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The SNES Thread


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I've been hammering the SNES lately after adding a few new games to my library. We usually get it out once a year to play A Link To The Past but over Christmas time I really fancied a day of just playing Aladdin and Super Mario World and since then I've been trialling some roms and then if they're good getting them from my local retro shop. Not to sound snobby but you really can't beat playing on original hardware.

Despite my first ever console being the NES and loving it to death, I never really formed a connection to the SNES. It was the console I had round my Dad's after my parents divorced and I already had a MegaDrive at home by that point. Maybe it was the fact I had Sonic 2 at home and Clayfighter at my Dad's, or maybe it was the crushing sadness of my family falling apart around me that left me just not really digging it.

Strangely it was everyone else's SNES' that got me more into the SNES as the years went on.
My Aunt and Uncle lived next door to my Grandparents where my Dad was living at the time and they had a SNES there for my cousins who visited. My Uncle was and still is a great bloke. He would collect wooden ice lolly sticks he found on walks and build things like dollhouses and stuff for my cousins, and I remember vividly us all being round there watching him play Super Mario The Lost Levels on it in the kitchen. The day Channel 5 launched me and my cousins were playing Captain America and The Avengers on it upstairs and turned it off just in time to watch the launch.

My aunt and other cousin lived at my Grandparent's too and eventually got their own SNES after my aunt got hooked on Super Mario Allstars (specifically SMB3) and I was with her when she beat World 8. They got Tiny Toons Buster Busts Loose and Donkey Kong Country. I played that K Rool fight just for the music so many times.

A friend of my brother's lived round the corner but now and again if my brother was busy, I'd hang out with him as well. He had one of those cool toy castle sets and his SNES was in the dining room with it. He had Super Ghouls and Ghosts which then and now I still love even if I can't do it. At the time we basically acted as though Stage 1 was the whole game and even then couldn't do it. His older brother called us upstairs one day to show us the Psycho Mantis bit on Metal Gear Solid, and also showed us DOOM on his PC. A world that was a couple of years away from me yet.
When I eventually was allowed to bring my SNES home with me, the same lad borrowed me Earthworm Jim 2 and Donkey Kong Country 2.

A friend of my Dad's who lived nearby had 4 kids and ferrets had one, or at least his son did. We didn't go there maybe more than a handful of times but he had Donkey Kong Country 3 and Killer Instinct, which were games near the end of the SNES' run and looked fantastic. My aunt eventually got DKC 3 and I played it to death after that. I would make a strong case for it being my favourite of the trilogy of DKC games.

The games I had in comparison were pretty naff. I don't know if I'm forgetting any but I had Super Mario Allstars, Primal Rage, Clayfighter, and Starfox. Starfox and SMBAS are fab but you can maybe see why I was a MegaDrive lad and looked for my SNES thrills elsewhere.

Years later when emulation became a thing was when I discovered everything I had missed on the SNES. A Link to The Past, Super Metroid, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, Kirby, Castlevania IV. An entire world of games hidden from me while I played parody fighting games and other people's copies of Donkey Kong. Now I would regard the console much higher and a few of my top games of all time are on it.
So yeah, I've been playing a few of them and will do a couple of writeups to avoid clogging the retro thread. Feel free to add your own SNES memories and reviews!

Sim City

sim1.jpg.f55a49b62ef6687c3838c1c3ae20dea4.jpg

What is it?

A city-building sim in which you are the mayor of a newly developing plot of land and must thrive from a small village to a bustling megalopolis by building residential, commercial and industrial areas, attracting residents and keeping them happy and expanding with airports, seaports and public amenities.

How is it?

In short, it's brilliant. I never got on with the Sim City games and always found them incredibly dull and complicated but after giving this one a chance I got hooked and have spent hours on the thing (after getting the memory battery replaced). It's the most simple iteration of the game so no waterpipes and faffing on in this one. There are 3 zones to build, you connect them with roads and rail and powerlines and try and keep everyone happy.
The interface is basic but it's nice watching the grids develop from coloured letters into big cities as people move in. The music is gorgeous, a true hidden gem of the SNES.

Sim2.jpg.64a286f4ea643d1bf6d10043cb2b74ab.jpg

Nintendo handled the port from PC so there's some wonderful Nintendo touches to it, including Bowser replacing Godzilla as a natural disaster, adding new tiles and scenarios and adding Dr Wright, a green haired bloke who helps you with tutorials and tips about how you're doing as mayor. Without him I'd be lost!
Dr Wright is probably more recognised now as the assist trophy in the Super Smash Bros series that builds skyscrapers at you.

It's not without flaws mind, the main one being slowdown when you load your game up so all the power goes out and crime goes bonkers for the first year back. If you can get past the graphics though and want a simple, addictive sim game then I've never played much better.

 

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20 minutes ago, FelatioLips said:

The music is gorgeous

Always makes me think of the piano in REMs Man On The Moon verse, lovely.
 

Some of my favourite SNES memories revolve around me working in HMVs new games department in the early 90s. It was badly advertised we had a new games floor so I’d spend all day on my own playing games. I did enjoy switching off the demo console when some annoying berk was about to win against his mates on Street Fighter 2. The power was in my hands and I abused it constantly. That’s not just a wank metaphor. 

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10 minutes ago, FelatioLips said:

Feel free to add your own SNES memories

I replay either super mario world or mario 64 every year or so, and don't think there is a game I enjoy more that super mario world on the snes. It's the only game I've ever 100% completed. 

As a child I had a snes, but back then could just about get to vanilla dome but still loved it. Before that I was playing an atari 2600 and Amstrad pcp, so it was another world to me. Just having a d pad controller was mind blowing, let alone this wonderful world of colour and characters and proper sound. 

I remember once aged about 7 or 8 seeing what would happen if I got 100 lives and then being really sad I'd wasted my time. 

I only had a hand full of other games; roadrunner which I tried again this year and it's still as hard as I remember, street fighter 2 and MK 2 because I'd loved playing Mk1 on my brother in laws megadrive. 

I've also gone back and played Chrono Trigger after a mate recommended it aged about 14 and it's one of the few JRPGs I get a real kick from, I'm midway through a play on steam now. 

 

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My Dad got mine from Tandys in Hounslow, and it was a massive deal, as I really didn't think we could afford one (we couldn't to be honest)

I just remember it being so bright and colourful, Super Mario World especially and the graphics seemed like such a jump from the NES.

I think alongside the N64 it's my favourite console I owned.

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Its weird how I remember the consoles so vividly.

I think this must have been the one where my parents made me open presents in order at Christmas and I opened a SNES game and they were like oh is that the one you wanted.. knowing full well I only had a Gameboy and so it was the wrong bloody type of game.

But then came the SNES. Absolute beauty of a thing. And I remember the grey case I got for it too.

Absolutely fucking love most of the games still to this day. Especially the Mario platformers. Just timeless classics really.

There was a local video games store I loved going in as they'd always have American games in there and it blew my mind.

I just remember being so bloody excited getting a new console as a kid. Up there with the best Christmas memories opening those and then playing with the family. No bloody update download nonsense. Shove the game in, don't read the instructions and just get stuck in. Beautiful.

Hmm that Christmas might be one of the few I still have photos from.. I'll have to see if I can find my joy captured on film.

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The first two console games I ever played were the SNES edition of Mario Kart and I think Mickey’s Magical Quest. Both brilliant at the time - must have been at least 25 years since I’ve played them!

We’ve recently been looking at Nintendo Switches. Is it possible to access classic SNES titles on the Switch? Asking for a friend who absolutely isn’t secretly me. 

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38 minutes ago, Fatty Facesitter said:

The first two console games I ever played were the SNES edition of Mario Kart and I think Mickey’s Magical Quest. Both brilliant at the time - must have been at least 25 years since I’ve played them!

We’ve recently been looking at Nintendo Switches. Is it possible to access classic SNES titles on the Switch? Asking for a friend who absolutely isn’t secretly me. 

Sign up to the lowest tier of Nintendo Online for access to a NES and SNES library!

I used to play Super Mario World a lot before school. Compared to the other Mario games of that era it balances the difficulty just right. I could finish 2 and World but not 1 and 3.

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I was a SEGA kid for years - I never owned a Nintendo home console until the Gamecube, which I got really late in its lifespan. I can't even think of any of my mates having a SNES then either, so my first memory of playing one was during a hospital stay when I was a kid. They had a kind of playroom there for kids, and I spent as much time as I was allowed in there playing Super Mario All-Stars. As much of a Sonic kid as I was, I could recognise even then just how well designed Mario levels were in comparison. 

One of the schools I went to had a SNES in one of the rooms we were allowed in during breaks if it was raining, and they had Mario Kart tournaments a few times, and I was shit at it back then. That was about the extent of my SNES playing that I can remember - I'm sure I must have known someone who owned one and played the odd game there, or on a shop display model, but nothing comes to mind. 

I went back and played a lot of stuff in emulation when I was a teenager, mostly inspired by wanting to go back and play the Final Fantasy games after getting obsessed with FFVII. Even if there was nothing on the console but Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound and Secret of Mana, I'd still love it for that. 

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Probably the best Xmas present I've ever had. 

My folks didn't have much money and I knew that, so all I asked for was Sonic 2 for the Master System. That's all I wanted, I'd watch the demos of it in Woolworths endlessly. The Master System version was shit as well! I didn't care. 

What a surprise when instead on Christmas Day I opened up a SNES, with Street Fighter II. Overjoyed was a massive understatement! I played that game to death until my birthday 4 months later, when I got Sim City.

Over the years, other favourites of mine included Super Mario World (discovering and completing all levels was my mission), Mario Kart, NBA Jam, Theme Park, Mario All-stars and one of the greatest games of all-time- Link's Awakening. 

I have more fond memories of the SNES than any other console. I got the mini SNES for Christmas a few years ago and have also played some of the games on the Switch through Nintendo online membership. I think it's one console where so many of the games are timeless regardless of the graphics, such as Super Mario World and Link's Awakening.

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It's interesting to see who got what console. After getting a Game Boy I was absolutely a Nintendo guy so I think I've had all their home consoles since then and dipped in and out of the handhelds.

Sega I never got one until the Dreamcast which is actually still one of my favourite consoles to this day as I'm a sucker for arcades and it was like having one at home.

Never got into Microsoft until XBox 360 and Sony until PS3.

But yeah as a kid I was absolutely all about Nintendo and that's definitely something my kids are enjoying too. 

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Loved the SNES. Mario All stars, Street Fighter 2 Turbo and Mario Paint all had some serious Playtime in my house. 

I'm still a firm believer that Mario Kart on the SNES is the best version and I won't hear anything else. 

I remember p Ilaying Donkey Kong Country was like going from a Master System to a PlayStation. Such an incredible leap in terms of tech. I remember the visuals and how the game played left me stunned. 

Did anyone else have the Super Scope? It was clumsy, awkward and I remember the game that came with it not being much cop. Looked bad ass though. 

Screenshot_20230108_172839_Chrome.jpg.ffffd02831c46e27b14bebb84d8e0045.jpg

 

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10 hours ago, PunkStep said:

Probably the best Xmas present I've ever had. 

My folks didn't have much money and I knew that, so all I asked for was Sonic 2 for the Master System. That's all I wanted, I'd watch the demos of it in Woolworths endlessly. The Master System version was shit as well! I didn't care. 

What a surprise when instead on Christmas Day I opened up a SNES, with Street Fighter II. Overjoyed was a massive understatement! I played that game to death until my birthday 4 months later, when I got Sim City.

Over the years, other favourites of mine included Super Mario World (discovering and completing all levels was my mission), Mario Kart, NBA Jam, Theme Park, Mario All-stars and one of the greatest games of all-time- Link's Awakening. 

I have more fond memories of the SNES than any other console. I got the mini SNES for Christmas a few years ago and have also played some of the games on the Switch through Nintendo online membership. I think it's one console where so many of the games are timeless regardless of the graphics, such as Super Mario World and Link's Awakening.

Are you getting Link's Awakening mixed up with A Link to the Past? The former was a Game Boy game which you could play on the SNES, but only via a Super Game Boy. It was still pretty decent, mind, but ALTTP/Zelda 3 was an absolute masterpiece. 

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Like BlowjobGob, we started with a NES and moved on to SNES. First games we had were Super Probotector, which was absolutely superb, Super Mario Kart and Super Mario World. Easily my favourite ever games system. The 16-bit era has never been beaten for playability and instant enjoyment, the Megadrive was ace too.

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18 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Like BlowjobGob, we started with a NES and moved on to SNES. First games we had were Super Probotector, which was absolutely superb, Super Mario Kart and Super Mario World. Easily my favourite ever games system. The 16-bit era has never been beaten for playability and instant enjoyment, the Megadrive was ace too.

I had the Gameboy version of Probotector which was really good too. It’s just a reskin of Contra, I found out years later. I almost bought it the other day but came away with Blackhawk and Chaos Engine instead!

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