SNES
We’re buying for one type of person. They spent their childhood glued to a grey controller, roughly learnt how to read and learnt the Konami code at the same time. They still use quotes around some Saturday mornings and listening to them makes you feel like you’ve forgotten something crucial. You. Welcome to the club. Either you or the SNES-lover you’re shopping for, whichever. This is the gift collection for them.
The Super Nintendo holds a unique position in folks’ nostalgia that few other commodities have tapped into. It wasn’t simply a console. It was the system that taught people games could be heartfelt, they could be beautiful, they could be serious. Super Metroid, Chrono Trigger, A Link to the Past, Yoshi’s Island; these games weren’t ways to kill some time, they were experiences that people will think back on forty years later. That’s why SNES gifts feel different to other novelty nostalgia crap.
We don’t stock things because they can stick the SNES logo on them. Fun Amazon finds do that and end up with warehouses full of shitty merch. We’re looking for stuff created by people who had the same childhoods we did. Who know why the Mode 7 effect seemed like magic when you first encountered it. Who know exactly what font to pick and why that shade of purple is important. When you actually care about the thing you’re buying or gifting, the difference between something nice and something nasty is clear instantly.
Gifts you’ll find here are useful for all occasions. The friend who’s turning 40 and needs to remember that some things can get better with age. The brother or sister who stored their cartridges in a biscuit tin. The partner who’ll notice a reference you didn’t realise was even there. SNES fans appreciate their SNES in quiet, specific ways and nailing that gift means it really means something.
We wanted this to be tight so we’ve kept it tight. Handpicked things we’d give ourselves because they do something the others don’t. That’s the only filter we use.