15 16 Essential Games for Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Secret 2nd Set of Honourable Mentions Found!

You just go around websites, clicking on punctuation at random, hoping to find an Easter egg? You must have watched Strong Bad Emails growing up!

Like I said, there were just too darn many really good Super NES games to be satisfied with a measly 21-entry list. To that end, here now is a second set of 5 honourable mentions. If you're still not satisfied after playing these games... well, you're on your own. I have other pages to make.

F		Pilotwings August 1991, Nintendo EAD Availability: Nintendo Classics Released 10 days ahead of launch, Pilotwings was intended as the Super NES's killer app. Going where only IBM PCs had gone before, the Super NES offered players not only a flight simulator, but also skydiving, hang-gliding, jetpack, and helicopter simulation. Using Mode 7 in the same way as F-Zero, the game creates the impression of 3D environmental effects. Once you've taken the initial class with the instructors, you'll unlock that vehicle for free play.

G		Final Fantasy III October 1994, Square Availability: Nintendo Switch, Sony PlayStation 4, Valve Steam, Android, iOS The tale of a girl, Terra, who loses her memory of working as an agent of the corporate feudal state and begins working to overthrow it, there is absolutely no political subtext behind the presence of this game in my list here. None at all. Certainly no parallels can be found between the Gestahl Empire and the United States of America. Nope, no sir. Anyway. In Japan, this game went by the number VI, as Square had been somewhat mean about releasing Final Fantasy games outside Japan, so it was the 6th game released there, but only the 3rd one released here. The protag's name in VI was "Tina", which got changed inexplicably to "Terra" in III.

H		Prehistorik Man January 1996, Titus Availability: Nintendo Classics One caveman's quest to retrieve his village's stolen food stores, Prehistorik Man began as an Amiga 500 game with a kickin' soundtrack. It's a pretty basic platformer, but it has some secret stuff that makes you want to play it again to find everything. Precisely how the Village Elder knows exactly how much of the food you bring back to the village is never explained, but it provides some rather amusing speculation.

I		Prince of Persia November 1992, Arsys Availability: none Jordan Mechner's celebrated cinematic platformer for Apple ][ brought to the Super NES. While it does technically classify as a "platformer", it's more realistic than your average Super Mario game in that respect. Drop from a ledge twice as high as you are tall and you take damage; drop from a greater height and die immediately upon landing. There are many traps in Jaffar's dungeon; such as serrated guillotines, swords that spring from the floor, and false panels that drop on you from above. And, if that's not enough to kill you, he's sent henchmen into the dungeon to deal with you personally. The Super NES version has a few features that never appeared anywhere else; like music, high-colour graphics, and even a few extra areas, such as a cavern in the first stage that contains... well, you'll see.

J		Skyblazer January 1994, Ukiyotei Availability: none For potential fans of Mega Man who got turned off by the expert-level difficulty, Skyblazer features very similar gameplay with a manga-like story progression. It's not as though this game is particularly easy, coming in somewhere between Mega Man X and Super Mario World in terms of difficulty. An adult gamer would probably be able to breeze through this game in 25 minutes, but it was designed for children. In fact, all of these games were (with the possible exception of Street Fighter II Turbo, which had teenagers in mind). So, if you're inclined to discount a particular game as "too easy", consider the following: are you part of the 6-12 demographic? If you answered "no", then the developers didn't have you in mind when they made the game.

And, with that, we come to the definitive end to my Super Nintendo game recommendations. Remember, when I say "availability: none", that doesn't mean that you have to rush away to your local used game store and hope they have a Super NES and a copy of the game in stock. I've made all of these recommendations under the impression that you'll be playing them all on your computer or jailbroken 3DS or WiiU as ROMs. Staying on the Straight and Narrow might be safe, but it's expensive and it locks you out of some choice gaming experiences.