 Last Thursday, Nintendo Direct announced that they would be adding 20 Super Nintendo games to their online store to be made available the next day. I was really flattered to get a ton of requests from people to do a video about this, whether it's a top 20 list or my thoughts on the service in general or whatever. But the thing is, I don't own a Nintendo Switch, and even if I did, I'm too busy with older stuff to make time for any other system. And out of the 20 games listed, I already own 17 of them on cartridge. This is nothing new for me personally. But that doesn't mean it's not new for some other folks out there, so I thought it might be helpful to just make a quick video about some of the less popular games that are available. Obviously, you don't need some guy on the internet to tell you that you gotta play Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island, Link to the Past, Super Metroid, Star Fox, F-Zero, Pilotwings, the two Kirby games, Mario Kart, on and on. These are obviously the cream of the crop and I don't need to say anything more about them. I do however feel the need to make sure I point out a few things about some of the other games listed just to help set people's expectations. One popular choice that a lot of people are starting to play for the first time is Breath of Fire, which is not surprising considering the Super Nintendo is well known for JRPGs, and this is the only one on there for now. Breath of Fire is a pretty good game, but it definitely shows its age in a few different ways. So let me lay out the flaws for you right now so you can decide if you want to play it or not. 1. It is a very grind heavy game with lots of random battles. Some people hate this, so just be aware that you're gonna be fighting a lot of battles throughout this one and you move around really slowly, there's no run button here. There are a couple things that help mitigate the tedium, like the auto battle function, which basically allows the game to lean on the A button for you, and items like a marble 3? That leads me to the second big flaw in Breath of Fire, the translation is pretty bad. You can put the dialogue and how the story is told, but especially with menu items. Marble 3 helpfully turns off random battles for a short period of time, but then there's stuff like Sea Stone? You can use it during battle? So what does it do? So yeah, those are the major flaws with Breath of Fire. If you can get past those things, the rest of the game is pretty good. It's a great looking game, as you can see, I love that battle screen, and the story is something slightly different compared to most other JRPGs at the time. There's a bunch of other party members you can recruit which is nice, and it's about a 25-30 hour playthrough, and a pretty satisfying game to complete. Overall Breath of Fire is a good representation of JRPGs at the time, for better or for worse. There's also Stunt Race FX. Now if you're like me, you take one glance at this game, you notice the limited frame rate and just say, nah, this game is super outdated, and yes to be fair, compared to a game like F-Zero as a pure racing game, it's just not very good. That's the thing, it's silly to compare Stunt Race FX to F-Zero because it's not a pure racing game. It's its own thing entirely. I mean the cars have eyes, that should tell you one thing. It's just a weird, goofy, playful combat racer where you bounce off of walls and other cars with each track kind of being like a little world unto itself. So yeah, like Breath of Fire, this game is flawed, there's no way around that crappy frame rate, but that doesn't mean Stunt Race FX isn't a good time. Super Ghouls and Ghosts is another polarizing game. It's a side scrolling 2D platformer with some awesome visuals and a soundtrack to match, there's lots of different weapons to choose from, and then you go charging in like you're playing Mario and that's when you die, and you die again, and again, and again. That's the thing about Super Ghouls and Ghosts, you've heard of pick up and play games, well this is closer to pick up and die, and you're gonna die a ton, but it's important to pick up on patterns to make sure that you don't die the same way the next time. It's easier to approach this game more as a puzzle platformer, taking your sweet time picking your way across each level, and remember to unlock the hidden chests. Every level starts with a hidden chest that unlocks with a double jump, and that helps you eventually pick up an armor upgrade, which by proxy is a weapon upgrade. That is a major facet of this game that helps it be a more manageable play through. So no, Super Ghouls and Ghosts isn't broken, like some people say, although the slow down does suck, but hey all I can say is that if I can beat this game and have fun doing it, then so can you, and so can anyone else. I should probably make special mention of Demons Crest as well. If you like stuff like Super Metroid where there's lots of exploration and backtracking, then you're definitely gonna want to check this one out. The visual presentation here is top notch, I mean the game starts with you fighting this giant hideous monster, how cool is that? This is one of those games that's been referred to as a hidden gem for so many years that it can't possibly fit that criteria anymore, I mean come on it was developed by Capcom, but still, if you like what you see here, you won't be disappointed in this one, it's a well made game. One choice I was pleasantly surprised by was Joe and Mac 2 Lost in the Tropics. On the surface it looks like just another side scrolling action platformer, but there's an overworld here that allows you to wander around freely, visit villages and, uh, buy flowers and get married? Sure, okay. This game is high on charm and personality, and it's two player co-op. It's a really polished game that has a lot going for it, with tons of extras that you wouldn't expect, and it's well worth a play through. Tell me a weirdo, but the game I'd be most excited about to play multiplayer online is Super Tennis. I love this game, it's a really well made tennis game that has very reliable and consistent physics, a tough thing to pull off in any tennis game, let alone back in the 16-bit days. John is always my go-to pick because he pounds the hell out of the ball and has a great baseline game, but there's tons of other players and styles you can pick from. So yeah, this may just be a mere tennis game, but it's a really well made one, so you'd be remiss if you skipped over it. Call Brothers is a really interesting choice. This is a perfectly okay beat-em-up that supports two players, but I'll let you know right now, if you're going to play this one, at the Jellico logo, press the B, A, X, and Y buttons repeatedly. This unlocks the Japanese version of the game, rushing beat Ron, and it changes up the characters a bit and streamlines some of the levels and makes it a much more pleasant play through. The last three games are kind of odd choices. Super Stalker is a perfectly good soccer game, although it's much different than the more popular soccer games, since it's one of those control schemes where you control your entire formation at once instead of just one player at a time. So your mileage may vary on that one, depending on how quickly you pick up on the controls. Super Puyo Puyo 2 is a single-screen puzzle game that never left Japan. It's pretty much just Dr. Robotnik's mean bean machine, but without all the Sonic stuff. And Super Earth Defense Force is a serviceable horizontal shoot-em-up, not nearly as good as stuff like Axlay or UN Squadron, but it's still an okay play through, not much nuance or anything else to tell you about those three games, just what you see is what you get. To end this one, I would like to take a stab on what I think will be included in the future, starting with Netsume's Paki and Rocky. Now, Netsume has done an amazing job reinventing their 16-bit catalog for new audiences, with both Wild Guns Reloaded and Ninja Warriors once again getting the widescreen treatment while keeping the 16-bit art style. Paki and Rocky is another one that's absolutely ripe for a remake, but it'd be nice to see one or both of those games on the online store first. And of course, there's also TerraNigma, who knows who the heck has the rights to this one at this point, but it's never been properly released in the US and it's beyond due for that. And hey, seeing Super Puyo Puyo 2 in the first wave of games is really encouraging because that could potentially set the stage for lots more Japan-only games, everything from fun action platformers like Magical Poppin' to multiplayer versus games like Sanrio World Smash Ball, to absolutely bizarre games like Gegega No Kitaro, Fukatsu Tenma Dio, where you attack enemies with the lice in your hair. Yes, that's right. I want more games where you attack stuff with lice. Make it happen, Nintendo. All right, hopefully some of you out there found this video useful. Thank you for watching and I hope you have a great rest of your day.