5 retro Nintendo games that deserve a revival to find a new audience

Going back to Tetris on the Game Boy, which propelled that handheld to remarkable success and cemented Nintendo’s position as a handheld giant, Nintendo has dabbled in the puzzle genre with great results. One of its most interesting experiments came with Tetrisphere on the Nintendo 64, which was developed by H2O Entertainment. Originally conceived as something other than a Tetris game, Tetrisphere asked players to remove pieces from a floating sphere to reveal a trapped robot. Gameplay became quite frantic, but satisfying music selections made it difficult to stop playing even when the experience veered toward frustration. A two-player mode ensured hours of replay value even as the puzzles wore thin. The genre has since expanded across handheld consoles and mobile devices, but Tetrisphere remains the literal definition of a “breakout” hit. Modern audiences would surely find an update every bit as compelling as the original version.

3

Faxanadu (1987)

Because it deviated so much from the top-down formula that defined its franchise up to that point, Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link remains a bit of a dark horse. However, it left fans eager for more adventures in a similar vein. They didn’t have a lot of strong options, unfortunately, but they did have Faxanadu. Developed by Hudson Soft as a side story to Xanadu, the second in Falcom’s long-running Dragon Slayer series, Faxanadu is an action-RPG with exploration, life bars, chatty townsfolk, and an epic quest to explore the World Tree. It qualifies as an early example of a “Metroidvania,” offering a challenging and memorable adventure long enough that players must save their progress using passwords. Nintendo published the game in North America and Europe, and it was released on Virtual Console for Wii, but the game has been unfairly forgotten in more recent years despite its potential for an exemplary return.

4

Pilotwings (1990)

Alongside Wave Race and Excitebike, which also need some love, Pilotwings has been overlooked for far too long. It originally arrived not long after the Super Famicom reached Japan, developed by a team led by Shigeru Miyamoto. The goal in the game is to achieve pilot licenses, while completing tasks that explore the joy and freedom of flight. Years later, but still a pretty long time ago, Pilotwings Resort brought the experience into 3D on the Nintendo 3DS. Since then, the series has mostly remained quiet (although the original release does appear as part of the Nintendo Classics lineup). Given the increased power of the Switch 2, the time has perhaps never been more ripe to explore a breathtaking island from the air, and Pilotwings is just the franchise to help that happen.

5

Clu Clu Land (1984)

The action-puzzle game was extremely important in the game industry’s early years, with breakout hits like Joust and Pac-Man exploding onto the scene to steal pockets full of quarters. Home devices saw numerous ports and even exclusives, including Clu Clu Land for the Famicom in 1984 (it came to the NES the next year). Players swam around single-screen stages in search of stolen ingots. To retrieve everything, they had to avoid or eliminate pesky Unira enemies, which they could weaken with sound wave attacks. The difficulty came from navigating the levels, which required players to latch onto posts they could swing around to change direction and avoid hazards. That simple gameplay loop became surprisingly difficult and addictive, despite limitations posed by hardware of the time. An update with more expansive, interactive environments (perhaps similar to what Bandai Namco attempted with Pac-Man World and its sequels) could hit just right in 2026, or any other year. For now, though, the Clu Clu Land characters are confined to cameo appearances in other games.