Nintendo is one of the most historic names in all of gaming. With a history dating back 130 years, the Big N has done a lot from the days of arcades to modern-times. As such, it’s easy to forget some of their history. They made cards, electric drum kits, love hotels, and they even had a short stint in the taxi business. While those ventures are often forgotten, they weren’t nearly as notable as their contributions to gaming.
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Much like their business ventures, some of their contributions to gaming have been forgotten, or at least ignored. We want to take a look at those franchises, the ones that Nintendo hasn’t shown as much love to, but we want to see more. Here are 10 Nintendo Franchises That Deserve A Comeback.
10Earthbound
Outside of North America, theMotherfranchise that thrived across three games. Stateside, however, we only got to enjoy the second game in the series, which was renamedEarthbound. Incredibly hilarious, brilliantly written, and featuring an interesting battle system complete with rolling hit points allowing for last-ditch efforts to win a fight, this game is a cult classic.
Despite this, however, whenMother 3launched on the Gameboy Advance in 2006, it never left Japan. What’s worse is that it was the last game in the franchise. From 2006 to the present day, we’ve never gotten another title in this series.
9NES Remix
Compared to other games on this list, theNES Remixis more recent, with the latest version releasing in 2014, but with a Nintendo in the midst of a new era for Nintendo, we’d love to see this incredibly addicting game come back. Taking classic Nintendo games from the 1980s while putting a new spin on them, theNES Remixwas one of the most fun games on the Wii U.
Of all the games listed, we think this game has the best chance of returning. As of this writing, Nintendo has been bringing lost Wii U games to the Switch, so there could be a sliver of hope yet for this series.
8Kid Icarus
Kid Icarusis one of Nintendo’s oldest and most overlooked franchises. Released in Japan in 1986, this action platformer was almost a mythical version ofMetroid, which launched in the same year. Playing as Pit, gamers traversed across an ancient-greek inspired world searching for the three “Sacred Treasures”. For its time, it was unique, but not insanely popular.
Still, it got a sequel in 1991. After that, it took over 20 years for fans to get another entry in the franchise on the 3DS. DubbedKid Icarus: Uprising, the return of Pit was handled by none other than Masahiro Sakurai and its mix of on-rails action and third-person shooter mechanics made it one of the more interesting games in the 3DS' library. Unfortunately, Sakurai has confirmed there are no plans for a follow-up title, which is pretty strange considering the success of its return.
7Golden Sun
If you’re a JRPG fan, odds are, you loveGolden Sun. Following a group of “Adepts” tasked with preventing dark Alchemy from returning to the land, this epic trilogy of RPGs is a story-driven masterpiece. Unfortunately, despite the heaps of praise, the series has received, the last game in the franchise,Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, released on theNintendo DSin 2010. Beloved for the strong writing, surprisingly greate visuals — even for handheld devices — along with great sound design, these games were made with a lot of love.
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Despite the high-quality game design, each entry in the series sold less than the one that came before, and while the technical side of the games was loved, many did criticize the uninspired battle system that never really improved. Still, these games are great, and we’d love to see more — especially on the Switch.
6Wars Series
Whether you fancy yourself anAdvance Warsfan or aBatallion Warsplayer, we can all agree the world needs more of these fantastic Strategy RPGs. With a history dating back to 1988, the Intelligent Systems developed series was kept from Western shores until 2001. The game was insanely popular, and despite sharing the same genre and developer asFire Emblem, theWarsseries feels completely different.
The gameplay focuses on developing units and capturing headquarters as players traverse the lands as the commanding officer of an entire army. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen a sequel in the series since 2008’sAdvance Wars: Days of Ruinon the Nintendo DS. Yet, with the insane success ofFire Emblemtaking up Intelligent Systems' time these days, it’s hard to see a new game in the series any time soon.
5Wii Sports
It’s hard to argue thatWii Sportswasn’t one of the most influential games of all time. Bringing in players that barely ever played video games, the motion-controlled minigame collection set the world on fire when it first released as a launch title for the Nintendo Wii. In many ways, this was the game that sold the console. Retirement homes purchased the game to let their residents get some exercise, families would bowl together in their living rooms, and college students would play tennis in their dorms! It was a true gaming revolution, regardless of your thoughts on casual games.
It was so popular that when Nintendo revealed an upgrade to their Wii Remote, they launched a sequel to the game to boot. While not as revolutionary as the title that came before, it was an incredible experience, that was fun and addicting to boot.
4Punch-Out!
Punch-Out!is Nintendo’s popular boxing franchise was more akin to a puzzle game than a fighter. Forcing players to follow the patters of their opponents, and rely on quick reflexes, this game tormented gamers of the 1980s in arcades, and later on the NES asMike Tyson’s Punch-Out!. Spawning two sequels, one on the Super NES and another on the Wii, this franchise has history, even without many entries in the series.
Despite that, there’s something addictive aboutPunch-Out!. The gameplay loop is incredibly satisfying, and the difficulty curve is just enough that players never get bored. Hopefully, in the new age of Nintendo with the Switch, we can see a sequel, but it’s been over a decade at this point.
3Diddy Kong Racing
If you owned a Nintendo 64, you had quite a few choices in terms of kart racers, but only two games matteredMario Kart 64, and Rare’s 1997 classicDiddy Kong Racing. Now, we don’t want to cause an argument here about which game was better, but it’s hard to argue against the latter.
With a massive hub world to explore, an actual storyline, and varied gameplay,Diddy Kong Racingwas leaps and bounds more interesting than the flagship racer on the console. Unfortunately, after Rare and Nintendo split, most hopes of this game returning came to a halt, but we still want another.
2F-Zero
Despite dozens of imitators likeWipeoutandFast RMX, nothing quite scratches the itch like Nintendo’s long-standing franchise,F-Zero. Perhaps it’s the characters, or maybe its the history, but there’s no racer as fast and chaotic asF-Zero. The series is so popular that it spawned its own anime, and inspired Sega’s ownDaytona USAfranchise.
Yet, since 2004, we’ve never seen a sequel. What’s worse is there’s never been a home console version in the franchise since a year prior. Even more frustrating is that Nintendo handed development off to Sega to complete it. For whatever reason, Nintendo doesn’t quite have faith in this franchise, despite fans clamoring for more.
1Super Mario RPG
Super Mario RPG was such a unique idea when it first launched. An RPG made by Squaresoft (now Square-Enix) revolving around the cast of the popular platformer who are forced to save the world after a new gang takes over. With a massive world and revolutionary battle mechanics that blended real-time gameplay with a turn-based system, this game was unlike anything we ever played.
These days,Mario & LuigiandPaper Mariofollow inSuper Mario RPG’sfootsteps, but they aren’t the same. Maybe it’s because the Squaresoft touch, or maybe its the scale of a partnership like the one seen here, but this game is unlike anything that has come since. It’s time to bring this franchise back.
