In a moment of FOMO-induced delirium back in 2017, I desperately secured a preorder for the Super NES Classic Edition. It's a novelty miniaturized console with 21 SNES games built-in. I liked the thing quite a lot, but the fact that it’s not currently in my house should say something about its longevity. Nevertheless, something was eating at me recently. I have enjoyed most of the console’s must-have classics, but I had yet to fully explore a chunk of the mini’s selection. That’s what I did this month. Only I played them on the Steam Deck, which is a lot more convenient.

F-Zero

Like many people, I’ve spent far more time playing as Captain Falcon in Smash than I have trying any of the F-Zero titles. They always struck me as too intense and punishing. That said, I can appreciate the technical prowess of each entry. The original F-Zero is more of a tech demo than anything, but it’s a strong showing for what the SNES can do. If you jumped from an 8-bit machine, I’m sure that your jaw would go slack at the sight of this blistering Mode 7. The game runs really well, which can’t be said for a lot of SNES titles. The art direction is not a total success, though. I think they’re trying to convey space-age racetracks suspended high above the planet. But they can’t really sell that distance, and the graphics outside the tracks are a muddled pile of pixels. It can look more like a carpet than a city.

My intense and punishing assumption turned out to be mostly correct. Even on the beginner difficulty, I struggled with surviving later tracks. If you hit a corner wrong, your machine can pinball between walls with devastating results. There was one instance where my car wasn’t fast enough to make a jump, and I plummeted to my fiery death over and over. Being the stubborn person I am, I kept reloading until I finally scraped by, using a boost on subsequent laps to send me over safely. Oh yeah, the game gives you the equivalent of a Mario Kart mushroom with every lap you finish. The way these tracks are designed, you can only really use it on rare straightaways. It’s fine for what it is, but the later games’ ingenious use of health as boost dulls the mechanic here. One thing that’s certainly not dull is the music. No one can take away the head-bopping melodies that permeate F-Zero. But while I can listen to the soundtrack forever, playing F-Zero gets stale pretty quickly. There aren’t enough variables or sparks of personality to draw me back, at least for this first game. In that way, it’s very unlike…

Super Mario Kart

Super Mario Kart was a big seller and the start of one of Nintendo’s biggest franchises, but I still classify it outside the SNES essentials today. The bones of Mario Kart are mostly here, but so are plenty of strange choices and inconsistencies. It was made as a follow-up to F-Zero, yet Super Mario Kart ends up highlighting the hardware’s limits rather than its potential. For one thing, the game is permanently split-screen. I recognize that this was to support the new two-player mode, but if you don’t have anyone to play with, you end up wishing you had a better field of view. The bottom half of the screen is an intrusive map that isn’t that useful considering the AI will just rubberband anyway. The SNES also apparently can’t process items fairly. The player will be the only racer throwing out shells and bananas from the roulette. Whoever’s closest to your position will instead periodically activate a character-specific item. And these will affect only you, if the numerous times I saw Bowser hover over his own fire trap is any indication. Even before they invented the blue shell, Mario Kart was finding ways to punish you for doing well.

Despite those quirks and more, I was able to settle into Mario Kart a lot easier than F-Zero. The pace is more easygoing, the tracks are often wider, and items can be a help when they work for you. My biggest piece of advice is to pick the Princess. For one, her acceleration is high, which makes it easier to recover. More importantly, it halves the likelihood of being targeted with shrinking mushrooms, the biggest headache out there. Once I found my character, most of the races weren’t too bad. Unlocking and defeating the special cup was a big challenge, of course. But I really enjoy this version of Rainbow Road, so it was okay. To nitpick some more, there are too many courses in the Mario Circuit and Bowser’s Castle locations, while other themes only have one or two tracks on offer. Also, the character sprites are uncomfortably off-model. Yoshi, my guy, please put the tongue away and close your mouth. But the soundtrack is full of jams and items make the race unpredictable in a fun way. I’m glad elements of this game are preserved in sequels that I’m much more likely to revisit.

Super Punch-Out!!

Following up an all-time great like the NES Punch-Out is not easy. That’s why the SNES version can be forgiven for having a less notable legacy. Even without that status, it’s still Punch-Out. It’s a thrill to learn the patterns and beat back boisterous boxers. While the control feel is very familiar, there are tweaks to mechanics that don’t ring as either good or bad to me. First, blocking punches is now essential. Opponents, just like you, can throw out high or low attacks, and matching them with your defense will nullify the damage. The perspective makes it hard to distinguish where punches will land, so I just reloaded until trial and error let me learn each sequence. Additionally, the star punch mechanic is replaced with a special meter that fills as long as you do well. I like this change because it simulates the momentum of a real fight. Keep the offense up and you’re rewarded with more power. You’ll need it, because the matches are now one-round affairs, and there’s no winning by decision. That ticked me off a little, but seeing the in-game push towards speedrunning, I can accept that Super Punch-Out has a slightly different focus.

Mechanics aren’t everything in Punch-Out, though. You also need to go against opponents who deserve a good glove to the face. On this front, the SNES game isn’t perfect. There are a few winners, like Bear Hugger and Super Macho Man, who would be improved further in the Wii version. A lot of the cast, regrettably, is stuffed with uninteresting boxers. There’s less chance someone will get offended by national stereotypes, which is a positive, but most of these guys don’t have the stuff. Ending the game with a generic musclehead, then his identical brother, sucks the air out of the room. Despite the graphical leap, the facial expressions sometimes feel less animated than the NES version. The fact that there are good designs here makes the uneven application more disappointing. If you can get past that, Super Punch-Out has many of the strengths common to the series. The snappy controls have proven virtually age-proof. While it’s not the first Punch-Out you should run out and try, it shouldn’t be so overlooked, either.

Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts

This was the only game I had strong feelings for before the playthrough. And those feelings were intensely negative. I hated so many things about it. The cheap enemies! The unbearably stiff double jump! The eye-straining slowdown! I never know what emotion I should be feeling with this series. Obviously, I’m supposed to struggle, but am I supposed to soldier on, or are the developers laughing at me? I know there are fans out there, and that’s cool. This kind of game design doesn’t agree with me, however, so I just save-state-stitched my way to a perfect run. When I did this, I got to look past the problems and enjoy the game underneath it all. I could see things I never would have otherwise. The game’s frame rate may dip like a drinking bird, but at least the sprites are big and detailed. Each level’s scenario is varied and offers its own challenge made fun to conquer by the safety net. I got to see the game without wanting to break anything, which is why I love save states.

If you get the knife and the best armor, there’s not much in your way that you can’t melt. Ghosts 'n Goblins infamously makes you do a second run to “finish” the game, and this one is no different. I couldn’t discern much that changed on that loop other than a new weapon you need to find. The true final boss was a step above anything else in difficulty, and I’d really rather not fight it again. Listen, if I could have left Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts off of the SNES Classic, I would have. There’s already a better horror-themed action sidescroller on there, and that’s Super Castlevania IV. But if nothing else, I got a glimpse of what the faithful few like about the series. You masochists.

Kirby’s Dream Course

I have to watch golf for my job, and it’s just about the most vapid and pointless sport out there. Golf video games, on the other hand, are usually a good time, as are Kirby spinoff titles. So, here’s Kirby’s Dream Course. You knock Kirby around these isometric arenas bumping off enemies until the last one becomes the hole. I tried it out numerous times before, but almost always in the fantastic versus mode. Definitely look up some videos of that for some friendship-ending hilarity. The single-player, though, always lost me after a few holes. Perhaps the slow pace had something to do with it. When you sit down and give it the time, Kirby’s Dream Course is pleasant, but it’s more puzzle than sports. Since you can kill enemies in any order, the levels appear to be freeform. In reality, there’s an optimal route planned out for every one. Figuring that out is fun, but screw up a shot and you screw up your run. I found it more engaging to save after every shot and dial in the perfect angle. The amount of control you have over Kirby’s direction ensures that there’s a way out of nearly any spot.

Some enemies will give traditional Kirby powers when defeated. The applications of high jump or fireball to golf is exciting, but these are often liabilities. Unless they’re a prescribed part of the puzzle route, the copy abilities will usually send you into the abyss. It’s hilarious when your friend does it in versus, but not so much on your own. And while the play field is very readable, the graphics are desaturated, losing some of the Kirby appeal. I also recommend you take breaks if you go through the single player. There are some 64 holes, so it drags on after a while. But Kirby’s Dream Course is a neat little game. I would be happy to see it come back since there are more Kirby games coming out than we can keep track of. If you try it, though, make sure to bring a friend.

What’s Next?

I’ve made it through all of the bite-sized games on the SNES Classic. That leaves only two titles I haven’t even booted: Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy III. That’s entirely due to a lack of time, not a lack of interest. I’m going to fit them in somewhere, but I’m pretty confident that I won’t be writing about them. For one, these are some of the most discussed games on the internet, so finding a new angle would be impossible. More importantly, people get really touchy about them. I randomly brought up that I would play them elsewhere, and someone immediately tried to preemptively backseat me. I really don’t need the grief of people in the comments telling me I didn’t… optimize my leveling, or whatever. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time.

You can follow the games I beat this year In Real Time!