The 100 Best SNES Games Ever

      On September 30, 2006, I unveiled my pet project to the world: A list of the 100 best NES games ever. The list wasn't perfect - lists never are - but the reception was generally warm. At the very least, it was warm enough to warrant a sequel. So now here we are, fourteen months later. It has now been three full years since the launch of SydLexia.com, and I figured there's no better way to celebrate than with a list of 100 best SNES games ever. Real fucking creative, I know. I had wanted to do a list of the best Game Boy titles ever, but the preliminary meetings didn't go well. There was this whole huge argument about whether or not the list should be just original Game Boy games or if Game Boy Color games counted as well. Then one guy kept saying we should include Game Boy Advance games because he was born in 1991 and he had no idea what this "Super Mario Land" thing that everyone kept bringing up was. Then someone pointed out to him that he could have looked it up on Wikipedia instead of whining that he didn't know what it was. Punches were thrown, blood was spilled, and everyone accused at least one other person of being gay. So then I did what any self-respecting American would do in my situation: I gave up on my dream and decided to attempt something significantly easier. Thus, the SNES list was born.

      I couldn't undertake a project of this magnitude on my own, so a team of expert voters was assembled to help create the master list. Some of those people worked on the original list, some of them were newcomers. After everyone's picks were ranked and filed, everything was ready to go. Well, almost. Not everyone who was involved in the voting process was available to comment on the final version of the list, while others weren't invited to comment due to their inability to successfully find the Shift button on their keyboards. So instead, I assembled an elite team of people who I personally think are awesome to comment on the list. They are:

greeneyedzeke of 2D-sprites. His comments appear in green.
Valdronius of SydLexia.com. His comments appear in cyan.
Murdar Machene of BiteMeDumpy.com. His comments appear in dark green.
Douche McCallister of [???]. His comments appear in yellow.
DarkMaze of Dark Maze Studios and Press Start. His comments appear in red.
Knyte of Knyte's Video Game Museum. His comments appear in blue.

My comments appear in white.

      The rules for voting were the same as they were with the NES list. Each player picked 100 games and ranked them from 1-100, with 1 being their top pick and 100 being their lowest. In order to be eligible for inclusion a game had to be available in North America and have received a commercial release. Therefore games such as Final Fantasy V, which was only released in Japan, and Steven Seagal Is The Final Option, which was never officially released, were not valid picks. Players were also required to vote on a game based on its merits as a Super NES game. So classic games such as Mortal Kombat and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time which debuted in the arcade and had to be altered for the SNES hardware will not necessarily appear on this list.

      This list also has some known limitations. None of us have played every single game released for the SNES in North America, but I have come fairly close in recent years. Since we all voted for games they actually played, the list is somewhat biased in favor of the types of games that each of us personally favored. Here are some of the known biases:

We favor platformers.
We heavily favor RPGs, and I DON'T mean rocket-propelled grenades.
Actually, I think we can all agree that rocket-propelled grenades are pretty fucking sweet.
If you or any of your family members are currently fighting in Iraq, I apologize for the previous statement. It was insensitive.
We don't have a lot of love for sports games. Sorry Madden '93.
We don't seem to like puzzle games either.
Valdronius tried to vote for a bunch of fan-made hentai games. He's kind of a dick.

      I said this when I did the NES list, and I'll say it again now: it is nigh impossible to come up with a Top 100 list that satisfies everyone's sensibilities. I have no illusions that this list is anywhere near perfect. There are some omissions that disappoint me and some inclusions that disgust me. So if you think you can do better, go for it. Otherwise, shut the fuck up and enjoy this article for what it is: a look at 100 SNES games that are worth playing.

- Syd Lexia

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