Ports and spin-offs that should have happened BITD

[Drixxel]

From time to time, I get to thinking about how cool it would have been had certain franchises received a special installment on old hardware, like a unique chopped-down port of something grandiose or a sequel / spin-off of a promising franchise tailored to a more modest platform. Paying heed to the technical feasibility of these dream games makes it all the more enjoyable to imagine, especially given that we have lots of examples of huge arcade games making the jump home that feature creative workarounds in hopes of preserving the overall experience despite massively scaling back on, well, scaling, and such.

 

So keeping in mind the plausibility of it all, what are some dream ports or franchise entries you would have loved to see back in the day? Here are a handful that spring to mind to get things started:

 

Gradius III for Genesis. A rad FM soundtrack with next-to-no slowdown and some of the rad graphical effects Konami pulled off in Rocket Knight Adventures and Contra: Hard Corps would have made Gradius III a total win. I love the SNES version but I wish Gradius III had gotten the 16-bit multiplatform treatment!

 

Raiden for SMS. The Lynx version is kinda-sorta proof that the game could be recognizable when scaled back considerably and Power Strike suggests that a competent team could pull off a trimmed down Raiden. Had it retained 2-player coop, well dang, that there would have been a fantastic Master System shmup.

 

Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness for SNES, with mouse support. It would have had to have been quite a late period SNES title but this just feels right to me, I really wish more games took advantage of the SNES mouse. As a pseudo-alternative to Warcraft II, a re-release of SimCity with SNES mouse compatibility would have ruled.

 

Ristar's Pinball Galaxy for Game Gear, imagine it as something cut from the same cloth as Kirby's Pinball Land on GB. Ristar on Game Gear did the Genesis original justice and this would have been a wicked and, IMO, hugely appealing handheld spin-off. If only!

 

 

 

 

[malducci]

Gradius III for Genesis. A rad FM soundtrack with next-to-no slowdown and some of the rad graphical effects Konami pulled off in Rocket Knight Adventures and Contra: Hard Corps would have made Gradius III a total win. I love the SNES version but I wish Gradius III had gotten the 16-bit multiplatform treatment!

 

Seeing that this would be Konami, there would still be slowdown. Maybe not SNES level, but it'd be there. Ever seen Gradius II arcade board? It out classes the Genesis and still slows down.

Edited August 9, 2016 by malducci

[Video]

Weren't the warcraft games released on the n64? I seem to remember them not being that good on there. I was disappointed as I loved the Pc one.

[Drixxel]

 

Seeing that this would be Konami, there would still be slowdown. Maybe not SNES level, but it'd be there. Ever seen Gradius II arcade board? It out classes the Genesis and still slows down.

 

Oh sure, we're not talking a theoretical arcade perfect port of Gradius III to the Genesis here or anything, but like if Konami's Mega Drive team took the game on and arranged it to be better suited to the console. Even an approach sorta like what they did with Hyperstone Heist where it might be largely adapted from their work on the earlier SNES release. Regardless, I can easily imagine a version of Gradius III on Genesis that would perform better than what we got on SNES and embody good, clean Genesis values.

 

Weren't the warcraft games released on the n64? I seem to remember them not being that good on there. I was disappointed as I loved the Pc one.

 

You might be thinking of Starcraft, that one got an N64 port. Warcraft II ended up on Saturn and PlayStation, rented the PSX release back then and had some fun with it even with the hugely cumbersome d-pad cursor controls. Again, I'm not suggesting that Warcraft II could be done flawlessly on SNES hardware but adapted in a fun and faithful way.

 

Anyone got some cool ideas for ports or spin-offs that ought to have been at least attempted on classic hardware?

[mbd30]

Rastan and Shinobi should have been on the Genesis. Why the heck weren't they? I love the Shinobi games we did get on the Genesis, but there should have been a port of the arcade original. The less said about Rastan Saga II the better.

[Drixxel]

Rastan and Shinobi should have been on the Genesis. Why the heck weren't they? I love the Shinobi games we did get on the Genesis, but there should have been a port of the arcade original. The less said about Rastan Saga II the better.

 

Oh man, fully agreed on both counts. A port of arcade Shinobi would have seemed a natural project to tackle for the JP launch of the Mega Drive in '88. Maybe Sega was content with the SMS port as far as home console Shinobi representation, and Revenge of Shinobi wasn't far off, but the lack of arcade Shinobi on Genesis is weird. As for Rastan, again, more than a little odd that the only home console it graced was the Master System when a Genesis version would have been such a natural fit. I mean, Taito gave the greenlight to porting Rastan Saga II to both the Genesis and PC-Engine, what's the deal with the original Rastan being left out? Was Rastan Saga II inexplicably more popular than the original in arcades?

[mbd30]

 

Oh man, fully agreed on both counts. A port of arcade Shinobi would have seemed a natural project to tackle for the JP launch of the Mega Drive in '88. Maybe Sega was content with the SMS port as far as home console Shinobi representation, and Revenge of Shinobi wasn't far off, but the lack of arcade Shinobi on Genesis is weird. As for Rastan, again, more than a little odd that the only home console it graced was the Master System when a Genesis version would have been such a natural fit. I mean, Taito gave the greenlight to porting Rastan Saga II to both the Genesis and PC-Engine, what's the deal with the original Rastan being left out? Was Rastan Saga II inexplicably more popular than the original in arcades?

 

I don't recall ever seeing a Rastan Saga II machine but I've seen plenty of Rastan machines.

 

When I tried it on the Genesis I was disgusted.

[mbd30]

I have a lot of nostalgia for the Superman arcade game. I would have bought a Sega Genesis version.

 

 

 

 

Mat Mania could have been ported to the NES.

 

Edited August 10, 2016 by mbd30

[Cynicaster]

Rastan and Shinobi should have been on the Genesis. Why the heck weren't they?

 

Don't much care for Rastan, but agree 100% with Shinobi--I was just thinking the same thing recently. I mean, Sega even ported over Flicky to the Genesis for crying out loud. It's a great version of the game, but Flicky and no Shinobi? Seems like a missed opportunity.