 Hi everyone, if you're watching this video then you've heard the announcement from Nintendo yesterday, Monday June 26th, that there will in fact be a SNES Classic Edition featuring 21 games. Not only that, but even the PAL region folks get their own design as well. That's pretty cool. The SNES Classic is slated to be released on September 29th of this year, and hey look, there's even a statement saying they're gonna produce more than the NES Classic, while I would freaking hope so after that fiasco. Anyway, I thought it'd be cool to take a quick look at each game they picked to be a part of this collection. The big news here is the release of Star Fox 2, a completed game that was never released because Nintendo thought it would take too much attention away from the upcoming N64. There's some more details of the backstory of this game and why it was never released in the description below. As you can see here, Star Fox 2 is pretty different from its predecessor. This is not exactly the same linear pick up and play style structure as the original Star Fox. This is closer to Star Fox Command for DS, which this game obviously inspired. There's an open-ended map system where you move ships around to different spots to intercept missiles, and you come up with a strategy to invade enemy territory, and it's all done in real time too. The Star Fox shoot-em-up action you're familiar with is still here, but it's in smaller doses, and there's a bigger emphasis on strategy and movement. Star Fox 2 was definitely an ambitious game for its time. If you want more info on it, I did a full video on that game alone that you can check out in the description below. Well, if Star Fox 2 is on here, then of course the original Star Fox has got to be on here as well. This is an interesting one to me because it really hasn't aged all that well. I still love this game, I love the soundtrack, the easy accessibility of the gameplay, but the framerate causes some serious problems. Plus, the overall visual design of Star Fox is just so, so 90s, so I'm really interested to see the reaction to this game from people that haven't seen it since it came out in 1993. Next, there's what I call the goes without saying category, meaning it goes without saying that Super Mario World, Super Mario Kart, Super Metroid, Super Punch-Out, Legend of Zelda, Link to the Past, and Kirby Super Star were all included. These are extremely popular titles, most of them developed by Nintendo, and there was no way they were going to make an SNES Classic Edition without these games on it. Super Mario World is a natural follow-up to Mario 3 for NES and is an incredible open-ended and creative platformer that holds up perfectly today. Super Mario Kart is one of the best versus multiplayer games ever made and has some serious potential to end friendships with just the flick of a red shell. Super Metroid is considered by some to be the best video game ever made because of its combination of an atmosphere and open-ended gameplay that allows the player the freedom to approach its daunting world in several different ways. Super Punch-Out is like Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, but on steroids, especially in Super Macho Man's case. Link to the Past is thought of as the best Zelda game ever made to this day by many, with tons of weapons and tools to help you solve challenging puzzles. And Kirby Super Star is a fantastic two-player co-op game, maybe the best co-op game in this entire collection here. These are all high quality titles and some of the best games on a console that has one of, if not the best game, library of any gaming system ever. So yeah, I don't really need to say much else here. Interestingly, they included F-Zero here as well, and while this is a great game and one of the best launch titles ever made, it's kind of odd that it was included because, well, it's a single-player racing game. I get why it's here. It was really popular back in the day and people still love it. But I mean, single-player racing games have a much shorter shelf life than a game that can include a second player. People will be happy to see the original Donkey Kong Country on here. This is another one that should probably go in the goes without saying category. It's a great game, but selfishly, I can't help but be a little bummed out that Donkey Kong Country 2 Diddy's Conquest isn't on here. In my opinion, it's a much better game with much more fun and intuitive level design. But yeah, of course, the first game is going to be on here, and to this day, people still rave about the soundtrack and complain about those damn barrels. It's also really interesting that they're putting Super Mario World 2 Yoshi's Island on here because, like Star Fox 2, it used the Super FX2 chip. If I remember correctly, that chip caused some problems with those two games being made available on the virtual console. So I'm wondering if they simply bought the rights to emulate the games that use this chip or what. Either way, Yoshi's Island features some of the best visuals the Super Nintendo had to offer, like this sequence here, for example. Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy. There is a group of five fantastic games from Capcom and Konami on here as well. Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Super Castlevania 4, Super Ghouls and Ghosts, Contra 3, and Mega Man X. Street Fighter is the only fighting game on here, but it's a damn good one. The sprite work and sound design here are as good as it gets in a 16-bit game. Super Castlevania 4 has a brilliantly crafted, absorbing atmosphere that gets more and more intense the further you progress in the game. Super Ghouls and Ghosts is another game predicated on atmosphere, although this one has got to be one of the three or four most challenging SNES games ever made. Contra 3 is one of the most fun co-op games the SNES has to offer because there's no nuance or learning curve here, you just turn it on and kill everything that moves. And, of course, Mega Man X is, in my opinion, one of the five best Super Nintendo games ever made. It's action-platforming at its very best, featuring tons of different weapons, cleverly laid-out level design, and a kick-ass soundtrack. The Super Nintendo is probably best known for its role-playing games, and here we've got Secret of Mana, Super Mario RPG Legend of the Seven Stars, Final Fantasy VI, and Earthbound. Secret of Mana, in particular, is an inspired choice because, again, sorry to sound like a broken record, but it's two-player co-op. This game might be outdated in certain aspects, but it's still fun to juggle all the different weapons and squash all sorts of different enemies. Mario RPG is one of the more accessible role-playing games out there. Even if you don't usually like these kinds of games, this is one you can get into. Final Fantasy VI, on the other hand, this is your hardcore RPG experience right here, with an absolutely massive and multi-tiered story, with tons of characters, and a detailed battle system that'll keep you busy for dozens of hours. And Earthbound is, well, it's Earthbound. This is one of those acquired tastes. In my full review, I compared it to stuff like Big Lebowski and Tom Waits. It's laugh-out-loud funny and a lot of fun, and it's definitely worth checking out to see if it's up your alley. Now, all of these choices so far are easy and obvious inclusions, but one selection that's a little out-of-left field is Kirby's Dream Course. This is a fun multiplayer game that sees Kirby play the role of a golf ball in a mini golf game. It's interesting to me to see this game get picked, and I can't help but think that maybe the popular Game Grumps series from not too long ago had something to do with it. Anyway, this is the most surprising choice here, but it's still a quality title for sure. Alright, so there we go. That's 21 games on the SNES Classic Edition. There's a couple things I have to point out. For one thing, there's no beat-em-up games here, and no shoot-em-ups either. Something like Final Fight 3 would have fit in perfectly here in my opinion, but oh well. It's also a little strange that there's only seven co-op or versus multiplayer games here. That's weird, since there was such an emphasis put on multiplayer for the NES Classic. Also, I can't help but think that a package like this would have been a perfect opportunity to introduce a game like Terranigma to the rest of the world, but I mean, hey, we got Star Fox 2. That's a pretty nice surprise, so I can live with that. Sure, I can bitch about certain games being picked over others, or certain games being left out like Chrono Trigger. I mean, at least that game is available on a bunch of other platforms, but ultimately, this is a great crop of games, and I got no complaints here overall. And here's hoping Nintendo decides to make more than a couple hundred of these things so we can actually get one and use it, you know? Alright, I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.