When Nintendo announced the Super NES Classic Edition back in June, it instantly brought
back memories of being a kid.
To an era of baggy pants, Fresh Prince, and amazing games.
I mean, here we have 20 mostly classic Super NES games--plus the never-before-released
Star Fox 2, all wrapped up in an adorable tiny Super Nintendo form factor?
What's not to love?
And after going hands-on with it for 30 minutes recently, I can answer that question: There's
almost nothing not to love about the SNES Classic.
The SNES Classic takes almost everything the NES Classic did right, and does it again for
the SNES library--while throwing in some notable improvements.
The basic UI is almost identical, to the NES Classic, only now with the distinctive purple
and gray theming of the Super Nintendo.
Finding a title to play is still easy, allowing you sort them in various ways including by
Release Date, Publisher, Alphabetically by Title, which games have 2-Player Game support,
which you've played most Recently, or those that you've played the most--yeah, I have
a feeling Kirby Super Star's gonna rank pretty highly on that list
Like before, the SNES Classic also allows you to create up to four Suspend Points for
each game, which are cleverly displayed as labels on an SNES Cartridge, that allow you
to pick up exactly where you left off--or return to an earlier point if you messed up.
You can even lock individual Suspend Points too so as to avoid accidentally overwrite
them later.
And like before, the only way to create a Suspend Point--or even return to the menu--is
to hit the Reset button on the console itself--and that might require you stretching a little
farther than with the NES Classic since the controller cord's have thankfully been extended
an additional 2 feet, making them 5 feet total.
I still wish it were a little bit longer, but at least you probably won't have to
play with the SNES Classic in your lap this time.
Now each of those quick-saves allows access to a brand new feature of the SNES Classic-the
ability to rewind from the point that you saved, up to a few minutes back in time and
start playing from there.
The exact amount of time varies per game--Super Mario Kart allowed me to rewind up to 50 seconds
back (???) whereas the RPGs, like Final Fantasy 3, allow you to rewind a few minutes.
Regardless of the exact amount of time, this is an amazing feature, allowing you to easily
undo mistakes--even well after the point that you made one.
Imagine taking on a boss in Final Fantasy 3 or Secret of Mana, and realizing you've
long passed the point of no return--well, just hit that reset button, reload that suspend
point, and rewind it back in time to try a different series of attacks.
And in a neat twist, the SNES Classic can use those Suspend Points and its Rewind feature
as the very demos that play when you idle on the Home Screen--although you have the
option to turn this off if you want, in lieu of built-in demos instead.
The SNES Classic also shares the exact same display options as the NES Classic, allowing
you to display the games in one of 3 ways: their original 4:3 aspect ratio, Pixel Perfect
mode for a sharper image, or in 4:3 with an old-school CRT Filter to approximate how the
games's looked on an actual TV back in the day.
But there is a new option here as well--the ability to add a border that appears around
the game, whether it's standard black, or something a little more showy, like wooden
trim--it's up to you.
Some of the borders even change colors to match what's going on the screen--which
is a neat, if completely unnecessary touch.
Although I do have a feeling I'll be sticking with plan balck--even if that wood trim is
kind of tempting.
But that's enough about borders--what about the thing that really matters: the games themselves?
I had the chance to try out a handful in my time with the SNES Classic, such as Super
Mario Kart, Donkey Kong Country, and Super Mario World--and they all looked and sounded
just as fantastic as I remembered.
The games looked bright and vibrant--unlike their poor representation on the Wii U's
Virtual Console--and the performance seemed to be spot-on, with no noticeable input lag.
I'll of course withhold final judgement until I have the chance to put the SNES Classic
through some more thorough testing--but the early showing made a good impression.
Really, I'm a little bit jealous of anyone who gets to enjoy these classics for the very
first time.
Now while a good amount of these games have been rereleased on the Virtual Console before,
this is the first time any Super FX Chip-enabled game has been made available in their original
form since the Super Nintendo, including Star Fox and Yoshi's Island--and honestly, if
you've only played Yoshi's Island on the GBA, then you owe it to yourself to play the
vastly supurior SNES version, with its higher quality music and improved special FX
And speaking of Super FX chip games that have never been rereleased, Star Fox 2 takes it
a step farther by never having been released before at all.
This is essentially a brand new Star Fox game--even if elements of it have since been lifted by
other games in the series, such as Star Fox 64's all-range mode, Star Fox Command's
real-time map, and Star Fox Zero's Walker transformation--yep, all ideas that were first
pioneered in Star Fox 2.
Which makes going back to the original source a very strange, but oddly appealing endeavor.
One of the missions I played involved me taking on Leon of Team Star Wolf --yep, they too
were originally created for Star Fox 2--in an all-ranged battle.
And let me tell you, having full 360-degree control in a game that looks like the original
Star Fox felt really freaking weeeird--but also kind of awesome.
On the one hand, it truly feels like a sequel to the original game, while on the other,
it almost feels like a prototype for the other Star Fox games since, such as how Leon's
AI pretty much consists entirely of flying away, before coming back at you head-on.
Its simplistic, but fun.
Another mission was a more conventional corridor mission--but one where I could transform at
will into the Arwing's Walker form--which again, felt really freaking weird.
It really is a total trip playing a game that feels so familiar, and yet fresh at the same
time.
It almost felt more like a modern Retro-styled game, along the lines of Mega Man 9 or 10,
or Sonic Mania, that returns to the style of the original game, while incorporating
ideas and conventions from later games in the series.
Star Fox 2 is probably the game I'm most excited for here--simply because it's never
had the chance to be a game until now.
I really can't wait to spend more time with it, especially since it's the only true
sequel the original Star Fox game ever had, and I think it's pretty darn cool that the
Super NES Classic is providing that opportunity.
Although it should be noted that Star Fox 2 won't become available until you complete
the first level in the original Star Fox--which isn't much of a challenge, but something
to be aware of.
Needless to say, I think the Super NES Classic is pretty dang cool so far.
Do I wish there were even more games?
Of course, especially given that there there are some strange omissions, like Donkey Kong
Country 2 and Chrono Trigger.
But much if the selection that is here are among some of the best games ever made--and
they're presented in a way that seemingly does them justice.
The entire thing launches in the United States on September 29th for $79.99, with pre-orderes
reportedly going live later this month.
Thanks for watching and make sure to Subscribe for our Full Review of the SNES Classic coming
soon, as well as everything else Nintendo as well.
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