Sega has found an interesting way to revive their older games lately. The publisher has been licensing its older IPs to indie developers as seen with Wonder Boy, Alex Kidd and Streets of Rage, But what if they did something completely unexpected an licensed some of their IPs to Nintendo? This may seem like an odd choice at first admittedly, but looking back at the history of the two companies, it does make sense. Nintendo has given Sega the chance to work on Nintendo IP in the past after all, such as with F Zero GX and F Zero AX, so Sega in turn licensing some of their own titles to Nintendo to revive would also make sense.
This could work out very well, but only if the right games are chosen. While we may all be excited at the idea of Sonic developer by Nintendo, that may not be the best way to go about things right away. Nintendo games have a distinct feel to them and that distinct feel could be applied to some specific games. Among these would be Nights Into Dreams for instance, as the game has a distinct feel that is closer to Nintendo type games. Nights Into Dreams is one of the most creative games Sega ever made, but what is notable for this discussion is the fact that Shigeru Miyamoto has called it the one game he wishes he had made. While Nights has gotten a sequel in the past, it was not received anywhere near as well as the original and this would be a chance to create a worthy follow-up to the original game, complete with the Nintendo polish. Possibly being worked on in part by Miyamoto himself in some way, whether a direct role or just providing input, would make this especially great.
Nintendo has also shown with games like Splatoon, that they are able to create offbeat colorful games based around 90’s themes and color spraying. These are ideas also found with Jet Set Radio, and it would be interesting to see the Splatoon team take on a game like Jet Set Radio to create an official third game that takes some ideas from Splatoon but still manages to be true to the first two Jet Set Radio Games. They could push the gameplay further with new innovations, and provide that experience we have all been lacking. There of course ar e a lot of connections between the two series design wise, so this would not be as big of a leap as people think.
Another game I think would be a good fit would be Dragon Force. Nintendo and Intelligent Systems have been experimenting with how they handle the Fire Emblem series for a while now, and Fire Emblem Three Houses saw a major change in terms o troop deployment. The Dragon Force games are a mix of tactical role playing like Fire Emblem, but also throwing in Real Time Strategy Elements. This itself feels a bit like a mix of the Advance Wars and Battalion Wars series from Nintendo (admittedly not a perfect comparison), but Nintendo and their partners do have experience with such concepts. Dragon Force has not been seen since the Saturn, and giving this unique strategy RPG to the masters of Strategy RPGs would be a perfect way to revive it.
Lastly, I think many of Sega’s shoot em ups t would be worth giving to Nintendo to look at. These could include Afterburner, Space Harrier and Fantasy Zone. Nintendo could apply the lessons of Star Fox to these games, while also keeping them true to their original nature at the same time. Many of these games have struggled to move further ( Afterburner has done okay though), and letting Nintendo apply some of their own methods to these games would be something I would want to see.
These are just some examples of Sega games that have fallen off, but could be revived if given to Nintendo to be worked on. What games do you think would be a good fit for Nintendo to revive for Sega?
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