Among the eclectic selection of NES and SNES games served as part of everyone’s Nintendo Switch Online subscription, Fire emblem‘s highly anticipated (albeit time-limited) English-language release thirty years after its Japanese debut, and the upcoming remake of their Disc System adventure game Famicom Detective Clubit seems clear that Nintendo is not only capable, but more than willing to go through the trouble of diving into its extensive back catalog in search of old titles.
Whether it’s bringing these lost gems to a new international audience for the first time or digging up retro curios that deserve a head-to-toe remake after decades languishing on plastic bowls and silicon chips, it looks like age, the genre or the current lack of clarity does not appear to be an obstacle to its reissue potential.
And this exciting behavior got us thinking: Now that Nintendo is so actively interested in its history, what else could be on the horizon for Switch owners – and if we got the keys to Nintendo’s safes, what would happen? we choose to return? Knowing the legendary Japanese company, the only honest answer is: “Expect the unexpectedBut that doesn’t stop us from speculating …
We’ll start with something simple. Imagine a Nintendo sports package, which brings together all of their oldest and most straightforward titles in the genre (golf Ice hockey, tennis, baseball, football, and so on) and then give them a stylish facelift, from the familiar faces of Mario and his friends to the cutting-edge minimalism of the bit generations series – or even both, interleaved at will.
With their simple setups that allow entire games to start and end quickly in easy-to-digest chunks of unplanned, almost universally understood rules (we have to admit baseball is utterly lost, but even we can work our way through an 8-bit match), and multiplayer built into the nature of the games themselves, these would be the perfect bundle of fetch and play games; the digital equivalent of a quick kickabout with a friend in the park or a casual throw-and-catch in the garden. We could see it become something like that Clubhouse Games or Ring Fit Adventure, the kind of title no one would ever think of if there were more Zeldas waiting to be made but once you get it home you wonder how you ever did without an evergreen collection of easy sports games that you don’t expect to buy a full annual update or need a serious time investment to enjoy .
Another obvious choice is Famicom Wars: We may be a few years late to celebrate the 30th anniversary of this once popular franchise, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter because any moment is the perfect time for a Famicom Wars /Super Famicom Wars double packaging. Never made available outside of Japan in any official form, an early war history release could do double duty as a playable piece of history, as well as an English language all rolled into one at first.
If Famicom Detective Club turns out to be a success that could easily pave the way for a release of its cousin Famicom Disc System, Shin OnigashimaReleased on Nintendo’s 8-bit hardware in 1987 and ported to the Super Famicom eleven years later, this extremely Japanese adventure game is said to leave a strong impression in any region thanks to its unusual subject matter and beautiful artwork. As it stands, an international release of one of the older versions in any language would be welcome, but a full remake that seemed so stylized as to appear illustrated with woodcuts would certainly be downright incredible.
One of the more obscure hypothetical candidates for a Switch makeover would be a revisit of the Mario artist concept, the underexperienced line of creative utilities originally created for Nintendo’s N64 add-on, the 64DD. With the barriers to sharing creations, Nintendo could potentially build a thriving online community of budding pixel and polygon artists by reintroducing accessible creativity to a whole new generation of gamers.
Another possibility that a specialist accessory is also required in its original form is the e-Reader series, the GBA card reader / card pack combination first released in Japan in 2001. At the time, they were expensive to collect and for some it was necessary to seriously swipe across several cards for something worth playing to work. what they subject to a more convenient modern package. The NES games released on the format are already handled elsewhere on the Switch, but that still leaves a wealth of other content in those point codes waiting to be rediscovered: the special Mario levels meant to be used with Super Mario Advance 4 would be a perfect capsule of entertainment just like the courses designed to be used with the Japanese version of F-Zero: GP Legend, and certainly the Switch’s screen would make a useful replacement for it Mario Party-e‘s physical leeway, so that everything is in a neatly packed portable package. It would certainly be a strange and unexpected collection, but that would only mean that it would fit right into Nintendo’s existing Switch output.
Oh, and we couldn’t name the GBA without giving Mother 3 a nod, can we? Whether it would sell more copies than Mario Kart 8 Deluxe or sink without a trace within a week, it would be nice to at least draw a line under the oft-requested glaring absence of RPG. On a slightly more likely note (sorry, mom fans), Kuru Kuru Kururin has slept for far for too long, the game’s unique action-puzzling just begs for utterly bizarre gyro controls /Nintendo Lab collaboration that either makes users dizzy for its raw innovation or turns into an angry forum-filling frenzy.
Whatever happens, there are no doubt plenty of options for Nintendo to explore and it is clear that it is happy to consider all possibilities; its rich history is something it seeks to bring to light rather than remain locked up forever. Some of these suggestions are likely to materialize than others, but again, this is the same company that decided to blur the lines between home and handheld gaming when everyone else was satisfied with releasing another black slab of plastic, the same company that gave SNES games via satellite broadcast, a cube with a handle on the back and glasses-free 3D in a handheld – what’s another unlikely idea that has become a reality for Nintendo?
What do you think of our suggestions? What titles would you like to see revived or re-released? Let us know with a comment below.