The SNES Rankings - Finished!

[profholt82 | 60]

I recently played College Football USA 97, but I have the Sega Genesis version, not the snes. Honestly, not a bad game. So I'm assuming there was a completely different dev team. I know you're in the final stretch, but I'm revisiting number 714. Ha!

Anyway, I was curious about the game, and the wiki page includes this glorious snippet from Gamepro:

However, GamePro called the Super NES port "a complete gridiron debacle. Players fly around the field - except for the man with the ball, whose movements slow down and become jerky. The frame rate and animation are poor (the players look armless), and the sound features the most obnoxious whistle in sports gaming history." They rated it a 1.5 out of 5 in graphics and a 0.5 in every other category (sound, control, and funfactor),^[6] making it only the second game to receive a 0.5 or lower from GamePro in any category.^[7]

 

Edit:

Ok, there's one review on gamefaqs, and it's from 2000. The dude loves it (9/10), and it's a long, thorough review with tons of detail about the game. Now, I really want to track it down. 

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/snes/588260-college-football-usa-97/reviews/17273

Edited September 24, 2022 by profholt82

[Sumez | 2,933]

Wild Guns is great, but I think you kinda need to play it in multiplayer to find out just how great it is. 

I prefer Blood Bros., its obvious source of inspiration for single player gameplay. Such an underdeveloped genre in general, I wish there were more greats like those, and Nam 75.

[MagusSmurf | 577]

2 hours ago, profholt82 said:

Ok, there's one review on gamefaqs, and it's from 2000. The dude loves it (9/10), and it's a long, thorough review with tons of detail about the game. Now, I really want to track it down. 

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/snes/588260-college-football-usa-97/reviews/17273

Psycho Penguin is not generally the most credible guy out there.

https://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?155484-Steve-McFadden-Psycho-Penguin-traders-�-get-your-money-back

[profholt82 | 60]

Oh, man. I actually remember that from atariage back in the day. Hid brother posting about it. Wow, portnoyd was in that thread. Haven't heard that name in years. 

The game is obviously awful. If the esteemed Mr. Rothchild says it's the worst, and Gamepro considered it one of the worst games they ever reviewed, I believe them. I just thought that Psycho Penguin review was amazing considering the game. It's thousands of laudatory words. Either he had terrible taste, or it was an epic troll job to sucker people into buying the game. 

[Andy_Bogomil | 815]

Wild Guns is in my top 10 so I'm happy to see it so high on the list. A unique title with a lot of fun factor and relatively easy mechanics. Once you start chasing high scores by staying stationary and collecting multipliers it can get even more addictive (and I'm not usually a high score/points type of guy). The remake is awesome, although not sure who approved the level design for "Underground' with the black veil over the entire screen. Great game all around.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,510]

My sister's wedding was yesterday and I have a drive in front of me.  But I'll get two up today.

[Tanooki | 4,930]

Coincidence, brother got married yesterday too in a small thing out west.  You'll get to it when you can.

[fox | 1,665]

Mystical Ninja at 16 nice!

[Reed Rothchild | 9,510]

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#13

[Splain | 2,560]

Is this like Teleroboxer but in 2D?

[profholt82 | 60]

I think that because I'm a little older than you, I grew up with (and have a similar affinity for as a result) the NES the way that you did with the SNES. And MTPO was one of the dozen or so games that I owned growing up before the NES went in the closet for a few years to make room for the Genesis in 92 or so. So likely because of that, at least when it comes to nostalgic influence, I will always hold MTPO in much higher regard than Super Punch Out. I suppose at the end of the day, they have similar gameplay, but I find that MTPO has so much more character. With the cut scenes and the dialogue exchanges between Little Mac and Doc in between rounds, the taunts of each fighter, and the chance/unreliability of Mario the referee. These components greatly add to the overall ambiance and total gaming experience. And while Super Punch Out had the charming cartoon graphics, and very similar gameplay, it never really captures the feeling that MTPO did, at least for me. Perhaps I'd feel much differently had I barely played MTPO, and grew up with a SNES. Still a great game, but I couldn't help but feel somewhat deflated playing it for the first time, as it felt like a much lesser MTPO to me. 

 

Side note, Super Punch Out is ported to the Gamecube as an extra on the Final Fight Round 2 disc. 

 

Edit:

I didn't intend to crap on your pick. Ha! Not my intention. It's a great review, and your reasoning for the ranking is justified. It's just that since you talked about and directly compared it to its prequel MTPO, I felt the urge to explain why I felt the opposite. 

Edited September 25, 2022 by profholt82

[Sumez | 2,933]

This was my other "potentially controversial" entry for the list.

I've never seen anyone rate the Snes punch out that higly before. Let alone above at least ten or twenty other massive classics. But it just made me want to try it all the more - maybe I'll get a cartridge eventually if I stumble across a decent offer

[a3quit4s | 4,093]

I just had flashbacks of losing to piston hurricane many times and switching back to mystic quest. My friends didn’t have final fantasy 2 or 3 but had mystic quest lol

[Reed Rothchild | 9,510]

16 minutes ago, Sumez said:

This was my other "potentially controversial" entry for the list.

I've never seen anyone rate the Snes punch out that higly before. Let alone above at least ten or twenty other massive classics. But it just made me want to try it all the more - maybe I'll get a cartridge eventually if I stumble across a decent offer

Guess those people should suck less at ranking SNES games

 

[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 @LHCGreg @Dr. Morbis @RetroMichel @MrWunderful @ChickenTendas  @niner @MagusSmurf @Jeevan @Deadeye @RH @Philosoraptor

@Splain  @JamesRobot @diddles_mcbean @spacepup @bronzeshield

#12

[Dr. Morbis | 2,088]

For me what kills Super Punch-Out is the single round fights; if it had three rounds like it's predecessor, I would probably go back to it more, but I just hate the feeling of "beat the clock" that prevails when you're fighting a tough opponent; that feeling doesn't really hit you until half way through the third round in MTPO, but for me, I get that feeling with Super PO right out of the gate.  I want to fight/fear the opponent, not the clock!  That being said, I still like MTPO way more, and having the most famous boxer of our childhoods as the final match is the icing on the cake.

As for DKC 2, yeah it's solid gold from top to bottom, but I still like the original DKC more for it's more narrow focus on hop 'n bop action and less focus on exploration and adventure.  At the end of the day they are both great, but I always end up choosing the first one when I'm itching for some DK action...

[rdrunner | 422]

Super Punch-Out is a great game and is totally worthy of that spot, especially since it shouldn't lose any points for how it compares with MTPO or anything else from other systems.

I personally always preferred the return back to the original single-round arcade style format.  As much as I enjoy reading the banter between rounds in MTPO, I still prefer going for the one-round KO.  There is nothing quite as annoying in MTPO (at least for me) as finishing round one just a couple of hits just shy of a TKO.

Also worth noting is that Super Punch-Out is the only console entry in the series with a large number of unique boxers.  There are 10 fighters in the game that were never seen before in previous games (Jay, Charlie, Muscle, Ryan, Kagero, Clown, Prince, Quarlow, and the two Bruisers).  MTPO only has 5 (Kaiser, Honda, Flamenco, Hippo, Tyson).

Is Nick Bruiser a worthy replacement for Tyson?  Probably not, but he's a capable final boss and does all the things one would expect.  Honestly, other than having all of his punches cause one-hit knockdowns there wasn't much else that could be done to make him approach Tyson's legendary first 90 seconds.  If nothing else it could have been worse.  At least they didn't call him Mr. Dream...

[Tanooki | 4,930]

Nice... #13, I think you were generous, a bit.  So with me starting that, clearly you're not going to go on blast for the lofty ranking, I'd have put it in the Top 50, not 20, especially not closer to 10.

I don't agree it's not as difficult, I'd say it's worse as it's even more gimmicky on rote memorization of the boxers, especially in the final series of them too.  And yes, the Wii one was that, and it also was better than the SNES title a bit.  The SNES one kind of lacks soul, not a fan of the downs/anime (sorry, not trying to be offensive here) looking replacement boxer either.  My issue is it's too too far over into memorization but also because they went back to the quarter munching period of no rounds, just 3 minutes, that's it, to get the job done forcing memory.  The NES and Wii games let you at least have some level of personal thought and approach with 3 rounds to play with.  I really hated that mix of little time, even if it was easy, it's too brief, but the fact it's absurd on memorization to the point it largely detracts from the fun.  Visuals, audio, rosters, they're nice, and the old arcade throwbacks mixed with NES and new are nice.  But it's the one I least went back to, and not having the Wii anymore(or again,) my fun sits in 8bit land.  I think you got the binary idea backwards, the NES game had more flexibility, enough youtube videos show that with various boxers including Tyson.

 

The other, DKC2, audio visuals aside, my least favorite.  F the coin toll booth system, too much forced stuff to the detriment of the game, and removing DK really really sucked, sucked in general and the great mechanic the first one out entirely for helicopter girl?  I don't recall since your search is busted if you did DKC1 or 3 bet, but hopefully you didn't, they deserve better.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,510]

Not entirely sure what you're asking, but they're both in #50-26

[Philosoraptor | 468]

Fun fact about #13, someone recently found a two-player mode of sorts for Super Punch Out. It works for Switch Online, the original cart, and the SNES Classic Edition.

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/super-punch-out-multiplayer/

[Daniel_Doyce | 470]

Super Punch-Out!! is my favorite SNES game

[Tanooki | 4,930]

11 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Not entirely sure what you're asking, but they're both in #50-26

I'm asking if either DKC were covered and above this worst in the trilogy release, and seems they are not which is a shame.

[Sumez | 2,933]

DKC2 is great, and clearly a game that is head and shoulders better than 1 and 3 of the same series. 3 still has some of the same pizazz, but 1 can't touch it at all.
Though that's a subject I recall already being beaten to death on this forum, and Reed is preaching the truth here... Well maybe not about DKC2 being better than Ninja Warriors Again, or Super GNG of course, but it sure as hell is better than hundreds of thousands of other games.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,510]

Haha, I actually had SGnG in the #18-25 range for many years.

I kept wanting to revisit a few other games more though.  I figured that was telling me something about my true feelings, so it slid a bit.

[Andy_Bogomil | 815]

Super Punch Out! I think deserves to be top 20 and would likely be close to 13 on my list, potentially higher. I remember the Nintendo Power that had all the quick KOs and we beat one of the times and the rest was history with trying to beat the rest. This was a new concept for Punch Out to an extent and one that really added a massive amount of playtime for me. I'm sure I've played some of these guys 1000s of times over the years.  It's different than MTPO but I love both games for different reasons. MTPO is more challenging towards the end but SPO is more satisfying in a lot of ways and handles a bit better. 

Cant go wrong with the DKC games. I was never into 3 as much but suspected to see at least one near the top of the list.