The much awaited Nintendo Classic Mini: SNES hits stores on 29th September, and with Nintendo recently announcing that extra stock will be made available into 2018, everybody has a great chance to own this fantastic throwback console.
Here at Set The Tape, we’re going to cover all 20 (+1) games over four sessions with all you’ll need to know about one of the best collections of retro games ever compiled. Here we go!
PART 2 (16-12) – PART 3 (11-7)
21. Star Fox (1993)
One of the SNES’s most innovative and groundbreaking games at its time of release, Star Fox falls to bottom of the list here due to the 3D engine powered by the Super-FX chip being borderline unplayable in comparison to today’s high frame rate games.
Fortunately, Star Fox still provides an exhilarating throwback to the bold world of 3D pre-PlayStation era, with barrel-rolls aplenty and the epic Corneria music firmly established as one of 16-bit gaming’s best themes.
It won’t hold up quite as well as many of the other games on this list, but Star Fox is a vital ‘be there moment’ for when gaming took a giant step outside of its 2D comfort zone.
20. Kirby SuperStar 8 in 1 (1996)
Coming very late in the lifecycle of the Super Nintendo, Kirby Super Star is a juicy compilation of small platform adventures and mini-games that will provide hilarity and a little gaming novelty. The games are also reasonably low in difficulty, meaning this is an ideal gaming experience for younger players not used to the harsh learning curves of old-school gaming.
You’d be forgiven for having not played this first time around, as many of us had moved onto our PlayStation’s and Saturn’s by the time this was released, or perhaps saving for an N64. But it’s well worth your time and will provide plenty of 2-player entertainment when you have finished exploring all of the full-games on the SNES Mini.
19. Mega Man X (1993)
Few 8-bit series made as an impressive a jump to 16-bit as Mega Man. The series takes place a century after the original NES series, and as ‘X’ you have far greater abilities than before.
The core gameplay is similar as you work your way through eight stages of various enemies and face a boss with a unique ability/pattern of attack. Beating them will grant you their power, which you can select throughout the game. The beauty of Mega Man is that it has always allowed you to choose which stage to tackle first, meaning through trial and error you can determine which is easiest to tackle with your default arsenal, or which boss must be defeated so you can gain their power to beat the next on your list.
With all new wall-scaling/jumping mechanics and the armour upgrade system, there is lots of new elements to make this fresh and exciting to hardened Mega Man players, but sophisticated enough to wow new players getting on-board with the 16-bit iteration of this all-time classic. Enjoy this as much as you can via the SNES Mini, as it’s highly expensive to purchase complete in box.
18. Street Fighter II Turbo (1993)
This is the deluxe version of arguably the most important game of the 16-bit wars. Street Fighter 2 is one of those games that is truly timeless and plays superbly well, especially on the SNES Mini as it will contain 60hz/Fullscreen versions of all the games, meaning you get to play ‘Turbo’ as it was truly intended.
SFII Turbo adds a range of speed increases, made popular by the renowned ‘Rainbow Edition’ hacks of the arcade version of SFII Champion Edition, and of course we finally get to play as the four bosses. I rate this slightly lower down the list, as really we should get the definitive 16-bit Street Fighter 2 game, which is of course Super Street Fighter 2 (our Japanese friends will get this version), but it will provide highly competitive 2-player action just as well as it did in 1993. Just remember, you must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance.
17. F-Zero (1992)
One of the SNES original launch games and one of the most fondly remembered; F-Zero really opened up our minds as to what was possible via Nintendo’s Mode 7 technology, with super fast and smooth scrolling, and sensational rotating of the race stage.
If Wipeout pushed the boundaries for PlayStation, then F-Zero exemplified what the 16-bit generation would usher in. It is sci-fi combined with pure pace and a thumping soundtrack. Its only flaw is that it is not two-player, something that would have surely seen its star shine even brighter amongst fans if it had been possible.
It still plays surprisingly well, and once you hear that Mute City theme fire up on the opening race, you could be in for a long evening of high-adrenaline racing action.
We’ll have our next batch of SNES Mini games coming very soon, but in the meantime we’d love to hear what are you favourite games on the Classic Mini console, or which games you feel should have made the cut? Let us know via the comments below, or via Twitter – @SetTheTape