The SNES Rankings - Finished!

[a3quit4s | 4,103]

39 minutes ago, Daniel_Doyce said:

Are you saying you don't want my 20 PMs a day with thoughts on incorrect Koei rankings any more?

Winback is top 10 on N64. I will fight people over this

[Reed Rothchild | 9,547]

23 minutes ago, MrWunderful said:

Tell me how you feel about everybody constantly telling you how “they would rate it” after every post? Or why they would probably always rate everything lower. Like it makes any sort of difference

Hah.  No, the discussion here is great.  It's elsewhere that it immediately takes a toxic turn 

[Splain | 2,571]

Slots 1-10 must remain blank, out of respect. Nothing is worthy to actually top the list.

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

4 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Hah.  No, the discussion here is great.  It's elsewhere that it immediately takes a toxic turn 

Thats what you get for going to reddit!

[Kguillemette | 1,545]

I made it as far as Fourside and got stuck and moved onto other things. I was getting so much joy from it up until that point however. My plan is to track down a strategy guide (or perhaps the beautiful fan made Eagleland Handbook). I really want to see what happens next, and considering the game was packed with a strategy guide originally, it makes perfect sense to me that the game was always meant to be played with one.

And that soundtrack though. It's really in a class of its own.

[Sumez | 2,966]

13 hours ago, RH said:

she definitely knows that "Zelda" is the princess and not the protagonist to the series

Sure, everyone doesn't know who Link is, but does anyone actually think "zelda" is the name of the guy you play as?
I mean, I've seen that joke posted like a few thousand times everywhere, but I've never met a single person who actually thought that.  

11 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Keep in mind these rankings are based strictly on how I think they play.  Not outside factors like price or how "annoying" any potential fans may or may not be.

Could you make a seperate ranking of every SNES game based on the likeable the fanbase is?

[RH | 4,915]

5 hours ago, Sumez said:

Sure, everyone doesn't know who Link is, but does anyone actually think "zelda" is the name of the guy you play as?
I mean, I've seen that joke posted like a few thousand times everywhere, but I've never met a single person who actually thought that.  

Absolutely, especially people of my parents generation. I have seen people who have thought “Zelda” was the character you were fighting with.  It’s been a while since I’ve had to (politely) correct someone but it’s been more than once.

Heck, even I might have been corrected waaaaay back in the day because I had no clue Zelda was a girls name, I didn’t own the game or get to borrow it and when it was brought up at school, I recall having to learn “the main character isn’t Zelda.” I also don’t recall being picked on about it because I think the misconception was common very early on.
 

Kids can be literal about those types of things, so when you name a game after a character it’s easy to think that is the one you are playing as.

[a3quit4s | 4,103]

6 hours ago, Kguillemette said:

I made it as far as Fourside and got stuck and moved onto other things. I was getting so much joy from it up until that point however. My plan is to track down a strategy guide (or perhaps the beautiful fan made Eagleland Handbook). I really want to see what happens next, and considering the game was packed with a strategy guide originally, it makes perfect sense to me that the game was always meant to be played with one.

And that soundtrack though. It's really in a class of its own.

Whoa the Eagleland Handbook is totally awesome. Thank you for mentioning it cause I totally just bought one based on your comment 

Edited September 28, 2022 by a3quit4s

[Kguillemette | 1,545]

28 minutes ago, a3quit4s said:

Whoa the Eagleland Handbook is totally awesome. Thank you for mentioning it cause I totally just bought one based on your comment 

I pulled the trigger and said fuck it and bought one too. It seems to be getting more scarce by the day!

[a3quit4s | 4,103]

25 minutes ago, Kguillemette said:

I pulled the trigger and said fuck it and bought one too. It seems to be getting more scarce by the day!

$65 on eBay with free shipping woop woop

Edited September 28, 2022 by a3quit4s

[Tanooki | 4,936]

10 hours ago, Kguillemette said:

I made it as far as Fourside and got stuck and moved onto other things. I was getting so much joy from it up until that point however. My plan is to track down a strategy guide (or perhaps the beautiful fan made Eagleland Handbook). I really want to see what happens next, and considering the game was packed with a strategy guide originally, it makes perfect sense to me that the game was always meant to be played with one.

And that soundtrack though. It's really in a class of its own.

Go to the Nintendo SNES Classic Edition site, then into the manuals area.  https://www.nintendo.co.jp/clvs/manuals/en_us/index.html

They scanned the entire guide in high quality and posted it for free (as with the other normal manuals) in PDF files.  Just grab that over the less quality fan scan online and pop that up on your pc or smart device and you're set.

I think that's usually where I get fed up with the game after playing it out the first time in the 90s, it just gets grating/boring/monotonous and I go looking elsewhere because it feels like a chore, not a pleasure.

Edited September 28, 2022 by Tanooki

[profholt82 | 60]

F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife was named Zelda.

[RH | 4,915]

38 minutes ago, profholt82 said:

F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife was named Zelda.

Truth, and Robin Williams named his daughter Zelda because of the game and NOT because of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

[Kguillemette | 1,545]

3 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Go to the Nintendo SNES Classic Edition site, then into the manuals area.  https://www.nintendo.co.jp/clvs/manuals/en_us/index.html

They scanned the entire guide in high quality and posted it for free (as with the other normal manuals) in PDF files.  Just grab that over the less quality fan scan online and pop that up on your pc or smart device and you're set.

I think that's usually where I get fed up with the game after playing it out the first time in the 90s, it just gets grating/boring/monotonous and I go looking elsewhere because it feels like a chore, not a pleasure.

Oh wow, didn't realize they posted the whole strategy guide. That's so cool!

Also, it serves as more evidence that the game was meant to be played with it. Nintendo didn't just re-release Earthbound without the proper way to play it like it was in the 90s.

[MagusSmurf | 577]

I'm sure the strategy guide would be nice to have but I don't recall needing one to beat the game at all - I certainly didn't have one. I'd be surprised if the original Japanese release had anything nearly as elaborate either. There probably are a couple places where how to progress is made a little too obscure but nothing stands out to me as especially "HUH?"-worthy. The NA release having such a thing probably had more to do with marketing demands and as a crutch for NA gamers generally being less familiar with RPGs at the time than with the game itself being especially obtuse. If you've played a JRPG before - especially any at least as old as Earthbound that aren't the SNES Final Fantasies - you'd probably be alright without it.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,547]

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#9

[Dr. Morbis | 2,089]

I love seeing Contra III in the top 10 as it's a personal favourite of mine, and could only be made better if they had swapped out the two overhead levels for "real" ones.  But that aside, excellent game that shows the level of detail Konami was willing to put into their AAA titles back in the day...

[Tanooki | 4,936]

6 hours ago, Kguillemette said:

Oh wow, didn't realize they posted the whole strategy guide. That's so cool!

Also, it serves as more evidence that the game was meant to be played with it. Nintendo didn't just re-release Earthbound without the proper way to play it like it was in the 90s.

A bit of what Magus said about a crutch, but I think also at the time this came out guides really weren't largely for sale outside of mail order and enough parents while familiar with mail order were dim bulbs when it came to games and guides even existing.  You got Nintendo Power, maybe a freebie from them of a guide, or EGM, a few others, that's it.  Given it was a unique non-fantasy RPG from the past era(more or less) standard and how it worked, it made sense to pack the guide in.  I think given they targeted kids and teens given the maturity level of the game itself and even more the advertising with farts and stank, they probably figured the maps, tips, and ideas of what to buy/trade/sell in town were vital and they largely are if you're not super deep into RPGs and are find with a confusing slog as part of what's expected.  Having the guide I think was largely an element of the time.

And in this case, it's not just a magazine scan, you'll notice it's utterly perfect clean stock images, so likely they grabbed their old print masters from the vault, quality scanned the stuff and made that PDF of the thing unlike the blurry wonky lower dpi one that had been circulating.  (Same with the other manuals too.)  When those (it and NES site) popped up and I saw what was there I installed a webpage dumping tool and copied both entirely in case(whenever) they eventually go down.  The manuals alone are worth it.

 

And I can respect where #9 is on that list with Contra, I own it, but I never owned it out of the box new.  I bought it probably in 1995-96 second hand.  Unlike the various 8bit (NES/GB) iterations I've never finished it. I mean I have a love hate with the thing, but can respect it, just don't like it enough to finish it.  For what it set out to do and the quality it did it in, it seriously, fanboy style vibes on the original aside, really is best of the franchise material.  I'd just rather throw time at the first or quarters in freeplay mode at Metal Slug.

[Sumez | 2,966]

#9 is exactly the spot I'd predicted Contra III in, I wonder how far off my other predictions will be

This game is arguably the best run'n'gun platformer ever made. There actually aren't that many notable games in the genre when you think about it (and a majority of them are Contra games), but if you want to experience the absolute best it has to offer, look no further than this.

[profholt82 | 60]

It was actually not uncommon for RPGs to include strategy guides outside of the Nintendo consoles. Very common on PC, and there were a number of games on the Genesis that included them in the early 90s. Off the top of my head, Phantasy Star II, Sword of Vermillion and Star Control all included them. Now, obviously just standard manuals and maps were commonplace, and with RPGs and more complex games, the SNES was usually good about giving you a fairly thick manual and a map.

But yeah, SNES games were not known for guide books. And other than making the box look huge on a store shelf the same way some movie labels did with those oversized VHS boxes, there's really no reason they couldn't have made the book the same dimensions as a standard box. Even if the box had to be thicker, it should have been the same LxW as the others. That had to have pissed off retailers, and I wouldn't be surprised if it affected sales as a result. As in perhaps many didn't properly display it due to the size and just kept it behind the counter. Speculation, but reasonable speculation. You remember what it was like at box stores and KB and such, there was usually a big cabinet and it was stuffed side to side with games. There wouldn't have been space for that massive box. 

 

And cool to see Contra III in the top 10. It's definitely in my top 10 on the console and I still revisit it often. Not my favorite Contra game, but as an enthusiast of the franchise, it ranks up there pretty highly overall. 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,547]

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#8

[a3quit4s | 4,103]

#8 is another one that sits on the shelf and stares at me to play lol. I totally feel your pain about being anxious about playing games you had as a kid as an adult. I think my best example is Excitebike. My dad had a dirtbike when I was a kid and watching him ride it was awesome. Playing Excitebike with a lot more imagination than I have now was a blast! Like being on my own dirtbike! Playing it now is fun for about 8 seconds lol

[B.A. | 1,139]

The first game I bought with my own money was Tiger Electronics handheld Double Dragon.  

[Sumez | 2,966]

#8 was another spot-on prediction hah. Im so tempted to just post my list XD

Either way it seems like Reed's top 10 is on the way to looking extremely similar to my own! 

I guess that's no surprise though, these games are generally almost undisputed in their status as classics. 

Edited September 29, 2022 by Sumez

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

I remember playing 8 for the first time and having the interactive battles blow my mind.