Simply looking at gaming history, there's little arguement that the Super Nintendo is Nintendo’s greatest console, and therefore one of the best gaming machines of all time. Want to argue? Too bad. To many the 16-bit era is gaming's golden age and back then the SNES shined the brightest. Of all the reasons the Super NES is such an astoundingly good system, chief among them is the staggering list of standout, immortal games that appeared throughout its long, healthy life. But on a system with so many amazing games, which are truly the best?

How did we choose this list? The games have to be fun even now, and have no obvious modern replacement. For example, Super Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat II were important games, but would you settle for the SNES version with so many newer arcade-perfect options available? This list celebrates the incredibly rich variety of games the system saw. Now that that's out of the way, we begin our countdown with…

Thanks to Mario and Sonic, the 16-bit days were absolutely choked with 2D platformers. With so many to choose from, what made Plok stand out? At first glance, we’d go with the graphics, which are some of the biggest, brightest, chunkiest sprites on the system. Explore past the candy-coated visuals and you’d find an extremely varied, intensely challenging side-scroller that keeps adding ideas as the game progresses.

At first it’s all about Plok’s projectile limbs, which can be fired at enemies and then return back boomerang style. Then it’s a black and white flashback area with granpappy Plok, then it’s about a magical amulet… so much crammed into one game, all with a kickass soundtrack. It’s an odd choice for #25, but we stand by it.

Released on launch day, Pilotwings was a shameless tech demo for the Super NES’ “Mode 7” scaling and rotation tricks. But in a rare turn of events, this graphical showcase was also a fully enjoyable flight sim that spawned a new Nintendo franchise, most recently seen on the 3DS. However, neither the N64 or 3DS sequels truly replace the original, as each have their own feel, plus we’d argue this is the most re-playable of them all.

Its initial appeal may have been the graphics and sense of flight (such imagery just wasn’t possible on NES or Genesis), but its flight school presentation and variety of events (biplanes, parachuting, rocket belt, hang glider and even a military chopper) made it last well past that easily impressed launch window.

Though it will always live in the shadow of the titan that is Super Mario Kart, Rock n' Roll racing will forever hold a place in our hearts. An isometirc combat racer with car customization, awesome voice acting, and literally the most rocking soundtrack on the system, RnRR was a huge blast to play. The soundtrack featured 16 bit versions of old rock classics like Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid”, and featured a cast of awesome aliens and cyber-warrior dudes that no 10 year old could resist.

The game was developed by Silicon & Synapse, who later went on to become a little company called Blizzard, so rest assured that RnRR has the pedigree, as well as the fun factor, to be on this list. While the password system is a little clunky by modern standards, RnRR was a much more 90s, much more in-your-face experience than Mario Kart, and it’s still a lot of fun today.

We mentioned in this week’s Top 7 how every Nintendo franchise experienced perfection on the Super NES. That couldn’t be more true of Super Punch-Out!!, which took the accessible, addictive gameplay of the NES original and added more strategic options for those willing to dive a little deeper. Each of the game’s eccentric (racist?) boxers had a pattern that could be learned and exploited to such a degree that 100% perfect playthroughs were possible; however, you had to learn how to read the enemy and react accordingly.

The fighters were huge, the animations were silly and, most importantly, the controls were absolutely perfect, making this one of the best-playing games on the system. The 2009 Wii sequel was quite good, and a worthy successor, but if we had to pick one boxing game to play forever, it’d be this one.

There are about a billion beat ‘em ups on the SNES, from Ninja Turtles to Sunset Riders to Final Fight to… well, you get the idea. Standing proudly on top of them all, however, is the sequel to NES hit Battletoads, which features some of the best graphics on the system and unlike most brawlers constantly mixes things up. The first stage has pieces of the level crumbling around you, the second descends into a massive hole in the ground, the third is a screaming-fast turbo tunnel and so on. It never even has a chance to become boring, let alone derivative. The bosses are massive, the music is rockin' and the ever-present ‘90s attitude is in full effect – who cares if it’s a cynical knock-off of the TMNT when it looks and plays this good?

Even by 1993 it was tough to create a truly unique game, one that couldn’t be summarized with a “It’s [game name] with [distinguishing feature].” The Lost Vikings broke the mold by brilliantly blending puzzle and platforming aspects with resource management ideas that would crop in RTS games soon after. The bit is you control three distinct Vikings, but can only move them one at a time; you can switch between them freely, but only one can be active at any moment. And since each character has his own ability, every level becomes a clever action-based puzzle that played like nothing else at the time… and remains unique even today.

This is the only multiplatform game on our list, mainly because we wanted to focus on SNES-only experiences. But it’s worth having one on here to represent the notion that the SNES often got the superior version of every multiplatform game, and The Lost Vikings was undeniably better here.

As with RPGs, the SNES was home to many top-notch 2D shooters. From Gradius to R-Type to Raiden to Darius, there were more than enough to sate even the hardest of die-hard fans. If we had to choose one above ‘em all though, we’d go with the super stylish Axelay, which used Nintendo’s Mode 7 to create some really bizarre vertical levels as well as dwarfing bosses and cool visual effects. There were also traditional side-scrolling levels, plus custom loadouts for your ship. Lots of cool ideas, compiled into one tough (but not stupid tough) shooter.

Axelay also gets marks for being perhaps the most cinematic shooter on the system, a trait that will become increasingly common as we move up the list. It’s not just the graphics or (once again) amazing music that make it stand out though, it’s the actual presentation and the way all these little pieces come together.

Anyone who says Tetris is the best puzzle game ever obviously hasn't played Tetris Attack. Known by other names (Panel de Pon, Puzzle League), this incredibly addictive puzzlers has eaten up countless hours of our lives, and we’d happily give up more. Created by Nintendo’s R&D2 team, the gameplay mechanic of swapping colored tiles quickly got complicated as the rising board ratcheted up the tension.

Though there have been many remakes, there’s something about the SNES original that kept us coming back. Was it the colorful, Yoshi’s Island-inspired art? The catchy soundtrack? Or was it playing a versus match on the living room TV and seeing the look on our friends face as we crushed their dreams of winning with a screen-filling garbage block?

Before Symphony of the Night ushered in the free-roaming “Metroidvania” era of Castlevania, Super IV delivered its best linear entry to date, which also doubled as a whirlwind tour of the Super NES’ abilities. From its stunning soundtrack to its frequent use of Mode 7, parallax scrolling and spooky transparency effects, Super IV made its 16-bit advantages plainly clear. Comparing this to its NES cousins was like night and day.

Super IV also had its fair share of spectacle, with towering bosses, perfectly matched music and set pieces that were not possible on earlier consoles. At the time, it was a technical darling, easily convincing us all the SNES was a powerful machine worth owning – today, it remains a rock-solid action game that’s infinitely replayable.

Today the Super NES is known for its immortal selection of RPGs. The first two years had more than a few standout titles, but for our money the real rush of AAA games began with 1993’s Secret of Mana, an action-RPG that could today be likened to a 2D Kingdom Hearts. Instead of turn-based slowness, you directly control one of three characters, while still able to dictate moves to the other two. The core idea worked great, but it was the atmosphere, story and music that made it such a memorable adventure.

Secret of Mana marked another milestone for “cinematic” SNES gameplay, pushing ever closer to the eventual perfection that would manifest in future games. Just watch the title screen and try not to feel inspired…

What a way to send off the Super NES. Even as the N64 was dominating sales charts in 1996, Kirby snuck in a remarkably generous, multi-game marathon of squeaky-clean greatness. On one cart came four Dream Land-sized adventures, plus a meaty item hunt called The Great Cave Offensive. Toss on a boss arena and a helping of not-crap minigames and you’ve got one of the best Kirby packages of all time – much more memorable than Dream Land 3 or the oddball Dream Course that both fizzled on SNES, even if they were perfectly fine games.

Super Star was re-released on DS a couple of years ago with even more content, but we’d still recommend the SNES original any day of the week. Plus it’s one of the defining moments of Kirby’s ever-changing history, perhaps marking the first time Nintendo experimented with the formula.

Not only did Donkey Kong Country's practically photorealistic graphics blow our minds at the time, but DKC's gameplay still holds up beautifully too. Although Donkey and Diddy each handle differently, both exemplify what a great platformer is all about – running, jumping, jumping on things (or cartwheeling over things), jumping over things, and precision timing. To sweeten the deal, DKC also features the best in swinging on things, riding in things, riding on things, and collecting things (sometimes secret things!). Plus, DKC's relaxing water levels are easily the best of the genre.

As with Pilotwings, F-Zero was a day-one visual kick in the pants, offering neck-snapping speed that just wasn’t possible on the NES. The visually arresting idea of courses floating a mile above a bustling cityscape cemented the idea you’re screaming through impossibly constructed tracks far in the future, simultaneously creating a visually distinct game and subtly telling a story about the fictional future of racing in general. And as with all Nintendo games, the handling was dead-on, making every race a true test of speed-based skill.

The N64 and GC versions of F-Zero are both amazing, but neither interferes with each other or the SNES original. All three are worth playing today for their own reasons, especially if you’re still interested in hearing more classic SNES music.

Yet another launch window game that blew us away, Actraiser was a truly perfect mix of 2D action and city-building simulation. It all kicks off with your godlike energy possessing a statue built in your honor, which you then use to hack away approaching monsters. Then, with the area clear, you take control of a worker angel and slowly rebuild civilization… but before long more monsters arrive and it’s back to ass-kicking you go.

There is no modern equivalent to Actraiser, and it’s this uniqueness that earns the game such a high spot. It’s a rare case of a game splitting ideas 50/50, with two absolutely different styles of play, yet getting both totally right. Hard to come by today, almost unheard of in 1991.

It’s hard to remember, but there was a time when the character-based, cute kart racer wasn’t an incredibly tired and worn-out idea. Instead, at a time when racing was pretty much grounded in reality, and hardly cute, Mario and his friends had the novel idea of having adorable characters attack one another from small cars. And racing would never be the same again.

Though Mario Kart as a concept has been iterated on many times, and as a concept has been pretty much perfected, we still love the original in its own way. It wasn’t bogged down by at times clunky new abilities or crummy online support. The 2D visuals, the collection of racers and tracks, driving over coins; the original still has so much charm that we can’t let it go.

One again, a launch window game sets the bar so high we could barely imagine things getting any better. The jump from the first Final Fantasy to this (which was released as FFII, even though it was actually FFIV) was so profound it made more than a few GR editors lose their then-11-year-old minds. Such storytelling, such characterization from a video game? Actual plot points and personal arcs that show how people change and grow? It was genuinely shocking at the time, and while the dialog may be more than a little melodramatic now, it’s still no less ridiculous than most game dialog today.

FFII was also the introduction of the Active Time Battle system, which would more or less power every FF until X, which even then was a modified version of something started 10 years earlier. Like most games in our top 10, FFII was an important game as well as an endlessly entertaining one.

At its core, Contra III is an all-out action assault on the senses. Waves of enemies, titanic bosses, amazing power-ups and all that insane shit that makes 2D shooters so endlessly rewarding. But more importantly, this was the first time a shooter felt like a real action movie, sucking us into each tension-filled moment with musical cues, intense sound effects and genius pacing. It’s the pinnacle of the Contra series and easily the best all-action game on the Super NES.

Like we mentioned with Secret of Mana and other games in this list, the SNES marked the first time several types of games became genuinely “cinematic.” As an action game you wouldn’t think Contra III would pull that off, but it does so in just about every level. The third level alone is enough intensity to rival Vanquish, which may be the only appropriate comparison.

Contra III may be the SNES’ best pure action game, but Mega Man X wins when it comes to depth and inventiveness. It took a popular (but aging) character, updated him with fancy new abilities and a vaguely serious story to make a brand new game that was both familiar yet delightfully fresh. So, while the action itself is less mind blowing than Contra III, there’s more to see and do (namely discovering hidden power ups and using boss weapons against their pals) in MMX, making it the all-around superior game.

There was also a stronger allure around Mega Man X, as it was a stupidly popular series in the NES days, while Contra was great and known, but didn’t command the fervor of Mega Man 2.0. That means millions more have deservedly strong attachments to MMX, which also counts for something.

After seemingly perfecting the Mario formula with Super Mario Bros 3, you’d think the devs would rest on their laurels. Instead, the team almost immediately got to work on trying to top their genre-defining, multimillion seller and get that successor ready for the launch of Nintendo’s second home console. And, as hard as it is to believe, they created a game that topped its predecessor in almost every way.

Building on the rock-solid foundation of Mario 3, Super Mario World’s energetic graphics immediately grabbed your attention with colors far more vibrant than anything seen on the Genesis, let alone the NES. The classic Mario gameplay was there, but augmented by new tricks and abilities, not the least of which included your new dinosaur pal Yoshi. Hard to imagine now that one of the system’s all-time classics wouldn’t just be a launch game, but was also packed in with the system, but that’s just how crazy that era was.

The SNES was undoubtedly home to some of the best JRPGs ever made, but even among such esteemed company Earthbound (Mother 2) stands out. Released in a huge box that contained a strategy guide with puke scented scratch n sniff stickers, Earthbound was clearly proud to be different. Its characters and bizarro world were rich with humor, and spirituality, and the psychedelic color palette and contemporary setting contrasted harshly with the medieval fantasy RPGs on the market.

While Earthbound’s game mechanics stuck pretty closely to the traditional JRPG template, its surreal world, excellent localization and brilliant experimental soundtrack created an experience unlike anything else. It also contains one of video game’s very best endings, a scary, touching climax to a game that, despite its jokes and wackiness, proudly professed the power of friendship and love. If you have a taste for the odd or weird, Earthbound cannot be recommended enough, there’s really nothing else like it.

All the aforementioned notions of “cinematic storytelling” come to a head in Final Fantasy III (actually FFVI). Its ensemble cast suffers defeat after defeat, eventually losing their battle to save the world only to pick themselves up and try all over again. Each step in this arduous, emotional journey is expertly told with a bulky cartridge, a plastic controller and technology that would today fit inside your back pocket; for it to remain so effective, so moving, for so long after its 1994 release means it is a true work of art, and demands to sit high atop any list, regardless of platform (we did already name it the 14th best game of all time).

Final Fantasy VII gets a lot of praise for popularizing the JRPG, but let’s be real – FFVI is the better game, with better characters, music, villains and events, and it sold fantastically. If it had a cool (and misleading) CG commercial like VII, odds are it would be the game most often trumpeted around as the Best Thing Ever.

By the mid-90s the Mario developers had little to prove, as they’d consistently created timeless platformers that were the biggest games in the world. But before they left behind two dimensions to then define what a 3D platformer was in Mario 64, they decided to make one last 2D adventure for the SNES. Using their considerable expertise and knowledge of platformer design they created a spin-off to Mario World starring Yoshi that’s still seen by many as the pinnacle of design for the genre.

Just as platformers were becoming edgier and focused on slick visuals, Miyamoto’s team doubled down on cuteness, but Yoshi’s Island’s crayon-colored visuals masked a game full of incredibly sophisticated 2D game design. With levels custom-made for Yoshi’s floating, butt-stomping, and egg-throwing attributes, each new area was cleverer than the last. The boss fights were some of the best in franchise history and even a screaming baby could ruin the fun. YI proved that classic gameplay could still matter in the mid-90s and still does today.

This solidified the template for every Zelda game that followed it. A Link to the Past represents the open-world action-RPG epic distilled to its purest form. The gameplay – a mix of exploration, puzzles and combat – strikes a perfect balance between rich complexity and elegant simplicity, all across the backdrop of two impressively expansive overworlds. Looking at LTTP today, it almost seems like a modern game that's been given a 16-bit treatment.

Its dungeon-puzzle format has influenced countless games since, but even 20 years later, none have reached LTTP's level of perfection. Its dungeons are challenging without being tedious, and every puzzle's difficulty is carefully crafted. And while the story is basically one giant fetch/rescue quest, it's completely devoid of filler.

What is there left to say about Chrono Trigger? It’s arguably the Last Great JRPG before cutscenes and absurd, zipper-laden outfits hijacked the genre. As with FFVI, the characters are at the heart of the game’s greatness, but in Trigger’s case there’s a pervasive sense of real friendship, that these people, pulled from across time and space, genuinely care for each other. They save not just the world, but reality itself, and it all starts with a silent everyman hero defiantly sleeping the day away; there is no comparison for the journey taken and the places seen in Chrono Trigger, and we doubt any RPG will ever come close. There’s just so much variety in design, thought and execution that only a dream time of Japanese developers could pull it off without making it a confusing mess.

The buildup to the game’s final battle is suitably engrossing, but it’s the ending that really seals the deal for Trigger’s undying adoration. A teary-eyed goodbye from friends and allies, all wrapped up with a whimsical, Miyazaki-esque adventure through the skies with nothing but a handful of balloons. Movie magic on your SNES, at the same time everyone is flipping out over the Saturn and PlayStation. Oh, if only we knew what we were leaving behind…

We mentioned in this week’s Top 7 how the SNES was where Nintendo perfected its craft. Nowhere is that more true than Super Metroid, which drastically improved on both its predecessors by adding a map, new powers, new monsters and insane amounts of detail crammed into every claustrophobic room. And that detail is the real genius of Super Metroid - how its story is told and how planet Zebes and its denizens are conveyed; the game tells so much with so little, using subtle moments and music cues to accentuate events that other games would shout from the heavens. In this regard, its only real modern equivalent is Portal. Even BioShock, which literally states its purpose, is blunt by comparison.

Its explorative, backtracking nature was copied by Symphony of the Night, and more recently, Shadow Complex, proving its endlessly repeatable nature. It was aped five years later, 18 years later, and will continue to inspire new titles into the future. Outland, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, Cave Story and more crib from this towering achievement in 2D gaming. Nintendo seems unsure what to do with this series, having handed it off to Retro Studios 10 years ago then taking it back only to release the backpedaling Other M – how about, instead of trying to re-invent the wheel, you make that next 2D Metroid everyone has been waiting for?

Obviously not every game could make the list - there are only so many games that can be labeled the absolute best. We're sure that some of you have games you think should have been added, cut, or rearranged, so let us know in the comments below what you would change about our list of the Best SNES games of all time.