Ten Odd SNES Games From My Collection
Super Adventure Island (April 1992)
While far from devoid of redeemable elements, and even very fun aspects, any first-time player's experience with Hudson Soft's Super Adventure Island is bound to be confusing and frustrating. Super Adventure Island is an action platformer featuring a unique, occasionally strict timer that pushes itself back when the player picks up food for the player character, Master Higgins. This is one of those games from this era that was seemingly develped to prioritize difficulty, fair or otherwise, over real content, however, this game's strategy is unique. The game itself is rarely difficult because of any elements of level design, rather, this game conveys itself, namely its controls, very poorly and the player character dies in a single hit.
X-Kaliber 2097 (February 1994)
Released as "Sword Maniac" (Sōdo Maniakku) in Japan, X-Kaliber 2097 is a side-scrolling action platformer, comparable to Castlevania in some ways. Unlike Castlevania, this game features odd floaty controls, strange difficulty slopes, and an all-around lack of content, even for 1994. That being said, I would recommend trying it for a good laugh thanks largely in part to its nineties-future aesthetic, featuring neon cityscapes and a "Hot tekno soundtrack by Psykosonik," as advertised on certain releases of the game's box art.
King of the Monsters (1991)
King of the Monsters is a fighting/wrestling game originally released by SNK on July 1, 1991 in Japan with Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis ports coming shortly thereafter. This game's roster of playable character features giant monsters inspired by Tokusatsu and Kaiju characters, such as Godzilla and Ultraman. While entertaining in style, the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired. Combat consists of tedious loops of punches, kicks, lasers, and grapples until one player is arbitrarily named the winner by countdown.
The Addams Family (1992)
Based on the 1991 film of the same name, The Addams Family is a platformer where players control Gomez Addams as he attempts to rescue his family from their imprisonment. This game makes this list in part because of how disappointing it is. This game is incredibly close in many ways to offering a very enjoyable experience, but it all falls short in the end. Unlike many of its contemporaries, such as Super Mario World, The Addams Family is an open-world game that invites players to explore the Addams's mansion. Sadly, broken controls and foul level and enemy design keep this game from being the cult classic it could have been.
The Pagemaster (1994)
The Pagemaster, from Probe Software Ltd. and Fox Interactive, was released in conjunction with the Macaulay Culkin film of the same name from 20th Century Fox. The player platforms through literature genre-based worlds, including horror and fantasy, which are also featured in the film in the forms of the environments we visit as well as anthropomorphized cartoon book people.
Beethoven: The Ultimate Canine Caper (December 1993)
Beethoven: The Ultimate Canine Caper! is a strange game. Developed by Rozner Labs Software Group, Riedel Software Productions, Inc. and Unexpected Development (certainly all household names the likes of Nintendo and Sega,) this platformer looks to give kids the opportunity to roleplay as the titual canine as he wanders around town looking for his lost puppies. What makes this game funny is the general grudge reality itself seems to hold against this St. Bernard. Anything from park squirrels teenagers on skateboards to small drops of water and neighborhood street lamps hurt the protagonist on contact, and are deadset on doing just that.
Toy Story (December 1995)
Toy Story is a side-scrolling platformer created by Traveller's Tales as a tie-in product to accompany the release of the Disney film of the same name. This game tries to offer variety by making nearly every level drastically different, but the experience the player is left with is an unpolished mess that doesn't excel at anything in particular. This title excels at confusing the player, but at the very least, it's consistently funny thanks to the unbridled strangeness featuring such familiar, beloved characters.
We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (November 1993)
This game doesn't have a Wikipedia page whatsoever. That's typically indicative of something. We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story is a platformer from Visual Concepts, the lesser-known creator of other infamous SNES games like ClayFighter and Lester the Unlikely, both of which would make this list if I owned them. Every aspect of this game's controls are uncomfortable and the gameplay is practically un-designed, but the culmination of the music and visuals is positively hilarious and worth witnessing for sheer comedy's sake. For example, the game's main theme features a strange sample of a man's laugh, and the main playable character looks like a block of maroilles cheese.
Radical Rex (October 1994)
Perhaps the funniest game in this collection, Radical Rex is a platformer staring a skateboarding, fire-breathing teenaged Tyrannosaurus rex who presumably carried around Go-Gurts and drank Orbitz while shopping for Soap shoes at the mall after having his scales styled with frosted tips. This game is positively fantastic for anyone who finds cheesey 90s products with radical attitudes funny. This game, which one can tell was trying to emulate Sonic the Hedgehog and other "Mascot platformers" of the era, has rough gameplay in every sense, but it's not altogether unplayable. This title has to be seen to be truly appreciated - words simply do it no justice.
The Wizard of Oz (1993)
It's hard to say what, precisely, drove developers in the early nineties to create a game based on a 1939 classic film, but here you have it. The game is a platformer, not that most first-time players could tell amongst the non-functional collisions and equally broken controls. I adore playing bad games for a laugh, but this one can't even make me smile.