9) Donkey Kong Land (Series)
System: Game Boy (1995, 1996, 1997)
Rare’s Donkey Kong Country games are always a great talking point, but people often forget the excellent trio of Donkey Kong Land titles that were released on Game Boy. In a fit of magic that must have inspired the creation of the Harry Potter books, the British developer somehow condensed the graphics and play controls of the SNES DK games down to a few megabytes of data. Though only one Kong member is displayed on screen at a given time, and some liberties had to be taken with the level designs, the core 2D platforming action was maintained and just as fun on the go. All three games are a testament to Rare’s technological mastery of Nintendo’s hardware, back in the day. Totally still deserving a play today, as well as worth re-releasing on Virtual Console.
Great list, but I’d add Pokemon Pinball and Solar Striker, a couple of my own personal favorites.
Excellent list Robert.
Upon beginning to read, I was all set to log in and give the obligatory “but I would have included such & such.”
However you hit my personal top two (Bionic Commando: Elite Forces and Metal Gear Solid.) These two game are underrated in my opinion (especially MGS) and deserve to be played by another generation of gamers. All the rest are great too.
You nailed it. I would especially like to see the Donkey Kong Land trilogy and Metal Gear make it (in celebration of Tropical Freeze and Ground Zeroes hitting Wii U, right? ;^) but everything on that list absolutely belongs there.
A super-long-shot that I would be thrilled beyond all reason to see is Game Boy Camera. Granted, the awesome/awful camera sensor’s subtle distortion would have to be faked, and its crazy infrared allergies would be absent, but with cameras inside and out, the emulation layer could totally deal with turning the camera head around, and “printing” could (finally!) give us easily-accessed image files. I’m probably in the minority, but every time Nintendo dabbles in artistic stuff like this (Mario Paint, WarioWare DIY, Flipnote Studio) I’m convinced it’s the greatest thing ever. :^)
Being able to transfer Pokemon from Virtual Console games to X & Y would be great. Also… I miss being able to see Pikachu’s excited face from Yellow. I could never bring myself to store him away!
Luckily in Europe we are getting Super Mario Bros. Deluxe next week – and in fact got it for free by linking a Nintendo ID to the 3DS. I really need to give it a go!