A Man’s Wishlist of Downloadable Games

 

It’s no secret that I have a great love for the Xbox 360 and all of its fascinating downloadable games. With games like Castle Crashers, Bionic Commando: Rearmed, Shank, and Shadow Complex, the downloadable market can sometimes overshadow the mainstream retail games in a big way; and usually with less than half the retail price. But, every now and then, I wish there was more.. I love these new games to death, but I look at old-school games like X-Men: the Arcade game, Double Dragon, and Altered Beast, which are also downloadable games on the Xbox 360, and I wish we had more of that.

And so, we look at my wishlist of games that should be downloadable: 

I have to start with the game that’s always on my mind, when thinking of “childhood games that I wish I could download” — Target Earth. Here is a game that truly stands out as an instant classic. From the more-than-addicting soundtrack to the extreme difficulty that would rival even Teach’s expectations, this game was incredible. To be honest, whenever I go into the “My Games” section on the Xbox 360 dashboard, I hear the music from the title screen of this game playing in my head, because that’s how big of an impact Target Earth made on me. I’ve often wondered how it’s decided when a game gets the “downloadable port” treatment, and I really wish I could talk to somebody about bringing this one to the consoles again; especially since this game was for the Sega Genesis, and the Xbox 360 has a habit of porting over Genesis classics. Do I contact the original creators of the game? The publisher? Microsoft? I won’t rest until I find out.

 

Speaking of Genesis classics, I’m very glad that, as of today, we now have all three Streets of Rage games, and all three Golden Axe games available for download; it’s been a long time coming. Most people would say “Why not just get the Mega Drive Collection? You get all those games, plus tons more for real cheap!”.. Blah, blah, blah. Honestly, I’m starting to prefer downloadable games to discs. It’s not a big deal, but I like having all of my games available without having to change discs, and also the possibility of the game freezing is a real issue with me. But, on a more minor note, if I get them all as downloadable games, then that means they will each have their own set of achievements. Yes, I’m an achievement whore, deal with it.

Besides the greatness of Target Earth, there’s something else I want as a downloadable game on my 360: every single game I’ve ever played on the Super Nintendo!! I hate the fact that Nintendo seems to have the rights to all or most of those games, it’s ridiculous. Yeah, I understand they own every Super Mario game, that’s fine (although I wouldn’t mind having Super Mario RPG), but what about games like X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse, or Maximum Carnage? There’s so many games that retro fans would love to download, but alas, something is keeping us from getting what we want and deserve.

I think it’s also obvious that if we did have these games available to download, I would want them to be direct ports. Granted, some games work as remakes, like Bionic Commando: Rearmed, but with the games I’ve mentioned, there’s no need for any changes. I wouldn’t have a problem if, when you download the game, it came with the original version and a remastered version; kind of like Super Street Fighter II Turbo: HD Remix, but that’s as far as I would go.

So, if you agree with me or not, leave some comments below and we’ll have a chat. Maybe we’ll get noticed and things will change for the better.

 

 

 

 

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