The Rarest Super Nintendo Game Isn't What You'd Expect
There are plenty of rare titles in the Nintendo library. The Nintendo 64 console actually boasts a few hard-to-find gems, but there's no contest when it comes to the Super Nintendo. The rarest SNES title of all time has to be Nintendo Powerfest '94.
This cartridge was manufactured specifically to be part of the Nintendo competition of the same name in 1994. Players were given six minutes to complete the first level of Super Marios Bros.: The Lost Levels, to finish the first track in Super Mario Kart, and to hit as many home runs as possible in Ken Griffey, Jr. Presents Major League Baseball. As such, the only files on these specially-made cartridges were the levels in question, making these cartridges particularly unique.
However, the strangeness of the cartridges isn't what makes them so rare. Instead, it turns out that Nintendo had no real plans for them after the original Powerfest events were completed. What the company couldn't have realized at the time is that this would end up making Nintendo Powerfest '94 one of the most sought-after and valuable Nintendo games in history.
Just how rare is Powerfest 94?
Only a little over 30 copies of the Powerfest 94 cartridge were originally made by Nintendo, which would automatically make it an incredibly rare item. However, most of those copies were shortly dismantled and used for parts by Nintendo, which only left 2 total copies of the game in existence.
One of these copies went up for auction in 2007, but apparently has never sold. The only other known copy was secured by a collector named J.J. Hendricks in 2012. Hendricks managed to get his copy for $12,000, and that was only after a few years of negotiations. In other words, the odds of this game showing up in the wild ever again are slim to none.
The Nintendo Powerfest '94 cartridge has gained such a level of notoriety among collectors that there are even reproductions of it available for sale. Just like the original cartridge, the reproductions charge players with getting through the challenge under a strict time limit. These duped versions are going to be the best alternative for curious fans, especially since it is pretty much impossible to play an original at this point.