10 Of The Most Influential SNES Games

When the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) launched, it marked a huge evolution in home console gaming. It is known for launching a number of flagship series and titles, not only for Nintendo as a first party, but for gaming as a whole.

From the first shipped unit until it was sunsetted for the N64, the SNES allowed for some of the most ambitious and influential gaming franchises of all time to grow and flourish. It also pushed the limits of what its hardware was capable of, creating new genres and redefining old ones. There are countless SNES games that have helped shape the modern gaming environment. These are just a few of the titles that helped define a number of modern gaming experiences whose influence we still see today.

10 Shadowrun

Hacking the Net Before There Was a Net

In the 80s and 90s, the dystopian sci-fi genre became all the rage thanks to films like Bladerunner and Robocop. Shadowrun was a table-top RPG game that mixed the grit and futuristic technology of these sci-fi worlds with the creatures and magic of Dungeons & Dragons, a unique idea that just begged to be made into a game.

Shadowrun featured a revolutionary dialog system that allowed players to learn key words that would unlock new dialog options when talking with NPCs. It’s one of the first examples of branching dialog paths in an RPG game, and it made Shadowrun an experience that was well ahead of its time. It’s one of the reasons we have amazing action RPG titles like Cyberpunk 2077 on modern consoles.

9 Mortal Kombat

Rated M for Mature

The exaggerated gore of the iconic fighting series Mortal Kombat, with some of its truly horrific fatalities, seems almost commonplace these days. When the series made the transition from arcades to consoles, however, it caused a ton of controversy. Video game violence existed before Mortal Kombat, but it was nothing compared to Sub-Zero ripping an opponent's head off with the spine still attached.

The original game is one of the key titles that directly led to the formation of the ESRB and ESA, and the voluntary implementation of age ratings for video games. In particular, the SNES version was heavily censored. It wasn’t the first game to get such treatment, but the amount of censorship this time in particular was noteworthy and marked a sea change in how games are marketed and who they are marketed to.

8 NBA Jam

Whoaaaaaa! Kaboom!

Speaking of arcade ports that came to the SNES, NBA Jam was a near arcade-perfect port of the famous basketball game. Sure, the graphics had been taken down a notch to make things run smoothly, but the wild, frantic action of the two-on-two baller classic was amazingly intact. As was its ludicrous hidden content, like big head mode and the ability to play as the Beastie Boys.

It helped launch Midway’s suite of successful arcade-style sports franchises, like NFL Blitz. It brought in an audience of players who may not have been fans of NBA teams or the real sport, but simply loved a good gaming experience. Not only did it show that sports titles didn’t have to be straightforward sims, but it was one of the first titles to feature fully licensed players, which have become a mainstay of modern titles like NBA 2K and Madden.

7 Earthbound

A Truly Unique RPG Experience

There are so many things you can say about Earthbound and how it has influenced modern storytelling in RPG titles, especially indie ones. I still feel like there’s just nothing quite like it to this day. It was just a lightning in a bottle moment of unique elements that made one of the most influential and lauded moments in RPG history.

For one thing, Earthbound feels more like an anti-RPG, skirting traditional elements by not putting a ton of focus into combat and having a wealth of humorous dialog. Later on in the game, though, it also showed that it could add moments of gravitas into its story. The tale of Ness's adventure to defeat the nefarious alien Giygas would go on to influence the indie RPG scene particularly heavily. You don’t get games like Deltarune without Earthbound paving the way first.

6 Chrono Trigger

Time is on Your Side

You know how just about every modern RPG has a new game+ option these days? You can thank Chrono Trigger for that. Not only is it one of the most amazing SNES titles to ever see the light of day, it also marked the first time players could take all the items, weapons and character levels they’d amassed in their first run and give it another go around from the game’s start.

On top of that, Chrono Trigger was one of the first games to feature multiple endings. Depending on your decisions, you could end up destroying everything or saving the world to varying degrees. It’s yet another feature that’s become commonplace across just about every game genre out there these days, but was still quite a revolution at the time.

5 Final Fantasy 4

A JRPG Breakthrough

While Final Fantasy may be a household name these days, during the SNES era it was still making the case that JRPGs are awesome to an audience outside of Japan. You see, the actual second and third installments of Final Fantasy did not release in North America. So, when four rolled around, it was called Final Fantasy 2, and it was exactly what the franchise needed to sink its claws into Western gamers.

The story is an amazing journey full of unique characters like the stoic Kain the Dragoon, who must unite to prevent the sinister plot of the mage Golbez. It also introduced the iconic Active Time Battle (ATB) system that would become a mainstay of the series up until the release of Final Fantasy 11. In many ways, this landmark release was the success blueprint not only for the series, but for a number of JRPGs that would follow in its footsteps. A lot of other classic SNES JRPGs are more than worthy of a modern port, too.

4 Star Fox

True 3D Graphics

Beyond giving us the iconic “Do a barrel roll” line and the introduction of legends such as Fox McCloud and archenemy Andross, Star Fox also ushered in the 3D and polygonal era of gaming. Star Fox was one of the first SNES games to feature Nintendo’s Super FX Chip, which made it possible to render true 3D graphics on a 16-bit console. It was a literal visual revolution.

Star Fox helped kick off a new era of gaming and rolled back the curtain to give us a peek at what the N64 and PS1 era of consoles was going to offer. Nowadays, Star Fox’s polygonal 3D textures may seem basic or even primitive compared to modern games, but we never would’ve gotten where we are now without such bold 3D innovators in the 90s paving the way.

3 F-Zero

Fast and Furious

Although F-Zero wasn’t the first futuristic racing game ever, it was the most innovative at the time. Racing through courses like Mute City offered up an intense sense of speed that just wasn’t achievable with pre-SNES hardware. F-Zero offered players the unique challenge of having to blast through futuristic racing tournaments as fast as possible, while mitigating damage and taking on very advanced AI competitors. It demanded both speed and precision.

It was also one of the first and finest examples of the SNES’ Mode 7 graphic capabilities, which would come to be a staple of the system's game catalog. Many modern futuristic racers like Redout and Wipeout took their cue from F-Zero’s incredibly fast-paced and competitive racing style.

2 Super Mario Kart

A True Rainbow Road Trip

While kart racing may have existed before Super Mario Kart, everything changed once Nintendo’s iconic plumber got behind the wheel. To put it plainly, nothing like this existed before Super Mario Kart came out. Combining arcade-style racing mechanics with Mario-inspired power-ups and classic characters continues to be the gift that keeps on giving, decades after its introduction to the world. There's still nothing quite as satisfying as hitting your friends with a red shell and watching them spin out as you pass them while cruising down Rainbow Road.

Super Mario Kart is the ship that launched a thousand imitators. Even Sonic the Hedgehog has its own kart racer series these days. Beyond that, its offspring, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, has gone on to be not only the best-selling Nintendo game of all time, but also the best-selling racing game ever, cementing the SNES original as one of the most influential games of all time.

1 Super Metroid

Defined an Entire Genre

When you talk about the Metroidvania genre (still booming to the present day), this title is the “Metroid” part of that. Exploring environments, discovering items and power-ups to help you unlock new areas, the need to backtrack, and an incredible atmosphere all helped make Super Metroid the genre-defining powerhouse that it is today.

Adventuring across the desolate planet Zebes while taking on the dreaded Mother Brain and her band of space pirates and hunting down the titular Metroid was pure perfection in every sense of the word. A gigantic leap from the original game in every area, it still holds up very well today. Super Metroid has gone on to inspire an almost endless number of iconic titles, such as Axiom Verge, Animal Well, and the Hollow Knight series.