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Super Nintendo Entertainment System retrospective: 30 years of power

Bullet Club

Member



It has been three decades since Nintendo launched its first next-generation console in the U.S.: The Super Nintendo Entertainment System. On the occasion of its 30th anniversary, Super NES Works returns for a limited-time engagement to wrap up this look at the system's launch window by looking at the system itself. What did the Super NES represent to fans, parents, developers, and Nintendo itself when it arrived in the midst of a burgeoning games market whose revival had been precipitated by the Super NES's own predecessor and opened the door to some ferocious competition?

Super Nintendo Chalmers: 23 years of power

 

Sophist

Member
The thing that i retain from that era is that the release state of a game was absolute due to a lack of post release updates. Because of this, Nintendo enforced a strong quality testing before release.
They started doing it for the NES and it probably was what saved video gaming.
I have played hundred of hours on super mario world, zelda, metroid, ... and can't remember encountering a bug.
it's only years later with the speedrunners that i discovered that these games actually have a lot of bugs but they are very circumstantial.
Today, i feel that people are not more surprised to have a game on release full of bugs that appears randomly without doing anything special.
 

ManaByte

Gold Member
They started doing it for the NES and it probably was what saved video gaming.

There was a lot of dog shit games on the NES. Nintendo thought they could control quality by limiting third parties to only X number of games a year. But then companies just started up shell companies like Ultra Games to get around that.
 

Quasicat

Member
I remember being like 12 and seeing a Super Famicom in a magazine and being so excited for the future of gaming. I saw the Super NES about a year later and thought it looked terrible compared to the Super Famicom.

Even now, I have a Super Famicom Classic fully translated into English. Exactly what I always wanted when it was first announced.
 

Sophist

Member
There was a lot of dog shit games on the NES. Nintendo thought they could control quality by limiting third parties to only X number of games a year. But then companies just started up shell companies like Ultra Games to get around that.
It's not comparable. Before Nintendo, video gaming was literally a scam full of atrocious unplayable games.
 

ManaByte

Gold Member
It's not comparable. Before Nintendo, video gaming was literally a scam full of atrocious unplayable games.

No it is comparable. Nintendo was trying to prevent the flood of shovelware that Atari had by limiting publishers on how many games they could release. So Acclaim and Konami made shell companies to shovel absolute shit onto the NES.

And if you think Nintendo is immune to atrocious unplayable games, you haven't seen the Switch eshop.
 

Cutty Flam

Banned
So many great games. Used to look at the cartridges out of their box in glass casings on display every time at the local game stores as a young echidna
 

Moonjt9

Member
The SNES is the greatest console of all time. The games on that system pioneered so many genres and it was really the last bastion of that beautiful pixel art. NES was important for saving the industry, but SNES was important for solidifying classic games.

absolutely timeless generation of games. The GOAT!
 

RoboFu

One of the green rats
There was a lot of dog shit games on the NES. Nintendo thought they could control quality by limiting third parties to only X number of games a year. But then companies just started up shell companies like Ultra Games to get around that.
They started making their own carts as well.
 

kunonabi

Member
Got mine for Christmas with Super Mario World, Actraiser, and Ultraman. Not my favorite Nintendo console but it was an amazing machine nonetheless.
 
Just hooked my SNES Classic back up to play Dragon Quest VI. Such a great time for JRPGs. It's hard to pinpoint what makes these older 16-bit rpgs so great. It's like modern games try too hard and remove the satisfaction of simple character building through simple grinding.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Oh god LJN
The worst game maker in history.

But they sure had lots of money to buy up licenses.

Not much in gaming history can beat getting a brand new SNES with Super Mario World.
Best pack in game ever. Had a Genesis too and Sonic was pure eye candy, but ultra basic gameplay. It's like a Ferrari with a Honda Civic engine. Mario games have 100x deeper gameplay and secrets.

My starting SNES had SMW pack in and I bought Contra III with it. I did my best wheeling and dealing with a small game store and he game me $5 off. lol. Hey, better than nothing.
 
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Shifty1897

Member
The Super Nintendo was always my favorite console. It was the console I grew up with. I remember playing Super Mario World on my friend's older brother's SNES. I remember playing Contra III on the demo station at Walmart. Years later, I would be blown away by my first JRPG, Earthbound. After the JRPG bug bit, I would go on to play Chrono Trigger, which is still one of my top 3 favorite games of all time. It really was a wonderful console.
 

Kokoloko85

Member
Not much in gaming history can beat getting a brand new SNES with Super Mario World.

Was an amazing time. The colours on the logo, controller and game… nostalgia

Its probably an age thing but buying consoles before the 360/PS3/Wii era was something different and special. N64 with Mario 64, Saturn with Virtua Fighter 2 and the Demo discs lol. Gamecube Launch Midnight with Luigi’s Mansion, all were awesome. Dreamcast :)

A Megadrive with Sonic was special too.
 

Kokoloko85

Member
The SNES is the greatest console of all time. The games on that system pioneered so many genres and it was really the last bastion of that beautiful pixel art. NES was important for saving the industry, but SNES was important for solidifying classic games.

absolutely timeless generation of games. The GOAT!

Even though its not personal my goat, I can easily see it being the goat too. Amazing console
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Great system, but for me it was for SMW and Capcom and Konami actions games/fighters/shooters. I had a Genesis for sports and arcade games.

My fav games were a mix:

Fighter: SNES SFII
Platformer: SNES SMW
Shooter: SNES Axelay, Contra III, Cybernator. Genesis Thunder Force games, MUSHA
Action: SNES Castlevania. Genesis Streets of Rage 2 and Shinobi games
JRPG: Never got into them. But I enjoyed Genesis PS2 and PS4. I was more into PC WRPGs
Sports: Genesis Sega and EA Sports by far
Racing: Never got into them. But Super Monaco games on Genesis were decent
 

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


30 years ago the Super Nintendo launched to North American audiences, and the SNES quickly became one of the most beloved consoles of all time during an era where it would have to duke it out with the Sega Genesis for dominance. Today, the Super Nintendo is still fondly remembered as one of gaming's greatest systems with beloved franchises like Super Mario, Metroid, and Zelda. To celebrate the anniversary Dave looks back on the 16-bit system that defined video games.
 

Celcius

°Temp. member
Since there doesn't seem to be a SNES official thread then I'll ask here - if you want to buy an original SNES game, if the seller has posted picture of the cartridge opened up and showing the pcb/battery/etc... is that a positive? or is that a negative that they've opened it up?
 

Tarin02543

Member
Since there doesn't seem to be a SNES official thread then I'll ask here - if you want to buy an original SNES game, if the seller has posted picture of the cartridge opened up and showing the pcb/battery/etc... is that a positive? or is that a negative that they've opened it up?

they can still send you a fake so better to buy that proprietary bit for your screwdriver
 
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