One of the true gems of the Sega Megadrive, Altered Beast was a side-scroller depicting a man brought back from the dead by Zeus to save his daughter Athena. He is helped by absorbing power balls to become part man, part beast. Throughout the game you become a wolf, dragon, bear and tiger. With Sega focusing on Sonic and a few other lackluster games, it would be nice to have the company pluck at the heart strings of retro fanboys everywhere.
As a young man, I remembered sitting in Time-Out (that was a coin-op arcade) and shoving quarters into the Dragon's Lair machine. The game play was simple. All it took was timing as you moved the joystick in the direction of a flashing yellow light to keep Dirk the Daring moving towards the goal of saving his Princess Daphne from the evil dragon Smaug.
There have been countless re-releases of this game ranging from CD-ROMs to iPhone apps as well as its sequel, Time Warp. After all these years, it would be good to see a next gen sequel. Maybe with CGI?
Other than Contra, which saw its fair share of sequels, Double Dragon and Battle Toads were two other games that used to bring gamers closer together. Considered excellent co-op games separately, fan boys rejoiced at the team-up. Double Dragon Neon was released this year. What a treat it was to see this mashup make an appearance on XBLA or PSN.
Last, but definitely not least, is one of my favorite games of all time. With Disney popping out remasters of its earlier games, Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers should be next after Duck Tales and Mickey Mouse in the Castle of Illusion. I for one will be quick to throw down the 15 bucks to be able to play a beefed up version of this wonderful side-scroller.
There are plenty of other games that deserve to be seen by a newer generation of gamers. Which did I miss? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
