Review
Chrono Trigger
Among the best role-playing games of the 16-bit era, and one of the easiest to recommend to someone new to the genre. Few games this old feel so light and so complete.
1995 · SNES · Super Famicom10/10
Did you know
The Konami Code (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A) began in the 1986 NES Gradius. Its programmer found his own game too hard and gave himself every power-up.
Source: WikipediaVideo Games
Are Rad
Every NES, Famicom and Super Nintendo game, with the facts, the lists, and essays on why any of it matters. 3,291 games and counting.
3,291
Games
293
Written up
9
Essays
RPG✦FPS✦INDIE✦STRATEGY✦RACING✦HORROR✦FIGHTING✦MMO✦SIMULATION✦SURVIVAL✦PUZZLE✦METROIDVANIA✦RPG✦FPS✦INDIE✦STRATEGY✦RACING✦HORROR✦FIGHTING✦MMO✦SIMULATION✦SURVIVAL✦PUZZLE✦METROIDVANIA✦
Sister Sites
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Play at mynesgames.comFree tools
RPG Creator
Tabletop RPG tools that run in the browser. A living character sheet where any bonus rolls on a click, a campaign app with the dice built in, and a four-page sheet that prints. Plus The Book of Dice, 107 pages on the objects that run the game.
Build a character at rpgcreator.netWritten here, not scraped
Reviews and histories
Review10/10
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong QuestDiddy's Kong Quest swapped Donkey Kong for Diddy and Dixie, got harder and better. Why it's the peak of Rare's SNES trilogy, and where to play it.
Review10/10
Final Fantasy VIFinal Fantasy VI has fourteen heroes, one great villain and a world that ends halfway through. Why the SNES game still tops the series.
Review10/10
Super Mario Bros. 3Super Mario Bros. 3 is still the best-designed game on the NES. What it changed, how it plays today, and where to play it now.
Review10/10
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's IslandYoshi's Island swapped Mario for a crayon-drawn dinosaur and a crying baby, and made one of the SNES's richest platformers. Why it holds up, where to play.
Rated by us, and we say why
The ones to play first
1
Chrono Trigger1995 · SNES · Super Famicom
10
2
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest1995 · SNES · Super Famicom
10
3
Final Fantasy VI1994 · SNES · Super Famicom
10
4
Super Mario Bros. 31988 · NES · Famicom
10
5
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island1995 · SNES · Super Famicom
10
6
Super Mario World1990 · SNES · Super Famicom
10
7
Super Metroid1994 · SNES · Super Famicom
10
8
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past1991 · SNES · Super Famicom
10
Chrono Trigger1995 · SNES · Super Famicom
10
2
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest1995 · SNES · Super Famicom
10
3
Final Fantasy VI1994 · SNES · Super Famicom
10
4
Super Mario Bros. 31988 · NES · Famicom
10
5
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island1995 · SNES · Super Famicom
10
6
Super Mario World1990 · SNES · Super Famicom
10
7
Super Metroid1994 · SNES · Super Famicom
10
8
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past1991 · SNES · Super Famicom
1025 games
The 25 best NES games
The cartridges that still play as well as they did in 1990. Start at the top and work down.
13 gamesD&D on the NES and SNES
The official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons games, and the console RPGs that grew out of the tabletop. Roll for initiative on a controller.
25 gamesThe 25 best SNES games
The 16-bit years at their best: Mode 7, big RPGs, and the platformers everyone owned.
The human desk
Why we play.
And why it matters.
Flow, failure, dopamine, the magic circle, the second controller. Essays on what play does for people, with the research named and linked.
Flow
The zone: why good games make time disappear
Why an hour of Tetris feels like ten minutes: Csikszentmihalyi's flow, challenge matched to skill, and old games as machines built to make it happen.
FailureOne must imagine Mario happy
Why we fail at games on purpose and keep going: Juul's paradox of failure, Suits on unnecessary obstacles, and Camus's Sisyphus, happy at the boulder.
DopamineWanting, not liking: what dopamine really does when you play
Dopamine isn't the pleasure chemical. It's anticipation and surprise. Schultz, Berridge and Robinson on wanting versus liking, via a question block.