Released in the United States on August 23rd, 1991, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System began Nintendo's long climb back to the top of the pile after losing ground to Sega's Genesis. It wasn't long before magazines began touting the superior color palette of the SNES, and more accurate arcade ports didn't hurt, either. As the Super Nintendo gained more and more steam in its uphill climb, developers like Square and Capcom gave the system much needed tractive force.

It wasn't long before Sega's lead had begun to falter, resulting in renewed effort to reclaim the lead. This healthy competition led to great innovation on each side, but the true winners were the players who did not engage in partisan sniping during the console wars, but played both sides. Literally. Blessed shall be those who hath both Mario and Sonic, for they shall have the best of both worlds. The pushing for better and better graphics led to beautiful works of technical achievement in each camp, that made the launch titles look like games from the previous generation.

As far as region locking went, the only obstructions with playing Japanese games on your Super Nintendo are the usual language barrier, and the physical shape of the cartridge, but no software restrictions. This means you can simply swap cartridge shells, or remove the top of the SNES. Or better still, just use a Game Genie. As always, be wary of the value of the yen, and don't blindly trust the companies that advertise in the back of your favorite magazines. Especially the ones that promise to award you with a computer for solving simple word puzzles. Those are out and out pyramid schemes.

Better memory mapper chips and gradually decreasing memory costs led to larger and larger cartridges, and even performance innovations like the Super FX chips. Although PC games were still leagues ahead in terms of performance and graphic detail, a Super Nintendo and Star Fox or Stunt Race FX wasn't a thousand dollar investment.