My Top 10 SNES games

I apologize that I can’t continue the My Top Sega Genesis/Megadrive games around this time. As token of apology, I present you My Top 10 Super Nintendo games, which is significantly easier because I have to put 10 games instead of 100. The list also easier to make, since I didn’t grow up with Super Nintendo console or I less play SNES games compared to Sega Genesis/Megadrive games. Thus, not many of SNES games that becomes my favorite.

I have to give you warning here. You most likely disappointed that there’s no big hit games such as Super Metroid, Final Fantasy VI, or Super Mario Bros on the list. That doesn’t mean I hate them. I reckon they’re very good game. It’s just they take too long to finish or I never finish them before, to call them my favorite. If my list is expanded to 20 games or so, they’re most likely there.

Before we move to my top 10 SNES game list, I like to show you the honorable mentions. The order of honorable mentions doesn’t represent my preference. Or does it? Anyway, here’s the 5 honorable mentions:

ActRaiser 

First on honorable mention is Enix/Quintet’s ActRaiser (1991). Of course, you know what ActRaiser all about. It even has modern sequel to in 2021, for God’s sake! Emphasized on God because the player takes role on God-like deity.

 

No way on earth you didn’t know about ActRaiser but I explain it anyway. So, the game is hybrid RTS and platforming action game. The platforming part is probably the least of my favorite because the God-like I play is stiff for quick platforming action. I know that the deity is manifested to the mortal world by possessing generic-looking statue armed with sword, thus explaining why he is so stiff and slow. I say that he’s not good for the task especially compared to Arthur from Ghosts ‘n Goblins or any hero on Rogue Legacy who have smaller body thus smaller hitbox.       

 

Then here’s the real feature of the game: The Real Time Strategy part. You control angel that shoot arrow at demons around the area. He also acts as your pointer/cursor when you need to point direction where the town will be constructed or point area for your godly power to summon lightning to destroy bush/rock that obstruct town construction or summon rain to extinguish wild fire or water dry farm. You get a level up if the population developed high enough. Leveling up increases HP, MP, and SP (ability point to spent on God’s power). The magic is usually screen-clearing bomb in platforming section. I think Saint Sword is better game regarding platforming with sword and magic, given that SS I only focus on Platforming action. Regardless, ActRaiser deserves a place in honorable mention. Using God’s power to engineer nature, predates what Black & White does by 10 years. Speaking of platforming action…  

Super Castlevania IV 

Next is Konami’s Super Castlevania IV (1991) which majority people like it. Look! I’m still sensible enough to pick this over Castlevania Dracula X or better known as Vampire Kiss. I’m not controversial as you might think.

 

The fans of the series must know that this game has some innovative feature over the prequel games on NES. First, this Belmont can whip basically on cardinal direction not just limited in forward direction. He can also do the whip wiggling by holding the whip button (Y button). In prequel games, you have to hold up and then press whip button to use sub-weapon. In SCV-IV, you need to press shoulder button to use sub-weapon since pressing directional up and whip button will make the Belmont whip upward now. Second, this Belmont can swing on ring with bat decoration to enhance his platforming capability. But I question why Dracula deliberately gives big hint on the swinging point. “Now you can swing around with your whip on decoration ring that I intentionally installed on many parts of my castle. Amuse me, my mortal enemy! Faha!”

 

The boss in this level is this skeleton riding a skeleton horse. The horse can breathe fire for no reason other than Dracula’s magic. Once I destroy the horse, the rider tries to hit me with lance. Using lance on foot seems dumb idea. But it works for Monster Hunters who work with lance and shield. Personally, I seldom use lance in Monster Hunter game unless I’m really bored and giving myself handicap/challenge. Hey! Speaking of Capcom’s game… 

Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts

 

Next, we have Capcom’s Super Ghouls ‘N Ghosts (1991) which -I believe- direct competitor for platform action game with horror theme with Super Castlevania IV. Personally, I prefer SGnG over SCV-IV. I heard your scream “Werdito. You insane bastard!”. I have my reason why I prefer GnG game than CV game as stated in Castlevania III review. Long story short, the reason is stairs problem in CV and I prefer projectile weapon all the time over whip.

I think everyone can finish first level of SCV-IV with small problem. But finishing first level of SGnG? Only quite few can accomplish such a feat. I may exaggerate that but the statement is not biased or baseless. If you know any GnG game or at least watch VOD or something, you should know how infamous GnG game is and SGnG is no exception.

So, how do I describe how infamously difficult the very first level of SGnG? First, zombies come out relentlessly and randomly. They can be dealt with one hit of any weapon however, they’re invincible when they are in their casket and some of the casket float in mid air for bit of eternity. On top of that, there are fireskull that shoots fireball at you and wolves which slightly tougher than zombie. Second, Arthur who’s the knight you control is slow and has stiff jump. By that, I mean you can’t alter his flight while jumping to give you slight chance of avoiding enemy’s attack. The most common beginner’s mistake when playing any of GnG game is: they have mindset of “Jump first, think later” which is reasonable if you play any platforming game other than GnG. To survive in this game, you have to reverse that mindset into “Think first, jump later (if you’re very certain that your jump is really really safe)” because -like I mentioned before- you can’t change your jump in mid-air. It needs time to get used to. However, the special feature of SGnG is the introduction of double jump! In this game, you can kind of alter your jump by doing the second jump but note that you still can’t change your flight on second jump. You can assume the second jump is get-out-jail card like In Monopoly game but it can also turn into goes-to-jail penalty if the timing or situation is incorrect. Third, you can only have 2 projectiles at instance which can be lackluster with how relentless the situation is in any GnG game. Though with knife you can have 3 projectiles at instance and with bow you can have 4 arrows at instance. God forbids you pick torch which has short range and the flame last quite forever thus preventing you to throw another projectile. Anyone who has experience with GnG game know: woe betide to anyone who pick torch.

 

Sorry that I digress back then. Anyway, SGnG has double jump which is quite nice but I feel like the levels are too long and too many. Ghouls ‘n Ghosts on arcade feels like about right in gameplay length. To those of you who know about GnG game, you should know the infamous tradition of the series which is: you have to play whole stages twice to reach the ending. On top of that, you need to keep this special weapon called Goddess' Bracelet until the true final boss. Despite the cool name and projectile’s visual, the mandatory weapon is quite bad because of limited range and it the damage it deals reverse-scaled with distance, meaning it only powerful when you hit enemies in very close range. It’s certainly downgrade compare to Psycho Power in Ghouls ‘n Ghosts.  Anyway, next on the list is another platformer action game which is…

Hagane

Red company’s Hagane (1994) is not about horror theme. It’s about ninja robot. Very cool, huh? I already made review about this.

 

The ninja robot has 4 weapons that you can choose: Sword, Grenade, Kunai, and lastly Knife with chain attached to it which behaves like grappling hook in Ganryuki. The first and last weapons have unlimited time of use. The second and third weapons have limited ammo. Defeated enemies will drop item randomly ranged from ammo for Kunai, ammo for grenade, or health refill. If you are really lucky, they may drop 1up or health upgrade. By default, you only have 3 health units before destroyed. 

 

The ninja robot has ability to do forward roll if you press jump button after he jumps. Not double jump as you would expect, but it’s useful to bounce between wall and eventually reach higher ground. By holding either shoulder buttons, the ninja robot can do flips. If you press either attack or jump button during the flips, he will perform various moves depends on how long do he flips, which face button you press, and which shoulder button you hold. Looking at Mobygames, the games is quite well received. I dare say that it rivals Shinobi 3 in Sega Genesis. I personally like this game because the protagonist is ninja robot. I mean, come on! How can you say no to ninja robot? Besides, the grenade and kunai remind me of beloved Vice Project Doom with grenade and handgun. I don’t think I can make Top 10 NES game because I’m not familiar enough with NES. I mean my family owned NES but that when I was 2 years old. Barely can remember anything except Super Mario Bros, Frontline, and Vice Project Doom. But I can say for certain that Vice Project Doom is the number one on the list. Oops. Spoiler!  

Super Punch-Out!!

The last on honorable mention list is Nintendo’s Super Punch-Out!! (1994). If you owned SNES when you were kid, you most likely know and love this game. I don’t think I like the NES game though especially when I know that Mike Tyson is super challenging to defeat.

 

As most of you know Super Punch-Out!!. It’s puzzle fighting game. Your enemies have gimmick or specialty except Gaby Jay, he’s just beginner’s test. Bear Hugger here is immune to punch in stomach because his big guts block it easily. You have buttons for left-hand punch and right-hand punch. Maybe it’s down to me who’s not professional at SP-O!!, I feel like there’s no significant difference between punching using left hand or right hand. I know from a GameFaqs that: left-hand punch is slightly faster while right-hand punch is slightly stronger. What I mean is the difference response from the enemy. What matters the most is punch to the head or torso. Like I have said before that Bear Hugger is immune to punch in torse. So, you have to punch him in his head by holding up on D-pad and press any punch button.

You also have special punch (Default is “Y” button) but you can only use it when the super bar (on the bottom) is entirely filled. Normal punch usually isn’t strong enough to win the match. So, I feel like its main purpose is to fill the super bar rather than depleting enemy’s health bar. To make things worse, health boost is granted to anyone who successfully hit his opponent. Which makes the fight’s pace slower that it should be. Also, the super bar is depleted when you get hit. It feels like the game tells you “Play perfectly or retire!”. On the bright side, the super bar isn’t spent when I use the special punch. I can keep using the special punch whenever I like as long as I don’t get hit. If I press the special punch rapidly, my boxer will do rapid punch which is faster than normal punch. If I press and hold special punch, my boxer will do hook punch. If I press and hold special punch while holding up on D-pad, my boxer will do uppercut punch.

 

I can press either left or right button to dodge left or right. When I don’t press anything on D-Pad, my boxer automatically blocks attacks at torso’s height. When I hold up direction on D-pad, my boxer will block attack at head’s height. Piston Hurricane here has special combo where he attacks in fixed pattern of high and medium punch then finish the combo with unblockable uppercut. Blocking his special combo rhythmically is the key to win this match. I need to get used to his special combo pattern there so I lose for the first time here.   

 

But then, I win match against Bald Bull with TKO even. This sounds unbelievable when I’m struggling against Piston Hurricane. Maybe the reason is: the infamous bull rush is telegraphed very big so I can dodge it fairly easy. I know those of you who’s really professional in this game shout “You fool! You can counter his bull rush with…”. Look! The reason is simple. I’m not as pro as you. I finish beginner circuit relatively easy and I’m happy enough with that.

Anyway, on to the main show. Here’s my top 10 SNES games:

#10 Dragon View  

I wrote about Kemco's Dragon View (1994) Aeon ago [Dragon-sized Hyperbolic]. The game is named Drakkhen 2 in Japan but named to Dragon View in USA probably because Kemco the developer has expired Drakkhen’s license at the time. This title screen is quite misleading. There’s no Smaug in this game. I mean there’s dragon, multiple of them even. But none of them have similarity to the infamous dragon from the Hobbit novel.        

 

It's not CRPG style of RPG like Drakkhen. It’s one-man RPG with sidescrolling brawler combat. Your sword attack doesn’t have much width on the hit but it’s quite long for melee attack. Enemies get knocked back when get hit. You can utilize it to ensure you get the positive trade on hitting. The control is simple enough: d-pad to move the swordsman around, 'B' button to jump, and 'Y' button to swing sword (indicated in the HUD on bottom part). 'A' button to use consumable item or casting magic spell.    

 

There’s temple on every town which provides you with saving point. The monk on the right, serves as savepoint and free HP & MP refill. While the monk on the left, provides travel hints including current objective. That’s very rare feature for game in 90s. It’s very useful for me who always forget the objective on RPG that I abandoned years ago. Other games in 90s that have objective reminder are Shadowrun on Genesis and Parasite Eve 2.

 

The outside world is presented with this funny polygonal field. Enemy encounters are indicated with brawl cloud as you saw in 90s Disney comic book. Towns are represented with house brick. When in the overworld, you can bring the map by pressing “L” or “R” shoulder button twice. First L/R button press will bring the overall map where you can select region map with d-pad and choose it with the same button or another button to close the map. You don’t get the whole map from get-go. No. You have to collect map for specific region to know exact location of things there. Use the compass in center bottom and the map to navigate the world accurately. Though you can find secret if you stray from the objective.

 

On every secret spot, you will get various upgrade or equipment. For example: health upgrade, armor upgrade, Hauza (throwing weapon that behave like boomerang), and Lightning Ring that allow you to cast lightning magic.  

 

We skip to final boss and he’s superbly tough bastard. Even with sword and Hauza at maximum level (which is 5), i can only pelt his health by a small bit. Any magic spell is useless. Either he blocks it or he's completely immune. You can try use bomb or arrow but that still don't do much. So, I use the usual strategy: dodge sideways, approach him from the sides and slash.

But I think I have said enough about the game. You can check my more detailed playthrough in link inside of the game’s title above. In brief, the game is pretty neat Action RPG. It was fun experience. Pretty good mix of exploration, combat, and puzzle. But there are some parts of the map that’s easy to get lost and very arduous final boss.   

#9 Final Fight 2

Up next is the SNES-exclusive of sequel of Final Fight: Capcom’s Final Fight 2 (1993). Much like in prequel, the story involves kidnapped damsel and Mike “Metro City Mayor” Haggar busting up Mad Gear gang. This time, the kidnapped damsel is Guy’s fiancée while Guy is somewhere out there training around the world, probably inspired by Ryu’s antique. Or maybe, he’s in the middle of Street Fighter Alpha 2’s event. Feeling bit of indebted to Guy who helped him rescue Haggar’s daughter, he’s obliged to rescue Guy’s fiancée and also Guy’s mentor/future father-in-law by traveling around the world. He’s not alone though. Mike Haggar is accompanied by Maki which is none other than Guy’s future sister-in-law. Also, I played as her in Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max. Then there’s Carlos who’s some katana weeb that also happen to be tenant in Mike Haggar’s apartment or something? Maybe, he joins Mike Haggar so he doesn’t have to pay the rent for 1 month. Anyway, let’s get to action…

 

The control is simple. D-pad to move around. You can use any face buttons for attack, jump, and desperation attack. As per usual, Mike Haggar is strong character and able to perform jumping slam. In first game, it’s jumping powerbomb. In this game, it’s spinning piledriver. Zangief may be happy or envy seeing this. Speaking of Street Fighter character, you can see Chun-Li in the background near sleeping kitty. She needs energy to chase down Shadaloo, so she’s in for quick noodle time. There’s also Lee from Street Fighter near Chun-Li. You may think why she doesn’t help The Metro City mayor on his quest to destroy Mad Gear gang once more? I don’t think she’s apathetic toward the mayor and selfishly focus on the noodle. She’s just trust on the famous mayor can take care of Mad Gear gang. If Mike invited her to join the heroic quest, Chun-Li would accept gladly the offer. I’m sure of that.

 

The bonus stage is the usual breaking the car but minus Bred saying “Oh my car/Oh my God!” because he’s long dead. Then there’s this one where you are tasked to destroy drums that periodically burst on flame. If you attack the drum while it’s on fire, you get burned and lose precious time. It’s weird bonus stage. What’s the purpose of this anyway?  

 

Final Fight 2 is pretty much Final Fight but takes place around the world. Mike Haggar and Co travels around the world from Hong Kong, France, Netherland, England, Italy and lastly Japan. Imagine how much Mike has to spend for the fare. On top of that, he has to buy 3 tickets. That’s pretty much solid base that Mike Haggar is wealthy man.

As for the enemies, the lowest enemies are those who mostly do nothing but sometime throw a punch or kick whenever they feel like it. Then there’s the fat man who charges at you but not the usual G. Oriber/Wong Who/Bill Bull. It was someone else that use electric tuning fork. Then there’s someone armed with expandable baton. Other use knife but not the usual El Gado/Hollwood. And of course there’s Andore. Strangely, this Andore doesn’t perform grab. Only running body block. On the other hand, this Atlas guy like to bear hug you. To make things worse, Atlas also blocks your attack. Not always. But he does quite frequently. I think this guy is the worst lesser enemy in the game. He blocks your attack and if you try to grab him, he will grab you instead. Maybe jumping kick is the most reliable attack against this guy.    

 

Rolento also back. However, Sodom is nowhere to be seen in this game. As per usual, Rolento like to running on rail and throwing grenades around. UNESCO most likely doesn’t like seeing Rolento does that in this old building at Venice.  

 

Rolento spills the information that the hostages are actually kept in Japan which is still inside the country where they live. Why Maki didn’t inform that, thus preventing Mike Haggar and his friends to go all around the world in first place? But there’s indeed Mad Gear gang to be smashed in those countries. Maybe everyone likes going around the world. Fighting only in Metro City feels boring, you see?

Anyway, the new leader of Mad Gear gang is this Retu guy who’s 80% kabuki actor that you always see in video game in 90s. He would be 100% kabuki actor, if he smacked me with hair whip but he doesn’t. All he like to do is hurricane kick and occasionally throw palm strike. Maybe Retu was Gouken’s student until he’s expelled because he’s addicted doing Tatsumaki Senpukyaku over and over again while rejecting Gouken’s other lesson: Hadou Ken and Shouryuu Ken. No wonder he’s not difficult to beat even with big health and sudden unpredictable move once in a while.

 

With Retu thrown from his mansion through Shoji (Japanese screen door/wall/window/room divider), the case is closes. Maki reunites with her family. I don’t think she had hard time finding you two, old man. She had fun travelling around the world at Mike Haggar’s expense. There’s more of this in ending if you finish the game at hard difficulty. And there’s message “You are the greatest player” if you finish the game at hardest difficulty. If you want to know more about this game, you should read other guy’s review here.  

As for my summary. It’s basically just another Final Fight with not much addition into the gameplay. The same problem with Golden Axe II. But it’s better made than any SNES port of FF which have hit detection problems and limited continue. I usually give up on “No continue use” achievement on Retroachievement but FF 2 is very rare case of doable 1CC by me maybe because the enemies are not so aggressive compared to previous Final Fight and how easy to get 1up. I believe in FF arcade version, you only get 1up only once or twice within single credit. Whereas in FF 2, you get constant 1up whenever your score reaches 200,000 and multiply of it. There’s still limited continue. It’s 3, think. But the only case I use 1 continue because I play the game at the hardest difficulty and I ran out of lives in final stage only. You may or may not say Final Fight 3. We will get to that later.

#8 Mega Man X

Next up is another Capcom game: Mega Man X (1993). I think majority of Mega man fans agree that MM X is deserved to be in favorite list. There’s narration told by Dr. Light that Mega Man have to be hibernated for 30 years to make sure he’s not violent against human. Why did have to be 30 years hibernation? Maybe Mega Man only need daily sleep like we do. But Dr. Wily’s mischiefs one after another, make Mega Man unable to get good night sleep which may or may not increases his aggressiveness.

 

The default control is: 'Y' to shoot, 'B' to jump, 'A' to dash and shoulder buttons to select weapons. You can change this control scheme whatever you like in option setting. The game starts with this prologue level. I fight this giant bee robot which fires machine gun in very close range. No way, I’m stupid to approach this bastard and get hit. When defeated, he will drop down and collapse the ground underneath it. It’s quite interesting effect, I think.

 

Look at this, schmuck! Having the best of his life by riding sporty car with cannon installed on it. But I can easily blow him up on driver seat. You should install bulletproof windshield as well, moron.   

 

The time of leisure evil-robot busting is over as this bastard on riding armor beats me to near death and grabs me. I try to shoot the driver and not the armor but it moves too fast. Is this the end?

 

Luckily, the famous Zero comes in and rescue me. He also encourages me. He says “You will become as strong as me”. Kind of narcissist, but I appreciate your encouragement.  

 

Now, we’re move on to the stage select. Unlike in origin Mega Man series where the robot masters have name end with -man. The robot bosses have name with animal’s name on it. For example: Launch Octopus, Chill Penguin and Flame Mammoth. You know the tradition of Mega Man game where you obtain robot boss’ weapon after you defeat it. Enemies have specific weakness with weapon that you obtained from their defeated peer which is ironic and it shows the opposite of what group should work. It’s the opposite of teamwork is what I want to convey. What’s the opposite word for teamwork anyway? Teamconflict? Teamdisparity?

I like that I can switch what the center part shows by pressing a button on some corner. Stage will show the part of stage so you know what kind of situation on the field. Spec for species, will show the name of the robot boss. Map will show what part of world map, the stage you select. I go with Flame Mammoth because I want fire weapon.

 

So, Flame Mammoth’s stage is foundry or junk processing center. There are lots of robot junk in conveyor belt that either pour into molten metal pool or crushed by presser. Or even both. I don’t know why this junk robot wants to fire bullet at me while it’s still in the middle of conveyor belt that ends in molten metal pool. High dedication, I guess. And also, inability to feel despair.

 

Here's the Flame Mammoth himself. He shoots either fire or oil that slow me down when stepped. I have to fight him on moving conveyor belt. The direction of it changes whenever Flame Mammoth make trumpet sound with his trunk. That’s nice feature.

 

Because I defeat Flame Mammoth, I obtain Fire Wave. Not impressive name but I hope it does the job well. I wonder which bastard weak to fire weapon.

Of course, someone life on artic stage. That be Chill Penguin. On my way to Chill Penguin’s place, I encounter this device that project Dr. Light’s hologram. After his message, Dr. Light tells me to step into the device to grant me speed boost. I try the dash button and it doesn’t work. My move speed doesn’t get faster either. So, what’s this speed boost all about? Turns out, I can dash by tapping D-pad twice. Should put instruction in the device, doc. The dash is not the sudden boost mobility. It behaves like running but in dashing animation.       

 

I get to ride the armor! I use it to destroy enemies in my way including robot hornets. Suddenly, there’s another robot in riding armor. We have little bit of boxing match until my enemy jumps into pit. I think he wants to cross up me but he jumps to his death instead. Engineer_specialcompleted10.wav  

 

By the looks of it, Chill Penguin doesn’t like Fire Wave which is flamethrower in Gunforce with decent damage. But I have bad time dealing with the ice penguins he created. I can’t destroy it with the fire weapon, strangely enough. They can only be destroyed when Chill Penguin break through them with belly slide or…  

 

…when he activates the snowstorm by pulling the pull switch. The ice penguins will be pushed by the snowstorm and ram into wall then destroyed in pieces. I need 3 retries to defeat Chill Penguin most likely because of the ice penguins. I know. I know. There’s thing called wall slide to dodge attack but I still need few retries to get used to Chill Penguin’s pattern.

 

Defeating Chill Penguin, rewards me with shotgun ice. Is it similar to mage’s ice magic in Hexen? I hope so.

I finished the game a decade ago so I don’t remember the detail. But I remember it’s pretty good thus it deserves a place in the list. Even though, the game has same problem: Mega man can’t crouch to dodge enemy’s attack and also the charging buster cannon feels too weak and slow. Feel free to enlighten me about Mega Man series both origin and X. I trust you know more about it than me.

#7 Brain Lord

Next spot, we got Produce’s Brain Lord (1994). With the name like that, you may think it’s puzzle game. It’s not. It’s another 1-man action RPG but it’s quite heavy on puzzle.

 

Calling it one-man Action RPG probably not accurate because you can have fairy companions up to 2. They provide help depends on their kind. Some fairies will shoot projectiles at the enemies sometimes, other will heal, and some other provide passive boost such as defense power or attack power. The weapons are quite various and they works depends on type. Sword does wide 180^o arc slash, or Morning Star does limited-range projectile with the spiked ball. You can cast magic by holding down attack button. There’s no MP cost or whatnot, but you make yourself vulnerable because you hold down the attack button. The time it takes to cast the magic depends on the magic itself. Generally, the stronger the magic, the longer you have to hold down the attack button. You can see the charging process by looking at the bottom bar besides the magic spell icon. The line of red boxes is your health.

 

The puzzles also various. There’s the usual “you have to step on the switch in correct order”. Then there’s code number puzzle. You have to find the hint like this one. The difficulty of the puzzle aspect is relatively higher than the combat. Fortunately, the boss fight is just combat with no puzzle, as far as I remember.

 

Look at that tiny bastard that may or may not be Metroid. Anyway, in this level I have to navigate this floorless part with this floating platform that I can control with d-pad. It flies to direction where I’m facing. You can get in and off this platform with jump button. It’s quite rare for game with top-down perspective to have jump and BL is one of the games.

 

I think I want to make separated review about this game so I should stop talking about it here. For the love of God. I have this save state in this dark place that most likely the last dungeon in the game. This cryptic text about doomsday should convince you that this place is the last dungeon in the game. I’m freaking near the end of the game!

With mix of challenging puzzle and simple yet deep combat aspect, Brain Lord earns its place on my list of top SNES game. You should give it a try.

#6 Prehistorik Man 

On sixth spot is Titus’ Prehistorik Man (1995). This game has core memory in my heart because I’m kind of fans of Prehistorik series. I finished Prehistorik 1 several times despite the egregiously low jump. I couldn’t finish Prehistorik 2 because it crashed several times. I played both previous games in DOS. I believe this is the 3rd game in the series, right? It has improvements over the 2nd game such as performance, visual, and presentation. Most likely because it runs on SNES. Titus finally gives the protagonist a name, for God’s sake! His name is Sam. Simple but again you don’t have to give name cavemen complex name. Maybe crude one like Bonk or Cronk. But that’s kind of Ork’s naming.  

 

This also the first game with proper starting story. With proper animation and dialogue. Although Sam is mute protagonist. So, the story goes like this: Last night, group of dinosaurs ransacked the food storage and left nothing. The chief heard the legend about dinosaur’s graveyard, a place where dinosaurs die when they feel it’s about the time to pass away. That’s wild elephant’s behavior but whatever. The chief wants Sam leads the expedition to the dinosaur’s graveyard so they can have all the bones to buy food they need to restock the storage. Should Sam succeed, the chief will promote him to be the next chief and marries chief’s hot daughter.

 

Oh oops! I accidentally press ‘A’ button to shout which damages enemies on entire screen. It reminds me of Radical Rex and Also Tom & Jerry because the shout is clearly Tom’s stock scream. Here’s the control for other thing. D-pad to move Sam left or right. ‘B’ button to jump. ‘Y’ button to attack. To run you can hold down up direction on D-pad and hold either left or right. Or you can hold down ‘Y’ button instead of holding down up direction.

 

This bear is enemy despite having cuddly look. I can defeat him with club by pressing ‘Y’ button. However, I can bounce on his head to reach food items yonder. The chief also instructed me to get as many food items along the way to cover up the food shortage a bit. I can’t bounce infinitely on enemy’s head. I can only able to do so 3 times before the enemy defeated. Defeating enemies by bouncing on them, rewards me with 3 bones instead of 1 if I defeat them by simply hitting them with club. Later there’s merchant that sell useful items for bones. So, bouncing on enemies has benefit. Although you have to be careful because there’s the usual lethal skin contact. If you miss your jump, you will lose a heart. There are 3 hearts on your health in total.       

 

Another new thing for the game is this little critter that act as checkpoint. If you die, you will respawn at this guy’s location. There’s no apparent checkpoint in previous games.

 

The food items that you will see, are definitely something beyond stone age. Ice cream. Sugar cube. Pudding. And HOLY SMACK! Look at that huge hamburger. So otherworldly. Or at least not common in my country, Indonesia.      

 

At the end of level, the chief judges how well you get the foods. He says “Do you even try? Try harder!” even though I reach 50% on acquisition rate. At least this assessment screen makes more sense than in Prehistorik 2 where Sam stands near cooking pot and foods he gathered poured into the pot. I think if I didn’t reach 50% quota, the game would crash. Whereas in this game, the chief will badmouth you if your catch isn’t satisfying to him. I think I should stop the playthrough here because I also want to make separated review for this game.  

I think Prehistorik Man is more serviceable version than Prehistorik 2. So, Nintendoes something that DOS-n’t. Take aside of lame wordplay. I really like this game. I think it rivals Joe & Mac Caveman Ninja in term of platforming game with caveman setting. I really recommend this game. I think this game has GBA version. So, try either SNES or GBA version of this game.

#5 Aladdin

We’re on top 5 spots. Things get hotter. On the exact 5th place, we have another platformer: Capcom’s Aladdin (1993). This game makes me wish I had better Aladdin game on Sega Genesis. Alas! We have Amigajank-ish game made by Virgin, instead. As I expect from Capcom.

 

In the game on Sega Genesis, Aladdin has sword to slash around. Whereas in this game, Aladdin jumps around which feels more accurate to the cartoon movie and more light-hearted. The control is D-pad to move around. ‘Y’ button to dash which is actually sprint. ‘B’ button to jump. ‘A‘ button to throw apple like in Sega Genesis game. Right shoulder button to hover, whatever that means.

 

If you get the golden scarab, you will enter bonus stage where Genie will spin this wheel of fortune. You can get 1up, 2up, or maximum health upgrade.  

 

Oh, I see what the hover means. I can float in mid-air by holding down the right shoulder button but only if I pick the paper/laundry/towel/whatever first. I think it should be sheet or sort of laundry.

 

The first boss level is the apple trader that want to cut Jasmine’s hand because she caught stealing an apple. Oh, please. I picked 88 apples so try me for size, schmuck!

 

Despite my boasting, this boss fight is hard and he’s the very first level boss. Here’s the thing. I can’t jump on his head because he put his sword above his head. Sensible sword stance, I would say. He leaves his head vulnerable when he’s about to swing his sword but the window of opportunity is very small in my opinion. Throwing apple at him does nothing. It takes 5 save states before I can defeat him.

 

Then I can go to exit sign with Jasmine. Oh, yes. Abu was there too. Once again, I have to cut the playthrough here because I want to make separated review sometime in future. I apologize for the sudden cut. Anyway, let’s move on to conclusion.

I remember I watch my big brother played the game in cousin home until fighting Jafar but we had to go home because it was late time. I never played the game to finish. So, the more reason I have to make separated review about it. But I reckon I’m familiar enough with the game and it deserves to be on the list.

#4 The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang

As for number 4, it’s Red Company’s The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang (1993). I didn’t know that the game is based on manga. My mind is blown.

 

The control is D-pad to move around. ‘B’ button to jump. ‘Y’ button to do spin attack which can hit 360^o area around Spike McFang. Holding down ‘Y’ button and let it go after a few second to throw Spike’s hat. You can change aim’s direction while holding down the ‘Y’ button but it only restricted to 8 cardinal directions. Spike McFang here is currently under warrior’s training in Fighter Island before he can fight Von Hesler’s invasion army.

 

The last lesson is to fight the teacher’s cane. It’s quite tricky for first boss. It spews fireball everywhere and it aggressively chases Spike while constantly does whacking animation. Just move around a lot, sneak some hit on it and you will be fine.       

 

There’s shop where you can buy hat upgrade and healing cards. Card is basically magic ranged from heal, screen-area attack, or invisibility. You select card with the shoulder buttons and activate the selected card with press of ‘A’ button. There’s another shop which sells you random card. Even the shopkeeper has 1 arm like slot machine for God’s sake! But there’s no dud except if you already have 10 cards of the same type that you get. Maximum card per type you can have in your pocket, is 10.   

 

Spike McFang’s first mission is to free his family castle from Von Hesler’s army that consists of sentient garlics, fire-breathing ghouls, and cat girls. As per usual, skin contact with enemy is harmful which kind of irony because the spin attack has minuscule range. You can spin bigger attack by repeatedly pressing the attack button but that will make Spike dizzy for a while.

 

Spike manages to infiltrate the castle via ventilation shaft and meets her mother in prison. She gives information that the boss in this castle is level 4. This is important information. It gives you hint that you should be at least level 4 to beat the boss. The way to level up is simple, defeat enemies. The higher their level, the better. Each level up, Spike deals twice damage than in previous level. Also takes half damage than before. In Japan version, Spike gets full heal everytime he levels up. Not in USA version though. So, be careful. If you are curious about my full playthrough, you should read the entire review in the link on the title.

 The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang (1993) is pretty light-hearted action RPG. The moveset probably too simple. There are only: spin attack, hat throw, and use magic card. No running attack. No dashing attack. Nothing else. However, the game is pretty good in my opinion. It’s pretty short game. According to the record, it takes 4 hours for me to master Retroachievement for this game. If you play the game faster and not too focused on grinding experience point, it probably less than 4 hours to finish the game.

#3 Wild Guns

The top 3 is Natsume’s Wild Guns (1995). Back then I only know Natsume because of Harvest Moon. As veteran player of Blood Bros, I’m really interested in Wild Guns. The game takes setting in Wild West but also with robots. Definitely, less problematic than Blood Bros with relatively bad portrayal of Amerindian. Let’s start with game start.

 

Another thing different from Blood Bros is you get to choose the character you play as. There are Clint and Annie. Clint has longer dodge roll. While Annie has higher jump.

 

The gameplay is pretty similar to Tad Corporation’s gallery shooter Blood Bros or Cabal. But there are some different details. The control is D-pad to move the playable character and also the crosshair. ‘Y’ button to shoot at the crosshair. ‘B’ button to jump. ‘X’ button to detonate screen-clearing bomb. Unlike in Blood Bros or Cabal, there’s no foe bar. Instead, we got timer on bottom center of the screen. The timer will tick down faster as you defeat enemies. Theoretically, you can just dodge enemy’s attack and not actively engage combat with enemies. The timer goes down anyway. But where’s the fun of that. However, it’s achievement in Retroachievement and you can probably tell that it’s super boring to do.

 

Once in a while, there’s enemy who like to engage close combat with you. You should stop holding down the shoot button. Letting go the shoot button for a while, will make your character ready to swing their rifle. Then pressing attack button to smack moron wild enough to attack you with melee mean.   

 

I love the various weapon that I can pick up: Shotgun, Assault Rifle, or Grenade Launcher. If you manage to fill the green bar on bottom of the screen, you will get Gatling Gun and temporary invincibility. But be careful with peashooter gun that you can accidentally pick up because it does no damage at all.

 

For every 3 sub-stages, there’s boss fight. The very first boss is giant robot with Gatling Gun, which is very cool. The only vulnerable part of him is his head. To dodge enemy’s attack, you have 2 options: jump and dodge roll. The former is done simply by pressing jump button. As for the latter, it’s quite complicated to do. You have to hold shoot button and then press jump button to dodge roll to direction where your character aim. For veteran player of Blood Bros, the way to do dodge roll needs some time and felt not intuitive or slow.

 

There's VS mode where you compete with CPU opponent or other player in shooting range contest. Hit as many as target as you can. I admit: to win against CPU opponent is very hard even though I never let go the shoot button. I suspect the opponent is cheating. Once again, I have to apologize that I cut the playthrough here because I have to make separated review of it. Either the original version or remake version on steam.

Anyway, there’s no home console version of Blood Bros. So, big credit to Natsume to make Wild Guns available at SNES. Even though there’s flaws on the game which I will tell you later on separated review, Wild Guns deserves the spot on my favorite SNES game nevertheless. 

#2 Goof Troop

The big spot of number 2 is Capcom’s Goof Troop (1993). You know that Disney series about Goofy and his son named Max, right? The game is based on it. This game is the first SNES game that I played on Cousin’s SNES console along with Aladdin, Top Gear 2, and Super Mario World. It was love at first sight how awesome SNES game can be.

 

The story of the game is: Pete along with his son PJ are captured by pirates because they mistook him as their leader Keelhaul Pete who was swallowed by whale. It’s up to Goofy and Max to rescue them in pirate’s island.

 

After hitting new game, you pick the player mode and character selection at one screen. There’s slightly different between Goofy and Max. Goofy is slow but his power on throwing objects (usually barrel) is maximum. Whereas Max is fast but his power on throwing objects is minimized. Only the lowest tier enemies that can be dealt with single well-thrown object. To defeat tougher enemy requires Max to throw more than 1 object at them (usually 2). Moreover, his speed is as slow as Goofy while he carries object to throw. So, his speed advantage is not useful.

 

There are only 5 stages in total. Moreover, you can continue the game with password. I think the game is shorter than The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang because you don’t need grinding for experience and gold. But some puzzles on later stages can be complex and require you to pause the game and think how to solve them.

 

The control as follows. D-pad to move Goofy/Max around. ‘Y’ button to use item in your inventory. ‘B’ button to pick up throwable object or kick blocks. Pressing ‘B’ button while no throwable object nearby, will make Goofy/Max raise his hands. While raising his hands, Goofy/Max will automatically grab throwable object comes toward them. This I like to call “counter grab”. But not all object can be counter grabbed for example naval mine, cartoon bomb, or bone cross. Only the usual barrels that can be counter grabbed.

Most puzzle involves kicking blocks into switches. The block you kick only stop until it collides with wall, obstacle or other blocks. This puzzle room at level 2, is quite rude because you have to solve the puzzle as you dodge fireballs from those lion statues. On the bright side, the lion statue will stop shooting fireball if you place block on switch near it.

 

The items that you can use in this game are: grappling hook gun, hand bell, wooden board, silver key, golden key, shovel, and candle. You can only carry 2 items in your inventory at maximum. You can switch between them by pressing either shoulder button.

I think the grappling hook gun is the most useful item. You can use it to knock back enemies and stun them a bit. But you can defeat them if you push them to water or pit hole. With single shot of it, you can instantly defeat hostile critter like snake or frog. You can use it to pick throwable object from distant. Forming line bridge if you shoot it to hook on the other side of pitfall but consume the grappling hook gun in process. Hand bell is tool to lure enemies into your location which can be very useful in specific puzzle room. But in general situation, it’s not that useful. I prefer defeat enemies than luring them to me. Wooden board is used to cover the gap on broken bridge. Silver and Golden key are self-explanatory key item. You use them to corresponded locked door. Shovel to dig on diggable field where you may find diamonds or fruits. Candle to increase your vision in dark room. If you don’t carry candle inside the dark room, your visibility only limited to radius 2 blocks around you which can be annoying. But I can life without the candle.

 

The enemies are fairly various including critter, ghost, and animated armor. Basically, there are only 2 kinds of pirates: the skinny one and the portly one. The lowest tiers of pirates are the one with blue trouser and blue bandana or orange bandana. They do nothing but approach you. But do note that any skin contact with enemy is harmful.

The skinny pirate with green bandana and green trouser, throw sword at you once in a while. I know that he’s supposed to be tier 2 or something. But I feel like he’s the most dangerous enemy. The portly pirate with green bandana and green trouser, can kick block which can ruin your puzzle solving activity. The portly pirate with purple/violet bandana and purple/violet trouser, can rolling attack at you like Blanka does.

The skinny pirate with red bandana and red trouser, can and will throwable object at you and also have ability to counter grab. Just remember to counter grab their projectile. If he counter grabs the projectile, just counter grab the projectile back. He can’t counter grab forever. The portly pirate with red bandana and red trouser, has ability to Yoga Flame blow a stream of fire. He’s also immune to knock back caused with grappling gun hook.

 

This room with steering wheel probably has the hardest block-kicking puzzle. I won’t tell you the detail on how to solve this puzzle. But I show you the final placement on those blocks. You have to play the game yourself if you want to figure it out yourself.  

 

The final boss is obviously Keelhaul Pete himself. The real one. He has big moveset so it takes time to memorize the pattern. He can summon his henchmen to chase you. Fortunately, they’re only the lowest tier pirate. He can shoot with his blunderbuss. The bullet will be split into smaller piece. Luckily, the projectile also harmful to the pirates. So, you can lure them into getting by the bullet. He can also throw his left hook at you. If you get snatched by it, he will drag you and forced you to make skin contact with him.

 

Lastly, he will spin like tornado while flinging lots of cartoon bombs. Here’s the only opportunity you can fight back. You have to wait for the bomb fully stop on the ground then you can safely pick it and use it against Keelhaul Pete. I think it takes like a dozen hit to defeat him, making the boss fight very arduous. But again, this is the final boss fight. So, it’s tolerable to be very hard.

After defeating Keelhaul Pete and rescue Pete and PJ, Goofy and Max resume their holiday activity of fishing. Also, Keelhaul Pete is being fed to alligator. Human can survive inside whale but inside alligator. I highly doubt it. Alligator is super vicious carnivore bastard whereas whale is relatively mild eater. Still big eater nonetheless. But not eating human.

 

Before the credit rolls, there’s character introduction including the bosses. My most favorite bosses are Red Skeleton and Blue Skeleton. They’re charming for horror creature. The Red Skeleton throws 3 bone crosses but have shortest flying duration so you can pick them relatively fast. The Blue Skeleton throws 2 bone crosses but fly faster and have longest flying duration. The ideal strategy is: keep The Red Skeleton survives until you defeat the Blue Skeleton using Red Skeleton’s weapon. Then you defeat Red Skeleton lastly.  

 

In cave stage, you can use mine cart to run over enemies which is fun combat.  

You probably know that the producer of this game is none other than the legendary Resident Evil series maker: Shinji Mikami. No wonder the combat in this game mostly felt like survival horror. I mean it felts too restricted or situational. Some rooms don’t have barrels to throw around so you’re forced to dodge enemies. You can use the grappling hook gun but mostly it only to stun enemies. The health system is quite strict. Basically, Goofy/Max dies in one hit. Picking apple will generate 1 health icon. Picking banana will generate 2 health icon. If you manage to increase health icon to 7, you will get 1up but all of the hearts are spent. Any damage will deplete all of the hearts you gathered so far. So, no matter how many hearts you gathered, they only serve as 1-hit protection. There are 2 kinds of diamond: red and green. Red diamond is 1up item. Green diamond extends continue by 1.

Overall, the game is nice mixture of puzzle and combat that either felt survival-horror-ish or puzzle. It’s also pretty short game with relatively light-hearted story. I highly recommend you to play this game. Speaking of Capcom game… 

#1 Final Fight 3

The most SNES game that I like is none other than Capcom’s Final Fight 3 (1995). I’m side-scrolling brawler game aficionado. I’m simple-minded just like that. You probably predicted Final Fight 3 is high on the list because it’s foreshadowed at the end of Final Fight 2 review. I like to point out that there’s option to play the game with CPU-controlled partner. I doubt it’s as skillful as me. But soon or later, I have to play with CPU partner because there’s achievement of it in Retroachievement.

 

Final Fight 3 has the roster that got expanded into 4 characters. There are the usual main-stay characters: Mike “Metro City Mayor” Haggar and Guy who just returned from his training. Then there’s Lucia, Metro City Police detective. And lastly Dean, who’s ex-gang member. They work together to fight new gang that replaces Mad Gear: Skull Cross gang.

The control is: D-pad to move around. ‘Y’ button to attack. ‘B’ button to jump. ‘A’ button is shortcut for desperation attack. Shoulder button to hold facing direction. It’s meant for strafing. Not the stapple function in side-scrolling brawler game. But maybe it’s useful.

 

What’s new in Final Fight 3 is the inclusion of super move along with super bar! Not as complex as my beloved Guardians/Denjin Makai II but it works wonderful enough. I owe to Goh_Billy who made FAQS about move list of this game so I know how to do the super move. The thing is: the input is not double quarter-circle-forward and attack button, so no way I can figure it out myself. For this Lucia’s super kick combo. The input for it, is: down, down, forward + attack. That’s quite weird input that I couldn’t imagine it exists.

 

There’s nunchaku that I can pick up as weapon. It’s useful to extend my attack’s range. But not as satisfying as good old pipe.

 

The first boss is Dave. Much like Edi E, he’s corrupt police who support evil gang instead against them. There’s the usual sticky grab mechanism where you grab your enemies automatically, if you approach them. There are 2 kinds of grab: front and back, and you can switch between them much like Sega’s Streets of Rage. But unlike in SoR with fancy vaulting over the enemy, FF 3 use something more trivial and doable which is simply shifting around the enemy. It’s done by holding direction down and pressing attack button while grabbing. I assume grapple from back does more damage than from front. In Lucia’s case: her throw in front grab is shoulder toss or I assume it’s Morote Seoi Nage which useful to throw enemy into their friend. While her throw in back grab is German Suplex.   

 

Let’s skip some levels to demonstrate the Metro City mayor himself in action. Mr. Haggar doing gorilla press slam on the hapless bandit. That’s what you get for ruining Metro City, Punk!

 

I didn’t know that I’m out of sewer when I approach ladder in that previous screenshot. And I end up in Chinese restaurant, wrestling with Andore. He looks too cheerful. But again, it’s utmost happy moment to have wrestling match with the mayor of Metro City.   

 

Eventually, I fight Wong at the kitchen. Wong Who? Not that Wong Who. Just Wong. He wears cloth like monk along with praying beads. Turns out he’s just sub-boss because the level still continues. Once more again. I cut the playthrough here because I must make the separated review of it. It’s my most favorite SNES game so the reason is very solid. Let’s get to summary.  

Capcom’s Final Fight 3 (1995) has so much improvement over Final Fight 2. Also, I have theory that Capcom learn some from Sega’s Streets of Rage, the main competitor. I mean it’s not bad thing. It’s still considered healthy competition in my opinion. There’s one bonus stage which similar to the on in Streets of Rage 3, where you need to stop a bulldozer coming at you. If you don’t stop it fast enough, another playable character will jump kick the driver and saving you. It’s supposed to be mock toward Streets of Rage 3’s bonus stage where if you fail on that one, you just knocked out by bulldozer. That’s kind of thing happens between Sierra and Lucas Art studio with their point-and-click adventure game. Anyway, FF 3 is very good beat em up game. I consider it as the best side-scrolling brawler game on SNES. In term of difficulty. It’s middle ground between first FF which super harsh and hard, and FF 2 which quite mild. It goes without saying that the game gets S-grade recommendation from me.   

Here's the list of Top 10 my favorite SNES game:

With honorable mentions: ActRaiser, Super Castlevania IV, Super Ghouls n Ghosts, Hagane, and Super Punch Out.

You should notice that I like Capcom’s games mostly. I mean yes. You can say that I’m fans of Capcom. I humbly apologize because I suddenly cut some review and/or your favorite game not in this list. That most likely because I have difference taste. Or as I have mentioned before, I don’t put the game that not familiar enough or too long that I never finished it or even near completed it. I hope you understand. I also apologize that I don’t think I can continue the Top Genesis games in near future. Maybe around December? We shall see. I hope you are entertained with this Top SNES game review. Farewell for now.