Porting For Rare Gold

With the recent rise in popularity of HD-ports of old Rare titles such as Perfect Dark and Banjo-Kazooie, many gamers have been wondering which title deserves an HD upgrade/port and given the commercial success of each Rare title, it’s hard to choose. From first-person shooters, platformers, and fighting games, not only does the company have a plethora of choices to pick from, but a strong case could be made for almost any of them. In no particular order, here are the top five contenders for the next Rare HD port/remake, any of which would be an instant hit with 360 gamers everywhere:

Battletoads (Nintendo, 1991)

“DO YOU HAVE BATTLETOADS?”

What started as an internet meme by the infamous Web site 4chan, has now become a cultural tradition. Ask any GameStop employee about it, and they’ll tell you. Battletoads is alive and kicking, and we can’t wait until the day we see a remake. Just imagine, replaying as Rash, Zitz, and Pimple across Xbox Live with your friends. Not only would the experience rival that of Castle Crashers, but I firmly believe that it could exceed it. Universally acclaimed as one of the hardest games of all-time, the port would need to be based off of the original Nintendo port keeping everything that gave gamers fits. Just imagine the achievement points. “Complete the game without dying.” A true achievement if I ever saw one.

Ken Griffey Jr.’s Winning Run (Super Nintendo, 1996)

Ever since the exclusivity contract of 2k Sports over the third-party Major League Baseball license, the only baseball franchise on the 360 has been the 2k series. Noted as being a shadow of its former self, especially in comparison to the much superior MLB: the Show franchise, baseball fans haven’t had many choices when it came to the 360 and reviving Rare’s Winning Run series would prove to be a valuable commodity. Especially since it would be a first-party developer.

As one of the only major league baseball games to not feature the player’s association license, the game used a tongue-in-cheek parody of player names making it a fun game trying to guess who was who. Albert Belle was nicknamed “Frank Liberty” to the highly appropriate nickname of Barry Bonds becoming “Muscle McFee.” Whether they kept this approach or not, it wouldn’t matter as the very sight of another baseball title would be welcomed, especially since the 2k series has been lackluster for the past few years.

Golden Eye 007 (Nintendo 64, 1997)

As one of the grandfathers of the first-person shooting genre, Nintendo 64’s Golden Eye had a lasting effect on the video-game industry. Not only did it prove that first-person shooters can succeed on a console, but the game blazed the way for future games like Half-Life and Halo.

Based off of the James Bond’s film with the same name, the game introduced a variety of weapons and gadgets for players to tinker with while exploring the movie’s world. It’s biggest contribution, however, was its innovative multiplayer mode. Featuring all of the characters in the movie, in addition to civilians, players could participate in a four-player deathmatch that’s still competitive up to this day. A port came close to happening once, we just need to hope that it will happen.

Conker: Live and Reloaded (Xbox, 2005)

While the game may have already been ported from the Nintendo 64 to the original Xbox, complete with online multiplayer, Conker has yet to make an appearance on the 360. Known largely for its toilet humor, graphic cartoon violence, sexual themes and film parodies the game’s cult following has been clamoring for a sequel and either remaking it or adding it to on-demand would be one step towards making them happy. Add in the fact that it already had a healthy multiplayer mode going into 2007, and you have a game that would definitely be welcomed on Xbox Live. No patch required. Throw in a couple achievements and a new control scheme, and Rare could call it a day.

Killer Instinct (Aracde/SNES, 1994)

Rare’s attempt to cash-in on the commercial success of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat proved that they had the mettle to branch out and compete in any genre of gaming. Something that many companies have failed to do. Borrowing a healthy dose of super moves and finishing moves from the aforementioned games, the game proved to be a hit loaning itself to a sequel and several ports before its last appearance on the Nintendo 64 as Killer Instinct Gold. It’s already been heavily rumored that Rare is interested in bringing this game out on the Xbox Live Arcade, so out of all five of these titles it seems like this is the most likely to happen.