The SNES isn’t just the best Nintendo console of all time; it’s also home to an amazing number of classic games, underrated gems, and, most importantly for our purposes today, games that never got the sequel they earned.
Most of the time, there are business reasons why some games don’t get sequels, but that doesn’t stop fans from wanting more of a certain experience or even a second chance to do things right.
Fans have been holding their breath for some of these games for a long time.
Before we get into this list of SNES games that begged for a sequel, it’s important to note that while we’ll mostly be talking about games that never got a sequel, a few of these games did get sequels that weren’t very good or haven’t been touched in over 20 years.
- 18. Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen
- 17. F-Zero
- 16. Assault Suits Valken (Cybernator)
- 15. The Adventures of Batman and Robin
- 14. Saturday Night Slam Masters
- 13. Super Star Wars Trilogy
- 12. Mario Paint
- 11. U.N. Squadron
- 10. Skyblazer
- 9. Sunset Riders
- 8. Weaponlord
- 7. Uniracers
- 6. Secret of Evermore
- 5. Kirby’s Dream Course
- 4. Illusion of Gaia
- 3. Super Mario RPG
- 2. Demon’s Crest
- 1. Chrono Trigger
18. Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen
This strategy RPG is one of the best Super Nintendo games that not many people know about.
Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen was the first game in the Ogre Battle series and is thought to be one of the best.
However, it was the only Ogre Battle game for the Super Nintendo that was sold outside of Japan.
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together is another game in the Ogre Battle series. It was made for the Japanese Super Famicom and plays more like Final Fantasy Tactics than the first game.
There was a cult following for Ogre Battle, and it’s a shame that the Super Nintendo only had one game. In Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber, you can find a full follow-up to the game.
17. F-Zero
Since the first game came out on the Super Nintendo in 1990, there have been a lot of fans of the F-Zero series.
So it’s not too surprising that people were upset that the system never got a true sequel.
There were two add-ons for F-Zero, but they were only available in Japan on the Super Famicom’s Satellaview, which was a satellite connection that let you download games and add-ons to your Super Nintendo.
But even though there were expansions and other F-Zero games on other platforms, the original console never got a real sequel.
16. Assault Suits Valken (Cybernator)
Assault Suits Valken, or Cybernator outside of Japan, was a Sega Genesis game that was a prequel to Target Earth.
This mech-based game is part of a series that has six games on seven different platforms, but none of the games have a straight sequel on the same console.
Assault Suits Valken was the second game to come out, but it is the first game in the series’ storyline.
It came out for the SNES in 1992, and Assault Suits Valken 2 came out for the PlayStation seven years later.
If you like robot games that move from side to side, you should check this one out.
15. The Adventures of Batman and Robin
Even though I like the Genesis version of this game a little better, this underrated SNES beauty was still a beat-em-up made by Konami when the company was at its best in that genre.
Even better, it was based on Batman: The Animated Series, which many people think is the best version of Batman ever made.
So why wasn’t there a second part?
It wasn’t perfect, and Konami may have had trouble keeping the rights, but considering how much the company’s TMNT games got better over time, it’s hard not to wonder what Konami could have done if they had been able to build on this brilliant combination of a well-adapted world and nearly perfect gameplay.
14. Saturday Night Slam Masters
Even though I like the Genesis version of this game a little better, this underrated SNES beauty was still a beat-em-up made by Konami when the company was at its best in that genre.
Even better, it was based on Batman: The Animated Series, which many people think is the best version of Batman ever made.
So why wasn’t there a second part?
It wasn’t perfect, and Konami may have had trouble keeping the rights, but considering how much the company’s TMNT games got better over time, it’s hard not to wonder what Konami could have done if they had been able to build on this brilliant combination of a well-adapted world and nearly perfect gameplay.
13. Super Star Wars Trilogy
This entry is a bit of a cheat because it blends three games into one and doesn’t take into account the fact that we’ve gotten a lot more Star Wars games since these came out.
Still, what I really want is a new trio of games that play and look like these classics, which are very hard.
I’d love for a modern developer (probably someone in the Devolver Digital family) to make a Super Star Wars game that makes you want to throw your controller through the window and enjoy every minute of it.
12. Mario Paint
Even though Nintendo has made other weird games that put a lot of emphasis on player creativity (Mario Maker is probably the best recent example), they haven’t really gone back to this Super Mario spin-off that showed Nintendo fans everywhere that they were artists.
Mario Paint may seem simple by today’s standards, but that’s all the more reason for Nintendo to improve what was basically an educational game that figured out how to “gamify” learning long before it became a buzzword in the industry.
11. U.N. Squadron
There weren’t a lot of bad guns on the SNES, but U.N. Squadron always had something special about it.
Even though it was very hard, the game’s upgrade system, graphics, and amazing level design made it easy to deal with the difficulties.
Capcom always talks about going back to its old games and giving them new life, so why not make a “indie-style” sequel to this cult classic that has always earned another look?
10. Skyblazer
This little-known gem from the days of the SNES shows how spoiled we were back then to have so many great things to do.
Even though Skyblazer had great graphics, a great music, puzzles, platforming, and intense side-scrolling action, not many people ever played it.
Even a simple re-release of this underrated classic would be more than I could ask for, but the truth is that my heart is begging for a sequel, which is very doubtful.
9. Sunset Riders
Before Red Dead Redemption, this run-and-gun side-scrolling shooter was one of the most fun ways to visit the Old West, despite having a lot going for it.
Sunset Riders is set in the old west, which gives it a lot of weight.
However, it’s the shooter’s gameplay, which feels like a mix of Contra and a light gun shooter, that makes you wonder how it stayed relatively unknown for so long.
A sequel would help a lot to make sure that this game gets the attention it deserves.
8. Weaponlord
In the 1990s, it seemed like every game maker was trying to make the next great fighting game.
Even though most of these games weren’t as good as Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter, the sheer number of bad games made in the 2000s meant that some fighting games never got the chance to shine.
One of these games was Weapon Lord. This weapon-based fighting game is sometimes called the spiritual predecessor to Soul Edge/Soul Calibur.
Its surprisingly deep gameplay was paired with a unique art style that still stands out today.
It wasn’t perfect, but it’s easy to see how a sequel could have fixed almost all of the problems with this game.
7. Uniracers
Strange enough that it’s a racing game on unicycles, but what really makes this game stand out is its surprising speed and crazy tracks that put an emphasis on racing and tricks that are almost like stunts.
I even kind of like the weird ’90s vibe of this game.
If Uniracers had gotten the sequel it earned, so much more could have been done with this idea.
Since the company that made it, DMA Design, is now known as Rockstar North and doesn’t seem to be doing anything, I don’t see why they wouldn’t bring it back.
6. Secret of Evermore
It’s easy to mix this game with Secret of Mana and other games from the same time period, but Secret of Evermore was a unique action RPG that has been forgotten over the years for reasons that have nothing to do with how good the game was.
At a time when many fans wanted a Secret of Mana sequel, Secret of Evermore offered a similar but distinct gaming experience that was a little slower, a little stranger, and a little more complicated.
However, it may not have gotten the chance it deserved to really find its own identity and an audience.
I think that current gamers would be more open to the ideas in this game, but it would be much easier to prove that if there was a sequel.
5. Kirby’s Dream Course
Kirby’s Dream Course is one of those games where I think the license both helped and hurt it.
Even though Kirby’s name is attached to this project, which is basically a mix of golf and puzzle games (like Marble Madness), a lot of young gamers who took a chance on it thinking it would be more like a traditional Kirby game were left throwing their hands in the air.
But after all these years, it’s easier than ever to understand what Dream Course is trying to do.
This almost-zen experience forces you to use your brain to solve its hardest puzzles, but it keeps things light enough that you want to keep going even when you hit a wall.
Dream Course is worth another look even if a sequel is just a mobile game.
4. Illusion of Gaia
Illusion of Gaia was a SNES game that not everyone had, but the people who did usually talked about it all the time.
To be fair to those sometimes stubborn gamers, once you’ve tried Illusion of Gaia, it’s hard to forget about it.
Illusion of Gaia is an action role-playing game (ARPG), but sometimes it feels more like a more difficult version of a classic Legend of Zelda game.
It was easy to love, hard to forget, and surprising hard to play because of its amazing world, surprising story, fun action, and unique action/adventure ideas.
Even though this game is part of an unofficial trilogy, it has always needed a real follow-up.
3. Super Mario RPG
As a Super Nintendo game that came with a mouse, Mario Paint was truly a one-of-a-kind game.
There were titles that came out after the release that could utilize the mouse, but it was specifically made for Mario Paint.
This was quite an odd game because it really wasn’t much of one.
It had several modes where you could draw, create animations, compose music, color, and play a single minigame where you swatted flies, all of which gave it a lot of replayability.
Mario Paint was very gimmicky, but there was so much more that it could have been and that could have been shown in a sequel.
2. Demon’s Crest
There’s a story that sales of Demon’s Crest were so bad at one point that the book had negative sales because so many people sent it back.
It might not be much more than an urban legend, but it does show how badly this game did when it came out.
I still don’t know why Demon’s Crest wasn’t a big hit right away. This lovely gothic action game mixed Castlevania and Mega Man in a way that makes it easy to fall in love with.
It was a bit short, and some of its design elements were a bit confusing. It was the kind of game that almost begged for a follow-up, but it never got one.
1. Chrono Trigger
Even though I like Chrono Cross, which came out in 1999, I can see why many people don’t like it.
I think once someone called it a great game and a bad sequel, which is a good way to describe how it stood out while ignoring many of the things that made the famous original one of the best RPGs of all time.
So, yes, I’m still one of the many people who want a “proper” follow-up to Chrono Trigger.
Even though a “dream team” of developers made Chrono Trigger probably the best JRPG of the golden age of JRPGs, it’s almost impossible to finish this game and not want more.