Super Mario World was given the impossible task of attempting to perfect platforming perfection -- finding power-ups, level designs, graphics, and music that would outdo or stand alongside what most consider to be the best NES game ever. But those 4 are the only ones I know! "Final Fight Guy" came out a few years later to bring ninja fighter Guy back as a playable option he'd been cut from this first version, leaving only Cody and Mayor Mike Haggar to beat the Mad Gear gang out of Metro City. Maerchen Adventure Cotton 100% (Japan) With just one entry, Square and Nintendo created a game that is not only noteworthy for its crisp gameplay and clever JRPG innovations, but also for its ability to let Mario work side-by-side with his nemesis Bowser. Far and away one of the Super Nintendo's most unique role-playing games, Shadowrun eschewed the medieval fantasy settings most prominent in the genre in the '90s and offered, instead, a sci-fi cyberpunk scenario taking place in the year 2050. Luckily, though, both games were amazing. Arcade-style gallery shooter Wild Guns Reloaded will be releasing on Nintendo Switch on 17 April 2018. FFVI touches on issues few games had the guts to, and presents a large casts of characters, all of whom are fleshed out and relatable. Projects tagged with the following aliases will . That's the direction the Pocky & Rocky series took, as it first showed up in Japanese arcades in the '80s and then began to be localized for America with its '90s SNES sequels. ND. Those events? What makes the game stand out to this day are the characters and storyline. There is a ton of parallax scrolling, and inventive backgrounds. I think I remember being able to play 2-player. Contrary to its numbering, Lufia II is actually a prequel to the first Lufia released on the SNES it's set 100 years earlier in the timeline and chronicles the events that led up to the first game's story. He's been restored as one of Nintendo's most notable mascots ever since. Jordan Mechner broke new ground in the late '80s with the release of his original Prince of Persia, a platformer that innovatively captured live actors' real-world movements to use as the basis of animation for in-game heroes. Secret of Mana, which is actually the sequel to Final Fantasy Adventure for the Game Boy, also allows for co-op gameplay, which was highly unique for an RPG at the time. Linux Xbox One Nintendo Switch stadia vita Playstation 3 Playstation 4 PC Windows Mac OS. And if any of you were worried about this game getting included in our countdown, allow us to reassure your problem-free philosophy by proudly shouting from the rock top that The Lion King was a surefire Super Nintendo success. Turtle Power! Remember Soul Blazer, placed just two spots back at #76? Thanks to ROMs for SNES, you can play them on any modern device! They were toony. Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-filled, Malformed, Slug-for-a-Butt. Players are required to know just when to evade and when to go in for the kill, and the depth only increases as the story progresses. Mario was there too, donning a chef's outfit and working the controls of a machine that lined up matching cookie shapes vertically and horizontally. Find games tagged Pixel Art and Top down shooter like Nuclear Throne, WOWOWOW KORONE BOX, Power of Ten, driftr, Streets of Rogue on itch.io, the indie game hosting marketplace . Gradius III shipped to stores alongside Nintendo's launch day titles and supported them with a visual spectacle the scope, grandeur and incredible graphical detail present in each of this sequel's environments and screen-filling boss enemies was a true sight to behold. Even as a single-player experience, though, the fast and frantic pace of skating and slap-shotting here felt utterly unrivaled. Zombies Ate My Neighbors is a top-down run and gun that allows you to play solo or . Though the Super Nintendo's role-playing genre was undeniably dominated by the efforts of Squaresoft, Capcom offered capable competition with its own JRPG franchise born on the platform Breath of Fire. The best FPS games on Switch in 2023. Leia wasn't showing that much skin for the entire adventure, of course, as she also wore her bounty hunter disguise and Endor forest survival gear at the appropriate points in the story which just added more variety to the gameplay, since each wardrobe change gave her all-new moves and abilities. Both games were packed with inventive ideas and impressive action, but 2 beat out 1 for our countdown thanks to its memorable vehicle sequences in hindsight, a clear precursor to Luke Skywalker hopping into Rogue Squadron's variety of vehicles. 1. I play a lot of twin-stickers. Another great series that the Super Nintendo helped to start. such as from the 1977-1995 Atari, GameBoy, & Super Nintendo (SNES) eras. Bigger, badder, and more barrel-filled than the original, Donkey Kong Country 2 took the DKC recipe and pumped it up with gorilla steroids. 64. By the time Ultimate MK3 came around, though, the Big N let the carnage unfold unchecked. Next up on our list of fun top-down shooters to play in 2023, we have a revival of the 1982 Atari classic title Yars' Revenge designed for both single-player and local co-op. Mario Paint had a little something for everyone and its no surprise that fans have been clamoring for a sequel since its original release in 1992. Pocky & Rocky is actually the sequel to a Taito arcade game from 1986. Soul Blazer wasn't a direct sequel to ActRaiser or anything, but its premise was similar you again played as a heaven-sent angel character tasked with restoring the wholeness of the world after a demonic cataclysm. Donkey Kong was entirely reinvented in the process too, transforming from a girlfriend-napping arcade villain to a necktie-wearing headlining hero. In addition to fast-paced, frenetic gameplay, this action-packed flight simulation game was also distinguished as being the first Nintendo title to feature three-dimensional graphics, back when this was still incredibly rare. People were too busy jumping Mario around in 3D to pay much attention to the old 2D fare any more. Most notably, Chrono Trigger features 13 endings, a stunning feat for a lengthy RPG. In the era of the NES and SNES, few made action/adventure games like Capcom. Way back when the racing genre was still finding its bearings, F-Zero came along and set the standard. Throw in beautiful music and a timeless story and you have a delightful mash between Final Fantasy and The Legend of Zelda that shouldn't be missed. 64. Sunset Riders' SNES edition is also another classic example of Nintendo's censorship policies in action in the early '90s, though not for any violence this time around instead, the Big N had Konami put some more clothes on some scandalous dancing girls and removed some Native American enemies. Like a combination of Contra and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time, Sunset Riders was a side-scrolling brawler where no one ever got punched just shot. In it, Billy and Jimmy Lee lay claim to the genre's advancements themselves with their own new gameplay mechanics and distinctive fighting styles. Not U.N. Squadron. The game offered a variety of unique supporting characters to fill out your fighting party, and traditional JRPG design choices like random encounters, turn-based battles and poorly translated text. This was an early masterpiece for Blizzard, and thankfully we also got a sequel, The Lost Vikings 2, before the company moved on from Nintendo development. The game adapted the popular Disney movie into a challenging side-scrolling platformer that, like the film, started off presenting our hero Simba as a young cub and concluded with him as a full-grown king-in-the-making. Utilizing the new FX chip (whatever that does) this game unleashed polygonny goodness upon the kids of the 90's for the first time ever. No longer were you in command of generic teams and faceless players, now you could actually be the Dallas Cowboys, Buffalo Bills, or Green Bay Packers. Aero Fighters is a vertical scrolling shooter that features real world fighter jets that have unique features and serious amounts of powered up firepower. The rise of the Sinistrals, of course, a group of villainous would-be gods who appear suddenly on the planet and challenge any of the world's warriors to try to oppose them. Stunt Race FX was a little goofy and all kinds of blocky to look back on today, but its 3D cars and racetracks were sensational to behold on the Super. The series debuted in America is 1994, and late the next year we got this second installment. When it comes to co-op games, the top of the heap is always going to be Borderlands. The SNES, responding to the new technique through the following years, was then home to several "cinematic platformers" that adopted a similar style and Flashback was nearly the best of them all. Best of all was finding a boxer's instant KO point. Tetris & Dr. Mario at first appeared to be a simple 16-bit repackaging of Nintendo's two most popular 8-bit puzzler the classic falling block puzzler from Russia, Tetris, and the color-matching capsule-dropper, Dr. Mario. Final Fantasy VI raised the bar for JRPGs in the '90s on nearly every level. The last and most overlooked of the original Donkey Kong Country trilogy, DKC3 was a late SNES release that unfortunately went ignored by a lot of Nintendo fans since it first shipped to stores two months after the N64 had debuted. After fighting with each other over a span of weeks and many, many hours, we managed to dig through our childhood memories and modern Virtual Console experiences to arrange our ranking. Publisher: Thing Trunk. This game really reminded me of what I had in mind, but the fact that it wasn't released for MegaDrive or Snes makes me doubtful, although I remember that on the disk I played this game there were some Master games System. Now, load up, take aim, and reminisce about theses excellent NES shooters. It's impossible to calculate how many hours we spent chasing each other around maze-like battlegrounds or avoiding ricocheting shells in an effort to pop balloons. Review score. It's the ultimate looter shooter and practically invented the genre (before "loot" became a dirty word in the video game industry). 1 Cuphead. 15. If you like any of the games from the list, head out to the Nintendo Store and grab them! Super Mario 3D World. That graphical style years before its time was still impressing us in '94, when Nintendo followed up their sci-fi action flight game with a comical racing title using similar visuals. It certainly won't be the last. Give him a backpack stuffed full of snot. This first-party puzzler is mostly known for the distinction of its NES edition, as it served as the last officially released game for that 8-bit system when it shipped to stores over 9 years after the NES first went on sale in America. Man, Kirby is killing this countdown this is his fourth featured game after Kirby's Avalanche, Kirby's Dream Land 3 and Kirby Super Star. Not because it was a bad game we wouldn't be honoring it if it were. You never saw Luke flip out and blast this many monsters on the big screen this was Star Wars with tons of extra battle sequences squeezed into every possible part of the narrative. All this mix of different elements and inspirations created one great and underappreciated game, and we're happy to offer it some fresh appreciation here on the countdown. Shrine maidens and Japanese yokai were a far cry from the burly muscle men that dominated .