Best Nintendo Franchises With No Home Console Game

Best Nintendo Franchises With No Home Console Game

• Can Nintendo’s forgotten gems like Fossil Fighters be brought back with a new sequel or remaster on the Switch’s successor?
• Steel Diver, a simple action shooter, could potentially be revolutionary on consoles if it crossed over with Star Fox.
• The Mario & Luigi RPG series, a spiritual successor to Super Mario RPG, has the potential for a console sequel despite AlphaDream’s bankruptcy.

Nintendo has a lot of franchises under its belt that they haven’t touched in a while. For example, there are two StarTropics games on the NES and that’s all there ever was. It never made the jump to another console or even a portable.

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Now, let’s look at a franchise like Pokemon. It began as a massive handheld series of games, but has since made the jump to consoles. These other Nintendo properties have never left a portable system, which is the opposite problem of StarTropics. Can these other franchises be resurrected with a new game or remaster on the Switch’s successor?

Elite Beat Agents

Fight For The Right To Dance

• Platforms: Nintendo DS
• Release Date: November 6, 2006
• Developer: Liona Interactive
• Genre: Rhythm Game

Elite Beat Agents was a rhythm-based game that was released for the DS in 2006 in the West. The plot revolves around people in dire need, calling the titular agents to basically cheer them on during anything from football games to babysitting. The scenarios were quite whacky, which made the game a hit, along with the catchy pop song soundtrack.

The game was released earlier under the name of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan in 2005, followed by a sequel in 2007, Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2. There were plans for a third game, too, on 3DS, but it didn’t make it far beyond a pitch, and that second game never left Japan. There’s always hope that a third will get made and make it to consoles, or a collection could happen on the Switch successor too.

Fossil Fighters

Pokemon With Dinosaurs

Fossil Fighters

Platform(s)Nintendo DSReleasedApril 17, 2008DeveloperRed Entertainment, Nintendo, Artdink, Nintendo Software Planning & Development, M2Genre(s)JRPG

Fossil Fighters was released for the DS in 2009 in the West, a year after it launched in Japan. Its premise can be boiled down to Pokemon but with dinosaurs. Instead of catching dinosaurs with devices like Pokeballs, players had to unearth bones or fossils and then play a mini-game to dust off the remains.

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Battles were turn-based, and there was a bit less strategy involved than with Pokemon. There were two sequels. Fossil Fighters: Champions launched on the DS in 2011 for the West, and Fossil Fighters: Frontier was released in 2015 for the 3DS in the West. The reviews for the series saw diminishing returns, which is probably why it never made it to consoles, or even got another game after 2015.

Golden Sun

Nintendos Forgotten RPG Series

Golden Sun

Platform(s)Game Boy AdvanceReleasedNovember 12, 2001Developer(s)Camelot Software PlanningGenre(s)JRPG

Golden Sun began on the Game Boy Advance in 2001 and was a big hit among turn-based JRPG fans. A sequel was released a year later in Japan which carried over save data with a complicated set of passwords, and the West had to wait until 2003 to see it. Earlier this year, both games were re-released onto the Switch’s retro library. So, with the Switch ports, technically Golden Sun has been on a console, but it’s not exactly the same thing, as they aren’t new games or even remasters.

Besides that, there is another notable game, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, which was a 2010 DS game. All of these titles were developed by Camelot, who began their RPG career with the Shining series for Sega. Unfortunately, after Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, they have been shoehorned into making sports titles for Nintendo, the most recent of which was Mario Golf: Super Rush in 2021. It would be a huge comeback to see a modern Golden Sun game on a Nintendo console.

The Legendary Starfy

An Underwater Kirby

• Platforms: Nintendo DS
• Release Date: June 8, 2009
• Developer: Tose
• Genre: Platformer

The Legendary Starfy was released for the DS in 2009, and it may surprise some to learn that it was actually the fifth game in the series. In Japan, the series is called Densetsu no Stafy, and it was almost a Game Boy Color game in 2000. That prototype was scrapped and retooled into a GBA game in 2002.

There were two more GBA titles, one in 2003 and one in 2004. The fourth was released for the DS in 2006. All of them star a starfish named Starfy, and the gameplay features light platforming akin to a Kirby game, minus the wild powers. So, not only has this series never made it to consoles, but most of the games haven’t been released outside of Japan. It would be a welcome surprise to see Nintendo gamble on something like this.

Magical Vacation

A Mana-Based Brownie

• Platforms: Game Boy Advance
• Release Date: December 7, 2001
• Developer: Brownie Brown
• Genre: JRPG

Magical Vacation was another turn-based RPG that launched in 2001 for the GBA. Unlike Golden Sun, it did not leave Japan. Its sequel, however, did which was called Magical Starsign, and it was a 2006 DS game. The art style may look familiar to fans, as Brownie Brown, the developer, worked on a lot of Mana games at this time as well.

Sword of Mana, for example, was a GBA remake of the game known as Final Fantasy Adventure in the West. The Magical Vacation series is one of those underrated gems within Nintendo’s pantheon that never really got a chance to blossom beyond a small subset of Game Boy Advance RPG fans.

Mario & Luigi

Lets-A-Go!

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Platform(s)Wii U, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 3DSReleasedNovember 17, 2003Developer(s)AlphaDreamGenre(s)Action, JRPG, Adventure See at Nintendo

The Mario & Luigi RPG franchise began on the GBA in 2003 with Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, which also got a 3DS remake in the West in 2017. The original was followed by Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time in 2005 for the DS, and then Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story in 2009, also for the DS, which got a 2019 remake in the West as well.

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After that, there were two 3DS games, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team in 2013, and Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam in 2016 in the West, and besides those two, that was it for the franchise. The developer, AlphaDream, has since gone bankrupt, but that doesn’t mean Nintendo can’t get another team externally or internally to create a console sequel. These games were the better series of spiritual successors to Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars than the Paper Mario games were, even though the latter series is well-liked among fans.

Steel Diver

Deep Sea Adventures

• Platforms: Nintendo 3DS
• Release Date: March 27, 2011
• Developer: Nintendo, Vitei
• Genre: Strategy Action

Steel Diver was a launch game for the 3DS in 2011 in North America. This is one of the few examples on this list where the West got a Nintendo release before Japan, which was only an advantage for a few months. It was a simple enough action shooter wherein players drove a submarine and shot at enemy subs.

It was straight forward, but it had good 3D effects on the top screen. It got a sequel in 2014, Steel Diver: Sub Wars, which was a free-to-play downloadable game on the 3DS. It, too, was a serviceable underwater shooter, but it wasn’t mind-blowing. Would a console game be more revolutionary? It could be if, perhaps, Star Fox crossed over with the property, and perhaps Slippy could take the wheel, as that would be aquatically appropriate.

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