Super Play's Top 600 Super NES Games: #350 - #301

#350: The 7th Saga

69% A disappointing effort but, if money is no object and you love all things RPG, then you'll certainly get some entertainment from this.

#349: Yoshi's Safari

69% The best Super Scope game yet by a long way, with lots of funny bits and good ideas. It still doesn't measure up to our idea of top entertainment, though.

#348: ActRaiser 2

69% A disappointing step backwards. It might boast 12 megs of audiovisual splendour, but shouldn't there be a game in there somewhere, too?

#347: The Mask

70% A decent enough film license -- it's just a pity the gameplay isn't that engrossing.

#346: Dragon Ball Z: Super Butouden 3

70% Dragon Ball Z 3 is even more similar than 2 was to 1. Which means it's a quirky, anime-true game -- not a great beat 'em up but, well, interesting in the short term, at least.

#345: The Jetsons

70% Let's be fair: The Prince of Persia idea and implementation is really rather excellent. And all the rest? Just fair to middling I'd say.

#344: Sports Illustrated Championship: Football & Baseball

70% A great idea on paper, but limited in practice. Find two good separate second-hand titles instead.

#343: Super Troll Islands

70% A bright and cheerful game, and I'm sure that young children will love it, once they've mastered the tricky bits. But wait for the cheaper, UK cart.

#342: Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures

70% If you're short-tempered or impatient, AVOID. But don't worry if you aren't, because you'll soon begin to demonstrate these fine qualities after a weekend with Pac-Man 2.

#341: Cal Ripkin Jr. Baseball

70% A bit slow-moving, and a baseball game, obviously. But otherwise pretty solid, with no obvious flaws. Pro League '93 is better, though.

#340: Shinseiki GPX Cyber Formula (Cyber Spin)

70% The fact that it's based on a rather ace anime TV series is perhaps the best thing about this one. Well, that and the graphics. This is undeniably fast. The problem is that it's fairly boring.

#339: Mario is Missing!

70% One of the better entertainment/education carts we've seen, and no disgrace to the Mario mythos, but, from an over-eight-years-old perspective, it suffers from traditional edutainment problems -- chiefly that as a game it's too repetitive. You do get to learn lots about historic sights though.

#338: Pop 'N Twinbee: Rainbow Adventures

70% Cute is a nasty word but an apt one -- I even enjoyed the giggle that greeted me every time I started a new level. Unfortunately, the chances are that you've already got something that does the job just as well, if not better.

#337: Super Formation Soccer II

70% It's a funny old game. It doesn't feel much like football. It's not very multi-player-ish. And it's a real con if you've already got the first game. But it's still fun. Sort of.

#336: Mario & Wario

70% Nintendo obviously wants to get the most out of their mouse. But as a puzzle game which gets its irritating hooks into you, this works.

#335: Koushien 2

70% Very Japanese, very weird, but really not all that bad.

#334: The Humans

70% So close to being playable it hurts, but too slow to be fun. The puzzles are well constructed, but it takes so long to play through each one you'll tire of it soon after you start.

#333: Cosmo Gang

70% Smart graphics, loads and loads of neat touches, and plenty of humour. It's also pretty good fun to play -- for a while. But moving left and right while firing a lot simply wasn't enough to sustain my interest. Sorry.

#332: Phalanx

70% So there you have it, one of the most middle-of-the-road of shoot 'em ups. It's got its impressive bits, it's got its lousy bits, and while it's far better than the worthless Blazeon and its pals, it equally trails well behind the likes of the brilliant Super Aleste.

#331: Wildsnake

70% A puzzle game that works as it was designed to. But it's not as engrossing, rewarding to play or fun as Tetris. So only top snake fans should buy it. Like Terry Nutkins, for example.

#330: Asterix

70% Bright 'n cheerful, and good fun to play, with a good feel for the license. But there's nothing here we haven't seen before.

#329: Darius Force

70% Reasonable enough, but the Super Nintendo has enough reasonable shoot 'em up already. Come on -- let's have a really good one for a change.

#328: Mega Man X3

70% Playing Mega Man X3, it is impossible to escape the feeling that Capcom are cashing in on their loyal fans. It's a good game, certainly, but there are none of the new ideas we were hoping for in Part 2 and which now, third time around, must be considered mandatory.

#327: Ranma 1/2

71% Fabulously imaginative, with the weirdest range of moves ever in a beat 'em up. It's a bit too easy, but anime fans will love it.

#326: Super Play Action Football

71% A complex American football game -- it has an off-putting number of plays and controls to deal with, but is a faithful and accurate game. This one is good for fans, great for statistic-freaks, but is a little too heavy for the rest of us.

#325: Dragon Ball Z: Hyper Dimension

71% A surprising score, you may be thinking, considering the technical expertise on show. Well, yes, but technical excellence can never compensate for a spot of original gameplay and, sadly, Hyper Dimension lacks it in abundance.

#324: Wings II

71% The pictures make it seem more exciting than it is, but they're not that far off. This game's not as varied as Pilotwings, and doesn't look as pretty, but it has the massive advantage that you can shoot other flying things. Make up your own mind.

#323: BioMetal

71% A polished game with decent graphics and enjoyable and tricky (on Hard) action. It's originality it lacks, not challenge.

#322: Turn & Burn: No Fly Zone

71% The best SNES airborne combat sim yet. But couldn't the 12-strong (!) development team be put to better use?

#321: Beauty and the Beast

71% It all looks fine and dandy but you should never judge a book by its cover. Or as this game proves, never judge a game by its graphics.

#320: Inspector Gadget

71% Like a lot of things (and people), it's good but not great. You can spend a pleasant couple of hours with it and then not be bothered if you never play it again.

#319: T2: The Arcade Game

71% Kill millions of things with the mouse, Super Scope or the humble joypad. Enjoy it less than you thought, maybe. And get bored with its slightly sooner than you thought, too.

#318: Biker Mice from Mars

71% As effective interpretation of a dubious license, and, inevitably, much more fun in two-player than in solo mode. Loud, zippy, and stylish, but lacking substance, invention and longevity. And, out of Rock 'n Roll Racing and this, this is definitely 'best'.

#317: Super Empire Strikes Back

71% More of the same for Super Star Wars fans. And that's not necessarily the buying recommendation it might at first sound like.

#316: Battle Grand Prix

72% Oh dear. For an example of how not to programme a game, check this one out. Battle Grand Prix sounds great -- the screen's split vertically for a true head-to-head action -- but playing it is another matter.

#315: Super Fire Pro Wrestling 2

72% As a one-player game this is a dead loss, but with a Super Multitap four-player adaptor, it's by far the best wrestling game by far. Lots of Japanese text, though.

#314: Hook

72% A polished platform romp that relates to the film about as well as a computer game can. Ten levels don't provide enough challenge -- the infinite continues will enable most players to waltz through the whole thing quite easily. Fun, but not a great buy.

#313: Robotrek

72% Look at the pictures, everything can be gleened from them. Certainly, while Robotrek doesn't do anything original, what it does, it does fairly well.

#312: Suzuki F1

72% A good, solid driving game which -- bar the odd no-warning-of-corners problem -- should give you many hours of useful service. That said, it's hopelessly outclassed by Human Grand Prix.

#311: Joe & Mac

72% Hardly the slickest of platform games, but one of the more lively and colourful. The gameplay isn't likely to appeal to the serious player, though.

#310: Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday

72% Porky wears its heart on its sleeve and tattooed on its heart are the words "simple, formulaic platformer for kids."

#309: Super Pang

72% Like a swan that's had its wings cruelly clipped, Super Pang is perfect in almost every way, but can't get off the ground in the lastability stakes. True, it's fun for a while, but a two-player option would have made all the difference.

#308: Spider-Man and X-Men: Arcade's Revenge

72% Occasionally lively but, more commonly, plodding multi-level superhero thriller. Really lousy graphics, though nifty music -- one for Spidey/X-Men fans, but very average to the rest of us.

#307: Super R-Type

72% A great-looking and very challenging shooter that's let down a little on the technical side.

#306: Dragon Ball Z

73% Good-looking anime-based beat 'em up, using interesting 'windows' to depict the action. Lots of moves, if hard to access.

#305: Super Pinball: Behind the Mask

73% Lovely to look at, decent to play, but as limited as a guitar with only one string.

#304: Final Stretch

73% Brilliant 3D scrolling -- it's a very striking game when you first see it -- but with very little to actually do. A real disappointment.

#303: Roger Clemens' MVP Baseball

73% A few graphical probs, but nice and playable.

#302: Newman-Haas Indy Car

73% The Nigel Mansell license isn't enough to make this a corker. It's not too terrible though. It's just rather samey and not quite enough to keep your interest.

#301: Time Trax

73% Slick and tremendously entertaining for the two to three days it will last you.