FORTNITE has dominated the gaming world’s headlines for a few years now.
Online only games like this may be fun to pick up and play, but their success is becoming a threat to proper console games with weighty campaigns.
Most of the world may want to connect and play against each other, which is all well and good, but I grew up playing games that had single player campaigns as a focus and had local multiplayer.
You know, the kind of multiplayer where you actually talk to a human next to you rather than over a headset. Madness.
Well, I think there is still a space and market for these types of games and now is the time to bring back some forgotten series to a new audience.
Here are my seven classic video games that deserve a reboot.
Streets of Rage
7
Just a mere hint of the words ‘Street of Rage’ and you’ll start to play the epic 16-bit music in your head.
It wasn’t Sonic that persuaded a 5 year old me to go for the Sega Megadrive over the Super Nintendo, no. It was this side-scrolling beat ‘em up that sealed the deal.
The premise was simple. Clean up the city streets that had been taken over by a crime syndicate. How?
By beating the living s*** out of them. If you find yourself in a bit of a bind you can hit the ‘A’ button and the police will park their car a few 100 metres away and bazooka everything.
Just like in real life.
Like Godfather II, Streets of Rage saved its best for the sequel.
Despite getting rid of my favourite character, Adam, Streets of Rage 2 delivered in every other department.
We won’t speak of the third instalment in the series… but I can’t think of a more iconic game from my childhood that’s been completely neglected.
A reboot would bring all that simple perfection to a new generation.
Just putting it out there… imagine Kavinsky (the talent behind ‘Nightcall’ – Drive Original Movie Soundtrack) doing the music for it. *goosebumps*
SSX
7
The SSX series, and in particular SSX: Tricky, blew my tiny little mind back in the early ‘00s.
It wasn’t my first foray into a snowboarding game as I’d been playing 1080° Snowboarding for a few years.
However, SSX brought a new level of utter madness and completely suspended reality as the boarders were performing tricks I couldn’t have even imagined before.
Even though I had absolutely no talent whatsoever at controlling the characters, it made me feel like a gaming god as I aimlessly twiddled my thumbs until something happened on screen.
Basically, any confidence I have in myself today was not the result of my football coach or inspirational teachers, it was because of SSX.
REBOOT PLEASE.
Sensible World of Soccer
7
A football game ahead of its time. Back in the early ‘90s before Fifa, Pro Evo and Football manager really took a hold of the industry, Sensible World of Soccer (SWOS) produced a game that would take another 10 years for the others to catch up.
The game-play was arcade brilliance, but at the same time, it had involving management features. Unbelievably, it had 24,000 teams and 15,000 leagues… Absolute madness.
What I’m leading to here is that no game has really perfected the game-play for both on and off the field. It is time for SWOS to sweep us off our feet with a marriage of FIFA and Football Manager. DO IT.
Jet Set Radio
7
My first encounter with the Jet Set Radio games was actually not a good one.
I had a double game disk of Sega GT 2002 and Jet Set Radio Future for the original Xbox.
As a racing game fan, I was immediately drawn to the epic Sega GT 2002 over what looked like an over the top kid’s roller skating game.
After several weeks of racing, I decided to give this kid’s game a go and I was happily surprised.
I was thrown into a futuristic Tokyo setting where I was spraying graffiti all over the gaff.
The music was cool, the game-play was addictive and it was one of the first gaming worlds that I become totally immersed into.
The game genuinely feels cool and not like everything had been decided in a focus group by a load of men called Steve and Graham.
This has lacked for a long time in the mainstream gaming industry and it needs to make a come back. Just take a look at the modern day’s most similar franchise ‘Splatoon.’
It’s made to sell merch and hoover money out of parent’s pockets.
This is actually more of a call to reboot games that aren’t made by money grabbing blokes called Steve.
Banjo Kazooie
7
As soon as you hear the theme tune you’re right back to being nine years old.
You’d completed Super Mario 64 several times and you were in need of a new platform game to soak up your post-school free time. Enter, arguably the greatest platform game of all time, Banjo Kazooie.
A game filled with atmosphere, intricate level design and just downright perfect game-play.
The perfect storm.
A couple of years later and we got Banjo-Tooie.
The magic was still there and there were improvements all over the shop.
Then, a young me waited patiently for Banjo Three-ie to come out but the years went by and I was left disappointed.
When I saw the release of Banjo Kazooie ‘Nuts and Bolts’ in 2008, was the day finally here?
No… no it wasn’t. A crap vehicle construction game was guffed out on the Xbox 360 and the franchise was officially dead.
Can someone please make a proper reboot like the good old days?
No gimmicks, just the ultimate version of that N64 platform game that captured everyone’s hearts.
Note: An appearance in Smash Bros doesn’t count
Earthworm Jim
7
An often forgotten gaming character, Earthworm Jim was a game full of charm, a visually unique art style and humour.
The graphics for the era were second to none.
The animation was so fluid and smooth it was scarcely believable in the mid-’90s.
This may have affected game-play slightly compared to rivals as it sometimes felt a bit clunky, but it’s fine once you get used to it.
This is why I think this game could do with a modern day reboot.
Keep that unique art style, develop new levels and characters in keeping with the original’s humour and bring in really tight game-play controls and you have an absolute classic.
Conker’s Bad Fur Day
7
If you hadn’t noticed the over 18-rating on the box, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this is a cute and fun kid’s game.
After switching on the game you’re greeted by a cute little squirrel called Conker.
How wholesome. Fast forward a few minutes and Conker has a massive hangover he needs to cure.
Fast forward a few hours and he’s pissing on people, making sexual innuendos and cutting teddy bears in half with a chainsaw.
This toilet humour game could have easily just been a funny gimmick, but the game-play is great, the platform levels are some of the N64’s best and the voice acting is second to none.
I consider it to be Rare’s best work alongside Banjo Kazooie.
There was an Xbox follow up to this called ‘Conker: Live & Reloaded’ but it was heavily censored and basically took everything out that made the original great.
This needs to have a modern day reboot done properly.
Are there any games from your childhood that you think should be brought back? Let us know in the comments.
