Board 8 > What is the most technically impressive SNES game? (Day 2)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Vote for any game on the SNES that you think is "technically impressive," that being defined as the most impressive or skillful use of the hardware rather than the greatest accomplishment as a game. Bold your vote.

I forgot I offered to host this topic series until just now. Thankfully, the NES topic was still up. Unfortunately, it had been just a casual topic instead of a proper voting topic, so I'm going to just list the common answers and make a poll topic out of them later to get a definitive answer. People asked me to do the topic series, so we're going to do this for all of the "common" systems that are NES or later. Don't expect any weird systems no one knows about like the Wonderswan or whatever.

Common Answers for NES: Gimmick!, Kirby's Adventure, Battletoads, Super Mario Bros, Punch-Out!!, Ninja Gaiden, Super Mario Bros 3

My answer: Gotta go with Star Fox. I remember seeing it as a kid and not being sure it was real, I had no idea the system could handle genuine 3D.

Final Fantasy VI

Yeah, I know CT looks better, but FFVI is kinda more awe-inspiring with its cutscenes and such. Character expressions are amazing. It swaps to 3D-style graphics in some parts. The Mode 7 parts look great.

obligatory cases for Street Fighter Alpha 2, Star Ocean, and Tales of Phantasia.

also the reason for those 3 is simple:
Alpha 2 and Star Ocean were the only games that used an additional chipset with the SNES which was used for graphic (and in SO's case, map) decompressions. they couldn't be emulated for the longest time for that reason. Tales of Phantasia and Star Ocean both used the largest size carts possible on the SNES and even had things like reflections in mirrors or water, though the former managed to cram everything in normally, as opposed to the latter which used the extra chipset for map and graphics. decompressed SO is actually twice the size of ToP so on a technically level, the answer is Star Ocean. but for a whole package, might go to Phantasia. and then there's Alpha 2 which was trying its best to pull off visuals from arcades and later consoles.

I have no idea

Best answer I can think of is Killer Instinct. It was supposed to be one of the early Ultra 64 games but then they just moved it to the SNES when Nintendo 64 got delayed. The port isn't arcade perfect but pretty good.

I also thought of Street Fighter Alpha 2, but think the load times disqualify it. (I still don't understand how a SNES game could have load times)

Fiop posted...

(I still don't understand how a SNES game could have load times)

it's the chipset that only it and Star Ocean used.
decompress graphics -> load times -> can run it now

it's visually impressive what they did with this system and that game in particular. it shouldn't look closer to the PS1/Saturn than the other games on the snes itself but it does... at the expense of loading times.

I'm going with Tales of Phantasia.

Graphics look incredibly good for SNES and it's impressive how they got a vocal song playing in the opening without having it sound too crunchy.

I'm not really sure but shouting out Doom, because how did they even manage it at all?!

Donkey Kong Country

hmm...

Star Fox... 2

transforming what was clearly already one of the most advanced games on the system into a fully non-linear (ie. non-rail-shooter) game with multiple gameplay styles and real-time elements and all was truly something else. really blew me away when i tried out the leaked rom for the first time, immediately became my favourite star fox game period

the only real slight to be made against it is that most of the gameplay that didn't come from star fox 1 still had been seen in some of argonaut's other titles such as X, so it's not exactly the most original game

Doom

I remember playing Tales of Phantasia for the first time and being stunned it was an SNES game.

Yoshi's Island. The graphics hold up amazingly.

RySenkari posted...

Yoshi's Island. The graphics hold up amazingly.

Oh duh, that's the one

Yeah, I was gonna add Yoshi's Island.

It doesn't SEEM that technically impressive, but there's lots of cool things going on under the hood. And one thing I noticed when I replayed it recently is how ahead of its time (well, at least a little bit) its game design is. Like the context-sensitive HUD, which is natural to expect these days but seems weird to see in an SNES game.

Yoshis Island

I would say it's probably Rendering Ranger: R2

Actually Star Fox 2 is a good answer as well, that game is bizarrely ahead of its time. I will consider changing to that. So funny they didnt release it for 20 years. Honourable mentions to FFVI and DKC3. And dont forget to bold your votes!

Technically impressive?
I'll have to say Mohawk and Headphone Jack
I've seen the maps and designs of the thing, with the absolute no lag in it.
Maybe you don't like the game, but the work put into it is something.

Umihara Kawase. The physics are incredible for the time

Terranigma

oops yeah i skipped past the bolding so i guess I'll reiterate that my vote is for Star Fox 2 lol

Star Fox 1 & 2. The frame rate makes it almost unplayable, but it's insane they got a 3D game to run at all.

protesting the decision to group the two tbh since they're functionally very different

After thinking about it, change Yoshis Island to Star Fox 2. What it does with the open world design combined with the already very advanced graphics is wild on the SNES.

Does Star Fox 2 even count as a proper SNES game, when it never actually released in the SNES?

It's on the SNES Mini, so I'd say it still counts

TomNook7 posted...

Terranigma

Extremely good pick

Snake5555555555 posted...

Extremely good pick

I'd disagree, Terranigma probably isn't a good pick for a technically impressive game, for story and design yes, but for technical design, it's just adding onto what soul blazer and illusion of gaia already did, as well as not adding much difference in comparison what was the rival in square with secret of mana and seiken densetsu 3.

Bump

going with Tales of Phantasia

technically Alpha 2 and Star Ocean allow for more to happen but ToP did it without compromising the system at all.

we got a rushmore for this coming up so take notes

Anagram posted...

Does Star Fox 2 even count as a proper SNES game, when it never actually released in the SNES?

to be fair
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/10/you-can-get-a-star-fox-2-cartridge-but-not-from-nintendo.html

Bump

Also with Star Fox 2 the game was finished and people played through it all at trade shows. It was a final product that ran on an original SNES it just never came out.