By being and older fart than most here, I followed the SNES era in its entirety. It was a beast, even if some problems could be seen here and there (most related to slow downs, very common at that generation). So I think the evolution of the system in graphical terms should be analyzed differently from today, since the console went through some major increments that made things at the end to be possible that just would not be in the beginning (like StarFox).
Thus, I'd like to suggest for my analysis a rough division in early days versus later age and, for graphics (not general performance, mind you), almost no one could touch Konami in initial SNES stages. All the games that the company delivered by then (especially while the exclusive agreement was still intact) are insanely good looking, like:
Contra III
Castlevania IV
Turtles in Time
Just to name a few.
But, from the early days (more "in the middle", to be honest), I believe the most graphically impressive game on the system was Axelay. My goodness, that second stage boss alone was worth the full game price. And I'm not even talking about the fabulous soundtrack, that deserves a post of its own.
After 1994, there is no way to compete with Rare's productions for the system (DKC 1,2,3 and KI) in terms of graphics, even if I personally consider Yoshi's Island to be both the better platformer and the one with the best art direction from that time. Uniracers also looked ridiculously good. So any of those could be my pick.
In 1995 I started Law School and my gaming time became far more restricted, that being the reason I could only play a few selected games and did not have time for Chrono Trigger, so I will not talk much about it as to this day I have not played it.
My 1000th post: https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9368779
