Not long ago, Nintendo's latest direct meeting announced a number of new works, among which many NDS-era masterpieces are resurrected excitingly, such as "Ghost Trick" and "World Tree Labyrinth 123" HD version. In addition, the famous "Professor Leighton" series, which began in the NDS era, has also announced its latest work "Professor Leighton and the New World of Steam".
In particular, the resurrection of "Ghost Trick" has moved many old players quite much. At that time, many players forgot to sleep and forget to clear the game, which was a very beautiful game experience time in their lives. Seeing the resurrection of the game this time, some players were even moved to tears.
Of course, in the past few years, many NDS games have been revived on Switch consoles and even more platforms: for example, the remake of the NDS masterpiece "Rune Workshop 3" released in 2009, "Rune Workshop 3 Special Edition", landed on Switch on March 2; A remake of Wonderful World: Final Mix, which was also popular at NDS that year, was released on Switch in 2018; The Mega Man ZERO/ZX Legacy Collection released in 2020 includes the Mega Man game Mega Man ZX from the NDS era; The famous puzzle adventure game "Extreme Out: 9 Hours, 9 Men 9 Doors" developed by ChunSoft in 2009 appeared in 2017 as a remake on platforms such as PC and PS4.
There are many similar cases. Relatively speaking, due to the many masterpieces of the NDS era, coupled with the relatively long distance from the present, and the limited resolution of NDS consoles, this may make more game companies resurrect the classics of that period in the future.
So let's talk about the interesting topic of what other classics in the NDS era are worth resurrecting. Since there are too many classics to discuss them in this article, it is hereby explained.
NDS "Castlevania" series trilogy
In the future, the "Castlevania" series trilogy in the NDS era is more likely to be resurrected.
Because in 2021, KONAMI launched the "Castlevania Advance Collection", which includes three games related to the series in the GBA era, and KONAMI has also ported "Castlevania: Nocturne Under the Moon" to the PS4 console in recent years, so according to this porting logic, sooner or later it will be the turn of these three works of NDS.
In addition, these three games themselves are of extraordinary quality, and they were welcomed and hotly discussed by players that year. Among them, "Castlevania: The Cross of the Moon" is the sequel to the popular "Castlevania: Hyokazon Waltz" on the GBA, and the protagonist is still the popular character Su Sojin, and Hama and supporting roles in the previous work such as Yukaku Fantaya and Julius also appeared. And the overall gameplay of the work is the evolution of the soul-absorbing system of the core element of "Castlevania: Bright Moon Waltz", and the main gameplay design of "Red Marks: Ritual of the Night" created by IGA many years later is actually inherited from "Castlevania: The Cross of the Azure Moon".
The second game on the NDS, Castlevania: Portrait of the Ruins, is probably the most popular of the three games. Because this game has more innovation than the previously launched "Castlevania: Cross of the Blue Moon". For example, this is the first time in the series that players can operate two protagonists at the same time, namely the male protagonist Jonathan Morris and the female protagonist Charlotte Ollin, and the player can switch between the two characters at any time during the game exploration process to better defeat the enemy. And by introducing various portraits, the exploration scope of the game is no longer limited to the castle of Castlevania, but can go to various places such as desert pyramids, towns, and villages.
The third game on NDS, "Castlevania: The Taken Seal", is the biggest system innovation in the "Castlevania" series led by IGA, and it can be said that IGA has integrated the system of the previous series he was responsible for. In this work, the settings of weapons and secondary weapons and magic guides are canceled, and all attack methods must be achieved through engraving, and the acquisition of engraving depends on two ways: random acquisition by fighting monsters and fixed acquisition, which is similar to the setting of soul sucking in "Waltz of the Dawning Moon" and "Cross of the Azure Moon". Players can equip the heroine Xianoya with two different engravings to cast a variety of weapons and attack effects. It can also unleash heart-consuming special moves through different combinations, which is somewhat similar to the core design in GBA's Castlevania: White Nights Concerto, that is, players can cast different magical attacks through the combination of magic guides and secondary weapons. The engraving system has considerable depth and requires players to spend a certain amount of effort to study. The fun to study is also relatively rich, so it has been well received by many players until now.
The protagonist of "Castlevania: The Stolen Mark" is a woman named Xianoa, which is extremely rare in the entire "Castlevania" series, and before that, it was probably the one on GB that a few series such as "Castlevania: Pitch Black" would use a woman as the protagonist. The role of Xianoya was welcomed by many players, which may have influenced IGA to some extent to use women as the protagonists again when designing "Red Marks: Ritual of the Night".
However, "The Stolen Seal" is the most difficult of the NDS's three titles, and some players even spent a lot of effort to defeat the first boss. This may be because the previous "Castlevania" games that IGA was responsible for were not very difficult, so he wanted to try to return to the original hardcore style of the series in this game, and in the end, most players recognized this difficulty increase, but a small number of players complained that the difficulty was too high.
In addition, it has to be mentioned that in those years, because these three games soon had folk Chinese patches, many players especially liked these three "Castlevania" games, and repeatedly cleared the NDS three works like "Nocturne Under the Moon" before, which can also be called the good memories of the youth of old players.
"Love Follows"
"Love Follows" is a super popular phenomenon game in the NDS era, and players who lived through that era may remember its popularity back then.
When the game was released on September 3, 2009, there was a gradual boom, and even at that time in Japan, there were many people in Japan who were holding NDS and falling in love with virtual characters in the game at any time, and more extremely, someone wanted to marry the characters in the game.
The reason why the work can detonate the era is mainly because of the use of the various functions of NDS, and the groundbreaking combination of virtual and real in terms of gameplay. Especially combined with this point is an epoch-making innovation for the entire field of love games, and many love genre mobile games have borrowed this setting in recent years.
Later, "Love Follows" launched a sequel on the 3DS, which was also very popular. But the father of the series, that is, the "father-in-law" known as the "father-in-law" by the players of the series, Akiri Uchida left KONAMI in 2015, and later KONAMI launched the mobile game version of "Love Follows" in 2019, but the reviews were mixed.
In fact, "Love Follows" is a very suitable work to experience on Switch consoles, but whether this game can be revived may depend on KONAMI's attitude towards classic games in the past, and whether "Love Follows" can be ranked at the forefront of resurrection, and "Silent Hill", "Castlevania", "Contra" and other series have a status.
On the other hand, it depends on whether Uchida can return, which has precedents before. In 2015, Koma Sakuma, the father of KONAMI's famous "Momotaro Metro" series, made some declarations of his friendship with the company and announced that the series was over. However, a few years later, the two sides renovated under the mediation of an intermediary, allowing Akira Sakuma to redevelop the series, and in 2020, he launched the latest work in the series, "Momotaro Subway: Showa Heisei Reiwa Dingban", which has sold more than 3.5 million units last year, which can be said to be a very good result.
So for "Love Follows", will there be such a miracle?
"Nintengu"
"Nintengu" is an outstanding masterpiece of Nintendo's first party in the NDS era. The game was released in 2005, and more than 2 million sets were sold through bundle sales in the year of its first release, which greatly boosted NDS's hardware sales. At that time, many people bought NDS consoles for this game, mainly because this game can be regarded as an evolution of the electronic pet popular in the 1990s, and makes good use of the various functions of NDS to allow players and dogs to interact with each other.
With the popularity of this game, later Nintendo also launched a sequel in the 3DS era.
After the arrival of the Switch era, many players are looking forward to the sequel of this series, but they have not seen any action from Nintendo. Until the end of January this year, a patent news made many players rekindle hope for a sequel. According to foreign media reports at the time, Nintendo recently filed a patent registration in the United States, and its detailed description is very similar to "Nintengu". In the patented image, you can see the dog appearing inside the phone screen, in the space where the phone camera was shooting. Another image clearly shows that the dog is projected through a virtual camera, and its dynamic position changes to suit the position of the player and the phone's camera itself.
At present, we don't know if this means the resurrection of "Nintengu", but judging from the patent description, this may most likely be an AR mobile game in the end, and of course, the possibility of launching a Switch version is not excluded.
The New Super Mario Bros.
Since Nintendo in the GBA era mainly ported the classic works of the previous "Super Mario" series, there was no side-scrolling new work with adult Mario as the protagonist in the entire GBA period. And in the NDS era, Nintendo finally launched a side-scrolling new work of this series, "New Super Mario Bros.". In addition to the extremely high level of level design, the biggest feature of this work is the addition of a multiplayer mode that can be played by a total of 4 players. Players can work together to beat the level or hinder each other.
And as a reboot of a horizontal version of Mario, this work not only achieves amazing freshness but also maintains a sense of intimate familiarity. Even many post-00s are also in the pit because of this work and have a deep affection for "New Super Mario Bros.".
Now that Nintendo on the Switch has launched the "New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe Edition", is there a remake of the pioneering work "New Super Mario Bros." that will launch the "New Super Mario Bros." branch in the future?
Pokémon: Black/White
The "Pokémon" series has always had a tradition of remaking past classics since the GBA era, and after the arrival of the Switch era, Nintendo has launched a remake of the NDS era "Pokémon: Diamond/Pearl" on this console, that is, "Pokémon: Crystal Diamond/Bright Pearl", although the work was criticized by many players for reasons such as graphics after its launch, but the final sales were very impressive, selling 14.92 million units as of January this year.
At the end of the NDS era, Nintendo also launched Pokémon: Black/White, and according to the logic of the remake order, the next remade Pokémon game should be it.
On the eve of the recent Pokémon Head-to-Head Party held by Nintendo, leaked pictures of the remake of Pokémon: Black / White appeared on the Internet, but the truth is unknown. Although players are very much looking forward to the announcement of this remake at the Pokémon Face-to-Head Conference, there was no news until the end of the Face-to-Head Meeting.
As a matter of common sense, the remake may be in development, but Nintendo may not feel that it is the time to announce it. And "Pokémon: Black/White" is actually a very big attempt to innovate in the series, and deeply reflects a aesthetic of opposites and unity: white and black, real and ideal, human and Pokémon, history and future, coexistence and struggle, nature and urban, youth and maturity.
Coupled with the game's fantastic art style, beautiful soundtrack, excellent 3D maze design, super high completion and other advantages, many players are very eager to play the remake. Of course, we may just have to wait patiently for the day when Nintendo announces the remake.
Heavy Troopers 3
Although "Heavy Duty 3", which appeared on NDS, is not as famous as the previous two games in this series, it is considered by players to be a representative masterpiece of the NDS era with its extremely high quality.
Heavy Trooper 3 is more difficult, but the game itself has a huge world and open map, and for the first time introduces a custom companion system, players can choose their desired class and gender partner in the bar, and change it at any time during the game.
In addition, the game has also undergone tremendous changes in the vehicle system, and many other aspects have also had a lot of innovations, and many of these designs have been used in the series sequels later, so the 3rd generation is also considered to be a continuation of the previous work, and the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
Remake 3 generations may be a good choice for both series founder Hiroshi Okamiya and the development team, who are now in an awkward situation. On the one hand, because both the original and 2nd generations of the series have already been remade; On the other hand, the series has faced great difficulties in recent years, whether it is the "Heavy Trooper XENO" released in 2018 or the improved version of "Heavy Armored Trooper XENO Reborn" released last year has not been recognized by the market, players generally believe that the level of the game has dropped greatly compared to previous works in the series, and a new project called "Heavy Troopers: Wild West" has also been canceled.
Last year, the IP of "Heavy Loader" was sold to Cygames by Kadokawa Shoten, and a new series is in the conceptual stage. I personally think there's never been a better time to launch a 3rd generation remake. This can not only save the popularity of the series that has been declining in recent years, so that the series will not be released and discontinued, but also take this remake opportunity to correct some problems and problems in the 3rd generation, just as GBA's "Reloader 2 Change" and NDS's "Reloader 2 Remake" made many improvements to the 2nd generation on SFC.
"Teenager After School"
In the period between the century and around 2010, a series called "My Summer Vacation" appeared on Sony's PS series platform, and several works were launched on PS, PS2, PS3, and PSP, and had a high popularity.
Different from the various combat games popular at the time, this series allows players to experience a leisurely rural summer vacation, including "catching insects", "fishing", "drawing diary", "caving" and other interesting activities, so that adults living in the city can regain their childhood experience through this game.
While this series is popular, there are also some imitators, among which KONAMI's exclusive work "After School Boy" launched on NDS in 2008 is a very good work of this type.
The overall gameplay and style of this work are actually more similar to the "My Summer Vacation" series, but some operational improvements have been made according to the touch characteristics of NDS. In addition, because the "My Summer Vacation" series has always been an exclusive game under Sony back then, NDS players cannot play this series, so the emergence of "After School Boys" allows them to also find their childhood on NDS.
Over the years, there have also been many players who have played "After School Boys" who want to see the game resurrected or even launched a sequel. So with KONAMI now resurrecting the "Silent Hill" series, whether the company will also resurrect the "Castlevania" series and even "After School Boys" in the future is an interesting topic worth paying attention to.
Final Fantasy Strategy A2
The number of warchess games on NDS is actually quite large, such as "Advanced War: Day of Doom", "Advanced War: Double Whammy", "Norse Goddess: The Guilty", "Fire Emblem: New Dark Dragon and Light Sword", "Super Robot Wars OG Legend" and so on.
However, to say that the most popular SLG on NDS has to be Final Fantasy Strategy A2. This is the legitimate sequel to the GBA's SLG masterpiece Final Fantasy Strategy A, which cost many players hundreds of hours back then, and some even considered it to be the best wargame they have ever played.
There are hundreds of missions in the game, as well as tons of equipment, various job change settings, unpredictable referee rules, and bold summoning beast shots. The game's 2D dot matrix pixel graphics also have quite an artistic aesthetic, which is one of the best SLGs on NDS.
Because the game has a high level of playability, many people are still looking forward to seeing the series sequel or remastered version on the Switch. With the wave of wargaming revival in recent years, last year SE launched a remake of the SLG game "Royal Knights: Wheel of Fortune" on the PSP "Royal Knights: Reborn", and recently there were news reports that SE is responsible for the development team of "Final Fantasy Strategy Edition" has been busy recently, it seems that players can look forward to it.
Sky Robot
In recent years, CyberConnect2 has become a well-known company because of the launch of anime adaptations such as "Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot", "Demon Slayer: Vulcan Blood Wind Tan", "Naruto: Ultimate Storm" series, but when "Sky Robot" was launched in 2010, it did not receive widespread attention from players.
CC2 at the time was credited with the production of . The hack series has gained a certain degree of fame, but the achievements are far from comparable to today, for example, "Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot" sold more than 4.5 million units, which is an unimaginable achievement that year.
But what makes CC2 admirable is that the company insists on making games they think are really interesting when it's not a big hit, and Sky Robot was launched in 2010.
Not only is CC2's first NDS original, but it's also an ARPG that they spent years developing to celebrate the company's 15th anniversary in 2010. Although the game later sold only 100,000 copies worldwide, everyone who played the game was full of praise, especially the game's grand and self-contained worldview through countless details laid out in the corners of every scene of the game, as well as the rich gameplay and amazing art performance, which shocked many people that year.
In 2019, the head of CC2 mentioned in an interview with the media that he hoped to remake NDS and 3DS-era games such as Sky Robot on the Switch, but it faced technical challenges at the time.
And as the company has become popular with those comic games over the years, the company's strength has increased a lot compared to before, and perhaps this matter will soon be put back on the agenda.