Your Top 5 Games - SNES Edition

[Aulayna]

The Super Nintendo, or Super Famicon, was one of the major consoles of the mid early-mid 90s that most of our older members may have owned at one point. It had an impressive library of games and provided some memorable.

As part of a new feature I'm writing called Gaming Retrospectives that will be posted on an irregular basis (generally slow news months) I'd like to feature lists of the Top 5 games for each console along with interviews with members about what they liked about those games.

So, I humbly ask you General Gaming Discussion forum - to list your top 5 favourite SNES games (in order of preference) along with a reason why you love each game so!

[DownDiagonalLeftA]

SNES is easily my favorite console ever (if you don't count the fact that a lot of the games were rereleased on ps1 and playable on ps2). My two older brothers had an SNES so it's what I grew up playing. Watching them play Final Fantasy 4 and 6 are what got me into the series, and into RPG's as a whole. Anyway, I'll start the list with my favorite game of all time, period.

1. Chrono Trigger - I remember we didn't have Chrono Trigger, we had to borrow it from my cousin. Love everything about this game. The story, the music, the multiple endings, new game +, characters, multi techs, etc. It might be one of the only RPG's that I actually like every character. I'm also a big fan of Toriyama's art. If I was limited to only being able to play one game for the rest of my life, it'd probably be Chrono Trigger.

2. Final Fantasy 6 - Easily my favorite game in the series, and occasionally switches with spots with Chrono Trigger for my first spot. Like Chrono Trigger, the story, music, characters, and great sprite graphics (seriously, look at the boss of the game!), are what I like about the game. Kefka was also an amazing villain, his insanity and how unpredictable he was, and then later on his power. Also about the characters, despite having a very large cast, the game actually focuses on almost every character pretty well. Almost all of them have little side quests and back stories you can delve into. Oh, and also Sabin

3. Final Fantasy 4 - How boring lol, the top 3 are RPG's, 2 of them being Final Fantasy. It's not like we see these games ALL THE TIME on these forums. Anyway, I liked the story to 4, particularly how Cecil was a Dark Knight that became a Paladin. Being the first game in the series I ever played, it always gives me that nostalgic feeling. Last time I played it I beat it in literally 2 days. Still gotta get around to playing the DS version.

4. Super Street Fighter 2 - Fighting games are probably my second favorite to RPGs, and to me, SF2 is the best fighting game ever. Street Fighter 2 is such a great game because its both simple and complex at the same time. It's not hard at all to do hadoukens or sonic booms. The casual player can get into it. However, it takes a TON of practice to master combo strings, zoning, character matchups, etc. That's what I like about it. It didn't need 20 hit combos, gore, weapons, switching fighting styles, or any of that to be a great, in depth game. Street Fighter 2 will probably never go out of style. Not to mention it paved the way for many fighting games after it (if not all).

5 Mega Man X - I probably don't like it as much as Secret of Mana, but I didn't want to make a list of 5 RPG's on an RPG forum, and I do still LOVE Mega Man X. I can fly by this game with my eyes closed. I honestly don't know what it is about this game I love, I just find it really fun. I do find it very nostalgic playing though, it reminds me of how I had to find all the secrets before the internet was around. It wasn't like an RPG where you could talk to townspeople to get clues, you really had to look. Do you know how many times I died thinking a pitfall had a secret in it? The addition of the dash boots in the X series was also huge for me. After playing X, I can't go back and play a regular Mega Man game without being able to dash. Out of the games on this list, this is probably the one I play most often, because it only takes me about an hour to beat. I probably run through it at least twice a month.

[Depression Moon]

1. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island - For me this was the best Mario platformer on the system. Having Yoshi as a playable character who carried baby Mario on his back was a neat change. The crayon book art style made the world pop and the music was made well like any other main entry Mario game. The level and enemy design was cool and playing with Yoshi's ricochet egg throw mechanic was cool too. Touch Fuzzy get Dizzy is the first level I think of when I think of this game.

2. Super Mario All-Stars - This was five Mario Games in one. No further details needed.

3. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars - Mario's first RPG game and also mine. With this being my introduction to the RPG genre and with Square, it got me hooked to them from that point onward. It was astounding to have Mario team up with a group of characters, even his arch nemesis Bowser, but like most Mallow and Geno were the most memorable as they were original creations by Square. It combined Mario platforming with turned based RPG combat and the story was nice and simple for the IP. It will stay in my heart forever.

4. Super Mario Kart - This game was also my first racer. The AI from what I can remember was tough, but I had the most fun playing the Battle Mode with my older brother. we popped many balloons.

5. Kirby Superstar - My first and only Kirby game I've played. Though I don't think I payed much attention to video game music back then, today I do and Kirby along with Mario and Zelda had some great tracks. Swallowing enemies and copying their powers was the mainstray for me though. The game was great for co-op, but I always wondered why in the hell Gourmet Race didn't have multiplayer. That was the only mode in the game without multiplayer and aside from the main game, it would've benefited the most from it.

[NeoCracker]

5. Earthbound - This game was smurfing hilarious. There was a huge variety of areas and enemies, and the referances and jokes were never ending and great. The rolling HP system was fun to play with as well. Yes, this was rated just below Mana on my actual list, but dammit the games were close. Catch me another day I'll probably put Mana over Earthbound again.

4. Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen - Most original SRPG in terms of mechanics I have ever played, and there still isn't really a game out there like it. Challanging and deep.

3. Breath of Fire 2 - This game is everything Old School about RPG's done to perfection.

2. Final Fantasy VI - Do I really need to explain this one? Terrific writing, amazing use of a large cast of character that really on the Suikoden games excell more at, and some amazing atmosphere, especially in the second half.

1. Chrono Trigger - This game is the closest thing to a perfect game I've ever played. There really isn't anything about the game that doesn't work, at least a little. Music, story, character, battle system, everything.

[Skyblade]

1. Chrono Trigger
2. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
3. Secret of Mana
4. Final Fantasy VI
5. Super Metroid

[Bolivar]

5. Super Mario World - In some ways the last true Mario, and this one was very special. Still quite a blast to play.

4. Mega Man X - In a series full of classics, this one stands out with its visceral gameplay and utterly ridiculous soundtrack.

3. Link to the Past - Probably the perfect Zelda, and I'm a sucker for cinematic openings.

2. Final Fantasy V - This is my favorite 2D Final Fantasy because it's arguably the only game in the series with a reasonable challenge that scales with the story. Speaking of which, its plot may have the widest range of the rest of them. It has some of the funniest and most light-hearted, charming moments of the series while still containing some very dark, very emotional sequences.

1. Tactics Ogre - The PSP version is the best traditional SRPG I've ever played, so how can I not give it up to the SNES original? Probably the best story in a SRPG, and some uncompromising gameplay to boot. Great artwork, music and writing. Tactics Ogre is the video game medium at its very finest.

[Pike]

I feel like I'm going to miss something. Anyways, off the top of my head:

1. Super Mario RPG: With a lovely and quirky sense of humor and that huge world, this game just captivated me entirely as a kid. It will always have a special place in my heart.

2. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island: Possibly the best 2D platformer ever made, this game takes the typical Mario formula and turns it on its head with a delightful artstyle, innovative new egg-throwing mechanics, and some really fun minigames.

3. Super Mario World: Yeah yeah, another Mario game. This isn't my personal favorite Mario platformer - that title would go to Super Mario Bros 3 - but as most people can attest this is still an amazingly good game and one of the all time greatest platformers.

4. Uniracers: I think this is probably the greatest racing game of all time. Yeah I said it. The whole concept of doing "stunts" to increase your speed and "reading" the track colors to make tactical decisions about it is simply brilliant.

5. Donkey Kong Country 2: Easily the best of the three DKC games for SNES, this game was chock-full of amazing music and fun levels. Roller coaster level anyone?

Honorable mention to Super Mario All-Stars which I really felt would be cheating to include because it was just a bunch of great NES games.

[Del Murder]

1. Final Fantasy VI - My favorite game of all time. It had such a great diverse cast and diabolical villain, was full of great sidequests that expanded a lot on the main story (which was also great). The characters had cool unique abilities and the Esper magic system, though not the best SE has ever come up with, was still pretty good and integrated itself with the story well. This is truly an epic among epics.

2. Chrono Trigger - Probably as close to a perfect game as you'll get. There's nothing I would change about this game or replace with another game. The story, characters, battle, and ability systems all gelled together to create one of the greatest masterpieces of gaming. Anyone who is an RPG fan and hasn't played Chrono Trigger is missing out. Like FFVI, this game had plenty of sidequests that allowed you to focus on particular characters or story elements and that really helped piece together the overall puzzle. The time travel and multiple ending aspects were excellent and have not yet been matched.

3. Zelda: A Link to the Past - This is the second best Zelda game (after the original Zelda) and it improved upon the original in many ways. It was a nice long quest with many puzzling dungeons and cool new items like the hookshot. I also really liked the mini-quests like upgrading your sword and the dual-world aspects.

4. Super Metroid - The best Metroid game, and possibly the best game of this genre ever. This took the Metroid concept and, well, supersized it, setting the standard for this genre which has never been topped with the exception of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I loved getting new abilities and going back to old areas to open new possibilities and potentially finding hidden upgrades. There's so much secret stuff in this game it's amazing this is a 16-bit game.

5. Yoshi's Island - Arguably the best 2D platformer ever, though I had a bit of a hard choice whether to put this, DKC2 or FFIV in this spot. I went with this because the combination of Yoshi's moves in this game with the level design is almost perfect. The game isn't that hard, but the real struggle is to get a perfect on each area, trying not to lose Baby Mario for precious seconds at the end of the level. The graphics were also pretty gorgeous, some of the best for a 16 bit game.

[Raistlin]

Oh man, tough to narrow it down to just 5.

1. Super Mario World: I have to put this at #1, if only because there was no other game I played more on the SNES, at least as a kid on the actual console. I played this game for hours and hours at a time, and it completely engrossed me. Such a fun and engrossing platformer.

2. Chrono Trigger: really self-explanatory, the best RPG on the SNES, and widely considered one of the best ever.

3. Final Fantasy VI: I never actually played this game on the SNES, and have only played the Advance version. But the SNES deserves all the credit.

4. Final Fantasy V: Ditto above. I also had a lot of difficulty in choosing between FFVI and FFV for #3. FFVI has better characters and story, but I have a major soft spot for FFV because it was the first to really develop my beloved job system.

5. Ah, I can't pick just one fifth... uh... I guess I'll go with Super Mario RPG.

Honorable mentions: Zelda LttP, Mario Kart, DKC2 and

Honorable mention to Super Mario All-Stars which I really felt would be cheating to include because it was just a bunch of great NES games.

[Wolf Kanno]

I thought this would be easy but its turned into a bit of an issue trying to figure out my fifth game. It was a toss-up between Super Metroid, Super Mario World, Secret of Mana, Lufia II, Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy V, and Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen.

5. Super Metroid* - Easily the best Metroid game in the franchise, has an atmospheric story that doesn't require any real dialogue which is something very few games can pull off. Great Weapon set-up, excellent bosses, and a nice soundtrack that gives the game a more horror feel than space exploration. Its a shame every sequel has failed to live up to this game.

4. Street Fighter II Turbo - If you're going to do SFII do it with speed. This game is why I begged for an SNES over a Genesis back in the day and the game that really got me into the fighting game genre. Its old school SFII perfected with better balance, more speed, and access to all the boss characters.

3. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - Easily my favorite Zelda game in the franchise, this game took the original formula and turned it on its head with greater focus on story, a massive world, and tons of dungeons and secrets to explore. This game introduced the beginning of the Zelda mythos such as the Master Sword, Ganon's origins, and finally an explanation of what the hell the Triforce is.

2. Final Fantasy VI - What's not to love, an engaging story that was radically different from other games at the time, easily one of the best and memorable cast of characters, tons of secrets and options, an semi-opened Third Act, one of the best villains int he series, and new experimentation in combining interactivity into both gameplay and storytelling. Also has the best musical score in the franchise.

1. Chrono Trigger - Easily one of the best RPGs ever crafted. Great cast of characters, great and imaginative battle system that promotes using different party set-ups, tons of secrets, multiple endings, multiple ways to affect the game, some ingenious scenario writings, a thought provoking villain, one of the best RPG soundtracks of all time and it perfected a lot of the cinematic elements and gameplay structures that FFVI introduced.

[Depression Moon]

Oh, ok so I'm cheatin' Raistlin and Pike?

Also a couple of you mentioned FFV. I thought that game never hit American or European shores until Anthology for the PS1. Did y'all get that imported back in the day?

[Polnareff]

1. Breath of Fire II - Nearly everything was on point in this game. Story (what little you could understand of the translation anyway), characters, battle system. I especially loved the Shaman system, since it was a cool way to give your characters new abilities.

2. Street Fighter 2 Turbo - A huge improvement over the original SF2. Gameplay was much more balanced, you could use the bosses, and the addition of Turbo mode made the game much more fun. I have a special place in my heart for the SF series, but love this one the most out of all the 16-bit console ports.

3. Seiken Densetsu 3 - Took the formula of Secret of Mana and improved on it immensely. The multiple storylines, the combinations of characters, and the fun action-RPG gameplay made this one of my favorite games on the Super Famicom.

4. Return of Double Dragon - A very deep beat-em-up. It introduced many new features to the DD series. The coolest one by far was the parry button. Billy/Jimmy could grab a punch with good timing and strike back with a barrage of kicks or punches. The new super meter also had many neat functions, and playing this game with a buddy increased the mayhem tenfold.

5. Final Fantasy V - I'm a sucker for FF games with changeable job classes. The amount of customization in this game was unheard of at the time of release. FFV remained challenging through and through, and almost any job class had the potential to kick ass, as long as you knew what classes to mix together, which was part of the fun. The characters were adorable as well.

[Bolivar]

3 of My 5 I didn't play On SNES, 5 if we don't Count emulators

[Flying Mullet]

Whew, just like everyone else said, this is hard. It's easily my favorite gaming system and there are so many quality games to choose from. From my favorites, I guess I'll pick those that I spent the most time playing:

5. Street Fighter 2 - While there were other editions afterward that added content, this was the version that my friends and I played the most. During the SNES era, this is easily the one two player game that my friends and I played the most. We played a lot of Super Mario Kart and Rock n Roll Racing as well but I can't count the number of late night gaming sessions where we binged on Street Fighter 2. This was also one of the first games ported from the arcade that I remember feeling like it was still close to arcade quality and kept it's arcade roots.

4. Chrono Trigger - This is usually higher on the list for most people but I was so saturated with Final Fantasy III by the time Chrono Trigger came out that it didn't measure as high up for me. I still love the game and the quality is unsurpassed. The music is excellent and the character design shows it was done by some of the best in the business. My biggest memory of this game is the fact that I worked at a video store when it was released and was able to pre-order it from the distributor, getting it a week before my friends were able to buy it from the store.

3. Super Metroid - Holy hell, this game is still so much fun today. I can sit down and play Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and feel like I'm playing it for the first time with a whole world of platforming goodness to discover. I remember popping this badboy into my SNES the first time from the rental store and watching the opening cinematics and being blown away by how advanced the game was. Super Mario and his brothers have their assorted platforming games but as far as solid and fun game-play mechanics go, this is the best.

2. Zelda: A Link to the Past - To this day I believe this is the best Zelda game out there. An expansive world, a great version of the Zelda overworld theme and so many secrets packed into every inch of the map. I remember finally beating the wizard with the Master Sword after having scoured the entire world to gather all the goodies I could find. Then I end up in the dark world and find out that I have SEVEN more dungeons to conquer and another whole world to explore! This was my first game for my SNES (aside from Super Mario World) and even if I could have picked any other game in hindsight I wouldn't change a thing.

1. Final Fantasy VI - No surprise here for anyone that knows me. I don't know how many hours I poured into this game growing up. The way I played this game was probably the equivalent to how some people binge and grind on games like WoW and the Diablo series. I know for a fact I played this game through at least half a dozen times before I even started to tire of it. Part of what made it so magical was that this was before the internet and stratgy guides so I had to find everything myself. I remember discussing new discoveries with my friends and racing home after school to go see what one of us had discovered or having to wait for a new playthrough because what they told me happened in the WoB and I was in the WoR (Shadow!). The level of discovery and exploration in the WoR was unparalleled and it took several playthroughs just to find all of the secrets.

Some honorable mentions for games that I loved that I haven't seen anyone post much about yet:
Metal Marines
Rock n' Roll Racing
Secret of Mana

[sharkythesharkdogg]

Well, all the reasons for each game have pretty much been covered, so here's my list. Also, this is very hard.

Super Mario RPG

Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo

Zelda: Lttp

Donkey Kong Country 2

Super Metroid


Honorable mentions: Illusion of Gaia, Secret of Evermore, Contra 3, Turtles in Time, Super Mario Cart, Star Fox, Chrono Trigger, Donkey Kong, Super Castlevania, F-Zero, and Earthbound.