Post by nocturnal YL on Aug 11, 2024 12:29:07 GMT -5
It has been more than 3 months. I originally thought to revisit this thread more frequently, since it has become a pretty good place for me to talk about games I've played that I otherwise don't talk about often.
The theme this time is Super Famicom / Super NES. To help myself recall what games I've played, I turned to Wikipedia, and there are far fewer first-party Nintendo games than I thought.
For those unfamiliar with my rating scale, I use an arbitrary scale that roughly shows how much do I like these games relative to each other. There is no absolute maximum or minimum.
Super Scope 6 (Score: 15)
Super Scope pack-in game. Known mostly for blatantly infringing the Tetris trademark. As a demo game, it's not that fun, either.
Wario's Woods (Score: 31)
I like puzzle games, but not this one. Monsters and bombs drop quickly, it's difficult to plan Toad's movements, and he moves relatively slow. I never got to really learn how to play this game.
Super Mario Kart (Score: 38)
Prince of Persia (Score: 38)
The SNES port introduced music, improved graphics and some stage changes. It mostly makes for a more pleasant experience, but some aspects of the design still feel archiac, most notably the 120-minute time limit and the lack of any kind of screen scrolling (though this may be intentional, to emphasise its DOS roots). The part where the prince must avoid fighting his mirror image and merge with it is brilliant.
Mario & Wario (Score: 39)
A pretty neat little puzzle game where Wanda guides Wario's victim to Luigi. The pace is a bit slow, but I guess the SNES ball mouse isn't meant to be precise, and a faster speed will get in the way of the gameplay.
Yoshi's Cookie (Score: 41)
A slow-paced puzzle game that turns out to be more fun than I thought. It still gets boring pretty quickly, and I don't think I got past level 30.
F-ZERO (Score: 41)
A racing game with some of the best music heard on the SNES. There are not many actions available, making the races a test of raw machine control skill, and I find it… well, I can only pass the Beginner class.
Boosting works differently here, in that you're not sacrificing health to boost. You also can't fall out of the course as easily, so while it's hard to win races, surviving is pretty easy. I like the style of the newer games better.
Spindizzy Worlds (Score: 42)
The graphics in this game make it obvious that it's a port from Amiga. It's a precision platformer where the spaceship in the shape of a spinning top can break very easily upon falling or enemy contact (think Marble Madness). And it has an isometric view to boost, with the up direction on the controller corresponding to top-right in the field (think Disgaea, except that you're controlling a fragile object in real-time). The graphics style and control makes this game very difficult.
It is a well-made port though. Like the other computer-to-SNES ports at the time, changes were made to make it more console-like, including the addition of background music.
Wrecking Crew '98 (Score: 43)
A panel-matching game, but instead of moving them with a cursor, there is a character in the field who can destroy unwanted tiles and move panels. This adds to the challenge of the game, but this doesn't pose as a problem when it comes to clearing the single-player story.
Some people make a big deal out of this game's characters, but I'd chalk it up to pre-Wii Nintendo's general weirdness. They're the same company that thought Mario Artist and Game Boy Camera were good ideas.
Yoshi's Safari (Score: 43)
A simple rail shooter, and one that's a lot easier than Battle Clash. The highlight here is King Fred and Prince Pine, one-off human royals in the story who Mario and Yoshi need to save and who have zero gameplay influence other than giving Bowser non-Peach abduction targets.
Aladdin (Score: 43)
One of the Disney games made by Capcom. There are online discussions that pit this game against the Genesis version from Virgin Games, but I didn't even know there's a Genesis version until I read about the discussions. On its own, the Capcom version is a pretty good game, although the story is quite hard to follow. The stages are set pieces that refer to various parts of the movie, but reading the game's story isn't a good way to learn about the movie.
This game has the earliest pity mechanism that I know of. In Stage 4, if Aladdin misses the Genie's various stage gimmicks (for crossing long gaps), in the next attempt the Genie will spawn only flat platforms.
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (Score: 44)
The first Mario RPG, and the first that I've played too. I don't like it as much as the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi games, though. This game doesn't work as well as an introductory RPG as, say, Paper Mario or Fire Emblem, where what each primary stat does and calculations are simple and fixed. It's also confusing; for example, after using an item, there is a 26% chance of getting that item back, and the game shows the somewhat cryptic message "Got a freebie!" to indicate that.
The overall story can be summed up as "The bridge to Bowser's castle is broken, and now Mario and pals have to find another long alternate path", which is actually quite funny. It feels like it's playing safe compared to Paper Mario or Mario & Luigi (or even Super Mario Galaxy 1), so don't expect anything deep here.
Bishōjo Senshi Sailor Moon S - Kondo wa Puzzle de Oshiokiyo! (Score: 45)
A competitive puzzle game with a moderately difficult VS COM mode and a very unforgiving 1P mode. It doesn't really matter though, since there is absolutely nothing to unlock in this game (and no save file either). I thought this game just loops over infinitely, but when doing research on this game (source), it turns out that there is an ending screen by finishing 20 battles (2 loops against 10 opponents) or 20 1P games.
Also, the gameplay is based on Zoo Corporation's BreakThru!, and it has a sequel called Bishōjo Senshi Sailor Moon S: Kurukkurin, which has better balance but is rather slow-paced and lacks visual flair. Both games also don't really make good use of the Sailor Moon IP, with a few character-specific moves being the only gameplay mechanic referencing it.
This game supports the SNES mouse, by the way.
I'd say the puzzle game itself is moderately enjoyable, but planning around clearing the last few blocks can get very difficult.
Battle Clash (Score: 45)
A 1-on-1 tank shooting game where you don't get to pilot your tank, the ST Falcon. The good thing about this is that you don't have to worry about avoiding enemy attacks and can focus on shooting, and the story outright states that having separate pilot and gunner is the main reason the ST Falcon is victorious. It's a very tough game even on an emulator with mouse control, and I can't imagine actually playing this with a light gun.
Mario Paint (Score: 45)
A painting program with some animation and music capability. Despite being on a home console (with a tile-based display model at that), it's actually more capable than Paintbrush (Windows 3.1) or Paint (Windows 95) in some aspects, even before accounting for the animation part.
Here's the Super Mario 64 credits theme played on the music composer of Mario Paint.
I don't like Fly Swatter, though. It's way too difficult to be enjoyable.
Goof Troop (Score: 46)
Another of Capcom's Disney games, this one is a top-down action adventure game. It's made of 5 short, mostly linear stages, fun enough for genre newcomers but may be a bit too easy for the experienced. The puzzles in Stage 4 and Stage 5 gave me quite a hard time, and I kept losing in Stage 5. I think I was about 8 or 9 years old at the time. Of course, looking at the game now, it's pretty easy.
Oh, and I know nothing about the show it's based on. I didn't even know Goofy has a son.
Super Bomberman 4 (Score: 47)
Contra III: The Alien Wars (Score: 47)
Super Puyo Puyo 2 (Score: 50)
The Super Famicom version of the extremely popular arcade puzzle game. I prefer the modern games from SEGA though. Compile's games relied on absurd humour and generally didn't feel as "professional", reflecting their origin as home computer developers rather than console developers.
Also, this should have been used as the base for Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine and Kirby's Avalanche, not the original Puyo Puyo (which lacks attack cancellation, single column rotation and all clear, making it a simple "make a 4 chain and win" game).
Super Bomberman 2 (Score: 50)
Kirby's Dream Course (Score: 52)
Kirby golf, complete with Copy Abilities. Try to hit at least one enemy each shot, and try to get UFO or Parasol at last for maximum survival chance. This game is famous for being one of the most difficult Kirby games. Except for the final boss fight, where you just keep launching Kirby to hit Mecha Dedede.
It has quite a few unique music tracks that stands out even among the rest of the Kirby series, and that's saying a lot given that this series is unparalleled in music.
Picross NP Vol. 1 (Score: 59)
Picross NP is a group of Picross games with 2-player support available through Nintendo Power at the tail end of the service. Besides regular puzzles, Picross NP features special themed puzzles and a character mode. The theme of Vol. 1 is World Heritage, and the character mode features Pokémon.
Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind (Score: 59)
Famicom Detective Club Part II (but not Part I) was remade on Super Famicom. Featuring graphics that look plain by Super Famicom standard but far improved from Famicom, this is a very easy visual novel in the sense that you cannot lose. Playing optimally helps improve the rating at the end, but that's completely optional.
My favourite part has to be one point where the main character persuades someone who refused to interact with him in any way. It looked like there was no way to get out of the situation, but the correct answer is to select "Stop Investigation", which is normally reserved for saving and exiting the game. It's a brilliant use of the multiple meanings of "Stop Investigation", where it's normally a system function, but it does exactly what it says in this one scene.
Picross NP Vol. 8 (Score: 59)
The second last Super Famicom game. The theme of Vol. 8 is the Sydney 2000 games, and the character mode features Donkey Kong Country characters. The special themed puzzles are 25 by 20, the largest size seen on the Super Famicom Picross games.
Picross NP Vol. 7 (Score: 60)
The theme of Vol. 7 is endangered species, and the character mode features Wario Land 2 characters. Nintendo's website calls this volume the most difficult of the bunch, and I'm inclined to agree.
Mario's Super Picross (Score: 60)
A Mario-themed Picross game with more than 200 questions. The actual puzzles aren't Mario-themed though. I actually like Wario's Super Picross more, since that feels more like a newspaper puzzle game with no video game elements (like detecting player mistakes).
Picross NP Vol. 5 (Score: 60)
The theme of Vol. 5 is constellations, and the character mode features The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time characters.
Picross NP Vol. 2 (Score: 60)
The theme of Vol. 2 is The Wizard of Oz, and the character mode features Yoshi's Story characters. Now, wait a minute… yep, the original book was published in 1900, so by 1999 it had long entered public domain. Interesting.
Picross NP Vol. 4 (Score: 61)
The theme of Vol. 4 is The Tale of Genji, and the character mode features Star Fox 64 characters.
Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 (Score: 61)
Picross NP Vol. 6 (Score: 62)
Starting from Volume 6, the number of problems are doubled, with picks from the previous volumes returning. The theme of Vol. 6 is Italy, and the character mode features Super Mario 64 characters.
Jikkyō Oshaberi Parodius (Score: 62)
Picross NP Vol. 3 (Score: 63)
The theme of Vol. 3 is weather, and the character mode features Kirby Super Star characters. This is the first volume I completed.
Kirby's Star Stacker (Score: 63)
A puzzle game with a somewhat high skill ceiling that starts feeling satisfying once you figure out what to do. I prefer the instant gratification offered by Panel de Pon more, but seeing high chains pulled off makes for a pretty sight too.
It came out right less than 2 months ahead of Kirby's Dream Land 3 in Japan, and shares a similar art style.
Super Mario All-Stars (Score: 64)
A collection of the NES Mario games, with lots of improvements. Game progress can be saved (although they save just the world the player has reached), The Lost Levels is made a lot more rational (no need to finish the whole game 8 times in one sitting anymore), the graphics and music were renewed, and there's the very fact that it's 4 games in 1.
These changes are far from perfect, and I think it's a huge wasted potential that Nintendo never made a single offering that combines the NES-faithful screen size and better music of All-Stars and the extra contents in the Super Mario Advance series. But without that context of having two sets of enhanced releases each with different advantages, Super Mario All-Stars on its own is quite enticing.
Super Bomberman 3 (Score: 64)
Parodius Da! Shimwa Kara Owarai E / It's Parodius! From Myth to Laughter (Score: 65)
Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War (Score: 66)
Panel de Pon (Score: 68)
A new puzzle game that serves as an attempt for INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS to enter the then-popular puzzle game market. While I really like this series, I'd say it doesn't have a level of depth that's anywhere close that of Puyo Puyo. Its premise is like the other similar games: pattern recognition and fast reaction. Since attacks launch garbage blocks that take a while to clear and the players can stall the game, the end product feels more like a game of endurance.
Imagine this game getting a crossover with Puyo Puyo. The characters and story would be a nice fit, but the game balance will be very nightmarish at the expense of the Puyo Puyo player.
Super Mario World (Score: 68)
A relatively simple Mario game compared to Super Mario Bros. 3, but with noticeably better presentation thanks to it being on new hardware. It also finally supports save data. And it's the easiest 2D Mario game (well, second easiest, since Super Mario Advance 2 has modern features on top of the original's low difficulty). Most courses can be flown over and the cape allows slow descent.
Nowadays, most of the fun comes from ROM hacking, and when viewed under ROM editing tools, the structure of Super Mario World is quite simple from a modern perspective, although that's still more complicated than what a simple course editor can do (like the branched paths in Choco Island 2).
I also like the music in this game. It's not particularly technically impressive nor does it compare to games like F-ZERO, but with SNES music, the multiple instrument channels can be told apart rather easily, and they tend to have more pronounced bass instruments compared to the later generations.
Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World (Score: 68)
Why did Nintendo make this overseas only? Why not release it on modern systems? As a later release, it features a better version of Super Mario World with 4 save data slots and unique Luigi sprites that's not seen elsewhere.
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (Score: 70)
This is a very challenging game where the Yoshis face all kinds of terrain hazards (all of which are instant KOs), and enemies that are all too happy to push them into said hazards. Fortunately for the Yoshis, they possess far more versatile moves than what Mario and Donkey Kong can hope for. Unfortunately for them, the constant egg juggling, Mario catching and resource management make survival, and especially 100% completion, a very daunting task. In fact, I've never 100% completed any of the Yoshi's Island games.
The action is quite fun, though. If you can bring yourself to abandon any hope for getting a 100 in any course beyond the first few, it's actually very enjoyable.
Gokujō Parodius – Pursuing the Past Glory (Score: 70)
Tetris Attack (Score: 71)
Panel de Pon with a bright Yoshi theme and catchy music. I like this version better than the original Panel de Pon, as this version has brighter graphics and a scoring system that favours chains more.
Kirby Super Star (Score: 72)
Completely worthless game. There is some good music, but everything else is just an inferior version of Kirby Super Star Ultra. It's also very easy to lose all progress, either by having the physical connector not contacting the console properly or as a result of bizarre glitches. Would not recommend.
Joking aside, this is a rather weird Kirby game, in that it's made of several short modes instead of a single long campaign. Each mode has its own set of rules, and it's good for short play sessions. Would definitely make for a better handheld game than a home console title.
It does deserve credit for introducing the more complex control scheme for Kirby to do more than one or two things per Copy Ability. And it does have pretty good, SNES-grade music, making it one of the very few things that the DS version failed to replicate.
Super Bomberman 5 (Score: 74)
Kirby's Dream Land 3 (Score: 76)
A fairly normal Kirby game that didn't inherit Super Star's complex control scheme, but rather continues on the partner system in Kirby Dream Land 2. This is my introduction to main series Kirby, and I like this more than Kirby Super Star just for being a consistent game that doesn't change rules like every hour or so. The difficult sub-games are required for 100%, making this one of the harder main series Kirby games to complete.
I like the mystic, somewhat melancholic feel of Sand Canyon stage 6.
Sutte Hakkun (Score: 82)
An excellent puzzle game with great music and inviting background graphics. Hakkun's goal is to move the blocks and Makkun around him and inject them with ink (which make them move) to help him collect rainbow shards. It's one of those relaxing games without going out of the way to advertise it as being one.
As a very late Super Famicom game, it has a very modern design, with in-game tutorials (both text and interactive), options to view hints (at the expense of rather heavy, permanent score penalties), and even a mention of Nintendo's official website.
Stages 1 to 8 are pretty easy, but stage 9 starts becoming challenging, and stage 10 gave me quite some trouble. I may talk more about this game at some point.
Games I don't think I've played enough to warrant giving them ratings:
Cool Spot
An action game from Virgin Games. I don't remember how, but I recall playing it on a cartridge. On a Japanese Super Famicom. Must be piracy magic.
I never got past stage 3. The graphics look good, but the camera is quite annoying, and it doesn't control very well.
Crayon Shin-Chan: Nagagutsu Dobon!!
A Crayon Shin-Chan game where the goal is to stomp on puddles and send the water across other puddles and hit the opponents. This is a low-budget, arcade-style game (if its release format as a Sufami Turbo game doesn't make it obvious enough), and isn't really that fun at all.
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!
I got someone else's completed save file, and from there I couldn't tell which parts are the earlier levels and which parts are the later. I also find the throwing mechanism rather convoluted. I can't tell if I'll like it more if I played it properly from start to finish.
Heisei Shin Onigashima Part 1
Tried this after finishing Famicom Detecive Club Part II. This one is quite a step up, in that it's actually possible to lose. I got stuck pretty early on, and I have since abandoned my attempt.
Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge
The sequel to Battle Clash. I played very little of it, and immediately gave up. INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS used to host a Japanese website of this game, even though it's released overseas only.
Metal Slader Glory: Director's Cut
Same matter as Heisei Shin Onigashima. I tried it, found it to be quite difficult, and stopped before making much progress. I also lost some interest when I found that this version is missing some of the Famicom features, meaning that there's no version of this game that's superior in all ways.
Star Fox
Marveled at the 3D, but failed hard at the game. The frame rate is also a bit too low, to the point that the stuttering is distracting.
For an idea on what a smooth SNES Star Fox may feel like, look at the Star Fox boss game in WarioWare: Smooth Moves.
Street Fighter II
"Fighting games are confusing. Why am I getting locked at the edge of the screen, and why do none of my inputs work? Do people actually find this fun?" As you can imagine, at 4-year-old I didn't understand what's the point in having fighting games. But even without the opponent getting in the way, I still didn't understand this game. Who'd press up on the D-pad to jump? And how to jump over enemy attacks? Why are their jumps so low? Oh wait, I finally got this pattern! Just keep using the move before the other guy can respond! I've finally won once, but it's also rather boring. Whatever, I'm going back to Super Mario World.
I don't think fighting games are for me.
Stunt Race FX
Same deal as Star Fox. The 3D is impressive, but the low frame rate is distracting. And since this is a game about monster truck racing, the physics feel rather difficult to get used to compared to the other Nintendo racing games.
Super Bonk
I played this on a plane trip. I was about a third done, and it's actually a pretty fun, if a bit absurd, game.
Super Famicom Wars
Tried playing this game with some limited success. On one particular map, I found myself in a long stalemate against the CPU where we both get manufacturing bases on some lone islands, but since we're equal in manufacturing power and there's nothing but the open sea between us, we ended up making planes and sending them on suicide missions for 10 days straight. If I stop, the CPU will take over my airport, but if I don't, I don't have further resources to manufacture more units.
Super Family Tennis
I remember this game for two things: its lack of music during gameplay, and its menu suggesting that it's possible to plug in 4 controllers. That got me confused, because I didn't know about the Super Multitap. (The Bomberman games only allow players 3 to 5 set as computer players if no multitap device is used.)
As for the actual tennis game, it's rather boring.
Super Metroid
After about two hours, I got lost without having fought any major boss. I'll probably like it better if I have a guide.
Super Sōkoban
This game has an absurdly bad box art. The game inside is a very plain Sōkoban game, but the music kind of grows on me. Not that it's particularly good or anything, but after spending hours on the puzzle game, the tune has become very memorable. And we're talking about hundreds of puzzle with solutions in thousands of steps.
Super Tetris 2 + Bombliss
A falling puzzle game that's kind of like Tetris, but has bombs. The bombs make it hard to determine how will the play area change each time some of the minos are cleared, which is not a good thing for this kind of puzzle game.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
I tried this game, got to the third dungeon, didn't save the game and quit, and found myself all the way back to the first dungeon. Haven't played it ever since, and with its dungeons looking relatively plain compared to the themed dungeons in A Link Between Worlds, I don't think I'll get back to this one.
Uniracers
The unicycle's physics is pretty good, but the general difficulty is higher than I can handle. I didn't get far.
That's a lot of games, and a lot of these are puzzle games. And my recency bias is really showing here. Old games tend to have less content, which may explain why do I like the newer games better; but I think a bigger factor is that I didn't buy and play through these games properly. With the newer systems, I filtered my potential game list before I'd get them in the first place.
Within these Super Famicom games, I tend to like the ones that came out after the debut of Nintendo 64.
This is probably going to be my biggest post in this thread. Super Famicom / Super NES is the one system that I've played the most number of games on. Nintendo Switch comes close, but I've already rated its games under different contexts.
Ranking table (SeaTable)
The theme this time is Super Famicom / Super NES. To help myself recall what games I've played, I turned to Wikipedia, and there are far fewer first-party Nintendo games than I thought.
For those unfamiliar with my rating scale, I use an arbitrary scale that roughly shows how much do I like these games relative to each other. There is no absolute maximum or minimum.
Super Scope 6 (Score: 15)
Super Scope pack-in game. Known mostly for blatantly infringing the Tetris trademark. As a demo game, it's not that fun, either.
Wario's Woods (Score: 31)
I like puzzle games, but not this one. Monsters and bombs drop quickly, it's difficult to plan Toad's movements, and he moves relatively slow. I never got to really learn how to play this game.
Super Mario Kart (Score: 38)
Prince of Persia (Score: 38)
The SNES port introduced music, improved graphics and some stage changes. It mostly makes for a more pleasant experience, but some aspects of the design still feel archiac, most notably the 120-minute time limit and the lack of any kind of screen scrolling (though this may be intentional, to emphasise its DOS roots). The part where the prince must avoid fighting his mirror image and merge with it is brilliant.
Mario & Wario (Score: 39)
A pretty neat little puzzle game where Wanda guides Wario's victim to Luigi. The pace is a bit slow, but I guess the SNES ball mouse isn't meant to be precise, and a faster speed will get in the way of the gameplay.
Yoshi's Cookie (Score: 41)
A slow-paced puzzle game that turns out to be more fun than I thought. It still gets boring pretty quickly, and I don't think I got past level 30.
F-ZERO (Score: 41)
A racing game with some of the best music heard on the SNES. There are not many actions available, making the races a test of raw machine control skill, and I find it… well, I can only pass the Beginner class.
Boosting works differently here, in that you're not sacrificing health to boost. You also can't fall out of the course as easily, so while it's hard to win races, surviving is pretty easy. I like the style of the newer games better.
Spindizzy Worlds (Score: 42)
The graphics in this game make it obvious that it's a port from Amiga. It's a precision platformer where the spaceship in the shape of a spinning top can break very easily upon falling or enemy contact (think Marble Madness). And it has an isometric view to boost, with the up direction on the controller corresponding to top-right in the field (think Disgaea, except that you're controlling a fragile object in real-time). The graphics style and control makes this game very difficult.
It is a well-made port though. Like the other computer-to-SNES ports at the time, changes were made to make it more console-like, including the addition of background music.
Wrecking Crew '98 (Score: 43)
A panel-matching game, but instead of moving them with a cursor, there is a character in the field who can destroy unwanted tiles and move panels. This adds to the challenge of the game, but this doesn't pose as a problem when it comes to clearing the single-player story.
Some people make a big deal out of this game's characters, but I'd chalk it up to pre-Wii Nintendo's general weirdness. They're the same company that thought Mario Artist and Game Boy Camera were good ideas.
Yoshi's Safari (Score: 43)
A simple rail shooter, and one that's a lot easier than Battle Clash. The highlight here is King Fred and Prince Pine, one-off human royals in the story who Mario and Yoshi need to save and who have zero gameplay influence other than giving Bowser non-Peach abduction targets.
Aladdin (Score: 43)
One of the Disney games made by Capcom. There are online discussions that pit this game against the Genesis version from Virgin Games, but I didn't even know there's a Genesis version until I read about the discussions. On its own, the Capcom version is a pretty good game, although the story is quite hard to follow. The stages are set pieces that refer to various parts of the movie, but reading the game's story isn't a good way to learn about the movie.
This game has the earliest pity mechanism that I know of. In Stage 4, if Aladdin misses the Genie's various stage gimmicks (for crossing long gaps), in the next attempt the Genie will spawn only flat platforms.
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (Score: 44)
The first Mario RPG, and the first that I've played too. I don't like it as much as the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi games, though. This game doesn't work as well as an introductory RPG as, say, Paper Mario or Fire Emblem, where what each primary stat does and calculations are simple and fixed. It's also confusing; for example, after using an item, there is a 26% chance of getting that item back, and the game shows the somewhat cryptic message "Got a freebie!" to indicate that.
The overall story can be summed up as "The bridge to Bowser's castle is broken, and now Mario and pals have to find another long alternate path", which is actually quite funny. It feels like it's playing safe compared to Paper Mario or Mario & Luigi (or even Super Mario Galaxy 1), so don't expect anything deep here.
Bishōjo Senshi Sailor Moon S - Kondo wa Puzzle de Oshiokiyo! (Score: 45)
A competitive puzzle game with a moderately difficult VS COM mode and a very unforgiving 1P mode. It doesn't really matter though, since there is absolutely nothing to unlock in this game (and no save file either). I thought this game just loops over infinitely, but when doing research on this game (source), it turns out that there is an ending screen by finishing 20 battles (2 loops against 10 opponents) or 20 1P games.
Also, the gameplay is based on Zoo Corporation's BreakThru!, and it has a sequel called Bishōjo Senshi Sailor Moon S: Kurukkurin, which has better balance but is rather slow-paced and lacks visual flair. Both games also don't really make good use of the Sailor Moon IP, with a few character-specific moves being the only gameplay mechanic referencing it.
This game supports the SNES mouse, by the way.
I'd say the puzzle game itself is moderately enjoyable, but planning around clearing the last few blocks can get very difficult.
Battle Clash (Score: 45)
A 1-on-1 tank shooting game where you don't get to pilot your tank, the ST Falcon. The good thing about this is that you don't have to worry about avoiding enemy attacks and can focus on shooting, and the story outright states that having separate pilot and gunner is the main reason the ST Falcon is victorious. It's a very tough game even on an emulator with mouse control, and I can't imagine actually playing this with a light gun.
Mario Paint (Score: 45)
A painting program with some animation and music capability. Despite being on a home console (with a tile-based display model at that), it's actually more capable than Paintbrush (Windows 3.1) or Paint (Windows 95) in some aspects, even before accounting for the animation part.
Here's the Super Mario 64 credits theme played on the music composer of Mario Paint.
I don't like Fly Swatter, though. It's way too difficult to be enjoyable.
Goof Troop (Score: 46)
Another of Capcom's Disney games, this one is a top-down action adventure game. It's made of 5 short, mostly linear stages, fun enough for genre newcomers but may be a bit too easy for the experienced. The puzzles in Stage 4 and Stage 5 gave me quite a hard time, and I kept losing in Stage 5. I think I was about 8 or 9 years old at the time. Of course, looking at the game now, it's pretty easy.
Oh, and I know nothing about the show it's based on. I didn't even know Goofy has a son.
Super Bomberman 4 (Score: 47)
Contra III: The Alien Wars (Score: 47)
Super Puyo Puyo 2 (Score: 50)
The Super Famicom version of the extremely popular arcade puzzle game. I prefer the modern games from SEGA though. Compile's games relied on absurd humour and generally didn't feel as "professional", reflecting their origin as home computer developers rather than console developers.
Also, this should have been used as the base for Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine and Kirby's Avalanche, not the original Puyo Puyo (which lacks attack cancellation, single column rotation and all clear, making it a simple "make a 4 chain and win" game).
Super Bomberman 2 (Score: 50)
Kirby's Dream Course (Score: 52)
Kirby golf, complete with Copy Abilities. Try to hit at least one enemy each shot, and try to get UFO or Parasol at last for maximum survival chance. This game is famous for being one of the most difficult Kirby games. Except for the final boss fight, where you just keep launching Kirby to hit Mecha Dedede.
It has quite a few unique music tracks that stands out even among the rest of the Kirby series, and that's saying a lot given that this series is unparalleled in music.
Picross NP Vol. 1 (Score: 59)
Picross NP is a group of Picross games with 2-player support available through Nintendo Power at the tail end of the service. Besides regular puzzles, Picross NP features special themed puzzles and a character mode. The theme of Vol. 1 is World Heritage, and the character mode features Pokémon.
Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind (Score: 59)
Famicom Detective Club Part II (but not Part I) was remade on Super Famicom. Featuring graphics that look plain by Super Famicom standard but far improved from Famicom, this is a very easy visual novel in the sense that you cannot lose. Playing optimally helps improve the rating at the end, but that's completely optional.
My favourite part has to be one point where the main character persuades someone who refused to interact with him in any way. It looked like there was no way to get out of the situation, but the correct answer is to select "Stop Investigation", which is normally reserved for saving and exiting the game. It's a brilliant use of the multiple meanings of "Stop Investigation", where it's normally a system function, but it does exactly what it says in this one scene.
Picross NP Vol. 8 (Score: 59)
The second last Super Famicom game. The theme of Vol. 8 is the Sydney 2000 games, and the character mode features Donkey Kong Country characters. The special themed puzzles are 25 by 20, the largest size seen on the Super Famicom Picross games.
Picross NP Vol. 7 (Score: 60)
The theme of Vol. 7 is endangered species, and the character mode features Wario Land 2 characters. Nintendo's website calls this volume the most difficult of the bunch, and I'm inclined to agree.
Mario's Super Picross (Score: 60)
A Mario-themed Picross game with more than 200 questions. The actual puzzles aren't Mario-themed though. I actually like Wario's Super Picross more, since that feels more like a newspaper puzzle game with no video game elements (like detecting player mistakes).
Picross NP Vol. 5 (Score: 60)
The theme of Vol. 5 is constellations, and the character mode features The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time characters.
Picross NP Vol. 2 (Score: 60)
The theme of Vol. 2 is The Wizard of Oz, and the character mode features Yoshi's Story characters. Now, wait a minute… yep, the original book was published in 1900, so by 1999 it had long entered public domain. Interesting.
Picross NP Vol. 4 (Score: 61)
The theme of Vol. 4 is The Tale of Genji, and the character mode features Star Fox 64 characters.
Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 (Score: 61)
Picross NP Vol. 6 (Score: 62)
Starting from Volume 6, the number of problems are doubled, with picks from the previous volumes returning. The theme of Vol. 6 is Italy, and the character mode features Super Mario 64 characters.
Jikkyō Oshaberi Parodius (Score: 62)
Picross NP Vol. 3 (Score: 63)
The theme of Vol. 3 is weather, and the character mode features Kirby Super Star characters. This is the first volume I completed.
Kirby's Star Stacker (Score: 63)
A puzzle game with a somewhat high skill ceiling that starts feeling satisfying once you figure out what to do. I prefer the instant gratification offered by Panel de Pon more, but seeing high chains pulled off makes for a pretty sight too.
It came out right less than 2 months ahead of Kirby's Dream Land 3 in Japan, and shares a similar art style.
Super Mario All-Stars (Score: 64)
A collection of the NES Mario games, with lots of improvements. Game progress can be saved (although they save just the world the player has reached), The Lost Levels is made a lot more rational (no need to finish the whole game 8 times in one sitting anymore), the graphics and music were renewed, and there's the very fact that it's 4 games in 1.
These changes are far from perfect, and I think it's a huge wasted potential that Nintendo never made a single offering that combines the NES-faithful screen size and better music of All-Stars and the extra contents in the Super Mario Advance series. But without that context of having two sets of enhanced releases each with different advantages, Super Mario All-Stars on its own is quite enticing.
Super Bomberman 3 (Score: 64)
Parodius Da! Shimwa Kara Owarai E / It's Parodius! From Myth to Laughter (Score: 65)
Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War (Score: 66)
Panel de Pon (Score: 68)
A new puzzle game that serves as an attempt for INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS to enter the then-popular puzzle game market. While I really like this series, I'd say it doesn't have a level of depth that's anywhere close that of Puyo Puyo. Its premise is like the other similar games: pattern recognition and fast reaction. Since attacks launch garbage blocks that take a while to clear and the players can stall the game, the end product feels more like a game of endurance.
Imagine this game getting a crossover with Puyo Puyo. The characters and story would be a nice fit, but the game balance will be very nightmarish at the expense of the Puyo Puyo player.
Super Mario World (Score: 68)
A relatively simple Mario game compared to Super Mario Bros. 3, but with noticeably better presentation thanks to it being on new hardware. It also finally supports save data. And it's the easiest 2D Mario game (well, second easiest, since Super Mario Advance 2 has modern features on top of the original's low difficulty). Most courses can be flown over and the cape allows slow descent.
Nowadays, most of the fun comes from ROM hacking, and when viewed under ROM editing tools, the structure of Super Mario World is quite simple from a modern perspective, although that's still more complicated than what a simple course editor can do (like the branched paths in Choco Island 2).
I also like the music in this game. It's not particularly technically impressive nor does it compare to games like F-ZERO, but with SNES music, the multiple instrument channels can be told apart rather easily, and they tend to have more pronounced bass instruments compared to the later generations.
Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World (Score: 68)
Why did Nintendo make this overseas only? Why not release it on modern systems? As a later release, it features a better version of Super Mario World with 4 save data slots and unique Luigi sprites that's not seen elsewhere.
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (Score: 70)
This is a very challenging game where the Yoshis face all kinds of terrain hazards (all of which are instant KOs), and enemies that are all too happy to push them into said hazards. Fortunately for the Yoshis, they possess far more versatile moves than what Mario and Donkey Kong can hope for. Unfortunately for them, the constant egg juggling, Mario catching and resource management make survival, and especially 100% completion, a very daunting task. In fact, I've never 100% completed any of the Yoshi's Island games.
The action is quite fun, though. If you can bring yourself to abandon any hope for getting a 100 in any course beyond the first few, it's actually very enjoyable.
Gokujō Parodius – Pursuing the Past Glory (Score: 70)
Tetris Attack (Score: 71)
Panel de Pon with a bright Yoshi theme and catchy music. I like this version better than the original Panel de Pon, as this version has brighter graphics and a scoring system that favours chains more.
Kirby Super Star (Score: 72)
Completely worthless game. There is some good music, but everything else is just an inferior version of Kirby Super Star Ultra. It's also very easy to lose all progress, either by having the physical connector not contacting the console properly or as a result of bizarre glitches. Would not recommend.
Joking aside, this is a rather weird Kirby game, in that it's made of several short modes instead of a single long campaign. Each mode has its own set of rules, and it's good for short play sessions. Would definitely make for a better handheld game than a home console title.
It does deserve credit for introducing the more complex control scheme for Kirby to do more than one or two things per Copy Ability. And it does have pretty good, SNES-grade music, making it one of the very few things that the DS version failed to replicate.
Super Bomberman 5 (Score: 74)
Kirby's Dream Land 3 (Score: 76)
A fairly normal Kirby game that didn't inherit Super Star's complex control scheme, but rather continues on the partner system in Kirby Dream Land 2. This is my introduction to main series Kirby, and I like this more than Kirby Super Star just for being a consistent game that doesn't change rules like every hour or so. The difficult sub-games are required for 100%, making this one of the harder main series Kirby games to complete.
I like the mystic, somewhat melancholic feel of Sand Canyon stage 6.
Sutte Hakkun (Score: 82)
An excellent puzzle game with great music and inviting background graphics. Hakkun's goal is to move the blocks and Makkun around him and inject them with ink (which make them move) to help him collect rainbow shards. It's one of those relaxing games without going out of the way to advertise it as being one.
As a very late Super Famicom game, it has a very modern design, with in-game tutorials (both text and interactive), options to view hints (at the expense of rather heavy, permanent score penalties), and even a mention of Nintendo's official website.
Stages 1 to 8 are pretty easy, but stage 9 starts becoming challenging, and stage 10 gave me quite some trouble. I may talk more about this game at some point.
Games I don't think I've played enough to warrant giving them ratings:
Cool Spot
An action game from Virgin Games. I don't remember how, but I recall playing it on a cartridge. On a Japanese Super Famicom. Must be piracy magic.
I never got past stage 3. The graphics look good, but the camera is quite annoying, and it doesn't control very well.
Crayon Shin-Chan: Nagagutsu Dobon!!
A Crayon Shin-Chan game where the goal is to stomp on puddles and send the water across other puddles and hit the opponents. This is a low-budget, arcade-style game (if its release format as a Sufami Turbo game doesn't make it obvious enough), and isn't really that fun at all.
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!
I got someone else's completed save file, and from there I couldn't tell which parts are the earlier levels and which parts are the later. I also find the throwing mechanism rather convoluted. I can't tell if I'll like it more if I played it properly from start to finish.
Heisei Shin Onigashima Part 1
Tried this after finishing Famicom Detecive Club Part II. This one is quite a step up, in that it's actually possible to lose. I got stuck pretty early on, and I have since abandoned my attempt.
Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge
The sequel to Battle Clash. I played very little of it, and immediately gave up. INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS used to host a Japanese website of this game, even though it's released overseas only.
Metal Slader Glory: Director's Cut
Same matter as Heisei Shin Onigashima. I tried it, found it to be quite difficult, and stopped before making much progress. I also lost some interest when I found that this version is missing some of the Famicom features, meaning that there's no version of this game that's superior in all ways.
Star Fox
Marveled at the 3D, but failed hard at the game. The frame rate is also a bit too low, to the point that the stuttering is distracting.
For an idea on what a smooth SNES Star Fox may feel like, look at the Star Fox boss game in WarioWare: Smooth Moves.
Street Fighter II
"Fighting games are confusing. Why am I getting locked at the edge of the screen, and why do none of my inputs work? Do people actually find this fun?" As you can imagine, at 4-year-old I didn't understand what's the point in having fighting games. But even without the opponent getting in the way, I still didn't understand this game. Who'd press up on the D-pad to jump? And how to jump over enemy attacks? Why are their jumps so low? Oh wait, I finally got this pattern! Just keep using the move before the other guy can respond! I've finally won once, but it's also rather boring. Whatever, I'm going back to Super Mario World.
I don't think fighting games are for me.
Stunt Race FX
Same deal as Star Fox. The 3D is impressive, but the low frame rate is distracting. And since this is a game about monster truck racing, the physics feel rather difficult to get used to compared to the other Nintendo racing games.
Super Bonk
I played this on a plane trip. I was about a third done, and it's actually a pretty fun, if a bit absurd, game.
Super Famicom Wars
Tried playing this game with some limited success. On one particular map, I found myself in a long stalemate against the CPU where we both get manufacturing bases on some lone islands, but since we're equal in manufacturing power and there's nothing but the open sea between us, we ended up making planes and sending them on suicide missions for 10 days straight. If I stop, the CPU will take over my airport, but if I don't, I don't have further resources to manufacture more units.
Super Family Tennis
I remember this game for two things: its lack of music during gameplay, and its menu suggesting that it's possible to plug in 4 controllers. That got me confused, because I didn't know about the Super Multitap. (The Bomberman games only allow players 3 to 5 set as computer players if no multitap device is used.)
As for the actual tennis game, it's rather boring.
Super Metroid
After about two hours, I got lost without having fought any major boss. I'll probably like it better if I have a guide.
Super Sōkoban
This game has an absurdly bad box art. The game inside is a very plain Sōkoban game, but the music kind of grows on me. Not that it's particularly good or anything, but after spending hours on the puzzle game, the tune has become very memorable. And we're talking about hundreds of puzzle with solutions in thousands of steps.
Super Tetris 2 + Bombliss
A falling puzzle game that's kind of like Tetris, but has bombs. The bombs make it hard to determine how will the play area change each time some of the minos are cleared, which is not a good thing for this kind of puzzle game.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
I tried this game, got to the third dungeon, didn't save the game and quit, and found myself all the way back to the first dungeon. Haven't played it ever since, and with its dungeons looking relatively plain compared to the themed dungeons in A Link Between Worlds, I don't think I'll get back to this one.
Uniracers
The unicycle's physics is pretty good, but the general difficulty is higher than I can handle. I didn't get far.
That's a lot of games, and a lot of these are puzzle games. And my recency bias is really showing here. Old games tend to have less content, which may explain why do I like the newer games better; but I think a bigger factor is that I didn't buy and play through these games properly. With the newer systems, I filtered my potential game list before I'd get them in the first place.
Within these Super Famicom games, I tend to like the ones that came out after the debut of Nintendo 64.
This is probably going to be my biggest post in this thread. Super Famicom / Super NES is the one system that I've played the most number of games on. Nintendo Switch comes close, but I've already rated its games under different contexts.
Ranking table (SeaTable)