Project Scope

My goal for this project has changed over time. Initially it was to review every SNES game. Once that was complete, I set out to review every 16-bit cartridge-based game released in North America for the major consoles, namely:

• Super Nintendo Entertainment System
• Sega Genesis
• NEC TurboGrafx-16

Finally, I decided to close out the project by reviewing all CD games and anything else playable by an English speaker, which meant adding the following:

• Super Famicom
• SNES PAL
• Mega Drive PAL
• Sega CD
• Sega CD PAL
• NEC PC Engine
• NEC PC Engine SuperGrafx
• NEC TurboGrafx-16 CD
• NEC PC Engine CD 

For the PAL and Japan region titles, I included everything in English, with a translation patch, and games without much of a language barrier.

Excluded were the niche consoles (Philips CD-i, Sega Pico, Panasonic LaserActive), the arcade-at-home NeoGeo, all handhelds (Game Boy, Sega Game Gear, Atari Lynx, etc.), and all PCs (DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, NEC, et al).

It’s also worth noting that many unlicensed and homebrew games have been released for these consoles. None of these games were included. Also excluded were official releases made in recent years that aren’t officially playable on original hardware, such as StarFox 2, Nightmare Busters, Trials of Mana, Ultracore, and Pier Solar. Finally, I omitted the hundreds of fan-made rom hacks, many which rival the quality of those official licensed titles.

Breakdown by console

Super Nintendo

I reviewed a total of 715 SNES games. According to Wikipedia, 723 officially-licensed titles were released in North America.

Eight games were not reviewed:

• Chavez
• Chavez II
• The Miracle Piano Teaching System
• M.A.C.S. Basic Rifle Marksmanship
• Donkey Kong Country: Blockbuster World Video Game Championship II
• Nintendo Campus Challenge 1992
• Nintendo PowerFest '94
• Star Fox: Super Weekend

The Chavez titles were released only in Mexico and are reskinned versions of Riddick Bowe Boxing and Boxing Legends of the Ring, respectively. M.A.C.S. and Miracle Piano, aren’t “games” by any stretch of the imagination and also can’t be played without the dedicated rifle or keyboard peripherals. Forgive me for not hunting down that hardware to review those titles. That was not...going...to happen.

The four Championship carts are also not "games" but are instead compilations of cut-down versions of one or more full SNES titles.

Super Famicom

I reviewed 450 Japan-exclusive releases for the Super Famicom. Over 200 of them had translation patches.

Super NES PAL

Europe saw only 39 English-friendly exclusives for the SNES. I reviewed them all.

Sega Genesis

I reviewed a total of 704 Genesis games. According to Wikipedia, 717 titles were released in North America.

The 704 number includes all nine titles which released only on the Sega Channel service but excludes the nine crappy unlicensed titles from Wisdom Tree and Realtec.

I also left out collections like the 6-Pak, Sonic Classics, Triple Score, and The Disney Collection, since they are simple compilations without any changes to the included games.

Sega Mega Drive

Sega had less success in Japan as Nintendo and NEC, so there were only 94 Japan-exclusive releases for the Mega Drive. Less than 25 of them had translation patches.

Sega Mega Drive PAL

The Mega Drive sold well in Europe, but the PAL region received only a few more English-friendly exclusives (51) that the SNES (39).

NEC TurboGrafx-16

According to Wikipedia there were only 94 TG-16 HuCard games released in North America and I reviewed every one of them.

NEC PCE Engine

There were over 600 games released for Japan's version of the TurboGrafx-16. Needless to say, it found far more success in Nippon than it did in the West. Only 156 HuCards are playable by an English-speaker, including fewer than 30 with a translation patch. Hey modders, where's the love for the PCE?

NEC PCE Engine SuperGrafx

NEC's doomed PC Engine successor only has 5 titles. They're all here.

Sega CD / Mega Drive CD

Sega's ill-fated Genesis/Mega Drive add-on receive only about 200 total releases. I reviewed 141 released in North America, 12 exclusive to Japan, and another 5 from the PAL region, for a total of 158.

I left out a handful of titles that aren't games (see The Animals!, Colors of Modern Rock, and Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia), plus the Sega Classics Arcade Collection 5-in-1, since it's a simple compilations of already-reviewed Genesis games.

NEC TurboGrafx-16 CD / PC Engine CD

The library of games for TurboGrafx-16 CD and Japan-only PC Engine CD edges out the Sega CD in quantity (163 to 158), but far exceeds it in terms of quality.

While only 44 TG-16 CD games were ever released, many hundreds of games were published for the PC Engine CD. Sadly, only 119 were playable, including less than a dozen translations! Numerous games were left out, including visual novels and other NSFW titles from the console's library.