The 20 Most Stunning Mode 7 Uses in SNES Games 

Special Mentions for Star Fox, Actraiser and Kirby Super Star

That spinning room in Castlevania IV always blew my young mind.

"A Link to the Past" also used Mode 7 for it's map screen feature, and in the intro sequence.

Please keep in mind that some of these games (Yoshi's Island & Pilot Wings) used additional chips in the cartridges to perform sprite rotation and scaling and/or multi-axis background rotation and scaling. Also, some games (like Super Mario RPG) used a co-processor chip inside the cartridge that was actually more powerful than the SNES's built-in CPU to help out with complex work. My point being, Mode 7 doesn't deserve ALL the praise here... it must share the praise with cartridge chips; not to mention clever programming.

Yoshis island actually uses mode 7 and the super FX chip in combination for sprite and background scaling. It looks nice

F-Zero still looks great. I really like the colors

The spinning room in castlevania is gorgeous

what i found more amazing about old game programming is the tricks used to avoid the limitations of the cpu for example in mario kart the program makes more calculations while the tv beam is in the black region in the middle.

Nice video, thank you! While Axelay does use Mode7 in places (e.g for the walker boss), the scene shown here doesn't at all, that's simply a line scrolling effect on regular backgrounds. Same goes for the Batman & Robin segment afterwards. Just because it looks like 3d doesn't mean it uses Mode 7.

I used to think it was updated graphics and all that other stuff,but now seeing this makes me appreciate the games I had played more

The Chrono Trigger section shown in the video is notable because it was one of the rare instance in which th sprites were resized (shrinked to be precise) in software without the help of additional chip, while the background used Mode 7 (in games likes F-Zero the sprites changes size because there are sprites of different size in memory/cart and are swapped in and out depending on the distance, there isn't a real scaling). Games missed but that must be cited when talking about Mode7 are: Ballz (for the floor in a faux 3D fighting game which would later be a very popular usage on Sega Saturn), Kirby Super Star (Fatty Whale boss), Wolfenstein 3D (the raycasting engine compute the visual in the CPU at half the resolution and then blow up by Mode7 for free, the visual were blocky but the framerate was "good" considering SNES wasn't really designed for that kind of rendering and that no additional chip was inserted in the cart) and last but not least S.O.S. (known as Septentrion in Japan).

"Rotating sprites" Snes can't rotate sprites, mode 7 can only rotate background, so, when you see something rotating or zooming, it might be the background (and, what seems to be the background can be made using sprites)

And i was searching for some SNES games to play. Thank you very much for the video 🙂

4:40 - This first level in Axelay uses a cool graphical scanline manipulation trick, but it's not mode 7.

Awesome video, some awesome titles too! Yoshis Island must be one of the most underrated game on the SNES. Super metroid one of the best ever created.

Axelay vertical parts were not made using mode 7 Try it on an emulator, showing gfx informations, you'll be surprised It's just a raster effect (also, it explains why perspective is wrong) 2nd stage boss head has been made using mode 7, but it's a common mistake to believe that axelay has been made using mode 7

great video, I loved mode 7 and most of these were new to me and pretty amazing.

7:30 Not to mention how mode 7 made flying airships have a pretty neat aesthetic. 😏

Another Mode 7 section in "Super Castlevania 4" is the part when you have to hold on to the whip while the room rotates around you.

Love your channel. Just found it the other day.

Tragedy that we still haven't had an NA release of Terranigma. Axelay ruined me for scrolling shooters for years. Thanks for the nostalgia.

Great examples, my favorite gen and console.

Outstanding as always my friend absolutely outstanding 👏 👌 👍

Now that is an awesome idea for a list ! i love it !

As a Megadrive user Mode 7 was one of the main I was jealous of Super Nes users, such spectacular graphics, even the majority of arcade games of that time couldn't replicate it.

Hi, great video I didn’t know about some of these games. I’m going to check them out

Excelente video, great video!, New subscriber!

Demons Crest had it too if I'm not mistaken.

...Jurassic Park, Zelda - A Link to the Past, Mortal Kombat 2 - there are so many!

0:56 - Secret of Mana 1:20 - Turtles in Time 2:09 - Super Mario Kart 3:46 - Street Racer 5:00 - The Adventures of Batman and Robin 6:35 - Super Soccer

Excellent video

This is what use to give games their charm back in the day. Every time I see sequels to these games on new consoles with modern graphics they fail to impress me because they look no different to every other game. But these classics that did so much with what little they had to work with was what gave them character, and stood out from other games. It's like a classic movie renowned for its exceptional practical effects getting a modern sequel or reboot with the same cgi that every other modern movie is using.

Actraiser used it when entering the platform stages

Road Runner's Death Valley Rally also had some impressive Mode 7 effects. Especially after beating a level which involved having the Coyote fall off a cliff.

Some of this isn't mode 7

Good video 😁

even now that efect never fails in amaze me, i particulary remember the Demons crest stage select

final fantasy v although it's exclusively in japan, had a bunch of cutscenes that used mode 7 graphics like the meteors falling and the airship

Pretty sure that scene in axelay ISN'T mode 7, it's some sort of scanline manipulation trick. It's not the only time people (me included) assumed mode 7 trickery when it was actually even more impressive programming trickery. Loving you channel btw - this's my 7th video in a row!

Good idea!!

I always wanted an explanation video detailing the differences between Snes mode 7 and Genesis tricks to mimic It. Like the game "On the ball" for Snes (it's real mode 7) vs "Sonic the Hedgehog" tricks on bonus stages

Another thing about Mode7, especially for those not watching this video in a higher res 60hz mode, is that in games such as Fzero and Mario Kart, the still frames are heavily pixelated but the image is "filled in" by the smooth 60 frames of animation per second.

0:26 AND it was ALSO pushing the limits of the Super FX2 Chip.

Tiny Toons Wacky Sports Olympics (or something like that) also uses impressive mode 7 minigames

NBA Give N Go is another example for sports games.

this feels more like a "best known games on a platform" compilation.

TMNT turtles in Time blew my mind away with the mode 7 graphics to me it looked just like the arcade game

Some great examples here although a few aren't Mode 7 at all. Good use of Mode 7 is ace though. I always liked the Mine Cart sequence in Indiana Jones Greatest Adventures. Also a few of these games did use it but not necessarily in the clips shown - Adventures of Batman and Robin does use it but for the overhead bikes/Batmobile section. Cool video though.

It looks like whoever played the Batman game, had no idea how the Joker boss fight works. XD

I guess the chances of you answering are low, but how did you put on such a perfect scanline crt effect. Never seen something so clean. The gameplay footage in this video is the best snes footage I have ever seen.

Yoshi's island has mode 7 magic bosses can squash stretch and morph smoothly and it looked awesome

What's that Castlevania cover at the end? That sounds awesome!

Yoshi's Island music didn't have to go that hard but it did.

You should've included SOS, as that game used Mode 7 as its main mechanic, and while it might not be as impressive as say Terranigma, using something that's usually used for gimmicky effects as your game's central mechanic is impressive in its own right

Donkey Kong Country had some real subtle mode 7 on the ocean floor in the underwater levels that I really liked. The lake levels in DKC3 also had really nice mode 7 water on the lake levels.

Demon's Crest and DragonView had cool uses of mode 7 in the overworld exploration. I also loved spiraling down from the heavens in Act Raiser.

5:16 This is line scaling in software to make the roller-coaster racks, not mode 7.It's the same technique to make the roads in Street Racer on the Sega Genesis or Top Gear 2 on SNES.

Que es primitivo el mode 7, pero tiene un encanto que dan ganas de jugarlo!

Konami on the SNES: Simply Great Konami now: Pachinko, Pachinko, Pachinko and some Yu-Gi-Oh

many beautiful games and effects in this video but some of them are 'just' amazing scroll and raster effects. If you see zooming and rotating stuff than thats most probably mode 7 in action though. See that contra 3 boss jumping on your head? He is a bg layer on mode 7. The rotating field the player is standing on is probably using animated background tiles to give the impression of rotating ground. Arkagis Evolution uses a similar effect on genesis. I love appreciation videos like that.

Here are a few more genuinely impressive and/or cool uses of Mode 7 on SNES: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JzyTD03MmXA.html (because it has vertical variation in the track elevation and also runs well) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DM9B36ZvH7M.html (basically the whole level is a great use of Mode 7--and great use of sprites on all the stars to hide the limitations of Mode 7--as the boss slowly scales into view) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-L8dpxGu8AzY.html (again, it's the fact that it actually looks like there's two full layers there, even with Mode 7, which is technically not possible on SNES) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-QQrnQmYWIEA.html (just a cool way to use Mode 7 throughout the game for the main gimmick that actually affects the gameplay) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2MNyaqzux84.html (very impressive due to the track undulation, which is very rare to see in Mode 7) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ATW5uBC62vE.html (it's just impressive to see a game moving at Sonic-like speed but with entire screen rotation too) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Upr-KNWeZjs.html (the entire game is being rendered via Mode 7 trickery) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-pF3yY11aurE.html (again, another fps [section] using Mode 7 for the effect) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5WxHLB0Kc10.html (using it on the bosses head while effectively hiding the limitations of using of it better than in many other games) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VWClU1hk7iA.html (lovely use on the clouds smoothly coming towards the camera) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-F8ZXaKbvz90.html (pretty cool use of Mode 7 for both the top and bottom parts of the tunnel, and yet they're not just mirrors of each other) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-iIvZNcicyM0.html (very cool that the entire boss battle is using Mode 7, sprites, HDMA colour gradients, and mid-screen mode switching to create a rather cool effect that has the boss scaling but not just on a blank screen or simple colour gradient behind them, which is often the case when Mode 7 is used in boss battles on SNES games) Maybe you should do a second list too. :D Remember, when using Mode 7, SNES can't show any other background layers behind or in front of it, so anytime it seems like that is the case, it's because the developers really did some great tricks with sprites and mid-frame mode swapping and the like to hide the limitations of using this mode, so I think such examples really deserve a lot of praise. PS. That level is Axelay is not an example of Mode 7 but a raster trick. And, although you already show Street Racer, I think it would be cool to show off the 4-player mode there too, just because it's literally showing 4 Mode 7 track views onscreen at once, which is frikin' impressive.

What are your scanlines settings ? The games in the video look awesome

I didn't know that Mode 7 is Super fantastic in this day and age but it always will be with the best graphics in some games.

4:42 This isn't Mode 7, but it's still a nice raster graphics effect. This can actually be done on the NES, but obviously with much less color, and far smaller. I believe there is actually a WIP Axelay NES demake happening. Fun stuff. :)

ah the glory days of game development, when some programmer would come up with a new trick to show off and the producer would use it at every opportunity

TMNT IN TIME was so effing dank. The music the fighting. It sucks it so short though. Nostalgia berries for sure.

Nice video bro, great.. 😁👍 My favorite games are: 1. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. 2. Super Metroid. 3. TMNT: Turtles in Time. 4. Super Mario Kart. 5. Super Mario RPG. 6. The Adventures of Batman & Robin. 7. Chrono Trigger. 8. Super Soccer. 9. Contra 3: The Alien Wars. 10. Final Fantasy VI. 11. Super Castlevania IV. That's my favorite game, hehe.. 🙏😁

Did S.O.S. use Mode 7? Because that game was VERY impressive. The entire world turning upside-down and on its side at regular intervals

Creo que todos los juegos con chip fx entrarían también en esta increíble lista

Axelay doesn't use mode 7 on this section. Just a form of scrolling where it stretches as it goes.

Although this was only released in Japan. The entire overworld for Tales of Phantasia was done using Mode 7.

Some games didn’t just use mode 7 like pilot wings They also have a DSP chip inside the cartridge to help with floating point calculations

Super Star Wars ran at about 7 frames per second in the speeder segments

Forgot About Micky Mania

I Like How Snes Era Has 3D 7 Mode Graphics And Level

What is the music in the intro? Sounds familiar!

Wish I could find a specific snes game, which has one consistent gimmick, being a 2d platformer with levels that all rotates 360 degrees. Can imagine it would fit right into this video.

So… You know how to present information, eh? Props!

The Super FX2 chip does the heavy lifting in Yoshi's Island, not Mode 7.

3:14 So you’re telling me we could’ve had Animal Crossing for the SNES. That would’ve been cool!

Between colour and effects, how can people think Sega's visuals are superior?

I love SNES games

Axelay is not mode 7, other chanel explained it better recently, it's using scanline effects to render less scanlines on top, thus giving the curved appareance.

2:45 reminds me of strider arcade game 1987!

The Axelay footage does not use mode 7 at all. Axelay itself does use mode 7 for a later part of the game, but those segments as pictured in the video are not mode 7.

what shader was used for these games?

great list, its missing F-ZERO!

Squash stretch and morph smoothly

The batman one was insane

Sabes español?? Y yo como idiota con el inglés 😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤦🤦🤦 bueno te decía que olvidaste Lock on, el juego no es gran cosa, pero el efecto del avión es increíble

Axelay does not use mode 7 in those vertical scrolling levels. That's a different HDMA effect on the scanlines. Turtles in Time also doesn't make "extensive" use of it, in fact the only part of gameplay that uses it is the Neon Night Riders level (it also uses it in the intro and time warp transition screens). Contrary to popular belief, it does NOT use it when foot soliders are thrown at the screen! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vZmrZCpBJhc.html

I was so envious of mode 7 as a megadrive owner :) I ended up having both consoles.

1:03 Damn! The Secrets of Mana song is the sh*t!!

I'm glad Terranigma is in the List

Some of these are not Mode 7 but just scanline-by-scanline effects.

Yoshi Island es simplemente un juego espectacular.

4:43 axelay example is not mode 7, is hdma of vertical and horizontal line scrolling

I have no doubt that the game that best exploits this feature is Castlevania IV. Besides it, it's either a Mario game, racing or RPG among this list.

The likes of Yoshi’s Island also relied on the Super FX chip.

Is the super ghouls n ghosts level "the ghoul's stomach" part 2 mode 7? I think it is.