SNES - Timeline
YesterdayMon, 20th Mar 2023
News Super Mario World Prototype Map Has Been Discovered
Mushroom island
The Nintendo Gigaleak has delivered once again. A prototype map from Super Mario World (that was found in the Gigaleak) has been fixed, and we can see what could've been for the first time ever. MrTalida shared the world of Super Mario World hacker and researcher
News Switch Online NES And SNES Controllers Are Back In Stock (UK)
A Switch Online exclusive
Update [March 20th, 10.55am]: If you missed out on the Nintendo Switch NES and SNES controllers, exclusive to Switch Online subscribers, now's the time to get them while you can. They've been restocked at the My Nintendo Store UK – but don't hang around, they usually sell out pretty fast! <products...
Thursday16th Mar 2023
News Nintendo Expands Switch Online Game Boy, SNES & NES Service With Four More Titles
Out now!
Nintendo has announced a new batch of games for the Switch Online service. The latest additions are part of the standard tier - adding two Game Boy titles, a SNES title, and an original NES game. This includes the 1995 Game Boy release Kirby's Dream Land 2, Data East's 1991 Game Boy game BurgerTime Deluxe, the 1993 Data East game Side...
Sunday12th Mar 2023
Poll Box Art Brawl: Duel - Mega Man X2
Wily Wars
Hi Folks - welcome back to another edition of Box Art Brawl! In last week's battle, we took a look at The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the GameCube, pitting North America and Europe against Japan. It wasn't a close one, either: North America and Europe absolutely smashed it, bringing in 86% of the vote at the time of writing...
Monday6th Mar 2023
Random Super Mario Kart Composer Launches Retro-Inspired Chiptune Album
LOOP816 is out now
If you're a fan of games like Super Mario Kart, Super Mario All-Stars, and Pilotwings, then you may have heard of Soyo Oka, a composer who worked with Nintendo from 1987 to 1995. Even if you're not aware of her by name, you will have no doubt heard a number of her more famous tracks, including Mario Circuit and
Tuesday21st Feb 2023
News Star Fox Character Designer Celebrates 30th Anniversary With Special Artwork
30 years and counting
Nintendo legend and artist Takaya Imamura is today celebrating 30 years of the original Star Fox game in Japan, with a special drawing of the one and only Fox McCloud. He also shared a special message thanking Fox for supporting him and everyone else who has worked on the games he's appeared in: Inamura departed from...
Friday17th Feb 2023
Video Star Fox Dev Gets Nostalgic Ahead Of SNES Game's 30th Anniversary
Too old for a barrel roll now?
Star Fox is 30 years old next week — yes, really. The SNES on-rails shooter celebrates its 30th anniversary on 21st February, so Q-Games CEO and lead programmer on the original game Dylan Cuthbert has sat down and shared anecdotes, stories, and tips on the game, and how Star Fox has influenced his game development...
Thursday16th Feb 2023
Random Japanese Museum Wants To Reunite People With Their Lost Game Cartridges
Family-com reunions
Here's some balm for your soul on this Thursday morning: there's a museum in Japan that aims to reunite people with the Famicom games that they once owned (via Kotaku). Did you ever scribble your name down on an old game cartridge or box, only to sell it later on? You might just find it at the Named Cassette Museum in Tokyo...
Tuesday31st Jan 2023
News Zelda: A Link To The Past's Code Has Been Reverse-Engineered And Unofficially Enhanced
Unofficial console ports could now be possible
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, one of the most beloved entries in Nintendo's storied franchise, has been successfully reverse-engineered, adding key enhancements to the experience and potentially opening the door to some unofficial ports. As reported by NeoWin (thanks,
Saturday14th Jan 2023
News Zelda: A Link To The Past Artwork "Brought To Life" In Absolutely Stunning Animation
A full series of this could be amazing!
If you've ever wondered what classic game art might look like if it was brought to life, well here's a great example. American animator Parker Simmons has transformed parts of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past SNES manual and other materials into living, breathing animations. The results are absolutely...
Sunday18th Dec 2022
Poll Box Art Brawl: Prince Of Persia
The sands of time
Hi everyone, and welcome to another edition of Box Art Brawl! In last week's brawl, we took a look at the GBA karting classic, Mario Kart Super Circuit. North America and Europe joined forces against Japan and came away with the win, garnering a whopping 75% of the vote. It's clear that the more simplistic composition proved...
Thursday8th Dec 2022
Random Zelda Fan Uncovers A Link To The Past's Original Dungeon Designs In Proto Data
Goron-level mining
When it comes to stone-cold classics like A Link to the Past, we have to ask how much content can there really be that we don't already know about? The answer, so it seems, is quite a lot actually. For the past little while now, a Zelda fan by the name of @Dark_Linkael has been working their way through the prototype data for...
Tuesday6th Dec 2022
Anniversary Super Famicom Favourite 'Final Fantasy V' Is 30 Years Old
A Tycoon of the series
Final Fantasy V is celebrating its 30th anniversary in Japan today! Geez. Released on the Super Famicom on 6th December 1992, Final Fantasy V was a return to the Job System set-up of Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy III on the NES. It's also sandwiched between what many consider two of the best Final Fantasy games ever —...
Monday7th Nov 2022
Random Musician "Restores" Chrono Trigger Soundtrack Using Uncompressed Samples
Music Revolution
Update: The video has been made private, and it appears that Mathew Valente's account has been hacked. We'll be sure to update this post once the soundtrack has been made available again. For now, you can listen to some samples over on his Twitter account: Mathew Valente, known as TSSF and who worked on the cancelled fan game...
Monday31st Oct 2022
News The Samurai Collection Brings Two Classic Beat 'Em Ups To Switch This Week
Crouching Tiger Hidden Release
Around this time last year, we heard of the formation of QUByte Classics - a partnership between Publisher QUByte and Piko Interactive - and we have subsequently seen a whole host of classic 8- and 16-bit titles brought back to the Switch (The Humans, Tinhead, Jim Power: The Lost Dimension, amongst others). Well,...
Monday24th Oct 2022
News Terranigma Artist Kamui Fujiwara Releases Special Movie For 27th Anniversary
"The planet had two hearts..."
If there's a Nintendo console that's absolutely loaded with stellar RPGs, it's the Super Nintendo. This little system is filled to the brim with classics from Squaresoft), Enix (prior to merging with Square), Nintendo, Capcom, and tons more. Terranigma, from developer Quintet, is one of the standouts, despite not...
Tuesday11th Oct 2022
Random 'Super Mario Kart Deluxe' Romhack Gets The Franchise's Most Notorious Item
Feeling blue?
Everyone's got their favourite items when it comes to the Mario Kart franchise, but we'd be willing to bet that it probably isn't the Blue Shell. Introduced in Mario Kart 64 and subsequently becoming a mainstay in the franchise to this very day, the Blue Shell is a veritable nightmare for those cruising along in first place,...
Wednesday5th Oct 2022
Random Modder Creates Stunning Portable SNES, And We Want One
Too cute!
Over five years ago (or exactly five years if you're in Japan), Nintendo launched the Super NES Classic Edition, an adorable and convenient miniature console loaded with some of the best games available on the SNES. But what if you could take it on the go? As spotted by the fine folk over at Time Extension, a fan-made portable SNES (or...
Monday3rd Oct 2022
Random Nintendo Censored Famous Marvel Location In SNES Spider-Man Game
Changing places, literally
Retired game developer Kevin Edwards has recently been taking to Twitter to share his experience of the industry in the 1990s. While these posts certainly provide a deep dive into the intricacies of building a video game, so too do they demonstrate the trials involved when the development team is placed under high pressure...
Friday30th Sep 2022
News Star Fox 2 Made Its Debut On The SNES Classic Console Five Years Ago
You can now play it on the Switch Online service
The Star Fox series has been a staple of Nintendo systems since the Super Nintendo era, but there was one game in the series that went missing during this generation - Star Fox 2. While the game was mostly ready to go by 1995, by then PlayStation had entered the market and the N64 was just around the...
Tuesday27th Sep 2022
Anniversary Dragon Quest V Is 30 Years Old Today
The best Dragon Quest?
One of the Super Famicom's most-celebrated RPGs turns 30 today in Japan. Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride was the series' first game on the 16-bit console, and even today, Dragon Quest V is fondly remembered, despite the game not receiving an official Western release until its 2009 DS port. The Super Famicom (or...
Sunday11th Sep 2022
Poll Box Art Brawl: Duel - Mega Man X
Mavericks, assemble!
Hi folks; welcome to another edition of 'Box Art Brawl'! Last week, poor ol' Solid Snake got himself trapped in a digital space and needed your help to escape by voting for your favourite Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel box art. In the end, despite strong competition from North America, it was Europe that won out with 45% of the...
Monday29th Aug 2022
Video Our Video Producer Showcases His Top Five Rarest Games
Yes, "you know what" is one of them
A few months back, our delightful video producer Zion was challenged by Jon Cartwright from Good Vibe Games to showcase the top five rarest games in his collection. While he didn't get around to it right away (hey, we're a busy bunch, okay?) Zion has now fulfilled his oath and produced a new video showcasing the...
Sunday28th Aug 2022
Poll Box Art Brawl: Duel - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles In Time
Turtle-y brawling
Happy Bank Holiday weekend to you folks in the UK, and welcome everyone to another edition of Box Art Brawl! Last week, it was the turn of Wave Race 64 to come under BAB scrutiny — which was fitting as the game launched on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pass service. it was a close (wave) race between the top two, but...
Saturday27th Aug 2022
Feature Super Mario Kart At 30: How 16-Bit Limitations Created A Franchise-Defining Mechanic
The gift of the drift
The landscape of the Mario Kart series looks very different today than it did back in 1992 when Super Mario Kart was released for the Super NES. Of course, there is a clear improvement with respect to visuals and we now have new characters, karts, and courses dropping all the time thanks to the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster...
Tuesday23rd Aug 2022
News 20th Super Mario Kart Championships Start Their Engines On Twitch Today
Off to the races
We are rapidly approaching the 30th anniversary of Super Mario Kart's Japanese release on the Super Famicom, but what if we told you that there is another SMK-adjacent anniversary happening today? We are, of course, talking about the Super Mario Kart Championships, which will be racing off the start line today in its 20th year of...
Monday22nd Aug 2022
News Live A Live Producer: Nintendo Wanted Game On Virtual Console, Led To Remake Conversation
Nintendo lived for the game
For a long time, we didn't think we'd ever see an official localisation of Live A Live, but it's 2022, and we're still pinching ourselves over the existence of the HD-2D remake. Live A Live is brilliant, and we're glad we finally got to experience it, but the game's director (and remake's producer) Takashi Tokita has...
Tuesday9th Aug 2022
News Super Punch-Out!! Hidden Two-Player Mode Discovered 28 Years Later
No hacks or mods required
There's been a historic discovery made within the 1994 Super Nintendo release Super Punch-Out!! today. A Twitter account known as 'Unlisted Cheats' has uncovered a hidden two player mode in the game. To access this option, on the game's start screen you'll have to hold the 'Y' and 'R' buttons on the second player's...
Friday29th Jul 2022
Random Super Mario World Is One Billion Seconds Old Today
One billion candles, then?
We celebrate video game anniversaries all the time here at Nintendo Life. Who doesn't like a birthday or anniversary? Now, we all know Super Mario World is going to be 32 years old in November this year (who remembers playing it when it first came out?), but it's already reached another milestone in digits. Blogger Supper...
Friday22nd Jul 2022
Guide Every Nintendo Switch Online SNES Game Ranked
All the SNES games, ranked by you
Updated with Side Pocket following the March 2023 update. Remember, this list evolves as users rate the games within, so head to the game profiles and rate them out of 10 if you'd like to see the rankings below alter. Enjoy! The library of SNES games available on Switch as part of the Nintendo Switch Online...