Top 10 Needed Gaming Collections (Pt. 2)

Serving as a sequel/compendium to my idea for Batman: The Sunsoft Collection, this game collection would compile the Konami-produced NES and SNES versions of Batman Returns, Batman: The Animated Series for the Game Boy, and the SNES version of The Adventures of Batman & Robin. This would be very tricky due to both titles being developed by a defunct American company called Clockwork Tortoise, but I’d also like to include their unique Genesis and Sega CD versions of TAoB&R as special bonus games (with some quality-of-life options for the former).

9. Shining Force Returns Collection

For this collection, I’d focus on bundling (and, in some places, refining the English localizations of) Shining in the Darkness, Shining Force, Shining Force II, and Shining Force CD, as well as Shining Wisdom, Shining the Holy Ark, and now-fully translated/retranslated versions for all three scenarios (and the “Premium Disk”) of Shining Force III. Bonus games would include the Shining Force Gaiden trilogy for Game Gear (with professional translations of Gaiden and Gaiden: Final Conflict).

8. Castlevania Shadows Collection

Following up on my previous article’s idea for Castlevania HD Collection, I’d like to suggest another game collection featuring upscaled current-gen reworkings of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, the HD console version of Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate, and the contentious – but not totally lacking in merit – Lords of Shadow 2. Obviously, both DLC expansions for the two mainline games would be included and ready to play out-of-box, and with numerous quality-of-life improvements being applied to LoS2 (at the very least, something to alleviate the despised stealth-based sequences).

7. TMNT: The Kick-Shell Collection

While this compilation probably has a pretty high chance of happening due to the success of The Cowabunga Collection, I’d still like to include this here since I have a particular idea of how I want it to be formatted. Of course, the collection would feature optimized/upscaled re-releases of Konami’s three 6th-gen console games based on the 2003 Ninja Turtles series, as well as Mutant Melee and the three portable games for the GBA/DS – however, in addition to all of that, I’d sweeten the deal by including a digitally remastered version of the extended cut of Turtles Forever as a special bonus.

6. Resident Evil Classics Collection

This vintage game collection would more or less take the optimized versions of the first three PS1 Resident Evil titles currently being offered by GOG and “upgrade” the first game with its Director’s Cut version and the second one with its Dual Shock version. To this, I’d include a newly optimized/upscaled edition of Code -Veronica- X (but with one of X‘s additional cutscenes removed to maintain the original Dreamcast release’s dramatic “reveal” of Albert Wesker being alive), as well as a playable stand-alone version of the “Battle Game” mode from the very first game’s Saturn port.

5. Crash & Spyro Retro Collection

In a similar vein to the entry above, this selection of re-releases would compile the original PS1 versions of both the mainline Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon trilogies in one package and serve as a nice compendium to their respective remastered collections. The games themselves would primarily stand on their own for players interested in experiencing/re-experiencing them as they were before, but with any substantial archival material being thrown in for bonus content.

4. Sonic Mega Jam Collection

Piggybacking of my previous idea to improve and expand on the Sonic Gems Collection – giving it the -Extra Edition- moniker – I’d also like to replace the fairly disappointing Sonic Origins with a spiritual successor combining elements from Sonic Jam and Sonic Mega Collection. In particular, the return/updating of Jam‘s 3D “Sonic World” feature and ability to play Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles separately (with omitted music legally restored), Mega Collection‘s expanded multimedia archive, and the inclusion of both the Genesis and Saturn versions of Sonic 3D Blast.

3. Captain America & the Avengers: Assembled

This collection gathers all iterations of Captain & the Avengers developed/co-developed/published by Data East in the early 1990’s: the original arcade cabinet (with special options and accommodations for its unique two- and four-player versions), as well as its varying ports for the NES, Genesis, SNES, Game Gear, and Game Boy. The usual archival content will be included – galleries of production/promotional materials, artwork, and so on – with the arcade game Avengers in Galactic Storm being featured as a special hidden/unlockable bonus.

2. The Legend of Zelda HD Collection

In this game collection, I’d effectively bundle together further refined/optimized versions of the HD ports of The Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword, but supplementing those three titles with newly remastered/reworked HD console re-releases of Ocarina of Time 3D, Majora’s Mask 3D, and A Link Between Worlds. Mostly intended to provide a nice, easily accessible collection of Nintendo’s HD versions of TWW, TP, and SS (especially with the first two being in notably high demand), but with the updated editions of the three 3DS games being a particularly great addition.

1. Mega Man: The CRORQ Saga

This one’s a bit more extreme than just a full-on vintage game collection – in fact, what I’m suggesting is to professionally remake and combine the two Mega Man titles developed for DOS into a single, high-quality release (even more so than previous fan-based attempts at doing so). The “new” game would now include a full, lovingly arranged soundtrack (whereas both of the originals didn’t have any), but with the two DOS releases still being included as archival content (and with the fancy option to toggle on compressed “de-mixes” of tracks playing in their corresponding sections).