Collection essentials #165: Super Nintendo Entertainment System

The first video game console that I ever played.

The Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System was such a huge success, and naturally their follow-up was highly anticipated. They perhaps waited a little longer than they should have to get it onto shelves, with the Super Famicom launching in Japan in 1990 and Super Nintendo launching in 1991 in North America. This relatively late release allowed competitors to gain more of a foothold than they may have otherwise. Nintendo didn’t quite dominate to the same near-monopolistic extent as they had before, but the Super Nintendo would still be a force to be reckoned with.

The Super Nintendo was clearly, right off the bat, much more advanced than the NES which came before, and was more powerful than Sega’s Genesis/Mega Drive in most (but not all) facets too. The console boasted colorful graphics that were about as good as it got when it launched (though arcade games and newer hardware did surpass it before very long). The cartridges could hold a lot more space which allowed for more expansive and content-rich games; the largest NES game had been Kirby’s Adventure at 6 MB, while the two largest games on SNES were roughly eight times larger at 48 MB. The sound chip was not quite CD quality, but it was capable of producing a wide variety of wonderful tunes that complemented games in a way that wasn’t really possible on NES. The controller had four more buttons, and was the first controller ever to have “shoulder buttons” on top rather than on the face. This larger array of buttons was crucial to many games which just wouldn’t have really been possible using an NES controller without some major compromises.

Super Nintendo had a formidable library of games that was headlined by Nintendo’s own classics, and underneath that strong front line was a deep selection provided by many third-party publishers who had stuck around from the NES days. In Japan, Super Famicom dominated the competition on the sales charts all the way until the following console generations. In other parts of the world, it wasn’t quite the same story. The Sega Genesis proved to be a fierce rival, and (in America at least) had the perception of being a more “mature” console while many saw Nintendo as the one for little kiddos, fair or not. Kids in the early ‘90s famously feuded over which console was better, fueled by Sega’s marketing campaign which took direct shots at Nintendo. Sales of the two consoles were pretty much neck-and-neck in the U.S. for much of their lifespans. It’s not totally clear which console wound up selling more in the Americas, though estimates seem to suggest that Super Nintendo eked out a slight edge in the end.

I mentioned at the start that this was the first video game console I ever played. The one I grew up with was actually a gift for my dad, not me. I was not even 2 years old when the console came out, and he got it as a birthday gift in December of that year. (I do actually have said console, but it’s not the one shown in the photo.) It wasn’t until a couple years later that I tried it myself, but once I did, I was hooked. And it would be the only game system that my family owned at all for nearly eight whole years, too, so it was my primary gaming device for a very long time. And even after the floodgates opened up and I started stocking up on game consoles, I never neglected the Super Nintendo. I still haven’t.

The Super Nintendo has always been my favorite game console. That might seem like an obvious nostalgia-fueled pick, and there’s something to be said for nostalgia, but the reality is that the majority of games I’ve played on it are games I never played or even heard of as a kid. This is an era where developers were really taking big steps towards refining games and consistently hitting a level of quality that wouldn’t lose its luster over time. The colorful 2D graphics really do look nice and usually don’t come off as dull or outdated. Some iconic long-running franchises had entries on the Super Nintendo that many legitimately argue are still the very best in their series all these years later. Not only is the selection of games released in North America fantastic, but it is mind-blowing how many more quality titles the console has to offer when you open yourself up to those only released in Japan and/or Europe. If the Super Famicom were considered a completely separate console with only the titles that didn’t get released overseas, you’d seriously have a darn good system with more than plenty of games to choose from. And it’s not difficult at all to play Super Famicom cartridges on an American Super Nintendo.

Buckle up, it’ll take a few months for us to get through all the Super Nintendo essentials. I’ll be sharing some nostalgia, but sometimes simply heaping praises on some terrific video games.