Best Arcade Games on the SNES

The arcade games worth playing on the Super Nintendo start with Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country, Street Fighter II.

The SNES and Arcade Games

The best-balanced 16-bit library there is. The SNES is where the NES generation's ideas got room to breathe, and where the Japanese RPG became a genre people outside Japan cared about.

Arcade Games are a solid rather than a defining part of this library — worth knowing, but not the reason anybody owns the machine.

Filtering to arcade means you want short runs and a score, not a campaign. It is the right filter when what you liked was the one-more-go feeling.

The Arcade Games Worth Playing

  1. 1. Super Mario World

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  2. 2. Donkey Kong Country

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  3. 3. Street Fighter II

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  4. 4. Super Mario Kart

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  5. 5. Mortal Kombat II

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  6. 6. Mega Man X

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  7. 7. Star Fox

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  8. 8. F-Zero

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  9. 9. Contra III

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  10. 10. Top Gear

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  11. 11. Killer Instinct

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  12. 12. Rock n Roll Racing

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  13. 13. Super Punch-Out

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

What Makes a Good Arcade Game

A complete experience in twenty minutes, and a skill you keep. Arcade design is measured in the moment after you lose.

Story and progression. Arcade games repeat on purpose, and if you want to be pulled somewhere they will not do it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best arcade game on the SNES?

Super Mario World is the usual first answer, and there are 13 in the library we cover.

Was the SNES good at arcade games?

It is a solid rather than a defining part of the library.

Why are arcade games so hard?

They were designed to end. A machine that let you play for an hour on one coin did not earn its floor space, so difficulty was the business model.

Do arcade games still get made?

Constantly, mostly by small teams. Several of the best beat-em-ups and run-and-guns of the last decade are new games built on forty-year-old design rules.

How is this list put together?

From the games this site covers on the Super Nintendo, matched against hand-mapped gameplay categories rather than a storefront's genre tag. A page only exists where there are at least four, which is why some console and genre combinations have no page at all.

Arcade Games on Other Consoles

More From the SNES

Or browse the whole Super Nintendo library.