With competition on the horizon, Nintendo plotted its next move, unveiling the Super Nintendo in 1991 to compete with Sega’s sleek and stylish Genesis console. With top-of-the-line sound chips and developers eager to experiment with parallax scrolling, rendered polygons and larger worlds, the gaming industry was flooded with instant classics and revolutionary products that changed video games forever more.
Among this deluge of cult classics came a wave of competing arcade cabinet ports to stand against those on the Sega Genesis, a significant point of that console’s early marketing campaign. While Nintendo never made it a central selling point, the Super Nintendo stood tall as a home for beautiful ports of arcade classics that can rival their cabinet originals.
10
Acrobat Mission
Every console at the time needed some vertical shooters, and Acrobat Mission flew into homes with a bang. Everything players want from the arcade cabinet is preserved to the best of the Super Nintendo’s ability, with sharp sounds, beautiful graphics and addictive arcade action that keeps players coming back to make more progress and top their high scores. Players can do way worse than Acrobat Mission, and Acrobat Mission is doing way better in the home than the arcades could have hoped for!
9
Ms. Pac-Man
Bringing the ghost-gobbling, maze-crawling classic to the small screen with better looks, sound, and crystal-smooth scrolling. While far from being her first trip into the world of home consoles, the Super Nintendo version takes full advantage of the horsepower under the hood to deliver an experience that directly challenges the arcade cabinet over which is superior.
The maps are bright and colorful, given added layers of implied dimension and depth thanks to the Super Nintendo’s increased color palette, aided by the screen scrolling to give a wider sense of scale and increased difficulty to the gameplay. For one of the finest versions of this iconic title, the SNES version of Ms. Pac-Man is tough to beat.
8
Knights of the Round
To side-scroll and consume quarters was the way of the arcade machines during the 1990s, from the medieval and gothic to licensed characters and movie tie-ins. Knights of the Round is squarely in the former, with players hacking, slashing, and beating knights, thugs and monsters to oblivion in the name of King Arthur and the Round Table. The quarter-consuming difficulty in the sharp and addictive gameplay loop is maintained, even with the SNES lacking a quarter slot, forcing players to get smart and sharpen their reflexes to make meaningful progress towards victory. For an adventurous romp through a beloved fantasy setting, Knights of the Round brings the swords, the shields and plenty of mead to the action.
7
Street Fighter II
Younger generations might not even know that Capcom’s iconic Street Fighter series was an arcade cabinet in the first place, which speaks to the dominating popularity of the series on home consoles. Street Fighter II on the Super Nintendo alone has nearly half a dozen different versions, with altered mechanics, physics, stages and character rosters to set each apart from one another in meaningful ways.
The transition from arcade to console was a smooth one, bringing the gameplay, mechanics and beloved characters to the household and propelling the franchise to greater heights than ever before. The SNES ports of Street Fighter II didn’t just make the game more popular; they cemented the series as a household name that continues to go strong decades later.
6
U.N. Squadron
Jets, anti-air missiles, bombs and carrier craft aplenty blow through the cabinet machines and onto the home screen. Based on a then-popular manga series, players take to the skies as one of three characters to stop an armed terrorist force bent on unleashing chaos, collecting weapons and currency to level up and acquire better equipment between stages. With this added layer of customization and depth, U.N. Squadron flies high compared to many arcade shooters of the era, and the replay value is through the roof. With plenty to see, shoot and unlock, U.N. Squadron will keep players coming back repeatedly to see every weapon combination and use every tool on offer.
5
NBA Jam
Come on and slam, and welcome to the jam. The smash hit arcade basketball game bounded towards home and portable consoles to varying degrees of success, but the Super Nintendo was among its best outings.
Emphasizing flair and style over realism and simulation, NBA Jam makes every free throw, slam-dunk and point scored a major celebration, with comedic commentary from the announcers accompanying every play. NBA Jam is the lively experience that basketball can excel at, cranked up to 11.
4
SMASH TV
SMASH TV is simplicity turned into sheer beauty, an overhead shooter where players clear rooms to rack up points for an in-universe game show, one horde of villains, thugs and mutants at a time. As the game progresses, enemies become spongier and more numerous; the human enemies give way to the inhuman and unspeakable as every power-up an inch of legroom is needed to reach its full potential to stay alive and progress forward. The difficulty ramps up smoothly with the absurdity, and the game refuses to let players look away from the mayhem. SMASH TV isn’t just an arcade game; it’s an experience like no other.
3
Sunset Riders
What better setting for a side-scrolling arcade shoot ’em up than the wild west? The levels, characters and effects are bright, well-modeled and a fabulous feast for the eyes as players progress through train robberies, ghost towns and high noon shootouts to rack up their high scores.
Hard to find in a physical form and commanding high prices, Sunset Riders is available digitally in several forms for relatively cheap, testaments to its lasting popularity and addictive nature. If pure run-and-gun arcade madness is what players want, Sunset Riders will carry them all the way to the bank.
2
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time
Knock knock. You’re about to get shell-shocked. Turtles In Time takes the popular 4-player arcade hit and translates it into a 2-player time-traveling romp that looks, feels and sounds like it came straight from the cartoon itself. All the expected villains and their goons are present and accounted for, hurdling themselves and the Turtles through time as part of the Shredder’s latest dastardly scheme. With all the action and attitude that comes with the territory, these Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles aren’t playing games, and they won’t stop until ol’ Shred-head gets what’s coming to him.
1
Mortal Kombat II
There’s controversial, and then there’s instigating Senatorial hearings about the levels of violence on display. Mortal Kombat shook the industry, led to the birth of the ESRB rating system, and ate millions of quarters across thousands of arcades, beaches and supermarkets. The port of Mortal Kombat II on Super Nintendo uses the expanded button layout to great effect, effectively bringing the attack combo-focused combat to the small screen while retaining its difficulty, soundtrack, and most of the violence of the arcade original. Everyone wanted to play Mortal Kombat, and the kid on the block with the console port would soon be swarmed by every one of his peers, desperate to see what the controversy was about. Mortal Kombat II was more than a good video game, it was a cultural zeitgeist with everyone’s attention, and it knew it.
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