If there is one thing Nintendo fans can count on, it’s the idea that Nintendo never truly abandons a franchise they created. Yes, they may let it lie dormant for decades, like Kid Icarus, but they always seem game to try something again.
Still, there are plenty of first-party and third-party games from Nintendo’s past that never received a single sequel. In this age of remakes and remasters from nostalgia, the time is now for these fires to be rekindled and there are certainly plenty of Nintendo exclusives to choose from.
10 Code Name: Steam
Intelligent Systems is known most notably for Advance Wars and Fire Emblem. This 3DS game from 2015 was like a combination of both of those franchises with a more X-COM-like approach to gameplay. It also had a whacky premise wherein President Lincoln was recruiting a global set of warriors to fight off aliens. Code Name: Steam was far from perfect for the 3DS system, but it still deserves a second shot.
9 Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
This game is heralded as one of the must-own titles for the GameCube along with being a horror legend. It released exclusively for the GameCube in 2002. Attempts have been made over the years to get a sequel. When that didn’t happen via Silicon Knights, the director of the game, Denis Dyack, turned to Kickstarter to make a spiritual sequel via Shadow of the Eternals. That didn’t turn out either.
8 Henry Hatsworth In The Puzzling Adventure
The title is as much of a mouthful as is the gameplay. This was a DS exclusive from EA in 2009. The top screen was an action platformer while the bottom was a match-3 style puzzle game.
Players had to defeat the blocks in order to make sure the top screen wouldn’t be invaded. It could be a handful to juggle at first but worked well with practice.
7 Gunple: Gunman’s Proof
Let’s go back to 1997 in Japan with this SNES hidden gem. Gunple can best be described as a Wild West version of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past spliced with EarthBound. If that sounds great, then it’s high time to check it out on the SNES system. Unfortunately, it both never came out over here or even got a sequel in Japan. The silver lining here is that there has been an English fan patch.
6 Shadow Of The Ninja
Going back even further, this released in 1990 on the NES. It’s a ninja action platformer, which is still great today, but what sets it apart is the co-op. For the sake of clarity this game almost got a sequel on the Game Boy. However, it was later changed into a Ninja Gaiden game instead which was called Ninja Gaiden Shadow. This NES game makes it on here then on a technicality.
5 Radiant Historia
This time-traveling RPG hit the DS in 2011 in North America, making 2021 this territory’s 10th anniversary. At its core, it is a turn-based RPG with not a lot to it. However, it’s also a puzzle game in that one has to change events in history in order to progress. It later got an enhanced port on the 3DS in 2018, which was good, but not as good as a sequel.
4 Fragile Dreams
There aren’t many RPGs that one could call horror directly. Bloodborne comes to mind along with Castlevania but the point is there aren’t many. Fragile Dreams was another attempt at the genre. It was an action RPG on the Wii which released in 2010 in North America. It didn’t get tremendous reviews, but they were decent enough to justify a sequel to hammer out the kinks.
3 Pokemon Conquest
There have been many Pokemon spinoffs over the years but this might be the best and or strangest. This blended the Pokemon series with Nobunaga’s Ambition which is a historical-themed strategy series. Historical figures like Nobunaga became Pokemon Trainers in this strategy RPG.
It was a wild DS game in 2012 but also well-liked. A sequel could even tackle another era of history like China and cross over with Romance of the Three Kingdoms instead which is also a Koei Tecmo franchise.
2 Super Princess Peach
How many core titles and or spinoffs has Mario received? The answer is a lot compared to the one solo game Princess Peach ever got. This was a DS exclusive which released in 2006 in North America.
It too was a platformer but Peach got emotional powers like crying in order to make plants grow. It sounds more offensive than it is but the game is good rest assured.
1 Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
Like Mario, Sonic too has received many spinoffs. However, unlike the plumber, this is the only RPG. It was released on the DS in 2008 and was developed by BioWare of all people. It had turn-based action gameplay akin to Super Mario RPG as well as dialogue choices like in Mass Effect.
So far Sega has announced plans for a new Sonic game in 2022 and a remaster of Sonic Colors for his 30th anniversary. A sequel and or remaster to this game would assuredly make fans dance as well.