Highlights
- The SNES had hidden gems like BS Zelda no Densetsu and Marvelous: Mohitotsu No Takarajima that were overlooked by many players.
- Pilotwings and Stunt Race FX were forgotten Nintendo titles on the SNES that showcased the console's capabilities but lacked long-lasting replay value.
- Wario's Woods and Yoshi's Safari were unique and obscure SNES games that offered puzzling gameplay.
The NES was a hit and it brought back console games for all to enjoy. It paved the way to make its successor, the SNES, even better. It was released in 1991 in North America and Super Mario World was there to accompany it. It is well-regarded as one of the best games on the system let alone one of the best 2D Mario games of all time.
The 10 SNES Hidden Gems Everyone Missed
The Super Nintendo (SNES) had more classic titles than you think. These may not be Mario, but hidden gems like Zombies Ate My Neighbors are great.
Some other internally developed Nintendo games for the SNES include The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Kirby Super Star, and many more. Instead of highlighting the best, let’s go through the obscure. What Nintendo games are forgotten on one of its best systems and why?
1 BS Zelda No Densetsu
A Hidden Remake
The Legend of Zelda
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Entertainment System , Nintendo Game Boy Advance , 3DS , Wii , Nintendo Wii U
- Released
- February 21, 1986
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo EAD
- Genre(s)
- Action-Adventure
BS Zelda no Densetsu is a remake of the first Zelda game in the series. It was only released in Japan as a downloadable game and part of the Satellaview collection. The Satellaview was an SNES accessory that looked like a cartridge and was plugged into the SNES. That’s how players could download new games.
A lot of these games, like BS Zelda no Densetsu, were broadcast live with bands and voiceovers. That makes a majority of the Satellaview games hard to re-release, even as ROMs on the internet. Even with that knowledge, it is strange that such a high-quality 16-bit remake of The Legend of Zelda remains so obscure.
2 Marvelous: Mohitotsu No Takarajima
A More Puzzle-Focused Zelda Game
Marvelous: Mohitotsu no Takarajima is another game that might interest Zelda fans because it was directed by Eiji Aonuma. This was his directorial debut even though he had worked in smaller positions before this. Nowadays, Zelda fans should know Aonuma as the Zelda producer for the series and helped The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom come to fruition.
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Even though the game graphically looks like a cousin to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, the gameplay of Marvelous: Mohitotsu no Takarajima is quite different. It’s an adventure puzzle game wherein three kids have to work together to solve riddles with virtually no combat. There is an English translation for this 1996 game, but it has never officially left Japan despite its high profile in the company.
3 Pilotwings
Mini-Games In The Sky
Pilotwings is the type of game, in retrospect, that should have probably been a pack-in game with the SNES at launch. It feels like a series of tech demos to showcase the capabilities of the new console and not a fully-fledged game. There were a variety of mini-games inside from flying planes to jumping out of them to landing on targets with a parachute.
Despite the unexciting nature of this first release, Nintendo tried to make two more sequels. There was Pilotwings 64 on the N64 along with Pilotwings Resort on the 3DS. All three of these games are also forgotten Nintendo titles on their respective consoles. They aren’t bad, but their replay value is fleeting, to put it mildly.
4 Stunt Race FX
Before Disney's Cars
Stunt Race FX might be blowing up online right now because of a certain re-release. There is an easter egg in Super Mario RPG that has a figure of a car from Stunt Race FX. Like Super Mario RPG, Stunt Race FX was trying to push the boundaries of what the SNES was capable of.
Cars were rendered as polygons and when they crashed into things, these polygons would fly off as if someone broke a LEGO set. It was a racing game that was seemingly more interested in its graphics than its gameplay but it was not terrible by any stretch. It’s just that most fans of the SNES liked and remember racing games like F-Zero or Super Mario Kart more.
5 Wario's Woods
Tetris With Bombs
Wario's Woods is not exactly the Wario game most are used to. Instead of a platformer, this game is a puzzler much like Tetris. Toad is the primary character, making it one of the very few Mario spinoffs out there that highlight him, or his kind in general. The plot is not really important but basically, Wario wants to blow stuff up and Toad is there to stop him.
8 SNES Games That Got Remakes (& What They Were Released For)
The SNES had some amazing titles in its library. These games all got remakes on completely different consoles.
In matches, players could use these bombs to blow up creatures sent down the screen, much like Tetris. There were head-to-head matches with boss characters throughout the campaign, and players could even unlock them to play as. Wario’s Woods may be an obscure game on SNES, but it’s probably more lost on NES as there was a version on that system too.
6 Yoshi’s Safari
Mario Gets A Bazooka
Yoshi’s Safari is a light gun game that had Mario ride on top of Yoshi through a guided adventure. Most consoles had a gun-like accessory and a majority of them looked like toy pistols. The NES, for example, had the Zapper. The SNES gun accessory, on the other hand, looked like a bazooka and it was called the Super Scope.
Not many games supported it from either first-party or third-party companies, making a majority of them all obscure beyond Yoshi’s Safari. For example, Intelligent Systems, the team at Nintendo responsible for Fire Emblem, made a Super Scope game called Metal Combat: Falcon’s Revenge. They are graphically impressive games for the system but are hard to emulate due to the needed accessory, and this remains lost to time.
