I had a great deal when I bought my Super Nintendo. A store on Canal Street was selling the set bundled with Super Mario World and Super Mario All Stars. On top of that I had a manufacturers coupon from Nintendo for two free games ( both had to be less than $40 combined in retail value ) if I bought a SNES. And on top of that, the Canal Street store had their own offer. Two free games ( both had to be $20 or less, or one game that cost less than $40 ). So I went home with four new games along with the Mario Brothers games bundled with the SNES. Among those games I chose were Captain America & the Avengers ( a terrible port of the arcade game with stiff action and impossible levels ) another game called Drakkhen ( which was "the worlds first 3D RPG" if you like a flat world with only a few trees and a couple of flat castles you can't go in and no challenge ), The Simpsons: Bart's Nightmare ( which was overall levels that were disappointing and unreasonably hard ) and Batman Returns. In the years that followed I gradually bought more games, with some help from Nintendo Power magazine to let me know which games were worth buying. New releases cost anywhere from $50 upwards to $90. But if you waited long enough, the price on most of the games came down to about $20. But not all of them. The RPGs rarely came down in price.
I was able to buy about 55 games for the SNES before Nintendo phased the system out. My entire SNES library, including the two bundled games, are: The Adventures of Batman & Robin, Batman Forever, Batman Returns, Brain Lord, Breath of Fire, Bugs Bunny: Rabbit Rampage, C2: Judgement Clay, Captain America & the Avengers, Castilvania - Dracula X, Castlevania IV, Clay Fighter, Contra III: Alien Wars, The Death and Return of Superman, Demons Crest, Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy Kong's Quest, Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble, Doom, Drakkhen, Earthworm Jim, Earthworm Jim 2, Earthbound, F-Zero, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, Illusion of Gaia, The Incredible Hulk, Lagoon, The Legend of the Mystic Ninja, Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past, Lethal Enforcers, Lord of the Rings vol 1, Lufia and the Fortress of Doom, Mario Paint, Mega Man X, Mickey Mania - The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse, MTV Beavis & Butthead, Ninja Boy, Oscar ( this one was a birthday gift, from someone who paid $65 for a game no one ever heard of. ), Pitfall - The Mayan Adventure, The Simpsons: Bart's Nightmare, Ren & Stimpy: Veediots, Space Invaders ( Gameboy cartridge that unlocked the original game when played on the Super Gameboy ), Spiderman and Venom: Maximum Carnage, Starfox, Sunset Riders, Super Double Dragon, Super Gameboy ( attachment that allowed you to play Gameboy cartridges on the SNES ), Super Godzilla, Super Mario All Stars, Super Mario Kart, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Super Mario World, Super Mario World 2 Yoshi Island, Super Metroid, Super Street Fighter II, T2: The Arcade Game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, The Tick, Tinstar, Ultima - The False Profit, Yoshi Safari, Young Merlin, and Wolfenstein 3D. I never once rented a game, so these were the only SNES games I ever played. My 25 list were the games I remember having the most fun playing.
#25 F-Zero
#24 Mega Man X
#23 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time
#22 Starfox
#21 Super Mario World 2 Yoshi Island
#20 The Adventures of Batman & Robin
Remember the Batman animated series on FOX? This game was based on it, with graphics that looked exactly like the animation from the series. It was part punch-em-up and part platform game, with a little bit of puzzle solving. And you got to fight The Joker on a moving roller coaster.
#19 Spiderman and Venom Maximum Carnage
Another punch-em-up, taken directly from the comic book with both graphics based on the artwork, and gameplay that followed the comic book's plot. And a lot of guest superheroes. It is also the only Spiderman video game I ever completed.
#18 Contra III: Alien Wars
#17 Earthbound
#16 Pitfall - The Mayan Adventure
sort of a cruder version of Tomb Raider, but with the pitfall guy instead of Lara Croft
#15 Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past
#14 Mickey Mania - The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse
Very similar to Bugs Bunny: Rabbit Rampage as the game is based on actual cartoons. In this case, each level had Mickey from a different era, and each was based on a classic animated short.
#13 Doom
#12 Ultima - The False Profit
Ultima was an open world RPG, which basically meant you were not forced to follow a specific story or unlock areas by finding objects. The entire world was accessable from the start, and you were expected to discover the quests for yourself. You could do anything you wanted. Want to go to North Brittany to build a balloon instead of fighting the dragon in the South who is about to destroy a village? No one is stopping you. Want to assassinate Lord Brittian on his throne with a crossbow while he is in the middle of telling your group about the quest he wants you to go on. Go ahead. You probably won't get out of the castle alive, but you will be laughing your ass off while the guards and the members of your own group mow you down with arrows. Since it is an open world RPG, I still have no idea if I actually completed the f*&king thing. All I know is I eventually ran out of stuff to do.
#11 Clay Fighter ( technically, it was the tournament edition, but was basically the same as the regular edition )
A mysterious clay meteor crashes into an abandoned amusement park, and for some reason clay fighters emerge from the devastation. Think Moral Kombat but with goofy claymation characters.
#10 Castilvania - Dracula X
#9 Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble
#8 Donkey Kong Country
#7 Super Double Dragon
When I first got my SNES I almost bought the only Double Dragon franchise game available for the system. Good thing I read the box, because it was a fighting game similar to ( if not a rip off of ) Street Fighter. I wanted the original Double Dragon, and not a one on one fighting game, so I never bought Double Dragon V. Amazingly, Super Double Dragon, which was exactly what anyone wanted from a Double Dragon game, had been released two years earlier, but for some reason was not available in any stores. Finally, a couple of years later Super Double Dragon was re-released, and retailing for $20. A short time later Technos filed for bankruptcy.
#6 Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy Kong's Quest
#5 Bugs Bunny: Rabbit Rampage
#4 Sunset Riders
#3 Earth Worm Jim 2
#2 Earth Worm Jim
#1 Batman Returns