Classic Edition 68 x 1 Super Nintendo Multicart
I’ve been a fan of multicarts and clone consoles for quite a while now, but my knowledge of them was solely based in the NES/Famiclone realm. With the vintage video game hobby still growing and technology to produce and reproduce cartridges for these consoles becoming cheaper it was only a matter of time before multicarts would be come more ubiquitous than they already were. After the Super Nintendo multicarts were brought to my attention I started looking at the games lists and noticed the higher the number, the lower the quality of games. I’m not saying a 150 in 1 wouldn’t have anything worth playing, but the number of games worth playing went down substantially as the number of games went up.
I set out on a journey of sorts, researching which games were on which multicart, as well as reading many product reviews. I narrowed the copious amount of multicarts down to one, the Classic Edition 68 x 1. This one seemed to pack the most bang for your buck into one SNES cartridge. This multicart offers many classics including Contra 3, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Final Fantasy 2 and 3, Secret of Mana, all three Donkey Kong Country games, Mega Man X, Chrono Trigger, the list goes on and on.
The cartridge itself is a honey color with golden flakes and feels identical to a genuine SNES cartridge. I was concerned the cartridge would be made from cheap plastic and just disintegrate while pushing it into the console, so it was a pleasant surprise that wasn’t the case. The label, which is just a mishmash of characters thrown together, isn’t bad but it’s very bland in terms of design. The clearly fake Nintendo seal of quality just adds the right touch of this is totally wrong to the overall presentation. There is also a well made reproduction of the warning label on the back of the cartridge, but they did leave the Nintendo logo space blank.
Given all the games on this cartridge the PCB looks surprisingly like one for a very basic SNES game. I imagine that’s another advantage of today’s technology allowing them to pack more functions into smaller spaces on a newly manufactured board. This leads me to have mixed feelings about the battery backup though. I assumed by now games like this should be able to save to memory on the cartridge, but at least it’s included, functional and has an easy to change battery holder.
In my past experience a cartridge that claims to have 68 games will actually only have ten or twenty and just repeat games or direct to certain levels, etc. This cartridge actually has 68 unique games and offers a few surprises as well. I’ve compiled a list of what the cartridge claims to have and what the games actually are below.
Cartridge Title Actual Game
ActRaiser 2 ActRaiser 2
ActRaiser ActRaiser
Aladdin Aladdin
AlienPredator Alien vs Predator
Arkanoid Arkanoid Doh it Again
BatmanReturns Batman Returns
Bomberman 2 Super Bomberman 2
Bomberman Super Bomberman
BreathFire 1 Breath of Fire
BreathFire 2 Breath of Fire 2
Castlevania DX Castlevania Dracula X
Castlevania IV Super Castlevania IV
Chrono Chrono Trigger
Columns Columns
Contra III Contra III The Alien Wars
Donkey Kong 1 Donkey Kong Country
Donkey Kong 2 Donkey Kong Country 2
Donkey Kong 3 Donkey Kong Country 3
Earthbound Earthbound
Earthworm Jim 2 Earthworm Jim 2
Fatal Fury 2 Fatal Fury 2
Final Fight 3 Final Fight 3
Final Fight Final Fight
Final Fantasy III Final Fantasy III (NA) / Final Fantasy VI (Japan)
Final Fantasy II Final Fantasy II (NA) / Final Fantasy IV (Japan)
Final Fantasy IV Final Fantasy IV Easy Type (FF II in NA)
Goof Troop Goof Troop
Gradius III Gradius III
Harvest Moon Harvest Moon
Home Alone Home Alone
Hunt Red Hunt for Red October
Illusion Illusion of Gaia
Indiana Jones Indiana Jones’ Greatest Adventures
JamesBond Jr James Bond Jr.
Killer Killer Instinct
Lion King The Lion King
Lufia II Lufia II Rise of the Sinistrals
Magical Quest Magical Quest: Starring Mickey Mouse
Mario All Star Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World
Mario World Super Mario World: Return to Dinosaur Land
Mega Man VII Mega Man 7
Mega Man X Mega Man X
Metroid Super Metroid
MortalKombat 3 Mortal Kombat 3
MortalKombat 2 Mortal Kombat II
MortalKombat 1 Mortal Kombat
Ninja Mystical Legend of the Mystical Ninja
Ogre Battle Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen
Pac Attack Pac-Attack
Pac Man Pacman
Prince Persia Prince of Persia
R-Type Super R-Type
Secret Mana Secret of Mana
SFighter II Turbo Street Fight II: Turbo
Sim City SimCity
Street Combat Street Combat
Sunset Riders Sunset Riders
Super Mario Super Mario World
Tales Phantasia Tales of Phantasia
Terranigma Terranigma
Tom & Jerry Tom and Jerry
Top Gear 2 Top Gear 2
Top Gear 1 Top Gear
Turrican 2 Super Turrican 2
Turrican 1 Super Turrican
Turtles TMNT Tournament Fighters
Turtles IV TMNT IV Turtles in Time
Zelda Link The Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past
During preliminary testing all the games loaded just fine and generally load up within a few seconds, although loading times do vary from game to game. I did run across a few reviews that mentioned some games not loading at all, but it seems these problems are usually found on SNES clone consoles and not the genuine Super Nintendo consoles. I have to add the caveat that obviously I could not test all the games thoroughly, as many of them are either long, epic adventures or RPGs. More problems might creep up in the future as I’m playing the games more in depth, but the few games I have given substantial play time to seem just fine so far.
If you thought this review was going to be all sunshine and cuddly puppies and kittens you’d be wrong. Some games, such as Earthworm Jim 2 and Harvest Moon are missing some of their sound effects. Missing sound effects is a bit annoying, but otherwise these games seem perfectly playable. Mega Man 7 seems to be the only real fatality on the cartridge. The game seems to think my controller is a turbo controller and stutters when I attempt to jump or shoot the mega buster. Every so often I could do a full jump and shoot about four shots in a row, but what fun is Mega Man 7 with unpredictable jumps and shooting? I did check Mega Man X just to see if it was plagued with the same issue and it seems perfectly playable without any issues whatsoever. The aforementioned bugs might not be the only ones, as I am unfamiliar with a lot of these games and can’t guarantee elements from other games aren’t missing as well.
So is the Classic Edition 68 x 1 worth the price? Well after purchasing mine from Amazon I found it for under half the price on Aliexpress, should you prefer to buy it there. Putting the price aside I’m actually fairly pleased with what this cartridge offers. No, not all 68 games are classics, but most of them are. The only game breaking bug being in Mega Man 7, which really is a disappointment but otherwise everything else seems to work just fine. For the price of this cartridge you save a lot of money in what it offers. Even if you already own some of the heavy hitters on this cartridge you’re saving wear and tear on them, while still getting to play the game on SNES hardware. That fact alone, I think, makes it well worth the investment.