So, I'm going back to china in a month, and I'm trying to think of a video-game related gift for my cousin. I've been seeing a bunch of SNES Classics in stock around walmart here pretty regularly now, so that got me thinking how viable a SNES Classic would be. My cousin has been learning some english in his high school classes, but he's not too proficient.

System level stuff doesn't seem like too much of a hurdle. I'll might have to explain some menu options to him, but that's it. I'm thinking more about the games, and how many of them are reasonably playable without needing to understand the text. Obviously, games like Mario World and FZero seem like no-brainers, but I barely played any of the SNES games on there, so I'm not sure how text heavy stuff like Earthbound, Zelda, and Star Fox are, and how enjoyable they'd be with a language barrier. The JRPGs are probably too much.

For reference, this is the list: Contra 3: The Alien Wars, Donkey Kong Country, EarthBound, Final Fantasy 3, F-Zero, Kirby Super Star, Kirby's Dream Course, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Mega Man X, Secret of Mana, Star Fox, Star Fox 2, Street Fighter 2 Turbo: Hyper Fighting, Super Castlevania 4, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Super Mario Kart, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Super Punch-Out!!, Yoshi's Island

If more than half the games on there are playable, I think I'd be ok with giving it.

Donkey Kong Country, Mega Man X, Super Castlevania 4, Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Super Mario Kart, and Yoshi's Island shouldn't have many language hurdles for someone who speaks little English. He may have to look up a few things, like translations for what some of the powers do in Super Metroid, but you generally have to figure those out for yourself anyway. Also I don't know if such translations exist. Still, there are plenty of SNES games on there that he could play without having to know English.

Final Fantasy 3 is a no-go. I mean, I'm sure he could figure out a way if he's determined, but FFVI is a game you play for the story and the music. It's good turn based combat and world design and such, but that's not really what it's remembered for. I've never played Earthbound, but that game seems even more dialog-dependent than FFVI from what I've heard, and Secret of Mana isn't short on talky bits either.

I don't know enough about the rest to make a good call. I could see him beating A Link to the Past without knowing English, but if the beginning of the game is anything to go by, he'll have to go through a lot of trial and error that an English speaker wouldn't (or Japanese or whatever language that game is available in).

As a final note, hacking the SNES Classsic is the easiest hack anyone will ever do. You download a program, plug in your SNES, run the program, and bam! You're done. Go put whatever you want on it. For games like FFVI and Earthbound that are way more dialog heavy, there might be fan translations somewhere that he can read. I don't know this for sure, as I've never looked into Chinese fan translations of old games, but it's possible one exists somewhere.

I learned most of my english through Pokemon Blue so how hard can it be :P. But yeah most Rpg's are a no go, But then most of those game are totally playable with out knowing any language at all. So yeah go for it.