After changing gaming in the early 1990s, the Super Famicom/Super Nintendo had a surprisingly stubborn streak in its twilight years. Long after everyone else moved on to shiny new 32-bit machines, it was still quietly cranking out games. And not just Pit Fighter 2: This Time There’s Deodorant either — these were polished, ambitious games pushing 16-bit to its limits. But by 1997 and onwards, not many people were paying attention — and how could you with wonders like this? Let’s correct that today with a look at some super late but still super cool Super Nintendo wonders.
Super Bomberman 5 (February 28th, 1997)
Between 1990 and 2010, the Bomberman series was prolific, to say the least. While the series can be traced back to 1983’s PC release, Hudson Soft and Konami really hit the ground running once the nineties kicked off. Every year since 1990, without fail, there managed to be at least two Bomberman game releases across whatever platforms happened to be relevant at the time. Some years boasted even as many as six games.
That’s the kind of cultural saturation usually reserved for blue hedgehogs and Italian plumbers, but Bomberman was a multiplayer phenomenon all its own. It’s no surprise then that the series really established a foothold on the SNES/Super Famicom. There were five games in the main Super Bomberman series, along with a couple of spin-offs for good measure.The first three games in the Super Bomberman series would receive an international launch, but when it came to Super Bomberman 4 and 5, the decision was made for a Japan-only release. Quite why Hudson Soft decided to limit the release of these final versions of Super Bomberman is unknown. Especially since Super Bomberman 5 in particular, which launched on February 28th, 1997, felt like a culmination of all the series had to offer.
Bomberman no longer sounds like a real word to me. Is it OK if I say Super Bob instead? Thanks guys.
Along with a story mode and the ever popular multiplayer, Super Bob 5 introduced new features to the series like the create a character mode, giving players that extra bit of personalisation to their multiplayer matches. Going back to the story mode, the first four zones in Super Bob 5 reference the previous four games in the series, using remixed versions of levels, music and enemies to cobble together something new, while the game’s fifth and final stage is completely new. Again, it’s a culmination, and one that came sort of late in the SNES/Super Famicom’s life cycle.
Sure, February 1997 isn’t that far after the release of the N64, but we’re going chronologically from here. Strap in.
Casper (March 1997)
Casper The Friendly Ghost is a world-renowned institution, or at least he was for a while. Somehow, we doubt the Fortnite, TikTok and Skibidi Toilet addicted youth of today would even recognise the translucent wonder if they saw him. Is Skibidi Toilet still relevant, by the way? Oh god it comes for us all.
Anyway, Casper might not be as big now as he was going from the 60s to the 2000s, though arguably that popularity peaked with the 1995 movie Casper. What a banger of a movie. Kinda messed up too.
Naturally, because it was a kid’s movie and the industry was in love with making them for about 25 years, Casper got its own tie-in video game. More than one, in fact, as there ended up being seven different versions of a Casper tie-in across multiple platforms. While it’d be a waste of time going through every single version and its differences, the main point is that the SNES/Super Famicom received two separate games entirely. The first, developed specifically for the SNES, launched in 1996 and had players controlling Casper, using an altered version of the engine from A Boy and His Blob. But there was also a Super Famicom game that launched in 1997 that was completely different.
Instead of playing as Casper trying to protect Kat Harvey, the Super Famicom game has players mostly controlling Kat Harvey as she tries to protect Casper from Carrigan Crittenden and her associate, Dibs, the human antagonists from the movie. Unlike other Caspers, this isn’t a side-scrolling adventure but played from an isometric perspective, with Kat collecting items along the way to aid with progression. Again, it’s wildly different from the SNES release. The most interesting part is that while Natsume published the SNES game in 1996, they then developed the Super Famicom game and released it in 1997. Anything you can do, we can do better? We’ll never know. Next up: kind of a pig deal.
Harvest Moon (June 17th, 1997)
Trying to untangle the Gordian Knot that is the Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons naming issues would take us all day, but thankfully we don’t need to get into that when talking about the original Harvest Moon game for the SNES/Super Famicom. Known as Farm Story in Japan, Harvest Moon launched on the Super Famicom on August 9th, 1996, which admittedly isn’t that later in the console’s lifecycle. It was only a couple of months after the launch of the N64 in the region, after all.
However, it’s how long Amccus, Natsume and, eventually, Nintendo, would take in bringing Harvest Moon to the rest of the world, as the Americas would have to wait until June 17th, 1997 to get their hands on Harvest Moon. That’s about nine months after the launch of the N64 in America, meaning most households across the US of A would’ve been enjoying chucking a baby penguin off a ledge in Super Mario 64. We here in EU region, with our unsoiled, uncalloused hands were most affected though, having to wait an additional seven months for Harvest Moon to launch on January 29th, 1998. This is a full 10 months after the launch of the N64 in Europe too, so it’s surprising that Harvest Moon did well enough to warrant a sequel.
Anyone who’s played most modern “cozy” games would understand why Harvest Moon was successful, as the formula is the same as it ever was. You inherit a farm from your grandfather, you find yourself in a sleepy little town, and you can grow crops, raise animals and form relationships with the townsfolk. The success of this original Harvest Moon would lead to countless sequels, and a rebrand of the series to Story Of Seasons, as what the West now knows as Harvest Moon is just a pale imitation. That’s all we’re saying, mainly because getting into that drama might send some of our audience into dream land.
Kirby’s Dream Land 3 (November 27th, 1997)
For whatever reason, probably to make room in the bank for all that Wave Race money, Nintendo didn’t much support publishing games on the SNES in the West for too long after the release of the N64. The last game they did publish in North America was Kirby’s Dream Land 3, which launched in Japan on November 27th, 1997 before coming to America on March 27th, 1998. And Europe never got it. You’d think Nintendo would save the honour as the last Nintendo published game on the SNES for one of the Mushroom Kingdom lads, so it shows the amount of faith Nintendo had in Kirbles.
As the name doesn’t imply but rather states outright, Kirby’s Dream Land 3 is a direct continuation of the Dream Land series of platformers, with Kirby setting out to investigate why a mysterious dark cloud has begun to hang over Planet Popstar. Rather than being a revolution for the series, Kirby’s Dream Land 3 offers much more of the same, including Kirby’s trademark inhale and copy abilities, giving the pink blob the abilities of anything he swallows. Following on from Dream Land 2, Kirby also has access to Gooey, a playable companion that can be summoned and controlled by a second player, having his own version of all of Kirby’s abilities. There’s even six animal friends to co-operate with, each with their own powers needed to solve puzzles.
Graphically, Kirby’s Dream Land 3 was quite the looker, though that’s partly because the game’s cartridge made use of the SA-1 coprocessor chip, making it way more capable than regular SNES cartridges. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t help KDL3 when it came to reviews, earning a rather mediocre score on GameRankings as some would compare Dream Land 3 unfavourably to the more diverse and arguably ambitious release Kirby Super Star. Thankfully, Nintendo didn’t send in the Wrecking Crew on this series.
Wrecking Crew ‘98 (January 1st, 1998)
It’s well documented that both Mario and Luigi are plumbers, spoilers if you weren’t aware, but we’ve never actually seen them use plumbing to save the day. They just happen to travel by big green pipes. That’s not plumbing, that’s just the Transport Tubes from Futurama. Meanwhile, the video game Wrecking Crew, originally released in arcades in 1985 as VS. Wrecking Crew before being ported to the NES a year later, actually depicts both Mario and Luigi as workers on a demolition site.
Helmets, hammers and one harassful foreman are all part and parcel of the Wrecking Crew experience. As Mario, or Luigi if you’re playing co-op, you wield a large hammer as you try and destroy objects within a level while dodging enemies. There’s 100 levels to complete, along with a level creator allowing for near infinite replayability, but after the 1985 NES release, it’d take 13 years for the series to get a sequel.
Titled Wrecking Crew ‘98, this new version of Mario smacking things with a hammer would launch exclusively for the Super Famicom, specifically for the Nintendo Power download service on January 1st, 1998. Nintendo would publish a cartridge version of Wrecking Crew ‘98 a few months later too though, for those who are all about physical media forever.
It’s us. We’re all about it. I need that plastic more than Leo needs self-awareness.
In another edition of Mario vs Bowser, Wrecking Crew ‘98 sees Mario fighting against Bowser’s high-rise empire within the Mushroom Kingdom. While the original Wrecking Crew was a puzzle platformer, Wrecking Crew ‘98 is more like a competitive puzzle game akin to Puyo Puyo, with players trying to match panels of the same colour in order to create obstructions on the opponent’s side of the screen. Fortunately for those who want to try it themselves, Nintendo translated the game and ported it to the Nintendo Classics service in 2024, though you’d need a Switch Online subscription.
That’s a mega bummer, man… And Bass.
Mega Man & Bass (April 1998)
The Mega Man series has been around since time immemorial. Okay, that might literally be untrue, but the point is that the series had been around for a while even before the SNES/Super Famicom was on its last legs. By the ancient past of 1998, Capcom had already moved the series over to the PS1 and SEGA Saturn, so why would Capcom release another Mega Man game on such aged hardware?
For once, we actually have an answer for you. According to long-time series designer and producer Keiji Inafune, the reason behind making a late Super Famicom game was the same as Wu Tang Clan’s: it’s for the children.
The end result was Mega Man & Bass, which launched on the Super Famicom on April 28th, 1998. Mega Man and his rival Bass are both investigating the appearance of a new robotic villain in the form of King. This new villain also definitely has nothing to do with Dr. Wily, honest.
The gameplay is similar to other games in the series, with the key difference being both Mega Man and Bass having their own unique weapons and abilities. It launched late for the Super Famicom, meaning it didn’t get ported to other regions. Still, Capcom managed to get their money’s worth out of Mega Man & Bass, as Capcom translated it and ported it to the Game Boy Advance, launching across the world in the ancient past of 2002 in Japan and 2003 in the West.
Super Famicom Wars (May 1, 1998)
Those in the West might have thought that the Advance Wars series just kind of sprung up out of nowhere, and as far as the US and Europe is concerned, it kind of did. Japan, meanwhile, had a bit of build up before the success of Advance Wars, with the first game in the series, Famicom Wars, launching on August 12th, 1988 for the Family Computer.
Famicom Wars will be immediately familiar to any fans of Advance Wars, following a conflict between the warring nations of Red Star and Blue Moon. You take turns building and moving units, you take towns and bases and try to advance on the enemy’s HQ while protecting your own across a large campaign. It’s a formula that’s only gotten better with time, and the proof of that is the remake that Intelligent Systems created for the Super Famicom. Released on May 1st, 1998 exclusively for the Nintendo Power service as part of the original game’s 10th anniversary celebrations, Super Famicom Wars is a remake of the original game with a boatload of new content for players to enjoy.
8 brand new units were added to the game, bringing the total up to 24, the CPU decision making was made faster, and a whole new campaign was added, introducing two new factions in the form of Green Earth and Yellow Comet. Support for four players was even added for local multiplayer, making Super Famicom Wars the premier multiplayer strategy game on the Super Famicom. Super Famicom Wars would get ported to the Wii, Wii U and 3DS Virtual Consoles in Japan, but hasn’t officially been brought to the West yet. Thankfully, fans who want to see where the Advance Wars series came from can enjoy a fan translation that was released in 2018. Next up: the biggest obligation of your childhood, but even more needy.
Tamagotchi Town (May 1st, 1999)
You know how they say that more people than you’d think are gamers because of mobile games like Candy Crush and the like? Well, the same should be true of things like Tamagotchi. Pretty much every kid at one point has either owned or at least played with some kind of Tamagotchi like product, but the problem with them is that you can only really look after one at a time. Clearly, Marigul Management and Bandai decided to be ambitious by creating a game that allows you to help more than one at a time.
The end result was Tamagotchi Town, another game released for the Nintendo Power online service on May 1st, 1999. Instead of just looking after one singular Tamagotchi, the point of Tamagotchi Town was to adopt and oversee several Tamagotchis across a 3×3 grid of different biomes you could select at the start of the game. You look after them the same way you would look after those pocket versions, by making sure they’re fed, played with and cleaned. If you don’t perform those tasks properly, the Tamagotchi will get stressed and run away, which you don’t want. Nintendo would report you to the Tamagotchi Protective Services and everything, it’d be a whole thing.
While Tamagotchi Town never launched outside of Japan, it is considered to be a bit of a precursor to the TamaTown interactive website, which players could connect with their virtual pet handhelds to get exclusive items and goodies. Who doesn’t want digital tat in exchange for their data being harvested?
Anyway, next game.
Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 (September 1st, 1999)
Even though Nintendo had long since stopped publishing games for the SNES in the West by the time 1999 rolled around, they were still publishing exclusives for the Super Famicom just before everyone was afraid that the machines would rise up and kill us all, or we’d lose all our Everquest progress.
Nintendo clearly did not care about the impending breaking down of the walls, as they teamed with Intelligent Systems to release Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 late into 1999.
Launching for Nintendo Power on September 1st, 1999, before getting a proper cartridge release on January 21st, 2000 after the Y2K panic died down, Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 was the third and final Fire Emblem game for the Super Famicom.
Aside from having a subtitle that sounds like a flight that’s gone missing, Thracia 776 is actually heavily tied in to the previous Super Famicom release, Genealogy Of The Holy War, with the events of Thracia 776 running parallel to the second half of Holy War. While Genealogy focused on Sigurd’s efforts to thwart a demonic cult, Thracia 776 tells a tale about a deposed heir to the republic of Munster who wages his own revolution.
As a game, Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 isn’t breaking the turn-based strategy mold. You’re still taking turns battling units, all governed by Fire Emblem’s tried and true Weapon Triangle. Each unit has their own character class, and some of the main plot characters like Leif have their own unique classes to boot. These can even evolve over the course of the story, making your army more powerful as the game progresses. Considering both Genealogy Of The Holy War and Thracia 776 are two Fire Emblem games that have never been brought to the West, and both are heavily linked to each other, it’d be cool to see both get an official translation and port one of these days. It’d be pretty metal.
Metal Slader Glory: Director’s Cut (November 2000)
This video is about late SNES/Super Famicom games, and Metal Slader Glory is about as late as they come. Developed and published by HAL, Metal Slader Glory is an adventure game that was originally released for the Famicom back in 1991, but Nintendo would publish a Director’s Cut version for release on Super Famicom. Here’s the kicker: it launched exclusively via Nintendo Power on November 29th, 2000, making it the last official SNES/Super Famicom release ever.
To put that into some context, the PS2 had launched in Japan on March 4th, 2000, meaning Japanese audiences had access to the likes of Kessen, Ridge Racer V, Tekken Tag Tournament and more for about eight months before Metal Slader Glory: Director’s Cut launched for the Super Famicom. All of those games pushed the power of 3D graphics to new heights and were readily available at that time, and yet there were probably some guys in Japan who were more than happy that their Nintendo Power cartridge had a Famicom adventure game re-release.
As for the game itself, Metal Slader Glory is set in a future after a war between space colonies, with Tadashi on Earth buying a worker mech for his and his girlfriend’s business. Even in the future, things are mis-sold online, as the mech is actually a Metal Slader used in the war a few years previously. This mech contains a secret message that sends Tadashi, his partner and her younger sister on a journey across the colonies to discover the truth.
It’s an adventure game, so it’s mainly about finding items and making the right choices, but the Director’s Cut version added new story sequences and redid the graphics to take advantage of the improved hardware. While neither version officially came to the West, fan translations for the original and remake have made their way online if you’re willing to sail… matey.
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