21 Best Super Nintendo Games (SNES)

hello there lovely pea polite alex from nintendo life here and today we're going to be looking at the 21 very finest games for this old sausage yes the snares the super nintendo entertainment system the super nintendo the super famicom whatever it is you want to call it it's got an incredibly satisfying eject mechanism i love this thing this is my original snez it's the one i grew up with and you can probably tell because it's yellow as hell and i have thought about retrobriting it but kind of feels like buying cosmetic surgery for your mother this thing raised me let it age gracefully these 21 games are not our decision but yours yes you the lovely people over on nintendolife.com you voted for all of these so if there's anything missing you've no one to blame but everyone these games are indeed ranked many of them are available on the nintendo switch or in another sort of modern accessible medium we'll be letting you know which one's in a little banner down in the corner when we introduce the game they'll say if it's on the nintendo switch online app or something else but anyway that's more than enough waffling let's dive right into things starting things off we have contra 3 the alien wars which was never called that in europe it was called super protector and just had robots it was stupid unlike a lot of snazz games this one still absolutely stands up today and has lost very very little of all that lovely lustre that gave it all the attention that it deserved back in the day the presentation the frenetic combat it's still fun to dive in and just have a blast and is basically one of the standouts if not the absolute pinnacle of its genre even by today's standards and it's available on the switch as part of konami's contra anniversary collection so you've got no excuses well maybe money power drifting into number 20 it's super mario kart now this is the first mario kart so it has some slight growing pains shall we say but for its time it was absolutely revolutionary and kick-started the genre that is now the best-selling game on the switch at the time it was released it just got so much right and arguably maybe created a brand new genre i mean there were similar things at the time but nothing that quite encapsulated it the way that super mario kart did and it's available on nintendo switch online so have fun with that at number 19 we have the confusingly titled final fantasy 2 and i say confusingly titled because it's the fourth game in the series we're not going to go down that rabbit hole google it now anyone who knows me will know that i really like the final fantasy series but i haven't played that many of them this however is a massive example i played this game to death or at least the ds version for me personally this is the granddaddy of all jrpgs and i know that there are there are plenty of objectively more sort of classic examples but i'm just talking about me baby and this is it this this for me is the original jrpg and i just love it bashing its way into number 18 is super street fighter 2 the new challengers one of the many street fighter 2 games available on the snes this essentially followed on from street fighter 2 turbo hyper fighting and it added the four new characters that became a real staple in the series throughout it didn't actually sell as well as its predecessor but by modern standards this is arguably the most complete street fighter 2 that was available on the snez i mean there have been how many other versions since then what can we say it's street fighter 2 it's arguably the best version of street fighter 2 on the snares it's street fighter 2 on the snez at number 17 we have a slightly undersung hero terenigma this game did get a bit of a bad hand coming out at pretty much the end of the snezz's life cycle and indeed jrpgs being so abundant to the time but even then there is something very original and very refreshing about terenigma for starters it's not turn based so is it really a jrpg i'm not going to answer that and some people have even claimed that this did for action rpgs what chrono trigger did for the traditional rpg and whilst it may slightly be lost in the annals of history it is still a wonderful experience and surprisingly cinematic for the snares give it a go and i don't think you'll be disappointed at number 16 it's secret of mana you knew it had to be on here secret of mana isn't exactly an undersung hero let's be honest i mean it's been released how many times you can get it on the switch and collection of mana it is just a damn gorgeous wonderful action rpg and it has some sort of slight zelda elements in there ever so slightly but it is definitely still grounded in its rpg roots it may take you a little bit of time to properly get into it but when you're properly into it believe me you're properly into it if you like your action rpgs then you'd be mad to miss out on this one but to be honest if you like your action rpgs you've probably already played this remember when i was talking about super street fighter 2 and i said it was arguably the best street fighter 2 game on the snares well you now know why i had that quantifier in there at number 15 we have street fighter 2 turbo hyper fighting one of the many street fighter 2 caves on the snes whilst it's arguably not as good as super street fighter from an objective point of view this is how you lot voted and i don't think it's a stretch to say that that's probably because that this came out at the real peak of the hype for street fighter and fighting games in general this game was the first one in which you were able to play as the four boss fighters and it basically just refined the original game and boosted it up in every way imaginable with subtle little tweaks here and there and balancing and it basically just made the game much faster and much more enjoyable at number 14 we have super castlevania 4 which is in many ways and has even been described by its director as so a remake of the original nes game but for all the lovely super nintendo gubbins as well overall it's got quite a bit of a different feel to the nez original and feels very much like a more modern game a proper remake from the ground up it's not just a bit of spit and polish this is this is new baby or at least it was it's available on the snez mini as well as the castlevania anniversary collection on switch so once again you've got no excuse not to give this puppy a whirl barrelling into number 13 it's the original donkey kong country oh let me count the ways in which i love thee when this game came out it was just it was jaw-droppingly gorgeous and i think whilst it is slightly aged now with the sort of pseudo 3d graphics i still think it looks great maybe that's nostalgia talking if it is i don't care rare took a dormant franchise in donkey kong and brought it screaming into the 21st century before the 21st century it even started the platforming is still as rock solid as when it first came out and it still stands as one of the best platformers on the snares and i'm not just saying that you lot voted for it in this list so therefore it must be good and it's available for free on nintendo switch online so i don't want to hear any more arguments you're gonna play it at number 12 we have mega man x a revitalization of the mega man series after no less than 14 billion different mega man games in the original series whilst it arguably doesn't stray too far from the original series this was still a huge injection of real sort of modernization in mega man above all else for me personally mega man x is just much more fun to control than the original mega man series i think it's just the fact that you can dash and you can grab onto walls and things like that just movement just feels much more fluid and much more fun that that could just be me though i mean it's it's on this list for a reason it's a good game it's available as part of the mega man x legacy collection on switch and you can even play it on the snez mini if that's your cup of tea plenty of ways to play this classic at number 11 we've got teenage mutant ninja turtles for turtles in time and i only have to say that for a lot of people to start grinning enormously on the face of it this is just a side-scrolling arcade style beat-em-up and yeah that's you know that's about the nub of it however at the same time it is just done so well and you get to play as leonardo so what what more can you ask for and you go through time this just seemed to absolutely encapsulate everything that was really cool about the 90s in the 90s so it wasn't even nostalgia at the time it was like proper relevant and everything the only thing is it is blooming expensive to track down these days and there's like all these tricky licensing issues with it being you know teenage mutant ninja turtles and konami and all this it's just yeah it's a it's a bit of a mess to be honest but my god the game itself is an absolute treat if you get the opportunity to play this do not turn it down better call your dad at number 10 it's earthbound or indeed mother 2 if you prefer this has to be one of the most bizarre games that has ever been released and i know there have been some really bizarre games out there you know like you're going into headless dream simulator and stuff like that but this is also just in and of itself an amazingly fun game even if you were to strip out all of that weird stuff it is just an incredibly good rpg with an amazing story and some of the worst advertising ever seriously this was so poorly advertised it wasn't even released in europe it was that badly advertised but now we can play it in various different forms it's on the snez mini it's on this nintendo switch online app it is just a wonderful game it is a bit of an investment i would say time wise but if you've got some time or you know you've got a bit of a gap in your backlog i can't imagine what that would feel like then whack this game out it's got some bits that have aged a little bit but overall it's very easy to overlook those because this is just this is just an absolute treat and there is nothing else like it well i suppose undertale but that's not surprising eeking and ooking into number nine it's donkey kong country 2 diddy's conquest oh my word if you like the original donkey kong country or you just like the look of it from this list if you've never seen it before which that's impressive but not impossible this game basically improves upon absolutely everything that the original game did with a new interesting setting and well not a new villain but a slightly different variation of king k rule it introduces dixie kong it doesn't include donkey kong properly i mean he is technically in there but realistically he's not and the result is one of the best platformers that has ever been released it's got brilliant charm excellent characters it i would say this does look better than the original i think maybe it's just something to do with the theming but i think it stands up really well even today some people will argue that the original is better and jon will argue that the third one is better just because of one particular character but not only can i not argue with this list i have to encourage and agree with it donkey kong country 2 diddy's conquest is the best of the original three what's that under that me costume why it's number eight which happens to be super mario rpg legend of the seven stars i'm sorry i had to for slightly younger generations this is a game that kind of gets a little bit kind of pushed to one side because we've got so many mario rpgs these days with the likes of paper mario and the mario and luigi series but this is where it all started this is the og and it still stands up today and all that wonderful sort of time based you know button pressing combat this this is all here baby this is the real deal it's definitely got one of the most in-depth and interesting stories of any mario game ever and whilst that can sometimes feel a little bit weird ever so slightly just for mario being in that kind of context it absolutely works in the long run it's just a brilliant rpg with a mario theme and uh geno's in it so he's in one game at least slightly cheating its way into number seven is super mario all stars i mean it's not really cheating it was a single cartridge but yeah it's like four games in one it's four games in one baby and those four games just so happen to be the original super mario bros super mario bros 2 super mario bros 3 and super mario bros the lost levels which is the original japanese version of super mario bros 2 which is much closer to the original super mario bros one i'm i'm sure you don't need me to explain that three of the best nez games not not even just the best mario nes games just three of the best nez games full stop and the lost levels uh it's a bit of a contentious one i really like it but i can see why some people don't how could this not be on the list all the graphics have been updated and basically all the games have been remade from the ground up as a result the physics are slightly different but you know what i don't care i really like them and it's it's god knows how many mario games in one well it's four you can play it on your switch with the nintendo switch online snez app it's just it's just wonderful this for me was how i originally experienced all of the original super mario games because i didn't have a nez growing up i was just well i just didn't but my god i played the hell out of this one tonguing its way into number six is the slightly misleadingly titled super mario world 2 yoshi's island much more colloquially referred to as just yoshi's island nobody can deny it this game is a masterpiece and it looks amazing even today this game i swear hasn't aged the yoshi series may be a little bit more hit and miss these days but this game this game is just flat out incredible and whilst yeah baby mario may be a bit of a pain in the ass to say the least he is yeah he's a pain in the ass isn't he but it's fine just don't get hit and you'll have the best yoshi experience you can possibly have on the snez it's well i mean it's basically the only yoshi game on the snares there was that yoshi game it was called mario yoshi that was rubbish and it's on nintendo switch online so play it buddy screeching into number five is final fantasy three it's another final fantasy game once again we have the slightly awkward position where this is technically final fantasy 6 but it's called final fantasy 3 and whilst it doesn't necessarily hold exactly the same place in my heart as final fantasy 2 known as final fantasy 4 and i played the ds version this is messy it is still objectively just as good if not arguably maybe even slightly better but oh i'm oh i don't think i can personally agree with that but i am hugely biased this is considered for many people to be the final fantasy game the final fantasy game it was also the final final fantasy game available on a nintendo platform because then they then final fantasy 7 just a jumped ship a bit didn't it but if you only have time to play one final fantasy game and you happen to have a snes mini then this could easily be the one for you again i'd go for four but i'm biased not crawling its way into number four is super metroid and if you think you've played a metro game or you you've played any 2d metroid game this is pretty much where it all started i mean technically there was the original metroid but this is the one that really cemented this and introduced so many tropes and it is so amazing i let this one rest for years i never really had a a reasonable way to play and then suddenly it was released on the wii u because i didn't have a wii growing uh when i was younger shoot me so i got it on the wii u and i played it from start to finish pretty much in one sitting it is so engrossing it gets so many things right it is the quintessential metroidvania this really is just this is the granddaddy of them all you know there was the original metroid but that has i'm sorry that has aged terribly this one slightly weird controls apart from that it's aged amazingly if you like metroidvanias you know your hollow knights and things like that then my god you have to give this a go it is available on the nintendo switch online app this as i say this is where it basically all started this is like the gold standard of metroidvanias and it is still absolutely 100 still worth playing play it love it and i will love you screaming in a number three is chrono trigger which if you've played chrono trigger you know exactly why it's here this is this is probably the best rpg on the snez it it just pro it just is you've got your final fantasies in there great but chrono trigger was just something so different and so bold and so well written that there are there are like modern games that don't even come halfway as close to being as well written as this and i mean well-received story games this game i i don't know how they managed it i don't know how they managed to cram all this onto a snazz cartridge because it is incredible the story is engaging you really care about the characters and it it manages to play with time travel but without it being confusing oh my word i genuinely think that this may well be the best implementation of time travel in a video game ever like seriously it is just so seamlessly included but at the same time it's it it's not like it's not there it's real and it's there but it's not confusing and it's still wonderful oh sadly it's not available on the snares mini or the switch online app it's not available on the switch at all at the moment and that is that is a massive shame like it's borderline criminal but there are plenty of ways to play it so we really encourage you to do so whether it's the original system or you know sort of well okay not the pc version but find a way to play it enjoy it love every second and tell me i'm an idiot if you don't because this is just at number two you knew it had to be in here yes the legend of zelda a link to the past now you're gonna crucify me for this i have still never completed this game i know i know it's terrible it's really really terrible i have started playing it so many times but i just i just i've never got around to it and it's terrible and it's awful and it this is basically the super metroid of the zelda series undoubtedly and i have played it and what i've played i have enjoyed incredibly this is just this is again this is like where it all started realistically the the original that's kind of like laid the framework but this really managed to nail the formula and give us what we know today as a zelda game all the tropes are here and arguably at their purest form i really need to play this game properly and you do as well so i tell you what why do we say right here right now if you play a link to the past i'll play and when i say that i mean i'm going to play it to completion because i've already played it i just haven't completed it oh ah i need to sort that out and you do too if you haven't played this game and then number one it's a game i have played to completion probably too many times it's super mario world this is this for me is the best 2d mario game flat out i know there are some people who are going to say oh no super mario bros 3 is better but you know what no this is the one i grew up with therefore objectively it's the best the graphics the sights the sounds the physics yoshi the cape the cape is way better than the tanuki leaf i'm just saying i could play this game to completion for the rest of my life i mean i'd like to do some other things in between but you know i genuinely believe if you just gave this a new coat of pain like i don't know you made it 3d or something like that new super mario bros game but kept all the physics all the gameplay absolutely everything else intact then nintendo could sell this as a full priced game this is so ahead of its time and it is so timeless at the same time and i time to time time i honestly have difficulty expressing just how much i love this game and it it absolutely deserves it i can't think of a single better game to have at number one here than this it is it is the snazz game if there is one snazz game it's this one thankfully it isn't the only one because for an entire console turning up one game would be terrible there is so much to have fun with here so much to replay so much to perfect you know you can go through and you can perfect the way you go through and the the beautiful game design like the fact that when you take a hit you properly like the game freezes and i know that isn't unique to this but do the animations so smooth and it like lets you know and that reminds you that you don't want this to happen because you want to keep moving you want to keep flowing you want to keep running along and getting to the exit and then there's the keys so you get to the secret exits in the star world and oh my word there is just so much about this game that is just in my mind so perfect so unbelievably perfect if you play one game from this list play this one you've probably already played it and you know no play it again do it and there you have it those are the 21 best snes games as voted for by you was there something missing as i alluded to at the beginning there may well be because everyone has their own opinions let us know yours in the comments down below thank you so much for watching if you like this video then why don't you finally think of a way that you'll maybe be able to get rid of those scuffs on that subscribe button and be sure to check out nintendolife.com for all sorts of lovely nintendo related content thank you again for watching bye [Music] don't talk to me or my son ever again oh it smells old

Channel: Nintendo Life

Views: 685,023

Keywords: Nintendo Life, Nintendo, Nintendo Switch, Switch, NX, New 3DS, Nintendo UK, Alex, snes, best nintendo games, best ones games, snes or snez, super nintendo best games, hidden gems, good games, collection, collector

Id: 23DYpTkUosk

Length: 22min 11sec (1331 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 15 2021