Yes the Super Nintendo. Perhaps Super Famicom if you are from one of those places. A fitting choice for our first Consolences. Where we objectively rate the system not as it was, but as it is now. So you want it new huh?

Prices range from $200 to $800 with varying degrees of newness and different pack ins. Honestly if you are a die hard game collector and have a smoke free home or atleast game room then I’d say yeah it’s worth it. The box and packaging are striking and oh so 90s. Plus you will be getting your monies’ worth.

If you are willing to put the money in mind you. Just regular carts, reproduction carts, and Everdrives are affordable enough. Boxed original games though? That’s where it gets a little trickier. The cost way out weighs the value unless you specificly love a game or some serious nostalgia is involved. The boxes are just flimsy cardboard. Even if it looks nice you don’t know what’s it’s been through or what might be nestled in a tiny corner. What might look fine today can quickly crumble with no fault of your own.

It might be a bit pricier, more pricey, extra money go bye bye. But I suggest first tracking down a local retro shop. Always support home grown business kids. Next I’d say go for an online retailer you can trust. The Action Couch Life crew goes with DKoldies.com

https://www.dkoldies.com/super-nintendo/

Not being paid for that mind you. I just really like their service plus I’ve been to their warehouse before, talked with the guys, and saw their repair bay first hand. They do quality work and the prices are rather fair.

When I say Repair Bay I mean Repair Bay

Now as for controllers and accessories again nostalgia will play a factor in any collection. That aside I say get two official controllers of your region. The USA is purples with a mix of concave and convex buttons.

The Japanese and European controllers are what I call candy buttons. All bumped up and smooth as well as the four color pattern you see a lot in SNES games.

Get one from over seas just because it’s neat. Then grab some sort of turbo fire controller and/or a Joy Stick. You won’t really need both. The larger buttons on a Joy Stick controller will give you enough tappa-tappa speed in most games. So for that use your judgement.

That’s the one I had or atleast close to it. It rocked because it had autofire as well as turbo. Joy Stick or Arcade Sticks are cool now but back in the 90s they were rather stiff. So I say get one if that’s your jam.

I will say they look nice though. Now there is a 4 player multitap which is good for like Bomberman. That’s the only game I can think of. I am sure there are others like sports or whatever. I say skip it. As well as the Super Scope. It was a big beefy zapper knockoff and it’s a battery draining behemoth. I would say skip it until the end. It’s worth having if you have a big collection built up make it your trophy piece at the end. Again the price is the killer. Plus it was wonky on CRT and almost unusable on current TVs. So testing it to see if it works would be rough. Hey maybe just buy a broke one that looks nice. No one else has to know.

So let’s get into where a system lives or dies. The games and the cost of those games now in a collector’s market. With the exception of a few more obscure titles. Mostly Earthbound, Pocky and Rocky 2, Mega man X3, Metal Warriors, and a handful of other decent games go for over $150. The vast majority of solid games hit in the same price point from the super common Mega Man X.

To more obscure cult favorites like Secret of Evermore. Which yes I pretty much am listing the two best games on the system as a starting point and yes you should buy Evermore.

Unlike Mega Man X, Secret of Evermore has not been officially rereleased. So it is the best example of a super common rererereleased game and a fairly obscure one with a dedicated following going for about the same price. Your investments should stay about the same as long as the condition doesn’t change. That said don’t just go for collecting reasons. These are games that deserve to be played. You can get an Everdrives for about 80 bux or the high end FXPak for like 190. The main difference is the Everdrive might not play all games. Specifically ones with special chips. Back in the Cartridge Days they could toss special chips into games for graphics or RAM or whatever else a gaming might be lacking. If you are dead set on not playing your collection those options will let you load ROMs onto them and play them on the actual hardware.

You won’t really break the bank going with any of those options. Me personally I say just get a nice SNES style controller for your PC and use that until you build up a nice collection. You will appreciate it more. That said also maybe just grab a Flashcart, what the Everdrive and FXPak is, and forget about collecting actual games. The main thing is the system after all. The controller, the satisfying click of the power button, and the weight of an actual cord dangling down are the real heros here. The Super Nintendo is classic through and through. I might be in the minority here but I prefer the US system with the purple sliders for buttons. Yet I have a fondness for the candy buttons of the Superfamicom. Still it’s hard to say which is better. We all have differences in tastes. No matter which one you get you can be sure it’s going to be way cool.

Now lets break it down with the tried and true method of 1-100. 1 being next to nothing and 100 being absolute perfect here goes.