10 under-the-radar NES gems that should be remade now

Faxanadu for the NES
Faxanadu for the NES

#3 Faxanadu

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The original: Sticking with the sword and sorcery thing here for a moment, there's Hudson Soft and Nintendo's Faxanadu.

When starting out the game, you'd be forgiven if you were immediately reminded of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. The side-scrolling action RPG-style of Faxanadu was directly inspired by the first sequel of the Zelda series.

It's actually a spin-off of the Famicom game, Xanadu, which itself is a sequel to Dragon Slayer. Medieval fantasy was kind of a big deal in Japan in the 1980s and 90s.

The potential: I love the Nintendo Switch, and I'm also a big fan of indie games - which is good, as indie games make up, like, 80% of the entire Switch library.

However, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't really craving a big budget, Final Fantasy-style RPG for the system. Other than Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Nothing against that game of course - it's rad as hell. I'd just like something else, too. And I don't think I'm the only one.

While Faxanadu wasn't exactly what you'd call a massive hit, it's still a title that's fairly familiar to a lot of fans out there - especially to old farts like me who played it when it first came out. It's also a distinct sounding enough name to grab interest, whether or not this hypothetical new game with the same name is a remake or something altogether brand new.