Nintendo’s follow up to the iconic NES, the SNES (or Super Nintendo Entertainment System, to give it its full title), flew onto the Japanese market in 1990s.
It would become the dominant console of its generation, lasting well into the 32-bit generation, although it was a small margin of dominance compared to the NES, thanks mostly to Sega’s already established Mega Drive stealing a large portion of the market.
Compared to the Mega Drive, the SNES was a vastly more powerful console. The most famous of its technological strenghts was the Mode-7 chip, which allowed for elaborate sprite scaling and the illusion of 3D depth in some games.
The SNES was home to an unprecedented number of classics, including Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Metroid, Star Fox, Super Mario Kart, Donkey Kong Country, and… well… a hell of a lot other games.
If there was every a console that embodied Nintendo’s excellence as game designers, it was the SNES.
