There’s a lot of SNES games that you can make an argument for aging beautifully. You could even argue that these games have, in general, aged a lot better than those in the following generation on the PS1 and N64. So let’s highlight just ten games from the library that have stood the test of time, while also trying not to just make this look like a best SNES games list. We’ve already got one of those.
1. Shadowrun
Developer: Beam Software
Publisher: Data East
Shadowrun is an SNES game and long dormant IP in the video game realm that we don’t think people talk about nearly enough. While well-known and well-liked among diehard SNES fans, Shadowrun really needs to be featured more frequently in conversations about the best SNES games more people should play. A cyberpunk fantasy action RPG isn’t exactly a major genre on the Super Nintendo, and the combination of the gameplay with some rich, compelling cyberpunk aesthetics makes for something we wish the console saw more of.
A skill-based RPG with action-focused combat, Shadowrun has considerable depth to its leveling and spell-learning, with fast-paced fighting sequences that keep the game from getting monotonous. It’s an excellent choice for action RPG fans and turn-based players alike, with the game itself being based on a pen-and-paper roleplaying game. There’s a twisted noir quality to Shadowrun, beginning from the moment you wake up and escape from your own slab at the morgue.
The world of Shadowrun is one in which elves and orcs exist alongside a time and place that might remind you of Blade Runner. It’s a mix of ideas that holds up extremely well today, and we only wish the promised sequel at the end of the first game had materialized, though Shadowrun Returns did end up being a good time. Shadowrun in video game form was last seen with Shadowrun: Hong Kong, a solid but somewhat already forgotten tactical RPG.
2. Chrono Trigger
Developer: Square
Publisher: Square
We’re pretty fond of Chrono Trigger around these parts, so it shouldn’t be too surprising to see it make an appearance here. It’s no F-Zero, but it is pretty good.
Released by Square in 1995 as one of their last games for the Super Nintendo, the game was celebrated for some of the best graphics on the SNES, and they still look beautiful today. The distinctive, varied pixelated characters and absolutely stunning town maps and backgrounds are still pulling in players nearly 30 years later. The score by Yasunori Mitsuda and Nobuo Uematsu is also one of the best for the console, which is saying a lot as Square alone released a number of exceptional JRPGs with banger soundtracks on the Super Nintendo.
Chrono Trigger also ages well in the gameplay department, using standard RPG mechanics and Square’s famous Active Time Battle system to make a game that’s a breeze to pick up and play. It’s a perfect RPG in every way, and it’s one people continue to play and love in droves. I need to finish my playthrough on Steam Deck, but I am really struggling with time.
3. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Super Mario World is great, but the 1995 sequel Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island deserves just as much love. The game would take Mario’s flagship SNES series in a very different direction, both in terms of visuals and gameplay, creating something as unique as it is timeless.
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island may, at times, make you want to not have children, but that’s a small price to pay for a platformer that’s as much fun to play now as it was when the game was first released on the SNES in 1995.
Decades on, the bright, cartoonish, storybook graphics is a blast of pure pastel brilliance . Yoshi’s Island remains a challenging, surprisingly complex 16-bit platformer that even its most experienced players can get lost in. Exploration is key, and the breathtaking world of Yoshi’s Island makes that easy.
There’s really nothing else like it. Except for uhhh Go! Go! Beckham! Adventure on Soccer Island on the Game Boy Advance, apparently.
4. EarthBound
Developer: HAL Laboratory
Publisher: Nintendo
While doing good sales in Japan, where it was known as Mother 2, and at least respectable sales for a mid-90s RPG in the west, the 1995 release EarthBound was quickly forgotten by all but a small cult following. That following has grown exponentially over the years, owing to EarthBound characters and worlds appearing in various Super Smash Bros. games, as well as EarthBound getting releases for the SNES Classic and the Wii Virtual Shop. And also, like, credit card companies we guess?
It’s available to play today on the Switch’s Virtual SNES, and you owe it to yourself to see why EarthBound is one of the best-aged games on the Super Nintendo. A charming story with RPG mechanics and cute graphics, EarthBound mixes vintage Americana with a very bizarre, surprisingly dark plot concerning a group of kids who must destroy an alien traveler known as Giygas. There’s also a marked sense of humor that makes itself apparent in everything from item descriptions to the most casual NPC dialog, or even the battle screen. These qualities have inspired numerous games, most notably Undertale.
EarthBound has its little frustrations, particularly inventory management, but even after all these years, it’s aged to perfection, like that meme where we all harassed Reggie constantly for like a decade to release Mother 3. Right, guys?
5. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Among the many beat-em-ups that have been released under the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles banner, Turtles in Time might be the best released to consoles over the years. Second perhaps only to the recent Shredder’s Revenge, the 25+ year time span between those games should tell you how absolutely beloved this game continues to be. And for good reason.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time has the basic Save-April-and-then-The-World premise, but with the added spark of Shredder sending the Turtles into the past. Your travels take you to the wild west, prehistoric times, and even the future, fighting a wide assortment of enemies and bosses along the way. It’s pretty straightforward stuff on paper, except that when you combine that simple pleasure of knocking mutant warthogs around with a responsive, perfect control scheme, you have an enduring classic.
Turtles in Time also looked remarkable in arcades, with the SNES port being shockingly close to perfect. It’s still a game that can visually grab your attention, and the sheer joy of bashing monsters and robots alongside your friends means you don’t have to care a single bit about the Turtles to love this game.
6. Kirby Super Star
Developer: HAL Laboratory
Publisher: Nintendo
Selling well over 1 million copies, Kirby Super Star was a surprising lifeline for the SNES so late in its lifespan. With the N64 released just three months later, a graphically stunning collection of smaller Kirby games that had the best controls and special abilities of the entire series up to that point was a great way to prove the Super Nintendo still had a lot to offer.
Pick up the game today, and you’ll find that most of your Kirby Super Star nostalgia holds up nicely. Some of the smaller minigames get pretty tiring pretty fast, but the core platformers featured here provide some of the best Kirby gameplay of the era. “Spring Breeze” offers a delightful, albeit abridged remake of Kirby’s 1992 Game Boy debut, while modes like “The Great Cave Offensive” puts Kirby in a game that could be described as a casual Metroidvania. “Revenge of Meta Knight” offers a relatively spicier challenge, and there’s a ton of 2-player fun to be found.
Kirby hasn’t deviated too terribly far from the formula you’ll find in Kirby Super Star. The dude eating cars does still feel pretty on-brand. If you’re a Kirby fan, that’s obviously not a bad thing, and it makes Super Star pretty timeless.
7. Mega Man X
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
We’re going to go with the first game in the Mega Man X series, released at the height of the SNES’ power in 1993, but we think you can put pretty much any Mega Man in here. Alright, maybe not Mega Man Soccer. Mega Man X reimagined the NES’ beloved blue bomber as a weary soldier in a dark future, but didn’t take the character too far away from what made these Capcom platformers some of the best of their kind in the history of the medium.
Mega Man X was a game clearly designed from the ground up to take advantage of the power of the Super Nintendo. From the moment the game drops us into the city, suddenly rushing to fight robot enemies and meet an unknown, potentially unstoppable force, Mega Man X presents a more intense Megan Man experience than anything before.
Like the best Mega Man games, the first X release features sharp, distinctive character designs that inspire legions of indie games today, an incredible soundtrack, and controls that almost anyone can pick up in a few minutes. The gameplay makes it all a lot of fun, but it’s the challenge of Mega Man X that also makes this game an essential play for anyone new to what the Super Nintendo brought to the table. Just remember to use Electric Spark on the final boss and show him who the real Sigma is.
8. Disney’s Aladdin
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
While very similar in certain regards, the Capcom-developed Disney’s Aladdin for the SNES is ultimately a completely different game from the one developed by Virgin and Sega for the Genesis. Is it better? That’s ultimately up to you, but if you’re a fan of the amazing Disney platformers Capcom developed for both the NES and SNES, this version of Disney’s Aladdin will have a lot to offer.
Disney’s Aladdin on the SNES looks as sharp as ever, and while the gameplay itself may not be quite as varied as its Genesis counterpart, there’s also something ageless about Capcom and really good platforming games. Especially when they look and sound like one of the best examples of what this hardware could do in the early 90s, and why people are still flocking to that hardware years later.
The only bad thing you can really say about Disney’s Aladdin is that it’s much too short. Grab it on the Disney Classic Games Collection and use it as a palette cleanser when The Lion King has you nearly blacking out from frustration. Developers don’t hate the kids like they used to, do they?
9. Super Metroid
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
There’s really not a whole lot of new stuff you can say about one of the most influential games of all time. Super Metroid did more than arguably any other Metroid game up to that point to create the core concepts that people think of when they think about a Metroidvania game. Without Super Metroid, there’s probably no Hollow Knight and Dead Cells.
From a gameplay and overall presentation standpoint, with new additions like an automap and being able to fire in every direction, you’re still left with one of the very best action platformers ever made that has aged a lot more gracefully than its NES predecessor.
Surpassing Super Metroid is a difficult task. But so, so many indie games on Steam owe their whole existence to Yoshio Sakamoto and Samus Aran. You could play the Six Degrees of Separation from basically any game on any storefront and it would probably still come back to Super Metroid.
Even now, years later, Super Metroid sets a bar for 16-bit platforming that few have ever reached, and that’s not going to change anytime soon.
10. Contra III: The Alien Wars
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
While it could be said that both Contra as a franchise and Konami as a developer have both seen better days, with both merely shells of their former selves (please be good, Metal Gear Solid Delta), we at least have undisputed classics like Contra III: The Alien Wars to keep us company.
Perhaps the best game in its franchise, The Alien Wars was another early SNES release that was clearly designed to show off just how serious Nintendo was about being competitive in the next console generation. It’s an aggressive, deliriously difficult run and gun shooter that still has the teeth to take even the best players to the limit on its most brutal difficulty setting.
But make no mistake about it, on any setting Contra III: The Alien Wars is the kind of game that’s as fun to play as it is maddeningly frustrating. Unless you’re some sort of freak of nature, you can expect to die in this game many, many, many, many, many times. Pressure makes diamonds, and you can’t spell diamond without die. Don’t look that up.
You’re going to get killed by alien freaks and eldritch-like monstrosities often in Contra III: The Alien Wars, but as you might expect from a game that could be a massive hit with players in any decade, you’re going to come back for more.
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