Your Ten Favorite Tier 2 (or lower) SNES Games

NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Wii
Tanooki
Next-Gen
Posts: 6947
Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2014 5:06 pm

Re: Top Ten Hidden SNES Games

Post by Tanooki »

Ack put my confusion into words before I got a chance to see this thread. What really is hidden anymore? I guess there are some from the US, and it is subjective, though perhaps more could be culled from Japan as less people jump to think of them, even if perhaps they are a sequel to a game the US even received too.

What I mean by the second part is that in general people are pretty warm and fuzzy on the few Goemon games we got in the US, though usually they got branded as Mystical Ninja. There were a lot of them, a trilogy on the SNES, but the real stand out game is Ganbare Goemon 2 which I'll cover below.

I will say thanks about Power Rangers, never was huge on it ever at any time, but it is an occasional guilty pleasure as I like Japanese giant robot and kaiju stuff. I intend after checking some stuff to watch some youtube of that SNES game because Gundam Endless Duel is insanely good and it seems to be built from that.


I would suggest Soul Blazer and also Arcana too, but that did hit some lists already.

Trying to be a bit different here I have some ideas.

1) Disney's Aladdin - Yes most people just go nuts over the animation looking Genesis etc version, but really I prefer this Capcom release. I find the controls, fluidity of the characters, better color and audio, and general stage designs to be far more appealing but it just got badly overshadowed.

2&3) Magical Quest Starring MIckey Mouse (and B) The Great Circus Caper -- Yeah more Disney, also uses the same engine Aladdin does. Perhaps some of the best Mickey Mouse platformers made. Incredible stage design, beautiful music, sound effects are as nice too, very nice selection of both stages and new suits (for specific attacks/skills) for those spaces too. I wouldn't call it an easy game, just not a hard one either, just quite fair.

4) King of Dragons - The Magic Sword nod gave me the idea, sure it's more expensive due to trolls but in general it's still not all that well known as quite a few other gaming go-tos on the system. It's a strongly faithful conversion of the game as I own both due to Capcom Belt Action Collection on Switch which has the arcade release. A great brawler, minor RPG level up mechanics, branching path and 4 different types of characters to use.

5) Star Trek Starfleet Academy - Pretty unique game for the system and for Star Trek titles of the time. It's a bridge simulator, you go through training in starfleet and each tier goes up a class of ship from a weenie science vessel up to the large classes. You have to work through scientific, diplomatic, and combat situations. On the side you can just pop into a combat simulator too against another or the AI on various difficulty tiers. Game runs in 3D on the view screen, solidly animated/colorized bridge area around that.

6) Zenki (Super Famicom) - I think it probably is based off some semi-obscure anime and/or manga in Japan. I haven't owned it in a long time, but when I had my huge collection up to 2005 I had this. It's a really great little platforming combat game, side scroller style. Decent music and sounds, lots of animation to it, great use of color and drawing. There's a story you can't read unless fluent but it won't hurt you just mashing the button through it as the plays great.

7) Spriggan Powered (Super Famicom) -- Amazing shooter, horizontal for the system. The ships and all are done like ACM style like Donkey Kong Country, all the backgrounds run in the SNES high resolution mode and they're not just static so it's a unique treat. It's based on an anime/manga series from the era too. Another I had back when I had Zenki and it was pretty enjoyable.

8) Ganbare Goemon 2 (Super Famicom) and this one takes the elements of the first and smooths them out and makes them more robust, but it also adds the first generation of giant robot combat with Impact we in the US only got to tinker with in that first N64 title.

9) Lupin the 3rd Hunt for the Legendary Treasure (Super Famicom) - It probably wouldn't hurt if you were a fan of the lecherous super thief from Monkey Punch manga or the equally decades long run of anime too. You play as the red jacket style era Lupin and the game has quite a few of his trademark bag of weapon/accessory tricks to exploit. A solid run, think, gun, and search/evade platformer with a pretty good amount of animation style and flair to it, good solid intermission/cut scenes you can't read but watch, and a nice solid variety of stages worth exploring.

10) Twinbee Rainbow Bell Adventure (Super Famicom) - Might be pushing the hidden bit with this, but usually outside of big time Konami/Twinbee fanboys it goes well under the radar because it is not what Twinbee ever was, a shooter, it's instead a Super Mario World style massive platformer with a lot of stages. Has the similar Twinbee flair for popping music and equally out there use of color and animated detail. The bells still have their purpose, just a really well made platformer with a fair learning curve.
User avatar
pierrot
Next-Gen
Posts: 3930
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2012 2:54 am
Location: Banned

Re: Top Ten Hidden SNES Games

Post by pierrot »

I changed the topic title for the purposes of damage control, which will, I'm sure, have the opposite effect of what was intended, but at least I tried.

Ack wrote:Even with that criteria, I stand by my suggestions. Please consider checking them out.

I'm skeptical about Bonkers, but you've at least made me consider it. I used to watch the cartoon occasionally back in the day, even though I hated it, so maybe it would tap into some nostalgia, at least.
Image
User avatar
prfsnl_gmr
Next-Gen
Posts: 12201
Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2009 10:26 pm
Location: Charlotte, North Carolina

Re: Top Ten Hidden SNES Games

Post by prfsnl_gmr »

marurun wrote:I never did manage to fall in love with Darius Twin. Compared to the Darius games on the Genesis and PC Engine, Twin is a poor contender. The music is also pretty annoying. And yet, there are those who absolutely love it.


I wouldn’t say I love it. It is definitely lower tier for both the system and the series. That said, it’s still pretty OK, and it’s still really cheap.
User avatar
Ack
Moderator
Posts: 22294
Joined: Tue Mar 18, 2008 4:26 pm
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: Top Ten Hidden SNES Games

Post by Ack »

pierrot wrote:
Ack wrote:Even with that criteria, I stand by my suggestions. Please consider checking them out.

I'm skeptical about Bonkers, but you've at least made me consider it. I used to watch the cartoon occasionally back in the day, even though I hated it, so maybe it would tap into some nostalgia, at least.

I never watched the cartoon, so I can't say whether it is a good representation. But the game was fun, and I never see it mentioned even when discussing Capcom's work with Disney, so I figure it's worth pointing people to.
Image
User avatar
strangenova
Next-Gen
Posts: 1230
Joined: Wed Jun 24, 2015 2:10 pm
Location: Louisiana
Contact:

Re: Your Ten Favorite Tier 2 (or lower) SNES Games

Post by strangenova »

Not gonna list ten but some of my favorite "tier 2" snes games would be:

Blackthorne - cinematic platformer about a dude with a shotgun killing monsters

Spanky's Quest - arcade style platformer about a monkey and some evil fruit

Side Pocket - a pool game with one of the best soundtracks to a snes game....seriously just listen to the soundtrack

Mystical Ninja - is this considered tier 2? Two wacky ninjas have a strange adventure

Super Godzilla - strange hybrid game about Godzilla and aliens. I grew up with this one so nostalgia heavily clouds my judgement here.
alienjesus
Next-Gen
Posts: 8776
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 7:10 pm
Location: London, UK.

Re: Your Ten Favorite Tier 2 (or lower) SNES Games

Post by alienjesus »

I haven't played enough of these to make a top 10 unfortunately, but here's a few I did enjoy that are questionably at the right level, and in no particular order:

1. DoReMi Fantasy - This one is fairly well known for it's quality I think, but it's not one of the obvious iconic games for the series. It's quite easy and short but it's charming and pretty and much, much better than the first game in the series.

2. Magical Pop'n - I've only ever played this one emulated because the real cartridges are approaching Little Samson levels of ridiculous in price, but it's a shame that's the case as this one is a super fun and charming platformer with some interesting mechanics and a beautiful artstyle. It actually looks quite a lot like DoReMi Fantasy, come to think about it.

3. Cybernator - I'm not exactly a big mech fan by any means, but controlling your heavy mech around the stages here feels awesome - you feel mobile and capable of handling the stages whilst still having a distinctly heavy and mechanic feel to your movements. Also, things explode real good.

4. Marchen Adventure Cotton 100% - A fun and cutsey shmup with a distinct art style - it has enough challenge to be fun but is more beginner friendly than many on the system. The bosses are really cool too.

5. Unirally - This one isn't a looker, but it plays fast and fluidly, and performing tricks for speed boosts is really fun.
Image
Post Reply