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

#5 Rescue: The Embassy Mission

Rescue: The Embassy Mission

The original: There are literally dozens of tactical shooters out there, on as about as many platforms as you can think of.

This wasn't the case in 1988, however, when Infogrames (remember them?) released Hostages for nearly every computer format of the time, including the Amiga, Commodore 64, and MS-DOS. It was released on the NES as Rescue: The Embassy Mission.

Players took control of an elite tactical unit of the French Gendarmerie, a military-based national police force.

Terrorists - as they are wont to do - have taken over an embassy in Paris and are holding hostages. Players begin the game by placing sniper units (who have traditional French names, like "Steve" and "Jumbo") in different strategic areas, avoiding searchlights and other dangers.

Once in place, the rest of the team moves in to rescue the hostages. It's an interesting blend of real police tactics and movie-like action and atmosphere.

The potential: Obviously, and as we mentioned before, games like this aren't particularly hard to come by. What makes Rescue stand out, even today is its simplicity.

Rather than pulse-pounding action and adrenaline, it's tense and precise. You move in steps, with what needs to be done very clearly. That's not to say it's not challenging - it is. It's just not complex.

A game like that, for modern systems, and updating the teams with modern equipment - or having it set in the past - could work very well.

Getting a team together online could be a lot of fun, too - putting teams in a lobby-type room where they are given assignments and they have five minutes or so to plan out their strategy.