When it comes to Nintendo, there is a veritable treasure trove of games to play over their history. Nintendo especially is one of the rare companies to have perfectly preserved much of their legacy games, letting them cherry-pick when to redistribute them.
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Yet even still, Nintendo mainly relies on reinventing existing and popular series rather than creating new ones, Splatoon being the rare exception. Because of that, many of their more unique entries that weren’t massive hits tended to slip away, but they deserve another round in the spotlight.
8Sin And Punishment
Originally released for the N64 back in 2000, Sin and Punishment was not developed by Nintendo themselves, but by a closely affiliated studio, Treasure. Sin and Punishment was a big task for them, an on-rails shooter in full 3D developed by a tiny amount of staff with the ambition to change how players even held the controller.
The game was, despite its limitations, a resounding success,eventually getting a Western releasein 2007 and a sequel, Star Successor, in 2009, and the series has been dormant ever since. On-rail shooters are something sorely lacking in Nintendo’s library, and the motion controls of the Switch would give it the perfect platform to return on.
7Punch-Out
Like all classic fighting games,Punch-Outstarted as an arcade game way back in 1984 (sorry to whoever was made feel old by that). It was a celebrated title, focusing squarely on boxing and rising up the ranks to become the greatest boxer there was.
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Since 2009, Punch-Out hasn’t had a single entry. On the Wii, it made sense. Using your own motions to fight against opponents is a niche only Punch-Out and Nintendo could achieve.
Fighting games are all the rage again, making it a great time for Punch-Out to return. All it has to do is play to its own strengths.
6Golden Sun
A game developer you’ve definitely seen the work of but likely never heard of is Camelot Software Planning. Nowadays, they’re mainly known for their work on various Mario sports spin-off games, though their roots are actually in RPGs, most prominently theGolden Sungames.
Originally released in 2001 with the latest entry in 2010, Golden Sun games fall somewhere between Zelda and Final Fantasy, as they’re big on puzzles and exploration, but also party combat and magic. They’re gorgeous games for their art and music, and even if they’re a bit generic in other areas they’re cult classics that deserve a chance to compete against some of the big-name RPGs.
5Star Fox
Star Fox, despite the increasingly rare release schedule, is still one of Nintendo’s more iconic brands. Beginning in 1993 for the SNES, Star Fox was one of the first home console games with 3D graphics and became a major name in rail-shooters for the time too.
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Since then, Star Fox has actually had plenty of entries, with the latest being in 2016 by Platinum, though that one is…not beloved. Star Fox and its characters are just as popular now as they were in the past, and a truly new game in the series with a whole new direction would be a surefire hit.
4F-Zero
Racing games have always struggled to succeed, as the right niche needs to be achieved. Do you focus on the details of the cars, or maybe the sensation of speed and momentum?F-Zero, for its few entries, chose to highlight speed, and what incredible speeds it reached.
F-Zero, now dormant since 2004, has always been about surviving a racetrack at the highest speed possible, and vehicles had stats that determined their speed and survivability as well as the characters controlling them. It’s a racer like few others out there, anda genre Nintendo has few competitors in.
3Mother
Released back in 1989 for the NES, Mother was and still is a remarkable game. Built as an RPG that, even at the time, felt like it was satirising other RPGs, Mother has maintained a very specific reputation, especially in the Western world.
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Known asEarthboundinternationally, Mother 2 was actually the first released outside of Japan and is commonly seen as the most beloved entry in the series for its humour and gameplay. Even to this day, Mother 3 remains locked in Japan, and while a new entry in the series would be nice, even an official release of Mother 3 would be good enough.
2Kid Icarus
In terms of Nintendo’s vast library of games, Kid Icarus is perhaps one of the most unusual. Not the games themselves, but how they were released.
The original, released in 1986 for the NES, had elements of side-scrollers, RPGs, and even a little bit of Metroid. The latest, Uprising, was an on-rails and third-person shooter, which is quite the leap.
Of course, a game does require some reinvention after a 26-year hiatus. While the originals were not beloved (with the sequel only releasing in North America and Europe), they had a fan following.
Uprising, however, was a dramatically different vision from the original and became an instant classic. If Nintendo could do it once, they can surely bring back Kid Icarus for a third revival.
1Mario’s Time Machine
Mariois an unavoidable aspect of not just gaming, but media in general nowadays as they are Nintendo’s mascot, plastered across every game on their platform and now even in animated movie form. With how prolific Mario is and the many careers he seems to be skilled in, it can be easy to forget some of his more…whimsical entries.
In his early days, Nintendo actually licensed out Mario for a series of short-lived educational games. The best of these? Mario’s Time Machine.
Yes, the game was filled with historical inaccuracies, yet where else can Mario meet William Shakespeare? Why a new Time Machine game would surely only be a net positive for reality.
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