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SNES vs DS: Including imports but excluding BC and SNES ports/remakes on DS, which system has the better library?

Which system has the better library?

  • SNES

    Votes: 252 60.6%

  • DS (without GBA BC)

    Votes: 164 39.4%
  • Total voters
    416
Discontent

Discontent

Member
May 25, 2018
4,232
Sorry for the list-heavy thread but let's see which system prevails as arguably the two best Nintendo legacy systems battle it out. Both have phenomenal libraries and I'm sure are loved by almost (there's always that one person lol) everyone here.

A few interesting matchups (SNES/DS):
Contra 3 Vs 4
Mega Man X series Vs Mega Man Zero Collection and ZX/Advent
Mario RPG Vs Mario and Luigi titles
Dragon Quest V and VI Vs IV and IX
Super Mario Kart Vs Mario Kart DS
Kirby Super Star Vs Canvas Curse

Games that tip the balance towards SNES :
Super Metroid
Donkey Kong Country trilogy
Super Mario World/Yoshi's Island
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy 4/5/6
Zelda ALTTP
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo/Alpha 2
Killer Instinct
Fire Emblem IV and V
Bomberman series
Shadowrun
Lion King/Aladdin
Axelay
Super Aleste
U.N. Squadron
F Zero
Super Castlevania IV
Zombies Ate My Neighbors
Cybernator/Metal Warriors
Hagane
The Lost Vikings
Live a Live

This might seem like an easy win for SNES but then the DS comes and shoves all this booty in your face:

Games that tip the balance towards the DS:
Advance Wars Dual Strike/Days of Ruin
Castlevania trilogy
Professor Layton series
The World Ends With You
Phoenix Wright trilogy + Investigations 1 and 2
Pokemon HG/SS
GTA Chinatown Wars
Bangai O Spirits
999
Pokemon Black/White
SMT Devil Survivor 1 and 2
SMT Strange Journey
Pokemon Diamond and Pearl
Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Elite Beat Agents/Ouendan 1 and 2
Jump Ultimate Stars
Hotel Dusk
Last Window
Super Mario 64 DS


Some important games to take into consideration:
Quintet Trilogy
Lufia 2
Secret of Mana/Seiken Densetsu 3
Super Star Wars trilogy
Super Smash TV
TMNT Turtles in Time and Tournament Fighters
Breath of Fire 1 and 2
Wild Guns
Star Fox 1 and 2

Zelda PH and ST
Radiant Historia
Infinite Space
New Super Mario Bros
Bleach (fighting games developed by Treasure)
Metroid Prime Hunters
Etrian Odyssey III
Trauma Center


I trust you to fill in the blanks lol as obviously I haven't listed every single good game on both systems.
 
Last edited:
Weiss

Weiss

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Banned
Oct 25, 2017
64,265
SNES has Chrono Trigger.

DS has Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey.

The DS wins. I'm sorry, it's the law.
 
steviestar3

steviestar3

One Winged Slayer
Member
Jul 3, 2018
4,434
I think SNES has more GOAT-tier games but the DS has it beat in quantity and genre variety. So it could really go either way.
 
Derachi

Derachi

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,699
They both have Dragon Quest V so they both win!

IMO the DS is way better. Anyone saying "Chrono Trigger" has to realize it came out on DS and was better there so

Oh nevermind ports and remakes don't count for some reason. I guess I would still say DS. TWEWY and Elite Beat Agents are better than any SNES game except Super Mario World.
 
leder

leder

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,111
BC I get (and so Super GameBoy should be ruled out too), but excluding ports makes literally no sense.
 
Weiss

Weiss

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Oct 25, 2017
64,265
leder said:
Excluding ports makes literally no sense.
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They're not original games for the system so of course they get excluded.

Like there's probably a distinction to be made between a half assed port like Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest IV/V/VI getting ground up remakes.
 
Mauricio_Magus

Mauricio_Magus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,004
Nintendo DS has an insane library and also the definitive version of Chrono Trigger so it wins.

DS also has HG/SS and B/W which are the best Pokemon games ever, it's not even a contest.
 
Last edited:
leder

leder

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,111
Weiss said:
They're not original games for the system so of course they get excluded.

Like there's probably a distinction to be made between a half assed port like Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest IV/V/VI getting ground up remakes.
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Why? Chrono Trigger has original content. Should be fair game. I own both but prefer the DS version
 
OzBoz

OzBoz

Member
May 29, 2019
447
Really hard choice. I want to say SNES because it was the one I grew up with. Plus I'm still finding some hidden gems through SNES Drunk and similar channels. On the other hand DS has better visual novels. And every DS game has saving -- remember putting in those Mega Man passwords? I'll vote for SNES but it's a close one.
 
Twister

Twister

Member
Feb 11, 2019
5,074
DS easily because it has Pokémon HG/SS.
I was born after the SNES was long dead and I have no desire to play any of its games. They aren't fun for me
 
Weiss

Weiss

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Oct 25, 2017
64,265
leder said:
Why? Chrono Trigger has additional content. Should be fair game.
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What do you mean 'why?' I explained why.

Trigger got a port with some tacked on bells and whistles and OP wants to focus on purely original content libraries so of course remakes get the boot too.

DiipuSurotu said:
Isn't Super Castlevania IV technically a remake of the first Castlevania?
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In the sense that it's a retelling of Simon fighting Dracula but the entire game is redone from the ground up and shares like maybe a few rooms inspired by the first NES game.
 
Anth0ny

Anth0ny

Member
Oct 25, 2017
46,834
SNES shits on DS

zelda
Mario world
Yoshis island
Super metroid
Chrono trigger

Get da fuk outta here
 
The Unsent

The Unsent

Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,426
Snes was better, New Super Mario Bros, Mario and Luigi Partners in Crime, the two Zelda DS games, they're all right but they didn't live up the legacy,

ALTTP, Chrono Trigger, FF VI, Donkey Kong Country, Mario RPG, Yoshi's Island, Mario World, Super Metroid, they're legendary. Nintendo DS was too underwheming.

You have to add in 3DS/DS to make it more of a competition imo.
 
AniHawk

AniHawk

No Fear, Only Math
Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,143
nintendo first-party was in the pits on the ds. new super mario bros. is my least favorite 2d mario game and phantom hourglass is my least favorite zelda game period. i never had a lot of affection towards a link to the past though - and growing up i had a nintendo 64. it wasn't until i was a teenager that i had a super nintendo and before that, my experience with snes games was emulating them on our family's mac.

the super nintendo wound up being my big introduction to rpgs. pokemon technically was the first, but i didn't actively seek out more in the genre until i played chrono trigger, final fantasy vi, super mario rpg, earthbound, and terranigma. a lot of those snes games wound up as some of my favorite games ever. super metroid, terranigma, and chrono trigger still rank high up there for me. i was also really late on some of the major platformers. super mario world and yoshi's island were games i played in the 90s, but i didn't own or complete them until 2000 or 2001. super mario world is great, but it didn't hit the same highs of experienceing super mario bros 3 when i was a kid or three to four years prior when i had saved up allowance and got it with an nes. yoshi's island, charming as it is, just felt long. i didn't even play donkey kong country games until they were on the wii's virtual console - although dkc2 is legit fantastic and probably my favorite platformer on the system.

the ds wound up more of a third-party power machine for me. on the nintendo side, i had a good time with mario kart ds, have an affection towards spirit tracks, and i was into the pokemon games, advance wars, and kirby, but the best memories of playing games are mostly third-party releases. order of ecclesia, 999, and infinite space are my top three games for the platform, and if not for those three, then i'd still have enjoyed the other two castlevanias, the original phoenix wright trilogy, and the sonic rush games among another dozen or two other oddball releases. in all, there was just more stuff on the ds and more unique experiences, while my experience on the snes was a lot more narrow but delivered a few of my favorite games.

it's tough, but i'm going with ds.
 
Sakon

Sakon

Member
Jul 19, 2019
863
I love the DS, but both Marios, Metroid, Zelda, Final Fantasies and Chrono Trigger cannot be topped.
 
leder

leder

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,111
Weiss said:
What do you mean 'why?' I explained why.

Trigger got a port with some tacked on bells and whistles and OP wants to focus on purely original content libraries so of course remakes get the boot too.



In the sense that it's a retelling of Simon fighting Dracula but the entire game is redone from the ground up and shares like maybe a few rooms inspired by the first NES game.
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I mean why does it get excluded? What's the rationale? Why not also exclude ports from other consoles? (SNES had some from NES for example, DS has some from other consoles). Just seems super arbitrary to ban SNES ports for the sake of making the SNES look better in comparison.
 
Weiss

Weiss

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64,265
leder said:
I mean why does it get excluded? What's the rationale? Why not also exclude ports from other consoles? (SNES had some from NES for example, DS has some from other consoles). Just seems super arbitrary to ban SNES ports for the sake of making the SNES look better in comparison.
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SNES ports to DS are banned because it's a competition between the SNES and DS libraries.

If we got a NES vs SNES topic you could argue that SNES' Ninja Gaiden Trilogy could be exempt.

JuicyPlayer said:
How when it has the PS1 cutscenes , an extra dungeon and no loading?
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Yeah those first two reasons right there, and it doesn't get points for removing loading that wasn't in the SNES version in the first place.
 
bionic77

bionic77

Member
Oct 25, 2017
30,888
For me the 3 greatest systems of all time, by library, are SNES, DS and PS2.

You can't go wrong in picking any of them.

ChronoTrigger and Super Metroid are two of the best games I have ever played and CT is probably my all time favorite game so for my own biased reasons I think I tend towards the SNES.
 
JuicyPlayer

JuicyPlayer

Member
Feb 8, 2018
7,301
The SNES barely had any RPGs come to the west other than the popular games. DS RPGs for the most part came to the west.
 
leder

leder

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,111
Weiss said:
SNES ports to DS are banned because it's a competition between the SNES and DS libraries.

If we got a NES vs SNES topic you could argue that SNES' Ninja Gaiden Trilogy could be exempt.



Yeah those first two reasons right there, and it doesn't get points for removing loading that wasn't in the SNES version in the first place.
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And yet I can play Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest V on my DS, so why wouldn't I count them as part of the DS library?
 
JuicyPlayer

JuicyPlayer

Member
Feb 8, 2018
7,301
The SNES lost the title of best RPG console to the PS1 a long time ago. The DS is pretty damn close to the PS1 in that regard as well.
 
Redcrayon

Redcrayon

Patient hunter
On Break
Oct 27, 2017
12,713
UK
Seeing as Dragon Quest V and Chrono Trigger didn't even release on SNES in Europe, they count as DS games for me :D
 
OP
OP
Discontent

Discontent

Member
May 25, 2018
4,232
leder said:
And yet I can play Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest V on my DS, so why wouldn't I count them as part of the DS library?
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Its a battle between the original games for each system.

Edit: I voted DS so i didnt do it to make SNES seem better; i figured it'll be fairer for the SNES. There's so much goodness on the DS that it can beat SNES on quantity+quality imo.
 
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