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The Role of SNES In The History of Gaming

Posted on November 14, 2025 by Viljami

There was a time in history of gaming when SNES was the most powerful and the most newest gaming console in the markets. This period of time was followed by many years of dominance from Mega Drive, or Genesis as the system was called in the USA, that in turn was a following of dominance from Nintendo Entertainment System, or for short, NES. What had happened earlier, before Nintendos dominant era, would be known as video game crash. It was a time when video games weren’t selling so well. NES begun the new era when video games started to begin to be popular again.

What makes Super Nintendo, or SNES, so significant is reflected in these games that were released for it. They were beginning to look like something that could be considered a true form of art and not just some entertainment for kids. There were stories that were told through these games. There were some limitations about the amount space available and also some considerations about how to, for example, save a game with this technology. However the progression was fast and SNES had its time when it was actually considered the greatest gaming console of all that were available.

Now, you can debate on which one is better, Mega Drive or SNES but actually the way I see it is something like this. NES was the best during 1983 to 1988. Mega Drive dominated from 1988 to 1991. And SNES was the greatest console between 1991 and 1995. After that it would be the era of PlayStation 1 which would continue all the way to the era of the generation in which PS2 would belong to. Take this as just an idea and not something I could somehow actually prove to be true. This is a sort of a theory.

How were the games that were released for SNES? I would point out that there were games like Street Fighter II and Super Mario World. They were full of action and included graphics that were very impressive at their time. There were also some role-playing games that I think moved gaming very much forward at this time in the history of gaming and playing video games. These games brought us closer to the games that could be later found on PS1. I think that when PS1 came actually as popular as it would show to be we were actually starting to realize the full potential that video games actually had. RPGs on SNES were something like a bridge to more complex and modern gaming.

So, the whole scene of gaming was advancing very fast at this time. Everything I have told you here makes me think how little I have spend playing SNES. I have several RPGs to explore if I choose to go to that path. I am thinking that this system, SNES, has some great games. But the question in my mind seems to be “are they actually worth playing”? I ma thinking this because they are old games. I don’t have so many memories of playing SNES back in the 90s. I have more memories about Mega Drive.

I am still thinking about this. Some good games for SNES include titles like many of Final Fantasy titles, Secret of Mana, Dragon Quest VI and III, Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG. It also had many good games that weren’t actually RPGs. These titles include Super Mario World, Super Mario All-Stars, Donkey Kong Country, Star Fox and F-Zero just to mention some of them.

If you are a retro collector you must have heard how there was a device that would have actually been a Nintendo console that would have had a CD drive of some kind included with it. This was actually something that would have been a collaboration of Sony and Nintendo. We never saw this machine and Sony went on to release its own gaming console. PlayStation, later. This leaves my imagination with many possible outcomes of what we would have had as video gamers if it would have come to reality.

SNES is a huge part of history of video games. As I am more of a Mega Drive and PlayStation 1 fan I have lots of playing to do if I wish to get into SNES a bit more. There is a lot to explore. Some games might not be ones that I will spend tens of hours or even hundreds of hours playing since they are already a bit old as video games. I might play some newer video games instead. However it is great to acknowledge how these games shaped the way we experience gaming today.

Gremlins 2 (NES) – Some Notes About Gameplay

Posted on November 17, 2024 by Viljami

Gremlins 2 – The New Batch is a very neat Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES for short, game. In this game you control the main character, Gizmo. I am not going to go over the movies plot or setting. If you haven’t seen Gremlins 1 or 2 yet I think you should really watch them especially if you’re really into 1980s and 1990s entertainment.

As with any NES game the controller is a lot more simpler compared to a modern gaming console. You have directional buttons, select and start button and A button and B button. This is of course very logical and clear to anyone familiar with NES. I am mentioning these because I think that Gremlins 2 makes great use of the controller. The movement of the main character is very fluent in every way. As fluent as in a retro game like this can be.

The movement consists of directions (up, down, left, right), jumping and shooting. When you press the jump button Gizmo is up in the air for a short moment. You have to try to time your movement and jump so that you actually get over a gap in the game. This takes a while to learn but is very essential in the actual gameplay.

There are a total of 5 levels in this game. It can take several hours for the player to finish the game. The amount of continues isn’t limited in any way so you can continue to play as long as you wish. You get a password when you loose your life and you get to this menu where you can choose to continue to play or quit playing. At the end of the level 1-2 you get a better weapon that deals more damage and shoots a bit further. It is difficult to move to any other direction than directly to up or down or left or right but this is also possible in this game.

There are some clever strategies in Gremlins 2 that you can utilize to try to succeed better in playing the game. When you fall off the edge you get a chance to float around with a balloon. This way you can move freely over enemies or gaps until the balloon wears off and you fall to the ground. You have three hearths of health. When you get hit with an enemy you loose a half of a hearth. So, you can get hit six times after you loose your life and have to start from the beginning of the level. After getting hit you are “immortal” for a while and you should take advantage of this to progress more efficiently.

Sometimes enemies move in directions that are random. Try to figure where and how the enemy is moving and then shoot it to destroy it. Collect pearls that you get from defeated enemies. You get to go to a shop at times in the game and you can buy more lives, health or upgrades to weapons. Write down the password each time you die in a level.

Graphics and animation, also in the cut scenes, are very adorable for a game that was released in 1990. I am currently in level 2-2 out of the total 5 levels that the game ultimately has. There are many different enemies in the game that have you to think about different kinds of strategies. This is a very good NES game that I can recommend for every NES fan. I have the actual, real, physical copy of the game that I do play on my Retro Trio console. The game is a bit cheaper when it comes to its price. It can be bought from a game shop (here in Finland) for about 30 euros. You can probably get it cheaper if you buy from some private individual or from flea market of some sort as is usual with older, retro type of, video games like this.

Two New Additions to The Collection of NES Games

Posted on August 13, 2024 by Viljami

I just picked up two NES games from mail. They did cost a bit and they aren’t the cheapest games available currently. There can be a debate about how retro games cost today a lot but I decided to spend my 100 euros for these two.

What do we have here? Well, there is the sequel, Super Mario Bros 2. It is somewhat different as a platformer video game if we compare it to the game that was also released for Nintendo. The game I am talking about is of course Super Mario Bros.

I actually have completed the first Super Mario Bros. I have only played the second game on the collection, Super Mario All-Stars, that was a cool remake collection of the first three games. The collection was released for SNES. I haven’t completed fully Super Mario Bros 3. Mario games, especially these NES/SNES games are something so phenomenal. I have to show appreation.

The other game I got through mail today is Punch-Out. If you really want to know a thing about these games prices I can tell you that Punch-Out was about 55 euros and SMB 2 was 45 euros. Pucnh-Out might be a bit rarer than SMB 2.

Punch-Out is a nice boxing game. As you can figure there is the great boxing star, Mike Tyson, on the cover of the game. The matter that Tyson is in this game’s cover might have been also a bad thing since Tyson was sentenced to prison some time after the game was published. I am not going into details with this one.

I have been thinking about buying these both two games for a long time already. There is just something magical in my opinion in owning a real physical game and also playing it. I could download a rom and fire it up on my Recalbox but I still think the way that I do about this matter. And it is also as legit way to play these NES games as can be.

My NES collection seems to be still growing. It takes some time to browse NES games from different web shops that are dedicated to retro games. It also takes time to find games that I don’t already own. My philosophy in NES collecting seems to be to find a game that I want to play. I also collect NES games that I have played as a kid.