The SNES Rankings - Finished!

[MagusSmurf | 577]

I haven’t played all of them but so far Super Bomberman 2 is my favorite classic Bomberman game for single-player. I wouldn’t call them brilliant or anything but its stages are actually designed rather than being generic layouts or spat out by an RNG and it’s just...better that way.

[Tanooki | 4,936]

Super Bomberman 5 is on its own level of awesome.  It was the most recent SFC game I picked up and wow it's solid.  Gone are the passwords, and each stage has multiple gates, so you have this get over with faster or go back and clear it all option really.  It jumps all over not just skip a stage, so there are paths.  The levels are the best designed of the series on SNES, it's some solid stuff you usually caught on the PCE side of things.  It's a cheap import too, very cheap.  Yet second to #5 is #2 among much of what I could read up on line when they're stuffed in order so if you don't import you're in very good company.

[Dr. Morbis | 2,089]

Yeah, I think Super Bomberman 2 is second only to Super Mario Kart for most time spent playing with friends back in the day.  Definitely #1 party game on the SNES if you've got more than just one buddy with you...

[Philosoraptor | 468]

Funny. I just beat Bomberman II and Super Bomberman over the weekend, and Super Bomberman 2 is in my SNES right now, waiting for a time when I'm a little less busy. I absolutely loved Super Bomberman, so this has me hyped to play 2.

Edited September 20, 2022 by Philosoraptor

[Sumez | 2,966]

Agree with most of the thoughts here on the SNES Bomberman games, my own ranking would go like this:

1. Super Bomberman 5
2. Super Bomberman 2
3. Super Bomberman 3
4. Super Bomberman 1
5. Super Bomberman 4

And that's for the single player modes of course, because with the multiplayer you pretty much know what you are getting, and all of them provide the same amount of fun. That said, I'd probably rank SB2 near the bottom for multiplayer, due to most of the unique stage gimmicks being mostly just annoying (that jumping stage wtf?), and the default set of powerups is kinda weird.

4 is generally the most popular of the bunch for its multiplayer due to the insane amount of options and stuff it has, but I actually haven't played that one with friends yet, we usually end up going with 5, which is also a very good choice.

Like @MagusSmurf said, I think SB2's single player campaign really finds its strength in how each stage has a very specific layout with an almost puzzle like approach (and I actually like the stage gimmicks in the singleplayer mode), and the fact that you need to scroll most of them gives it a slight more exploration/adventure feel which I think is a good fit, and allows the stages to feel more unique.
None of the other Super Bomberman games do that, defaulting instead to single-screen non-scrolling stages - presumably because they are prioritizing co-op play, which isn't possible in SB2 - though Saturn Bomberman still managed to do both.

I'm eventually gonna do a complete ranking of every single Bomberman game, but I'm going to reserve that until I've actually played every single one. Only got a few games left now, but I'm pretty sure which one is taking #1.
 

Quote

 some lesser-known stuff such as Duck Game or Niddhogg

Wait what

[Reed Rothchild | 9,547]

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#17

[Splain | 2,571]

I love Yoshi's Island. The title screen itself changing with your progress was a big motivator for me as a kid. Those bonus levels were hard to unlock and hard to beat. I played the hidden multiplayer modes at sleepovers. The Raphael the Raven boss fight was mind-blowing lol.

I've replayed it a handful of times and it's still delightful. The main complaint is always "the crying is annoying" and sure, it is. But I always assume those people haven't played enough of the game to see the cool gimmicks in some of the later levels, because that's the stuff that (for me) bumped the crying way down the list of things to say about this game.

Back in the day, people complained about the graphics. But it's another thing you stop noticing as you go through the game.

[a3quit4s | 4,103]

I could never get into Yoshis island but I’ve also never been a fan of those types of games that reed mentions. Just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean it isn’t good though and isn’t deserving of its place on this list. 

[Dr. Morbis | 2,089]

I can appreciate the art style, game play, level/boss design and everything else about Yoshi's Island, but I'm just not a collect-to-unlock type of guy.  I did own this as a kid, and I spent the hours upon hours it took to 100% the whole game, but man, never again, for Yoshi's Island or any other of it's ilk... never again...

[Tanooki | 4,936]

I'm with Sumez on the Bomberman tier of happiness there on best to worst totally.  That fits from my experience/limited experience(not cared to touch 3/4 much, didn't jive with me 20 years ago, still don't care to revisit it.)

Now this new one, I guess I can't be surprised it's in the top 20, thankfully low in the top 20.  I don't have a lot of respect for the game, a combination of the utter marketing LIE they used to sell it, but also because it's an early tier collect-a-thon annoyance, a preview of the utter shit peddling poor way to add replay value Rare did on N64, except they forced that wash rinse repeat to open a door to do it again(UGH.)  I detest games that throw ranks and percents in your face as a taunt, I tend to just not buy them.  Placing in a race that's fine, but hey... you got 67% because you didn't know every hidden thing in X seconds to be done because you didn't play this a 100-1000hrs like our testers, so you suck...yeah, no.  There's nothing wrong with finding things, it's nice, it's when it's forced or your shamed that's garbage.  The true Super Mario World did it with class with the hidden exits, keys, extra routes of star road, random 1UPs, etc...that was great design, this...not so much.

That out of the way, the visuals are jaw dropper beautiful on the SNES, Nintendo 2D hardware wouldn't do this right again until the GBA years later and without chipped help.  The rotation scaling, twisting and the rest o not just finally mode7 but sprites themselves is glorious, and the smart use of the FX for the visual style, layers of it all, amazing.  The audio, largely, great, fuck the screeching baby stuff(grating) but mostly otherwise the upbeat solid music, sound effects, and the rest set the feel as much as the visuals.  Gameplay very Nintendo tight, no argument there, and stage design if you just choose to play them, great.  Yoshi could have been a great franchise, yet while I've tinkered with largely most the others, I have to wonder who hit who in the head, because they've become more boring, grating, just overall saccharine sucky and obnoxious ever since never capturing what they did right, at least the first time around.

[Red | 437]

That last screenshot for Final Fantasy II has been bugging me.  I've played this game multiple times through and I don't remember there ever being a reference to espers in the dialog.  I even checked a few videos of that scene from multiple versions of the game and the dialog in that screenshot doesn't match any of them.  Which version of the game is that screenshot from?

[Reed Rothchild | 9,547]

16 minutes ago, Red said:

That last screenshot for Final Fantasy II has been bugging me.  I've played this game multiple times through and I don't remember there ever being a reference to espers in the dialog.  I even checked a few videos of that scene from multiple versions of the game and the dialog in that screenshot doesn't match any of them.  Which version of the game is that screenshot from?

I'm not sure, I prepped most of the pics in the leadup to the first 14 game batch way back in 2017.  I'll dig.  Either way, sounds like replacement is coming.

edit: Found it, looks like it's from a fan translation.  So I'll replace it.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,547]

[Sumez | 2,966]

I like finding the secret collectibles in Yoshi's Island, but I don't really think it feels anything like the collectathon style of game design from the Banjo-Kazooie games, etc., I found that comparison weird.

The game still has mostly completely linear action focused stages, that just happen to reward the players going out of their way to find secrets or solve puzzles to discover extra elements to each stage. This is a style of design that's been popular in pretty much every single video game since, and definitely didn't die out with the "collectathon countermovement" following the N64 era.  

[Sumez | 2,966]

5 hours ago, Tanooki said:

I'm with Sumez on the Bomberman tier of happiness there on best to worst totally.  That fits from my experience/limited experience(not cared to touch 3/4 much, didn't jive with me 20 years ago, still don't care to revisit it.)

Super Bomberman 3 is interesting in that it's basically the SNES version of Bomberman '94 (aka Mega Bomberman on the megadrive), and unlike the two earlier SNES games it was developed in-house by Hudson. But instead of making a port, they made a whole new game with the same basic "plot" and structure, and a lot of the same enemy types and themes.

Bomberman 94 is probably one of the most well liked games in the series, but what makes the SNES "version" a lot less enjoyable to me is the same issue I mentioned earlier, which is also what made Super Bomberman 2 stand out - all the stages are single-screen with no scrolling, which just severely limits what the developers could do with level design.

Edited September 21, 2022 by Sumez

[Sumez | 2,966]

I just spent a bit longer than I like to admit, to search through the older pages on snesrankings to figure out exactly which titles were still missing (and therefore in the remaining top 16). There's of course a whole bunch of the unsurprising usual suspects that I'm assuming are gonna cover probably the top 10 titles, I think everyone here is expecting those.

As for the remaining 6 games, there are a couple I'm surprised to see there, but most of them are respectable choices, and only two or three that I'd consider potentially "controversial". There's also one of the "less expected" titles that I'm actually really happy to see there - and knowing my tastes I bet Reed has already guessed which one.

I was about to comment on them in a spoiler tag, but I think I'll respect the interest of maintaining suspense until those titles get revealed instead 
 

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

I'm so behind on SNES games. I've played the true classics and most popular games, but haven't touched 95% of the library. Some day I'll play Yoshi's Island.

[scaryice | 588]

8 hours ago, Sumez said:

I like finding the secret collectibles in Yoshi's Island, but I don't really think it feels anything like the collectathon style of game design from the Banjo-Kazooie games, etc., I found that comparison weird.

The game still has mostly completely linear action focused stages, that just happen to reward the players going out of their way to find secrets or solve puzzles to discover extra elements to each stage. This is a style of design that's been popular in pretty much every single video game since, and definitely didn't die out with the "collectathon countermovement" following the N64 era.  

 

I don't really think of YI as a collectathon either. But, I do think of it as a better and more unique game than Super Mario World, which to me didn't have the same impact as SMB3 (and which also made it even easier to fly over levels with the cape).

[Reed Rothchild | 9,547]

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#16

[Splain | 2,571]

Turtles in Time AGAIN!

[Sumez | 2,966]

Legend of the Mystical Ninja was one of my two "potentially controversial" entries, so I was expecting to see it fast.

I never got around to playing it through until a couple of years ago. And despite knowing how popular the game is, I was surprised by just how good it is. It's a really enjoyable romp, that's perfectly representative of Konami in their prime when they rarely did bad with anything.

That said... Better than Super Ghouls n Ghosts? Better than TNWA? Better than Yoshi's Island, both Castlevanias, several Mega Men, and Hagane? I'd probably have placed it somewhere around the capcom Disney games.

But I love reading your thoughts on it. I'm not sure they quite explain what it's doing this high, but I can totally respect loving this game.  

Also curious, how do you feel about the (SNES) sequels?

Edited September 22, 2022 by Sumez

[Tanooki | 4,936]

Bold statements, but true statements.  I didn't get that game until around 1995 or 96, one of my earliest second hand pick ups as the shop there I weekly hit if not at times more.  A great game, very good mechanics all around, crazy Konami even pitched it given their history even at that rate.  It inspired me shortly after with ebay just born there on the west coast for largely the west coast I was able to get the sequel, #2 (and #3) was by far the best of the trio, crying shame it never came over.  It was the day Goemon Impact made the scene, though that was again N64 for the US.  I had to get that N64 game too, even played an import copy locally for a good hour months before it hit the states, damn not being able to read it, it worked...and ultimately which most Zelda fanboys won't back off of arguing over -- Goemon was more colorful, played better, had more interesting places, a lot of solid dopey humor, and just was the more engaging and replayable game too yet it never scored as well, some in part direct to early players of oot making fanboy statements an unfinished game because of pedigree was best.   Yeah, not... Goemon was a real system ground breaker, even a system seller had it been first party I would think, same with the US(64) sequel.

[RH | 4,915]

8 hours ago, Splain said:

Turtles in Time AGAIN!

Nothing but turtles, aaaaaaaall the way down.

[Sumez | 2,966]

This top 25 has inspired me to take a second look at my SNES collection and ordered three of the four games I was missing. Uncharted Waters is probably the bigger one I wasn't really expecting to ever get, especially considering how tough digging up a copy was, but Reed's affection for the game won me over. Since it's undeniably a text heavy game I was quite bound to importing a US copy, but fortunately I managed to find a single European seller
U.N Squadron I've always considered a good game, even though it's the kind of game that tends to top the lists of people who don't really like shooters in the first place (alongside the likes of Axelay and Ikaruga). I guess it was time to own a copy of my own. And [redacted puzzle game] is one I've always known I needed to have, I just... never got around to it before.

 

24 of 25 isn't bad, and the one I'm missing isn't even one of the absurdly expensive ones.

Edited September 22, 2022 by Sumez

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

Legend of the Mystical Ninja is truly a wonderful game. I might even put it in my SNES Top 10 if I was going to rank them.