Top 10 SNES Picks

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The golden system from my childhood. While I started on the NES, and spent a lot of time playing that console, the SNES was where my true passion for video games blossomed. So here are the top 10 games from my childhood that I remember the most, and still revisit to this day. These games anchored my heart into video games, and introduced me to my favorite genres.

Mario Paint

Some may not consider this a game, but to me, it was the seed that would later evolve into my love for creating digital art, as well as music and using computers. Back during the Super Nintendo’s reign, many people didn’t have home computers. Using the mouse accessory for the SNES, I was able to do a lot of what Microsoft Paint and similar programs would eventually allow everyone to do. It was fun, allowed me to harness my inner creativity, and led me down the road that brought me to art school and working with computers. So it makes my list, even if only at #10. 

Super Castlevania IV

Castlevania. That name never frustrated me more as a kid. On the original NES, playing the original Castlevania wasn’t just hard. It what has become known as NES Hard. Unforgiving at times, you wish your control over the character was more limber. Then walks in Super Castlevania IV. You are now suddenly able to whip in more than just two directions. While most people believe Super to be a sequel to the original three, in all actuality it is a remake and retelling of the first one. For the record, I finally finished the original Castlevania last year. It took me 25 years to finally face that inner demon.

Super Castlevania follows the story of the hero Simon, a member of the cursed Belmont clan, who has sworn to hunt down and destroy Dracula. His family’s lineage has set their bloodline into a never ending battle between the darkness of Transylvania. Armed with the powerful whip, the Vampire Killer, you will face hordes of horror movie monsters. If interested in where a good pick up point for the massive series is, here is a great place.

Super Metroid

Metroid was a classic. But Super Metroid may be the best of its series. The running, exploration, platforming and shooting all mixed together to create a game that gets more fun, the further you get in and the more you unlock. The music,world and labrynth designs add in to give you this eerie all alone feeling. It’s where my love for the series started and easy to see why once you have played it.

Mega Man X3

Mega Man was one of the great NES kings and X3 was the last Mega Man game on Nintendo’s consoles for a long time to come. What makes this game so great is that you finally get to play as Zero. Had this game not existed, Zero may not have been a playable character in the other Mega Man X games to follow, or get his own series and spinoffs. The difficulty was harder than the original Mega Man X game, as well as introduced some new mechanics and concepts. If you love Mega Man, check this title out.

Super Mario World

If you had an SNES, and didn’t ever play this game, there must be a sad history behind your childhood. Mario’s first adventure on the SNES is one that anyone playing a Mario game must experience. While this isn’t his first game he appears in, it is the first time that Yoshi becomes a companion to the plumber. Being able to infinitely fly with great thumb reflexes and the cape, discovering all of the secret exits in levels, and having the music stuck in your head for days are all amazing things about this game. This was the first SNES game I had ever played as it came with the system. That Christmas morning is a memory that still appears crystal clear to me. Saturday morning cartoons also hosted a Super Mario World cartoon and my brother and I became huge Mario fans. Nintendo knew just how to brain wash us.

Mega Man X

Mega Man X gave a breath of fresh air to a game series that seemed to become repetitive by introducing wall jumps, air dashing, and armor upgrades as well as a darker story. The original Mega Man series, namely the first 4, were notoriously hard and fall under the aforementioned NES hard category. X on the other hand, wasn’t as difficult, but insanely fun. The music in this game is classic too. For the completionist, there is a hidden easter egg in the game, allowing X to perform the hadouken from Street Fighter if you could find the hidden capsule after meeting certain requirements.

Super Mario RPG - Legend of the Seven Stars:

At the time, Nintendo was the uncontested king of video games. And during that time, Squaresoft (now known as Square-Enix) was the ruler of JRPGs. Super Mario RPG is their love child. They pulled out all they had to create this masterpiece, even breaking some of the genres rules. And guess what? Everything you think that wouldn’t work, did. 

Turn based battles that kept you focused with timed button presses, exploration of an amazing take on an isometric 3D Mushroom Kingdom, mini games to change the pace, a cast of lovable characters and of course, jumping. Hidden deep in the game, Squaresoft even inserted a tribute to it’s lead series, Final Fantasy, with a hidden boss battle for the determined. After playing this, Mario games were never the same to me. I am still waiting for a sequel…

Final Fantasy VI
At the end of the SNES era, the Playstation rose up. It was there that I played my first Final Fantasy game. After playing Final Fantasy VII, I wanted to check out other games in the series. Because I was still playing my SNES a lot, I sought out a copy of Final Fantasy VI, aka, Final Fantasy III in the states. It wasn’t easy hunting a copy of this game down. And for good reason. It’s amazing. It was easy to see why hard core Final Fantasy fans draw a line and take sides between VI and VII. I choose to believe that VI paved the way for VII’s success. I won’t pick one over the other here though. VI was host to a very deep story, with possibly the most insane villain in the series. For the same reason everyone thinks of Joker as Batman’s number 1 villain, Kefka is ranking up there as one of the top villains in a Final Fantasy game. There is something about an insane, murderous clown bent on taking over the world…. On top of that, being able to present a story that well using chiptune music and 16bit graphics, this game definitely did nearly everything right. Only one other Squaresoft game could outdo Super Mario RPG, and Final Fantasy VI….

Chrono Trigger

Time travel done right. Start in the middle, and work outward in all directions. Medieval Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Prehistoric, this game took you so many places. Playing host to 13 endings, this game offered replay value and weeks of exploration without a guide readily available to you. It was created by some of the best in Japan; Final Fantasy’s Hironobu Sakaguchi, Dragon Ball creator and artist Akira Toriyama, and Dragon Quest’s Yuji Hori. This game scores a perfect 10 in my book. The story moved at a perfect pace, had an amazing cast of characters and soundtrack, and the time travel mechanic was awesome. This is one of the most beloved JRPGs of all time. If you haven’t played Chrono Trigger, do yourself a favor and play it next. Thank me later.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Anyone who knows me, even a little bit, knows that I am one of the biggest Zelda fans out there. My house is riddled with The Legend of Zelda items. My entire 30th birthday party was practically Zelda themed. To them, there is no surprise that a Zelda game has made number one on my list. But it’s not number one on my list because I am a huge fan. In fact, it is the other way around. I am a huge fan because of number one on my list. It was this game that sealed my obsession with the Legend of Zelda.

With two massive worlds and a ton of dungeons to explore, this game kept me entertained for a long time. Trying to find every item, every heart piece, and any other little gem this game had to offer became the best adventure of my childhood. 

Maybe I am wearing rose colored glasses? Perhaps this game is only as good as the memories that went with it? The only way for you to truly know is to play it and find out yourself. But look anywhere online at top SNES games, and you will find this one in the top 3.