I sit here in my room, on my bed, with my trusty 'ol NES fired up and a game of Super Mario Bros. going. As all of this is happening, I can't help but begin to feel a bit nostalgic. I all of a sudden realized that I have owned my NES since right before I started high school. I graduated last Friday. Where the hell has the time gone? All of this makes me reflect upon my gaming past. And if you'll indulge me, I'd like to sit here and give you a short history.
When I was just a young lil NESman, (Before I actually ever played an NES, so I was more of a lil SNESman, but I digress), I loved video games. For the longest time, we owned no video games in our house, save maybe those little childish, yet awesome, LCD games. However, we did have access to a Sega Genesis over at my grandmother's house, so we played that when we could. Soon after that, we finally got a SNES in our house!!! Even after that, because we didn't have many games, I continued to play the Genesis (Lay off! They had both Sonic and Sonic 2, what more could you want?!).
Well, as time went on, I finally got my very own system that I could call mine when I was six. On my sixth birthday, I got a Sega Genesis 3. Well, then I ended up finally getting a Playstation, then a PS2, about 2 years ago.
I have acquired these classic games of the last 4 or so years, except for the Genesis model 2 and 3 that are the self same ones that I've owned since I was but a lad.
I know this was probably a total waste of my time and your time, but I felt the need to do it. It's weird to sit and play a game and have it make me look back and reflect. However, since I have graduated high school and am going off to college in the fall, I have to look back and realize how fun a time I had with all of these video games. Chances are, I'll never let them go.
On August 13, 1991, 4 years before the discontinuation of the NES, Nintendo released the new 16-bit Super Nintendo Entertainment System, in North America. The system was already widely available in Japan under the name Super Famicom, when it was released there on November 21, 1990. This system promised to further Nintendo's domination and popularity in the video game market.
Because the system came after the NES, it was launched with the sequel to Super Mario Bros. 3. Of course, that game was Super Mario World. The game itself practically sold the system. The SNES also offered continuations of NES favorites such as The Legend of Zelda, Mega Man, Double Dragon, Battletoads, etc. Also, some sets of the SNES came packaged with Super Mario All-Stars, which was a compilation cartridge that had the NES games Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario Lost Levels in better 16-bit graphics and sound.
The console itself is pretty plain-jane. It was very boxy, with a standard Power, and Reset button. The console does, however, have an eject lever on it allowing the player to simply press down on the lever to pop the cartridge out of the console, as it is a top loading system. That is good because the games get firmly seated onto the pins and would just about always boot right up. On the front of the console, there are the standard 2 controller ports. The bottom has an expansion port on it, but was very rarely used, and the back, of course, has the AC, RF, and AV ports.
The controllers, are a huge step op from the NES controllers. They have rounded sides, a d-pad, 4 face buttons, and 2 shoulder buttons. The shoulder buttons were a new thing back then, but are now a standard on video game controllers. The 4 face buttons were arranged in a fashion like this:
X
Y A
B
The controllers are very comfortable, and very responsive. The buttons are arrange perfectly for games like Mortal Kombat.
In 1994, Nintendo release a new SNES game that kicked the Super Nintendo's popularity into overdrive. That game was Donkey Kong Country. This game had some of the greatest graphics and gameplay of any SNES game. The game sold more consoles and millions of cartridges. In the last 45 days of 1994, the game sold 6.1 million copies, making it the fastest selling video game to date. There were even 2,500 competition cartridges released. The game was followed up with Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble.
As with the NES, in October 1997, Nintendo released the SNES 2, a smaller and lighter version of the SNES, with Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island packed in with the system for only $100. The things removed were the expansion port, RF port, and eject button. The power and reset buttons were confined to the left side of the system. Finally, on November 27, 1997, the last first-party SNES game, Kirby's Dreamland 3 was released and the SNES was discontinued in 1999.
Games from the SNES library continue to live on through different systems. Many of the games, such as Super Mario World, and Donkey Kong Country, were ported to the Game Boy Advance, and many of the Super Nintendo's games are available for download on the Wii's Virtual Console. The SNES also has a huge emulation scene, as virtually every game is available for download to be used on an emulator.
As you have seen, this console was a favorite of 1990s era gamers, and was the first game console that i ever played. I can remember the countless hours that I spent playing Super Mario World, Super Mario All-Stars, and Donkey Kong Country. Many gamers probably have those fond memories, too. Well, again, this one deserves a 10/10.
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