/v/'s Recommended Games Wiki - SNES
117 Games
A classic time-traveling JRPG by Square. Great visuals, fantastic music, an imaginative story, and gameplay that best utilizes the classic ATB system out of any game that has it. Considered to be one of the best RPGs of all time. Ported to the PlayStation and DS, both features anime cut-scenes but the latter also has bonus extras/no half-assed load times.
An underrated Castlevania game. Often considered "Rondo of Blood Lite", this game really only took the gameplay, sprites, and storyline from Rondo and gave it some new content. Has great and smooth gameplay, and some parts are arguably better than Rondo. A very solid old-school CV game. Give it a shot. It's not Rondo, but parts of it are even designed to be harder at parts, most notably that FUCKING LAST BOSS.
A JRPG by Capcom. You are still the dragon, but not the same one, as this takes place centuries later. You can now power up party members with elemental shamans you find, and build/run your own town later on. This game features a pretty twisted story as well. It was also ported to the GBA with a few additions, similar to Breath of Fire I (EXP gain and the run button, mostly). The localization for both is horrendous though, and there's a superior translation patch for this (with a run button!). Also has great music like the first. The series continues on Playstation 1 with BoF III.
A JRPG by Capcom. Your hometown's destroyed, your sister's kidnapped, and an evil empire is running amok. What next, a dragon? Unlike other RPGs, You ARE the Dragon! As a dragon-man, you can transform into a dragon to kick some evil ass. Later on, certain party members can fuse together. Despite the setup being rather dull, the story fleshes itself out in very unique and touching ways, with a number of unexpected twists. It also has great music. It was ported to the GBA with a few additions, most notably the 'run' button and added EXP. The GBA version is recommended to make the game less tedious.
Actually the second title in the Rushing Beat series, and a sequel to Rival Turf. A gigantic improvement over it's predecessor, which was just a mediocre Final Fight ripoff, this one has multiple characters to choose, each with their own characteristics, and a change in setting to pseudo-cyberpunk where you fight robot clones. Later followed by Rushing Beat Shura/The Peace Keepers
Most of the game takes place in dungeons, with a heavy emphasis on puzzles. The player takes on the role of a young adventurer who can have up to two jades, creatures that perform tasks such as healing or long range attacks, following you at one time.
A Blizzard game that featured orcs before Warcraft. You are a manly dude wielding a shotgun. Take back your kingdom from a bunch of orcs by shooting them with your shotgun and throwing grenades... Or you can just shoot everyone you come across... Including the humans you're supposed to be saving. Plays a bit like old-school Prince of Persia with guns.
A top down racing game that plays like Rock 'n Roll Racing (see below).
The most fun part of this game is the turbo system. My advice: choose Vinnie or Modo and learn every way to perform turbos (there are several ways). The downside of this is that characters are very uneven.
A lot of fun in multiplayer. Biker Mice From Mars SNES screenshot
The most fun part of this game is the turbo system. My advice: choose Vinnie or Modo and learn every way to perform turbos (there are several ways). The downside of this is that characters are very uneven.
A lot of fun in multiplayer. Biker Mice From Mars SNES screenshot
Battletoads on your SNES, and as hard as ever! Thankfully not as infuriating as the original, but still up there.
It's a very solid beat'em up about Batman (duh). Maybe it looks like Final Fight, but sound, background are arcade quality. And levels vary from classic isometric view to flat 2d levels. Features intermissions based on movie. And look at that goddamn Batman! He just lifts up those bad guys by one hand! Badass, total badass.
Axelay is a fantastic shoot em' up from Konami. Let me just start this off by saying that this game features some of the best graphics and music on the SNES. Period. Mode-7 all over the place. 6 stages in all, half are horizontally scrolling and half are vertically scrolling. You can switch between 3 different weapons on the fly, but if you get hit, you lose whatever weapon you're currently using. Lose all your weapons you lose a life. At the beginning of each stage, you get to choose whatever 3 weapons you want to play with for that stage. All of the weapons have little nuances to discover as you use them. This game is also balls-hard. A must play for sure. Available on the Wii's Virtual Console.
Great underrated platformer that only made it to Europe. Based on the the popular comics. Can be a bit difficult sometimes. Has a beautiful and underrated soundtrack.
If you've every played a Brick Breaker game or Breakout clone with power-ups, it was based on Arkanoid. This is the SNES version of the arcade classic. Bounce the ball, hit the bricks, collect power-ups, break more bricks, etc. This version added a story for some reason? It also adds boss battles. Either way, a classic game that is still fun to drop a few hours into. Also supports the Super Nintendo Mouse.
An RPG developed by HAL, creators of Kirby and Super Smash Bros. Arcana is a great little JRPG with a lot of heart. Grab some loot in town and head out into whatever dungeon is next on your list. You explore dungeons from a first-person, Phantasy Star-esque perspective, but this game features a VERY helpful map. Battles are standard turn-based fare with random encounters. Even though monsters and characters are displayed on cards, nothing about the game is really card-based. Other characters will come and go in the story, but you always have one space in your party for different elemental beings that travel and fight alongside you. You collect more of these beings as the game progresses. My favorite part of this gem though? THE MUSIC. This game's soundtrack is composed by the guy who scores the Kirby games. Kirby music. In an RPG. This game features a lot of polish and is truly a hidden gem. No Virtual Console release yet, but it's not a hard game to find.
Fantastic co-op shoot 'em up. Exceptional due to the fact that in spite of the SNES's slow processor, it almost manages to keep up with the arcade version's insanely fast pace. Though the series is known for its wacky pilots and scenarios, you unfortunately won't find much of that here but it's still a solid shooter otherwise. You'll definitely be rockin' to some of the tunes which are far superior to the arcade version.
In terms of story the sequel is pretty much a re-do of the first game, but the entire sim aspect has been omitted. Now it's a straightforward action-platformer, and a lot more challenging to the point of frustration. However the art direction and visual quality have greatly improved, and your character has some cool new tricks (like the ability to glide). Not as good as the first game, but worthwhile for action veterans.
You are God (or "The Master"), off to save humanity from Satan (or "Tanzra") and his army of demons. Liberate human settlements from demons in side-scrolling, platforming sections, then help humans build up their towns in overhead, Civilization-style sim sections. The way these two aspects are interwoven is unique, and neither aspect is too complex or challenging to turn you away. The Japanese version doesn't censor references to religion, but is significantly harder. After beating the game you unlock a "Professional" mode that omits all the sim sections.
