Even in the era of remakes, remasters and virtual reality, nothing can replace the joy that many experience from playing classics. Retro games are alive and well, although players from 8-bit times are now at least 30 years old!
Whether you’re an old gamer or a newbie starting out on PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo Switch, there are some 90s video games that just never go away with time: Super Mario World, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy VI, for example.
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (or SNES), one of the most beloved gaming libraries of all time, is home to all of these games. The console was the world’s first 16-bit Nintendo game to come to the party later than TurboGrafx-16 and Sega Genesis. Even though the SNES did not arrive as early as these consoles, both of these features were quickly forgotten.
Fortunately, even for those without an expensive retro console, SNES games can still be enjoyed on a PC – even in a browser. In this article, we’ll take a look at the best SNES emulators for online gaming.
Play Emulator
Play Emulator is a popular online emulation website that has several different consoles. Its SNES library is one of the most impressive and easy to get started.
The Play Emulator currently contains 911 SNES games. It has all the classics like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, EarthBound, and Super Metroid, but it also has some obscure titles that players might not find elsewhere, like Same Game Mario
Like Same Game Mario, many of the lesser known games are released in Japan. A few more are Super Bikkuriman, Super Famista 5 and Gekisou Sentai Car Rangers
After clicking on the game, the SNES emulation frame of 640×480 will start loading. Just click the “Launch Game” button and the ROM will start loading and initializing. Once loaded, it will start playing as if the cartridge were inserted into the console and turned on.
This is how the Play Emulator controller settings appear on the keyboard by default:
- Start: Enter
- Select: Shift
- Up: Up
- Down: Down
- Left: Left
- Right: Right
- Y: S
- B: Z
- A: X
- X: C
- L: A
- R: D
Clicking outside the emulation window will automatically pause gameplay, which is handy if you’re playing while doing something else (like work).
When the game is launched in the SNES emulator, a menu bar appears in the lower left corner of the emulation frame when you hover over it. From left to right, these icons stand for:
- Full Screen
- Pause Game
- Change Controller Settings
- Loading Status (file saved game)
- Loading status (saved game file)
- Reset game
- Turn sound on / off
Play Emulator is a complete SNES online gaming solution offering all the basic features that most players need.
SNESLive
Unlike Play Emulator, SNESLive is an online emulation website built exclusively on the SNES. This allows the website to focus specifically on the console and games on it, offering a randomizer, top 50 list, and playable games by genre.
SNESLive offers a smaller library of games than Play Emulator, just under 300, but less clutter – available games like NBA Jam, Donkey Kong Country, and Mega Man 7 are made up mostly of popular games and top SNES games. all the time.
Each game’s page has a full description of the game, and most have YouTube videos that either showcase the gameplay or offer step-by-step tutorials or tips. Below this area of ??the screen are rows of related games.
The most significant difference between SNESLive and Play Emulator is that the SNESLive emulator is based on Adobe Flash. Even though official support for Adobe Flash is coming to an end, we found the SNESLive player to run smoother and less stutter than other platforms.
To start playing the game, go to its page and click the “Play Now” button in the emulation frame. After that, the game will start downloading and turn on immediately.
SNESLive offers standard menu options: reset, pause, load / save status, and controller configuration. By default, this is the controller and keyboard setting:
- Start: Enter
- Select: Shift
- Up: Up
- Down: Down
- Left: Left
- Right: Right
- Y: S
- B: X
- A: Z
- X: A
- L: Q
- R: E
However, SNESLive does support one option that many other SNES online emulators do not support: Netplay. Netplay is a way to play multiplayer retro games with other players through an online lobby style system. SNESLive asks for the player’s name and then, if the game supports it, connects the player to the netplay room list. The only problem is that the netplay community on SNESLive seems practically non-existent as I personally never found an active room.
While the SNESLive game library is inferior to the Play Emulator, players may find that the Flash-based SNES emulation platform offers performance advantages that make SNESLive the better choice of the two.
Although there are dozens of SNES emulator sites scattered across the web, many of them are the same or very similar to the Play Emulator platform. Of these, Play Emulator contains the most games, while SNESLive offers online mode and an alternative, sometimes smoother SNES emulator.
Do you have a favorite SNES online emulator besides Play Emulator or SNESLive? If so, leave us a comment below and share the benefits of this and your favorite SNES games!
–