Hey everyone, it's Colin. How's it goin'?
There are lots of ways to play Super Nintendo games,
but could this console be even better than the original?
[♪ Music - Intro ♪]
This is the Analogue Super Nt, which the company kindly sent me to review.
I'd call it a Super NES clone, but that term doesn't really do it justice.
It's about half the size of the original, and as you'd expect, there's a pair of controller ports up front,
with Power and Reset buttons on top.
The rear features an HDMI port and MicroUSB for power,
and cables for both are included.
There's an SD card slot on the right side, but its functionality is limited.
We'll get to that later.
The Super Nt overall is quite sturdy and surprisingly heavy.
The cartridge connector has a decent amount of grip,
but because there's no eject button, you need to use two hands to remove a game.
The console generally feels high quality and comes in the choice of four color schemes.
But regardless of what any clone console's external appearance may be,
it's what's on the inside that counts.
And what's inside this console makes it vastly different from pretty much any other 16-bit clone.
The Super Nt is powered by an Altera Cyclone V FPGA.
It doesn't use software emulation, but rather tries to mimic the way the original console works electrically.
That means it reads cartridges in real-time, instead of dumping them to a file first.
If you pull a game out while playing, it crashes, just like it would on an original console.
A major benefit to doing it this way is better compatibility and accuracy with games and accessories.
The standard Super NES and Super Famicom controllers work just fine,
as do the more esoteric ones, like the Mario Paint mouse.
It boots to a quick loading animation, then to the main menu.
There are lots of options here.
You can change the way the menus look,
adjust the video scaling and other display settings,
and even turn on and tweak artificial scanlines...
...and that's just the beginning.
The hotkey combinations can be changed
and the console can also be set to boot to a cartridge if there's one installed.
Speaking of that, the cartridge slot is the only way to play games on the Super Nt.
That SD card slot on the side...
it's only used for firmware updates.
You can't play ROM files off of it. Trust me, I tried.
And I think that's a bit of a missed opportunity,
given the increasing amount of homebrew and ROM hacks for the platform.
The system is certainly capable of playing games from files,
as copies of Super Turrican: Director's Cut and Super Turrican 2 are built into the firmware.
It's just the ability to load your own files that's missing.
Now that said, while I don't have one to test with,
Analogue tells me that it will work just fine with flashcarts, like the Super Everdrive.
In fact, the Super Nt advertises compatibility with games from all regions, both NTSC and PAL.
It'll work with more advanced games, like Star Fox, with its Super FX chip,
as well as the Super Game Boy, which means exciting things for that platform's titles too.
It lacks the cartridge slot tabs that the Super NES has,
so I was able to drop in a Japanese Super Famicom game
and the console had no problems playing it.
And the gameplay experience is simply awesome.
The video quality is really the star of the show here.
The picture is sharp, vibrant, and completely noise-free.
Resolutions from 480 up to 1080p at 60 frames per second are supported,
including native PAL options.
I didn't find any need to tweak the settings, the output just looks great right out of the box!
The scanlines do a respectable job too,
though I found myself leaving 'em off most of the time.
The video output is *really* that clean.
Audio doesn't take a backseat either.
It's 16-bit at 48 kilohertz, and like the video, there's just no noise.
Against an original console, the frequency response sounds a bit more natural and detailed.
And the stereo separation is just a little wider.
[♪ Super Mario World Theme (Analog Version) ♪]
[♪ Super Mario World Theme (Digital Version) ♪]
Its gameplay is also very accurate.
Synced up against my original Super NES,
it's only a few frames slower over a span of almost two minutes.
Watch when Donkey jumps.
At the 30 frames per second I captured this, the Super Nt is only seven frames behind.
That equates to about a quarter of a percent difference.
This is actually intentional
and due to the fact that the original console operates at just slightly faster than 60 FPS.
Outputting this nonstandard framerate through HDMI would cause compatibility issues with some TVs,
so the Super Nt, by default, plays games at exactly 60.
There are a couple of workarounds offered for this in the menus.
Both will play games at their original speed.
One has clean video with a tiny amount of lag,
while the other is lag-free but has the risk of some screen tearing.
In any event, TV compatibility is a tricky problem to solve,
so it's really nice to see that multiple options have been made available.
But otherwise, the Super Nt just faithfully plays games like the original hardware.
And there's another benefit to using an FPGA:
If any bugs *do* crop up, they can be fixed with a firmware update, and new features can be added too.
I'm told that a built-in Game Genie option is planned,
along with other functionality.
So this brings us to perhaps the most pressing question:
Is it worth it?
At $190 US, it's certainly not cheap.
And what's more, you have to provide your own controllers, as none are included in the box.
Analogue partnered with 8Bitdo to produce color-matching wireless controllers,
which are available for an extra $40.
But it's simply not fair to compare this console against cheap clones.
This is a quality product with serious engineering behind it.
I think the price tag is rather appropriate, given what this console is capable of.
It's designed for game purists, those who want the best possible experience they can get.
So if you're a fan of Nintendo's 16-bit era,
the Super Nt is by far the best way to get the most out of your games.
I owe a big thank you to Analogue for sending a Super Nt and controller my way to check out for this review.
There's a link to 'em down in the description.
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