Quick hint: zone stacking. You have three kinds of zones to build. When they first get to grow, they grow sparsely. Bulldoze two thirds of the square and zone on top of those two thirds so the new third is sticking out and the old third is sticking out the opposite way. Repeat ad nausea. The zones under it will still “grow” as will the zone on top. Also, don’t build roads. Only build rails. Zero traffic.
I really liked Uncharted Waters: New Horizons. It’s a pirate game, yarrr.
I loved the SNES, and most of my favorites have already been mentioned: Super Metroid, Zelda: A Link to the Past, Final Fantasy II and III (the Japanese IV and VI), Chrono Trigger, Kirby Superstar, the original Super Mario Kart.
However, Super Mario World is an amazing classic platformer with some awesome puzzles and innovative levels. It may have been the first game to come out for the SNES, but it is still one of the best.
Those are NES games, although they do have SNES follow-ups- three Tecmo Super Bowls and Super Punch Out!
**Tecmo Secret of the Stars **and Earthbound are two RPGs I highly enjoyed that you could probably easily play while pedalling.
The SNES was one of my favorite systems, second only to the NES.
As was mentioned a number of times, Chrono Trigger (traditional rpg) and Secret of Mana (action RPG) are must-play RPGs. However, although Final Fantasy 2 (aka FF4…also where my username is from) and Final Fantasy 3 (aka FF6) were both amazingly good games, I’d have to recommend the GBA remake over the SNES versions, if that is an option for you. Same with Zelda 3. If you are REALLY up for a traditional RPG challenge, give The 7th Saga a try. One more obscure action RPG game that I really liked was SoulBlazer, a game where you had to save people in various towns, one person at a time. It gets a lot of bashing, but Final Fantasy Mystic Quest is a fun RPG too, and is very underrated. Finally, there’s EVO, an action RPG based around animal evolution…really unique game, although it involves a lot of experience building to progress.
Super Metroid (aka Metroid 3) is one of the best adventure games ever made. I also love Super Castlevania 4, which was the first SNES game to REALLY show what the system was capable of. The first Actraiser is an interesting and fun game, which alternates between action stages and a Simcity-like building mode, but stay the hell away from the sequel. Legend of The Mystical Ninja is a very fun and VERY strange adventure game, but is even better with two players.
For flying/shooting games, there’s Gradius 3, which is one of the older SNES games, but still entertains me. Star Fox is a fun 3d space shooter. Pilotwings is a unique game…sort of like Microsoft Flight Simulator, but not as complicated.
For racing games, the big 3 for me are F-Zero, a futuristic racer, Super Mario Kart which just might be the funnest game ever made, and Uniracers, the second funnest game ever made.
MarioKart and Earthworm Jim were two of my favourite SNES titles.
Mostly to agree with what’s already been posted. The SNES has many of the best RPGs I’ve played, from an era when you couldn’t ignore a good story for graphics or over complicated mechanics. If you’re into RPGs do NOT skip Final Fantasy 2, Final Fantasy 3, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, or Earth Bound. If you’re still fiending, pick up Breath of Fire, Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest, or Super Mario RPG.
If you like adventure games, I’d say SNES definitely has some of the best 2D games. You CANNOT miss Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past or Super Metroid. Both of these games are easily in the top five ever made and their staying power is tremendous; I played through Zelda just over a year ago.
Some other games that aren’t unmissable, but probably worth playing would be Super Castlevania IV, Super Mario World, Star Fox, and Mario Kart. I’m sure that I’m missing several, but… oh well.
Secret of Evermore was not the sequel to Secret of Mana. It was just a game that happened to come out at around the right time to be the sequel and be published by Square.
The sequel to SoM was Seiken Densetsu 3, which was never released in the States.
F-Zero is the best game ever made for any system, ever, and if it had had a 2-player mode I’d probably be playing it right now- and forever. If you’ve tried the N64 and GameCube versions, don’t get the wrong idea; the original is a bajillion times better.
This is not much of an exaggeration. 
Maybe not so easy to play while pedaling an exercise bike though.
We just bought F-Zero at my apartment, and I must say it doesn’t live up to my memory. Part of the problem is, of course, that it’s only a 1 player game.
I’ve seen this a couple times, and it’s puzzling to me. I’ve played the original F-Zero and I have F-Zero 64 on the Wii’s Virtual Console. For me, the N64 version blows away the SNES version, which was itself pretty good. It has cleaner graphics and real 3D tracks rather than the pseudo Mode 7 stuff, without really taking anything away from the actual gameplay.
At the risk of causing a major hijack event, all that upside-downy stuff (being able to drive around the outside or inside or cylindrical sections of track) and the massive number of “zip zones” (or whatever they’re called- the arrow things that give you a huge speed boost) made the game way too arcadey and unrealistic.
I admit that rocket magneto-hovercraft racing isn’t exactly a particularly realistic premise to begin with. Still, the original game used more or less plausible physics and surprisingly realistic handling models; in most racing games until the 32/64 bit systems showed up, when you lifted off, the car’s line through a corner tightened, and when you hit the throttle again it understeered. In F-Zero, on the other hand, mid-corner adjustments could do all the things they can do in a real car- cause understeer, oversteer, massive tailslides, spins, etc.
That, and the story was much better in the original. There were four characters and each one had a story. In the sequels, there were about a bazillion characters and you didn’t know squat about them.
I didn’t say it was its ‘sequel’. I said ‘successor’. Square used the “Secret of” part to cash in on the popularity of Mana.
Fair enough. I’m not interested in getting into an uproar over it. I found the N64 version to give a better sense of speed and immersion; I tend not to care if the physics are real or not as long as I can work with them. I’ll stop hijacking now.
Earthbound, Earthbound, Earthbound, Earthbound, EARTHBOUND!!!
Sorry. Got carried away.
There was a game I used to play with my friend was really cool, maybe someone will remember it for you, I’ll describe it:
I vaguely remember a glowing ball bouncing around the stage you could choose from multiple characters (I think, if you COULD they were superficial anyway). When the ball came near you, you pressed a button and you spun, bouncing the ball away. Doing this you brok blocks and killed enemies, hit switches etc. If the ball hit you without spinning, or fell of the bottom of the screen you died. If it went off the top you advanced to the next screen. There were definately bosses, one of them (the third?) I remember (I was little so it may not be accurate) something vaguely resembling a tiger in (American) football gear, I know it at least had a claw swipe attack.
I really wish I remembered the name of it though…
I’ll chime in another vote for Earthbound! There’s a huge spoilerific article about why it’s one of the greatest games ever made here, if you don’t want to devote the hours to playing the game, as it features/parodies the hardcore JRPG style of unforgiving combat.
Besides the oft-mentioned requisite games, Chrono Trigger and Super Metroid, I’d also say Yoshi’s Island is a great one. There were a lot of hokey platformers in that era of gaming, but Yoshi’s Island is still probably the best I’ve ever played.
Someone on another board also reminded me of E.V.O.: End of Evolution, a 2D action-RPG by Enix where you spend experience points to alter different parts of your body - larger horns will do more ramming damage, but might slow you down. You start in the sea, evolve enough to beat the boss there, then hop up on land and grow legs to start a whole new series of possible evolutions. Now I’m willing to say it can be called a very limited version of Spore, but it’s great variety for something that involves leveling up.
You stole my post! (Honestly. I was just going to say Earthbound several times in a row.)
Play it. And then, if you like the music, there is a huge online community that has remixed all of it very adeptly. It’s truly amazing. Yep, I’m part of the cult.
WOW, I missed a lot of games on the SNES the first time around. I gotta get out to the used video game places and see what I can find.
Thanks again for the suggestions!