The Super Nintendo is one of the most famous and popular video game systems in history. After Nintendo’s entry into the home console market with the NES, it was with the Super Nintendo that they really hit their stride. So many classic franchises were either born on the SNES, or they were refined into near perfect forms of what had been attempted on the original Nintendo.
In this list we’ll go over what we consider to be the best 25 games on the Super Nintendo. Of course, with a console as full of great games as Nintendo’s 16-bit wonder, there are many other games which would have been worthy to be on the list as well, so if you think we missed a great game off the list let us know in the comments what your top list of games would be, and what else we should be playing!
25: F-Zero
Nintendo’s other big racing game franchise that doesn’t feature Karts or Mario. F-Zero was a super fast futuristic racer which was a showcase of the Super Nintendo’s graphical prowess. The game is great fun to play and gives you enough challenge and tracks to master that you’ll enjoy coming back to this over and over.
It’s a game and a series that is begging for a modern update as players haven’t had a new F-Zero to play with since the days of the GameCube, and even then the game was developed as a collaboration with Sega. The continued popularity of Captain Falcon in the Smash Bros series means that Nintendo will always be aware of players love for the franchise, but there’s no sign that a new entry will be coming soon. Fortunately with the Classic SNES Mini and the Switch Super Nintendo service at least we’ll continue to be able to play the SNES original.
24: Star Fox 2
OK, so this one is a kinda sneaky one to include on the list as there wasn’t a single person in the entire world who had this game for the Super Nintendo back in the day. This is because the game was cancelled despite being ready to release so that Nintendo could concentrate their 3D efforts onto the soon to be released Nintendo 64 and they figured that releasing this game in a time in which the Sega Saturn and Playstation were already out would make this game look poor by comparison.
Fortunately Nintendo did eventually add a happy ending to this story by putting out the game on the Super Nintendo in 2017 as a built in game on the Super Nintendo Classic Mini. For long time SNES fans it was very strange to play a “new” old game, and there are lots of new features on this release compared to the original. The game features a more open world approach than the first game, and introduces new characters and improved 3D.
23: Super Bomberman
Bomberman is a simple concept. You play as the titular Bomberman who walks around a maze and drops bombs to kill baddies and clear paths as you have to collect items and find your way to the exit.
The single player game was lots of fun, but the game really came to life if you were to play multiplayer with a multi-tap plugged in allowing up to four players at once for chaotic battles.
22: Killer Instinct
With the likes of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat on the platform, the Super Nintendo had it’s fair share of big one on one fighting games on the platform. Rareware were able to create a game that was instantly able to sit alongside these big franchises with Killer Instinct, a game that started life in the arcade, but was quickly able to wow fans when the SNES port arrived in 1995.
Using the same CGI style graphics as Donkey Kong Country, Killer Instinct was by far the best looking fighting game on the platform, and with it’s fast combo based gameplay and iconic roster of characters and even the instantly recognisable fighter announcer calling ‘Ulllltra Combo’ this was a great game that every fighting fans owes it to themselves to track down.
21: Mickey Mania
Mickey Mania was Epic Mickey years before Epic Mickey was a thing on the Nintendo Wii. A visual treat that has levels based on various eras of Mickey Mouse cartoons such as Fantasia and the very first Mickey cartoon Steamboat Willy, the game was one of the best platformers to play on the SNES. With chase based levels and the incredible revolving castle staircase level, this is one of the best Disney games from the 1990s.
