5 Hit SNES Video Games No One Remembers Today

The Super Nintendo solidified Nintendo's hold over the video game industry in the first half of the '90s, certainly as far as home consoles were concerned. Several memorable titles from the SNES stand among the list of '90s games that have aged flawlessly over 30 years later. From pre-established franchises like "Super Mario" and "The Legend of Zelda" to then-new properties like "Mortal Kombat" and "Star Fox," the SNES had plenty of enduring hits. But not every successful Super Nintendo game has maintained its relevance into the 21st century.

Like most gaming platforms of decades gone by, the SNES has some fan-favorite titles that are largely unknown outside of dedicated retro gaming circles. This, of course, isn't a critique on the quality of these games, it just shows the toll that the passage of time takes on collective memory. Some of these games have quietly made their way to the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2's digital libraries and are definitely worth checking out. Here are five hit SNES games no one remembers today.

Among the earliest games for the Super Nintendo were side-scrolling shoot'em-ups like "Gradius III" and "Super R-Type." This wave included a SNES port of the 1989 arcade game "U.N. Squadron," based on the manga series "Area 88" by Kaoru Shintani. Players choose between three pilots from the manga, each with their own signature aircraft, as they battle a large terrorist syndicate. As players progress, they can use money they earn from completing each mission and destroying enemies to upgrade their aircraft further.

"U.N. Squadron" received widespread critical acclaim upon its release on the Super Nintendo in 1991. "The combat scenes are dizzying, the explosions crisp, and the sound effects awesome," Entertainment Weekly said in its review, giving the game an A score, and Super Gamer magazine was equally impressed, giving the game a 93% score and calling it "Graphically impressive with nicely varied levels." Despite the glowing reception, the game isn't as readily remembered as other shoot'em-ups from the Super Nintendo library, potentially because of its one-and-done status.

Data East's "Joe & Mac" was a sort of prehistoric riff on the core "Mega Man" games, mixing side-scrolling platforming with run-and-gun action. The game's titular protagonists are cavemen in a world where humans and dinosaurs coexist. Joe and Mac set out to rescue two women kidnapped by a rival clan of cavemen, battling fearsome beasts along the way. It started out as an arcade game in 1991 and it had been ported to the Super Nintendo by the end of the year.

"Joe & Mac" was successful enough to be ported to several additional platforms beyond the SNES, including the Sega Genesis and Amiga. This hidden gem was added to the Switch Online digital library in the early 2020s, but without much fanfare. A remake called "New Joe & Mac – Caveman Ninja" from French developer and publisher Microids came out in 2022, but even that wasn't enough to put the titular duo back into the public consciousness. It seems that Joe and Mac are destined to remain in the past.

To advance the technical capabilities of its system, Nintendo upgraded its SNES cartridges for a handful of the console's games. They added something called the Super FX chip, a co-processor installed inside the cartridge that assisted with rendering 3D graphics. Though the Super FX chip is most associated with "Star Fox," it also was used in the 1994 racing game "Stunt Race FX," in which players choose between a selection of vehicle types and race them through different tracks, either solo or with a friend.

Admittedly, "Stunt Race FX" is a SNES game that didn't age well, but it was a hit at the time of its release. The game sold over a million copies and impressed the critics, with Game Zero calling it a "dynamic title" and praising its "Star Fox" cameos as the "finishing touches." However, as 3D racing games became the genre's norm and grew significantly more sophisticated, "Stunt Race FX" was left in the dust. Despite being an impressive game for its time, "Stunt Race FX" grew irrelevant as technological capabilities surpassed it.

Square published many of the best RPGs on the Super Nintendo, including "Secret of Mana" and "Chrono Trigger." An acclaimed but overlooked RPG from Square on the console is "Secret of Evermore," which was released in 1995. It was the first Square game developed by the company's American team and was intended to serve as a follow up to "Secret of Mana" for U.S. gamers. It follows a boy and his dog after they're transported to a fantasy realm known as Evermore, with its regions resembling different historical eras. The boy can arm himself and master several weapons while the dog can shape-shift as they battle the monsters around Evermore.

While other '90s Square titles continue to receive their accolades today, "Secret of Evermore" is an underrated Super Nintendo RPG you likely never played. It may not have been the best RPG on the SNES, but the majority of professional reviews were positive, with plenty of praise for its presentation, gameplay, and story. Despite this, "Secret of Evermore" has been pretty much forgotten about. That's a real shame, as it's a great game that does justice to "Secret of Mana" and "even improves upon it in some places," said Nintendo Life. Perhaps the fact that it arrived not long before the release of the Nintendo 64 has something to do with "Secret of Evermore" being among the most under-appreciated SNES RPGs.

Puzzle games were alive and well on the Super Nintendo. Towards the end of the console's life cycle, the 1995 Japanese game "Panel de Pon" was repurposed for American audiences under the title "Tetris Attack" despite having no similarities to the original "Tetris." Rather than clearing out descending blocks by completing entire rows like most "Tetris" games, the gameplay involves grouping three blocks of the same color to eliminate them. To further appeal to American audiences, the game's characters and art style were replaced by characters from "Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island."

"Tetris Attack" is a "Tetris" spin-off nobody talks about anymore, perhaps because it's a re-skin of a completely different game. Whatever the discrepancies between the title and gameplay, the Super Nintendo game received widespread critical acclaim upon its North American release in 1996. The title stands as the last great puzzle game for the SNES, with the Nintendo 64 released in North America the following month. Available on the Switch/Switch 2 online library under its original title and presentation, "Tetris Attack" is an addictive and fun experience.