5 Facts Only Super Fans Know About Super Nintendo

Happy Birthday Nintendo!

The Super Nintendo turned 25 years old this week! August 23, 1991 kids in North America were introduced to the familiar grey and purple console that adorned many living rooms for years to come.

Nintendo Created It’s Own Competition

Toward the end of the Super Nintendo’s life they struck up a partnership with Sony to develop a disc player that could plug into the bottom of your Super Nintendo. The device was called the Nintendo Playstation, but after Nintendo decided to make a deal with Panasonic to license popular Nintendo characters for Panasonic games, the deal fell through with Sony. Sony then launched the Playstation on their own.

Launch Titles

When the Super Nintendo arrived on store shelves there were only five games available to buy!

   – F-Zero: A futuristic hover craft racing game

   – Gradius 3: A space battle game

   – Pilotwings: A flight simulator game

   – SimCity: A city design/building game

   -Super Mario World: The follow up to Mario Bros 3

Super Famicom

The Super Nintendo was actually NOT a new console when it launched in North America. The Super Famicom (Family Computer) was launched almost a year earlier in Japan.

Yellowing

A common problem with Super Nintendo systems was as they aged either the top panel, the bottom, panel, or sometimes both, began to yellow. This is caused by a reaction between oxygen and a fire-retardant solution inside of the plastic on certain manufacturing runs.

Paul Rudd starred in a SNES commercial

Funny-man Paul Rudd got an early career break by starring in a Nintendo commercial.