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.
Peripheral Vision: Interact Superpad for the SNES
It feels like I’ve made this Peripheral Vision article before, but I can’t find it on the site. I swear I did because for the longest time this controller was my go-to SNES controller. I have some weird idea in my brain that if I use cheap third-party controllers and put the wear and tear on them, that saves my real controllers. I guess this explains a lot of why I prefer cheap third-party controllers. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Super Famicom controller, but I don’t want to break it, even though I’m pretty sure it probably would still hold up much longer than the controllers I do use.
Wow that inlay around the buttons needs retrobrite.
The Interact Superpad for the SNES really was my favorite SNES controller for quite a long time. It’s such a good controller, plus it gave me the joy of owning a Super Nintendo controller with colored buttons that weren’t just bland lavender and purple. Somewhere along the way my Superpad had a run in with a child with a flat screwdriver, which seems to be a theme for things I pick up from thrift stores. After bringing it home, washing all the dead skin and soda out from all the cracks and cleaning the carbon pads this controller was ready for all that I could throw at it, and it responded really well.
I say really well because with almost every third-party SNES controller I’ve used there is something weird with the D-pad. Pressing down or up is almost always up and left or right, etc. and this controller was no exception. I made sure it wasn’t the carbon pads, it’s just the way the plastic D-pad was molded that gives it a chance of moving in a diagonal rather than strictly up or down. Even so, with a little bit of practice I was able to learn the right pressure to give and for the most part I could avoid the controller having issues. The Superpad, though, was the least offensive when it came to this issue, I’ve had other controllers that are far worse.
One of my favorite features of this controller is the convexed back that helps with grip. The weird design choice to not texture the plastic, but rather give it a big booty kind of baffles me, but it does feel great in the hands. Take that the way you will, I said what I said.
Look at the backside!
As previously stated this controller really was my go-to controller when I wanted to play SNES. I didn’t replace it because it became any less important to me, no. In fact I decided to go with some super cheap FC Twin controllers because the Superpad had become so important to me. I figured I would rather the wear and tear break down these cheap FC Twin controllers than a controller I really enjoy using. From time to time I’ll break out the old Interact Superpad and play a round of Tetris Attack or something simple, just to remember the good old days. It’s still a solid controller and I still enjoy using it. It’s just a simple, no frills, big booty SNES controller that does what it’s asked to do and does it very well.
Super Mario World: Still Super After All These Years?
The date is August 23, 1991 and North America is about to experience something completely new. Following the success of the Super Mario Bros. trilogy on the NES, Nintendo have created a new incarnation of the series for their brand new Super Nintendo console. Packed in with the console is a copy of Super Mario World, now a well established, and still much loved classic for the console. So much so that Nintendo re-released the game in a special All Stars + Super Mario World for the SNES, and subsequently almost every handheld console Nintendo has created since. How does Super Mario World hold up almost thirty years later? Tremendously well, to be honest.
Unlike my lack of chances to play Super Mario Kart I did play Super Mario World at Super Nintendo kiosks in stores. It was when the N64 kiosks were getting all the attention, but I did play Super Mario World, and I have played it quite often since. I own the game in a few variations, but I’ve been using my All Stars + Super Mario World cartridge most recently to fulfill my Super Mario World needs. Due to a mishap while trying to use my Super 8 all my progress was erased. Luckily it wasn’t the battery, so I chose to start all over and see how well this game still holds up.
Thanks to the power of the Super Nintendo this game has great graphics that still look great today. That, combined with more vibrant colors, helps Super Mario World shine from the second you press the start button. The game starts out very simple and allows you to learn the controls at a very nice pace while packing in a lot of fun along the journey. From starting off, all the way to learning why some level markers are red, there are plenty of fun surprised to find. Let’s not forget all the power ups, especially the new cape feature that helps you fly through some of the easier levels.
Speaking of levels, Super Mario World is packed with levels. Not only are there the basic levels you need to finish to get from start to Bowser’s castle, but you’ll also find some levels offer secret exits. Secret exits can open a shortcut on the world map, or open up an entirely new set of challenges. Star Road and Special World are hidden bonus levels within the world that within themselves hold additional levels to play. While most levels are short, some can be very easy and others can be a bit challenging. Nintendo seems to have added just the right balance between challenge and reward, as even the most challenging levels, I’ve found, kept me wanting to come back and try a little harder each time, rather than rage quit.
Super Mario World was the introduction of Yoshi as well. A variety of Yoshis can be found in different colored throughout the world, each being able to perform a different skill. In many cases you will find Yoshi to be either helpful or a hindrance. Yoshi gives you the ability to consume most enemies, but also provides an additional buffer between life and death, which comes in handy sometimes.
There is no question why Super Mario World is a much loved classic for the console. Even though some levels can be challenging it never took me very long to sit down, work out the best way to succeed and make it happen. The game still looks good today, and the controls are spot on. Nintendo really did a great job with this game. Super Mario Bros. 3 will always be my favorite of the Super Mario series, but Super Mario World is a very close second. Whatever console you choose to play Super Mario World on the fact is still the same, Nintendo absolutely got it right with this one. Now how does the sequel Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island hold up? Well that’s another story!
Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball for the SNES
As a kid I loved baseball games on the NES, well some of them. My first experience was LJN’s Major League Baseball and I actually enjoyed it, which gave way to R.B.I. Baseball and the Bases Loaded series. After a certain point I became burnt out on baseball video games and started to pursue more interactive games like RPGs. It wasn’t until I found Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball for the Super Nintendo at a thrift store, almost ten years ago, that I decided to give a Super Nintendo baseball game a try.
Before I get into the gameplay I want to talk about the condition in which I found this cartridge. The cartridge had duct tape on either side holding the poor thing together. The battery was somehow knocked off it’s tabs completely and left to rattle around inside. One of the top clips holding the cartridge together had been snapped off, or rather pushed in with a flat screwdriver, and one of the screws was not only missing but the surface it would contact on the front half of the cartridge was missing as well. There were pry marks on the top from what I’m assuming was the same screwdriver that pushed the top tab in and broke it off. Even some of the game board contacts were somehow mangled, but the game seems to work just fine with them in that condition. After some goo-gone and some TLC the game was put back together the best I possibly could. What this game did to its previous owner to deserve this is a mystery.
Now, as far as gameplay I’m actually ashamed I missed out on this game. Everything feels smooth and the game even has quite a bit of depth to it. You can play a regular game of baseball, or a whole season with the battery save option. Of course I can’t, until I replace the battery, but most likely your cartridge could. Maybe you just want to play an All-Star game, or just the home run derby. Or maybe you just want to skip all the hassle and go straight to the world series. You see, Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball is your oyster. Maybe that’s what the previous owner thought this cartridge was and took it too literally. Oh well.
While the teams of the MLB are represented here the only real player name in this game is Ken Griffey Jr. himself, while the rest of the roster are filled in with silly names, and even some well known names of people who aren’t associated with the MLB. This game plays much like I remember many of the first NES baseball video games I love played. Although I will say I was a bit put off at the complexity of the outfield. In the NES games I played you had to maneuver players in the outfield manually, but it never seemed like anyone was ever very far from the ball at any given time. I was initially frustrated at how long it seemed to take me to get a player to the ball, only to throw it to home far too late. Thankfully this can be changed from manual to automatic in the options, should you need to. As a matter of fact this game has a lot of options, even a manager mode.
The controls are smooth and everything feels like the baseball games that I loved on the NES, except with much better graphics and sounds. Which is another thing about this game, there are a lot of great voice clips from umpire calls to player reactions. Had I known this game was this fun I would have probably bought the game sooner, but then again had I already owned it would I have bothered to pick up the battered, broken and abused copy I own now? Maybe that’s just the way it was all meant to work out. Perhaps it was serendipity. I ended up saving a video game that might have likely been overlooked and tossed into the trash, and it taught me that Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball is actually a really fun baseball game.
Super Mario Kart for the Super Famicom
Super Mario Kart, the game that started the franchise, obviously. Although, as I’ve previously admitted, Super Mario Kart wasn’t where it all started for me. Super Mario Kart 64 was where I got my start and from there it was Double Dash and Mario Kart 7. All of which are really good games, but I really had to see, play and experience where the franchise officially broke ground. When I accidentally won a Super Famicom copy of Super Mario Kart on ebay I figured that was my chance, so here we go!
I started off by using the clear memory button combination so that all records would be my own. Even though I had never played the English version of the game before, navigating the menu was still fairly straight forward. There is a lot of Japanese text in this game, because it’s the Super Famicom version, but I never had any problems getting started. I started off with the 50cc class and it honestly took me a little bit to acclimate to the controls. Each track has a different feel, different traction and different pitfalls. Once I figured out how to maneuver each track I actually found that it wasn’t very challenging, but it was still very good fun.
After I had won the cup for all three series in the 50cc class I decided to try my hand at 100cc. This is where the challenge started to really ramp up. I understood that each coin increased the speed of my kart, but the ability to collect them, and retain them, was more of a challenge, as well as the fact the competition seem to have honed their skills since I defeated them all in the 50cc class. Needless to say I am still working on the 100cc class, but I am having a good time learning the tracks and doing better each time I try.
Facing defeat in the 100cc class has taught me that placing anywhere below third will cost me a life, of which I start out with three and can earn extra lives. The question blocks are clearly secret weapons that can be used, although I find the red shell doesn’t always hit the person I want it to hit when I thought that was its sole purpose. And don’t get me started on how second place seems to have an endless supply of their personalized secret weapons, and they know exactly how and when to use them. Ah yes, the old turbo start, something that I thought I had down from playing the other Mario Kart games, but for Super Mario Kart it is very hit or miss, but it’s still in there.
My only real complaint, and it might just be me and my aging eyes, is that some of the tracks spinning around in Mode 7 give me a headache. Back in the day the mode 7 stuff really looked great, but some tracks have textures that are really jagged and flash that my eyes and brain just can’t handle. Most of the tracks are perfectly fine, but there are a handful that hurt my eyes and give me a headache.
Now that I now own some form of Super Mario Kart I’m really sad that young me never got the chance to experience Super Mario Kart. Sure I saw people playing it, sure I thought about it from time to time, but it never fell into place like I had hoped it would. I thought surely a copy of the game would have popped up in a thrift store or flea market for a couple bucks, but somehow it never did. Maybe because it’s genuinely a really good game that has held it’s play value and nobody around here wants to get rid of it. Regardless of the reason I’m glad it panned out this way as I now own the Super Famicom version and I’m super glad I do.
Confession: I’ve Never Played Super Mario Kart
It’s true, until this year (2021) I had never really played Super Mario Kart. I can remember watching other kids playing it at the Super Nintendo kiosks in Sears or Walmart, but I never got a turn. I didn’t personally own an SNES until 2001, and to be honest playing Super Mario Kart wasn’t a top priority back then. When I started hunting for video games in my adulthood Super Mario Kart didn’t cross my path as much as you might think. It did pop up from time to time in retail stores, for a retail price, but I always held out hope that I would run across it at a thrift store or flea market for much cheaper. I figured what fun is hunting a game if it’s trapped behind glass at a retail price?
Many seemingly ubiquitous games such as A Link to the Past and Super Mario 64 all gave me the slip when it came to tracking them down in the wild. Of course I want to add them to my collection but it was rare to see a copy of them sitting in a flea market booth or on a thrift store shelf at a reasonable price. Well, sometimes you have to bite the bullet and just get things done, and that’s why I chose to buy Super Mario Kart off ebay. To be more accurate I placed an on a whim bid for a Super Famicom version of Super Mario Kart and ended up winning it for a fraction of the price of a US version of the game. I honestly didn’t think I would win so I placed the minimum bid and let it go, only to be informed a few hours later that I had won the auction. When it arrived I was pretty excited to give it a try, as I honestly didn’t know what to expect. As I said previously I’ve seen Super Mario Kart being played and I do own, and have played, many of the other games in the series, but not THE Super Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo, or in this case Super Famicom.
When it comes to playing import games on my North American Super Nintendo I have two ways to approach it. First I can use my Super 8 which offers no restrictions on cartridge regions whatsoever, but it’s not something everyone will have laying around. My second choice is to take a cheap game like Madden 95 and just swap the ROM boards. This allows the Super Famicom game to be played inside the North American console without any modifications while also giving the finger to a Madden game. After a quick Google search I found there really isn’t much different about the Super Famicom version, short of the Japanese text and some things Nintendo of America decided needed to be censored in the US version. I just used the clean memory code on the title screen and away I went. How do I like Super Mario Kart? Well that’s a story for another day.
Road Riot 4WD: What the Heck?
Since I spent most of 2020 with my N64 I decided 2021 would be the year I spent a little more time with my SNES. I initially embarked on an attempt to figure out where I had left off in Breath of Fire some 16 years ago, which ended up with me using the Game Genie to set earned EXP to max and grinding for levels without any real resolution to the original goal. After I gave the Donkey Kong Country series and Super Mario World + All Stars a fairly good run I realized I wanted a racing game. Which SNES racing classic would I choose? Would it be Super Mario Kart, F-Zero, Rock n Roll Racing, Stunt Racer FX, Top Gear 2, Super Chase HQ or maybe even Lamborghini American Challenge? Nope, it was Road Riot 4WD, and it was a mistake.
I had acquired this game almost 10 years ago in my SNES Jr. Score. I vaguely remember trying this game out after purchasing the lot, just to see if it worked, but I don’t remember actually sitting down and giving it a thorough playing. Or maybe my brain has repressed that memory. With my brain expecting something more akin to the aforementioned SNES race game classics, I was not in any way prepared for whatever the heck Road Riot 4WD is. Firstly the screen is always split, as if I had selected two player mode. I did not. Secondly the game lags so much I don’t see how this even passed quality control testing.
Road Riot 4WD was originally an arcade racing game developed by Atari in 1991, and later ported to the SNES. Players are tasked with controlling a weaponized dune buggy and competing against three other dune buggies, who are also weaponized, in various races from around the world. The game starts out with a very basic test track that, even with this game being a lagfest, is almost impossible to lose on. After that you will have the choice of picking from eleven additional tracks in order to win the championship. These locations include: Africa, Antarctica, Australia, Baja Mexico, California, Iowa, Las Vegas, New Jersey, Ohio, Saudi Arabia and the Swiss Alps.
Races last three laps, with the exception of the beginning test race. Each track has a different layout and is filled to the brim with things to throw you off the pace, which can vary from your basic bumps, jumps and potholes to the many off-track hazards such as cows, boulders, trees, spectators and even pickup trucks parked half way onto the track itself. If it wasn’t already bad enough this game is severely laggy, the competition can shoot what look like paintballs at you that will slow you down and mess you up even further.
Now I know there are many SNES games that are far from perfect, but when it comes to Road Riot 4WD it takes me a little bit to adjust to the lag, and on some tracks I can not adjust at all, even on Rookie mode. For me this game isn’t very fun, although I guess it’s not a total waste, it’s just not as smooth as other SNES racing game can be. If the game wasn’t as laggy as it is maybe this could have been a great battle racer, but as it stands I really don’t know how this game ever made it to store shelves in this state.
