SNES Collection input

So I've been on here getting input about getting into SNES collecting and the like. I have 11 games and a console with two controllers. I'm not really looking for a complete collection, just 15 quality games for the system. Here's what I got so far:

Super Mario World, F-Zero, Super Metroid, Ken Griffey Jr. Presents MLB, NBA Jam, Mortal Kombat II, Mortal Kombat III, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Mario Kart and Earthbound.

I got Earthbound from a close friend for a better price than ebay could offer. I'm looking at DK Country or its sequels if they're good, Turtles in TIme, Castlevania IV, and one more RPG to fill out the collection. So what games do you guys think are worthy to fill out the last four places in my collection? Thanks for your time duders and have a good one.

Mega Man X, Contra 4, if you want more mario maybe Super Mario All-Stars or even Yoshi's Island.

I would suggest Super Mario All Stars, as it gives you "hd" upgrades of the NES Mario titles. And if you are crazy like me, a game genie that you cut the clips out of so you can play Super Famicon titles on your SNES (Battle Tetris HYPE)

Anything by Square during that time would be a nice addition for a RPG...

-Super Mario RPG

-Final Fantasy 3 (a.k.a. 6)

-Secret of Mana

-Secret of Evermore

-Chrono Trigger

Super Mario All Stars. Lots of value there and the best Mario game (Maybe tied with World) Super Mario 3. There's a version with Super Mario World built into it as well, freeing up a game for your library.

I'm also going to second the Square thing. At the very least, FF3(6), Secret of Mana, and Chrono Trigger.

What a coincidence, that's four games to fill out your last four spots!

Unless you really love Mortal Kombat, I'd probably ditch MK2 and replace it with Turtles in Time. I'd also probably ditch F-Zero and replace it with Mario Kart. I also never thought Donkey Kong was a good game - even when I was 10. It looked great in stills, but playing it felt real odd to me. I'd probably try to squeeze StarFox into there, somehow.

Chrono Trigger , Final Fantasy 3

Two of the best JRPGs ever. No brainer!

Actraiser

Unique hybrid of action and sim/world building from Enix. Dope ass soundtrack++

Super Mario All Stars

Classic Mario games rebuilt with SNES graphics. Must have. It was super common so probably cheap.

Super Mario Kart

Still my favorite in the series. Races have tons of shortcuts, and the battle mode was faster and more frantic than any of the other offerings. Control in all the subsequent games felt too floaty for me, this one nails it.

@giantlizardking: I do have super mario kart, I amended my post to reflect that.

Never let anyone tell you not to have MK2. Those people are not your friends

The snes Contra is very good, maybe best contra ever.

And I'd also recommend Cybernator, last I checked it was super cheap and its really cool how you kind of feel like a big robot but still have plenty of maneuverability, its a bit more slow than a typical action game but super fun imo.(manual would be usefull)

If you are into shmup games Axelay is a super cool one, and lots of mode-7 y stuff which actually looks pretty good.

All those Rpgs recommended above and megaman x are also great but most of those games are pretty hard to find for a reasonable price...at least in pal format. But hey they ARE great, just depends on how much you are planning to spend which may be as much as needed as you are only buying 4 more games. I'd also say definitely get castlevania IV, it really controls like a dream on actual snes hardware.

DKC is pretty ok too and has amazing music for an snes game.

The only two I can think of off the top of my head that I would go out and buy are Super Mario All-Stars, which is a great value since it has 4 Mario games on it (5 if you get it with Mario World) and Zombies Ate My Neighbors. Zombies Ate My Neighbors is one of my favorite SNES games. Very funny, good and challenging gameplay, secrets to discover, it is a classic and I recommend it to everyone I can. :D

I think everyone else did a great job covering a bunch of other games that would make for an awesome collection.

Personally, I think a perfectly manicured SNES collection is going to have a few of the first gen snes games because of that specific charm they had and because of the "Tech-demo" nature of them.

Pilotwings

F-Zero

Super Mario World

Sim City.

Then you need the standout early gen 3rd party games.

Actraiser

Final Fantasy 2

Then you need the Square hits

Secret of Mana

Chrono Trigger

Final Fantasy 6

Then you need the pop culture hits

Street Fighter 2

Mortal Kombat 2

NBA Jam (maybe)

Then you need the late era technical hits:

Donkey Kong Country

Star Fox

Super Mario RPG

I think that's a super solid list for me. Actually... I might buy these myself...

shoot. Forgot about Konami. Castlevania 4 and Contra 3 are musts.

One that hasn't been mentioned so far is Kirby Super Star. Probably the best Kirby game, with some really good music and a variety of game modes. Also, if you have a friend the game makes for really great co-op experience.

I still like all the Donkey Kong games. If you're gonna play any at all, play the second one.

If you can find a copy, Uniracers is probably the most underrated SNES game out there. You play as sentient unicycles.

Final Fight is fantastic as well.

Kirby Super Star is the best Kirby game ever.

Some of my favorites to play are:

• Secret of Mana
• Demon's Crest
• Metal Warriors
• Zombies Ate My Neighbors
• Wild Guns
• Maximum Carnage
• Illusion of Gaia
• Tetris Attack
• Mario RPG
• Turtles in Time
• Donkey Kong Country games
• Chrono Trigger
• Shadowrun
• Goof Troop
• Super Punch Out

Some of these games are not cheap however.

I really like the stuff Racketboy does

http://www.racketboy.com/retro/best-undiscovered-super-nintendo-snes

Not enough Yoshi's Island love in here, which holds up better visually than most of the later SNES library because of its simple art style.

If you'd like to seriously expand your library, you should consider removing the regional-lockout tabs inside the SNES' cartridge slot, but it would require you to disassemble the SNES with a specific reverse-hex security bit (they're easy enough to find on Amazon). This lets you play Japanese Super Famicom games, including Giant Bomb favorite Tetris Battle Gaiden (which IIRC can still be found at a reasonable price as an import game). If you decide to jump down the import hole, also check out Umihara Kawase, a bizarre platformer starring a young Japanese girl armed with a fishing pole that works like a grappling hook.

Lastly, I fully acknowledge the game is kind of a hot mess (hit detection anyone?) but I love Secret of Mana and will fully recommend it solely on its amazing soundtrack. It's also not a bad little action-RPG once you get some decent spells equipped, but a few of those early dungeons can be awfully demanding.

Lots of good suggestions in here. One that hasn't been suggested yet is Soul Blazer, which is basically an action RPG where you rebuild towns as you progress through their corresponding dungeons. It's made by the same company as ActRaiser, but the town-building isn't like that game at all. Basically, you free people's souls from the dungeon and they appear back in town, and you make further progress from items/advice that they give you.

I was about to recommend Soul Blazer. Its "sequels" (they form sort of an unofficial trilogy) are good too - Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma. Terranigma never came out in the States, but it was released in Europe (in English I believe).

Super Adventure Island 2 always looked cool, idk.

Almost forgot Blizzard's early stuff. Rock 'N' Roll Racing, The Lost Vikings, and Blackthorne are all solid games.

@hilts: I'll second the Racketboy link. It was my go to when I was getting snes games.

The combined cart of Tetris and Dr Mario!

Definitely Aerobiz Supersonic. I can't be the only person who spent hours after hours in a pseudo 4x airline business simulator as an 8 year old.

Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario RPG, Chrono Trigger, Turtles in Time. Those plus what you've got is a good selection.

Looks like all the must-have classics have been covered upthread, so I'm deep-diving into my own collection for some lesser-known gems:

Phalanx: Like weird box art? Check out this fairly run-of-the-mill early-90s shoot-em-up featuring a rockin' soundtrack and some old beardy guy with a banjo and his dog on the cover. Why is he there? Who knows! Seriously though, it's got some great butt-rock.

Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts: This one isn't even an obscure game and I'm surprised no one has mentioned it already. Although it's probably the most approachable game in the series, you'll still want to snap your controller in half after an hour or so of getting your ass handed to you by Firebrand and his demonic friends.

Out of this World: A true classic of the graphic adventure genre. You are Lester, a skinny white dude with no combat prowess who is inexplicably thrown into a hostile alien environment full of natural hazards and laser-toting bad guys. Probably best to play the updated remakes on PC or mobile devices, but the SNES game still holds up alright except for a dreadful framerate in several spots.

Flashback: Very similar to Out of this World, although a bit grittier and more cyberpunk-y with a bigger emphasis on combat. You'll spend at least a few hours coming to grips with the controls, which were finicky even by 1993 standards, but your reward is some pretty sweet gunfights with cyborgs and aliens.

The Adventures of Batman & Robin: A bog-standard beat-em-up with the elegant art-deco aesthetic from Batman: The Animated Series and some cool setpieces like the Riddler's virtual reality maze. There's also a neat little Spy Hunter-style level in the Batmobile about halfway through the game.

I find that it's very common for SNES games to still hold up though, both graphically and mechanically. I'd say the majority of the first gen games hold up better than 90% of 3D Playstation 1 games.

Yoshi's Island is pretty good though. Sorry Jeff, I begrudgingly have to side with Patrick on this one.

@giantlizardking:Yes, I was thinking specifically of the late-era SNES games that employed the pre-rendered 3D art style that was so prevalent at the time. Yoshi's Island got a lot of flak from gamers in the 90s because it looked like crayon drawings, yet its graphics have really stood the test of time...unlike, say, the visuals in the Donkey Kong Country games.

Yes! I own this, and I am so glad that I do when that itch to play either of these games comes up, alone but even more-so when friends come over.

I'm also on the Yoshi's Island bandwagon, despite Jeff's intense hatred and rage towards all things baby Mario and egg-tossing.

Solid list here already, so I'm going to really just echo that Castlevania 4, Chrono Trigger, Donkey Kong Country (1 + 2 are pretty good, but I burnt out on them by the time 3 came out), Mario All-Stars (+World for rarity bonus points, but you have World), Turtles in Time and Secret of Mana are some of my favorites and notably some of the best on the console.

Happy hunting! It's getting harder and more expensive to find some of these greats.

Star Fox, first and foremost.

Mario Paint might be a unique addition, especially if you get it with the bundled mouse/mousepad.

SimCity SNES was one of my favorites (I love everything they added/changed from original PC version), though probably not one of the console's most notable titles.

Oh, and someone else mentioned Super Mario All Stars. Definitely grab that, if you find it.

Donkey Knog Country 2 is still excellent and a platformer well worth everyone's time.