The Rarest SNES Games And How Expensive They Are

Going back to the SNES days and looking at its rarest games is quite fascinating. When you look at the rarest games on modern consoles like the PS4, it’s mostly online store exclusives that sold out in under an hour. In the mid-90s, however, the rarest games were so wild on a scale that will likely never be done again.

You have competition cartridges, games meant for the US military, games meant for exercise machines, and so much more. It’s no surprise that none of these rare games are under a thousand dollars. Yes, they’re that rare.

All values are based on
PriceCharting’s
complete price at the time of writing. When no complete price is available, the loose price will be used instead.

10 Zombies Ate My Neighbors Box Variant – $2,448

Boxes Are Valuable Too

One flaw that the SNES had compared to the Genesis was the packaging. Like the NES, they were very disposable, skyrocketing the price of complete in-box SNES games today. What’s even worse than that is box variants, the rarest of which is the LucasArts classic Zombies Ate My Neighbors.

The box art you’re probably familiar with is the cheesy 60s B-movie art, while this alternate version is more 90s with a big-headed kid shooting a zombie with a water Uzi. Little is known about this variant other than it’s extremely rare and came after the initial print run. The legend goes that only a thousand were made, but that’s never been verified.

9 Star Fox Super Weekend Competition – $2,500

The First Of Many Competition Cartridges

Nowadays, eSports are almost always for multiplayer games like Counter-Strike, Street Fighter, or League of Legends. However, back in the day, there were many single-player competition events forcing players to get the highest score possible and aim to be number one. One of them was the Star Fox Super Weekend Competition, an event held about a month after the game was released in 1993.

If you scored big, you’d get various prizes. However, none of them was the cartridge itself. Those were giveaways in Nintendo Power magazine, making this cartridge extremely rare. It’s important to note that there are probably more cartridges made than what’s available to the public, given that it was a full-blown event. Many are probably hiding away in Nintendo’s sacred vault.

8 Exertainment Mountain Bikerally And Speed Racer Combo Pack – $2,552

A Combo Pack With A Fascinating Backstory

Video game combo packs still exist today, but none are quite as odd as Exertainment Mountain Bikerally and Speed Racer. On the original SNES, there’s a port on the bottom that was supposed to be for a CD add-on that was never released, but there was a use for it. That use was the Exertainment Bike, a full-sized pedal exercise machine.

These devices on their own are ludicrously expensive, but what about the games? Only two were released: Exertainment Mountain Bikerally and Speed Racer. Individually, they’re nearly $100 complete in-box, but the extremely rare combo pack is over $2,500. The history, oddball nature, and actual rarity make this product so expensive.

7 Hagane: The Final Conflict – $2,657

An Obscure Gem

For every system, there’s always one game that’s so good but so rare. Often, they get recognition many years after release, so not many pick them up when they’re readily available. Little Samson for the NES is a great example, and so is Hagane: The Final Conflict.

An action platformer where you play as a cyborg ninja, the game’s sort of like the Genesis Shinobi titles but harder and, frankly, better. It’s a blast from start to finish, but the fact that it’s over $2,500 is a bit puzzling. Most hidden gem rare games don’t go for that much, which is typically a sign of a low print run.

6 Aero Fighters – $2,950

Ungodly Rare

At first, Aero Fighters may seem like another rare hidden gem game. The Arcade version of Aero Fighters is a highly acclaimed shoot-’em-up, but the SNES version was pretty bad in comparison with many downgrades. There’s likely three main reasons the game is so rare.

It almost certainly had a low print run, and considering it’s nearly three grand, it probably had low sales, too. In 1994, hardcore gamers who were likely the target audience for Aero Fighters would be in the know about bad reviews for the SNES port, so they probably skipped it altogether.

5 Spider-Man And Venom: Maximum Carnage Collector’s Edition – $3,050

A Real Blast From The Past

Nothing gives the feeling of days past quite like the QVC Shopping Channel. A relic from a bygone era that surprisingly still exists today, this live broadcast channel was determined to sell you various goods. Back in 1994, one of them was the Collector’s Edition of the highly acclaimed 16-bit comic book game Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage.

Available for both SNES and Genesis, inside, you’d get a Carnage comic book, a few pins, and a certificate of authenticity. Big fat hairy deal, you may think watching live in ’94, but those who ordered it can sell it for three grand today. This is for the SNES version, by the way, as the Genesis Collector’s Edition is strangely way lower in value by nearly seven times.

4 Nintendo Campus Challenge 1992 – $4,000

Copies Are In The Single Digits At This Point

After the legendary Nintendo World Championships in 1990, you had the Nintendo Campus Challenge run during both 1991 and 1992. The 1992 event played on college campuses throughout the US used an SNES, not an NES like in ’91. You played Super Mario World, F-Zero, and Pilotwings, all to get the best score possible.

All of the Nintendo competition carts are extremely rare, and Campus Challenge 1992 is no different. On PriceCharting, there’s only one sale of the cartridge back in 2006. That’s wild. Supposedly, only three cartridges exist, but there were definitely more than three carts made for this big event. Whether the remaining ones were destroyed, used for spare parts, or just abandoned, waiting to be uncovered, remains to be seen.

3 Macs Moving Target Simulator – $4,999

Shooting Has Never Been More Real On The SNES

Video games and the military have a pretty deep connection. A common activity of soldiers during downtime, the video of the US military destroying an Xbox 360 due to the Red Ring of Death shows the popularity of gaming there alone. It’s no surprise that several games were developed specifically for the US military, and one of them was Macs Moving Target Simulator.

The game’s exactly what you think it is: a virtual shooting range using a light gun. The light gun, in particular, is far more realistic with its heavy weight, preparing soldiers for real weapon use. Since it was made exclusively for the military, copies are extremely rare, as one would imagine.

2 Donkey Kong Country Competition – $10,176

A Rare Cartridge You Could Actually Win

In 1995, Blockbuster held its second and final video game competition, the Blockbuster World Video Game Championship 2. There were two competitions, as you could play either Genesis or SNES, both using different games. On SNES, you played a single title, Donkey Kong Country, and you needed to collect as many bananas as possible.

Unlike the Genesis competition, the cartridges here were given away as prizes complete in-box. While the Genesis carts are rarer, DKC demands a higher price solely due to the fact that there is a complete in-box option, which is over double the price of the cartridge standalone.

1 Nintendo PowerFest 1994 – $17,550

The Rarest SNES Competition Cart

The final Nintendo competition event for a long time was Nintendo PowerFest 1994. Once again, players compete all over the country in three games to get the best score: Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels, Super Mario Kart, and Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball.

There were 33 cartridges produced, with only two out in the wild in private hands. Supposedly, the remaining cartridges were used for spare parts, but that’s probably not true. Knowing Nintendo and how they operate, they likely kept a couple cartridges intact and locked them away.