So, I've been playing a lot of Kid Icarus: Uprising recently. It's a great game - it completly reimagines the franchise while retaining a lot of the feeling and charm the original game had. I also really liked the Punch-Out!!! revival a few years back; in this case the gameplay stayed a lot closer to classic form but the entire game was given a modern facelift.
These updates got me thinking, what dormant Nintendo IPs (for the sake of this thread, lets say from the NES era to the N64 era) would you like to see come back? Here are three examples of games that I think could work:
1.) Nazo no Murasamejou
This game is to Zelda as Kid Icarus is to Metroid. What I mean by this is that they are "sister games," developed by a lot of the same staff using the same engine and reusing a lot of the same resources. This is also a Japanese only game that I wouldn't know about if it wasn't for me randomly lurking on Smash Brothers forums from time to time. In anycase, the game is still pretty popular in Japan, the main character, Takamaru, made appearences in Samurai Warrior 3 and in Captain Rainbow.
I think a new Nazo no Murasamejou could fill a niche that no other Nintendo series currently does: combo heavy hack n' slash. It could be a fun, Ninja Gaiden style game, filled with fast combat and just enough exploration and secrets to keep you interested.
2.) Ice Climber
First off I want to say this: I don't like Ice Climbers. It was a game that came out when Nintendo was transitioning from traditional style arcade games to "NES" style platforms. The game has two things going for it though. 1 - The series has insane brand recognition because of Smash Brothers. 2 - Nintendo can always use more platformers.
This series, I think, would work best as a traditional platformer, maybe with a heavy vertical slant. You'ld be going from top to bottom more then from left to right. Maybe you could control both Popo and Nana at the same time, and have some puzzle dynamics as you have to switch from one to the other to get past certain obstacles?
3.) Mach Rider
Mach Rider is awesome. It's perfect for a revival because it's way to simplistic to keep the game similiar to the original. It also has a cool looking protagonist and awesome music.
Nintendo already has a futuristic racer in F-Zero, so that's out. Vehicular combat might be fun, but if Twisted Metal can't make any real splashes I'ld hate to think what would happen with what would essentially be a new IP. If I were in charge of Mach Rider, I would make it a huge open world sand box game; a game were you wander a road warrior like post apocalyptic landscape fighting aliens and wandering gangs of thieves on your fully upgradable and customizable motorcycle. You could obviously go out and wander about on foot, but you should always be able to summon your bike. Maybe the whistling for your horse thing in Red Dead Redemption spoiled me.
Thoughts?
