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

#8 Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode

Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode

The original: Based on the manga/anime of the same name (or similar names, at least), Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode, Duke Togo is an assassin. Actually, I take that back. He's the assassin.

In Top Secret Episode (where, due to Nintendo's strict content control, his profession was changed to that of a spy), Torgo is framed for the destruction of a helicopter carrying the CIA's latest bioweapon. He must clear his name, collect a vaccine for the bioweapon and... you know... save the world. Probably.

Much like Vice: Project Doom, Top Secret Episode featured a number of different play styles - switching between a side scroller beat-em-up, a first-person view shooting gallery, and numerous others.

Plus, despite Nintendo's censorship of their American releases, Top Secret Episode sure got away with a lot, like images of cigarette smoking and implied sex. Pretty racy stuff for a 1988 NES game.

The potential: It's been over twenty years since Top Secret Episode's release, and ten since the last Golgo 13 game in general (and that one was a Nintendo DS game that was more or less an interactive novel).

While violence and adult subject matter are nothing new to games nowadays, taking a more mature approach to the action genre could be a welcome change. A cool spy thriller featuring one of the coolest characters in manga would be awesome.

It doesn't even need to be a straight remake of Top Secret Episode (or its sequel, The Mafat Conspiracy), either - although, if it was, maybe the story would make more sense this time.