On the 21st they did nothing more and nothing less than 5 decades since the launch of the Super Famicom, name by which the mythical Super Nintendo There in the land of the rising sun, and that to this day is still revered by all those fans who enjoyed this 16-bit machine, as well as by true lovers of retro.
Super Nintendo would arrive later, in August 1991, to the United States, while gamers from the old continent had to wait until June 1992. As you can see, the releases of consoles -and games- at that time, as a rule, did not follow the current model of world landing, practically simultaneous for the main territories.
Unlike in the stage of the NES, Where the big N had practically monopolized the domestic market, Sega planted a great battle with his Mega Drive (also called genesis for friends who read us from the other side of the pond) and the abysmal sales differences that existed between desktop systems of both brands, was significantly reduced: NES managed to place 61.91 million machines, it is estimated between 10 and 13 million Master SystemWhile Super Nintendo reached the figure of 49.10 million and its great competitor, Mega Drive, about 30.75.
Returning to focus on the protagonist of this anniversary, the so-called Brain of the Beast possessed hardware that on paper went beyond what was shown by the Sega, although nevertheless, let us point out that Mega Drive It was an older system, which came to life in October 1988. The console Nintendo It came to make use of a greater palette of colors and graphic effects such as the so-called 7 mode, which was striking for its time, and we must not forget those cartridges improved with special chips, such as the super FX.
The control of the console was also a breakthrough in the field of control controls. The uncomfortable right-angle edges of the NES and they opted for curved shapes to the relief of the hands of players who spent long hours in their gaming sessions. The crosshead was also improved With respect to the 8-bit model, being truly robust, comfortable and precise (Nintendo came to patent it), we opted for the diamond-shaped buttons predisposition to be within perfect reach of the thumb - a standard respected today - and the great success, in case those were few, was to include the tremendously useful shoulder buttons, L and R, which allowed extra functionalities and which made fighting games in Super Nintendoas Street Fighter II, they had a better initial control in the console Nintendo (Many of you will remember the torment that was in the SFIISCE version of having to alternate between punches and kicks by pressing the Start button, since the first controls of Mega Drive they were only three buttons, and later, Sega, she would be forced to throw one of six)
But if there is something that makes a system mythical, it is its exclusive games, and in this field, Super Nintendo could boast of containing an extensive catalog full of authentic games, although honoring the truth, and as an anecdotal note, in gross numbers, the official releases of SNES were 784 titles, compared to 915 Mega Drive. If we have to highlight some of the flagship titles of the console, we must talk about the trilogy Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island, Street Fighter II Turbo, Star Fox, Super Mario KartThe saga Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Super Metroid, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Killer Instinct, Mortal Kombat II, Earthbound, Terranigma, TMNT IV: Turtles in Time, Super Mario RPG, F-Zero, the different deliveries of Mega Man, Hagane, Contra III, Super Castlevania IV, Illusion of Time, the two platforms of Earthworm Jim, the different Super Bomberman, Wild Guns, Majuu Ou, Super Punch Out, Stunt Race FX, Demon's Crest, Super Ghouls N 'Ghosts, Pilotwings... And so on until a long etcetera.
Of all the titles mentioned, at a commercial level, we can highlight the following millionaire programs of Super Nintendo:
- Super Mario World - 20.60 million
- Donkey Kong Country- 9 million
- Super Mario Kart - 8 million
- Street Fighter II - 6.3 million
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past -4.61 million
- Donkey Kong Country 2 - 4.37 million
- Street Fighter II Turbo - 4.1 million
- Star Fox - 4 million
- Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island - 4 million
- Killer Instinct - 3.2 million
- Dragon Quest VI - 3.2 million (Japan)
Without any doubt, Super Nintendo was one of the great stars of that golden age of videogames that was the 90s: hardware and software were perfectly intertwined to form one of the best consoles in history, which knew how to combine power with a catalog of dream games . Its legacy lives on to this day and, for obvious reasons, it is one of the most admired retro consoles.