By: Nintendo
Year: 1991
Genre: Best, Classic
Generation: 4th
It’s pretty obvious who won the 4th generation war! Even with the fact that the Sega Genesis came first and the Super Nintendo only came 2 years later, the Super Nintendo simply won so hard with it’s amazing graphics chips that could enable interesting 3d layers which was called the “Mode 7” (used allot in early games to show off such as F-Zero) and amazing sound chips as well that is possibly one of the most advanced sound chips of all time that leaded to simply the best compositions ever of gaming. Pretty much what makes this console like any other console is its amazing games, this one simply has the most iconic game titles of all times, considered masterpieces that will ever be remembered. Like the NES it has various accessories such as the Super Scope which is a follow up to the NES zapper… Except the Super Scope doesn’t have many games or work as good as the NES zapper, in fact it’s pretty funny how the
second SNES accessory I’m going to talk about is more useful but when out of context it just feels silly, this is of course the SNES Mouse, a mouse mostly used for games similar to PC games at the time like Mario Paint or simply games that have a cursor. I simply love the mouse accessory for an odd reason; it feels more fun to play with it than a normal controller. The controller is pretty much one of the most useful inventions to gaming history conspiring it’s one of the first controllers to have a R and L button, 4 buttons on the side and a d-pad on the other side.
And considering how much I love the SNES Mouse that much I will starting marking games which are compatible with the lovely device by adding a yellow shinaz star ( ) on them. It seriously makes me wonder why the Super Nintendo is one of the only consoles to include an adorable mouse, how come other consoles aren’t doing this?
The Super Nintendo simply has one of the most amazing libraries of all times (especially on the RPG library that seemed lacking in all consoles before) it is simply a must have for people who enjoy Retro gaming at its finest.
1. Mega Man X (1994) by Capcom
2. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (1995) by Rare Ltd.
3. Super Metroid (1994) by Nintendo 4
4. Chrono Trigger (1995) by Square
5. Final Fantasy VI (1994) by Square
6. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (1992) by Nintendo, Square
7. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (1995) by Nintendo
8. Super Mario All Stars + Super Mario World (1993) by Nintendo
9. Kirby Super Star (1996) by Nintendo
10. Clock Tower (1995) by Human Entertainment
ActRaiser
By: Enix
Year: 1991
Genre: Platformer, Simulator
Length: 4 hours
It's a mix between a simulator and an action platformer. YOU PLAY AS GOD and you must kill a boss in a location so that humans can live in it, then after defeating the boss of the location you spawn 2 persons, a king and a queen to rule after the new city. The game basically turns into a sim game in this part, you gotta clear places with your god powers so that you can build some roads, but the main thing is that you destroy every demon portal and you go into this final stage of the town and destroy the boss. Some towns give you items that will help you on helping OTHER towns such as plants that can be planted to feed people in the town or bridge sketches that can make the technology and knowledge of the town better so that they can survive and explore the rest of the land. The game's style reminds me of something I would see come out of a Sega genesis game like Golden Axe or Altered Beast which is somewhat sad to see in a game of Super Nintendo, especially considering I don’t enjoy Shinobi Team but considering it IS one of the first SNES games and at the time they didn't went to the limit of the console I should give the term of graphics a little rest. Music is pretty medieval and reminds me allot of games such as Castlevania, which is great for the fact of this game being about mythology. ActRaiser is fun, but frustrating in allot of terms, and in some parts you will be stuck without knowing what to do, and the game lacks actual fun most of the time, it's usually more of a chore to take care of a city and solve the problems, get this game but only if you have allot of time to spare.
Aero Fighters
By: Tecmo
Year: 1994
Genre: Shoot 'em Up
Length: 1 hour
Also known as "Sonic Wings" in Japan, is a great shoot em up, where you can choose by 4 characters that each one have their own country, own plot and own plane. America shoots some straight bullets and the character looks like typical American sergeant (kind of like GUILE from Street Fighter series). Japan is a kamikaze looking pilot that shoots shurikens and is super-fast (WOAH CAN’T SEE NO DESCRIMINATION HERE EH). Sweden is a VIKING with a cool mustache and he looks like a generic wrestler or something, he shoots like America but this time even MORE STRAIGHT and I think it has more speed than America's type of shooting. England is quite the ladies’ man, a he fancy looking and has the most over powered type of shooting in the whole game, and he shoots lasers and HUGE missiles. If you didn't really realize it, the characters in this shooter are simply beyond wacky stereotypes of the countries they come from, and I won’t put my finger on it yet but I feel that the levels of the game are a bit random generated, that or each character has their own unique route, considering every time I happen to play this game it's has a totally different array of levels. Anyways the game has EXCELLENT MUSIC, nice levels and allot of shooting and if you are a fan of Shooters with a wacky sense of humor (out though there aren't many shooters with that now that i think about it) this is a must have.
Aero the Acro-Bat
By: Iguana Entertainment
Year: 1993
Genre: Platformer
Length: 3 hours
You control an acrobatic bat (heehaw puns) in an evil circus controlled by an evil clown, and you gotta save the circus! I'm not really a fan of this game, and I gotta admit... Compared to other platform games on the console this one is slow, hard to control and at most of times ANNOYING. The attack in this game is hard to get used to, it’s kind of a spin that goes either diagonally up or diagonally down, IT IS so hard to aim at a simple enemy using this attack, and it's kind of hard to ignore the enemies considering they are very hard to avoid and there’s these clowns that throws balls at you at you. Just want to kill them so hard, but usually these enemies take 6 attacks to die, and every time you attack them you bounce off and you just have 3 lifes by default. SO YOU USALLY DIE WHEN THESE DUDES GO AGAINST YOU. The music is kinda cool but..No, it’s not cool at ALL it’s just annoying, but what would you expect by remixed versions of like Circus tunes? Circus music for me is usually annoying.
Game isn't really what i would call good, controlls are screwed up, music is pretty lame and there isn't that much of apeal to this game. Only play this game if you are DESPERATE for a platformer because trust me there are far better ones in the world.
Aero the Acro-Bat 2
By: Iguana Entertainment
Year: 1994
Genre: Platformer
Length: 4 hours
Like the first one... But actually good! Animations are better and smoother, music isn't annoying and actually well composed, the gameplay is faster and doesn't require you to stop and collect keys or anything to go on with the level... Instead it's just an excellent linear good and simple platform game! LIKE IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN THE FIRST PLACE. The level design kinda reminds me of both Mickey games by Capcom with its destroyed castles and lots of gears, the game's animation is beautiful and so alive you can actually see step by step Aero walking, the game also has those silly cgi in SNES animations , and they use it ALLOT in this game, it's in the god damn life system!
Aero The Acro-Bat 2 is actually a decent platformer compared to it's predecessor and improves gameplay all around, music is memorable and has a magical feeling of adventure, unlike the first game you won't have problems with puzzles and other excuses to not let you proceed in the game so this one is pretty much the type of game you can actually enjoy. Of course it still has some issues to keep it from being perfect such as level design, yes it's less lazy than the first game but sometimes there will be hidden walls that aren't optional and you have to make a wild guess on where it is. That and somewhat times the level themes can get reppetive at some momments.
Arkanoid: Doh It Again
By: Taito
Year: 1997
Genre: Arcade, Pong
Length: 5 hours
I'm kind of confused on how can I start talking about this game... Well, it’s a sequel to Arkanoid, the game for the arcade and NES... In this game, the goal is simple you just gotta hit the blocks with your ball, but wait there’s more! Unlike other games with this same type of gameplay (such as Breakout), you can get power-ups that are INSANE! Like a laser (BECAUSE DARN THOSE BALLS IM GONNA SHOOT THOSE BLOCKS), and multiple balls (TOO MANY BALLS I CAN'T HANDLE THIS) and the long bar that makes your bar longer and that helps allot in terms of maneuvering. The most annoying and useless power-up would be the magnet one, it just sticks the ball into your bar where is the fast fun in that? Also the plot is kind of silly and first of all... Why create a plot? The game is simple and almost perfect, creating a plot won’t add that much! But anyways, the plot is that you are a space ship and you gotta kill this Easter Island statue called "Doh", and I find it’s kinda funny because it’s the most generic sci-fi plot ever but... With an Easter Island statue! Also has an excellent co-op option and you gotta admit, playing a game like this with a friend of yours is a pretty cool idea. Level design is interesting; each stage will have a shape of an item or an animal or a plant of some sort or will simply be a map made to frustrate you with hard to reach spots. Sound design is what you expect from a game like this: PING, DING, PONG, PLING, DON, BING. But the qualities of all of these sounds are pretty excellent and even have an echo feeling. Some blocks have their own rules, some blocks are impossible to destroy others look like it but are actually destroyable. Each 10 rounds you will find a boss fight and this is pretty much the first game of its kind to have an ACTUAL Boss fight, isn't it? Unlike blocks, bosses can fire back and kill you instantly.
Game is pretty much what you call "What I should play when im bored" type of game. True... But it's the best at what it does! Arkanoid is the most complex game in its genre and is allot of fun to play! It has co-op, powerups, interesting yet frustrating levels and EVEN bosses. This game is pretty much one of the must-haves if you love simple Arcade games... And now that I notice it who releases a game like this in 1997 for the Super Nintendo?
Axelay
By: Konami
Year: 1992
Genre: Shoot 'em Up
Length: 3 hours
ARMS INSTALLATION'S COMPLETE. GOOD LUCK! Axelay is for me is the most excellent and most FUN shooter game on the SNES, it's done by Konami (that are pretty experienced at making good shooter games) and has the best presentation done ever, well use of 3d layers, kick ass music, simple difficulty yet there times where you could be at tight spots and be able to do nothing other than die (but that happens in like every shooter with a interesting level design). The 3d levels usually have this multiple ways to go through, allot of choices on what path to choose. The quality of the voice in this game is just simply amazing, just hearing it in weapon selection for the first time was simply mind blowing and that boosts you up to play the whole level... Oh and talking about the weapon selection, you can select you're weapons! At first you start with a this purple hadouken blasting thing, but you can change to this gun that shoots pellets 360° over the ship (really useful at times), and there’s one that is just a little peep squeak gun but WOOOAAAAH it comes with a actual good missile! I usually go with the default weapon choice, but later on it adds more guns to choose from (such as spreaders, lasers and other unique weapons). The graphics are simply beutiful and the fact that the game cames in the early years of the console makes it seem EVEN more impressive, cutscenes are exciting, well detailed and pretty dramatic, and you can already tell the animation of the game is AMAZING by simply the watching Earth burning like the sun with live-like flames. Music is atsmopheric as hell and you it will definitely give you a feeling your into some big space war, includes allot of build up sound effects and
Axelay is a excellent Shoot 'em Up and possibly one of my favorite Shoot 'em Ups in the entire Super Nintendo Library, the music is seriously the type of stuff that will chase you forever in your life (by that i mean its memorable, the music can't actually chase you haha... Instead it will HUNT YOU),the gameplay is pretty complex for a shooter of it's type and the way the game looks is simply impressive for the Super Nintendo. This game is a MUST have in opinion so buckle up and prepare to listen "ARMS INSTALLATION'S COMPLETE. GOOD LUCK".
B.O.B.
By: Electronic Arts
Year: 1993
Genre: Platformer, Run and Gun
Length: 4 hours
{C}You control a teenage robot that crashed his dad car and you gotta do all of these insane platforming with great types of guns, cool animation and SWEET DANCE MOVES. The game is pretty hard due to the fact that it's one of those slow paced platforms where you must think before you act, you also have a huge fist that punches other monster and robots. The music in this game is pretty funky, like it’s a slow and dead beat repeated over and over but it’s kinda funky, not really the type of the action music I would hear in a video game but I think it’s decent.
I can't tell that much about B.O.B considering it is INDEEDLY silly and doesn't have as much emotions as much games i played but anyway it's a pretty good platformer with shootng and has allot to offer in terms of gameplay, it's just that some of the levels feel a bit repetitive but its all ok in my book.
Ballz 3D
By: PF Magic
Year: 1994
Genre: 3D Fighter
Length: No.
What.
Barkley, Shut up and Jam!
By: Accolade
Year: 1994
Genre: Sports
Length: Until you get bored.
HOOP THERE IT IS! Back in the days where basketball was pretty extreme and the main sport (the 90’s by the way if you don’t know), in my opinion, basketball is still the best sport game ever made in the world. This game comes with 2 on 2 matches with lots of famous basketball players you can choose to play as, I always choose Charles Barkley because his the god damn main character of the game and he has the best stats. The game is pretty simple but short in terms of quantity due to the fact that its just 1 level where you play matches, but then again it's a sport game... There isn't that much to do other than play the sport in the court. The music has funky beats perfect for the court but it’s kind of repetitive.
I forgot to add that the gameplay is also as well simply ridiculously CRAZY, like anything could happen, from getting a b-ball through the hoop from ripping the fabric of time and space, this is mostly because of the bad hitbox the game has but yeah for the pretty much one of the few baseball games I’ve played on the console it’s pretty decent.
Batman Returns
By: Konami
Year: 1990
Genre: Beat-Em-Up
Length: 1 hour
I'M BATMAN... A nice beat-em-up created by Konami, has thetypical beat-em-up controls! You get to jump, you get to punch, you get to do an air attack and you get to do the JUMP+ATTACK attack that takes a little of HP from you! What i love about this game is obviously the grimdark style that is OBLIGATORY due to the fact that this is a game based on Batman Returns. There are some 2d scrolling levels which aren't as fun as the classic beat-em-up levels and i feel that are usually out of place, they are mostly frustrating as well. Another small thing I love in this game is grabbing people and throwing them at the walls, it's just so satisfying to see the glasses break and there body smash at the wall, it's for me the most memorable part of this game!
Possibly one of the best beat 'em ups on the console considering of how GOOD it feels to smash someone or how atmospheric the dark tone of the game which was also included in the movie that made it so great in the first place! Possibly one of the best Batman games ever made and especially for it's generation.
Battletoads in Battlemaniacs
By: Rare Ltd.
Year: 1993
Genre: Beat-Em-Up, Platformer
Length: 2 hours
BATTLETOADS... Similar style and gameplay to its first game on the NES, that means, a kick ass HUGE level of difficulty, kick ass wacky finishing moves, kick ass music and most importantly kick ass frogs. The levels in this game are like in the same order like the levels are in Battletoads: Mountains and falling lands level, going down while avoiding danger level, going at full speed in a transport dodging walls level and so on and on... I can say the characters are HUGE in this game compared to the first NES, it's almost a 2d platformer with the space they give you but it's actually a beat-em-up with just oversized characters.
Yes like it's prequel, it is PRETTY hard, but htat doesn't make it a enjoyable game with lots of personality and coolio music to groove on, what I don't like that much is the graphics considering they look a bit boring for a SNES game. And i'm going to be honest it isn't as good as it's NES prequel cosnidering it is more linear and clusterphobic (It doesn't have much to do other than go straight) so I wouldn't call this that much of a loyal sequel.
BioMetal
By: Athena
Year: 1993
Genre: Shoot 'Em Up
Length: 1 hour
It's a hard as hell 2d scrolling shooter with bullets everywhere made by Activision... But something's odd about the music... Hmm.... OH GOD. The Entire soundtrack of this game is way too similar to 90's dance songs like 2 Unlimited's "Get ready for this" and "Twilight Zone" (that is known as the Mortal Kombat theme song). I searched more about this music thing and the soundtrack IS made by 2 Unlimited, and is one of the reasons this video game got a little of fame. I guess it could be called "2 Unlimted: The Oficial Game". I haven't played the Japanese version (or do I want to, due to the fact of this game being hard), but the Japanese version of the game has a entire different soundtrack! It only makes me wonder why the hell did they have to put 2 Unlimited make a soundtrack for the European and American version? Either way the game itself IS A PURE BULLET HELL, and I guess it's the hardest shooter I’ve met on the Super Nintendo so far. Thank god there's a shield that you can use for a time and then unequip it any time you want! Using the shield drains the shield power, but the shield power recharges itself when you’re not using the shield. The game's style is kinda generic when it comes to Shoot-em-ups, the same Alien-styled DARK corridors of space style! Where everything is GREY, BROWN and usually full of ALIEN EGGS! This game is not to be confused with the item "Biometal" from Mega Man ZX.
The game is music is obviously cheesy and it may be known as 2 Unlimited the game, but the main point is that the game is extremely HARD. You will normally be killed over and over and it feels as if the game isn’t even fair to start off with… Which it might be. IT has a dark feeling which is like I’ve said before to Alien, with all of its xenomorph like creatures. Overall I would consider it being a good game but it’s difficulty makes it almost impossible to play.
Blackthorne
By: Blizzard Entertainment
Year: 1994
Genre: Cinematic platformer
Length: 4 hours
It's a cinematic platformer (a really underrated genre that usually has the same gameplay to Prince of Persia), but unlike many cinematic platformers you actually have the option to use a gun (I think it's a shotgun) and kill enemies in a "shoot then take cover" way! Yeah this has to be the only Cinematic platformer I ever seen with a cover system. The cover system is pretty simple, you just gotta hold up while having your shotgun equipped and you take cover on the wall. The whole equipping thing of this game is pretty realistic, most of the jumping and whole platforming stuff in this game can only be done without the gun, it makes sense I guess I wouldn't jump a high altitude with the gun in my hand. So you unequip the gun for platforming and equip it when an Orc shows up. A cool thing I like about when having the gun equipped is that you have a button for shooting your back and one button for shooting your front, and I always wanted to like shoot someone from the back (just for the sake of it looking cool), but most of the battles in this game are front to front. The animation in this game is excellent, like any cinematic platform it has realistic action animation like climbing a wall, jumping, falling, dying and much more. A little thing you have the option to do in this game is kill your friends chained up in those places, it doesn't affect you in any part of the game or anything but you just can kill them for kicks, like they just stand there and say dialog that hardly helps so why the hell not use your gun for something. (it even has a cool animation of them dying). I can also tell that the battles in this game get a bit tedious most of times because it’s usually: DUCK... SHOOT... DUCK... OH SHIT I SHOOTED TOO SOON AH HE SHOT ME. You're timing must be perfect in this game, and that's really hard because you gotta do this ALL the single time you encounter an enemy.
Blackthrone is an interesting game considering it combines a cinematic platformer with good dodge and shoot shotgun action. And this game might possibly be one of my favorite cinematic platformers for that fact. Considering there aren’t that much of the genre to spare this is pretty much a must have if you are a fan of this type of game.
BlaZeon
By: A.I, ATLUS
Year: 1992
Genre: Shoot 'em Up
Length: 1 hour
A scrolling Shoot-em-up Arcade port made by ATLUS, pretty slow and easy at some points but a good shoot-em-up none or the less, has music done by the dude that composed the same music for the first Shin Megami Tensei (a famous RPG series by ATLUS). The special thing about this shoot-em-up when compared to the others is the fact that you can controll Bio-Cyborgs, in other words: you can control some enemies. You just launch theses missile thingies in a mecha until it goes blue, and when it does you just move your ship to it and you can controll it. Each Bio-Cyborg has its own specialty and there are 7 mechas that you can control, im just going to give a little example of the mechas I love: There's one that spams SHIELD bombs, it's only bad thing is that it’s the slowest ship of all but TRULY the most overpowered ship in the whole game, enemies will fly directly into your shield bombs and they will NEVER touch you because there dying in the 1 single inch of the right screen... Oh another bad thing about it is that you can only find it around the end of the game, it RARELY shows up in the whole game compared to other ships. I consider this game to be pretty short, few levels, few enemies, few difficulties... You could beat it in 40 maybe 30 minutes of gameplay, and when you beat it you don't get extra content, the game just starts over... But this time you're ship is another color! The arcade version has more content here and there and they had to cut it all down for the Super Nintendo port, but hey I don't care that much about the extra content I’m missing.
Bonkers
By: Capcom
Year: 1994
Genre: Platformer
Length: 30 minutes
Video game of the 90's Saturday morning Disney cartoon, made by Capcom (if the SNES pixilated CAPCOM logo doesn't already show it to you, you could just notice it’s made by Capcom because of the music that sounds ALLOT like Mega Man X). The game is a pretty simple platformer with some Disney references here and there, the animation is smooth at times but in some other movements it isn't, the background and pixel art in general is great and full of detail. You have 2 ways of attacking enemies (that and some enemies have defenses for 1 of those 2 attacks you have), you got the generic platform jump attack and the DASH attack that is pretty useful and fun in allot of parts in this game, you can't simply spam the dash attack but it has its own charge meter (a charge meter that is bigger than your life meter is), you have to wait 3 seconds to the 5 dots on the dash meter charge up than you can use it again, the charge thing can be useful for rolling into tubes, ignoring the entire level by just running in it all or just simply bash someone that you cannot jump. Also if you bump into something once your dash craze is over and you gotta charge it up again. The game is pretty short in my opinion it, it has 6 levels and bosses and it can be beaten in 40 to 20 minutes.
Brawl Brothers
By: Jaleco
Year: 1993
Genre: Beat-Em-Up
Length: 1 hour
A typical beat 'em up for the Super Nintendo with happens to have the worse title screen ever made... It is as if the guy that designed the title screen didn't even know what he was making a title screen for, it looks like a stupid 90's bad 3d text that you would found in Microsoft Word or some old 3d modeling program only a Windows 98 would run... And why such lame colors? Green, red, yellow... I know they were giving this a URBAN feel but... And the shadow effect on it doesn't help at all... And it only makes me sadder that the intro of the company "Jaleco" has a better entrance than the title does. But enough about the BAD title screen, the game itself is not as bad as the title screen but actually decent. Like any other Super Nintendo beat-em-up it plays allot like Final Fight, you have 5 characters with different styles of fighting (and for a beat-em-up, 5 characters is a pretty much big number of characters to choose from). The enemies in this game take allot of damage at times but thankfully that isn't that much of a problem when there are allot of items to heal yourself that show up allot from time to time, my only problem with those items is that if you grab a simple chicken to heal yourself, YOU drop your weapon, this shouldn't be a issue and it messed me up in gameplay allot during some important fights, WHY not simply use the item... You don't need to grab it! It's not as if i could use it later by running around with a chicken in my hand because if so I couldn't fight. I could say that the music in this video game is pretty neat and fast and perfect for fighting some people but it feels generic for me.
BreakThru!
By: Alexey Pajitnov
Year: 1994
Genre: Puzzle
Length: Why spend your time on this game?
As the title screen says, this was made by ALEXEY PAJITNOV CREATOR OF TETRIS®, sadly this game isn't as good as Tetris! This puzzle game requires no thought (unlike Tetris), has really REALLY bad music (unlike Tetris) and most of the time you’re just clicking random blocks WITHOUT even looking and hoping that you don’t get stuck in the end of last 5 blocks remaining... You can like click randomly everything and you could win! (unlike Tetris). So here's how it goes: You start off with a wall full of colorful blocks, you click the blocks that have more than 1 next to them with the same color and then they will disappear in a blink of an eye, pretty simple huh? Yeah, that's all you do in this game until the end where you gotta do the last blocks... What irritates me most in this game is that you usually get stuck in the last blocks when the first random clicks where easy, because some blocks won’t find there little color partner and you can’t delete them, it will past 5 minutes and still no color block of the same color will fall to help you... But sometimes you win and sometimes you don't! It's all a matter of luck. There are some items in this game that could help you (Unlike Tetris), like: TNT and Missiles (that mattering in the way they point they will clear a line in that direction). Each level background is part of some country in the world (Unlike Tetris that is only about Russia); I never got to see that much levels so I’m stuck with Berlin. In other words this is for me a broken puzzle game that doesn't stand up for the classic Tetris on the NES... I bet I know why Alexey's face on the title screen looks so smug.
Bust-A-Move
By: Taito Corporation
Year: 1994
Genre: Puzzle
Length: 4 Hours
REAAAAAAAAAADYYYYYYYYY, GO!One of the cutest puzzle gave I ever played! After a little crayon styled intro that shows the characters name's the title screen shows up and you get to play! You play as the 2 cute dragons from Bubble Bobble and you gotta shoot what looks like Bubbled enemies of the Bubble Bobble series, each one has its own color and you need to shoot the balls you're given to shoot at the balls of the same color, this game is pretty tricky and has allot of maneuvers here and there but it's mostly all about aiming. Sadly, after the first level (or after you die) you don't get to use the useful line that points out where the ball you shoot goes too, I just wish there was a easy option in this game that let's that aiming thing on the whole game. The music in this game is a endless loop of one somewhat cute and addicting song (Just like Bubble Bobble itself, eh). In short words this is just a perfect and addicting game to waste some hours on.
Cacoma Knight in Bizyland
By: SETA Corporation
Year: 1993
Genre: Puzzle
Length: 4 hours
A simple puzzle game, it's simple at the same level of a AMIGA puzzle and plays like one too, the plot is that you're in this happy 90's styled anime world called Bizyland when suddenly DARK FORCES MAKE EVERYTHING LOOK DARK AND GLOOMY, it's your mission to save the whole dark world and make it as cute as it was in the first place. Levels are just a square screen of a dark gloomy place where you draw a line and watch out for enemies and divide that screen into pieces until it restores to its cute look again. In the first levels it’s pretty easy to avoid enemies so you can beat a level in 3 pieces, but later on in harder levels with so many enemies to avoid you would end up dividing a simple square by 30 pieces. You can choose from 3 characters: a boy, a girl and a robot (I don't see how it matters on what to choose from, I guess the robot is slower or something) also I find it kind of strange that if you want to choose your character you gotta go to the main menu and change it, in a game like this you would usually choose your character when you start the game but no you gotta go to the menu and choose "Select Character". What pisses me off a little is that the American box art takes the 90's anime style out and replaces it with a horrible CANDY LAND western style. I also don't like the title screen that much... Blue isn't really a color that would go well with this game, it would be good to have a lighter pink instead of a DEEP BLUE in the title screen.
Capcom's Soccer Shootout
By: Capcom
Year: 1994
Genre: Sports
Length: Until you get bored.
If you're gonna get any soccer game for SNES, get this one... This one is the best soccer game in the whole system. Smooth animation and speed, easy to play, balanced stats, great GREAT music (the music in this game is pretty much the best thing available, it gives you that energy feeling, perfect for a sports game) and lots of content and stuff to do. It's pretty much one of the only sport games I like on the SNES! There's a training mode that lets you practice stuff like going around the cones with your ball or passing the ball to someone, there is also P K (Penalty Kick) mode where it's only the goal shooting part of the game, indoor soccer that is just... Soccer indoor, Exhibition is more of a quick match or training for a real match, the main game is pretty much the MAIN thing and All-stars is when you can play as any character from any country and play it on the CAPCOM Pool A or Pool B.
Tottaly worth a kick due to the amazing SOUNDTRACK and simple and great gameplay without being too boring. And of course in my opinion one of the only good sports games on the console.
Castlevania: Dracula X
By: Konami
Year: 1995
Genre: Platformer
Length: 2 hours
Supposed to be a Rondo of Blood remake (that sadly isn't released in English and stayed in Japan, unless you count Dracula X Chronicles as it), I see it as a simpler way of covering up Rondo of Blood, they resigned the levels, the music and everything except the plot itself. This has the same gameplay like the first Castlevania on the NES, that is kind of disappointing when this is after Super Castlevania IV that improved the gameplay (including multiple uses for the whip and multi-direction ways to use the whip) of the first Castlevania games on the Nintendo... SAD thing is they STILL haven't improved the controls till this day when it WAS already done in Super Castlevania IV... I guess they did it for the sake of being hard and "classic". But anyways other than the SAKE of being classic problem it's a pure awesome game with awesome music, excellent bosses and amazing visuals for a SNES game (the game is also more colorful when compared to Super Castlevania IV (that has a more brownish and grey look). There are 2 very unique and special things about Castlevania: Dracula X: 1. That is you have another use for your classic Castlevania sub-weapons that is usually that sub weapon FLYING all over the screen, becoming a shield or being a ultimate attack AND 2. If you find a key and hold on to it in your sub-weapon bar to the place where your fiancé and sister you can get a happy ending and fight Death ( that is like one of the coolest bosses in this game), this is pretty much the first Castlevania game to have that thing of getting a item and bringing it to have a good ending, pretty revolutionary for a Castlevania game. If anything by far one of my favorite Castlevanias with the best gameplay, visuals and in general just a good classic Castlevania.
Chrono Trigger
By: Square
Year: 1995
Genre: RPG
Length: 15 hours
Good morning, Crono! *deep breath* Ohhh gee... Chrono Trigger is one of the best RPGs ever made and pretty much one the best RPG on the SNES as well and it's a MUST.PLAY. The game plot is like this: There is a festival going on in your town and you gotta meet your friend Lucca that made this teleportation invention, now something pretty neat about this festival that it shows off the "IF YOU DO SOMETHING, SOMETHING WILL CHANGE" thing that is simply like this example: you get a chicken wing and that will cause something to happen bad in the future, you will save a cat and that will help you in the future etc. There are allot of stuff you can do in this little festival and I guess that's something the game has allot of these consequences and it somewhat feels that the game is watching you. The festival is also a example of how this game can be filled with extra content all over the place and mini games everywhere! Then you meet this lady that is actually a princess and she drops her pendant AND depending on how you talk to her first or grab the pendant right away will change your fate in the future (Example of how the game is watching you). After you give her the pendant you 2 become friends and start to enjoy the festival until there’s nothing more to enjoy about. Then this is where the plot device kicks in, you meet up with Lucca that is working on the teleportation device, you test it and then you get teleported from teleport 1# to teleport 2#, everything works fine so the princess goes there a her pendant makes the machine to break. CREATING A PORTAL THAT SENDS HER BACK IN TIME. This is where the adventure starts and you gotta go back in time to save her, later on during the game you will save her and go on a time adventure because you discover the future of mankind is in great danger. So from there it becomes a great adventure including time travel. The plot isn't as fast as I make it sound in this review and it's a beautiful story, full of action and drama with EXCELLENT pacing! You get to go to a post-apocalyptic future, the caveman past period, and the OLD KING AND KNIGHTS period, many much more happen during this epic adventure. The gameplay in this game is excellent and simple, some items automatically equip when you find them or buy them so you don't have to have the stress of organizing your who stuff, there are no random encounters in Chrono Trigger that is an EXCELLENT FEATURE, it's what usually makes RPGs better and unique! All of the battles in Chrono Trigger are famous for being scripted battle sequences, where if walk near somewhere or press a button a BATTLE happens! (Every enemy is placed in a unique place and every enemy react in a unique way when you interact with them). All of these scripted battles use the place you where you were walking casually as the battle location instead of most RPGs that have this silly transition that teleports you to this BATTLEFIELD of some sort. Who the enemy attacks first is based on where your character is close to him or not. Most of the enemies can be avoided and stuff, but I’m the kind of the guy that would usually like to level up and get stronger and get everything that I can. There are also these special moves you learn during leveling up and general, that are combos you can do using 2 characters in your team. The music in this game is pure masterpiece (as expected from a Square Soft game), it's just so calm and smoothing like as if you were watching a WATERFAL in slow motion but some other tracks just give that 100% feeling of ADVENTURE and the sake of the planets hand is in your hands (that it actually is after you figure out the it’s in danger), all of these songs use unique special effects to make the music like Arabic-styled instruments of some sort (a little of atmospheric effects such as wind always help too) truly one of the most excellent music in video game history. The character design in this game is pretty funny because it was designed by Akira Toriyama (the same dude that made Dragon Ball Z), so like everyone in this game has exaggerated super sayin hair on their huge bald head, EVERYONE LOOKS LIKE VEGETA! Sadly, in this game only shows the Akira Toriyama designs in the menu screen, the characters themselves are just the normal 16-bit, anyways in some future ports of this game there was extra content like animated cutscenes and stuff, that is pretty neat if you like Akira Toriyama's artstyle.
Like I said before, this game is simply a masterpiece everyone should play if you enjoy RPGs! It is simply without any doubt in all game history TIME-less!
Clock Tower
By: Human Entertainment
Year: 1995
Genre: Point and Click, Survival Horror
Length: 2 hours
RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN! This game is pretty much one of the scariest games I ever played in my life, and for the fact that it's a Super Nintendo game, that amazes me ALLOT. This game is the TRUE survival horror! You want a gun? A way to defend yourself? Too bad. Because in this game you're a little scared orphan girl called Jennifer and violence isn't an option, hiding in closets or ANY place you can is the solution. The game is a unique point and click game that the goal is: survive the scissor man and get out of the mansion. This game is pretty scary because you'll never know what will happen, the game randomly generates stuff in the mansion, sometimes something will pop up there... And sometimes it won't! This is also one of the first game to have multiple endings depending on how you do and what you discover the mystery behind the scary mansion, and BOY does this have multiple endings! It has 9 endings in total. 9!!! That's pretty close to 10; I don't know why they didn't insert a silly alien ending like Silent Hill to complete it being a perfect 10. I also love that this game has a quick start option, that simply is the "non-plot single player i just want to explore the mansion and get scared" option, it's nice to them include that. The plot in this game has allot to do with Satanism and all that crap such as EVIL RITUALS OOGA BOOGA. The music in this game is also perfect for running around (ESPECIALLY THE PANIC MODE THEME SONG OF THE GAME), it's as chilling to the bone just like a 80's slasher movie theme song and it really has that DUN DUN DUN feeling. The sound quality in this game is as well atmospherically amazing; the footstep stereo effects are amazing when it comes to her running one side to the other. Something that bothers me is that the game wasn't released outside of Japan (Maybe because it was at the end of the console or something) but they did release the sequel on the PlayStation and simply renamed it "Clock Tower" and called this one "Clock Tower: The First Fear" by porting it to the PlayStation and PC. But don't worry, you can find this game translated over the internet.
To CUT to the chase... This is an excellent horror game with a slasher movie feeling where you are the girl running around trying to solve puzzles like finding keys, and trust me... The mansion in this game is HUGE so there is ALLOT to discover and explore while avoiding a MONSTER like person that is in the same mansion and wants to kill you. And like i've said before this game is possibly has one of the best audio effects, especially frf the console, it feels as if it's really putting it's audio chip to the limit with its excellent quality, considering the game is so briliantly scary and original by the fact that you can't defend yourself directly it may be one of my favorite horror games of all times.
Contra III: The Alien Wars
By: Konami
Year: 1992
Genre: Run and Gun
Length: 1 hour
Let's Attack Aggressively. Like any contra game, this is simply one of the most ACTION PACKED games ever, every single moment EVERY single second something amazing happens! I'm really confused on how I can talk about this video game because I think it's as hard at the same level as reviewing seriously an action movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger. But from that idea you can see it's pretty awesome. Like any contra, this is a HARD GAME and if you beat it without dying once you grow a fully developed beard that can be manipulated into being your third arm. You can shoot in all directions and duck, a new feature in the controls of the series is that you have 2 slots for 2 weapons, there is a neat trick using these 2 slots is that when you switch weapons SO FAST the bullets on screen filter doesn't apply to the due to switching the guns allot. Something that makes me SICK in this game is the GOD DAMN are the isometric levels that happen often each time you beat a 2D platform one in a pattern that goes like in a pattern: 2D, Isometric. These isometric levels are honestly the worse thing in the game there is this desert level that has these spinning circles in the dunes and they ARE naturally annoying ESPECIALLY at the boss of the desert level that is IN the middle of spinning dunes.
Demon's Crest
By: Capcom
Year: 1994
Genre: Platformer
Length: 3 hours
First of all let's talk about the greatest introduction in the entire Super Nintendo library, it gives me shivers every time I play this game, it starts giving the story of how the main character "Firebrand" is ambushed in the air and gets all of his precious magic crests (that are like these crystals that give you super powers like: fire, earth, water, air, time, and GOD DAMN HEAVEN) and then after that cinematic intro the title starts to play! Just the pieces of burned flesh flying across this huge fire and creepy music playing in the background getting louder each time you get close to the demons corpse, the demon corpse opens up to a demon bat of some sort and little bits of its flesh fly off and spell the title "Demon's Crest" and THEN for the last thing that demon bat does is open its eyes and give a big old evil smile. WOW... Just wow, maybe the best introduction in all video game history. The game is a spin-off of the Ghosts n’ Goblins series and the gameplay is sort of what happens when you mix Castlevania and Mega Man X, it takes the creepy atmosphere, god like design and RPG elements from Castlevania and takes the "defeat a boss, get its power" formula and wall climbing from Mega Man X. Ok let me break it to you, this game is INSANELY HARD, and probably the hardest game in the entire Super Nintendo library! Some enemy attacks can go from -1 HP or -3 HP, and it’s USUALLY THE GOD DAMN STRONGEST ENEMIES THAT EVERYWHERE. Something that is VERY useful in this game is the ability of flying, you can't fly up or down but the altitude you activate your flying is the altitude e you're gonna stay in, if you find a BIG platform to jump off and start flying you maybe be able to skip the entire stage (this only works for few stages). To choose your stage you need to fly to it in this super cool SNES 3d effects that REMIND me allot of the flying ships of Final Fantasy series. A pretty interesting concept for this game is also the fact of having multiple endings in a platform game, you can get the bad ending from not getting all the crests, the normal ending for getting all the crests but not all the items, the good ending for getting all the crests AND the items and the BEST TRUE ENDING for defeating a boss that you can only visit by using a password your given that you get in the normal ending. WOW, what a chore eh? And considering this game is hard as hell you wouldn't want to go through all this, but I guess it adds some replay value here and there, plus the endings are somewhat worth it.
To wrap it up: this is a HARD game with dark atmosphe, totally worth the try but I warn you, you're going to die allot. It does indeed have allot of elements from the Mega Man series and that shows allot and i pretty much take this game as Capcom's responce to Castlevania.
Donkey Kong Country
By: Rare Ltd.
Year: 1994
Genre: Platformer
Length: 2 hours
Simply one of the classiest games in the Super Nintendo library. One of the first real Donkey Kong games to not be an arcade game and an actual solid PLATFORM game. It's one of the first games in history to use rendered sprites (CGI animation) and the graphics are INCREDIBLE when compared to most of the Super Nintendo library which is animated in pixels and not 3d animation, truly a revolution in graphics when it comes to video game history. The style of Donkey Kong Country is hard to explain, it’s a combination of silly plots, silly characters yet with serious peaceful levels with AMAZING music (and amazing echo sound effects in caves). How silly? The game starts with Donkey Kong showing Cranky Kong (Donkey Kong ancestor) some FUNKY BEATS and how FRESH and COOL he is in comparison to the original Donkey Kong and the whole plot of the game is that Crocodiles (mostly spelt with a K for everything because it's KOOL) steal Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong's stash of bananas, this makes him sad. So pretty much it's your mission to go across lots of levels to reach the Boss of that level, defeat it and get a huge banana with the Nintendo label sticker on it. Enemy design is as wacky as RARE's stuff can get, it mostly big eyed animals like Bees, Beavers, eagles, snakes and allot of Krocodiles from the King K. Rool's army! The bosses are mostly GIANT versions of the small enemies and said to be the queen or king of those enemies. Not all animals in this game want to kill you, they are some animal buddies you find in wooden boxes that you can ride and use their powers, such as Rambi the Rhinoceros which can kill enemies with his front and charge that could be useful to break some walls for some bonus secrets and Enguarde the Swordfish that is pretty much exclusive to water levels and is useful considering it can attack things underwater and swims fast. The game has 2 main characters which are Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong (Another amazing thing about this game is that it must be one of the first games to actually have 2 Player Co-OP), you start off with Donkey Kong but you can find Diddy Kong as soon as you find a barrel labeled DK and screeching sounds coming from inside it. Donkey Kong is strong but slow when compared to Diddy Kong that can run faster and do a wheel-cart which is a combo-attack when you run and find a row of enemies to bash. Most of the game has a thing for barrels, some barrels shoot you, some barrels bring you to bonus levels and some barrels are just simply barrels used to attack enemies. Bonus levels in the game are somewhat easy to find (some are very well hidden and use actual puzzles to get there), by completing bonus levels you can win a 1UP, some bananas or DK coins. The level in this game vary from jungles to temples, snow lands, underwater, caves and much more, the level design is simply brilliant. In a nutshell, this game has amazing graphics, music, style and gameplay.
This is a game you have to be BANANAS about.
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
By: Rare Ltd.
Year: 1995
Genre: Platformer
Length: 2 hours
The sequel to the first legendary Donkey Kong Country and easily the best of the whole Donkey Kong Country trilogy. Unlike the first Donkey Kong Country game, Donkey Kong Country 2 has a much serious feeling to it in about everything! The plot is more serious, the setting is more serious, and you can feel a BIG emotion in the music. The plot is that Donkey Kong was captured by a K. Rool and took him, you play as Diddy Kong and his girlfriend Dixie Kong and you start on the ship where the last game ended, after you beat the first levels in that ship, you proceed to continue into the Krocodile island which is a dark and mysterious place and where Donkey Kong is located at the top of the Island. The fact that you are in the darkest places in the Donkey Kong universe and that the main character of the series has been captured gives a dark theme instantly to the game in the first seconds. The entire game has this PIRATE feel to it, from the beginning to the end, the entire enemy roost is decorated with pirate-like characteristics like a wooden leg, a bandana, a pirate hat and a pirate knife. The title screen is a great example to this considering it’s a Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong looking at a treasure chest and of course the first level which has amazing pirate music and ship exploration. Unlike the first game that was a duo of fast and strong, Diddy and Dixie are somewhat equally light and fast, the only difference is that Dixie Kong can use her hair to fly floating for a period of time, which is super useful and the main reason I love to use Dixie, gliding in a hard game like this is obligatory so that you can slowly plan where to land. A new gameplay mechanic was introduced to the series which you can hold a team mate and be able throw them which is good for hard to reach places, defeat stronger enemies and solve other puzzles in the game. Many new animals where included in the this game like a parrot in which you can grab onto and fly across various levels which take great maneuvering skills and a spider where can make platforms in mid-air made out of web so you can jump on them and go to hard to reach places. Something which really gives the mood is the fantastic music which in my opinion is simply one of the best video game music in the entire history of video gaming, it has such a majestic and deep feel and is catchy as hell with impressive atmospheric sounds in the background while the music plays, it is seriously the king of video game music.
This game is not only a great game, but one of the greatest game in the entire SNES library, with brilliant music, perfect gameplay, amazing level design and variation, SO MATEY IF YOU HAVE THE CHANCE TO SWEETEN YOUR TOOTH WITH THE FINEST GOLD IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY YOU BETTA PUT YO DIRTY HANDS ON THIS ONE, ARRRRRRR.
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!
By: Rare Ltd.
Year: 1996
Genre: Platformer
Length: 3 hours
The most underrated game in the Donkey Kong Country trilogy and by far the EASIEST one as well. The theme of this one is... Well... The theme is... Um... I guess Country? Yeah, I’m pretty sure it's theme is country with its bears, rivers, woods, wooden houses and all. This is kind of odd considering that this is the first Donkey Kong Country to actually have a country theme, and now that I think about it... What does "Country" mean in the first Donkey Kong Country then? That entire game was set in a jungle; it had nothing to do with Country. And maybe the theme of this game isn't Country; later on in the game the theme is revealed to have a MECHANICAL theme with its many factories with futuristic technology and half-metal enemies. I am so confused about Donkey Kong Country 3's style mostly because it's COMPLETLY different from its past games, enemies and characters have changed its normal BIG EYED style to this small eyed awkward child-like clayish style. And the animal section for both enemies and characters is one of the most obscure choices for animals. The gameplay style has is a bit of a mix between the first and second game in the series, they bring in the STRONG AND HEAVY style again with Kiddy Kong, a new introduced character to the series which is supposed to be a baby even though he IS HUGE and of course Dixie Kong is included in the game (The title is a dead give a way folks). And I feel that this is real unbalanced here considering Dixie Kong can jump higher, run faster and FLY. The carry your ally on your back thing from Donkey Kong 2 is also included in this game, with Dixie by carrying Kiddy you can realize that Dixie can hardly move at all while carrying huge Kiddy, this IMPLIES THAT HE IS HEAVY AS HELL so it's logic that you can use his heaviness to smash weak places underground AND with Kiddy carrying Dixie you can see that she is light as a feather so you can throw her at HIGH places which are hard to reach. Like I said in the introduction of this review, the game is EASY as hell, collectables in this game can be easily got after you know what to do in the first place and in each stage there is a OVER THE TOP simple puzzle to get the DK golden medal, a Krocodile using it as a shield fronting you and you need to hit it's back, by throwing a barrel it will bounce off a wall and come back to him... On his back. As much as I keep saying that the stages in this game are easy, that doesn't really mean that the levels aren't interesting. Oh no FAR from that, Donkey Kong Country 3 has one of the most creative stages in the Trilogy with MANY unique styles all over them, some of which I don't even know what the main goal of them from so confusing. Stuff which are new to this game are: the map exploration, mini-games and items. Map exploration is pretty complex for a simple platform game, you can swim to places in the world map but to progress you have to have a ship which {C}
you get with Funky Kong (which has a major role in this game considering without his upgrades and ships you cannot progress further in the game), with these ships you can explore more places and with items you get when you defeat a boss, you can use those items to upgrade your ship and explore the rest of the world. Mini-games are somewhat easy if you have god-like reflexes and good memory... Or lots of luck. There are mini-games which are like SIMON games that when you win them you get a BANANA-BIRD (Oh my god what is wrong with this design that came up with this idea) and there are mini-games that usually have no other important prize other than coins, these coins are later used to buy items from bears in the game. The music is... Ugh... Disappointing... Donkey Kong Country 3 has some decent music here and there but the music in this game is so unmemorable and cheesy, it has no emotion at all in it and it looks as if the composers just where went full lazy and didn't put no effort at all. Donkey Kong Country 3 for me is a decent game but doesn't change that much compared to the first and second game, it doesn't improve that much other than the graphics (which has to have the best looking stages in the trilogy), the game was released in the Nintendo 64 era (which is kind of funny that you can see a Nintendo 64 inside this game, wow huh? A Nintendo 64 inside a Super Nintendo game, now that's weird) making it a bit underrated and ignored by many people.
Besides being inferior to the rest of the series (in terms of memorable momments and diffuculty that is), it is still a great game and still has its charm as one of the greatest Super Nintendo games out there.
E.V.O.: Search for Eden
By: Almanic Corporation, Enix
Year: 1993
Genre: Platformer, RPG
Length: 5 hours
Earthbound
By: Ape, HAL Laboratory, Nintendo
Year: 1995
Genre: RPG
Length: 30 hours
What is considered to be many weirdly by one of the best games ever ends up being seems to be a bit too much of a blind opinions by its fans on its terms. Earthbound is a satire on the genre it’s using, not only in a way it makes fun of some JRPG but has is more of a light hearted comedy filled game, it is most praised by people for this fact that shows in quirky dialog around the game, kind of making the NPCs fun to talk to (Which of course Is mostly something people give Earthbound about), references and some mature themes in a kids game. The game is about a kid with physic powers that finds an alien from the future that says the world will end by the hands of Giygas, it’s your mission to find other psychic kids to join your party and defeat Giygas while having this adventure around places. The game uses some content that may be new or interesting such as weird surrealism out of nowhere without any real symbolism which is just basically showing “Hey we can be weird check it out!!” but I wouldn’t call it practically ground breaking like many people do, the gameplay isn’t unique either as it brings things heavily from… Ugh… Retro RPG yet simplify it a bit more, everytime someone dies you gotta bring them to the hospital… Until you learn a magic spell (COUGH) I mean PSI to that revives them, the strategy the game is usually USE THE strongest attack and heal or simply just use it’s weakness so I wouldn’t praise it that much, the only thing I would understand really truly is the reason people enjoy this game is little things… Well… If what the game excels at is in the little things… So it might aswell have negative things following the same rule. Yes the game has it’s touches with some attention to detail but honestly in the end when you compare it to many other RPGs, even RPGs that came out BEFORE, those had more content and where less dull. When people praise Earthbound it’s because it’s SIMPLE. When did simple become better than actual effort? The presentation of the game isn’t really the best as some things seem that there isn’t any weight to them (Being that the game hardly has any plot or character development WOOPSIE DAISY) and the only things you may get out of the game is this one dialog that is supposed to say something deep and short but all and all it’s just meaningless. I mean Earthbound is like the primest example of people treating something to more than it actually is, like no matter how much you make the quirky dialog sound deep inside your head the game itself is pretty one dimensional, mature elements or not.
One of the things I disliked in Earthbound are mostly the difficulty curves which are with you FROM the start, these are the types of things in a RPG that makes you enter the grinding mumbo… I got in the grinding mumbo from the game forcing me to become level 7 to pass the very first screen, I never want to feel that way ever again and there are so many easy enemies that give many XP, it basically makes you never stuck again of how overpowered you get. Most mandatory encounters anyways can be easily defeated with their weakness like one of the first bosses being a mole, after you paralyze him the rest of the battle is over. In most normal occasions it’s just use bash (or some psi if bash is useless) then use LIFEUP. There was never a real occasion throughout the entire game which I needed to use food because PP is easy come easy go, which is quite sad because the food items are always interesting but I end up dropping em instead due to almost no space. Sell em? I’ve got all the money in the world it’s not until later of the game where I feel as if I gotta buy all my characters some bracelet but I hardly use money! Fall of capitalism indeed… Also grinding feels forced the most when you get a new character, there is no auto-leveling in the game and they give you a low level character when you are high level, this makes me want to grind because any small strike will DESTROY the low level character, forcing me to a hospital to revive them… ALSO ISN’T IT NICE THAT USUALLY THE PLACE IM GOING TO USE MORE MONEY DOESN’T HAVE A ATM? This wastes my time, it wasn’t until I figured out teleportation Beta that made me go ALWAYS like no exceptions to Saturn Valley where EVERYTHING IS PERFECT (Except the butterfly being in unreachable areas). But yes the game not letting you proceed to the first location if you don’t grind atleast to level 8 with 3 enemies next to the first place is EXTREMELY ANNOYING. This pauses the game’s chance of having an actual flow and it’s not the only part this happens! The whole game sometimes simply feels unbalanced! But really enough about the negatives (which sadly bothered me throughout the game making me struggle to find enjoyment) time to say what is good in the game which is the the artistic merits! Anything but plot writing is a bit ok, the music is very experimental in some occasions in which it feels as if it’s really going for the limit of the system by ACTUALLY making sounds that sound like you’re in real life such as the burp and some echo effects they do with some reverse techno sounds which are AMAZING. Like I’ve said the presentation is very weak but the dialog in which you get and the odd stuff you get around to is I guess neutral in my opinion on whenever or not they should satisfy you, for example let’s say a very big surrealist monster attacks you in REAL LIFE and the only thing he says is “Wow I am bad” like there’s not really dramatic about that or actually deep it’s just stupid and not impressive at all but either way it’s cool to see a well painted drawing even if it feels dull in terms of meaning, the visuals of the game are indeed very impressive and this shows allot in battles in which the backgrounds are well animated psychedelic illusions? Not sure what to name them, maybe call them Po-mo, Post Modern. And many who played this game are shocked by one spooky moment in the ending in which the final boss is supposed to be scary? Personally by the time I got to play this game, Giygas was already known as a joke for me, not being scary at all and certainly being a boring fight. Don’t call this spoilers because I haven’t really explained him, besides like I mentioned it’s been spoiled by basically anyone by now. The game’s soundtrack isn’t experimental all the way but that’s also a whole thing I felt missing for earthbound, it doesn’t go all the way, it rather be a simple satire than I feel what it wants to feel… A Very experimental balls to the walls RPG. This shows throughout the entire game that tried SO HARD to do it but going back to the music, many of the soundtrack’s is a bit too simple perhaps? I really enjoyed the calm music themes they have, which have a nice intro and relaxing cut down along some simple slow notes. There are also a quite allot genre mixes during the adventure you’ll hear and honestly Earthbound’s soundtrack is VERY variational yet falls flats in some catagories, out though this I consider it to be one of the best video game soundtracks and ESPECIALLY one of the best features of the game.
Earthbound is a RPG that tries to survive solely on its artistic merits and uniqueness yet fails a bit being dull. Being funny or satirical doesn’t really make yourself better of a game compared to games with more content and effort but what I can give to to the game is that it somewhat succeeds is following the RPG rules of giving you a… Maybe… A fulfilling adventure. (The variation of locations are there, the moments are aswell but all and all it’s just TOLERABLE.) I also feel to note at the end that this review contains the word QUIRKY quite allot because... That’s basically what the game is. If anything it’s the best Retro RPG which I give it that.
F-Zero
By: Nintendo
Year: 1991
Genre: Racing
Length: 3 hours
Final Fantasy VI
By: Square
Year: 1994
Genre: RPG
Length: 20 hours
Final Fight 2
By: Capcom
Year: 1993
Genre: Beat-Em-Up
Length: 2 hours
Final Fight 3
By: Capcom
Year: 1996
Genre: Beat-Em-Up
Length: 2 hours
Gokujou Parodius
By: Konami
Year: 1994
Genre: Shoot 'em Up
Length: 30 Minutes
Goof Troop
By: Capcom
Year: 1993
Genre: Puzzle
Length: 2 hours
Gradius III
By: Konami
Year: 1991
Genre: Shoot 'Em Up
Length: 3 hours
Ghost Sweeper Mikami: Joreishi ha Nice Body
By: Natsume
Year: 1993
Genre: Platformer
Length: 2 hours
Hagane: The Final Conflict
By: Red Entertainment, Hudson Soft
Year: 1994
Genre: Platformer
Length: 2 hours
HyperZone
By: HAL Laboratory
Year: 1991
Genre: Rail Shooter
Length: 30 minutes
Illusion of Gaia
By: Enix
Year: 1994
Genre: Isometric Shooter, RPG
Length:
Inspector Gadget
By: Hudson Soft Company, Ltd.
Year: 1990
Genre: Platformer
Length: 1 hour
Killer Instinct
By: Rare Ltd.
Year: 1995
Genre: Fighter
Length: Until you get bored.
Kirby's Dream Course
By: Nintendo
Year: 1995
Genre: Sports
Length:
Pretty much "Kirby's Mini Golf"
Kirby's Dream Land 3
By: Nintendo
Year: 1997
Genre: Platformer
Length:
Kirby Super Star
By: Nintendo
Year: 1996
Genre: Platformer
Length:
Lethal Enforcers
By: Konami
Year: 1992
Genre: Rail Shooter
Length: 1 hour
Magic Sword
By: Capcom
Year: 1992
Genre: Arcade, Platformer
Length: 1 hour
Metal Warriors
By: LucasArt
Year: 1995
Genre: Metroidvania
Length:
Mario Paint
By: Nintendo
Year: 1992
Genre: Shoot 'Em Up, Workstation
Length: Until you get bored.
Mega Man 7
By: Capcom
Year: 1995
Genre: Platformer, Run and Gun
Length:
Mega Man Soccer
By: Capcom
Year: 1994
Genre: Sports
Length: Until you get bored.
Mega Man X
By: Capcom
Year: 1993
Genre: Platformer, Run and Gun
Length: 1 hour
Mega Man X 2
By: Capcom
Year: 1994
Genre: Platformer, Run and Gun
Length: 2 hours
Mega Man X 3
By: Capcom
Year: 1995
Genre: Platformer, Run and Gun
Length: 3 hours
Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City
By: Electronic Arts
Year: 1994
Genre: Platformer
Length:
Micro Machines
By: Merit Studious
Year: 1994
Genre: Racing
Length:
Ninja Gaiden Trilogy
By: Tecmo
Year: 1995
Genre: Platformer
Length:
On the Ball
By: Taito
Year: 1990
Genre: Arcade, Platformer
Length:
Also known as Cameltry
Out of This World
By: Eric Chahi
Year: 1992
Genre: Cinematic Platformer
Length:
Matsuba! Also known as Another World
Pac-Attack
By: Namco
Year: 1993
Genre: Puzzle
Length:
Phalanx
By: Kemco, ZOOM Inc.
Year: 1992
Genre: Shoot 'em up
Length:
Pieces
By: Atlus, Prism Kikaku
Year: 1994
Genre: Puzzle
Length:
Pilotwings
By: Nintendo
Year: 1991
Genre: Simulator
Length:
Plok
By: Software Creations
Year: 1993
Genre: Platformer
Length:
Pocky & Rocky
By: Natsume
Year: 1993
Genre: Isometric Shooter
Length:
Saturday Night Slam Masters
By: Capcom
Year: 1994
Genre: Fighter
Length:
Secret of Evermore
By: Square
Year: 1995
Genre: Hack 'n Slash, RPG
Length:
Secret of Mana
By: Square
Year: 1993
Genre: Hack 'n Slash, RPG
Length:
Secret of Mana 2
By: Square
Year: 1995
Genre: Hack 'n Slash, RPG
Length:
A fan translation of the only released in Japan game "Seiken Densetsu 3" which was supposed to be a sequel to Secret of Mana.
Shadowrun
By: Beam Software
Year: 1993
Genre: Isometric Shooter, RPG
Length:
Shien's Revenge
By: Givro, Vic Tokai
Year: 1994
Genre: Rail Shooter
Length:
Go Nangai made this~
SimAnt
By: Imagineer, Maxis Software
Year: 1993
Genre: Simulator
Length:
SkyBlazer
By: Sony Imagesoft
Year: 1994
Genre: Platformer
Length:
Smash TV
By: Beam Software
Year: 1992
Genre: Isometric Shooter
Length:
Sonic The Hedgehog 4
By: Twin Eagles Group
Year: 1996
Genre: Platformer
Length:
Space Invaders: The Original Game
By: Taito
Year: 1997
Genre: Shoot 'em Up
Length:
Space Megaforce
By: Compile
Year: 1993
Genre: Shoot 'em Up
Length:
Also known as Super Aleste.
Sparkster
By: Konami
Year: 1994
Genre: Platformer
Length:
Star Fox
By: Nintendo
Year: 1993
Genre: Rail Shooter
Length:
Strike Gunner S.T.G.
By: Athena
Year: 1992
Genre: Shoot 'em Up
Length:
Stunt Race FX
By: Nintendo
Year: 1994
Genre: Racing
Length:
Sunset Riders
By: Konami
Year: 1993
Genre: Run 'n Gun
Length:
Super Adventure Island
By: Hudson Soft
Year: 1992
Genre: Platformer
Length:
Super Bomberman
By: Hudson Soft
Year: 1993
Genre: Puzzle
Length:
Super Bomberman 2
By: Hudson Soft
Year: 1994
Genre: Puzzle
Length:
Super Bonk
By: Hudson Soft, Red Company
Year: 1994
Genre: Platformer
Length:
Super Buster Brothers
By: Capcom
Year: 1992
Genre: Shoot 'em Up
Length:
Super Chase H.Q
By: Taito
Year: 1993
Genre: Racing
Length:
Super Earth Defense Force
By: Jaleco
Year: 1992
Genre: Shoot 'em Up
Length:
Super Ghouls'n Ghosts
By: Capcom
Year: 1991
Genre: Platformer
Length:
Super Mario All Stars + Super Mario World
By: Nintendo
Year: 1993
Genre: Platformer
Length:
Super Mario Kart
By: Nintendo
Year: 1992
Genre: Racing
Length:
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
By: Nintendo, Square
Year: 1992
Genre: RPG
Length:
Super Mario World
By: Nintendo
Year: 1991
Genre: Platformer
Length:
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
By: Nintendo
Year: 1995
Genre: Platformer
Length:
Super Metroid
By: Nintendo
Year: 1994
Genre: Metroidvania
Length:
Super Nova
By: Taito
Year: 1993
Genre: Shoot 'em Up
Length:
Also known as Darius Force
Super Punch-Out!!
By: Nintendo
Year: 1994
Genre: Sports
Length:
Super R-TYPE
By: Irem
Year: 1991
Genre: Shoot 'em Up
Length:
Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers
By: Capcom
Year: 1993
Genre: Fighter
Length:
Super Turrican
By: Factor 5
Year: 1993
Genre: Run 'n Gun
Length:
Super Turrican 2
By: Factor 5
Year: 1995
Genre: Run 'n Gun
Length:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time
By: Konami
Year: 1992
Genre: Beat 'em Up
Length:
Tetris & Dr. Mario
By: Nintendo
Year: 1994
Genre: Puzzle
Tetris Attack
By: Nintendo
Year: 1996
Genre: Puzzle
The Adventures of Batman & Robin
By: Konami
Year: 1994
Genre: Beat 'em Up, Platformer
The Chaos Engine
By: Capcom
Year: 1992
Genre: Shoot 'em Up
Length:
The Irem Skins Game
By: Irem
Year: 1992
Genre: Sports
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
By: Nintendo
Year: 1991
Genre: Isometric Shooter, RPG
The Ninja Warriors
By: Natsume, Taito
Year: 1994
Genre: Beat 'em Up
Length:
Top Gear
By: Gremlin Graphics, Kemco
Year: 1992
Genre: Racing
Length:
U.N Squadron
By: Capcom
Year: 1991
Genre: Shoot 'em Up
Length:
Uniracers
By: Nintendo
Year: 1994
Genre: Racing
Length:
Wild Guns
By: Natsume
Year: 1992
Genre: Third Person Rail Shooter
Length:
Yoshi's Cookie
By: Nintendo
Year: 1993
Genre: Puzzle
Zombies Ate My Neighbors
By: LucasArts
Year: 1993
Genre: Isometric Shooter
Length: