Sequels can often be better than the original game by a country mile, like Street Fighter 2, Assassin’s Creed 2, and Silent Hill 2. The same goes for consoles, as sequel consoles can often be more popular than their predecessors, and the SNES is a fine example.
There are a number of notable titles that have withstood the test of time because of how good they were in the 90s and still continue to be fun to play, from Final Fantasy 3 to Super Mario World. Then there were games that helped set the groundwork for trends that are a lot bigger today than they were on the SNES. These games may not have originated the ideas, but they got the creative fires burning just a bit more.
Battletoads & Double Dragon – The Ultimate Team
Crossing Over Franchises
Battletoads & Double Dragon – The Ultimate Team crossed over both brawler franchises into one mega cartridge. Players could choose one of the five characters and go through levels alone or with a friend. It was a bizarre crossover to be sure in the 90s, and it didn’t become a franchise all its own, even though it had its fans. That said, Battletoads & Double Dragon – The Ultimate Team is one of the earliest examples of a crossover game in the West, which could have later helped influence bigger games like the Marvel vs Capcom and Kingdom Hearts franchises.
Dark Half
Playing Both Sides
Developer: West One
Publisher: Enix
Released: May 31, 1996 (Japan)
Platform: SNES
Dark Half is a relatively obscure SNES RPG because it was never released outside of Japan. The subject matter could have been the reason, as the gameplay was unconventional. Players would switch between the villain, Rukyu, and the hero, Falco, who were working against each other. It had traditional RPG elements like leveling up and turn-based battles, but the concept of playing both sides was not common then, and it’s certainly not that common now. The Last of Us Part 2 could technically be a recent example, but more games should try Dark Law’s gimmick.
Dragon Quest 5: Hand Of The Heavenly Bride
Before Pokemon There Was…
Dragon Quest 5: Hand of the Heavenly Bride was the first mainline game in the Dragon Quest series released for the SNES. It brought forth a lot of new ideas, like starting the hero as a child and then building up to marriage, hence the title.
Instead of traditional party members, players could befriend monsters like Slimes to join their party. This was in 1992, in Japan, six years before Pokemon would be released in the U.S., wherein the idea of catching cute monsters exploded. U.S. audiences didn’t get to play Dragon Quest 5: Hand of the Heavenly Bride until a DS port in 2009.
BS The Legend Of Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets
An Early Version Of DLC And Streaming
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: St. GIGA
Released: March 30, 1997 (Japan)
Platform: SNES
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was a huge hit on the SNES, and Japanese fans got a little extra Zelda love on the console. In 1995, an add-on called the Satellaview, which allowed SNES fans to download and stream games to their console, was released. Certain games could only be played during broadcasts, which added live music and audio commentary. BS The Legend of Zelda is one example, which was a remake of the first game on NES, along with BS The Legend of Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets. It was sort of like a half-step sequel to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, which reused assets, and this could have helped lead to the idea of DLC, along with downloading games.
Mario Paint
Getting Creative On Consoles
Mario Paint was not a groundbreaking or popular game when it was released for the SNES. It was a set of creation tools that allowed players to draw or make music, and not a classic Mario platformer like most wanted. This is definitely a great example of a game released before its time because with the dawn of the Internet, players started uploading their drawings on message boards and eventually their music on YouTube. Want to hear a wild version of “Shake It Off” by Taylor Swift using Mario Paint? It exists.
Michael Jordan: Chaos In The Windy City
Celebrity Endorsed Games Beyond Their Range
Developer: EA
Publisher: EA
Released: November 1994
Platform: SNES
In the 80s and 90s, it made sense to get a celebrity athlete to endorse a sports game like Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball. It still happens to this day, but that wasn’t the only way athletes were endorsing games in 1994.
Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City was an action platformer with weird sports-based monsters going after Jordan in stages. Stranger yet, it was designed by Amy Hennig, who would later go on to help with the Legacy of Kain and Uncharted series. Also in 1994 was Shaq-Fu, a fighting game starring Shaq, and it would only get wilder from there. Now, celebrities are all over the gaming industry, particularly service-based games, with pop stars, athletes, actors, and more being inserted into some of the biggest franchises, such as Call of Duty and Fortnite.
Super Mario All-Stars
Remakes “R” Us
Super Mario All-Stars was a collection of four classic Mario games from the NES era. They were remade with 16-bit graphics and had their gameplay tweaked a bit, too. It’s one of the earliest examples of what could be considered a remake or remastered collection. Dragon Quest 1 & 2 was released in Japan in the same year, 1993, which was a 16-bit upgrade for the first two Dragon Quest games. Collections like Super Mario All-Stars really wouldn’t hit their peak until the first HD generation, and now fans can’t get enough of them.
Torneko’s Great Adventure: Mystery Dungeon
Roguelikes In Their Testing Phase
Torneko’s Great Adventure
Released
September 19, 1993
Developer(s)
Chunsoft
Publisher(s)
Chunsoft
Torneko’s Great Adventure: Mystery Dungeon was a spinoff of the fourth Dragon Quest game starring one of its party members, Torneko. It was also the first entry in the Mystery Dungeon franchise, and the first game to be released in North America was Chocobo’s Dungeon 2 in 1999, six years after Torneko’s Great Adventure: Mystery Dungeon. They are both examples of console roguelikes that took popular games like Rogue and NetHack on PC and tried to modernize the concept.
Despite the Mystery Dungeon series getting mild support in Japan for decades, roguelikes as a whole wouldn’t catch on in a big way until Rogue Legacy in 2013, which was one of the earliest indie hits.
