Developers reveal their favourite SNES games in Retro Gamer

Retro Gamer
(Image credit: Future)

Retro Gamer magazine issue 229 is on sale now and highlights 30 games that pushed the technological boundaries of the SNES. Additionally a number of classic coders, from Chris Sutherland and Nick Jones to John Romero and Steve Lycett reveal the Super Nintendo hits that impressed them back in the day.

“I remember stopping dead in my tracks on seeing Axelay for the first time,” Steve Lycett revealed. “It just seemed to be doing the impossible! The smooth 3D effect as you blasted up the screen, huge bosses and just layers upon layers of transparency.” Paul Davies, editor of Nintendo Magazine System also remembers Konami’s game fondly. “Konami conjured everything the SNES was capable of all at once,” he tells us. Mode 7 insanity from the clouds and swooping alien craft in stage 1, through the stomping ‘Ed-209’ boss and heat-hazy lava pools.” You can find out what other games made the final list by reading the issue.

In addition to our huge 10-page SNES feature we also look at the SNES classic Pilotwings, reveal the best games to play on the Commodore 64 and highlight the best titles you can currently play on the Spectrum Next. We also go behind the scenes of Gargoyles, The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King and discover how Gremlin coders worked on the first three Top Gear games for KEMCO. Other highlights include a chat with Rare staff about the popular Battletoads games and an in-depth review of Analogue’s new Pocket console.

Issue 229 of Retro Gamer is on sale now. You can buy it from Magazinesdirect.com or subscribe.

Retro Gamer Team

Retro Gamer is the world's biggest - and longest-running - magazine dedicated to classic games, from ZX Spectrum, to NES and PlayStation. Relaunched in 2005, Retro Gamer has become respected within the industry as the authoritative word on classic gaming, thanks to its passionate and knowledgeable writers, with in-depth interviews of numerous acclaimed veterans, including Shigeru Miyamoto, Yu Suzuki, Peter Molyneux and Trip Hawkins. 

Read more
Retro Gamer
Retro Gamer celebrates Capcom’s greatest fighting games
Retro Gamer 270
Amazing PS2 gifts in this month’s Retro Gamer
The title screen to Super Metroid, showing a titular metroid in a lab with bodies of scientists strewn around it, computer monitors lit up green. What happened here? Well, press start to find out.
30 years on, developers reflect on Super Metroid's impact: "Like Zelda and Mario, there is almost nothing else out there like it in tone. Still to this day, even"
best GBA games: A screenshot of someone playing Pokémon on a Game Boy Advanced.
The 25 best Game Boy Advance games of all time
N64
Reject modernity, embrace old games: 2025 is going to be the year I finally embrace my inner retro gaming sicko without apology
Evercade Alpha closeup with Ryu from Street Fighter on screen
Best retro game consoles 2025: my favorite ways to play classic capers
Latest in Games
Posing with a rifle in the Fallout 76 Ghoul update
Fallout 76's art director "had to fight really hard" so Bethesda would make the MMO's map bigger than Skyrim's
Minecraft movie image of Jack Black as steve
Don't expect Minecraft to go free-to-play anytime soon, as Mojang says "It doesn't really work with the way we built it"
Yasuke looking over the water to a shrine during sunset in Assassin's Creed Shadows
Assassin's Creed Shadows has an entire island stuffed with adorable kittens you need to check out, and it's based on an actual Japanese cat paradise
phase zero key art showing zombies in a hallway
Former Witcher 3 and Dying Light devs reveal their Resident Evil homage, complete with PS1-style fixed cameras
Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis System was only created because WB Games wanted something to combat Batman Arkham Asylum's second-hand sales, exec says
First-person screenshot from ASYLUM, showing the protagonist's hand holding up a notebook while walking through a dark corridor.
After 15 years and a $120,000 Kickstarter push, this cult horror dev has finally released a successor to their 2006 breakout game
Latest in News
Posing with a rifle in the Fallout 76 Ghoul update
Fallout 76's art director "had to fight really hard" so Bethesda would make the MMO's map bigger than Skyrim's
Minecraft movie image of Jack Black as steve
Don't expect Minecraft to go free-to-play anytime soon, as Mojang says "It doesn't really work with the way we built it"
Yasuke looking over the water to a shrine during sunset in Assassin's Creed Shadows
Assassin's Creed Shadows has an entire island stuffed with adorable kittens you need to check out, and it's based on an actual Japanese cat paradise
phase zero key art showing zombies in a hallway
Former Witcher 3 and Dying Light devs reveal their Resident Evil homage, complete with PS1-style fixed cameras
Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis System was only created because WB Games wanted something to combat Batman Arkham Asylum's second-hand sales, exec says
First-person screenshot from ASYLUM, showing the protagonist's hand holding up a notebook while walking through a dark corridor.
After 15 years and a $120,000 Kickstarter push, this cult horror dev has finally released a successor to their 2006 breakout game