The SNES Classic was officially announced by Nintendo yesterday and with it was the list of games that would be pre installed on the console. It seems that Japan’s version of the console (which is called the Famicom Classic) will be getting a different line up compared to the West. If you don’t know the line up for each console you can check out the lists below.
The SNES Classic
- Contra III: The Alien Wars
- Donkey Kong Country
- EarthBound
- Final Fantasy III
- F-ZERO
- Kirby Super Star
- Kirby’s Dream Course
- The Legend of Zelda™: A Link to the Past
- Mega Man X
- Secret of Mana
- Star Fox
- Star Fox 2
- Street Fighter 2 Turbo: Hyper Fighting
- Super Castlevania 4
- Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts
- Super Mario Kart
- Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
- Super Mario World
- Super Metroid
- Super Punch-Out!!
- Yoshi’s Island
The Super Famicom Classic
- Contra III: The Alien Wars
- Donkey Kong Country
- Final Fantasy III (Final Fantasy VI in Japan)
- F-ZERO
- Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem
- Kirby Super Star
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
- Mega Man X (Rockman X in Japan)
- Panel de Pon (Tetris Attack in the West)
- Secret of Mana
- Star Fox
- Star Fox 2
- Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers
- Super Formation Soccer
- Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts
- Super Mario Kart
- Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
- Super Mario World
- Super Metroid
- The Legend of the Mystical Ninja
- Yoshi’s Island
So, on the Japan side, the console will be getting games such as Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, Panel de Pon, Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers, Super Formation Soccer and The Legend of the Mystical Ninja. Whilst the West will get EarthBound, Kirby’s Dream Course, Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting, Super Castlevania IV and Super Punch-Out!!
Star Fox 2
All of which is very cool, but the standout game for both consoles is Star Fox 2. 22 years ago Star Fox 2 was one of the most highly anticipated sequels to come out for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Sadly the game was cancelled before it could ever be released, this was primarily due to the N64 being so close to release, so Nintendo had to focus their efforts on their new console. What’s more Sony had just released the PlayStation and Nintendo were too afraid that a new SNES game would just blend into the background and wouldn’t get sales. Speaking to NintendoLife Star Fox 2 Programmer Dylan Cuthbert stated that “I think that caught Nintendo off-guard. The decision was made because they didn’t want the old-gen 3D going up against the much better 3D of the next generation, side-by-side.” So the game was cancelled and would never see the light of day.
Skip ahead to 2017 and Star Fox 2 is finally getting released. According to Cuthbert when the game was first cancelled, it was 95% complete, so the developers finished the game anyway. They even went to the extent of having the game “fully QA’d through Mario Club.” As the game was so close to completion a ROM of Star Fox 2 was anonymously leaked a few years later by a Nintendo employee. The fans then jumped on this game to iron out the bugs, remove the debug code from it and even go to the extent of giving the game a full english translation.
Through these leaks, a lot of gamers out there do have a very good idea about how Star Fox 2 plays, however with these ROMs on the internet this still doesn’t give fans the authentic Star Fox experience that the developers wanted to give gamers all those years ago. But now, thanks to the SNES Classic, we can finally get our hands on Star Fox 2, just as the developers wanted.
