Games that Pushed the Limits of SNES - Forum help plz

[Dave Auto]

How about the Japan-only SNES port of Art of Fighting 2? Game mechanics notwithstanding, it was the only Neo Geo-to-SNES port to duplicate the "screen zooming in-and-out" feature of the Neo Geo original.

[marurun]

Remember to point out which SNES games use additional chips. Because while those games may have appeared to push the limits of the SNES, they actually pushed beyond the limits of the SNES, thus the requirement of additional hardware in the carts.

Tengai Makyo Zero should be on the list. It was a Japanese only release that used a separate compression chip to really squeeze out some major graphics content. Compression probably helped a lot with the huge bosses.

http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/ ... engai2.htm

Further, Actraiser should be on the list for its musical contribution. It demonstrated how good the SNES sound chip could be in skilled hands (Yuzo Koshiro, baby!).

I find it hard to see why Contra 3 and Castlevania IV should be on the list. They are both really fun games, and I guess CV IV deserves a nod for music and some creative graphics kludges, but neither really did anything spectacular. Contra 3 particularly didn't do anything really neat other than being a blast to play. either really pushed any limits so much as simply introducing the SNES community to basic mode 7. Later games used those effects much more smoothly and subtly to great effect. Note, again, I love those 2 games, but they didn't push any technical limits, definitely not Contra 3.

Dracula X on SNES is a good game to highlight. It wasn't as fun or quality as the PC Engine SCD original but it had really excellent music and decent graphics and animation. Sure, the music was largely a port of the CD tunes, but some of them were actually surprisingly true to the CD originals, particularly the graveyard/swamp level. Gameplay and stage design were the only areas it really fell down.

[AwesomeMonstar]

if you have secret of mana, why not illusion of gaia, or sieken deskutu 3 (i don't know how to spell it and I'm not gonna try)?

[The Apprentice]

I'd say Super Metroid. I thought it had some great effects, like when the entire level starts tippingin the first few minutes, and ow Ridley swoops by when you go into the final room of the same scene.

It also deserves to be on their for its sheer size and complexity of a platformer.

[marurun]

Illusion of Gaia didn't push the system at all. The game was completely mediocre in every department. It didn't excel musically, graphically, in play control, or in fun factor. And in terms of story it sucked ass (that's what you get trying to pander bad philosophy to the lowest common denominator).

[glynnahab]

Illusion of Gaia didn't push the system at all. The game was completely mediocre in every department. It didn't excel musically, graphically, in play control, or in fun factor. And in terms of story it sucked ass (that's what you get trying to pander bad philosophy to the lowest common denominator).

I actually liked this game. (My opinion is blurred by nostalgia, though.) But I agree about the story sucking ass, and I wonder how much of the actual story was lost in the translation over to English. At times it simply didn't make sense. It definitely didn't push any limits - other than the limits of your imagination.

I agree with the Apprentice about Super Metroid. The game was huge, especially considering the fact that it's an early SNES game.

[marurun]

Hrm... I just thought of a perfect throw-away Racketboy article. A "Biggest Games" article, chronicling the biggest games (in megabits) for the early cartridge systems. Pushing the limits of affordable chip-based storage, if you will ;)

[The Apprentice]

A little off topic, but the biggest game of all time was The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall. (Sure its a PC game, but it's still pretty impressive that the game came out more than ten years ago.

From wikipedia: [Daggerfall] features a game world estimated as being 161,600 square kilometres (40,400,000 acres) with over 15,000 towns, cities, villages, and dungeons for the player's character to explore. According to Todd Howard, Elder Scrolls programmer, the game's sequel, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is 0.01% the size of Daggerfall.

[Zer]

Hrm... I just thought of a perfect throw-away Racketboy article. A "Biggest Games" article, chronicling the biggest games (in megabits) for the early cartridge systems. Pushing the limits of affordable chip-based storage, if you will

Might also be interesting to do a article on ambitious old games with huge budgets - like Shenmue.