Hey duders, I've been hearing a lot of talk from the likes of Jeff, Brad, and Dan that the Super Nintendo had some great games on it. As I am 21 years old, I haven't had the opportunity to play one. My first console was a N64 and a gameboy color and I only ever got new consoles from that point and didn't know anyone who had a SNES. My question is this: where's the best place to get a SNES and what are 5 must play games for that system? I have arough idea of what games I want to play. I want to get Mario World, Earthbound, Mortal Kombat 2, Chrono Trigger, and F-zero. Any help from my elders would be much appreciated, thanks for your time.

I like looking at racketboy.com for game suggestions. The prices are old but the suggestions are solid.

As for systems, i suggest ebay or a used game store if they're in your area.

Home Alone

A good choice. I'm not much older than you (22) but luckily I had an older brother who got me into the snes back in the day. Not sure where I'd recommend to get one. I know some local game trading stores in my area usually have at least one sitting around, so maybe look in those types of shops wherever you live. Make sure to check the quality of it though. Otherwise you could just look online I suppose.

My favorites were:

1. Chrono Trigger

2. Illusion of Gaia

3. Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past

4. Final Fantasy VI

5. Donkey Kong Country

I bought my snes from lukie games.com and a bunch of games and they all work great.

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I bought an SNES recently. First game I bought for it was Super Metroid, then FF6, and Donkey Kong Country. Here's my list of must buys, maybe you'll see something there you like.

1. Super Mario World
2. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
3. Super Metroid
4. Super Mario Kart
5. Super Mario RPG
6. Super Mario All-Stars
7. Super Punch-Out!!
8. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island
9. Super Castlevania IV
10. Donkey Kong Country
11. Mario Paint
12. Earthbound
13. Harvest Moon
14. Secret of Evermore
15. Secret of Mana
16. Final Fantasy III
17. Chrono Trigger
18. Zombies Ate My Neighbors
19. Super Street Fighter II
20. Mortal Kombat II
21. Super Bases Loaded
22. Mega Man X
23. Star Fox
24. Final Fight
25. Super Star Wars
26. Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
27. Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
28. Bart’s Nightmare
29. Super Ghouls and Ghosts
30. Super Bomberman
31. TMNT: Turtles in Time
32. NBA Jam
33. Actraiser
34. Uniracers
35. Clay Fighters
36. Aladdin
37. Pitfall! The Mayan Adventure
38. Desert Strike
39. Super Off Road

If you want a cheap SNES and don't care about coloring you can try a pawn shop or yard sale around you. There are small stores cropping up called Mega Replay that sell retro games. The one near me has a couple SNESs for $45.

As far as games. I would add the following to your list and MentalDisruption's: Secret of Mana or Mario RPG (if you want ANOTHER RPG in your list), Super Metroid, Star Fox, Turtles in Time, and Mega Man X.

Super Mario Kart and Sunset Riders.

I recommend also picking up one of those SNES screwdriver bits and some cleaning solution. I've managed to get a lot of "broken" carts back to full working condition by opening them up and thoroughly wiping the grime off the connectors.

Also, I would assume the built in batteries would be dead by now for all the carts that use battery backup, so that's something to keep in mind as well. Never done it personally but I believe replacing the batteries requires soldering.

You can probably find a snes at a yard sale or flea market for cheap. Amazon and eBay can be alright places to find games.

Super Castlevania IV, A Link to the Past, and Super Metroid are must-buys in my opinion. If you want Super Mario World, get the combo cart with Super Mario All-Stars. The Tetris and Dr. Mario double cart is good too.

Also I'm real partial to Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts myself but it's incredibly hard.

I'd recommend swap meets for picking up SNES stuff. I like the browsing, and you can get great deals.

As for the games you want, keep in mind that the SNES is one of the most collectible consoles ever made, and the classic RPGs on that system are well-known, relatively rare, and very expensive. Good luck finding, let alone buying, Earthbound or Chrono Trigger. Those games, and other RPGs of that era that'll cost you an arm and a leg, have been ported or are otherwise playable elsewhere. Same can be said for MK2, frankly, though I don't know if that one is expensive or not - just that it's available on lots of other newer-gen consoles.

On the other hand, some of the other classics on the system are quite common and can be had for cheap. Super Mario World, A Link to the Past, and Super Metroid are the numbers 1, 2, and 3 suggestions so far, in my mind, and all can be had for $20 or less, I'm sure. Other games worth checking out:

NBA Jam: Tournament Edition

Uniracers

Shadowrun (REALLY GREAT RPG)

Kirby Super Star

Tetris Attack (my personal favorite puzzle game)

Cybernator

Metal Warriors (my personal favie)

EDIT: oh and definitely get a cartridge contact cleaner kit. They work wonders and are pretty cheap.

@kcin:

I have Shadowrun on the Genesis always wondered if it's one of those that had a SNES and Genesis version that was different.

@tobbrobb said:

This.

Also, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Super Mario RPG, Mega Man X and Secret of Mana.

I'm not sure if you're going for the authentic SNES experience, but a good number of the best SNES games out there are available on the Wii and Wii U Virtual Console provided you have one of those.

It is a fundamentally different game, yeah.

SNES prices are pretty high in the collecting scene but good luck!

Pretty perfect list here,even the order is pretty on point. I'd add Final Fantasy II and Sunset Riders in too. But really that's about it.

I'm super thankful that I have brothers that are ten years older than me so I was able to play things like the Intellivision, NES, SNES, and Genesis when I was like 5. That being said everyone's suggestions here are solid and you can't go wrong with any of them; it's a lovely system with lots to offer.

I will say that we owned the "Final Fantasy 3" western version of FF6 so look out for that weirdness if you plan on getting it.

So many good memories of that system. Zelda: ALTTP and Super Metroid are my two favorite games of all time, so definitely play those. I also have very fond memories of Super Mario RPG, Final Fantasy III, and Mega Man X.

A Link To The Past, Final Fantasy 6/3, Chrono Trigger, Super Metroid, Super Mario World.

That's about a year of content for ya.

Adding on to what Pestulon said above, the lithium batteries that the SNES carts use are rated for about 15-20 years in this application, so most will be past or approaching the point where save files won't last long after turning off the SNES. They are soldered to the cartridge board, so you'll need some proficiency with an iron if you plan on replacing them yourself.

Good luck getting a copy of Metroid or Link to the Past for less than 50 usd if you live outside the US

@laxbro19: Everybody else is pretty much nailing the list of games you should play, but I just wanted to give you mad props for being a young duder that wants to explore gaming history. As a 29 year old guy, it still seems weird that I am getting old enough that there are people now who never experienced the SNES, or even the Playstation.

It makes me really happy to know that young games fans out there still care enough to take it back. You are gonna love it.

As far as the list I don't have any specific games, but I would explore if you have the extra cash. One of the great things about the SNES and PS1 are that it was still an era where games didn't cost so much to make, so you could find all kinds of hidden gems that you'd never heard of but would rent and end up loving. Some of my favorite SNES games I discovered by just walking the aisles of Blockbuster and our local Movie Gallery and picking something that looked cool. You can do this too, only your Blockbuster would just be the Internet.

Good luck! You are gonna have a ton of fun!

Sunset Riders, Mario RPG, Earthworm Jim, that 7*up Spot game, and Super Tennis are all somewhat underappreciated classics. Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Super Pitfall, anything using the light gun, and Star Fox are all hot garbage. You can disagree with me, you are just wrong. Clayfighter, Bill Laimbeers Basketball, Earthworm Jim (again), Batman Forever, and Shaq Fu are all relics of their time that should be studied by scientists to truly understand the fever nightmare that was the late 80s and early 90s This is not a quality statement but if they are cheap they might be worth laying a couple bucks just to see what people had to deal with in video games back then. One suggestion, speaking as a huge lover of RPGs, Earthbound might be a bad place to start with your SNES unless you are an extremely patient RPG player. That game can grate super hard on a lot of people. It's as much an oddity as it is a great game.

This thread got me so excited, I don't even know where to start. It's like asking someone about their favorite thing to explain it to you cus you never done it before. It's like, you have so many words to say, and no idea how to get them out fast enough.

@laxbro19: they talk crap about it. But to date donkey kong country is one of my favorite games.

You know the majority of amazing games on the SNES are also on the Wii/WiiU. Anyways, some games that I think still hold up to this day and that you didn't mention are:

1. Actraiser

2. Super Castlevania 4

3. Super Metroid

4. Wild Guns

5. Earthbound

6. Super Mario RPG

7. Illusion of Gaia

1.Super Metroid

2.Super Metroid

3.Super Metroid

4.Super Metroid

5.Super Metroid

Top 5 SNES games.

@laxbro19: Well, you got Chrono Trigger right.

I know people are obnoxiously listing Super Metroid for every entry, and that might push you away from that game, but if you're going to buy a Super NES you must play Super Metroid, otherwise the whole goddamn thing's a waste. It's like being a fan of the N64 without ever touching Ocarina of Time or the Xbox without touching Halo.

There are a fair number of good JRPG's on the SNES but if you're looking to only pick five games at first, I'd suggest only getting Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, or Final Fantasy III (which is actually VI but English versions have the numeral III on the box, II, III, and V weren't released here back then). I'd say Chrono Trigger, but Final Fantasy is a good choice. I have not played Earthbound, I will when I get a Wii U.

Donkey Kong Country 2 is one of the best platformers out there. I've seen people complain about the first one's camera being too close these days and the third one always felt like a lesser game, but DKC2 is an excellent platformer.

Anyway, the five games on the SNES you should play are:

Super MetroidChrono TriggerSuper Mario WorldMega Man XDonkey Kong Country 2EDIT: Originally I had A Link to the Past in the fourth slot, but I've only ever played that game on an emulator and the response time always felt off. I've never played much of it so I replaced it with Mega Man X, which is probably the best Mega Man game I've ever played. I did play 2 at one time but don't remember much of it, I'll go back and play it at some point.

As great as holding an original SNES controller in your hands I would caution you against getting the old console. Some games can be difficult to find or expensive and the ageing cartridges have the risk of batteries that power the saves dying. These batteries can be replaced and all of my original SNES games are still operational, but just be aware that this is a possibility. Playing these games on Wii or Wii U virtual console might be the more viable option. Or PC emulation, you can even find USB SNES controllers. Although, playing on an actual SNES is ultimately the best experience it's worth considering the options and risks.

I'd like to reiterate some of the games mentioned so far:

Link to the Past

Super Mario World

Super Metroid

Super Mario All Stars may also be worth your time if you're also ignorant of the classic NES Mario games. This version includes the Japanese only sequel to Super Mario Bros as "The Lost Levels." There's also a version that includes Super Mario World, but I'm not sure how rare that is. Keep in mind the graphics were updated from the iconic NES sprites to be in line with the 16 bit machine.

@ishinji32: My dad has a basement full of hardware that will make that stuff trivial.

@nightriff: saw the snes stream they did, bro. Momma didn't raise no fools. That game is ass.

I'd swap:

F-Zero for Super Mario Kart

Mortal Kombat 2 for Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past - the Mortal Kombat versions on Nintendo consoles were always gimped. For the best version of Mortal Kombat 2 get the Genesis game.