially B.O.B. and Prince of Persia.

B.O.B. is one of my underrated, overlooked favorites, too. It's sort of like a "retarded" Super Metroid. Sort of. Maybe just a hint, haha. But it's fun and addictive IMO. Another challenging action title I would suggest is Rocky Rodent. I can't imagine it more than $20 but then again I have not kept up with SNES prices for several years now. Rocky Rodent seems to be a like or hate game though. Personally, despite the damn tough difficulty, I enjoy it and find it to be a pretty neat platformer.

[Tanooki]

Golden good call, not sure why I hadn't thought of that but it is a SA1 game. It's a fantastic game though, very worth picking up. The titles you have you're right other than the RPG game they're fine if you don't want to feed the beast buying the Super Famicom revisions of them. I don't blame you for not buying MMX2 or 3 as the price is just unbelievably wrong, but SFA2 you can snap up for under $30 so that's a surprise and that one is amazing all things considered.

[Gentlegamer]

Good thread. As has been pointed out, the "cheap" good SNES games tend to fall in the $20-30 range rather than under $20 as one would like. You can find plenty of great games at those prices without trying to chase the $50+ titles.

[Scissors]

Drakkhen (YMMV, most people hate this but I liked it a lot, and there's nothing else like it)

I really like this one too, but it's easy to see why many people hate it. It's really cheap though, so anyone looking for something a little different should give it a try.

Wizardry V is another decent, cheap SNES RPG.