The 10 Super Nintendo Games with the Best Graphics

The 16-bit console era was a fascinating one.

Two giants of the time were facing off, Nintendo and Sega, with SNK focused on the premium and arcade segment, with hardware priced accordingly.

Graphically, although Neo Geo was technically far ahead of Super Nintendo and Mega Drive –Genesis in the American market- the truth is that some games on these two machines, taking advantage of the different strengths of their graphics chips, tried to deliver an artistic finish that was just as surprising.

In this article I bring you the 10 standouts on SNES. Likewise, you have a similar one with the 10 Mega Drive games with the best graphics or the 10 Neo Geo games with the best graphics.

I hope reading them brings back those memories that only those of us who enjoyed that era have. Or that you even dust off your R36S and play a game, which is exactly what happened to me while writing them.

Considerations

A couple of details I want you to know about my selection criteria.

There are Super Nintendo games that look fantastic in a screenshot, with large, detailed sprites, elaborate backgrounds and intimidating enemies. But when you see them move, they feel heavy.

There are few animations, or frames are missing, or the movements feel artificial. For me, that costs them a lot of points.

A couple of clear examples: ActRaiser 2, with its overloaded scenery and enormous creatures, has always seemed stiff to me in its animations.  

The same thing happens to me with Super Castlevania IV. Acknowledging everything it did in 1991, in the early days of the Super Nintendo, with its striking rotations, Simon's movement always felt closer to what you saw on the NES. A shame, because it's a great game.

Neither of them is on the list, because I judged how they look in motion: animation, character size and detail, effects, the amount of elements on screen, variety and art direction. That feeling of looking at something surprising, highly advanced for a 16-bit console or presented with exquisite taste.

That explains one very obvious absence: you won't find Star Fox , Stunt Race FX or other games that used the Super FX to render polygons. They were historically extraordinary, but their empty environments, low fluidity, textureless polygons and barely recognizable figures now look too rudimentary. In fact, I think that today they show SNES's limitations more than its power.

This isn't a rejection of the Super FX itself. Yoshi’s Island also uses it and tops the list. The difference is the result: in the dinosaur game, the 2D transformations still work today, while those early polygons have aged far worse.  

That said, you'll see that I did include Virtua Racing on Mega Drive, because I think that game's graphics are much better. In fact, I don't think they diminish the console's power, as the Super NES examples do.

Right, with the criteria clarified, let's get to the list, ordered from good to incredible.

10. Super Turrican 2

Developed by Factor 5 and published by Ocean in 1995.

Closing out the top ten is Super Turrican 2.

A game without the strongest art direction on this list. Some enemies and environments share that somewhat generic metallic look typical of the nineties. 

However, you only need to play for a few minutes to understand why it's here: Factor 5 turned every stage into a different technical showcase.

There are high-speed races, huge ships, tunnels, rotations, vehicles, multilayered backgrounds and sections where the environment itself is the star. 

Its greatest strength isn't any one screenshot, but the sheer number of graphical changes throughout the game, with Mode 7 thrown in. It's a catalogue of effects built around a run and gun.

Is it worth playing today?

Yes, because it's still an intense and varied action game, although it works better as a technical demo than as the peak of the series.

9. Killer Instinct

Developed by Rare and published by Nintendo in 1995.

The arcade version of Killer Instinct was developed to demonstrate what we could expect from Nintendo's next generation of consoles.  

Its characters were modeled and rendered in 3D on Silicon Graphics workstations and then converted into two-dimensional images. Into sprites, but not hand-drawn as had traditionally been done. 

Because of the SNES's limitations, the port required drastic reductions in animation, sound, color and background movement without losing the identity of the original.

Rare didn't achieve an extremely faithful conversion, but it did achieve an excellent one.  

The fighters are large, the number of attacks was preserved, particles fill the screen and the stages retain a greater sense of volume than the Street Fighter games of the time.

Despite the lower frame rate than the arcade, the loss of effects and reduced sound quality, it was a remarkably good game, graphically impressive and far above the console average.

Is it worth playing today?

No, except out of historical curiosity, because the arcade version retains the same identity with much more animation, detail and sound quality.

8. Axelay

Developed and published by Konami in 1992.

The game that demonstrated the difference between 8 and 16 bits.

The fact that Axelay appeared in 1992, before most of the games in the ranking, makes its graphics even more impressive.

In this shoot’em up Konami alternated horizontal stages with top-down stages where the scenery appears on the horizon, advances inexorably toward the player and, once it reaches them, curves beneath the ship.

¡Wow!

The curious thing is that for years people have repeated that this effect was Mode 7. It wasn't.

The game alters the vertical scrolling of the background on different lines of the image to create a rolling deformation. It doesn't represent a three-dimensional floor; it tricks the eye by selectively stretching and shifting a 2D surface.

The side-scrolling stages don't settle for a conventional shoot ’em up either. There are transparencies, deforming lava, huge structures, articulated enemies and some of the most memorable bosses on SNES. 

The machines in the second level don't simply move across the screen: their legs and parts move with coordination that is still impressive today.

Is it worth playing today?

Yes, because it remains an original, highly playable and visually distinctive shoot ’em up.

7. Chrono Trigger

Developed and published by Square in 1995.

I'm not objective with this one because, together with Final Fantasy VI, it's my favorite game on the console.

For many reasons, mainly gameplay. But also because of an art design made in Toriyama (the Dragon Ball one) that Square translated brilliantly into pixels.

Yes, Chrono Trigger is the least amazing title in the ranking. It doesn't fill the screen with sprites or try to surprise you with a new effect in every scene. But it turned pixel art into a narrative tool.

Square had to portray different time periods (prehistory, the Middle Ages, a festive present, a devastated future and a magical kingdom suspended above the clouds) and integrate them into the same universe. 

What's more, Square's artists managed to translate Akira Toriyama's character designs into sprites that conveyed surprise, humor, fatigue or fear with very few pixels.

A game you can play today without any problem. And whose details will surprise you more than once.

Is it worth playing today?

Yes, because its pacing, combat system and art direction still rank among the best RPGs in history.

6. Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow

Developed by Disney Interactive and published on SNES by Disney and Nintendo between 1996 and 1997, depending on the region.

As a representative of the many wonderful Disney games from the 16-bit era, I went with this one.

And the thing is, even though Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow was buried near the commercial end of the SNES, you only need to see it in motion to discover one of the most sophisticated animation jobs on the console.

Maui crouches, jumps, draws his weapon and reacts with the ease of a cartoon character. When he transforms into Cold Shadow, his posture, movement and animations change. 

Creative Capers Entertainment, a studio formed by Disney and Sullivan Bluth veterans, brought traditional animation principles such as anticipation, deformation and extreme poses into pixels.

The result is reminiscent of Earthworm Jim -another one we'll see later- but retains a Disney identity. The environments add transparencies, lighting and a very rich palette.

Is it worth playing today?

I have my doubts, because its animation is still magnificent, but the controls don't match the quality of its graphics. Even so, you can give it a chance.

5. Rendering Ranger: R2

Developed by Rainbow Arts and published by Virgin Interactive exclusively in Japan in 1995.

It's probably the least-known game on the list, even though its developer, Manfred Trenz, is the same person behind the much better-known Turrican series. Its release was extremely limited.

But better known doesn't mean better. At least not graphically.

Because Rendering Ranger: R2 seems to answer a couple of questions: how many things can explode simultaneously on a Super Nintendo without the console itself exploding? And can that be done with prerendered graphics in the style of Donkey Kong Country or the aforementioned Killer Instinct?

The project began under the name Targa and with traditional drawings, but the impact of Donkey Kong Country prompted the shift toward prerendered models converted into sprites. That's where its world of metallic surfaces, armor and machinery comes from.  

It doesn't have the warmth of Yoshi’s Island or the personality of Earthworm Jim 2, but it combines its aesthetic with action that rarely gives the screen a rest.

Trenz combined the usual side-scrolling run’n gun action with spaceship shoot ’em up stages, filling both with enemies, shots, explosions, smoke and enormous bosses that occupy much of the screen.

Is it worth playing today?

Yes, especially in its modern re-release, because its best stages are still formidable, even if the difficulty and on-foot sections are uneven.

4. Earthworm Jim 2

Developed by Shiny Entertainment and published by Playmates Interactive in 1995.

With a few exceptions, such as Disney adaptations, most platformers of the era featured characters with simple animations.

Even games starring their mascots, Mario and Sonic, despite being great games, didn't have a particularly broad range of animations.

But then Earthworm Jim arrived. And its sequel.

His worm body inside a muscular alien suit could be stretched, squashed, used as a whip or helicopter, twisted… Beyond the typical jumping and shooting in every direction of action platformers at the time. 

The suit also reacted to every movement, and the idle poses were little visual jokes. 

It was abundant animation with personality, serving a highly charismatic art design with a distinctive and appealing style.

Shiny used its Animotion system to bring traditional drawings to consoles. The first game already showed the results; the second added the mucus parachute, transformations and levels that constantly change mechanics and perspective. Jim can run, swim while transformed into an intestinal creature or take part in contests as absurd as he is.  

And it all fits together under a very clearly defined visual identity. That's why it just misses the podium.

Is it worth playing today?

 Yes, because its animation and humor remain unique, although its constantly changing structure is less consistent than its art.

3. Street Fighter Alpha 2

Developed by Capcom and published for SNES in 1996.

We enter the top three with an impossible port.

And Capcom managed to bring Street Fighter Alpha 2 to the Brain of the Beast, something anyone following the scene back then would never have imagined.

Obviously not a perfect conversion -the 32-bit versions, especially the Saturn one, are closer to the arcade-, but its fighters were large, colorful and detailed and contained many more frames than those in Street Fighter II. 

To store so many graphics, the cartridge included the S-DD1, a chip specialized in data decompression. The assets remained compressed in ROM and the chip prepared them when the console needed them. It didn't improve the drawings or turn the SNES into a 32-bit machine; it “only” allowed an exceptional amount of information to be used.

In return, before each fight there is a pause while the characters are prepared for data decompression. Even with the chip's help, frames had to be removed, sound quality dropped and some actions cause slowdown. 

Is it the best Street Fighter on Super NES? Probably not -my favorite is still the Super – but graphically it has no rival.

Is it worth playing today?

No, except to admire the conversion, because the arcade and Saturn versions offer much more fluidity, detail and better sound.

2. Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble!

Developed by Rare and published by Nintendo in 1996.

We move into second place with the most technically advanced game on the console.

The first Donkey Kong Country was the earthquake. The second, the refinement. And the third, technical perfection.

Rare had already mastered prerendered graphics and displayed previously rendered 3D models in two dimensions through pixels, adjusting the sprites to the SNES's strict resolution, memory and color limits.

The third game pushed the process further: reflections in water, snow, fog, wood, cliffs, industrial interiors lit with color and hyper-smooth animations.  

Many stages incorporate their own visual rules: a saw that destroys the scenery, storms, lighting changes or vehicles.

Yes, the series had lost the element of surprise and the previous game was probably more rounded overall, but graphically it is unbeatable in its style.

Is it worth playing today?

Yes, because its level design and variety still hold up extremely well. In fact, I'd tell you to play the whole trilogy if you haven't. That said, if you can only play one, choose the second.

1. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island

Developed and published by Nintendo in 1995.

We've reached number one. The graphical peak of the Super Nintendo.

And that is none other than Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island . A game whose visual appearance is unforgettable.

Nintendo could have responded to Donkey Kong Country by imitating its renders. In fact, it did so in Super Mario RPG. But not here.

Instead of chasing pseudo-3D realism, it chose the opposite path: a world that looked as if it had been drawn with crayons, pencils and felt-tip pens by a talented child.

That handcrafted aesthetic conceals a formidable technical showcase. In my case, what caught my attention most was the lighting and the highlights in the environments (we're talking about pixels, not polygons), although rotating scenery, enemies that change size, undulating backgrounds, gigantic sprites and an entire screen that warps when Yoshi touches the Fuzzies are equally surprising.

Not to mention the animations, of course. Simple but made with enviable care, both for the leading duo and the enemies, with absolute expressiveness.

And everything is coherent under that art style that looks simple, but is sublime.

To achieve all this, the cartridge included the Super FX GSU-2, known as Super FX 2. It was an evolution of the coprocessor developed by Argonaut for Star Fox, but Nintendo used it here mainly for calculations and 2D transformations such as rotation and scaling.  

Is it worth playing today?

Yes, absolutely, for everything: gameplay, level design and visual style all retain their freshness. It's harder to master than Super Mario World, but visually there's no comparison.

Five games that came very close

The games above are the top tier. The best of the best graphically. But there are other games that came very close to making the list. These are the next five.

Star Ocean

Developed by tri-Ace and published by Enix in Japan in 1996.

It was one of the largest Super Famicom cartridges (that was the console's name in Japan) and, together with Street Fighter Alpha 2, the only one to use the S-DD1. This chip decompressed graphics and maps, allowing environments of exceptional density and variety.  

It misses out because its technical feat is less noticeable than Chrono Trigger's art direction. Today, its remake Star Ocean: First Departure offers a translation and is more accessible, although it completely changes the aesthetic.

Is it worth playing today?

Not as a first choice, because First Departure is more accessible, although the original remains interesting for fans of pixel art and the technical history of the SNES.

Super Metroid

Developed by Nintendo R&D1 and Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo in 1994.

Here we're not looking at an astonishing technical demonstration, but at an example of how a game on the console used lighting, color, animation and design to turn Zebes into a believable space. 

Yes, above all it's its design work, which has stood the test of time without a problem, that earns it a place here.

Is it worth playing today?

Yes, absolutely. Because its exploration, atmosphere and design still compete with the best modern metroidvanias.

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest

Developed by Rare and published by Nintendo in 1995.

Here's an injustice. Without a doubt, this is one of the games that should be in the top ten. The only reason I left it out is that its sequel is already included, and graphically it's better.

This time, Rare refined the first DKC's prerendered technique with smoother animations, more varied palettes and a more attractive world. Ships, swamps, beehives, abandoned amusement parks and fortresses build an adventure darker than the first and more rounded than the third.

Is it worth playing today?

Absolutely, because it's the best platformer in the trilogy and one of the best titles on SNES.

The Ninja Warriors Again

Developed by Natsume and published by Taito in 1994.

The closest the SNES ever got to Neo Geo.

Its protagonists are enormous, superbly animated and each conveys a different feel. Colors, shading, backgrounds, animation and, above all, sprite size put it far above the console average.

Is it worth playing today?

Not as a first choice, because The Ninja Saviors preserves its essence and improves almost everything, although the cartridge remains a technical marvel.

Kirby’s Dream Land 3

Developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo in 1997.

With a style somewhat related to Yoshi’s Island, its irregular lines, pastel colors and pencil-like textures create one of the console's most distinctive looks. Its animations make it surprisingly impressive in motion. And there are two reasons for that.

The first is that it launched at the end of the console's life cycle, when developers knew all of its ins and outs.

But there's also a second reason: the cartridge uses the SA-1, a second processor from the same family as the SNES CPU, but much faster and with additional memory and transfer functions. It helped performance with such a graphical workload.

Is it worth playing today?

Yes, especially for its style and co-op, as long as you're not looking for a fast or demanding platformer.

Conclusions

Super Nintendo has genuine works of visual art. And for different reasons.

Whether for pure technical achievement, like Rare's productions; for art design, as with Chrono Trigger; for animation, like Earthworm Jim; or for everything, like the second Super Mario World.

With its ridiculous 256×224 pixel resolution -lower than the NES- developers achieved tremendous results through very different decisions:

Yoshi’s Island , Street Fighter Alpha 2 , Star Ocean and Kirby’s Dream Land 3 used coprocessors, but each did something different: the Super FX transformed graphics, the S-DD1 decompressed data and the SA-1 boosted processing.

are turned 3D models into sprites.

Shiny and Disney transferred principles of traditional animation.

Konami warped backgrounds to invent a perspective.

Factor 5 turned every stage into a different showcase.

And all of that together explains why the polygons of Star Fox can be historically more revolutionary and, at the same time, look more dated today than the fake-pencil look of Yoshi’s Island. 

The visual result of a game doesn't depend only on the machine's power, but on how well its creators hide its limitations.

By the way, if you liked the article and want to know more about the visual side of 16-bit games, here are a couple you may enjoy:

• The 10 Mega Drive Games with the Best Graphics.
• The 10 Neo Geo Games with the Best Graphics.
• What Did Retro Video Games Really Look Like?