Ah, the late August of 1991! Bryan Adams' song from Robin Hood Prince of Thieves was burning up the charts,
Terminator 2 was blowing up the box office , and eager Nintendo fans were getting a chance to finally buy the console that had gone on sale in Japan as the Super Famicom almost a full year earlier.
The North American launch of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was a bit surprising in several ways. For one, the unit was the last of the fourth generation of consoles to launch in the United States, launching more than two years after the release of both the Turbo Grafx-16 and the Sega Genesis. By contrast, the original and highly successful Nintendo Entertainment System had been the first major console to the market in both Japan and the United States. Many observers felt that interest in gaming was starting to dwindle, as it had towards the end of Ataris market dominance. Sales of NEC and Segas machines were modest compared to the sales the NES had seen during the height of its popularity, and clearance price NES carts and systems on store shelves suggested that Nintendos time, like Ataris before it, had perhaps passed.
In an article from Time Magazine a few months before the August 23, 1991 release of the console, writer Philip Elmer-DeWitt penned that
Sometime in the next few months, an argument is going to break out in the 30 million families infected by the Nintendo video-game craze. The kids, primed by saturation advertising, are going to tell their parents they gotta have the awesome new 16-bit Nintendo system for Christmas. The parents, remembering the hundreds of dollars they have invested in the old 8-bit Nintendo, are going to say, "No way."... The machine will also be backed by a $95 million nonstop marketing blitz designed to convince every American preadolescent that life without 16 bits wouldn't be worth living. It's not going to be an easy sell.
It seemed that Nintendo was facing a tough road, and it is debatable whether a launch day full of some questionable decisions did much to brighten the initial outlook for the SNES. Though the unit would go on to be quite successful, there were several notable and, in retrospect, perhaps poor launch day decisions.
There were only three games available on launch day, and only two on shelves. Super Mario World was packed in with the SNES, and while the game remains one of the standouts of the SNES library, gamers looking for variety in other titles were left with little to choose from. Given the length of time that the console had been out in Japan and the depth of the library that had been built up by mid 1991, it seems that Nintendo should have had more options for the earliest adopters.
2/3 of the launch day games weren't representative of popular genres or franchises. While both F-Zero and Pilotwings (the other two launch games) are strong titles in their own right and showcase some of the SNES hardware capabilities, neither flight sims nor futuristic racing games were especially popular in late 1991. It seems odd that the SNES didn't launch with any titles geared towards fans of action games, sports games, RPGs, puzzle games, or any number of other genres. In fact, given the popularity of the arcade and the success of arcade conversions (such as shmups and beat em ups) on the TG-16 and Genesis, Nintendo missed an opportunity to show how well their system could handle some of the most popular genres. Given the widespread popularity of many first and third party NES games, the lack of a launch day Metroid, Zelda, Contra, Tetris, or Mega Man is surprising.
There was a lack of hype. Today, a console launch is issued in by major announcements, extensive gaming and mainstream press coverage, midnight releases, and an overall media blitz. Though Nintendo did put aside almost $100 million to market the unit in the US, one need not look much further than its own Nintendo Power to see that the console was still playing second fiddle to Nintendo's earlier NES and Game Boy at the SNES launch. The issue of Nintendo Power that coincided with the SNES launch featured a cover story on Super Mario World, but only about 25% of the issue touched on titles for the new system. Most other major gaming publications dedicated even less space to the console's launch, perhaps because there just weren't many games to cover!
The console was not backwards compatible. Many of the reviews and reports surrounding the SNES pointed to the fact that it would be unable to play NES or Game Boy games. Considering the rather large NES cart library that many families had built, this seemed like quite the oversight. By contrast, Sega's Genesis console was compatible with the earlier games for its system (via a converter) and the Atari 7800 had been compatible with 2600 games. So, Nintendo's decision not to include support seemed out of step with what consumers wanted. The Super Game Boy wouldn't see release until some three years later (1994), after the console had already become popular.
Despite these oversights, Nintendo did do a few things right on launch day.
The launch package was a good bundle deal. Though its $200 price tag (a little over $300 adjusted for inflation) put it at twice the cost of a NES and made it a bit more expensive than its contemporary competitors, Nintendo packaged in two controllers, two kinds of AV cables, Super Mario World, and a coupon for $50 off a future game purchase. Considering SNES games regularly cost $60-$70 or more, this was almost the equivalent of giving buyers a second game .
The pack-in game was a killer app. Considered by many to be the best SNES game, Nintendo took a gamble that Super Mario World would be enough to bring NES owners into the SNES fold. And to some extent, they were correct. Nintendo didn't take many risks by including this title: they didn't reinvent the Mario franchise, they didn't hedge their bets on an unknown character or IP, and they didn't choose a game that would later look dated compared to the technology seen in future SNES titles.
They had it where it counted. Nintendo's machine was attractive not only to gamers looking for the next Mario fix, but also to those excited about hardware specs. The SNES outperformed either the TG-16 or Genesis in almost every technical category. In an era where graphics were central to much of the advertising surrounding games and systems alike, Nintendoc clearly had the upper hand by entering he fray late.
Overall, the SNES launch wasn't the brightest moment for a console that would eventually go on to win the 16-bit console wars. Nonetheless, all three of these launch games are still considered some of the top titles for the system, and Nintendo quickly rolled out more games in a variety of genres so that by the holiday season, they had begin to build an install base.
