Compared to video game endings on the NES, the Super Nintendo stepped things up a bit. Thanks to the power of 16-bit, devs were able to do much more; ending cutscenes became longer and, similarly to arcade games, a lot of them showed us the best moments and characters of the game in looped sequences and also put an end to the story with some spectacular pixel art.
Let’s open up the SNES’ giant game library and see what games were the most successful in squeezing out the best looking, funniest and most memorable video game endings.
Spoilers ahead!!!
Contra III: The Alien Wars
Super Mario World
Earthworm Jim
Gradius III
E.V.O.: Search For Eden
Final Fight 3 (Haggar’s ending)
Sunset Riders
Knights of the Round
Weaponlord
Super Metroid
Death and Return of Superman
Mega Man X
Top Gear 2
Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting
Spider-Man & Venom: Maximum Carnage
UN Squadron
Earthbound
Star Fox
Shaq Fu
Aladdin
Actraiser 2
Final Fantasy VI
Comments
44 responses to “The Best SNES Endings”
Side note: Best Boss Music on the SNES.
Super Mario World 2, Big Bowser’s music. Having a song that sounds like it was inspired by Metal in a Mario game was amazing. I still chuck that game into my SNES just to hear that song.
I shall 1-up you with this gem from a wholly underrated game that incidentally also has an ending that should be on this list
Mystic Quest
This is simply amazing.
It’s a pity that game doesn’t really get a lot of recognition (largely due to the fact I think that in the US it was called Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, so it got a lot of comparisons with the actual FF games, and that it, well, wasn’t all that good). It was the first real JRPG I played and it was kinda the perfect intro for me to the genre, because it was fairly simplistic.
The music though was fantastic, and I still remember the boss fight music.
I liked it for some of the ideas it implemented in order to move away from the traditional JRPG formula, changing world landscape, using weapons to progress, enemy damage visible etc, things that , yes, dumbed down the game and I will give it that but it still holds a place in my most enjoyable games when I was about 8 😛
No Zelda3??? Are you guys insane??? :0
No Chrono Trigger….. Madness.
That too. But which ending??
Secret of Mana wasn’t bad either.
The secret developer team ending was great! … Oh bloody hell they were all great 🙁
No love for Donkey Kong?!?!? Aw 🙁
As much as I enjoy these nostalgic “best of” articles, could you possibly add video links or even an explanation on what makes them the best snes endings?
What? And write an article?
I agree that they should at least have a short text description of why that ending was chosen. Really not much of an ‘article’ just having a seemingly random collection of pictures
No Diddy’s Kong Quest?
Man, that walk out of every enemy in the game with that music? Soooooo goooooood!!!
The one at the end of the original DKC was probably better, due to the…altercation…between Donkey and Diddy at the end of it.
The ending of DKC3 where it goes around taking photos of all of the characters is also pretty cool.
Despite those things DKC2 was the best game in the series overall though.
Yeah, DKQ is one of my alltime favourite games.
That music in the ending just send schills down my spine (the good kind)
I give you a thousand rad points for your opinions on DKQ and its music. You can’t spend them, they’re more of a collectable item.
Also, have a listen at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lj4iss5zij4
The best track in the series imo is from the Bramble Blast level in DKC2 and I also agree DKC2 is the best of the series followed by DKC1.
Love Bramble Blast. There’s a super nice remix of it on OCRemix too.
Very true. Stickerbush Symphony is top tier.
Forest Interlude is right up there, too.
YES. The true ending for DKC2 (after you’ve completed every single bonus level and fought K.Rool in his secret Lost World hideout) was GORGEOUS.
Just seeing DK, Diddy and Dixie (with her hair flying with the wind) looking at the sunset and Krem Isle crumbling into oblivion was a breathtaking scene!
http://www.dkwiki.com/images/thumb/d/d7/DKC2END.jpg/240px-DKC2END.jpg
Oh maaaan, I’d forgotten about that!
I never found the bonus coin in Web Woods and had to use a code to see that.
Flashback..
..was the first game I came across that had a “bad” ending. You beat the boss but your engines fail on your way home, you’re then just drifting aimlessly in space, likely to starve to death. Best ending ever.Hi
Would you mind spoiler tagging that?
No shit, I’m actually part way through a play of that on an emulator because I only ever hired it as a kid and didn’t get very far. Also, the HD remake is due fairly soonish and I wouldn’t want anyone else to have the ending spoiled 🙂
This is an article discussing video game endings, what did you expect to see in the comments?
And in fairness the game IS more than 20 years old.
I explained myself.
Again I need to ask you, what did you expect to see in the comments of this story? People discussing their favourite hamburgers?
KFC’s Zinger Burger. The Supercharged variant is pretty nice too, I hope they bring that back again soon.
Over at Hungry Jacks it would have to be the Spicy Cheese and Bacon Tendercrisp. Mmmm, spicy.
I guess I just like spicy things.
I’ll second you on the Zinger burger.
Never been a fan of Hungry Jacks though.
Don’t be a dick – Jimu was plenty amicable about it and he wasn’t talking to you.
Sorry man, figured anyone who was going to play it had played it already and forgot about the HD remake. Fixed
Cheers guy 🙂
What, no Chrono Trigger! That had an epic tear inducing ending.
Which was the epic tear inducing one again? It’s been a while and I never saw all the eleven or so different ending possibilities :p
The one where Marle is running towards Chrono if you never revived him. Hope Jimu isn’t playing Chrono Trigger for the first time!
Knights of the round! Now there is something I haven’t played in decades and completely forgot about!
No Terranigma? Or is this a Seppo article?
Scrolled down here specifically to make sure at least someone was mentioning Terranigma. Man that was bittersweet – the ultimate culmination of Quintet’s ‘Illusions trilogy’ and a real send-off for the hero
By far the longest ending and quite thought provoking too for the day was “Illusion of Time”, I think from memory it was about 20mins long and is still by far one of the most impressive endings ive ever seen.
The game was unbelievably awesome too, cant believe not many people have played it…
+1
Freedan…
That was a game I freakin’ adored. On an earlier article I read about games you had problems letting go of, Illusion of Time was the one that stood out in my mind.
And the ending wasn’t long for the sake of being long either. It was a very sad boy who learned about letting go of characters in games that day.
Empowerment was very different in that game. The transformation into Knight form was something I hadn’t come across yet. Most of the time, you had to be agile. All of a sudden, you were a weapon. Thanks for the memories.
Why didn’t more people play this?
that ‘E.V.O.: Search For Eden’ screenshot looks a lot like a part of the last level in the SNES version of Prince of Persia (Konami) … where if you go right at the start of that long corridor you can look out a window at the night sky, see a falling star (which I’m not sure if it’s supposed to represent an impending death), and then, if you wait a little while, an image of the princess appears. That was the easily the best version of Prince of Persia if you ask me.
Chrono Trigger was absolutely made for this kind of article, and you pass it up? For shame.
Is this a list of best endings or simply a list of “endings”?
Anyway to add to the list – Super Mario RPG and Illusion of Gaia.
You rate “Alladin” above these 2 legendary games??
SPOILERS!