On the back of marginally superior technical capabilities to its main competitor, the Sega Genesis, many beautifully designed and illustrated games, Nintendo's family-friendly image, and the popularity of icon game characters including Mario?, the SNES was popular throughout the world throughout the early to mid 1990's , though in the United States the Genesis was marginally more successful.
Superseded by the Nintendo 64, many of the successful games for the system are being revived in the Game Boy Advance, which has remarkably similar capabilities.