7. Star Fox
The game that launched the Super FX chip, Star Fox—known as Starwing in Europe due to trademark issues when the game came out—was the second three-dimensional game created by Nintendo after the 1992 Japan Game Boy game X. However, it was Nintendo’s first game to use 3D polygon graphics, thanks in part to the Super FX chip that was used to accelerate graphics display. [It also beat the first generation of gamer-oriented PC 3D graphics cards to the market by one or two years.—Ed.]
While the graphics look rather rudimentary by today’s standards, the game is still very fun and was one of the best rail shooters of its time. And besides, it’s got those awesome puppets they used for the box art and promotional material.
On second thought…Nintendo, could you just come out with a line of Star Fox stuffed animals designed like these?
6. Illusion of Gaia
Ah, it’s about time we get an Enix game on this list. After all, they did have quite the résumé on the system, publishing games like ActRaiser, Soul Blazer, Paladin’s Quest, Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen, the Dragon Quest games, Robotrek, Terranigma, E.V.O: Search for Eden, King Arthur & the Knights of Justice… Okay, not all of them were successes. But I think you get the point.
Illusion of Gaia, known as Illusion of Time in Europe, was one of the many great games that came from the partnership between developer Quintet and Enix, along with other games, including Soul Blazer, Robotrek, Terranigma, and ActRaiser. And while there were some changes made to the game when Nintendo of America published it—note to Square Enix, perhaps an uncensored version if you decide to re-release it—it is still considered one of the greatest games to come out on the system, even making it into Nintendo Power’s Top 200 for games on all Nintendo systems.
5. Seiken Densetsu 3
Before I get to writing about this game, let me just take some time to cover my end and save us a few comments.
We realize that games that were only released in Japan would be difficult to bring to the Western Virtual Consoles, since it takes time and money to translate a game. And since prices for VC games are usually set in stone, the possibility of the game seeing a profit is probably not very good. However, even with the low chance of seeing this game localized, we would still like to see it.
For those unfamiliar with this game, Seiken Densetsu 3 is the third installment of what is known as the Mana series here in the West. Save for any mobile games, this is the only game to have never released in North America, which is a shame, since it is on par with the other early games in the series, Final Fantasy Adventure (renamed Sword of Mana for the GBA port) and Secret of Mana.
While having many similarities to Secret of Mana (such as having the ring menu), it has a number of differences. The cast of available characters has been increased to six, and a class system has been implemented, with characters aligning to light or dark classes. Hopefully, Square Enix can release this game to the West so we can experience it for ourselves.
(Yes, I realize a fan translation exists. But I’d rather have an official version.)
