The Super Nintendo was a late comer to the 16-bit generation. It was released for North America in August 1991, a full two years after its top rival, the Sega Genesis.

Its late start gave the SNES acces to more advanced graphics and sound than the Genesis, and it eventually became the best selling console of its era. A variety of enhancement chips integrated into game cartridges kept the SNES competitive into the next generation of consoles. Games like Donkey Kong Country kept the SNES on top long enough that Nintendo skipped over the 32-bit generation, jumping straight to the Nintendo 64.