The SNES is a console that’s been well picked over at this point, even by us. But it seems like no matter where you dig, or how long you’ve been digging for, you’re always gonna unearth some new gems — and this time you guys did some digging for us.
Rudra no Hihou – @MrBigall
Coming out of the gates strong here, as we bet we’re not the only ones who looked perplexed, or scared about how to pronounce it, upon seeing the name Rudra no Hihou. Suggested to us by @MrBigall with the comment “Rudra no Hihou, a very good j-rpg very unknown”, we simply had to find out more.
Roughly translated into “Treasure of the Rudras”, which is just what I’m calling it from now on so the Duolingo bird doesn’t peck my eyes out, Treasure is a Japan-only SNES RPG released in 1996, a year after the release of the PS1. If that’s not mind-boggling enough for you, Treasure of the Rudras was the last game that Square developed for the SNES, known in Japan as the Super Famicom.
Far from being another copy and paste RPG, Treasure of the Rudras is a wholly unique beast, with its Indian religious influences being the most obvious example. Pulling from the wheel of time concept, Treasure of the Rudras depicts a world that’s destroyed every 4000 years, with the game picking up just 15 days before the supposed end of humanity.
Players can select from three different scenarios, playing through them as they wish and making choices that affect the other scenarios. Leave a relic somewhere on Day 5, and you can pick it up as someone else after that day. What’s most interesting though is the game’s custom magic system, which allows you to write down different katakanas or English phrases inside an in-game grimoire. Doing so will unlock different portions of a mantra that can be put together to create devastating spells.
It’s all pretty neat, experimental stuff. If you feel like playing the game yourself, there’s some English fan translations knocking about, though shockingly this rare SNES RPG isn’t the priciest one ever made. It’s no secret how expensive those things are generally.
Secret Of Evermore – @robertcrawford2215
Clearly, @robertcrawford2215 hasn’t heard of a secret before, because the guy’s out here in our comments blowing up the Secret Of Evermore. “How about Secret of Evermore? That game deserves more love!”, he says, without a care in the world about the core concepts of secret-keeping.
Cat’s out of the bag now though, so let’s talk about one of the more underrated action RPGs on the SNES.
Developed by the North American team at Square, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Secret Of Evermore bears more than just a passing resemblance to the legendary Secret of Mana. From the real-time battles to the ring-like menu and HUD system, Evermore was designed to follow the success of Secret of Mana, just a more Americanized version of it. According to lead programmer Brian Fehdrau, that was even a mandate coming from Square Japan at the time. Quite why they’d copy their own product so brazenly is weird, but logic goes out of the window when you’re on 90s gaming executive levels of cocaine, I guess.
While Secret Of Evermore is set in the titular world, the game actually opens with the player character, a young boy from Podunk, USA, being teleported to this magical world thanks to the ever reliable reason of “laboratory malfunction shenanigans”. Accompanied by his loyal dog-turned-transforming-wolfhound, the boy explores the four different kingdoms of Evermore, each with their own take on specific time periods in human history, while discovering more about the purpose of the hidden laboratory and an ill-fated experiment in Podunk some 30 years prior.
Now that Square Enix has re-released Secret of Mana on all platforms, maybe it’s time for an Evermore re-release, but the idea might be a bit alien to them.
Alien 3 – @lekanraposte6732
Calling a tie-in game to one of the most successful and iconic film franchises out there a “hidden gem” does feel a bit silly. But it’s also true that film tie-ins still deal with the stigma of being, all together now, a bit shit, and then you have the fact that it’s tied to one of the most polarising movies ever.
@lekanraposte6732 would like the world to know that the Alien 3 game at least deserves re-evaluating: “The graphics are nice, the sound is amazing and the gameplay is solid. Plus, the atmosphere is creepy.”
Released in 1993, a year after the film’s theatrical release, the SNES version of Alien 3 is actually one of four different versions of Alien 3 that were developed for various platforms. While the Game Boy version is top-down and focuses more on exploration, puzzle solving and survival, the other three versions are side-scrolling action platformers that see Ripley opening Pulse Rifle fire on hordes of Xenomorphs. However, it’s the SNES version that’s arguably the most advanced and compelling option.
Instead of just running through levels, blasting aliens and rescuing prisoners, each stage tasks Ripley with completing other objectives, like fixing the pipes, repairing parts of the ship, shoo away executives from 20th Century Fox, and more. It looks great and sounds pretty decent, and overall holds up far better than the weird clipart special effects in the movie itself.
While later Alien games would shift the needle more, big up to Aliens vs Predator, Alien 3 still deserves to be celebrated as an excellent shooter/platformer on the SNES, or on whatever certain device you choose to run it on.
Run Saber – @stratuvarious6547
The SNES is definitely home to a lot of run and gun shooters, so it’s always nice to hear about one you may never have heard of. Thankfully, longtime viewer @stratuvarious6547 gave us a brilliant suggestion: “I feel like Run Saber is an underrated gem I loved back in the 90s.”
A shooter published by ATLUS, a few years before they’d find incredible success with Persona, Run Saber naturally has an overcomplicated and ludicrous plot that’s barely covered in-game when there’s an explosion happening every nanosecond.
Basically, the Earth has reached a point of no return with pollution, until a scientist emerges with a wonder chemical that can soak up all the pollution. Sike, the chemical actually turns humans into angry mutants and the scientist now has an army to rule what’s left of Earth. That’s kinda slick, not gonna lie, Humanity lays its hope on three cyborgs, but because there’s not enough premise yet, one of the cyborgs has gone rogue, with you controlling one of the two who remain.
Again, the plot is packed tighter than my skinny jeans with each passing year of my 30s, but all you need to know is that you’re blasting monsters across five different stages on this ruined Earth. The gameplay is heavily reminiscent of the likes of Strider, while the monster and environmental design calls to mind franchises like Alien. Perhaps the name H.R. Gunstar Heroes was rejected during development, who’s to say? As for the monster design, there’s a variety and imagination on show here that makes Run Saber one of the most visually distinct games on the entire platform, and you can ardy say it isn’t at least worth a look.
Ardy Lightfoot – @Royal-Guardian
Trying to create a mascot platformer for the SNES must have been a nightmare, living in the shadow of Super Mario and all. Even on the Genesis, Mega Drive if you love your chippy chips, contenders still had to duke it out with Sonic. Still, @Royal-Guardian is burning a candle for one platformer in particular:
“Here’s one, Ardy Lightfoot, nice little platformer 👍”
Thumbs up emoji. Cheers, dad!
The mileage may vary on the “nice” descriptor though, as Ardy Lightfoot earned a bit of a reputation not long after its release as being one of the more challenging platformers on the SNES. Hardy lightfoot more like it etc etc
The game follows the standard cutesy platformer plot, as the titular fox sets out across the world to find seven pieces of a macguffin before the evil King Visconti can gather them all first. Along the way, he’s aided by a couple of friends, including a blue penguin creature called Pec, who Ardy can fling at his enemies with reckless abandon as his main form of attack.
If you’re hit, Pec “disappears” (dies) and needs to be reclaimed from a chest, and if you get hit without Pec, you die. Essentially, Pec is being used as a “blu-man” shield for Ardy, which is hilariously dark and yet somehow not even the darkest thing in the Super Famicom version of Ardy Lightfoot. All I’m gonna say is “worm stomach acid” and “bones” and “wow that cat did not deserve that” and leave it at that.
Magic Sword: Heroic Fantasy – @domymbd
Capcom were prolific when it came to porting their coin-op arcade games to the SNES, and while most of them weren’t “arcade perfect” ports, they still formed wonderful core memories for many SNES owners. That would include @domymbd, with his suggestion: “Magic Sword (1992) would be my favorite forgotten SNES game”
A fantasy platformer/beat ‘em up originally released to arcades coming off the back of Black Tiger, which many consider to be a spiritual precursor of sorts, Magic Sword: Heroic Fantasy saw players control a brave hero inexplicably called Alan. We shouldn’t laugh at people’s names, but Alan sounds like he’s gonna fix your boiler rather than save the world, or get lost in a lake, or is it an ocean?
Anyway, a great evil known as Lord Drokmor has obtained the Black Orb and has shacked up at Dragon’s Tower, a 50-floor labyrinth filled with monsters, minions and malcontents, and the evil-doer has grand designs on plunging the world into total darkness. Time to go climb that tower and knock Drokmor down a peg or twenty.
As Alan, you’ll traverse the 50 floors of hell, encountering bad guys and a host of allies that can even level up and unlock new skills. While Magic Sword’s legacy and reputation is somewhat diminished compared to Final Fight or Capcom’s officially licensed Dungeons & Dragons beat ‘em ups, Magic Sword is no less deserving of your attention. Just make sure you also pay attention to the dialogue options in the final boss. The streets won’t forget.
Troddlers – @spacesergeant101
You might not think it, but sometimes us humble curators of retro content are asked to perform acts to the benefit of the public’s health and safety. You might be confused to learn this, and we were too, so let’s let @spacesergeant101 explain themselves: “What, no Troddlers? I’VE BEEN DIDDLED AGAIN!”
In the interest of stopping some kind of public incident, let’s talk about Troddlers. A Lemmings-inspired puzzle game that was originally released for the Amiga, before being remade for the SNES, Troddlers sees players trying to corral the titular Troddlers to the teleporter exit, dodging traps, hazards and zombie Troddlers along the way. The word Troddlers already sounds like nonsense, doesn’t it? Like “histombala” or “non-fungible”.
While the Lemmings influence is immediately obvious, Troddlers differs from Lemmings in a few key ways. Firstly, you actually control your own character, instead of playing as an omnipotent source guiding the creatures. Secondly, how you guide the creatures is massively different, as instead of bestowing jobs like in Lemmings, you plant and erase blocks to form a path for the Troddlers. Certain blocks have special effects, thereby creating the challenge. Oh, and there’s zombie Troddlers that can kill you and friendly Troddlers.
There’s a lot of Troddling going on here, but thanks to Troddlers’ Amiga background, it’s also one of several games to support the SNES Mouse. That’s pretty metal.
Metal Warriors – Several
Look, we get it. We hear you loud and clear. After including Cybernator in our Sadly Forgotten SNES Games video, we were inundated with literally a handful of comments about how Metal Warriors is better, or at least deserves a mention. Well, who are we to argue with that? This is democracy manifest, people!
Created mostly by the LucasArts team responsible for Zombies Ate My Neighbors, an absolute whipper for all time, Metal Warriors follows Stone, a lieutenant of the titular rebel group fighting against the evil Dark Axis empire.
A side scrolling run and gun shooter,, Metal Warriors and Cybernator share a lot of similarities, as you control a giant mech suit going ham in the enemy’s bases, blowing up everything that moves. Where Metal Warriors differs greatly from Cybernator is in both the choice of mechs, as you get to choose from six mechs each with their own weapons and abilities, and a backpack can be fitted with additional weapons found in the game’s nine levels, including rocket launchers and gravity inverters.
And if that’s not enough variety for you, you can even ditch the mech entirely and run around on foot. Granted, you’ll get turned into wallpaper paste instantly if one of the mech weapons fires in your general direction, but humans can get to places mechs can’t, providing excellent scouting opportunities. It’s like 2D Titanfall, and the slimmest of chances I get to mention Titanfall, I am going to mention Titanfall.
As run and gun shooters go, Metal Warriors ranks among the most ambitious on the SNES, and yet it manages to live up to those lofty goals even today. It’s pretty super.
Super Valis 4 – @TheRealNameless1
Look, sometimes you’re all eager to give us some suggestions, offering two or more at once, like the commenter with the name @The RealNameless1 hmmm something doesn’t add u: “Two games I would recommend to take a look at are Super Valis 4 and Ys 3: Wanderers of Ys. Both have fast paced action, good music and nice visuals with a heavy dose of difficulty.”
While we’d love to talk about both, considering Ys is still going pretty strong, let’s waffle on about Super Valis 4 instead, an intriguing entry in an equally intriguing series. Valis itself is a series of anime inspired action platformers released for the PC-88 and TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine in the 80s and early 90s. While you might not have heard of them, Valis was decently beloved at the time, so much so that attempts were made to bring Valis to the SNES and SEGA Genesis, with Super Valis 4 and Syd of Valis respectively.
What’s more interesting though is the SNES version of Valis 4 is pretty different from the original game. A few of the game’s levels have been removed completely, while a brand new level, Castle Vanity, was created just for the SNES. Some of the playable characters were also removed, though the overall story remains basically the same. There’s space goddesses, dark princes and all sorts of stuff that’d make Games Workshop bolt upright.
If you feel like experiencing Valis for yourself though, there’s been several compilations released on Nintendo Switch and PC that include all the regular Valis games, along with Super Valis 4. If you’re in the mood for some obscure platforming action, give them a shot, matey.
Uncharted Waters: New Horizons – @jazy921
Ask most small kids what they’d love to be when they grow up, they’d probably say “pirate”. All of us 30+ year olds managed that pretty quickly when downloading “linkin_park_numb_NOT_A_VIRUS.exe” from Limewire. Every 1 hour I waited for 1 song to download was more than I could take.
Presumably not lost in the undertow, @jazy921 offered a SNES game that provides a safer alternative for your PC, and also a game that we previously shouted out in our SNES games ahead of their time video: “Uncharted Waters and its sequel New Horizons played differently than most of the games that came out on the SNES”
While both games do a great job at depicting life on the high seas, the amount of improvements offered in the sequel make it worth recommending. At their core, both Uncharted Waters games set players off as a legend-to-be during the Age of Discovery, sailing the oceans in search of new land, new treasure or just someone else’s ship to rob. New Horizons offered six different protagonists, each with their own job role that defined what they’d taken to the seas for. Whether it’s a pirate, a merchant, a privateer or an explorer, your style of sailing is well represented here.
Through your actions and the actions of the characters around you, different political power plays and changes can occur, making for a lively RPG experience. There’s a lot to sink your teeth into with Uncharted Waters: New Horizons, almost overwhelmingly so in fact, but the sheer existence of these staggeringly large RPGs on the SNES just goes to show how versatile and wonderful Nintendo’s console truly was. Plus, Uncharted Waters: New Horizons is still ten million times better than Skull & Bones. Womp womp.
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