The SNES Rankings - Finished!

[Reed Rothchild | 9,510]

14 hours ago, Tanooki said:

You really should update that first post to have the SNES rankings website.  I had no idea where it went until I started skimming and clicking links.

I didn't want anyone else to see it until the next round of updates and fixes were in 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,510]

Next batch is 100% done and ready, but I have a ton of site updates I need to work on tonight.

In hindsight, I would have been better off with making certain code more js-centric, which would have let me avoid having hours and hours of refactoring.  Lesson learned.

 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,510]

@Tanooki @Andy_Bogomil @peg @Splain @spacepup @JamesRobot @bronzeshield @Space Jockey @Kguillemette @Daniel_Doyce @a3quit4s @ICrappedMyPants @scaryice @Matchbook @Shmup @KokiriChild @ALTQQ @jonebone @Ausden @AstralSoul @Gaia Gensouki @doner24 @Foochie776 @guillavoie @glazball @profholt82 @TheBiRD

[Andy_Bogomil | 815]

^One emoji doesn't cut it... Thanks, man. Looking forward to reading it through. Getting very interesting with you starting to get into some much better games and ones I've actually played for more than 5 minutes. 

[Tanooki | 4,930]

Nice...what happened to the left menu where you could jump straight to the sections.  That thing on the top removed it, adds a lot of work to dig for the page unless I'm missing something.  I'm not sure I like seeing that hockey game so far up over some notable fan favorites that give some solid consistent play but hey whatever...  It's not so much nitpicking just questioning why an average yearly NHL game, a sports game of all things, ranked so well.  I mean it's down to 200 out of a library of over 700 which already says a lot for the level of quality it's into now.  Hey at least Indy ranked over those atrociously unfair Star Wars titles (yeah I finished the first on PC, put me off the other two) but I do own Indy and it lacks most those cheap bits, it's really solid.  Also loved the sweet rare use of high color mode on SNES to do screen caps from the movie.  The opening alone matching pieces of the south america bit on raiders is fantastic.

[doner24 | 1,195]

4 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Nice...what happened to the left menu where you could jump straight to the sections.  That thing on the top removed it, adds a lot of work to dig for the page unless I'm missing something.  I'm not sure I like seeing that hockey game so far up over some notable fan favorites that give some solid consistent play but hey whatever...  It's not so much nitpicking just questioning why an average yearly NHL game, a sports game of all things, ranked so well.  I mean it's down to 200 out of a library of over 700 which already says a lot for the level of quality it's into now.  Hey at least Indy ranked over those atrociously unfair Star Wars titles (yeah I finished the first on PC, put me off the other two) but I do own Indy and it lacks most those cheap bits, it's really solid.  Also loved the sweet rare use of high color mode on SNES to do screen caps from the movie.  The opening alone matching pieces of the south america bit on raiders is fantastic.

That hockey game is at least 100 spots too low. 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,510]

4 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Nice...what happened to the left menu where you could jump straight to the sections.  That thing on the top removed it, adds a lot of work to dig for the page unless I'm missing something.  I'm not sure I like seeing that hockey game so far up over some notable fan favorites that give some solid consistent play but hey whatever...  It's not so much nitpicking just questioning why an average yearly NHL game, a sports game of all things, ranked so well.  I mean it's down to 200 out of a library of over 700 which already says a lot for the level of quality it's into now.  Hey at least Indy ranked over those atrociously unfair Star Wars titles (yeah I finished the first on PC, put me off the other two) but I do own Indy and it lacks most those cheap bits, it's really solid.  Also loved the sweet rare use of high color mode on SNES to do screen caps from the movie.  The opening alone matching pieces of the south america bit on raiders is fantastic.

15 minutes ago, doner24 said:

That hockey game is at least 100 spots too low. 

I expect these to be the tamest responses to my NHL ranks. 

...I'm also gonna need an itemized list of where every game above it needs to be 

[Ausden | 323]

I liked the previous layout but will admit I really like the new one. Either way, I’m enjoying the content!

[peg | 370]

Awesome work. 

11 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I expect these to be the tamest responses to my NHL ranks. 

...I'm also gonna need an itemized list of where every game above it needs to be 

When there's this many games involved, it's easy to have something that far off from one person to another and a game can easily be 100 or 200 ranks apart.

 

Its a personal list after all, some of it will be nostalga based and some of it will just be preference.  The fact thats he's not just blacklisting entire genres is commendable.

 

I mean there are actual, real people who apparently think goldeneye 64 and Zelda 64 are good games after all. Subjectivity is a hell of a thing.

 

[Kguillemette | 1,543]

This appears to be the hidden gem iteration. Lots of really good sounding games I've never heard of or played before!

I was also wondering when we would see some of the lesser entries of the major jrpg franchises. Can't wait to read the top 200!

[a3quit4s | 4,093]

We need a holy shit emoji lol great work @Reed Rothchild

[Andy_Bogomil | 815]

Yeah, I'm gonna be that guy that says Mickey's Magical Quest needs to be higher. Not too much higher but I think it deserves at least to be in the top 200.

Crazy that there are 200 games left and you're still playing some stinkers. I own about 200 games and only own about 20 or less of the games that you've listed so far so I think that's a pretty good sign

I couldn't agree more about B.O.B. A game I've gone back to a number of times but just ultimately lose interest because of the difficulty. I've never really given it a true attempt but have put a few hours into the game here and there and never got anywhere of significance.

[scaryice | 582]

I expected Plok to be higher!

Breath of Fire is nothing special, so even though it's a well known rpg, I'm glad it's not ranked too high. I think Lufia 1 over Breath of Fire is a good call, but it's close.

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,067]

Just finished reading the new batch and I was surprised by how little certain games were covered or pretty much not covered at all. Of course I can understand that after roughly 500 of these reviews things get repetitive to some extent and I did have fun reading them nevertheless. But I still don't know how some of these play compared to other similar games or why they are at the ranking they are at. That being said, the vast majority still cover the game well.

At first I was surprised to see X-Kaliber 2097 on such a relatively good rank since I thought that it was rather clunky and at times pretty unfair.

As for J&M 2 the same two bosses pissed me off, too. And the boss rush at the end almost ruined the game for me. I would be interested in playing the other two games in the series as they seem to be a bit better.

Plok is actually a game that I really dig and I'm a little bit sad to not see it in the top 200. On the other hand that may be nostalgia on my part since I had this one as a child. But I feel like this game gives you a bit more to do than other typical platformers as it almost introduces puzzle elements in later levels. Also, I think some of the bosses are pretty cool with some great music. But yeah, it's a matter of taste.

Breath of Fire and Lufia are interesting picks. I personally would agree that they're really basic and I've caught myself spacing out several times during my recent playthrough of BoF I, exactly because the battles don't offer a lot of nuance. This game's saving grace is really it's above average production value and the minor adventure elements where you can use the characters abilities to open up new paths. Also, you can really forget about half of the cast. Some characters are hardly more than fusion fodder. I think that BoF II to IV improved the formula immensely to the point where I would call them classics. The first one however is rather unremarkeable. And I haven't played Lufia I in a long, long time, but I still remember that I got bored halfway through. Lufia II just spoiled me.

I'm glad to see Valis IV so high up. Many people/online reviewers like to dump on this series, but I have a soft spot for it. I would recommend you to check out Valis I and III on the Mega Drive. They're great as well. Syd of Valis is sort of a remake of Valis II, but they created SD (super-deformed) characters and made everything cartoony and bright, not to mention that the controls are insanely slippery, the screen too small and the sprites too big causing you to get hit all the time. Syd of Valis sucks unfortunately and I can't recommend it. Btw. the name comes from a mistranslation. The Japanese version is called SD Valis, with SD meaning super-deformed, as mentioned above. And either they didn't know what this meant and thought that it was some sort of name or they just came up with this ludicruous name because no one back then knew what SD meant.

I've heard that people really like those Mickey Mouse SNES games from Capcom, but when I played them for the first time recently I was somewhat underwhelmed. Like you said, most of the basics are there, but these games were missing something that made them great or special, imho.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,510]

37 minutes ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

Just finished reading the new batch and I was surprised by how little certain games were covered or pretty much not covered at all. Of course I can understand that after roughly 500 of these reviews things get repetitive to some extent and I did have fun reading them nevertheless. But I still don't know how some of these play compared to other similar games or why they are at the ranking they are at. That being said, the vast majority still cover the game well.

At first I was surprised to see X-Kaliber 2097 on such a relatively good rank since I thought that it was rather clunky and at times pretty unfair.

As for J&M 2 the same two bosses pissed me off, too. And the boss rush at the end almost ruined the game for me. I would be interested in playing the other two games in the series as they seem to be a bit better.

Plok is actually a game that I really dig and I'm a little bit sad to not see it in the top 200. On the other hand that may be nostalgia on my part since I had this one as a child. But I feel like this game gives you a bit more to do than other typical platformers as it almost introduces puzzle elements in later levels. Also, I think some of the bosses are pretty cool with some great music. But yeah, it's a matter of taste.

Breath of Fire and Lufia are interesting picks. I personally would agree that they're really basic and I've caught myself spacing out several times during my recent playthrough of BoF I, exactly because the battles don't offer a lot of nuance. This game's saving grace is really it's above average production value and the minor adventure elements where you can use the characters abilities to open up new paths. Also, you can really forget about half of the cast. Some characters are hardly more than fusion fodder. I think that BoF II to IV improved the formula immensely to the point where I would call them classics. The first one however is rather unremarkeable. And I haven't played Lufia I in a long, long time, but I still remember that I got bored halfway through. Lufia II just spoiled me.

I'm glad to see Valis IV so high up. Many people/online reviewers like to dump on this series, but I have a soft spot for it. I would recommend you to check out Valis I and III on the Mega Drive. They're great as well. Syd of Valis is sort of a remake of Valis II, but they created SD (super-deformed) characters and made everything cartoony and bright, not to mention that the controls are insanely slippery, the screen too small and the sprites too big causing you to get hit all the time. Syd of Valis sucks unfortunately and I can't recommend it. Btw. the name comes from a mistranslation. The Japanese version is called SD Valis, with SD meaning super-deformed, as mentioned above. And either they didn't know what this meant and thought that it was some sort of name or they just came up with this ludicruous name because no one back then knew what SD meant.

I've heard that people really like those Mickey Mouse SNES games from Capcom, but when I played them for the first time recently I was somewhat underwhelmed. Like you said, most of the basics are there, but these games were missing something that made them great or special, imho.

Hah.  Well let's just say that hypothetically if my most recent playthrough of X-Calibur told me I had it slightly overvalued by 20-30 spots, and that there was no way I preferred it over Syndicate, that the best solution would be a slight adjustment in a handful of titles with the next batch of write-ups.  Hypothetically of course

[Tanooki | 4,930]

Sounds like a theoretically good idea.  Syndicate is an excellent game, not at its best on the SNES but deserved a bit better.  Some of those PC conversions on the SNES are shockingly good giving the limitations, especially resolution.  Some clearly more than others, say like Civilization which I don't think you hit yet and it uses the mouse quite well. The couple Wing Comamnder games don't scrolls quite as smooth and use a dumb password as the developer was cheap but the conversions are remarkably sound, best 'flight' combat games on the system easily (yeah I'm ignoring starfox, it's a rail shooter.)

[Reed Rothchild | 9,510]

On a related note, I'm gathering votes for the "Top 100 SNES Games" on my subreddit, if anyone cares to contribute

https://reddit.com/r/snes

[Tanooki | 4,930]

You setup the SNES reddit account?  That's pretty interesting in itself.

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,067]

Just gave my vote. Unfortunately I haven't even played 100 SNES games in my lifetime and it seems like most people voting there didn't either. So I'm not sure how many people are qualified to vote, like you are. I even had to go through my list of beaten games to remember which one's I've actually beaten or played long enough.

Then there's also the factor that I haven't played many of the really popular games, like Super Metroid, Earthbound, TMNT IV, Final Fight 2 etc. But at least I beat Captain Novolin, Bronkie and Barbie: Super Model, so I've got that going for me which is nice (or not).

It's also interesting to see whenever someone puts Breath of Fire I over II. Just how in their right mind is that even possible? (other than maybe nostalgia)

[Reed Rothchild | 9,510]

Some people are odd.

One guy submitted Young Merlin.  No list.  Just Young Merlin.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,510]

14 hours ago, Tanooki said:

You setup the SNES reddit account?  That's pretty interesting in itself.

I did not.  But I'm the last mod standing so now I have complete autocratic power 

[Tanooki | 4,930]

8 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I did not.  But I'm the last mod standing so now I have complete autocratic power 

Wow, one of those Spiderman great power, responsibility moments there.  That would be quite fun moderating a place like that on reddit.

[ALTQQ | 87]

Great as always. I hardly visit the site or post these days, but I always look into your rankings. I think I'm one of the few people out there that actually knew about xcalibur 2097 back in the 90s haha. My friend owned it. Looking forward to that top 100. I've only got 100 snes games left in my collection so I'm curious how my list compares.

As for bob I've owned it since I've had an snes. It is the 3rd game I bought. And I've never beat it. I got close but I just couldn't beat one of those level where you zip around in the space ship in the 3rd world. Still own it but I dont think I'll ever beat it.

[Red | 435]

On 10/2/2020 at 2:05 PM, Gaia Gensouki said:

It's also interesting to see whenever someone puts Breath of Fire I over II. Just how in their right mind is that even possible? (other than maybe nostalgia)

I'd probably rank BoF over BoFII.  BoFII had a very slow start and dragged on too long.  I really didn't care for either of them though.  Too tedious and unremarkable.  Maybe I liked the original better just because it was shorter?  I'd rank them as some of the worst RPGs on the system that I've played (I never spent much time with or played some of the ones with poor reputations though).  I do like the other games in the series (III, IV, and Dragon Quarter, never played VI).  It seems many fans of the series didn't like it, but Dragon Quarter is easily my favorite and I consider it one of the best RPGs I've played on PS2.

 

[Guest]

On 10/1/2020 at 6:53 PM, Reed Rothchild said:

On a related note, I'm gathering votes for the "Top 100 SNES Games" on my subreddit, if anyone cares to contribute

https://reddit.com/r/snes

THE SNES subreddit? Damn Reed