The SNES Rankings - Finished!

[TheBiRD | 137]

**spoiler**
 

3- CT

2-FF3

1-LTTP

[Sumez | 2,966]

Nah, other way around, CT top and Zelda bottom  

[Splain | 2,571]

Super Metroid is a weird one for me, I bought it brand new from Target as a kid, because everybody else on Earth loves it, and because Nintendo Power did its job of making it sound awesome. But I just couldn't get into it, and it gathered dust until I traded it away. I know I should give it another shot.

12 hours ago, Kguillemette said:

Your list has been incredible. I've been rereading some old entries and they are all great quality too. Congratulations on approaching the finish line on this massive project.

I'm going to make my own list where I rank these reviews by how much I enjoyed them.

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

1 hour ago, Sumez said:

Zelda bottom  

I figured Link a bottom but who knows

[Dr. Morbis | 2,089]

Okay, I was just thinking about Super Metroid being a 10 out of 10 videogame and I'm wondering what effect the screwed up wall-jumping mechanics should have on the rating.  Most other games with wall jumping (Ninja Gaiden, Batman) make it quick and easy to do, but somehow Super Metroid made it rage inducing, at least for me.  And forcing you to learn it after you've fallen down a pit and have no other way out just seems... not so perfect.  That's about the only negative thing I can say about Super Metroid, but I'm wondering if that should be enough to make the game a 9.5 out of 10 or if the game is still a 10/10 with that one glaring flaw...

[Reed Rothchild | 9,547]

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#3

[Dr. Morbis | 2,089]

So happy to see FFIII at #3

[a3quit4s | 4,103]

3 minutes ago, Dr. Morbis said:

So happy to see FFIII at #3

Same - I’m always holding hope for LttP at #1! 

Edited October 5, 2022 by a3quit4s

[Andy_Bogomil | 815]

The rpg I've played the most by far. The music is sensational. Great write up. 

[Sumez | 2,966]

For a very long period of time, Final Fantasy 6 was my absolute favourite game of all time. During this period I've replayed it at least three more times, and every time my experience just cemented that position.

I don't think I can possibly defend it as #1 nowadays, but that has more to do with my own priorities in video games as media, and less the game's own qualities. Its still a 10/10 game.

[Sumez | 2,966]

5 hours ago, Dr. Morbis said:

Okay, I was just thinking about Super Metroid being a 10 out of 10 videogame and I'm wondering what effect the screwed up wall-jumping mechanics should have on the rating.  Most other games with wall jumping (Ninja Gaiden, Batman) make it quick and easy to do, but somehow Super Metroid made it rage inducing, at least for me.  And forcing you to learn it after you've fallen down a pit and have no other way out just seems... not so perfect.  That's about the only negative thing I can say about Super Metroid, but I'm wondering if that should be enough to make the game a 9.5 out of 10 or if the game is still a 10/10 with that one glaring flaw...

The way the game traps you and force you to learn the wall jump is definitely something that detracts from the game. I love the subtle way it does try to teach you, but expecting the player to learn it this way is rough.

But I think that's the absolute only negative thing I can say about the walljump, I absolutely love it as a mechanic., and I think it's one of the best things about the game! Comparing it to Ninja Gaiden or Batman is completely unfair, as those games rely entirely on the players actually performing those actions.

For a game like Super Metroid, I really, really love the concept of having a secret mechanic that's hard to learn and easy to miss, and while it's not required for any progress in the game, mastering has the ability can completely change the way the game is played.
One of Super Metroid's strongest suits is that the developers completely didn't care if players were sequence breaking the entire thing, but instead designed the game to accomodate and reward that. Even the game's unintentional skips just play super well into the overall design for this reason. Few other metroidvanias have managed to pull this off since.

Once you do learn the trick to consistently executing the walljump, it's very easy to perform, so there's really nothing "screwed up" about it. But it still takes just enough skill that every succesful one feels satisfying. And the only real downside to this is that it's a one trick pony - you can never include it in another Metroid game and have it have the same effect, because everyone knows about it now. This is evident in a game like Zero Mission where you also have the same wall jump, but it's never gonna take you anywhere useful on its own.

[Dr. Morbis | 2,089]

4 minutes ago, Sumez said:

while it's not required for any progress in the game...

Technically, you're right, but come on, Metroid games are all about exploration; the designers knew that 99 out of every 100 players were going to wind up trapped in that pit on their first time through the game and be forced to learn the wall jump to get out. 

Yes, the mechanic is excellent for those who want to take the game to another level, but for the average gamer, once he finally gets himself out of that dead end the first time, he's essentially going to be done with the wall jump mechanic for the rest of his playthrough.  At least, I know I was...

[Tanooki | 4,936]

Pretty solid and hanging at the end there write up too on this one (FF3) and it's hard to argue against the comments either.

 

I've been meaning to hit the old SNES trilogy of FF again at some rate.  I've been slowly picking at FF2 but got widely distracted.  FF5 I just have on GBA (4 too) and would like to get to it but it's by far the most time intensive, challenging, costly to do.  FF6 I want to do but I'm split on SNES or the CE, maybe wait on a mobile (ios) sale on the thing to make the price reasonable since it'll be on hand at all times, or hoping eventually to find the game on GBA since I have enough SPs and micros to go around for it.

I know CT is coming, have that still too, recently got it on my phone for $5(50% off sale) and I've been picking slowly at that too.  that one I know is #2 probably as it would be kind of criminal if Zelda slipped under that game, but I just never got the huge appeal with the story or wonky multiple ending shenanigans.

[RH | 4,915]

16 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

Pretty solid and hanging at the end there write up too on this one (FF3) and it's hard to argue against the comments either.

 

I've been meaning to hit the old SNES trilogy of FF again at some rate.  I've been slowly picking at FF2 but got widely distracted.  FF5 I just have on GBA (4 too) and would like to get to it but it's by far the most time intensive, challenging, costly to do.  FF6 I want to do but I'm split on SNES or the CE, maybe wait on a mobile (ios) sale on the thing to make the price reasonable since it'll be on hand at all times, or hoping eventually to find the game on GBA since I have enough SPs and micros to go around for it.

I know CT is coming, have that still too, recently got it on my phone for $5(50% off sale) and I've been picking slowly at that too.  that one I know is #2 probably as it would be kind of criminal if Zelda slipped under that game, but I just never got the huge appeal with the story or wonky multiple ending shenanigans.

I've personally enjoyed SE's mobile ports.  I played Dragon Quest for the first time on mobile (it's $1 so no loss there!) and I played mostly through DQ8 on my iPhone.  It translates and works rather well.  I also played FF V and I downloaded but didn't get too far into Tactics.  Tactics worked well too and dragging around the display really helped viewing the playing field better than analog controls. I was quite impressed.

[Tanooki | 4,936]

6 minutes ago, RH said:

I've personally enjoyed SE's mobile ports.  I played Dragon Quest for the first time on mobile (it's $1 so no loss there!) and I played mostly through DQ8 on my iPhone.  It translates and works rather well.  I also played FF V and I downloaded but didn't get too far into Tactics.  Tactics worked well too and dragging around the display really helped viewing the playing field better than analog controls. I was quite impressed.

I'm a fan too but I don't like their premium pricing to be honest, nothing more or less.  I wait on sales since about 2-3x a year they do 50% off sales on their most stingy to price cut stuff.  Others come up a lot, like Chrono Trigger often is at 50% off.  Yet you get the classic Final Fantasy titles (pre-7) now being redone like Octopath(or before) where they rarely take 50% let alone 20-30% off.)  Dragon Quest by far is the worst, rarely do they discount those and usually it's just the first three, the others 4-6(the DS ports) get no cuts or minimal, as the game sequel number rises the % off drops so DQ1 will see 1/2 off but 4 would get maybe 20% or less which is stupid.  There are price tracking places for ios/android (like appsliced) that give a history of it.

I have FF1 (old style) and DQ1 on my mobile.  I also got the one time 40% off they did on the FF/Saga Legends trilogy pack when it dropped.  I do want DQ4 for ios, and would like FF4-6.  The 3D ones are just too slow and involved or I'd snap up 9 (maybe 7, less likely.)

[RH | 4,915]

1 minute ago, Tanooki said:

I'm a fan too but I don't like their premium pricing to be honest, nothing more or less.  I wait on sales since about 2-3x a year they do 50% off sales on their most stingy to price cut stuff.  Others come up a lot, like Chrono Trigger often is at 50% off.  Yet you get the classic Final Fantasy titles (pre-7) now being redone like Octopath(or before) where they rarely take 50% let alone 20-30% off.)  Dragon Quest by far is the worst, rarely do they discount those and usually it's just the first three, the others 4-6(the DS ports) get no cuts or minimal, as the game sequel number rises the % off drops so DQ1 will see 1/2 off but 4 would get maybe 20% or less which is stupid.  There are price tracking places for ios/android (like appsliced) that give a history of it.

I have FF1 (old style) and DQ1 on my mobile.  I also got the one time 40% off they did on the FF/Saga Legends trilogy pack when it dropped.  I do want DQ4 for ios, and would like FF4-6.  The 3D ones are just too slow and involved or I'd snap up 9 (maybe 7, less likely.)

I haven't looked in a long while, and if I get the urge, I can still down load the old versions which seem to work on my iOS 7 device.

That said, I 100% agree on their prices.  They are insane.  I bought every game I own on some deal.  I think many of them launched at reasonable prices for something like a month or two, and were then bumped.  Others were part of bundles where if you bought, say, 3 games you got about 30% off.  This was cool because way back when I bought them, if you bought one item in a bundle, it'd subtract the value of the game that you paid from the total bundle.  So, if you did buy one game at full price, it made the discount of the other games all sweeter.  I don't think it was for any SE games, but with some bundle I bought a long time ago for "Free" because I had bought something like 3 of the 4 game in it and it made the last one free.

Sorry for the tangent, but for anyone interested, yes, just watch these games about once a month.  They do go on sale from time to time and just get them when they are cheaper.

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

I think Reed or someone else said it earlier in this thread, but I don't think a 10/10 game has to also be perfect. I know that sounds contradictory, but I could consider a game 10/10 and still think it has some small flaws. 

[RH | 4,915]

9 minutes ago, CodysGameRoom said:

I think Reed or someone else said it earlier in this thread, but I don't think a 10/10 game has to also be perfect. I know that sounds contradictory, but I could consider a game 10/10 and still think it has some small flaws. 

Some people want a 10 to be "perfect".  This is impossible.  Games are software and no software is perfect. (Though @CasualCart might argue Flappy Birds is perfect, and it's so simply, it's practically bug free, so that game might pass the test for him. (Apologies CC if you were not the person who rated it 10, but someone did.))

For me a 10 of 10 is rated on what each game gets right and what it get wrong can't detract from the overall experience. This is why I (and some others) give Xenogear's a 10. Though one could argue is also one of the most flawed titles (not buggy, flawed), it gets so much right that it's easy to love the first disc and ignore the fact that the second disc becomes a glorified, semi-interactive graphic novel.

[Tanooki | 4,936]

1 hour ago, RH said:

I haven't looked in a long while, and if I get the urge, I can still down load the old versions which seem to work on my iOS 7 device.

That said, I 100% agree on their prices.  They are insane.  I bought every game I own on some deal.  I think many of them launched at reasonable prices for something like a month or two, and were then bumped.  Others were part of bundles where if you bought, say, 3 games you got about 30% off.  This was cool because way back when I bought them, if you bought one item in a bundle, it'd subtract the value of the game that you paid from the total bundle.  So, if you did buy one game at full price, it made the discount of the other games all sweeter.  I don't think it was for any SE games, but with some bundle I bought a long time ago for "Free" because I had bought something like 3 of the 4 game in it and it made the last one free.

Sorry for the tangent, but for anyone interested, yes, just watch these games about once a month.  They do go on sale from time to time and just get them when they are cheaper.

I never did, but I do have the license standing on #1.  I never grabbed more because I wanted something more basic and shorter (also why I have DQ1 only too) as something to poke at if bored.  So now it's like $12-15 a pop for these octopath remade pixel remaster releases of the first six.  And yes the sales hit, it's fine no tangent there worth ignoring, and as I pointed out appsliced helps watch the values (site or use app.)

[T-Pac | 7,560]

58 minutes ago, RH said:

Some people want a 10 to be "perfect".  This is impossible.  Games are software and no software is perfect. (Though @CasualCart might argue Flappy Birds is perfect, and it's so simply, it's practically bug free, so that game might pass the test for him. (Apologies CC if you were not the person who rated it 10, but someone did.))

For me a 10 of 10 is rated on what each game gets right and what it get wrong can't detract from the overall experience. This is why I (and some others) give Xenogear's a 10. Though one could argue is also one of the most flawed titles (not buggy, flawed), it gets so much right that it's easy to love the first disc and ignore the fact that the second disc becomes a glorified, semi-interactive graphic novel.

Haha I gave Flappy Bird a 9/10. It lost a point for the platform since I hate mobile games, but you get the idea.

-CasualCart

[Reed Rothchild | 9,547]

@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 @Sumez

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#2

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

Incredible game and well deserving of the #2 spot.

And kids can be so mean. Glad to hear it worked out. 

[Sumez | 2,966]

Damn! Can't wait to see which one is #1

[RH | 4,915]

 

But I joke because I was in a similar boat but possibly worse.  I was declared to be "Screech" in fifth grade and it was all down hill from there.  My friends made me the butt of most jokes that year, and then in the 6th grade, for other reasons, they were in a different "team" which was something they did in middle school.

I had no friends and yet somehow the stigma of being the kid to pick on stuck with me.  So, yeah.  I fell hard for video games and this is about when I found Final Fantasy Adventure and the rest, as they say, is history.

I hope this might be true for you too but by the time High School rolled around, I kind of started to blend in the background and by the time I was a senior, I wasn't "cool", but I was well liked by most of my peers.  Those early teen years were rough though and I think they are for most of us.  

EDIT

Ok, I posted this before finishing reading everything.  I'm glad to hear every thing worked out for you too.

Edited October 6, 2022 by RH

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

My friends liked me until I got a Sega Saturn for Christmas instead of an N64. THANKS MOM!!!