For now, I can still happily select that ‘18-35’ age bracket that some online surveys like to throw up, but I can’t use any of the smaller ranges anymore. I know I’m growing up in a harsh world when I start moving in and out of marketing age brackets.
The SNES turned 21 years old this week and my point here is that it’s a rather sobering fact that I’m old enough to have enjoyed a SNES in the early 90’s.
Next to my Amiga 500 it was the most powerful computer in the house and it was the most expensive “toy” that my parents had ever bought for us. Needless to say, we pestered like hell until my parents gave in and bought one.
In 1992 system stats actually mattered. SNES had a 16bit, 21MHz processor and featured 128KB of system RAM. Twenty-one years later, my iPod Nano has 64MB of RAM and a processor many times more capable… not to mention it’s the size of a wristwatch and has 16GB of storage. I should add that 21 years later, the SNES controller is still one of my favourites. With no real 3D games to complicate the button layout, life was nice and simple. It also felt nice to hold.
SNES was also knee-deep in a very massive console war with Sega’s Megadrive (Genesis). You see children, the hardware was on a fairly level playing field, but each of companies had their proprietary game franchises; Nintendo had Mario and friends and Sega had a very big arcade catalogue. You think competition between the big three is fierce now? 21 years ago it was REAL (and Sony didn’t even exist here).
If you had a particular game you needed to play, chances are it existed on only one of the platforms. Nowadays, that’s a rare thing; notable exceptions being the Halo franchise on Xbox and Gran Tourismo on PS3... and of course Nintendo's own worlds.
One could say things are a bit more boring now since developers tend to hedge their bets across two or three consoles with each release.
But enough glistening foreplay; here are my top three SNES games. Whittling my list down was a hard thing to do, SNES was a proverbial goldmine of 16bit excellence.
1. Super Mario Kart
I hated Princess, hated her. I was a very sexist driver back then.
To this day, SMK is the best version of the series without doubt. Sure, the graphics and features have come a long way since, but the elegance of this game has never graced subsequent versions. I don’t think I’ve explored every pixel of a game like I have in SMK. I am gushing here, I almost need a squirt pillow (sorry). I can’t say enough good things about it and I wish I still had my SNES just for this game.
Fave characters: Luigi, Donkey Kong Jr and Bowser
Fave tracks: Ghost 1 & Luigi 2
2. Street Fighter II
Feel it Ken, FEEL it!
SF2 was my original reason for getting a SNES. Screw Mario, Donkey Kong and Princess (in some bizarre cosplay orgy), this was the only way you could do a real hadoken in your home. I sunk many 20-cent coins (cause they were still useful back then) into the arcade version of SF2, so getting me this game actually saved my parents money. I will still pwn you on this game.
Fave characters: E.Honda & Sagat
Fave move: Tiger Uppercut
3. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
So atmospheric! ZOMG it's the Triforce.
Many people will tell you that Ocarina of Time is the best Zelda game that ever was. As far as I’m concerned, they are wrong. Too wrong! TLoZ:ALttP (not much of an abbreviation) represents the height of the 16bit aesthetic. Everyone wants to emulate that 16bit look and feel now. But beyond bright, attractive graphics, TLoZ:ALttP was such a solid game presenting challenging worlds, atmospheric music and a good story. Back then I thought Link’s name was Zelda.
Fave character: Link, duh
Fave soundbyte: the treasure fanfare; dah dah dah dahhhh!
3.1 Star Fox
Sweet 3D. It's like you're really there!
It had the SuperFX chip inside the cartridge! This chip was a maths coprocessor that allowed the SNES to generate the (then) amazing 3D graphics of the Star Fox game. Though I wasn’t enamoured with Fox, the story and his friends, the game highlighted how advanced home gaming was going to get. 32 and 64 bit were just around the corner, hazzah!
Fave character: Falco
Hated character: Slippy, the stupid one
Got a favourite SNES game? Hit me in the comments.