Saturday, January 2, 2021

System Review: SNES Classic Edition/Super Famicom Mini

This review was originally posted on the McMurray Internet Channel website on February 8, 2019.

Nintendo followed up its popular NES Classic Edition with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System Classic Edition, based on the SNES, a system that is arguably even better than the former.

The system runs on the same Allwinner R16 system on a chip as the NES Classic Edition, which has a 1.2 gigahertz quad-core Cortex-A7 central processing unit, a 500 megahertz dual-core Mali-400 ARM graphics processing unit, 256 megabytes of random access memory, and 512 megabytes of Flash storage.

This time, however, the system comes with two controllers. Although, the cables are still quite short. It also comes with twenty of what are arguably the most classic games for the SNES system, including Contra III: The Alien Wars (known in Japan as Contra Spirits), Donkey Kong Country (known in Japan as Super Donkey Kong), Earthbound, Final Fantasy III (known as Final Fantasy VI in Japan), F-Zero, Kirby’s Dream Course, Kirby Super Star (known as Kirby of the Stars Super Deluxe in Japan and as Kirby's Fun Pak in Europe and Oceania), The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (known as The Legend of Zelda: The Triforce of the Gods in Japan), Mega Man X (known as Rockman X in Japan), Secret of Mana (known as Legend of the Holy Sword 2 in Japan), Star Fox, Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting, Super Castlevania IV, Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (known as Super Demon World Village in Japan), Super Mario Kart, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Super Mario World (known as Super Mario Bros. 4: Super Mario World in Japan), Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (known as Super Mario: Yoshi Island in Japan) Super Metroid, Super Punch Out!!, and Star Fox 2. The latter was completed and canceled in the 1990s, and is available for the first time on the Super NES Classic Edition.

The Japanese version of the system, the Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Famicom, also contains two controllers and twenty classic games, however, the game list is slightly different. It comes with Contra Spirits (known outside of Japan as Contra III: The Alien Wars), Final Fantasy VI (known outside of Japan as Final Fantasy III), F-Zero, Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, Kirby of the Stars Deluxe (known as Kirby Super Star in North America and as Kirby's Fun Pak in Europe and Oceania), Legend of the Holy Sword 2 (known as Secret of Mana outside of Japan), The Legend of Zelda: The Triforce of the Gods (known as The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past outside of Japan), Panel de Pon, Rockman X (known as Mega Man X outside of Japan), Star Fox, Star Fox 2, Super Donkey Kong (known outside of Japan as Donkey Kong Country), Super Demon World Village (known as Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts outside of Japan), Super Mario Kart, Super Mario RPGSuper Mario Bros. 4: Super Mario World (known simply as Super Mario World outside Japan), Super Mario: Yoshi Island (known as Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island outside of Japan), Super Metroid, and Super Street Fighter: The New Challengers.

As with the NES Classic Edition, I’ll be looking in depth at the above games in the future, and the links will be updated accordingly. But, suffice to say, no matter which version you pick up, it is a real bargain, especially considering how much some of these cartridges go for on eBay. The system is already discontinued, but at the time of this review, it is not hard to find at a reasonable price.

Final Verdict:
5 out of 5

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