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Nintendo Super Famicom (SNES)

Posted: July 24th, 2019, 3:58 pm
by JaySevenZero
As you all know by now we've been creating a series of podcast specials, with the focus being on the consoles themselves. The podcasts encompass the history of the chosen system from launch through its evolution, mixed with the panels personal perspective of their time spent with it. There's also discussion of some of the stand-out titles for the system.

As with the regular Cane and Rinse podcast, we'd like to include contributions from you, our community, too. So we've created this sub-forum and threads so you can leave us your most memorable moments spent with the systems we're covering.

Our eighth show will cover the Nintendo Super Famicom (SNES).

All being well, we'll be recording this in late March 2020. So If you have something to say about this system this is where you should leave it.

As with the others, this will be also a three month timed exclusive for our Patreon, with each special being released on our regular feed only once the next one is published, so if ever there was a time to give us just around £1.50 per month, this could be it!

Re: Console Special No.8: Nintendo Super Famicom (SNES)

Posted: January 21st, 2020, 7:15 pm
by duskvstweak
I first started playing video games on the NES with the original Mario Bros. game, but I will still very young. Young enough, even, to not be aware that a SNES was on its way. So, on Christmas of ’93, when I opened my gift wrapping and found a Super Nintendo inside, with a packed in Super Mario World, I can tell you the shock and surprise was massive. What was this? A NES… but different? This machine shook my world.

Honestly, I’m having a hard time starting the conversation about the game’s library. It’s just so massive and with whole episodes having been dedicated to these titles, it’s hard to come up with something new to say. The SNES has some of my favorite games of all time, with Super Mario World, Final Fantasy VI and Super Metroid, plus, quite possibly my favorite game of all time, Link to the Past. The lineup is just an insane list of greatest games of all time, a murderer’s row, that even time has been kind to graphically and sonically. I don’t think you can truly overstate the quality of many of these games and it’s killing me not to just list every single game I enjoyed on the machine.

And, I’m quite aware that there’s a bias and nostalgia talking here. I’m fully aware of the bad games (I played/owned many of them) but, so many of my childhood memories are wrapped around this console. When the NES Mini was released, I passed. I didn’t need to play those titles again after all these years. When the SNES Mini was released, I had to have it. Even as incomplete as that system’s library is, a partial collection of SNES games is still a treasure trove.

Except for Mario Is Missing.

Re: Console Special No.8: Nintendo Super Famicom (SNES)

Posted: February 6th, 2020, 4:07 pm
by Gingertastic01
The Super Nintendo to this day is probably still the best console I have had the pleasure of owning. It was also my first games console having owned Atari computers up to this point so it was an exciting time.

I can remember going into Dixons every Saturday whilst my mum did the shopping. My brothers and I would endlessly stare at the glassed off kiosk in disbelief at Street fighter 2 running endlessly on it’s attract mode, we simply couldn’t believe how good it looked. To our young eyes it was “arcade perfect” and represented a massive jump in graphics and sound from what we where used to.

What makes it so special is of course the game library. There is just so many games that are timeless classics on the system. Some of my all time best games exist on the SNES, Super Metroid and Link to the Past to name a few. It had great shooters, fighting games, platformers, RPGs and everything in-between so the breadth of experiences was fantastic. Many of the best games still hold up, you can boot up Super Mario World today and it will still be one of the best platfomers you will play.

Lastly, I just need to give a special shout out to four player Super Bomberman via the Multitap. It is probably the only game over the years that has managed to delight my parents as much as it did us. We would spend hours playing this as a family and is still one of my fondest memories of playing games.

Re: Our next Console Special No.8 - recording late March 2020 - Nintendo Super Famicom (SNES)

Posted: February 17th, 2020, 3:49 pm
by davelawrence8
My favorite Christmas of all time was 1991, the year that the movie 'Hook' came out, my family was nearly homeless, but my mom still scraped enough money together to buy me a Super Nintendo.

Having grown up into video games with the NES, the Super Nintendo was a must-have for my Mario- and Zelda-loving childhood. I remember pouring over Nintendo Power screenshots, marveling at the 16 bit colors and graphics, and trying to get my family as interested in 'Super Mario World' as I was. It didn't work, but my mom paid enough attention to know that the SNES was my must-have Christmas present that year. She delivered, and it was as amazing as I had hoped. In fact, with our financial hardships, it offered a much-needed escape.

The SNES went on to be my most-treasured game console. Late nights playing 'A Link to the Past,' selling my Sega Genesis so I could buy 'Donkey Kong Country,' waiting for launch day so I could get the best version of 'Mortal Kombat II' - so many fond memories are tied to the Super Nintendo.

I kept it well into the Playstation era, playing and enjoying games like 'Yoshi's Island' and 'Killer Instinct.' For the next generation of consoles, I struggled with what to get next: Do I stay loyal to Nintendo and grab the N64? Or do I jump ship to Sony? The Playstation eventually got its hooks into me and I skipped out on the next two Nintendo consoles. But those SNES days never left me. 'A Link to the Past' is still my favorite game ever, and I boot up 'Yoshi's Island' just to hear that amazing soundtrack (I still have my now-very-yellow SNES console - still works!).

To this day, I consider myself a Nintendo-first gamer, finding my way back with the Wii and enjoying the heck out of the Switch. And it's so nice to be able to dip back into those beloved SNES games with Nintendo Online.

Favorite Christmas ever, favorite console ever - everything about it was, indeed, super.

Re: Our next Console Special No.8 - recording late March 2020 - Nintendo Super Famicom (SNES)

Posted: February 23rd, 2020, 9:46 pm
by Jobobonobo
A common feature of my childhood in rural, Catholic Ireland was when families in a parish would host what is known as the Station. Long story short, the local priest would come to your house and perform Mass there while the neighbours would come around to attend said Mass. Each family would perform a Station once every few years and would be a lot of fun for little ones aside from the religious service itself. After Mass ended, neighbours would stay around and feed and socialise with each other while the children would play together and feed on their mother’s finest cooking. One year, my neighbours hosted one in the middle of winter. Being as it was too dark and cold for us to be playing outside, the neighbour kids bought us to their room where they had a SNES.

This was my first time encountering such a machine in the flesh as most of my friends had Mega Drives. Whether it was marveling at the revolutionary graphics of Starwing, taking turns on Super Mario All Stars and Donkey Kong Country or beating the stuffing out of each other in Street Fighter 2, it was a fantastic introduction to Nintendo’s 16 bit entry. That night could have went on forever as far as I was concerned but eventually, we had to retire for the night and I was gutted. I knew asking my parents for a SNES was futile as they felt such devices were distractions from studying so I was only ever exposed intermittently to the console for most of my childhood.

It was not until my secondary school days during the early years of the PS2 generation that I got more acquainted with the SNES. There a few friends introduced me to the world of emulation. I was shocked; I could play old console games on my PC? No way! So after one of my more computer savvy mates got me introduced, I got a SNES emulator and grabbed as much ROMS of all the games I missed out on. Super Mario World, Yoshi’s Island, Link to the Past and RPGS that us poor Europeans never got such as Earthbound and Chrono Trigger. It was through emulation of these classics that I started to fall in love with JRPGs and allowed me to access games which at the time were not available to us. So bizarrely most of my SNES memories are heavily intertwined with emulation which continued with the Virtual Console when I had the Wii.

I always admired the look of the console by which I mean the Japan/PAL version. The contrasting shades of grey with the small dashes of colours representing the button layout on the controller tucked away on the upper right corner, just a lovely little piece inviting you to play. It was so much nicer looking than the North American version with its garish purple buttons and the boxy, VCR NES. Speaking of which, I think this generation was an astounding improvement over everything Nintendo accomplished with the NES. Super Mario World was refined platforming perfection which greatly added and built upon the foundation served by the previous games. Link to the Past and Super Metroid are so vastly superior to their NES predecessors in every way it is frankly ridiculous. Mother 2 aka Earthbound got rid of the random battles and other annoyances that made the original a slog and I could go on and on.

In conclusion, the SNES is a strange one for me in that I am far more familiar with the games themselves than the actual machine they originated on. Nevertheless, the leap in quality between generations was one of the biggest I have encountered and I am doubtful we will ever see anything like it ever again. It represented a pivotal moment in gaming when games were starting to become experimental with graphical styles, ambitious with storytelling and introducing new ways to play while refining the old. In terms of both critical and commercial success, this was an incredible time for Nintendo and gamers alike. Together with the Mega Drive, the 16 bit generation was 2D gaming at its absolute peak. It made sense that the next generation had to enter a new dimension to truly evolve.

Re: Our next Console Special No.8 - recording late March 2020 - Nintendo Super Famicom (SNES)

Posted: February 25th, 2020, 8:50 pm
by Porco McRosso
Ah, the SNES. The only console to give me a nervous breakdown, and that was before I'd even played it! Allow me to elaborate. Like most here, I got into consoles at any early age via the well-trodden path of the NES (Turtles pack-in obviously), followed by a Mega Drive, which remains one of my favourites to this day. Whilst my parents were incredibly generous with their Christmas gifts, we did have a "one in, one out" rule for consoles which would present an enormous dilemma on each new launch- do I stick or twist?! Do I trade an extensive library and swaps with friends for something that's new and exciting and maybe even better? Thankfully it was an easy decision this time around, in no small part due to a multi-page spread in GamesMaster magazine on Street Fighter 2. It's no exaggeration to say that it was love at first sight and my 11 year old heart was well and truly smitten. However, in order to be absolutely certain I wouldn't be jilted at the altar on Christmas day, my parents arranged the sale of my beloved Mega Drive to my friend's parents and reserved a console with the all-important copy of Street Fighter 2 at my local Woolworths. Perfect. At least it would have been, had it not just turned September. And not only did I have almost 4 months to wait but for the first time in my short life, I was now without a console. I think it's safe to say that this time was the longest and loneliest period I'd known, as I pined for my beloved SNES. I could often be found wandering listlessly from room to room, clutching my treasured copy of Games Master or staring wistfully out the window whilst I deliberated in my little mind which fighter was going to be my "favourite" when I actually got to play the game. I think I could probably still quote each character's profile from that magazine to this day. This behaviour dragged on for a couple of months and as I became increasingly forlorn and introverted, it obviously hadn't escaped the attention of my parents. Thankfully, and it still astounds me to this day, my Dad showed me he too was just an old romantic at heart when he sought me out one cold and wintry afternoon in late November and asked if I'd like to try out my Super Nintendo "to check if it works". I burst into tears, ran across the room and locked onto him with a giant hug. He fetched the console from the attic and we set it up together, before he sat quietly and watched me play it with a grin on my face that looked like it would need to be surgically removed. I'd never been so happy . After half an hour or so, he got up, kissed me on the head and softly said "Merry Christmas. Now don't tell your Mum". To my eternal delight, I was allowed to keep the console as an early present on the understanding that I stopped moping around and started smiling. That wasn't going to be a problem with this console in my life. Whilst I still feel slightly guilty about how the console came into my possession, it did teach me at an early age that every now and again, the reality is even better than the dream. Oh, and I chose Ken.

Re: Our next Console Special No.8 - recording late March 2020 - Nintendo Super Famicom (SNES)

Posted: February 28th, 2020, 9:17 pm
by Toon Scottoon
The design aspect I remember most about my original SNES was the reset switch, that purple plastic pad issued such a satisfying, soft squeak, when you flicked it, even when you flicked it out of anger. That reset switch, and the SNES it was attached to came into my life when I was ten and my brother was eight. Our parents bought the machine for us as an early Christmas gift after our father made some extra money playing in a golf tournament. He didn’t know much about games, just that he liked actual duck hunting more than Duck Hunt, but both our parents knew we’d be ecstatic about the gift. Ecstatic might have been an understatement. To this day perhaps my strongest gaming memory is jamming Street Fighter Two into my SNES for the first time.

That’s a common thing about the SNES for me. I remember more about the game library than the machine itself. There remains just a motherlode of playable titles on the SNES. I’ll highlight two I hope someday get their proper podcast episodes.

The first is NBA Jam which I loved back when I had my original SNES. As a kid growing up in early 90’s America who migrated between Chicago and Phoenix every year, basketball loomed large in my life. It felt particularly important in 1993 as the two teams from the cities I lived in faced off in the championship that season, which also happens to be the year this game posted up first in my local arcade. Later the next year NBA Jam dominated the cartridge slots of my friends and my Super Nintendos. Sure it didn’t have Michael Jordan or Sir Charles Barkley (sadly not British lads) in it because of licencing issues, but with the right codes a big headed George Clinton (Yes that George Clinton) could elbow the ball loose from any NBA star, cross the court in three turbo aided dribbles, throw a lob to big-headed Bill Clinton (Yes that Bill Clinton), who would scrape the ceiling with his shoes as he performed a front flip dunk, all before the ball burst into flames. Is there anything more nineties?

The second game I want to talk about I didn’t find until I came back to games just a few years ago, when a raft of titles, Chrono Trigger, A Link to the Past, and Yoshi’s Island bubbled into my purview to demonstrate just how complex and nuanced the art of game design had always been. One game called out above this chorus of thoughtful excellence for me, and that was Earthbound, the weird Japanese examination of the suburban American existence. Onett, Twoson, Threed, and Fourside all have that same magic that Ray Bradbury’s Green Town from Dandelion Wine has, that natural history museum diorama tension that comes from knowing something definitely did happen, but could never have happened exactly as we remember it. The SNES played no small part in bringing this story to bare with its bright color palette and more specifically its S-SMP sound chip playing the role of orchestra and pop band all under the masterful conductor’s wand of Hip Tanaka.

As a kid the SNES never seemed like a technical marvel, it was just a better, more grown up version of the NES it replaced. That was how I thought the world worked back then. Time passed, the world expanded, life got better. As an adult of course I know this isn’t always the case, failure is inevitable, progress is not, it has to be earned with varying degrees of hardship. Thankfully though there are totems like the SNES reset button, and all those games you can start over with it to soften those hardships.

Re: Our next Console Special No.8 - recording late March 2020 - Nintendo Super Famicom (SNES)

Posted: March 6th, 2020, 2:43 pm
by Suits
It perhaps goes without saying how much a fantastic system this was when it came out and the impact it had on a young me.

The memories, worlds and franchises that it set up are still with me today.


Something that I think is well worth mentioning, is how great the consoles library is still today. It holds up incredibly well.

Most systems have rich library’s that can be explored long into generations past, but the Super Nintendo has always delivered better than others each time I go back to it.

I’m currently into another Indian Summer with this console, it’s been permanently hooked up to my PVM for the last few months and I’ve been welcoming recommendations, personal testaments and just trying new bits and bobs out for myself.

Once you get past the essential games on the platform, there’s still many wonderful games to explore. This year so far, I’ve very much enjoyed F1-ROC (Exhaust Heat), Art of the Mystical Ninja, Adam’s Family Values, Mario Paint, Puzzle Bobble, U.N. Squadron, Final Fantasy 4 and another adventure through Yoshi’s Island.

I’ve also spent far too long playing Puzzle Bobble and listening to Podcasts.

The system has some very good sports games too. Often you hear that the Mega Drive had the upper hand with the sports titles, overall, this may be the case but there’s certainly a lot to represent the Nintendo system with a great version of Sensible Soccer and NHL ’97. Then there’s Super Tennis, Cal Ripken Baseball and Super International Cricket are a few of my favourite.


In 2015 I sourced a Super Famicom from Japan. The version I was after was a later (younger) version referred to as a 1-CHIP console.

It’s referred to as this due to a mother board revision, that combines a number of the separate chips on the board into a single chip.

This console has notably superior video quality to previous versions and is generally pretty sought after in the video enthusiast circles.

I use this with an RGB SCART at 60hz, to a Sony PVM 20L4 and the performance of it is incredible, used with the technology it was designed, it almost seems ageless.

Sadly, as with all other Super Famicom/Nintendo’s out there, it will inevitably meet its fate and die. When that day comes, I have a Super NT made by Analogue waiting in the wings.

Re: Our next Console Special No.8 - recording late March 2020 - Nintendo Super Famicom (SNES)

Posted: March 6th, 2020, 5:48 pm
by Stanshall
Great post, Suits.

Re: Our next Console Special No.8 - recording late March 2020 - Nintendo Super Famicom (SNES)

Posted: March 17th, 2020, 3:19 pm
by Mr Ixolite
I've never owned a SNES, and have barely played one either. I've played a fair bit of its most esteemed library entries, but coming to these games sometimes decades after the fact can't help but take the wind out of their sails. For instance, to me Super Mario World is a good game, but having played it after something Rayman Legends and countless other sucessors it just couldn't be the earth-shattering experience it had been to others. The games I have the most nostalgia for - Mega Man X3 and Final Fantasy 5 - owe this to their Playstation ports rather than the SNES.

And yet, I have a huge nostalgic affection for the system, which I ascribe almost wholeheartedly to the small faded stack of Danish Nintendo Power magazines in my basement. Growing up with just a gameboy, these seemed like a window into the future, and I would pore endlessly over every image in them. Even though I skipped the 16 bit generation and got a playstation, to this day SNES-era spritework constitutes the default answer to the question of "what does an appealing video game look like" in my mind. Theres just something about the richness of the colors and the striking designs that draws me to these games. However, even though I've had images of games like Demons Crest burned into my mind for literal decades, I almost don't dare play them, because doing so has often left me slightly dissapointed. The games just never feel quite as good in action as I want, which may come down to excessive Hype, and an awareness the many tweaks other games have since made to the gameplay foundations laid out by the SNES... But it is also probably due to my own weird case of SNES- Nostalgia. As good as something like Super Metroid was when I finally played it, it could just never compete with the game my wistful young self envisioned as I saw the images in that 4 page review, with that 10/10 score.

Also, the Super Mario comic in Nintendo Power was pretty good!

Re: Our next Console Special No.8 - recording late March 2020 - Nintendo Super Famicom (SNES)

Posted: March 17th, 2020, 4:34 pm
by Alex79
I still remember the Super Nintendo coming out and being a really big deal. If I recall correctly, the Sun newspaper at the time ran a competition to win one, and a kid at our school claimed to have won it. Whilst I doubt the legitimacy of this boast, the rest of us were hugely excited about the consoles release.

Being a fairly poor kid I never got one at launch, but my brother eventually got one for his Christmas and birthday present and we absolutely rinsed Super Mario World. We were blown away by the graphics, audio and gameplay. This was, I think, the first Mario game I ever really played properly, and it was just so exciting trying to find those secret exits. The game remains an all time favourite to this day.

Some other favorites on the system were Sim City, Sensible Soccer, Street Racer and of course Super Mario Kart. My brother and I came to literal blows several times whilst sitting and playing MK battle mode and other games for hours on end. In what is not one of my finer moments, I remember having a fight with him one day whilst playing Sensible Soccer and him saying something to me along the lines of, "well I can beat you in real football any day", and I came back with "so what! Name one game you're better than me at, go on! You can't can you!".

Oh dear.

There is nothing about the SNES I'd change. It looked incredible at the time, and still does. It was the pinnacle of 16 bit gaming in my eyes, and despite personally owning a Megadrive and my brother, the enemy, being a SNES kid, in the Mario VS Sonic playground battles of the 90s, I was firmly in the camp of the chubby little plumber.

What a great library of games, what a great console. I love the SNES.

Re: Our next Console Special No.8 - recording late March 2020 - Nintendo Super Famicom (SNES)

Posted: March 25th, 2020, 10:26 am
by DickolasCage183
If the N64 represented my angsty and unsociable mid teens (with the exception of Goldeneye which drew all the boys and very few girls to the yard), the Playstation would have been my later, naughtier teens - played through a haze of smoke and booze. The SNES felt like my entire childhood. My favourite birthday will always be opening the Streetfighter 2 bundle at the age of 10. I was originally planning to pick up a megadrive but my older brother, who’s sage-like opinions held particular sway over my decisions, convinced me to wait for the release of the new Nintendo. I was slightly dubious - Sega seeming so much cooler at the time, not to mention I had been salivating over their overwhelming library of games available. ‘But the SNES is more powerful, has so-and-so more colours, parallax scrolling, higher quality games, blah blah blah, oh and they’re getting STREET FIGHTER 2!!’ As was the case, my malleable little mind was won over - playing my fave arcade game at home cemented my decision.
Anyway, to cut to the chase, I made the right one . Not only did there turn out to be some of the finest single player games of the time, but those memories of childhood friends crammed into my friends bedroom like sardines, playing Super bomber man, Mario kart, SF2, Killer Instinct etc. - cartridges and controllers often being violently thrown across the room by the end. Even at the end of its lifespan, when 3D and CDs were becoming the norm, it felt like it was bowing out gracefully - with the likes of the DKC series and Yoshi Island still pushing its graphical limits and creativity beyond many of its counterparts. Obviously I’m very nostalgic for this console but I think most people who have owned or played one can agree its games library is full of absolute belters, many of which are still very playable today - the fact that my mini SNes still gets turned on regularly (certainly compared to its more ornamental neighbour the mini Playstation) is further testament to it’s greatness.

(ps. first time I've written in - thanks for a great podcast, well worth the $2. I very much caned and rinsed it on discovery (season 3 I think) - wish I'd spread my listening out a bit more but sure I'll revisit a few of the classics.)

Re: Our next Console Special No.8 - recording late March 2020 - Nintendo Super Famicom (SNES)

Posted: March 30th, 2020, 4:10 pm
by BlueWeaselBreath
I first heard of the SNES on the playground in first grade. I remember my first reaction being one of minor annoyance, because my parents were just about to get me the NES at long last, and now this Super version was being launched, so I felt like I could never catch up!

I must have seen screenshots, but the first time I got hands on the system, it was magical. It was set up outside the Kay-Bee Toys in a mall in Columbus, Mississippi and was playing Super Mario World. The combination of the “next-generation” sound effects and graphics really impressed me; for whatever reason, I remember being especially taken by the little sparkles that came off of Mario when he got an invincibility star. I also thought the new controller was impossibly cool. In retrospect, the rainbow-colored buttons of the other regions were cooler, but at the time, the North American purple and lavender buttons stuck me as sophisticated and advanced, somehow. And the fact that it had new buttons labeled X and Y? Bananas! C and D buttons wouldn’t have blown my skirt up, but X and Y blew my 6-year-old mind!

Some time later, on several special weekends, I got to rent a SNES from the video store. The first time, I took home Super Mario World and Pocky and Rocky. I also got to play SNES at a friend’s house—Link to the Past and Donkey Kong Country are a couple of those that stick with me.

After years of reading about games like Super Metroid and Contra 3 in game magazines, my father finally got me a SNES from a nearby pawn shop with a copy of Link to the Past (in a box, with manual and map too!). The Playstation was already out by then, but I didn’t care. I always got consoles a few years late and I wasn’t that interested in the muddy, low polygon look of the 32-bit system systems anyway.

Some of my standout games from the system—besides Super Mario, Super Metroid, and Link to the Past, which are compulsory—were Illusion of Gaia, Super Mario RPG, Out of This World, Flashback, Earthbound, Mega Man X, and Yoshi’s Island.

For me, the SNES was the pinnacle of the video game systems of my youth. It was just technologically advanced enough that it could deliver a deep gaming experience with sometimes complex narratives, but not so advanced that the games lost me as they did during the 32 and 64 bit era where overambition and smeary drab visuals often compromised the gameplay experience for me.

The emulation era gave the system a second life for me, as I got to go back and experience games I had missed out on and those that had never made it to North America. About three years ago, I finally sold the system and all the games for it, as I needed the money and figured I had access to all the games in other ways anyhow. Thanks to my complete in box copy of Earthbound, I made over $1000 selling the collection, but I was definitely sad to see such a happy part of my childhood go.