Games That Push the Limits of the Super NES

The Super NES, Nintendo's souped up super successor to the NES. In this pushing the limits video I'm going searching through Nintendo's dustiest attics to haul down some lesser known games that push it to the limits. Just to add a bit of spice I'm leaving out the enhancement chips too, it's all running on the stock hardware.

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Game Sack - Games that Push Hardware Limits - Including SNES Mode 7

00:00 Intro Waffle
00:49 Choujikuu Yousai Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie
04:25 On The Ball
07:53 Tommy Moe's Winter Extreme
11:24 Jurassic Park
16:00 Rendering Ranger R2
21:00 Ending Waffle

Music Used
Chicago - Joe Bagale
Empire Seasons - Dan Henig
Far Apart - Causmic
In The Atomosphere - Bad Snacks
Space Navigator - Sarah The Instrumentalist
Color Of Your Face - NoMBe
Back To The Future - NOMBe

[ElBloeTigre]

I came into this video blind expecting a few gratuitous shots some of famous SNES games but this is a really in-depth, considered, insightful and thoughtful video.

[andrewnorris]

I started coding a 3d SNES demo for a software company I worked for in the 90s. They were impressed and I ended up getting the first PS1 dev kit that came in. This was one of the very first kits in the UK. Had to get to grips with C after using assembly and BASIC for years! Was a fun time.

[AlbionVega]

Woooow, Scrambled Valkyrie, one of my favorite jp-only games. You sir are truly a scholar and a gentleman.

[solarflare]

I just knew Rendering Ranger R2 would be in this video, and that's no big deal. It pushed a ton of action on the system (especially the shoot em up sections) with no hint of slowdown at all!

[Larry]

If you ever do a follow up to this, Another World deserves a mention, A Super FX game designed to run on a 16 meg cart, which amazingly runs on an 8 meg cart without a Super FX chip thanks to an amazing programmer because the publisher was too tight to pay for additional hardware.

[stevegundaker]

This was more like a mini documentary. Thanks for all the content! Never even knew upgrades were possible for the SNES.

[RDJ]

Never heard of Rendering Ranger R2 . Definitly going to check the ROM's of them. Thank you for the tips.
Also great video.

[BokanoiD]

As a fan of the Turrican series, thanks for the heads-up on Rendering Ranger! Looks like my weekend sorted.

[nastybedazzler]

That Rendering Ranger R2 game looked insane. Shame I didn't get to play that as a kid that would've blown my mind.

[verficationaccount]

Great explanation of the effect in Jurassic Park!

[IanSlinger]

I just want to thank you for using the phrase "needs no introduction" and not immediately providing one anyway like most people do.

[daftcruz]

Please do a part 2, this video is very good.
Though there's a lot of games missing.
Seiken Densetsu 3, Gundam Wing Endless Duel, Iron Commando, Front Mission Gun Hazard, Rockman & Forte...there's plenty of overlooked or underrated games that pushed the SNES/SFC to its limits.

[miaouew]

Macross SV and Rendering Ranger2 really do make the SNES look like a 32 bit system.

[tohur]

Ah Jurassic Park one of my favorite snes games. I put hundreds if not thousands of hours into that game

[enemyofvirtue]

this was my first time being to rendering ranger, and i've never been in such awe of a snes game before. great video!

[jackcullen]

Loving the technical explanations. I don't have a technical background so the explanations helped me appreciate the main points better. Good stuff

[wfjhDUI]

0:33 The possibility of including enhancement chips is such an interesting feature that we've lost with the move away from cartridges.

[waynecuff]

Scrambled Valkyrie, totally stunning. Love the Snes, my favourite console ever always will be. The way it manipulated sprites with mode 7 was a genius design. Still looks amazing today.

[dreamcastfan]

I’ve always felt the lava boss in Axelay was one of the greatest spectacles the Super NES could produce. Amusingly, if I use the save states on my SD2SNES cart on one of Axelay’s Mode 7 levels it does deactivate the scaling and just has the background scrolling like a normal vertical shooter!

[youisiaint]

Super Turrican 2 and Yoshi's Island were some of the most graphically impressive 16 bit games ever