Back in October 2017, I managed to get my hands on one of Nintendo’s ‘Classic Mini’ consoles – you know, the miniature version of their Super Nintendo (SNES) console with a load of games pre-loaded onto it. I never had a SNES growing up as I was into Sega and then PlayStation. My experience with SNES games principally came from the remakes Nintendo released for the Gameboy Advance in the early noughties. I know the SNES Mini is essentially an emulation box and I could easily play all of these games on my PC, but darn it, it was just too hard to resist that cute little box of joy. Besides, reproduction SNES controllers aren’t cheap, and this thing came with two of them!
Twenty classic games is a decent chunk of entertainment, but it was only a matter of weeks before I had modded this thing to unofficially add a load more. More than I could ever realistically play, surely? And then lockdown happened and I’ve found myself with enough time to do just that. Here are my thoughts on some of the ones I’ve played and completed this year.
Mega Man X (1993)
My first Mega Man game and probably not the best one to start with. Getting used to not being able to shoot diagonally or duck was a toughie. So, this game is all about hard bosses, finding and exploiting weaknesses and using those weaknesses to determine in which order to fight the bosses. This is a really compelling structure that works well. What I’m less keen on is the repetition – the levels themselves aren’t actually that tough, so repeating them over and over to reach the hard boss at the end is a bit of a chore.
But then I get to the final boss(es) and it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever played. I’m not exaggerating, I genuinely cannot think of anything I’ve played that’s more difficult than the last boss of Mega Man X. Were it not for save states (thanks, SNES Mini!), I would probably never have finished it. I must have reloaded that final fight a hundred times before I finally got the technique down – literally over a hundred times, easily. Figuring out what weapon does damage, figuring out the timing of the ‘claws’, when the lightning blasts come, how to avoid the energy pulses, how to best wall jump into position. All the while my thumb is getting blistered and sore. And if I didn’t have save states, I’d be back at the start of the level doing the first two ‘mini’ bosses again and skipping through the dialogue, rather than instantly jumping back into the final fight. That’s more punishing/tedious than games need to be, particularly when they rely so much on learning from failure as this one does.
I’m sort of glad to have finally played it, I think. I’m just not sure I actually enjoyed it that much.
Super Metroid (1994)
Yeah, so this one is still a classic. I only played it for the first time when it was released on the Wii, though I found the Wii’s control pad a bit spongy. I decided to play in again on the ol’ Mini. Coming off AM2R, ‘Super’ feels old-fashioned in places. Very floaty movement, less colourful graphics, the weapon-switching, the dedicated ‘run’ button, and some of the save point placement. But all that aside, it is an incredible game and still ranks up there with the best of its genre. A masterpiece, frankly. As far as Metroid games go, I still slightly prefer Zero Mission – but each time I play Super it edges higher in my estimation.
Donkey Kong Country (1994)
I first played the port of DKC on the Gameboy Advance and I thought it was alright – it reminded me of Crash Bandicoot (as in, that series definitely took inspiration from DKC). Playing through the original on the SNES and, well, it’s fine I guess, it just hasn’t aged well. The pre-rendered look is technically clever, but rather dated in style. The general feel of movement is nice and solid and bouncy, but then it’s got enemies with really annoying movement patterns, or an entire stupid mine cart level, or stupid barrel cannon levels, and a save system that sends you back when you run out of lives like it’s still 1991. I reached the end of each level with relief, not a desire to replay them. The game seems intent on causing frustration and ‘catching you out’ rather than having a good time.
The final few levels are a bit of a slog. But the music is ace and some of the visual effects are astoundingly clever, particular the lighting in some levels. I can see why people were blown away by it in 1994.
Chrono Trigger (1995)
I’m a Final Fantasy fan, but I think Chrono Trigger‘s streamlined approach to JRPGs, its short length combined with re-playability, as well as other changes, make it a superior game to pretty much any of them. Stripping out random battles and four-dimensionally expanding the world map, limiting character skills but introducing dual/triple techs to experiment with, and just generally having a brisk pace and easy-going nature, makes for a modern feeling game. It’s only the writing that dates it (and the translation’s a bit dodgy) – even the graphics are timeless, coming in near the SNES’s end-of-life and pushing pixel art and 2D backgrounds to their limits. I’ve played a few ports over the years but this confirms that the original is my favourite – no loading times or replaced intro (PS1), no out-of-place extra missions or reworked script (DS), and no… whatever the hell the PC/smart port is.
I think it might actually be one of my favourite games. Somehow, I keep forgetting it exists and I always love it when I replay it. The story, atmosphere, music and pretty much everything about it are excellent, creative, and demonstrate that this project was certainly a labour of love from an era when Squaresoft actually gave a damn.
Earthbound (1995)
I’ve been playing this for a while (it’s quite long) but finally finished it. It wasn’t what I expected (a cutesy JRPG set in the real world) and it surprised me at every corner with its quirky sense of humour, sharp writing, subversions and tense atmosphere. I can’t even put into words quite how weird and wonderful this game is – particularly its sound design, use of stereo ambience, mixing music and effects in ever-changing genres. Sometimes it’s quite twee and catchy, and at other times sounds like a Japanese B-movie directed by David Lynch.
It’s certainly not a game for everyone and it can be difficult to get into it. For some reason, the game it reminds me of the most is Maniac Mansion, which isn’t even the same genre! I’m not sure why, I think it’s a combination of the art style, strange sense of humour, your inventory and real world objects/setting, the fact that you’re playing as kids in a world full of corrupted adults and monsters, and how people and things just seem to approach you or happen to you as you explore. Yeah, definite LucasArts small-town America / Spielbergian coming-of-age vibes from this, albiet via a Japanese lens. Hats off to the localisation team.
The game’s battles are largely text-based, taking their cues from old first-person dungeon-crawlers. It’s a pretty tough game, especially at the beginning when you’re battling alone, your attacks keep missing and your limited inventory keeps getting filled up with trinkets. The randomisation, especially with enemies that call in reinforcements, means you can go from an assumed easy win to an agonisingly drawn-out slog – just due to luck of the draw. It can be frustrating and I spent a lot of time going back and forth between hotels, shops, save points and using the delivery/pick-up service to juggle my inventory, and this drawn-out process threatened to get tedious.
But that aside, it’s an incredible game. It has weird and wonderful humour but, beyond that, the way it tells its story is so sincere and honest and heartfelt and pure. And now that I’ve finished it, I feel empty and sad that it’s over. I wouldn’t want to play it again, I just want to be left with the memory of it, to let it sink in while those haunting melodies trickle through my head. One of the absolute highlights of the SNES.
Star Fox 2 (1995 / 2017)
A previously unreleased game that was made exclusive to the Classic Mini. I can see why this game was canned, despite development being finished in 1995. Clever though the SuperFX graphics are, it would have looked ridiculous going up against the PlayStation, Saturn, etc., and with the cost of the cartridges and chips, it might very easily have lost money.
But more than that, there isn’t really much to the game. It feels less substantial than Star Fox 1, in terms of… urgh “content”. It’s an arcadey score-chaser, which is fine if that’s your thing. You can play through the whole campaign in about 45 minutes, then see if you can do it better / more efficiently next time and put your name on the scoreboard. That’s pretty much it. There are no branching routes; instead the entire thing is open, and comprised of little mini-skirmishes and slightly larger skirmishes, all moving around the map in realtime, adding a touch of strategy – but not much. It’s also really easy, at least on the Normal mode. But, again, that’s where the score-chasing comes into it, I suppose.
So the SuperFX chip was an updated one. Believe it or not, the framerate is an improvement over the original Star Fox! Yeah, it’s still headache-inducing but it doesn’t descend to a slideshow quite so often as the first one did.
Overall, it’s… fine. It’s experimental, different from the first game and quite an interesting thing. Each play through can be different and unpredictable. The technology is old and it chugs along, but it’s actually pleasant enough to play and still looks iconic, like the VR craze of the nineties, all flat polygons and abstract shapes. I may play it again in future, but I’ve blitzed through it once to see the credits and that’s all I care to do for now.
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island (1995)
Or, as it was known on the Gameboy Advance, Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3. It can’t just be its own thing, it has to be part of a series – which is weird, because it’s a unique and wonderful little platformer that doesn’t fit into the style of any of the mainline Mario platformers. And I say “little” but it’s actually pretty long for a platformer, and more so if you care to collect all of the flowers, coins and stars on each level. I had a good attempt at this in 2002 but I wasn’t prepared to do that again this time; just a single run-through of every level is enough.
There’s bags of imagination and whimsy throughout, with each level offering something new or interesting (touch fuzzy!). Fabulous art design, solid mechanics and incredibly impressive bosses. One boss in particular seems like a precursor to something out of Mario Galaxy. Ridiculously advanced use of 16-bit hardware, sprite scaling, rotation, 3D elements and even basic fluid simulation, all wrapped up in a chalk-drawing art style that hasn’t aged a day. It’s by no means a perfect game – many of the levels outstay their welcome and for all the joyous, charming fun, there’s horrible, frustrating, annoyance around every corner too. The flutter jump often hinders rather than helps and that little pause/freeze when you’re hit or when you uncover a hidden passage, makes the game feel unresponsive at urgent moments. Still, it’s twenty-five years old and certainly doesn’t look it!
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (1996)
I completed this in around 16 hours, which is reasonably short for an RPG. I wasn’t too sure about this one at first. The pre-rendered isometric graphics that were popular at the time (see also: Sonic 3D) look pretty dated nowadays, and some of the backgrounds are repetitive and plain. But as I played more, it grew on me, and turned out to be a charming little proto-AlphaDream RPG (members of the development team went on to form ‘Alpha Dream’, the studio behind the Mario & Luigi RPG series on the Gameboy Advance). Less refined, sure, but the pace of the game is swift, the scenarios are brief, it’s constantly changing and keeping things interesting with a mixture of locations, storylines and gameplay. Its brevity is welcome in a world of bloated epics, and although it may seem like it’s damning with faint praise to say I’m glad it was short, I did genuinely enjoy myself by the end of it. Peach for MVP, obvs.
Kirby Super Star (1996)
I’ve not played many of the Kirby games so I don’t really know how this one compares. Calling it “eight games in one” is a bit of a stretch, though. It’s more like five level packs and some mini-games, with re-used bosses. It took me four hours to play through all scenarios and see the credits, though I abandoned the ‘colosseum’ boss rush thingy that unlocks afterwards.
I quite enjoyed it. It’s got colourful, bouncy graphics, lovely animation and sound. The two-player drop-in mode is a nice addition. What I tend to find with Kirby games, however, is the frustration that comes with context-sensitive controls. Things like your ability to float being determined by whether you’ve just inhaled something, or your moves determined by what you’ve just swallowed, or your attack changing to a puff of air if you pressed jump twice instead of once, or moving between floating blocks of water and air, and so on. When it gets busy, the game becomes a bit chaotic, which is just as well that it’s otherwise quite easy or it’d be tremendously frustrating. I still had fun, but I’m in no rush to play any more Kirby now.
And that just about wraps up my SNES Mini collection. Thanks for reading! I’ll have more retro reviews and other things to follow.
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