A quick dive in to Super Nintendo on Switch

Nintendo is playing the services aspect of the Switch superbly, with a gentle roll out of NES titles, and now a raft of SNES games all for £19 a year all-in. What's not to like? And with hope for an N64 update next year, making the Switch a better (legit) retro console than the Vita with its weak PS One library that Sony failed to exploit, the more the merrier.

So, from Brawl Busters to Starfox, Kirby to Pilotwings and much Mario, Yoshi and Zelda, there's a great deal to enjoy. That's both for newer-generations of gamers looking to see what all the fuss was about and retro-heads still wondering if they have the skills.

Truth is, I had a Mega Drive and a friend had the nice curvy British Super Nintendo, so we used to trade from time to time. But, if you were around for the excitement of those chunky cartridges that cost many weeks (if not months) worth of pocket-money, while poring over the successive magazine news, previews and those hefty review scores, getting all of these at once is like a mega Christmas.

First thing on the SNES hardware, the most advanced for its time, using Mode 7 for the crazed dancefloor landscapes of F-ZERO, or pushing polygons in Starfox thanks to Argonaut's Super FX chip. While Starfox still looks clean and playable, the nagging chug, especially in Stunt Race FX does dent the experience, begging for a little extra CPU in a Plus Mode to smooth things out?

Beyond that, there's endless pixel fun through the second generations of Mario, Metroid and so on, pushing the design, audio like the bonkers Kirby tunes, and even simple features like the glowing, flowing text in Super Metroid that adds to the atmosphere.

Mario remains gaming perfection, looking better on the compact Switch screen than it does a flat big screen while the vibrant palettes of Kirby and Joe & Mac 2 really shine. Pilotwings seems to suffer in comparison looking so drab, but since it paved the way for PW64, I'll let that pass.


Later releases like Demon's Crest really pack in the effects and style, think I'll be spending a lot more time with those games that I missed first time around. The Switch's rewind mode and instant save points will be a big bonus for some games.

Across the pack it only feels light on a class brawler from the Street Fighter family (paying Capcom for the privilege, naturally) to make things complete, and it would be so much better if we could view the box art up close and the original manuals were included to read.

I haven't tried any multiplayer yet, but word is it works great with voice chat and brings players back to that time when two on a sofa staring at the big screen was how everyone played MP games back in the day.