Crash Did It - Who's Next?

Crash Did It - Who's Next? Retro Gaming Revivals We Want to See

Nostalgia is always a great marketing tool to rely on, and it's something we’ve seen work across all entertainment mediums. Specifically though, we may be at the point at which it's fair to say that nostalgia for the early days of console gaming is at an all-time high. In addition to somewhat simple revivals, like Pokémon and Mario games going mobile, we've also seen some interesting large-scale revivals. Most notably, Activision tapped into the nostalgia market with its Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and hit the motherlode, ultimately producing some extremely profitable titles. Spyro and Crash Team Racing followed shortly thereafter, and now with games like Link’s Awakening and FF8 starting to trickle down, it seems that other development companies have taken notice of the ripe nature of older material. So, what other games deserve to get a new lease on life? Let’s go through some of our favorites, which may appeal to the console game lovers out there.

Banjo-Kazooie

This one is probably the most obvious, so we'll cover it first! Banjo-Kazooie is approaching the absolute perfect time for a reboot. The franchise’s 20th anniversary was just last year, the characters themselves have just made an historic entrance into Smash Bros., and Crash proved that '90s mascot remakes can thrive. Despite all of that though, we actually haven't heard a peep regarding a potential Banjo remake. Is it something being held back for the next anniversary? Is it slated for a forthcoming console that isn't ready yet? Or is it in the works and simply being kept quiet? Hopefully Microsoft lets us know soon, because this concept represents an awesome opportunity.

The TMNT

While the Turtles themselves aren’t technically gaming characters, they’ve definitely left their mark on the medium via numerous classic beat-em-ups that helped to define the '90s arcade scene. There was an attempt a few years back to remaster the popular Turtles in Time, but it was a rather shoddy remake, lacking much of the original’s charm (and all of the original’s insanely catchy tunes). A package deal that redoes all of the classic titles, and gives Turtles in Time a second chance at a proper remake, would likely be appreciated by millions. We just hope any developer that gets a crack at it can get the original soundtrack in place as well!

Super Monkey Ball 1 and 2

We actually did see a remaster of one of the games in this series, but for some mind-boggling reason, it was of the poorly-received Banana Blitz, and not one of the first two classic Dreamcast titles. Hopefully with this baffling decision out of the way, SEGA come to its senses and gets on to remastering those more deserving original two. There may even be a timely appeal to this idea beyond the nostalgia craze: One of the biggest draws of the initial two games was their collection of minigames, including the beloved Monkey Bingo. And in an era in which there are thriving online bingo sites catering to millions, those kinds of minigames - playful as they may be compared to the real thing - might just attract new gamers, as well as old fans. That should be all the more incentive for SEGA to get this franchise back on track with some fun, modern reboots.

Mega Man Legends

Mega Man went through a tough time back in the late 2000s and early 2010s. After a string of cancellations, a seemingly-intentional omission from the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 games, and the reveal and subsequent failure of Mighty Number 9, things looked bad for the Blue Bomber. Mega Man 11, however, successfully saved the series from the scrap heap - or most of it, at least. The Mega Man Legends subseries was the most notable of the lost projects, with a fully-fledged third entry in the series having been dropped during Capcom’s cancel-happy years, and it’s been dormant since. Fans have continued to push for a revival of the game, but Capcom is clearly concerned about a potential audience. We're hoping, eventually, the vaunted developer will change its stance and bring this series back.